Wow Eric, I really need to stop by, it looks amazing. Thanks for the input on the Teco. For controllers - if I were in the market I'd really only consider the Elos B2, Profilux or the AC III. I needed a foolproof SMS so I went with the B2 and couldn't be happier. There is actually a practically new one for sale - check the Elos forum for crazydiver. The guys at Profilux seem to really have their stuff together. The AC is nice but not really easy on the eye.

I love the 902 with SCH. I met Doug this weekend and talked about getting a custom skimmer with SCH. Tricky with my footprint - but the SCH is really a great feature.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10607491#post10607491 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fliger [/i]
[B]Wow Eric, I really need to stop by, it looks amazing. Thanks for the input on the Teco. For controllers - if I were in the market I'd really only consider the Elos B2, Profilux or the AC III. I needed a foolproof SMS so I went with the B2 and couldn't be happier. There is actually a practically new one for sale - check the Elos forum for crazydiver. The guys at Profilux seem to really have their stuff together. The AC is nice but not really easy on the eye.

I love the 902 with SCH. I met Doug this weekend and talked about getting a custom skimmer with SCH. Tricky with my footprint - but the SCH is really a great feature. [/B][/QUOTE]

The SCH was the main reason I chose Deltec over H&S, Euroreef, etc. And from a value standpoint the 902 was a sweet spot in the Deltec lineup. The new SCH operates more simply than the former version, the brushes are now rotated by an electric motor rather than pressurized salt water requiring sequential pumps. I spoke with Doug yesterday about various water supplies to flush away the nog, including RO/DI waste water, reservoir water via dosing pump or regular pump on a timer, pressurized water line via solenoid and timer, etc. He said any of these can work but inflow should be reasonably fast to reliably trigger the auto-siphon. Not sure why it wouldn't start even if filling were very slow, but I'm probably going to follow his advice and pump the water in from the reservoir.

I'm going to check the Elos forum now :) Thanks for the tip.

Wednesday evening update...

Plumbing is now basically done, except for the closed loop distribution inside the tank and the connection to the phosphate reactor which I don't have yet.

Single union ball valves have been added to the closed loop returns so I can open the OM 4-way for maintenance/cleaning without draining the tank :)

Chiller is plumbed through a wall into the pantry.

Soon as I have time will fill with tap water to check pumps and plumbing. After any leaks are fixed (hopefully there won't be any) then will fill with RO/DI water and add salt.

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Nice and neat setup. Good job! I like the shelves.

Very clean love how you hid the equipment.

Photo update!

I picked up the LR last Friday, about 375 lbs of well-cured Fiji Pukani, Tonga Kaelini, and Marshall Islands plus some other interesting pieces which I sourced locally from AZSeabottom.com. Very nice rock! I also added another 60-70 lbs of Fiji and Tonga branch from an existing tank. Probably a bit too much rock, some of it may need to be removed later to make room for corals... but I do like lots of LR.

After draining the new saltwater from the tank, aquascaping was done mostly by my wife, with a bit of help from my four year old Emma. We did a "test run" outside the tank first, then reassembled in the tank using PVC risers to support the bottom pieces. Sand (which I had pre-washed first with the garden hose, then with RO/DI water, then with saltwater) was added once all the rock went in. Finally the saltwater was pumped back into the tank. A few days later I added live sand into bare areas beneath the rock structures as well as a thin surface layer on the existing aragonite sand. Some was also put into the refugium section of the sump along with the LR rubble.

Right now we are on day #5 and there is still no detectable ammonia. My wife and daughters insisted on getting a few fish (against my better judgement) so we got a pair of damsels along with two snails and two hermit crabs. The rock was only out of water for a few hours and we may get lucky and have either no cycle or a minimal cycle, since it was already cured and the use of some LR from an existing tank and a bit of live sand. Still I have laid down the law and there will be no more livestock additions for at least 2-3 weeks.

The Deltec skimmer has put out only a bit of nog so far, either there isn't much to pull out of the water at this point in time or there are still binders in the saltwater hindering foam separation. I have added some activated charcoal in a filter bag to the sump to remove any remaining binders.


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More pics...

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Nice rocks.
It does seem a bit crowded with all the LR though?

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10700154#post10700154 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by danskim [/i]
[B]Nice rocks.
It does seem a bit crowded with all the LR though? [/B][/QUOTE]

I'm not going to disagree. By (wet) weight I am right around 1.75 lbs per gallon in the display tank and 1.5 lbs probably would have been ideal. But I was finding a lot of nice pieces at AZSeabottom, then pulled a few nice pieces out of an existing tank which wound up weighing a lot more than I expected.

