Blitzkragz' 12ft 375g rimless peninsula with rotary drum filter build

blitzkragz · Oct 20, 2020

One scape in, 3 to go! @Devaji yes, old rock is going into the sump. The new sump is a whole other interesting topic ill get to later

Devaji · Oct 20, 2020

blitzkragz said:
One scape in, 3 to go! @Devaji yes, old rock is going into the sump. The new sump is a whole other interesting topic ill get to later

heck yeah man, that is going to look even better once it purple ups & full of corals!

blitzkragz · Oct 23, 2020

I added a new autofeeder, the Avast Plank to feed tiny amounts freeze-dried food throughout the day. I am really happy with it so far. Avast is coming out with a "reef jerkey" freeze dried concoction I am eager to try, but until then I used a mixture of BRS freeze dried mysis and freeze dried copepod powder.

In my application I wanted it to feed the return pump in the sump, but the feeder tube was too short. Fortunately the tube is the same outer diameter as standard 2" pvc, so I krazy glued on an extension to get it just right.

Blutspitze · Nov 10, 2020

The new scape looks AMAZING! can't wait to see some solid growth on it, and glad to see the other upgrades, as well. Very cool and so helpful.

Janci · May 11, 2021

How is the tank doing by now?
I see that you also added some ATI Stratons?
Was there any downside to the Kessils alone?

ReefCheef · Jun 3, 2021

blitzkragz said:
I have been in the process of what I guess you could call a "Dream Build" for a couple months. My wife wanted to take the kids to Orlando over the holiday, Disney is great and all but one of the main attractions I knew I wanted to see was World Wide Corals. The guys at WWC were super awesome, and when we chatted about my project they strongly encouraged me to create a build thread, so here it is!

This build might be uniquely interesting to some folks for a few reasons.

First, I think of real interest to this community, will be the fact that I am hell bent on using a Rotary Drum Filter (RDF) for my tank. I can find no mention or reference to any other reefer that has actually done this. Think of an RDF as a filter sock chamber that magically cleans its own socks around 4 times a day. The name of the game is Ultra Low Maintenance. I will go into a lot more detail into my journey with an RDF as time goes on.

Second, I believe it could be one the largest rimless #Peninsula (room divider) tanks out there. I have spent a ton of time absorbing the information here on reef2reef and on YouTube, and have seen larger eurobraced/acrylic peninsulas, and larger rimless standard tanks, but no rimless peninsulas this large. I would love to see some larger if anyone can point them out -- the size I have chosen is purely a function of the available space I have in the room.

Actually it is only 12ft if you are rounding up -- I had to trim off 6 inches to fit piping and overflow on the far end of it. The dimensions are 138" x 30" x 21", and is being built by Custom Aquariums, around 375 gallons. The lead time they gave was 8-10 weeks, the clock starting ticking 4 weeks ago.

This tank will be in the heart of our home. Not in a corner, not against a wall, but in the smack center of everything. There is a small support wall that was always kind of awkward separating our kitchen from living space, and it dawned on me is perfect for the end of a peninsula (space currently occupied by a low 12ft counter/storage)

A primary dream I have for this tank is all about the surface of the water. I really believe hiding the surface of the water of a tank is such a wasted opportunity. There is something primally satisfying to humans about having some kind of surface water view. Ripples, reflections, currents, the calming randomness of it -- these are things that you only get by gazing at that magic boundary of water and air. So this tank shouldn't just be a window below water, but also be at a height and size where the water surface can be enjoyed just as much as what's below it. For this reason I believe 21" to be a "sweet spot" of height for the tank, with the rim being around 54" from the ground with stand.

For lighting, I have 6 Kessil a360x's. There are several reasons I have for this decision -- first being the low profile of them. There needs to be minimal obstructions to looking down into the tank. My plan is to get a long aluminum strip to make the connections between them as minimal as possible with no cords showing. I will be painting them all white. The bar will be hanging from the ceiling via two thin steel cables. Another reason is the shimmer the Kessils will give. I believe it really bump up the magic factor of this tank, both in the tank and the reflections of the water at night to the ceiling. My plan is for a mixed reef (not SPS dominant), so I believe 6 of them should get the job done. Another great thing about these lights is you can mount them close to the water, so that you aren't getting blinded by the bleed from lights hanging higher up without a hood -- I will be hanging these around 6.5 inches off the surface as BRS recommends.

Strings outline roughly where tank will be. I have 150lbs of Marco Premium Shelf Rock cooking in a Brute trash can. Before I put them in there, I played with some arrangements. I am thinking 4 islands of increasing height so that from the peninsula end you can look in and get a real sense of depth.

The strings sag a bit so the bottom of the tank will be higher than shown -- the bottom should be about even with the "hard" back of our couch (although a couple inches will be obscured by the puffy pillow parts from a standing view on this side). Sitting in the couch though you will be able to peer into the tank in its full glory.

Here is some of the equipment that has come in thusfar. I went the Abyzz A400 route, as the filtration will be in the basement and there will be around 14ft of head pressure.

This is all I had time to post for now -- lots of details to come on the
filtration room is basement, with large mixing station, welding and fabrication of the stand, and on the RDF!

Your tank and home are beautiful! You clearly have an eye for design.

Question: how has that drum filter held up over the years? Would you say they're a no brainer for high end saltwater aquariums, or not a realistic option?

Cheers

dbleoh7 · Jul 27, 2021

blitzkragz said:
One scape in, 3 to go! @Devaji yes, old rock is going into the sump. The new sump is a whole other interesting topic ill get to later

Any updates (pictures)?