Steve's 70 Gallon Reef

sfb911 · 01/04/2014, 08:39 PM

Hi all,

I've been lurking around for a while and I thought I would post a bit about myself and my current build. I've been keeping fish, primarily freshwater for most of my life. Early last year, my wife and I realized, we were tired of keeping several tanks (we had a tank in just about every room on our first floor). After some discussion, we decided to downsize the number of tanks and then put together a really nice tank in our kitchen. We had some requirements in that we wanted a basement sump and easy maintenance. Not being much of the DIY type, we engaged with a local aquariummaintenance company, went through our requirements and ended up where we are today. I can't take much credit for the build itself, since they did most of the work, but I'm still very happy with the results!

Display Tank: 70 Gallon "Tall" with Custom Stand and Canopy, corner overflow
Lighting: Pacific Sun Metis Hyperion S2 (2x75W) LED - Running at 65% power
Powerheads: 1 x Jebeo WP-25 - will probably add a second

Basement:
55 Gallon Sump
20 Gallon Long Refugium
Mag 24 return Pump
1x 500W heater
1 x 300W heater (basement gets chilly in winter so we wanted some extra heating)
75GPD 5 stage RODI system, plumbed to salt mixing barrel and ATO barrel
ATO Controller
55 Gallon Mixing Barrel

I also had a requirement that water changes from the sump be made easy, you'll see in the photos below we added a system where the pump has a valve to shut off the return pump flow into the DT and instead divert it to the utility sink in the basement (I can empty 15-20 gallons out of the sump in around 2-3 minutes).

I'll be adding an Apex Lite Controller in the next week or so, its on order, that will be used to control the whole system from a technology point of view. After that next up will be dosers. Right now I've got the ability to manually dose if I need to, but i'd like to automate this as much as possible.

We have a long, long way to go but I thought I'd share a few photos.

sfb911 · 01/04/2014, 08:40 PM

sfb911 · 01/04/2014, 08:41 PM

sfb911 · 01/04/2014, 08:45 PM

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aquaenthusiast · 01/05/2014, 08:08 PM

looks like your off to a great start ! and that's a really nice light by the way

01/04/2014, 08:39 PM	#1
sfb911 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 45	Steve's 70 Gallon Reef Hi all, I've been lurking around for a while and I thought I would post a bit about myself and my current build. I've been keeping fish, primarily freshwater for most of my life. Early last year, my wife and I realized, we were tired of keeping several tanks (we had a tank in just about every room on our first floor). After some discussion, we decided to downsize the number of tanks and then put together a really nice tank in our kitchen. We had some requirements in that we wanted a basement sump and easy maintenance. Not being much of the DIY type, we engaged with a local aquariummaintenance company, went through our requirements and ended up where we are today. I can't take much credit for the build itself, since they did most of the work, but I'm still very happy with the results! Display Tank: 70 Gallon "Tall" with Custom Stand and Canopy, corner overflow Lighting: Pacific Sun Metis Hyperion S2 (2x75W) LED - Running at 65% power Powerheads: 1 x Jebeo WP-25 - will probably add a second Basement: 55 Gallon Sump 20 Gallon Long Refugium Mag 24 return Pump 1x 500W heater 1 x 300W heater (basement gets chilly in winter so we wanted some extra heating) 75GPD 5 stage RODI system, plumbed to salt mixing barrel and ATO barrel ATO Controller 55 Gallon Mixing Barrel I also had a requirement that water changes from the sump be made easy, you'll see in the photos below we added a system where the pump has a valve to shut off the return pump flow into the DT and instead divert it to the utility sink in the basement (I can empty 15-20 gallons out of the sump in around 2-3 minutes). I'll be adding an Apex Lite Controller in the next week or so, its on order, that will be used to control the whole system from a technology point of view. After that next up will be dosers. Right now I've got the ability to manually dose if I need to, but i'd like to automate this as much as possible. We have a long, long way to go but I thought I'd share a few photos.

01/04/2014, 08:40 PM	#2
sfb911 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 45

01/04/2014, 08:41 PM	#3
sfb911 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 45

01/04/2014, 08:45 PM	#4
sfb911 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 45	DSC_0542.jpg DSC_0547.jpg DSC_0426.jpg IMG_1842.jpg IMG_1843.jpg

01/05/2014, 08:08 PM	#5
aquaenthusiast Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Garner, NC Posts: 416	looks like your off to a great start ! and that's a really nice light by the way