Planning my 210 Gallon opions and comments wanted

[extremeshannon]

Hello everyone, I have been planning on building a saltwater reef tank for 6+ months now. I have been doing reading and learning. I now have a 55 gallon tank setup and I am running through the big learning curve. Still have no critters except a couple crabs that appeared one day. I was given a tank and told it was 150 gallons and needed to be cleaned up. Found out it is 125 and scratched so bad I think they cleaned with a brillo pad. I have decided it will make a good sump for my tank and have my LFS getting me a quote on a 280 gallon tank but have a 210 gallon tank at the store waiting for me. So at this point I am planning on a 210 gallon tank. I am trying to plan out as far as i can and think of everything I need before I actually put this all together and get the water flowing. I am thinking it will take me another 6 months before I have coral and fish swimming in the tank. Here is my first run at a plan for life in my tank. if anyone could help point out anything I missed that I need or if something is not compatible. We are sitting down next week and drawing out the plans for the stand and cabinets all around the tank system and I will have more than plenty of room all around the tank for anything I need. I do know that I can not introduce all this life at once and I am not sure in what order I need to put life in the tank. Thanks

Tank Setup
Tank 210 Gallon
Sump 125 Gallon tank (90-100 actual water) Requiem
75 GPD RO/DI 6 Stage Chloramines *DELUXE* System
ReefKeeper Elite w/ Net - Digital Aquatics
Par38 LED lighting (Still working on how many)
External Return Pump (Undecided)
Protein Skimmer (Undecided)
Power heads (undecided)
200lbs - Live Rock
150lbs - Live sand


Fish
1-Yellow Tang
2-Clown Fish (Black and White)
2-Clown Fish (Orange and White)
1-Blue Hippo Tang
Any suggestions would be great I do want more fish just not sure what yet.

Clean up Crew (just an idea I came up with after researching the web)
80-Blue White Hermit Crabs
40-Red Leg hermit Crabs
200-Nassarius Snail
100-Nerite Snail
10-Porcelain Crab
10-Emerald Crab
4-Decorator Crab
5-Peppermint Shrimp
5-Serpent Starfish
4-Lettuce Nudibranch

Coral
Long Tentacle Anemone (Macrodactyla Doreensis)
Purple Base Ritteri
Red Sea Pumping Xenia (Xenia Umbellata)
Ring of Fire Zoanthids
Blue Mushrooms (Actinodiscus)
Fiji Maxima Clam (Tridacna Maxima)

[jdyer88]

Get a really good skimmer and good lights. You may need more sand than you have listed. Ditch the emerald crabs in cuc. 210 is pretty good sized, but i would caution you on having two pairs of clowns. This can be very iffy. I wish I had the guts to add a **name removed because of legal threat from trademark holder** pair to my 180, but the gb maroon pair might get ****y and kill a $500 pair of fish

[Dono]

What are the dimensions of the tank?

Is it pre-drilled?

Are you going DIY for stand? Wall mount?

Do you have your sump planned out for how you want to setup the baffles/fuge?

[dots]

Personally, I'm not sold on the long term effects on LED lighting with captive reef livestock. I would start it with a proven T5 system, and then switch over later if your still interested in LED's.

The LED market is exploding, if you wait your patience could yield break throughs and avaivability in the technology.

Its easier to evaluate your final plans, rather than at this time for the rest. Plumbing setup is something commonly misapplied.

[extremeshannon]

• The dimension's of the tank are 72" x 24" x 29".
• The tank is pre-drilled through the bottom with 2 over flows.
• The tank is going to be the center piece of my bar. Sitting up 42 inches off the floor. Sitting at the bar I will be able to see the fish tank on almost 3 sides. The back 8 inches of the side walls of the tank will be covered up.
• the sump is planned out with a fuge / return / Skimmer (A friend is going to put the glass inside the tank for my sump. he built my sump for my 55)
• Ditching the emerald crabs
• How much sand should I start with?
• 1 Pair of clowns Black and white
• What about a purple tang?
• I have decided to set up an aqua scape with dry rock and compliment it with live rock as needed.
• The lights I am planning on putting are running in a tank with beautiful coral. I was going MH lights until I saw this setup. The lights will be 3-4 months before I buy them. I am always up for suggestions. LEDs produce little heat, low power consumption, last a long time. Hard to beat. Starting off with soft coral and easy coral at first.

Thanks for all the suggestions all feed back is awesome.

[dots]

If your planning on a SSB, an inch to three inches is about the sand depth you can start with.

You can mix a variety of "dead sand" and seed it with a bag of the live stuff, which I like...or get some from other local reefers whom have thriving sand beds.

A purple tang should do fine in a tank of this size, of course finding a healthy fish and waiting till the tank is ready is assumed.

MH lights are a good choice, I prefer SE's myself on an electronic ballast with supplementation of VHO's or T5's. I am not sold on LED's yet on long term viability and will not be recommending them in the NTTH forum for a long time.

A chiller should be considered, as well as reactors.

It looks like your off to a good start, especially planning it out, but always remind yourself that this is a dynamic, 3D, house of cards and with every piece you and, and the order you add it, effects the total system and plans will need to be constantly revaluated.

