upgrading to ~150g tank

[Chaka]

Hey all,

Just wanted to share the news that I will be upgrading to about a 150 gallon tank. Senor Sparks will be making the custom tank. It will be a peninsula style tank with 3 sided starphire. The overflow will be the wall side across the entire length. It will have two return lines and two drains. Dimensions of the tank are:
60"Lx30"Wx20"H. I have not currently found out what I will be lighting the tank with. I am leaning towards taotronics LED modules, if not i will be doing t5 system.

As far as the rock work goes, I am looking for a more minimalistic look. I want the fish i select to have a lot of space. I am going to have different tangs in the tank. I am not sure which ones yet. Maybe some of you all with more experience can chime into the species that can coexist a tank that size. I might try a shallow sand bed for this tank, not sure yet.

The sump is not decided yet. There is an acrylic one at Stephan's place that I might pick up, if not I will build my own. It will be fairly large if i build it ~48"x24"x12". That would be minimum. I am trying to get total water volume to over 200 gallons.

Filtration used for now will be my SCA-302 (eventually be upgraded when livestock increases), with chaeto (which grows like crazy), and I will be using lanthanum chloride for phosphate removal. I believe over the past four years of beginner reefing I have allowed phosphates to bind to the rock. I will be using a 5 micron filter sock to catch the lanthanum, that has bound to phosphate, to be able to remove it from the system. The dosing will be slow and over 24 hours. It will be dosed into the overflow pipe through fitting. If done right the phosphate should be reduced and strip the rock of the phosphates.

check in as i continue to add pictures of the progress. I will be building the stand very soon.

[pnavarro170]

Very sweet news. Great size for sure. will returns and overflows still be on one side the back ? since it will be peninsula. and for the leds i heard okay things but in the long run i think you want more colors. not sure what they have.

[Chaka]

yeah the returns and overflows are on the same size. This will force me to have crazy flow in the tank to cycle water to the sump. yeah the leds are modular so I would think they could add other color etc. not sure if I am going with them, if not I will go with a 6 bulb t5 fixture.

[pnavarro170]

No was wondering if they would all be on the same side. And now that you mention it usually the size is usually smaller for the return.

[Chaka]

whoops i missed typed, yes they are on the same SIDE, returns will be smaller than drain lines. As far as LEDs i am looking into using a reef breeder fixture. They have a controllable one that is only 329. Has a full spectrum spread it seems. Check them out and let me know what you think of them.

[pnavarro170]

Yeah those are better. I got my par38 from them. But next thing is is if your gonna need 3 of em. Cuz at that point 2 of the razors I got would cover your tank perfectly.

[Chaka]

i figured I would only need two 24" fixtures. If i spread out I should be able to cover the ~56 inches.

[stanger50lx92]

Sounds like a very nice project! I will be tuning in to see the progress!


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[915MANG]

Cool man, gonna be nice. When are you going to get your tank? What skimmer are you going to get?

[Chaka]

Sometime in February, Stephan just ordered the glass, I would imagine before March. As of now I am thinking of using a recirculating skimmer (Reef octopus DNW-200 8") or the reef octopus extreme XS200. Not sure which one I'm leaning towards. I will be using the SCA-302 until i upgrade if no one purchases my old tank. It is stated that it is rated up to 180 gallon, but i have my doubts.

[Chaka]

maybe someone with some experience with recirculating skimmer can chime in and list some pros and cons.

[pnavarro170]

I dont have any, i guess cuz you can you use the same pump to run other things off of it. but besides that i guess i should look into it more. Octopus has those new skimmers that use the new DC pumps and the open volute ones but they are pricey.

[Chaka]

well from what i researched (correct me if I am wrong), a recirculating skimmer utilizes a dedicated pump to create the micro bubbles. The secondary pump, or drain connection, simply sets the flow through the skimmer. This gives better control over the contact time within the micro bubble chamber. With a regular skimmer the pump is required to make the bubbles and create the amount of flow through the skimmer. This creates less contact time and thus is less efficient. Am I correct on this?

on another note, the sooner the better to set a day for February meeting. I am really trying to get to one and meet all you fellow reefers!

