EA1200 Reborn

[robinm]

I first set this tank up in 2018, it’s an EA 1200 (1200 x 600 x 600 ~ 450L) I never managed to keep the tank fully stable, I was working away a lot of the time and didn’t have the time to spend on it that it needed. I finally shut it down on 2020 after battling dino’s with limited success and an invasion of aiptasia. The pandemic hit and the tank was stored until I could do something with it. Fast forward to today, I’m working from home and have decided to resurrect it in my office.

The stand that came with the tank is MDF and had some significant water damage plus it didn’t fit with the décor of my office, so it had to go. There’s going to be a hefty amount of DIY involved in this setup and I decided that it would be more economical to build my own cabinet rather than buy one commercially.

After looking at several construction methods building a frame from aluminium profile and cladding it ticked all my boxes. Some lengths of 4080 and 4040 and a boat load of fittings were ordered and a new carbide blade fitted into my chopsaw.

A mornings worth of cutting later I had a kit which took the rest of the weekend to assemble.

TBH 4080 and 4040 is overkill this thing is solid! It has adjustable feet in the legs but I also added some heavy duty appliance rollers so I can manoeuvre the tank whilst setting it up then wind the feet down when it’s in place. The rollers are rated to 550kg so if I needed to I could probably roll the tank out even when full although I’d definitely empty some water out first. Quite a few captive nuts and bolts were left in the frame for future fittings, brackets etc. If I need more I can always use drop-in T nuts.

For the tank base and sump shelf I got some 18mm & 12mm water resistant MDF which were cut to size then given a few good coats of acrylic varnish for extra protection especially on the edges.

For the panels and doors I got some 600mm wide 18mm oak effect MFC and some iron on edging. After cutting to size and edging I added some threaded inserts into the side panels so that the sides could be bolted to the frame. Coupled with clip on concealed hinges the doors can be demounted and the sides removed for maintenance access in a couple of minutes without disturbing the tank.

So far I’m really happy with the way this is turning out.

Future plans / equipment:

This will not be a quick build, I’m going to be DIYing a lot of the tank equipment and I’m not going to rush to get it wet until I’ve got everything done the way I want it.

Mechanical filtration:

This will be bought, I want to use a roller filter and already have a Clarisea SK300 but I will be replacing it because although I love what a roller does I hate the Clarisea. The rolls jam frequently, they are an absolute pain to change and you pretty much have to unroll the entire smelly waste roll to get it off the motor housing when replacing the roll. I’m currently torn between the Red Sea ReefMat 500 and the Innovitech X-Filter 1.0. With the X-Filter I like the fact that both of the herbie pipes can be run through and are drop in rather then requiring a hard connection so removal for maintenance and cleaning should be easy. I also like the fact that the mats are available in different micron sizes. On the downside it doesn’t have the control and connectivity options that the Red Sea has additionally I’ve seen a couple of reviews that mention poor build quality. On the plus side for the Red Sea the app connectivity looks really good (I’m a sucker for tech) and the build quality / reliability should be pretty good however I don’t like that there’s only a single inlet so the overflow pipe goes unfiltered and it’s hard coupled, also the mats are only available in one micron size (I believe). I could knock up a ‘hopper’ from acrylic that connects to the back of the Red Sea which both drains drop into but that’s extra work.

I’d be really happy to hear experiences of either with pro’s and cons from fellow reefers before I make the final decision.

Lighting:

I used to have two XR15s and one XR30 over the tank but the XR15s are in use over what will be the coral QT tank and the XR30 died so new lighting is on the cards. I’m pretty sold on the idea of 3 x AI 1200 blades 2 grow and 1 glow. No idea how I’ll mount them yet but I’ll think of something.

Dosing:

I’m going to DIY a calcium reactor and also a kalk stirrer running the reactor during the day and the stirrer overnight to help balance the PH.

Nutrient control:

A DIY algae scrubber for nitrates and a fluidised reactor for PO4

Return pump:

Ecotech M1 (I have one)

Skimmer:

Nyos Quantum 120 (I have it)

Flow:

Maxspect Gyres, I have one XF230 and will add second pump

Control:

Probably reef-pi, I’ve built one before and have the electronics / programming skills to be able to extend it as required.

Of course all of the above is subject to change as the build progresses. Thanks for reading, criticism / suggestions are always welcome.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Nice looking stand!

 

[robinm]

I did say this wouldn't be a quick build didn't I? Ho hum, things have progressed albeit at a snails pace. I decided that I didn't like the black background of the tank and preferred the clear box of water look so removed the wrap covering at the back. Also while I like the rimless tank look by the time lights are added along with flow pump wiring and a jump guard for the fish the look gets ruined so decided to create a pelmet to hide all the gubbins.

The front part of the pelmet is held by magnets and is easily removeable for feeding / maintenance. I went with the 3 AI blade approach so have 2 grow and 1 glow held by a homemade bracket made from 2020 ally.

I know I didn't even remove the shop labels from the MFC but I can't see them normally so it doesn't bother me. Drives my wife nuts for some reason . The lights can slide freely in the track front to back so they can me moved out of the way for maintenance.

The sump was plumbed with future expansion in mind so 3 manifold outlets were plumbed in for the future addition of reactors ATS etc.

In the sump currently is an Xfilter 1.0, I went with the Xfilter rather than the Red Sea purely for the ability run both of the drains through the roller although I slightly regret it as the build quality of these things isn't great and the control unit failed after less than 3 months. To be fair they did replace it quickly though. Skimmer is a Quantum Nyos 160 which I already had. I'm afraid my Vectra M1 control unit failed and it was cheaper for me to get a new pump than to repair it. I relaced the Vectra with a DD Funktion 10000 which is a lot cheaper and does the job.

Please excuse the wiring mess, I hate the amount of power bricks that accompany all the kit for a reef tank and will at some point replace the whole lot with DIN rail mounted power supplies but for the moment it's just a temporary extension panel and a mess of bricks.

For nutrient export I decided to go with a fuge as I have a Mandarin still in the temporary holding tank where he will stay until this one has a decent supply of pods. I originally set the fuge up with chaeto but it didn't grow that well and the flow through the sump is fairly fast I was getting strands blown around the display. I swapped over to Caulerpa Prolifera about a week ago and it's doing nicely. Because there's a very low bio load in the tank atm even the small amount that I have currently is holding nitrates at 3 and PO4 at 0.05. As it grows and the tank matures I will increase the fish load.

The scape was built from a couple of boxes of TMC eco reef branches. There are plenty of spaces and hiding places for fish.

The corals that are in there are all easy stuff that was in the holding tank for many months. I'll be waiting for things to completely stabilise and coralline to take hold before splashing out on expensive sticks. Currently there's a DaVinci clown, a bristle tail filefish and a blue eyed kole tang in residence although they all appeared to be hiding when this pic was taken. Flow comes from 2 XF350 gyres in LTC mode which seems to give good chaotic flow throughout the tank with very few deadish spots so I'm happy with that.

That's all for now. I'll try not to leave it so long before my next update, thanks for looking.