With that said, go slow and when you encounter more specific things we will go from there.

[dots]

QT tank!!!

Determing your flow is critical now in case you want to go with a CL system

[extremeshannon]

I am hoping I do not need a chiller. The sun will not be able to touch my tank. I live in Alaska so it doesn't get to hot. I do keep my house fairly cool. The thing I see as a problem I have in floor radiant heat. I have had 55 gallon fresh water tanks with out a heater at 76 degree's. My 55 gallon salt is running around 76 with my heater I keep it at 78. Again I am hoping I do not need and one reason I was going with LED's to try to keep the heat down. I will have an exhaust fan to take out the heat and humidity from above the tank controlled bye ReefKeeper. Before all the expensive coral go in I will have the parameters where they need to be including temp. I have looked at JbJ Chillers and it is in the back of my mind.

I was told I do not need reactors to start off with. I have been told I do not need a protein skimmer to start. I am buying a protein skimmer since i know I will need this. What reactors do I need to start or at what point do I introduce them. I would like to figure out all the devices and buy them so I know how much gear is going under the tank. I am trying to buy a large expensive piece every other week. This way I will have everything when I am ready to put the water in.

I used a sand bed Calculator.
You will need approximately 180 pounds of sand
To achieve a 2 inch depth in a 72 x 24 inch tank
Assuming the sand weighs 90 pounds per cubic foot.

So I am planning on 200 Pounds of sand now.

QT? Quarantine tank I am assuming. Did not really plan on one, but I have a 55 gallon tank I just set up to start. This can be a QT.

CL? Close loop system? I do not know anything about a CL or even how to determine my flow.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. I am doing research on all my questions and you comments as you read this thread.

[Lynnmw1208]

I wish I could be in your shoes! I'd love a tank that big!!

Anyways for the reactors I'd suggest bulk reef supply. They have really big reactors and everyone seems to like them. I am going for the smaller dual reactors to run carbon and GFO in one unit, but my tank is much smaller than yours. here's a link if you're interested http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/...n-reactor.html
They also have calcium reactors and such too. I order a lot from these guys.

If you used the substrate calculator, be careful that you know the exact weight of your substrate you're interested in because I ended up with 2 extra bags of substrate. Mine isn't exactly small grain either but not too large but it overcalculated for me.

I'm excited to see this build!

[extremeshannon]

Thanks for the reply. I found BRS a while back and use them for everything. I just got a ReefKeeper Elite from them. My wish list is long and expensive, but will all be in my tank soon enough.

Do I need a Magnesium reactor to start off?
a Calcium reactor?
Carbon or GFO?

Are these things needed for startup? before Hard coral goes in? or when?

Thanks

[extremeshannon]

210 Gallon (72 x 24 x 29) Reef tank with pre-drilled holes from bottom with 2 overflow boxes.
Sump 125 gallon tank (90-100 gallon of water actually)
My project is scheduled to start in two weeks. With this said I need to get moving on some items in order to keep the project flowing. My goal is to have a state of the art, easily controlled, beautiful reef, with happy life and the OMG factor. So here is the rest of my 2011 years project. I would love comments and suggestions. I am very new I am reading so much that my head hurts. My project page on my website is almost done so everyone can see my progress and an up to date list, picture, and information will be there.
Here are the stages



1st stage
1. Re-silicone sump, drill return hole(s), put in baffles and dividers.
2. Order plumbing parts

2nd Stage 28 March
1. Bring power, water, drain, network to tank location.
2. Build stand and counter Place tank and sump in. Plumb the 2 together and circulate water checking for leaks and flow.

3rd stage
1. Finish cabinets and build hood.
2. Exhaust fan will be controlled by reekkeeper and will turn on at set temp and humidity.
3. Build electric panel with all circuits needed. To left side of tank, divided by water proof wall, using GFI breakers.

4th Stage
1. Install Ro/DI unit in tank area.
2. Place rock and sand in tank with Ro/DI water with some water from my established tank. Circulate water low flow no lights for 4 weeks.
3. Buy remain water flow parts
4. Buy and install lighting, just enough to have some fish and get the cycle going. (lighting to still be determined)
5. Setup ATO

5th Stage
1. Turn on Water flow and lights.
2. Add salt to correct salinity
3. Connect Ph, Salinity, Temp, and ORP probes
4. Put a couple fish in tank to get a load and start cycle on tank.

6th Stage
1. Auto Water change setup
2. Clean up crew
3. Set up all modules with reefkeeper
4. Few more fish

7th Stage
Relax and breathe.

Plumbing / water flow Questions
Planning on using Schedule 80 1” piping is this large enough?
Closed loop or Wave maker?
If wave maker! Reefkeeper controlled or Tunze Wavebox 6215 with 2 Turbelle Stream 6105?

Auto Water Change questions
Auto Water Change system or ReefKeeper with Metered pumps?

[b85511]

This should be an awesome setup when complete

[supervdl]

I have a 210 gal. Piece of advice from me is to plan very well the layout under the tank for all the equipment and don't save on skimmer. LEDs are new thing and I would stick for now with the T5s or MHs.