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My 220 gallon rebuild


MBVette

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So I think I am getting to within a few weeks of getting my new tank and need to start figuring things out. The equiptment I already have on order and should be here soon; and hope to start playing in the sump in the next 2 weeks if adam can get that tank done.

 

Here is the equipment list that I am going with:

 

72x24x30 tank by artfully acrylic

60x20" sump that includes a 15x20" ATO box by artfully acrylic

lights: 4x AI Vega (hopefully they come out at some point)

3x MP40

Waterblaster 10k as a return pump

Mag 7 to run the reactors

2x Avast MR10 reactors for biopellets and carbon

Avast Black Pearl w/ swabbie & locker

Apex controller

 

(I think that covers the main equipment)

 

Here is what I am thinking for fish, I need help with this list a bit.

 

I want to end up with 5-7 blue reef chromis, so order 10-15?

Pair of purple firefish

Pair of Osc clowns

Yellow Watchman & Tiger Pistol shrimp (may change up the goby, but will keep the tiger pistol)

Green Mandarin

Diamond Goby (possibly 2)

Trio of flasher wrasses. Possibly Carpenters

Purple Tang

Yellow Tang

Hippo Tang

Blonde Naso

Chevron or Kole Tang

Possible a rhomboid wrasse?

 

Then talking to someone they recommended I add

Lawnmower Blenny

1-2 swallowtail angels.

 

Obviously everything is up for debate, some things I am less likely to drop than others but let me know what you think about this list.

 

Then my starting CUC: I am not really sure what to get but this is what I am thinking

50 hermits

75 astrea

50 nassareus

10 mexican turbo

25 margarita

25 cerith

 

How does that look?

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thats a lot of tangs..that you will have to add together specially the purple and yellow...i would keep a very close eye on...

 

is the tank open top ?

 

rest of the h/w looks top of the line !

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thats a lot of tangs..that you will have to add together specially the purple and yellow...i would keep a very close eye on...

 

is the tank open top ?

 

rest of the h/w looks top of the line !

 

The purple and the yellow will definitly be added together. Do you guys think all the tangs need to be added at the same time, or can I get away with adding just those two together and the others at different times?

 

As for the equipment, its nice having the insurance companies money. :)

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Everything looks good to me. A few things I could change just from my experience.

 

1. 28" max tall tank. Mine is 32" and it's so hard to clean the bottom 4

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The purple and the yellow will definitly be added together. Do you guys think all the tangs need to be added at the same time, or can I get away with adding just those two together and the others at different times?

 

As for the equipment, its nice having the insurance companies money. :)

 

You never know. There are some general guidelines but nothing is black & white with the hobby. I added mine in this order.

 

1 x .5" Baby Hippo

1 x Vlamingi

1 x Yellow

1 x Yellow Kole Eye

1 x Orange Shoulder

1 x Large Hippo

 

Had some aggression between the yellow and the kole eye but they got over it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I got my sump from Adam last night and it looks amazing! Now I just need him to get onto building the display.

 

Sump.jpg

 

You can see the basic layout of the sump, and I am going to slowly work on setting it up while I wait for the display to be built. First chamber will be the the return from the tank and the skimmer. Second chamber will have 2 reactors, one for biopellets and the other carbon and the third chamber will just be the return pump. At the end of the sump is a ATO chamber which will probably hold about 20 gallons if I remember right.

 

Now I have a question. In the second chamber I have the 2 reactors, but there is extra space in there, should I try to make a fuge in there? Some live rock and cheato and a cheap light over that section?

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Alternatively, you could split the overflow (adding a ball or gate valve to manage how much splits to where), put the return pump in the middle chamber and put the fuge in the right chamber. This allows at least some of the particulates and unskimmed water to make it to the fuge. If you put rubble in the chamber, be sure to add periodic cleaning of detritus from the bottom on your maintenance schedule.

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But at that point where would I put the two reactors if I made it a full blown fuge?

I didnt' realize that you wanted to keep your reactors in the water. What about putting them on a shelf over the RO/DI reservoir?

 

(You probably don't have enough height there, do you?)

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Those bubble traps look very tall, it seems as if you equipment will need to be raised with stands...I hope your top-off section never busts a seam...

 

If you go fuge, don't see a need for the biopellets, so that should free up one reactor...

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They wont squeeze in with the skimmer, wont be any room for the 3 returns. Here is a pic if I put them on top of the ATO (sorry for the crappy pic)

 

reactors.jpg

 

They do fit up there (barely) but my concern there would be the plumbing, Im not sure I could plumb the return line past them and still have room to open the ATO chamber to refill it.

 

And yes those chambers are kinda tall, I will need to raise some things up. The skimmer doesnt matter what the depth is so thats not a big deal, but if I sit the reactors in the sump they will definitly need to be raised up a few inches.

Edited by MBVette
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I wanted to try something new, and for the same price I was able to get 4 lights instead of 3.

 

Honestly I went back and forth many times on which lights I would get.Sure I have insurance money paying for everything, but didnt want to push them to far and get 6 radions and have the most expensive of everything out there. I weighed the options and got very good products all the way around but never the most expensive thing.

 

So when push came to shove I budgeted about $2k for the lights and that gave me 3 radions or 4 vegas. And I just dont think 3 radions will be enough over the tank. Plus I can be the first guy on the block with the vegas :)

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they were shipped to distributors last week, so I could have mine in a week or so.

 

Ah, good. Well I hope you like them. I would still take radions over vega's today myself, but I am an ecotech fanboy I guess you can say. I am sure they will be great LEDs either way. Welcome to the LED club! :)

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I think ecotech is an awesome company, they were great to me when I had an issue with my old MP40's. But for a 6' they are just to expensive for where I am right now.

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I think ecotech is an awesome company, they were great to me when I had an issue with my old MP40's. But for a 6' they are just to expensive for where I am right now.

I hear you. One thing to think about is that Radions cover an area of 24"x24" at 8" off the surface of the water. So you'd only need 3 for your tank, for 3 24x24" squares. Here is the Radion's PAR distribution graph. TIR is on the right. The coverage radius in this image is 30"x30":

radion-tirlens-spread.jpeg

 

I haven't seen the Vega coverage area anywhere yet.

 

As to the coverage area of the AI Sols, shown here:

perf_par.png

 

AI claims 36"x36". I think it's more like 24"x24" as well.

 

Anyway, my point is, how are you going to mount the 4 Vegas? If you want equal coverage over the tank, 4 won't work; you'd need 3 or 6 vega or radions, assuming equal coverage, on a 6 foot tank. For example, if you mounted them like this: = = , your squares would actually be 12"x36" per each of the 4 Vegas... Make sense? So you'd be getting awesome PAR under the units, but really bad PAR in the center of the tank. If you did 6, you'd be: = = = , which would be 6 12"x12" squares, which would be overkill for a mixed reef, but awesome for a heavy SPS tank. And again, 3 would be 3 equal 24"x24" squares. So I guess what I am saying is, you can probably get away with 3 Vega's and put $500 back in your pocket, or spend $1000 more, and get 6 for full coverage that will last 10+ years and grow anything you desire...

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I plan on mounting them 4 straight across, and if it winds up that 4 across is not the best solution I will hold onto that one extra and use it for the 24x24" cube tank I am going to setup at my house.

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I plan on mounting them 4 straight across, and if it winds up that 4 across is not the best solution I will hold onto that one extra and use it for the 24x24" cube tank I am going to setup at my house.

 

OK, 4 straight like this: - - - - would be 18"x24" squares. I don't see why that wouldn't work!

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