Kessil

coral reefers 240 gallon flat

Coral reefer

Coral reefer

Past President
BARcard
So the coral tank (bank) is up and running! My brother and I bought this used at the end of Jan 2010, and foolishly told ourselves we could get it up and running in two weeks... It too three months, but who's counting. And I think we did a good job which is what really counts. 8'x4'x1' acrylic with two center overflows (2" bulkeheads). Drains to each side of an old 120 acrylic with baffles we installed. One side is a euroreef skimmer, the other is for macro algae(mostly chaeto). In the middle there is a 2" tube connecting to an old 55 gal acrylic which is where the pump (dolphin 1amp) pulls from and the ato is set up.
The pump has a couple different loops off of it that feed an aqua logic chiller and a second skimmer, and a currently unused branch that can someday feed a small species specific tank (the rimless raffle tank I won from April meeting?...seahorses...?) the majority of the flow feeds two 1" sqwds which in turn flow into the tank through four 1" bulkheads in the borrow of the tank(one in each corner). We also installed a check valve right after the pump, and one right by each return bulkhead. The flow is pretty good and the sqwds change every 45-60 seconds. We will also be running koralias in the tank on timers to create differing patterns(vortechs someday?)
for lighting we are using a combo of hqi pendants and t5s for now, but I'm fired up on getting some reefbrites when I can afford them. I pan on making Frag racks similar to green marine style for sps on one side of the tank and keep to Lps and softies on the other side. The tank has been up and running since baymac(5-8-10) and the first frags have been introduced!
Obviously a decent chunk if cash went into this project(which was begun before I joined bar), and I plan on eventually getting some cash back out, but there were also many other reasons for wanting to do this tank, although most people on this site understand already! I love the idea of the dbtc program, and have already recieved two frags from it. That being said I do intend to contribute back to it out of this tank. If anyone has frags they'd like to contribute I will be happy to keep good on passing them along to other club members as per any rules they come with! Feel free to pm me if you have anything you think fits the bill or if you have something you'd like to bank with us.
I have a few pictures of the plumbing and build stages, but I'm not smart enough to know how to post them...
 
if you dont have a photobucket you can email me all your fotos and i will update this for you..... im bored now that i dont have a job

lowvintage63 at comcast. net
 
Coming soon some pics from the build. We have this monster filled up about 20% of the way, only running half the lights so far. After a serious trip to aquatic collection yesterday and a couple hours of fragging and a tube and a half of glue it is starting to look like a nice collection. Up to 31 types of corals in the bank and looking good!
 
Step up to the plate Mike ;)

photo.jpg


photo-4.jpg


photo-3.jpg
 
I see your problem with computers Mike. The pcs should not have water running in them. I am worse than you on computers for sure. I feel your pain.

Good to see you are having so much fun getting this system up and running.
 
The fun of getting it set up seems more fun now that it's done! Definitely some frustrating episodes along the three month journey we had. Filling it up now is SUPER fun!
 
I would really love to see a par meter on this thing. Anybody have one near Martinez at all? We've been running a 250 watt hqi over this, but I'm about to switch to a se 14k ushio with a nicer reflector and raise it up a bit. I think I was blasting away at the sps a bit too much and got a little bleaching. Booooo, only a couple though.
 
So I had the priveledge of meeting Dave on his lunch hour today and he tested the par in my tank for me. Currently I am running one 250 hqi 10k xm bulb and 4 actinic 54w t5s on one side of the 8x4 flat. I think he was a bit dissapointed because in my journal I mention all the lights I have for this tank, alas they are not all hung/operating. I am still building a light rack and wanted to first see where we were at to make a more educated guess at what type of lighting to use. Eventually I think we will have one side for sps/high light high flow, and the other for lps and softies/lower light and lower flow.
Dave also gave me the wonderfull idea of using a plunger type of wave maker by pushing an air filled up and down near the surface of the tank, it makes a ton of changing waves and could be done fairly cheaply I hope...we will see!
For now I am going to go with one 14k se ushio in a nice wide footprint reflector and 1 actinic+1 white t5 on each side of it. Currently we have everything on just one side to avoid using a ton of light for not soooo many corals, so sps is inthe middle and other stuff to the sides. Turns out we got readings of about 350 near the mh, and more like 100 or a bit more on the sides. So not bad, but I think the 14k bulb will do me better color wise, the reflector upgrade will spread the light more, and switching 2 of the blue t5s to whites will up the par a bit around the edges. Eventually probably 2 250s on the big end and maybe just t5 and LEDs (reefbrite likely) on the other side...
For now the flow is hard to get right with everything on the same side together. We have the return coming back through sqwds, so that variation is nice, and I've been running 2 koralia 2s as well, but I would think that some stuff wants more flow for sure. Maybe the plunger will come soon...
THANKS DAVE!!!!
 
Fun to see another setup as always and I'm especially interested in the footprint of the flat. I can't wait to see the light frame and with all those unused MH and nice reflectors lying around I think you are in business.
Thanks for having me over.
 
Your invited to come over and get some frags tonight.
The 50 inch will be on at 5 if you want to watch the game.
Give me a call.
 
So I picked up a bunch of koralia 3 and 4, and began playing with them. First I made kind if a giant circle gyre, then I tried some other stuff, and I settled on 2 k4's on the middle overflow, with 2 more on the side if it facing the same way. Ill take pictures. Anyhow, 5600 gph ain't bad for half a 240! Plus returns
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top