one month after the upgrade to an 850gal reef

[Loserland]

Which AQ unit do you use? and it looks like you have the probes monted in some PVC, can you give me a little detail about this aspect of the tank? I'm looking at adding the Neptune to my system and your set up looks clean.

Thanks.

[atlantic]

steveweast,
just wondering if you have any pics of your tank looking at it from the room that it is in. id love to see how it looks in the wall.

[inwall75]

Absolutely amazing Steve!!!

[Brad A.]

Very nice!

[skeets]

Gorgeous.
Steve I have a question about cleaning the front glass. Right now I only have a 120g, it is glass and I do use a magnet that works great. However even though my tank is glass I still am hesitant to use the magnet down near the sand for fear of scratching. So that means every now and then I need to shove my arm down in the tank and clean down there... and some corraline that the algae magnet may not be getting off.

I plan to go with a 6' by 34''deep acrylic tank built into the wall next. The only problem I see is cleaning the front glass. With your tank being even deeper I was curious as to how you do it.
With acrylic tanks it would be even touchier to use a magnet... man I have a hard enough time getting the stuff off the sides of my glass and the front without it being in the wall...
Thanks much, and must say again it is gorgeous

[BradR]

Nice! Where did you get your corals/rock?

[steveweast]

Q & A catch up time....

Loserland......When I switched over to the new tank, I also switched controllers.... from an Octopus 3000 to a AQ Pro. The Neptune has several features that I've been looking for in a controller that my Octopus just couldn't do. As for the probes... they are housed in 1" pvc piping with compression fittings. This way the probes have a constant ,controlled flow of water past them..... are easy to remove for cleaning....they stay alot cleaner...and are more organized. The nice thing about using the pvc piping is that I can have the water that flows past the probes come directly from the tank. If probes are reading sump parameters, those readings might not be the same as tank parameters.... especially on systems like mine where the chillers dump into the sump. My sump is always cooler than the tank.The compression fittings are from my Octopus setup. The Neptune probes were slightly different in diameter; but, with a change of o-rings and a little filing of the compression fittings, they work just great.

Atlantic..... I had to build a new face frame for the new tank because the acylic thickness increased with the new tank; and as a result, the old frame didn't completely cover the new tank's seams. I'm almost done with the new frame. When I get it installed, I'll post a photo.

Skeets......I use a magnet for my front glass cleaning too. I also use a kent scraper( very carefully) for the sand edge. Some things that I do to avoid scratches......inspect the pads very carefully first..... make a short stoke first, to see if anything is scatching,...... have a near zero sand bed depth at the front panel.......... never let the magnet touch the sand.

BradR...... most of my stock comes from the three main LFS in this area...upscales,waves, and soutas. I also have a few mail order ones.

[clint123]

Steve did you build that tank yourself? Is it glass?

A) did you put the 4 sides directly on top of the bottom piece?

or

B) raise the bottom piece 1/4" and silicone the 4 sides to the outside of the bottom piece so weight is put on sides and not bottom?

[steveweast]

Clint...I'm not a glass fan. The tank is made from 1" acylic and was contracted from a local acylic fabricator.

[salsaking]

Steve, not only do you have an amazing system! But you also have the patience to answer everyone's questions! Thanks again for taking time to answer everyones questions and making the reef hoby more exciting than ever. I look forward to the upcoming visit! Oregon is my home state. Ever heard of the small town of Hood River. That is where Penny's Salsa started by the way.

I would have to say that one of my most favorite things about your system is the Virgo side of me! Very Clean and presitine!

Again, great tank. Awesome floor plan!!!

P.S. How in the hell do you keep your sand so damn clean??? HA HA

[dgasmd]

Steve:
Just a couple of quick questions for you.
-What pumps are you using for your close loops?
-Where did you get the compression fittings for the probes?
-What water change schedules do you have for this tank's volume?
-What do you do daily that takes you 1 hour of daily maintenance? Just curiosity.

To say the tank is amazing is a gross understatement. I guess I can't top the congratulations other have given you already. great work!

Alberto

[MATTT]

Steve,

Do you have a DSB for your tank ? If you do, why would you still consider it after all the bad talks about DSB ?

Thanks,

Mattt.

[Jus Reefin]

Truely a DREAM TANK....for me any way.

Steve you seem like a great guy and you enjoy answering questions. If I am ever in Oregon I will have to buy soem tickets to check out the Tank.....LOL

[Gary Majchrzak]

I printed out a pic of your new reef and I'm throwing darts at it.

























Just kidding. What an inspiration! No RBTA's in this one?

[invincible569]

The RBTA's are at the very top right.

[mothra]

That tank is incredible. Me and the wife just got our first 75g, now it looks like a 10g!

Couple of questions if you don't mind...

1) What measures did you take to make sure the weight would not too much for your foundation?

2) What is the monthly operating cost of your setup (if you don't mind).

awesome...

[Foster]

Awsome work Steve!

I thought that you use to have a website for your 500? Am I mistaken?

[xyzner]

dont mean to be rude put how much have you spent on just the tank with rock, fish, corals etc.?

[xyzner]

dont mean to be rude put how much have you spent on just the tank with rock, fish, corals etc.?

[oscar3411]

Wow, I hope you don't mind but your last pic is now my new desktop background image. Simply amazing!

[matt_rogers]

Hey Steve - Were you inspired by the cpfarm tank?
Yours reminds me of this pic:

http://www.3reef.com/fish/sitepics/cpfarm.jpg

Just curious! Fantastic tank ...

[steveweast]

A few responses....


dgasmd..... I currently use (4) Dolphin 5600's for the closed loop. Those compression fittings can be had from any online outfit that carries Aquadyne accessories. I spend about an hour a day just doing little things like..cleaning the glass,cleaning the skimmers, hand feeding aneomes, replacing reactor media, etc. I don't do all these things everyday; but, a little here and a little there... it all adds up to about an hour a day. I don't mind, at all, doing the maintenance.

Matt....I'm not a DSB fan. The sand you see is only about an inch deep. I regurlarly turn and vacuum the sandbed as well as replace what is lost though the monthly (or more often) vacuuming sessions with new sand every six months or so.

Gary... I have about 12 RBTA's in the tank. I gave them their own little section in the upper right hand corner where they can multiply and not bother any of the corals. It is a pretty large section that I've allotted for them. It should be spectacular in 6 months or so.

mothra.... I'm not concerned about the weight. The way that the load is distributed is that the house's foundation takes half the load and the garage floor takes the other half. The house's foundation load is neglible compared to the normal roof and floor load. When I poured the garage slab a few years ago, I poured it thicker than normal in anticipation of a tank like this someday. I'm not sure what the operating cost is... power, though, runs about $200/month.

platapus...never had a website. I'm not terribly tech savy.

xyzner....I have no idea about the total livestock cost. But, the tank upgrade cost was in the $6K -$7K range since I reused all my old equipment.

matt..... I've seen that pic before and have always liked it. I wouldn't say that my tank was inspired by it though. It seems that when most tanks get big that they expand in length and a little depth. To me, they just become larger versions of smaller tanks. I wanted to do something different that yielded a perspective that we seldom see ... even in large tanks.

[kentracey]

Thanks for the inspiration!!!

[melev]

kentracey

[welcome]

[Foster]

Steve - If you would'nt mind, it would be really kewl to see a picture of a top view of the tank, ( standing up with the lide slide over and looking into the water surface.

Just a suggestion!