Alexjoha`s divider aquarium - 190gallon mixed reef

[alexjoha]

About me:

I work offshore so I`m away from my tank for 2-3 week at a time so I need a system that more or less can manage itself for that period of time. This tank will therefore be as automated as I possibly can make it, So that the tank sitter (girlfriend) has to do as little as possible with the tank.

We live in Norway so we have low temperatures more or less all yare so there is no need for a chiller on the system but we need dual heaters and battery backup

Aquarium

576 liters Woha hawaii glass aquarium with synergy reef overflow
Sump 230L

Circulation

1x Ecotech Vectra L1
2x Neptune systems WAV
2x hydor pumpes (Sump frag area)
1x boyu 3000L (Sump frag area for UV and reactor)

Filtration

Nyos Quantum 220
LS: 55kg
Deltec FR 509 - Using Rowaphos and seachem matrix carbon
3x 10cm Filtersock 200 micron
Deltec 20W UV

Lighting

4x Ecotech Radion XR30w PRO G3
1x AI prime (Sump frag area)

Other equipment

Smart ATO
Grotech NG III - balling+

Computer

1 x Neptune Apex base unit lab grade
3 x Apex Power bar
1 x ALD Advanced leak detection
2 x ALD-P2 leak prob
1 x WXM ecotech modul
1 x AFS Automatic feeder
2 x I/O break out box
1 x PM2 salinity modul
1 x PMK par modul

Fish

2 x Amphiprion Ocellaris - "Nemo" clown
1 x Cryptocentrus cinctus - Yellow Prawn Goby
1 x Zebrasoma flavescens - Yellow Tang
1 x Gobiodon okinawae - Clown Goby
1 x Labroides dimidatus - Cleaner Wrasse
1 x Siganus magnificus - Magnificent Foxface
1 x Paracanthurus hepatus - Blue Tang
1 x Zebrasoma velifer - Sailfin Tang
1 x Ctenochaetus tominiensis - Tomini Tang

Cleaning crew

10 x Nassarius distortus - Super Tongan Nassarius Snail
50-100 x Trochus sp - Banded Trochus Snail
10+ x Turbo sp -Zebra Turbo Snai
3 x lysmata kuekenthali - Aptasia shrimp
2 x Mithraculus sculptus - Emerald Crab

Corals

Coming...

 

[alexjoha]

Everything started with me looking on the internet to see what tanks and gear was for sale.
We found a used Woha Hawaii aquarium that had a good price locally and decided to buy it.
We had been planning to buy a new system as a divider between the living room and the lobby.

Pictures from the add below..

 

[alexjoha]

After talking to the seller of the tank I understood that the tank needed some modifications if it was going to be used the way we wanted.
But that wasn’t a problem since I wanted a project anyways.

We decided that this will be the tank for us so we got a trailer to get the tank back home.
The stand for the tank needed a lot of work and it needed new exterior plates to fit our vision of the tank placement.

 

[alexjoha]

After we got the tank back home it was time to take some measurements, so that the designing part could start.
I had heard about synergy reef`s overflow boxes so I looked up the dimensions and decided that this would be a great overflow for this aquarium since it just had a single drain pipe in the back corner.
After a few hours on sketchup the plan was set and I needed to order the rest of the parts for the build

some pictures from the planning stage:

 

[alexjoha]

A friend that works at a window factory helped me with the new plates for the tank.
They have a nice paint robot that scans the material and paints it and dries it afterword’s.

Some of the smaller pieces we needed to do manually though

 

[alexjoha]

The metal frame had a lot of surface rust so I needed to wait for a sunny day to go outside and grind it.
After a good grinding I applied some anti rust primer and then black hammerite paint

 

[alexjoha]

Finally got the overflow box and one more Ecotech Radion

The overflow box from synergy reef looks great and the build quality looks good too.

Hope it’s as good as it looks, only problem is that the bulkheads are in US standard and the piping here locally in Norway is in metric mm.
so I have to use a good amount of glue.

 

[alexjoha]

I have been back and forth on using the old sump that I got with the tank or not..
I ended up using it after I had cleaned it out and had a water leak test on it..

I’m still not satisfied with the sump since it’s a bit to small but more on that later in the tread.
I mounted some float switches in the sump and made a snail guard and wave guard for them too.

 

[Ljaus]

Very very nice! Definitely following this thread

 

[alexjoha]

Very very nice! Definitely following this thread

Thank you the tank is up and running now but i think it`s nice to see how the system was built not just adding pictures of nice corals so i will post the entire build before i start on the coral pictures and how the system has developed over time

 

[Ljaus]

I did see the photo of the tank running. I enjoy reading the build story's as well so thank you for showing the build journey

 

[alexjoha]

Got some more parts in the mail
I ended up ordering an ecotech Vectra L1 return pump. It’s way too strong for this tank but I like buying gear I can use down the road since I know that the larger tank syndrome will hit me again soon.
And you have the possibility to diel the Vectra pump down with the controller.
I also ordered some more balling+ salts from Deutschland

 

[alexjoha]

Finally time to move the old tank and get the stand for the new tank in place

Got some help from a Nabor and my GF. It took a few hours and a cloudy tank but we got it done

Everything survived the move and is back to normal now.

Finally we can imagine how this new tank will look, just need to drill the tank now for the new overflow.

 

[alexjoha]

Got some friends over to lift the tank outside.

The drilling of the two 60mm holes took a long time since I got the drill from eBay probably not the best drill bit.. But it did the job.

I “stole” my GF`s yoga math since I hadn’t planned for the tank to be ready that fast.

Guess I have to get here a new one

 

[deaclauderdale]

Subscribed

 

[alexjoha]

Well then I needed to cut out the old overflow box and plug the holes in the bottom of the tank.

The synergy reef overflow went in like a dream and I got the clear pvc piping mounted to it.

The membrane valve finally came in the mail to

Got the 2 return nozzles mounted to. Soon time for water

 

[Ljaus]

Love the way you have the return plumming running along the top the end

 

[mixer911]

What a beautiful build! Love seeing our products on international builds. Following along, thanks for posting @alexjoha

 

[adestafi]

love this build!! cannot wait to see more.

 

[alexjoha]

Thank you guys for the compliments! I’ll try to get the rest of the build thread up soon

First water in the tank!

And after a few days the aqua scaping started