Tank Of The Month - August 2008

[Travis]

Originally posted by notenoughtanks
Awesome tank Travis! love the simplicity of everything yet great results. Your fuge looks very effective. I think this is what gives better color over other BB tanks... Are you using a ton of cleaners in the fuge sand or just let it go? Reverse lighting? That's a TON of chaeto

To be honest, the refugium has made no difference on color or health of corals that I have noticed. I mostly set it up because I like the biodiversity but also as additional nutrient export. I harvest half of the tank full of chaeto every other week and it will completely fill the tank in 2 weeks and then needs to be harvested again. I don't think my overall nutrient export changed much because although I harvest a lot of chaeto, my skimmer pretty much came to a halt in production. I didn't seed the sandbed but life did pop up in it. The only thing I specifically added to it was some nassarius snails and a couple cucumbers. But the tank is full of starfish, amphipods, copepods, mysis, and there are well over 100 bristleworms that I am aware of with at least 10 of them being around 10-12 inches long. The refugium is lit on a reverse lighting cylcle during the warm summer months but I do light it 24/7 during the cooler months.

[tas5tas]

Wow....nice tank. Your closed loop is drilled exactly like mine on the 125g I'm setting up. I've got the 2 holes on each side in the same place and I've also got 4 holes on my backwall in basically the same location. I guess we kinda though alike on water flow. I'm thinking about using 2 Darts on my closed loop. I've been working with Paul at OM on how exactly to do the spraybars on the bottom at the back. How did you do yours? Did you just come from the bulhead with a 1" pipe and drill a bunch of holes in it and cap the end or what?? Also that looks like 3/8" acrylic rod you used...is that correct? I had thought about just lifting my scape with eggcrate, but also worried about algae ataching to it. Seeing you tank which is basically a larger version of mine has gave me a new energy and push to finish my tank and purchase the rest of my equiptment. Congratulations on TOTM!!!

[frankipoo]

wow

[ksed]

wow nice tank! Travis
Do you have any pictures of the live rock aquascaping.
Thanks

[paulthomas]

ksed,

Is this what you're looking for? It's on the first page.



Travis,

I just discovered your tank a few minutes ago and it became an instant favorite.

I've been debating whether I want to use acrylic rods to elevate the rock work from the tank's bottom or not. I've seen tanks that used a grid of flat, acrylic slats. Holes were drilled into each overlap of acrylic and acrylic pegs of varying lengths are plugged into the holes to hold the rock securely. I like your method better as it's much simpler and cheaper to do.

Another thing I realized not too long ago, which your tank utilizes perfectly, is that less rock is more. A wall or dense stack of rock isn't needed. The rock formations and overall aquascape, in my new found, uneducated opinion, should encourage maximum flow. My mantra will be: keep the amount of rock to a minmum and let the corals fill the tank in. Anyway I love your tank and plan to model mine after it. Thanks for the inspiration.

Paul

[Jeffrey9100]

WoW! That is a nice setup! Good job man!

[malbulja]

Awesome tank.... Love the large colonies

[Travis]

Originally posted by tas5tas
Wow....nice tank. Your closed loop is drilled exactly like mine on the 125g I'm setting up. I've got the 2 holes on each side in the same place and I've also got 4 holes on my backwall in basically the same location. I guess we kinda though alike on water flow. I'm thinking about using 2 Darts on my closed loop. I've been working with Paul at OM on how exactly to do the spraybars on the bottom at the back. How did you do yours? Did you just come from the bulhead with a 1" pipe and drill a bunch of holes in it and cap the end or what?? Also that looks like 3/8" acrylic rod you used...is that correct? I had thought about just lifting my scape with eggcrate, but also worried about algae ataching to it. Seeing you tank which is basically a larger version of mine has gave me a new energy and push to finish my tank and purchase the rest of my equiptment. Congratulations on TOTM!!!

I guess great minds think alike. Here are some pictures that should explain the spray bar better. It is all 1.5" piping so as not to restrict the flow of the pumps.











As for the acrylic rod, I used some 3/8" and some 1/4". The 3/8" is much better and stronger. But with more porous or brittle rocks I had to use the 1/4" as the rock would crumble trying to drill a hole for 3/8".

I would definitely recommend against using eggcrate to raise your rock off the bottom. For me it was an algae nightmare.

This was what I originally did:


I liked how it looked but once algae set in on the eggcrate it was impossible to get rid of.

[tas5tas]

Is that holes drilled in the bottom back spraybar and if so, what size??? Also, what holes are your intakes....is it the ones in the bottom with the 3 way on them??