Like I said, as corals start to grow some of this rock will probably be coming out. I plan on setting up a nano cube for my daughter and will put some in there, and a few other pieces will go into another refugium, which I don't have yet, that will be dedicated to copepod propagation as I'd ultimately like to keep a pair of mandarins (one of each type, I know two of the same will fight to the death unless mated).

Fortunately most of the rock, except for a few pieces of "premium Fiji" is very porous and open. Most of the fish I plan on adding are rather small and there are lots of individual territories for them. There will be several tangs also so I do need to be careful about preserving a lot of swimming space. Right now none of the rock extends to the glass and a fish could swim all the way around the perimeter throughout the upper 2/3 of the tank. Anticipated surgeonfish are blue hippo, chevron, sailfin, and sohal. The sohal will be the last one to go in!

As for inverts, plan is for a mixed reef. The SPS will mostly be in the upper half and can grow towards the surface. The lower half will hold some LPS. Also I expect to have a few clams. I am supplementing the three 250w DE pendants (currently with 14K Phoenix on EVC ballasts) with 4 x 80w T5-VHO, using a mix of actinic, blue plus, and daylight bulbs. All the lights will be timed using an aquarium controller.

More flow will be needed once the corals start going in as there are several spaces even now with relatively low water movement. Some of these will be nice for LPS and soft corals, but I will add one or two Vortech pumps and the EcoTech controller to supplement the existing closed loop (3200-3600gph) and open loop (800-1000gph).

Looks awesome - I love the family pics. My wife can never figure out why I take pictures of everything, but she plays along. :) I agree it looks crowded but I know pix can be deceiving. I prefer a little more open look - but thats just personal preference. I'd point all the loc-line and returns right AT the rock to make sure nothing collects in there. The Vortechs are great but with all that rock - you're definitely going to have some deadspots. Hopefully the controllers will get here in the next couple weeks.

I have a Chevron and Sailfin - perfect cleaners - but I'd never do a Sohal again. So pretty but nasty little suckers.

When your ready for some tester SPS, shoot me a PM. Your lights sound great, I love the T5/MH combo!

sweat! nice job, I like a lot of LR. Skimmer won't collect much until you have a bioload.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10700877#post10700877 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Elliott [/i]
[B]sweat! nice job, I like a lot of LR. Skimmer won't collect much until you have a bioload. [/B][/QUOTE]

No doubt, I'm just impatient waiting for the NH3 to spike and/or the skimmer to start cranking out nog. Neither has happened so far but there are only two damsels in the tank, along with tiny hermits and two fairly big snails, and there appears to be minimal die off on the rock itself.

I've already rearranged some of the upper rocks to open up the reef a bit. Thankfully the tank is 2.5' deep although I wish I had room to accomodate a depth of 3' or more... if I ever build again I'll definitely reserve space for a 6' cube and dedicated fish room beneath like Steve Weast's setup.

I'm hoping that a Sohal won't be too much the bully if he is the last to be introduced and is a fairly small specimen, and there are no other tangs of his genera in the tank. Still I am aware they tend to be rather bold, alas it is among my favorite fish along with the dragonets which have totally opposite behavioral tendencies.

The wife and kids love the pygmy angels, and we will probably try to have both a coral beauty and flame. I'm more worried about how they will interact although I have seen them coexist in (large) tanks.

Family pics were actually my wife's idea, she and my four year old were more excited than me to start the tank, after more than a year of planning, delays, etc.

PS -- I am liking the Seachill TR20 a lot. Hysteresis is not adjustable but I think a 1.8 degree temp variance is perfectly fine and it does keep it from short cycling. It is definitely quiet and the built in heater is a nice feature even if it will rarely if ever be needed here in AZ. Efficiency seems very good, it doesn't pull any more watts than the largest of the Peltech units.


[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10700713#post10700713 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fliger [/i]
[B]Looks awesome - I love the family pics. My wife can never figure out why I take pictures of everything, but she plays along. :) I agree it looks crowded but I know pix can be deceiving. I prefer a little more open look - but thats just personal preference. I'd point all the loc-line and returns right AT the rock to make sure nothing collects in there. The Vortechs are great but with all that rock - you're definitely going to have some deadspots. Hopefully the controllers will get here in the next couple weeks.

I have a Chevron and Sailfin - perfect cleaners - but I'd never do a Sohal again. So pretty but nasty little suckers.

When your ready for some tester SPS, shoot me a PM. Your lights sound great, I love the T5/MH combo! [/B][/QUOTE]

Looks dang awesome! Great to see the whole family helping out! What a great positive thing for the family to do

Lunchbucket

COngrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!It looks incredible.

You are a stud! Beautiful family and unreal tank~~

Love the deltec!!! ;)

Photo update!
 