[stacy_vennes]

hey chaka from what i've seen with our swc 160 you are mostly correct the only thing you missed was the secondary pump is what supplies the skimmer and then the amount of flow is controlled through the drain as long as you have a ball valve or gate valve on the drain another way to feed it is off a manifold fed from your return pump and from what i've heard through the grapevine pedro is saying the feb meeting is on the 16th

[Chaka]

ok so i have been looking around, and I have already done 2 previous LED DIY builds. The first was a 48 3watt Cree fixture. Second was a 96 3watt 4 module fixture. I guess I am bringing this up because I have had some experience with the DIY leds. Fir this build I was thinking of doing 3 multi-chip fixtures. They would be 50watt chips. I think I am going to go with a 16k chip. I want the look to be a crisp white. The great thing about the multi chip is you get a true metal halide look (singe source light). I will also not get the disco effect like I had with my first fixture (was not to bad). There is a super long thread in RC about the multi chip. What you all think? I am not going to run any t5 for actinic so the whole color spectrum needs to be in the multi-chip.

[pnavarro170]

Im down to see that for sure. They would carry a fuller range of color without having to build one with 5-9 colors. I think kessils are cool but do have that disco effect we dont want. I would even look at the 100w chips with wider spread.

[Chaka]

i was going to do 100w, but the tank depth is only going to be 20", so I was thinking 100w would be to much. also i already have dimmable meanwell drivers for 50w

[pnavarro170]

I kinda dont think its too much yet, just depends on lenses and the one chip should not be a laser beam like others. Im running 160w now on 24"x24" and i can fit another one of these on here and dont think it would be too much. I didnt even slowly ramp up this fixture from when i switched from the 35w ai nano.

[Chaka]

so ordered one set of the diy parts. I ordered a 50w 15k multi chip, 90 degree lens, and a round cpu heat-sink/fan. When they get here Ill hook it all up and post some pics. I did not want to order all two, or three, untill I see the color. Based on what I see ill either order the 10k or the 20k. possibly even a hybrid chip.

[stacy_vennes]

hey chaka are you back from your fishing trip if so maybe we could come up sunday and get those candy canes and whatever else that we might like from you

[Chaka]

so I have been thinking about the build and I am trying to get the most flow in my tank. +75x turnover rate. I was wondering if I should go with 2xmp40s, mp40 and 60, or some other type system (tunze)? I would like some peeps to chime in on their thoughts of this. Tank will be 55" long not counting the overflow so keep that in mind. I would like to just run wavemakers on one side. Should I try for a closed loop?

[pnavarro170]

well its hard to say exactly, when i had a 40 and a 60 on my 4ft 120 obviously i was not able to have the mp60 at 100 percent, i think the max was 50percent and 100 percent on the 40. Since it is a bit wider i think you can have 2 40s at 100 percent on.

The 60 was awesome though, i would turn it to 100 pecent for a few seconds and it would flush out the system of detritus without having to fan or turkey blast the rocks. Like a clean up knob.

I would actually try and get 2 used mp60s for the $550-600 range, when you might spend almost that on 2 new 40s. I mean thats what i would do in your situation.

If not go with some sort of tunze wide flow set up of sorts.

[Chaka]

Here is what I got, stand being built and multi-chip led came in.

[Chaka]

They multi-chip is a 16k epistar 50 watt. It creates a good crisp white color to my eyes. I would say slightly whiter than a 14K Phoenix bulb. I am only running them at 1300mA (rated for 1700mA) and they are super bright. Set up was easy, now just need to get tank filled with water and see light distribution. I am thinking three will be fine, I am wondering about getting the hybrid versions. I think I might do a video and post on youtube with light on.

[puffin04]

Tank is coming out great as well! Will take some pictures tomorrow!

Steffen Sparks