[Travis]

With the spray bar I went with a 1/4" slit cut out at a downward angle to evenly distribute the water flow. My intake is 3". You can see the intake strainer in the middle of the right side of the tank. Might need to lighten up the brightness on your monitor to see it.

[salt-lik]

That was great! I really learned alot from your TOTM. Thank you! You gave me some great ideas for my next build. The fan on the light hood drawing air outside is a great idea. My question is: How does your chiller mod hold up in the winter? Is it something that you dismantle for the winter months or have you modified it to run year round?

Thanks again.

[Travis]

For running the chiller outside in the winter, you have to install a fan cycle swith. As long as you do that it is fine. My chiller doesn't run in the winter but I keep it hooked up just in case it is needed.

[FunkieReefJunkie]

Congratulations! Your tank is worthy of envy.

[klepto]

Travis-
Thanks for sharing your excellent tank with us. How long did it take your corals (caps esp) to develop to that point? Your chiller looks like a highly functional unit - along with the rest of your setup. I like the simplicity of your display along with the great diversity of corals you having going. Congratulations and thank you for your dedication to the hobby.

[Travis]

All corals were grown from 1" frags aquired 3-4 years ago.

[cato]

Congrats on TOTM I read about your "incident" with your ATO and the kalk overdose on your previous setup. When you have a moment could you please comment more on your current fail safe setup on this system. I am curious how you did it. I don't have one in place yet and could really use some ideas. Any pics would be great too. Thanks and very nice job!

[cindyreef]

That is one beautiful tank!! And a fantastic setup too. I have a question though please. What do you feed your corals? Brand?
They are truely beautiful.

[Travis]

Originally posted by cato
Congrats on TOTM I read about your "incident" with your ATO and the kalk overdose on your previous setup. When you have a moment could you please comment more on your current fail safe setup on this system. I am curious how you did it. I don't have one in place yet and could really use some ideas. Any pics would be great too. Thanks and very nice job!

My fail safe on my auto-top-off is not perfect but it is enough that my tank will not crash if something goes wrong. I have a second float switch mounted 1/2" higher than the normal float switch. If the top off pump gets stuck in the on position the second float switch will turn it off it the water level rises 1/2" in the sump. My top off container holds 30 gallons of water and my system holds 484 gallons of water. Should a leak develop in the system and all the water from the top-off container gets pumped in, it is not enough to drop salinity to a dangerous level.

[Travis]

Originally posted by cindyreef
That is one beautiful tank!! And a fantastic setup too. I have a question though please. What do you feed your corals? Brand?
They are truely beautiful.

I don't feed the corals anything specifically. The tank is barebottom with a lot of flow so there is always detritus floating around for the corals to catch. Other than that, they get some of the excess juices and small particles from the food I feed the fish. I make my own frozen fish food blend with whatever is available in the seafood section of the supermarket. Usually clam, squid, octopus, fish, shrimp, scallops, lobster, etc. I also add flake food, 5 different sizes of golden pearls, decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, pellet food, and vibra grow to the mixture before I blend and freeze it.

[bandsaw2]

very nice. now thats what keeps me in this hobby.
thank for sharing.

[HaroldT]

Wow, what a cool tank you have. Great job.

[jefathome]

Haha... I didn't realize that this was your tank!!

About a month ago I did a search online for ideas on how to put my chiller outside. I really only found one good page that had something I could use. As I went through the TOTM article I saw your chiller setup and realized that they were one in the same!!

Since I brought it up, I guess you may be curious as to what I did/am doing. In the end, b/c I needed more space for an ATO system, I decided to build a countertop/cabinet setup on the outside wall from where my tank sits. Right now my BBQ is there, but I can easily move it over and build a counter there with a hole in the back that connects over to my stand. This way it is more of a value ADD situation when we decide to sell instead of a "loss".

Of course I'll have to make the door in front of the chiller out of screen and chicken wire for ventilation (and to keep out the spiders). Before I saw your site, I didn't know if putting it outised was even possible though. THANKS!!

[Alpi]

Congrats for this amazing tank!
Very nice pics.
Always good luck with it.

[PaulCom]

I am curious about your electrical set-up.

"32 GFCI outlets in the fish room all wired so if any single outlet trips then no other outlet on that circuit will trip"

Do you have a schematic that would show this electrical novice how you did that?

[Travis]

Originally posted by PaulCom
I am curious about your electrical set-up.

"32 GFCI outlets in the fish room all wired so if any single outlet trips then no other outlet on that circuit will trip"

Do you have a schematic that would show this electrical novice how you did that?

Towards the top of this page I explained how I did the wiring and there are also a couple pictures. Let me know if you have any other questions.