From nothing to this in six weeks... who needs patience when you can be an idiot and allow the wife and kids force you into buying fish and corals that you don't think the tank is prepared to accept ?

Although all new tanks do cycle, this one never registered any ammonia or nitrite, and nitrate levels only climbed to 2.5-5ppm before falling rapidly to undetectable levels. I attribute this to a LOT of well cured LR, about 5% of which came from an established tank. I used about 10 lbs of live sand added after a few days atop the 145 lbs of dry sand placed upon startup. I waited and waited for the obvious signs of the developing nitrogen cycle, my wife said it would never happen and she was right.

We now have 7-8 fish and a few softies and LPS. After adding a few more LPS and soft corals, I'll start adding SPS frags.

Initial fish were two yellow tail blue damsels, which I have since trapped and removed. One wasn't so bad but the other was evil, and when they started attacking a baby blue tang they were history. They are now cycling a quarantine/hospital tank. In their defense, they probably had reason to go after a smaller fish that was also blue with a yellow tail!

The other fish were then added in this order: royal gramma (now the ***** of the tank), orange spotted rabbitfish, flame hawk, solor/solar (not sure which is correct) fairy wrasse, watchman goby with tiger prawn (added separately but now sharing a burrow), yellow tang, and a very tiny regal tang. The most recent addition was a beautiful and expensive blue spotted jawfish. He was doing great, within a day he had dug a burrow and was hovering above it accepting brine shrimp from the Sea Squirt. Knowing these are jumpers, I had covered the tank in egg crate before bringing him home. To my dismay, I awoke a few days ago to what had already become my favorite fish dead on the perimeter brace -- he had managed to get past the eggcrate, probably through a tiny gap left around the Wavysea mounted on the rear panel. I decided to buy another, since they are not frequently available and another LFS had them at this point in time. He was introduced into the tank yesterday. He immediately swam under a rock, and shortly thereafter got spooked by the watchman goby... haven't seen the jawfish since hence my uncertainly as to the number of fish. I know they tend to be shy, the first one being an exception, so I'm hoping he's just hiding. Still I am nervous since I cannot find him even with a flashlight, and thus I have no way of directing food to him. Of course I did seal off the gap around the Wavysea and don't think he can get out. He should be too big to fit through the spaces in the eggcrate although I may apply screen to it anyway.

Along the way I have added some photosynthesizers into the tank, including a few LPS and soft corals and one clam. All are doing very well. I've been feeding Roti- and Phyto-Feast for them, and also the surviving feather duster -- the other made the mistake of leaving his tube and was eaten (I have pics!) by the watchman goby. This worm and the first jawfish have been my only casualties so far, other than a few snails shell-jacked by hermit crabs.

After adding a few more softies and LPS (including my favorite, the elegance coral) I will concentrate on SPS and also get a few more clams. All the fish are spot fed with the Sea Squirt to avoid adding excessive nutrients to the tank. I do hang some dried seaweed for the tangs and rabbitfish every other day; keeping the rabbit well fed with algae is important since he has already sampled some yellow polpys...

Cleanup crew was added as need. The tank did go through all the usual algae/nutrient cycles i.e. diatoms, green hair algae, turf and film algae, etc. Right now there are a few fairly small patches of cyano on the substrate. It hasn't changed much in a few days . I'm going to vacuum this off and install the Vortech pumps to increase flow towards the bottom. Hopefully that will be sufficient to keep cyano in check, as there is no detectable PO4 (with Rowaphos in a fluidized bed) or nitrate using Salifert tests. If it comes back and starts to proliferate, I will cut down the photoperiod to 6-7 hours for a while and use an additive to terminate it.

A few weeks ago I did notice a few valonia bubble algae, so I added a fairly small male emerald crab. He made quick work of it and I have seen no other valonia since he was introduced. I also had two Aiptasia. A pair of peppermint shrimp were added and I think they ate one of them, since one morning it was gone. The other one was ignored, so I killed it by first squirting a tiny amount of Roti-Feast near it to whet its appetite, then sequentially injecting it with kalkwasser then undiluted vinegar. Instant death! There is another small anemone hitchiker which I suspect is a majanos, but it hasn't really grown or popped up elsewhere in the tank. Being somewhat attractive and as I don't plan on adding any anemones to the tank, I have taken a watch and wait attitude. If I see more of them, or if it starts to grow, I will take it out.

Remainder of fish will be added in this order: pair of ocellaris clowns (tank raised, one about 1" and the other 1-1/2"); pygmy angel if I can find a Potters, Flame, or Coral Beauty that doesn't bother the corals or other fish too much; two mandarins, one of each type; small harem of Bartlett's anthias; midas blenny; and finally a juvenile sohal tang. If I can ever find female solar/solor fairy wrasses I'll definitely get them also, but to this point I've only seen males offered.

Tomorrow the cabinetry will be installed. I need to rebuild the light rack to accomodate the 4 x 80w T5 bulbs sitting on my workbench. That's the last of the major build items, after that it will mostly be routine maintenance. Most of the tank systems are automated by the Profilux controller, with which I have been extremely impressed. I installed the optional secondary display in the wall around the corner from the tank, so walking buy I can see pH, salinity, temperature, and ORP. The equipment closet photo shows a fairly clean skimmer thanks to the SCH which keeps the inside of the tube free of scum and prevents nog from sitting more than a few hours -- the latter is key since the smell becomes terrible if the nog is allowed to sit and decomp for more than a few hours.


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looking good, adding a bit more flow as you said should take care of your cyano. I may have missed it, are you planning to run any UV or ozone?

Looks good ekovalsky. Glad to hear you like the profilux. I'm waiting on my tank before I can start to really play with mine. I just recieved the lan card, led spot and an additional dosing pump. My 4th dosing pump and tunze y card are on back order right now. I thought about getting the remote display, but everything will be built into the stand, so the remote display might not be necessary at this point.

Flame caution
 

Great stuff, its really coming along nicely! I may be stating the obvious, but a word of caution. Over the years I've had a number of flame angels and every one of them was an incessant SPS nipper. To top it off, these are very shrewd fish and very very difficult to catch in a large reef tank. I don't have one now, but I had success keeping a couple of Centropyge aurantia. This is a beautiful fish and a nice cross between a potter and a flame. They're very shy and it may be months before you start to get regular sightings of this fish but I'm kinda into cryptic critters that pop out and surprise. That said when they finally are comfortable they do come out a lot and in my limited experience have no interest in SPS.

[url]http://fins.actwin.com/species/index.php?t=9&i=400[/url]

I love your tank. It’s an absolutely beautiful setup. You did a great job with the equipment room.

I have 4 pygmy angels in my setup and they get along most of the time. I have a flame, lemonpeel, half black, and potter’s angel. The flame gets picked on the most but no visual side effects. I wanted to add a coral beauty but I didn’t find one at the time so I doubt I can add one now.

Thanks for the comments.

Elliott, I'm not planning on adding UV. The Teco chiller had a UV option which I considered, but it was too small to be effective in my system. At some point over the next month or two I will add ozone. I am trying to avoid using the skimmer as the ozone reaction chamber, since it will be hard to pass all the outflow through carbon. I am looking into the Precision Marine reactor, not sure if anyone else makes such a unit. This will be used to aggregate small DOC making it available for removal by the skimmer, and also to remove any yellowing material from the water. It will be under ORP control to avoid overdosing, but in reality I anticipate using very small amounts of ozone that will not be problematic. It will not be used to elevate ORP, which I will maintain high through my maintenance regimen.

Chris, you will love the Profilux. The "home run" for my house is right behind the equipment closet and I probably should have opted for the LAN card too, but all my wired ports were being used (PC, music server, slingbox, network printer). It would have been cheaper to buy another router/switch but decided to go for WLAN in case I ever needed to establish an ad hoc connection to a PC. I'm consdering selling the two Vortech pumps and battery pack I have (all unopened) and getting Tunze pumps so the Profilux can handle them.

Kelhuffman, thanks for the tip on the Golden/velvet angel. It is not one I've seen before but you are right, some of the pictures I found look like a cross between the flame and potters. I will definitely investigate this one! Somehow I know one of the more common pygmy angels will be a troublemaker in my tank.

Mcrist, I've never seen a tank with four pygmy angels. Did you add them all at the same time ? I'd expect lots of aggression but as long as none are injured or stressed into bad health, no big deal!

Scott (woodwrangler) just left and the cabinetry is installed. It looks awesome and I will have some pictures to post later. He's a great guy and does superb work, definitely a perfectionist -- a great resource for those of us in the Phoenix metro area.

Setup is coming along great! Love the family pics too!

I would love to hear about the Profilux and Tunze's you plan to add. Go for the 6201's. Thats what tbone has on his new AGE tank.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10944675#post10944675 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ekovalsky [/i]
[B]Mcrist, I've never seen a tank with four pygmy angels. Did you add them all at the same time ? I'd expect lots of aggression but as long as none are injured or stressed into bad health, no big deal![/B][/QUOTE]

Not much at all actually, they pretty much ignore each other other the flame. Maybe my two large islands of rock help break up their territories and the fact I added all four at once.

regarding adding ozone in the future, I found this article to be helpful, it's #2 in a 3 part series:

[url=http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/rhf/index.php]http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/rhf/index.php[/URL]