Tank of the Month - January 2008

[Ken Sellick]

Thanks for sharing your Nice System.
Do you have any links or old photos of how you built your pvc/ foam structure?

What is the turn over / flow rate in your tank?

Regards, Ken

[cybrsufr]

Outstanding tank and setup. I could only wish for something like this. I thought my plans to move from a 90 Gal Bow to a 220 Gal with all equipment moved to a basement fish room was going to be a task in itself but 1600 Gallons and a 2400sqft addition, WOW!!!! very impressing. As other have asked I would be very interested in seeing how you constructed the PVC/Foam framework and also to find out how you aquascape (Snorkel or scuba )

WreckDiver
aka: CyBrSuFr
Click the little red house for the latest tank pictures

[anothermineral]

Beautiful! Congrats!

[Elliott]

well deserved is a bit of an understatement, quite an accomplishment, very inspiring, congrats and thanks for sharing

[spazz]

for those of you who have not see this system from the beginning here is the original thread that was started a
long time ago. you may find some of the information your asking about in that thread.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...5&pagenumber=1

[invincible569]

Originally posted by spazz
for those of you who have not see this system from the beginning here is the original thread that was started a
long time ago. you may find some of the information your asking about in that thread.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...5&pagenumber=1

'

wow, that was a long time ago.. he didnt even have his son in that first pic.

[houser]

straight to post - didn't read anything else.

I love the intimation of full automation, when I see this tank I think that it is the only way. Now just to read about how you did it, controllers, sensors, etc...

beautiful.

[reefing102]

that is a spectacular tank, i love the depth of it.

[DIRK GRIFFIN]

Great looking tank as usual, Stan. Glad I could help out and be part of it.

[Energy]

Thank you everyone for the kind words! I obviously will miss a question here or there but will try to answer as many as possible whenever I can. Don't be offended if your questions is missed - you can also try me on a pm or e-mail.

Power consumption- This tank does not consume as much as people might expect. The average electric cost is approximately $300-$350 per month and the average cooling cost(remember this is done with tap water) is about $75 per month. I run the halides(the biggest energy hogs) about 9 hours a day but recently cut them back to 6 hours.

The Book- It's in production as we speak. It's still getting put together. In fact one of the largest home systems that will be covered, is still under construction. The tanks that we cover in the book wil have extensive information about each system. Absolutely as much as the tank owners will provide. We are going to ask everyone that is featured in the book to really cough up and share the information!!

Especially with Mike's tank and also my tank-any and everything that possibly pertains to the tank will be covered. Including any design changes that have taken place and why. If you look closely the photo's in the article, some of the fish room pictures have changed. The original design of the fish room can be seen in the picture behind me when I was sliding out the light banks(spongebob t-shirt). I removed most of that equipment and simplied it. The old layout accumulated detritus in areas that was hard to remove. The new set-up has only the basic equipment I feel absolutely neccesary in as simple a design as possible. Since the design change the overall tank conditions and water quality have improved, electrical consumption was lowered and maintenance is easier.

Furthermore if you look closely at the aquascaping the lay-out is the same but as in any reef the inhabitants have changed. Some corals have overtaken others as in any natural process.
I keep them in check to a small degree but allow the natural process to play as much a role as I do.

Clarification- the calcium reactor in the photo's is not the one I currently run. That was a three chamber experimental model Spazz and I played with briefly. My current calcium reactor was built by Reefmania and is a great product that has given me years of reliable service. I am lucky to have two great acrylic companies local to my area and I feel that needed to be clarified. My go-to guys for equipment are Spazz from Aquatic Acrylics and Bob with Reefmania.

Everybody knows Spazz's skimmers by now. I have been impressed with them since the first prototype came out and they just keep getting better and better. I know he also does calcium reactors, sumps and installations.

Bob with Reefmania does some incredible work as well. The quality is first rate from both of these guys!!!!!

Access- many seem to wonder how I get at things in the tank. Well that is why the lights slide back and the doors in the front of the tank flip up. I push the lights back and crawl in through the front. I did swim in the tank once during the intial rock placement but that was it. Everything else can be reached pretty easily. Many times I just sit on top of the tanks cross braces and work on the corals beneath me.

Really the imporant thing is initial planning and installation. As long as the system is installed correctly, maintenance should be simple and easy. My tank takes about one hour of maintenace per week if I feel like it. I would not have a system that required a lot of time. Through a lot of Trial and Error with this and other fish rooms I have built I finally have it down to a science. I know what lights to use, I know which equipment is critical and which is just BS.

I have personally experimented with much of the equipment out there. For the book I have been looking at LED lights. I don't personally own any of these yet but I would like to get my hands on a set so I could write a review and include it in the book. I want all the information in the book to be as up to date as possible and I can foresee possible advantages to this kind of lighting systems for large tank owners.

Amazingly I use very little for computer controllers. I prefer simple and easy so that anyone that walks in and looks around could figure things out after a short while. Even if they had little to no reef keeping experience.

[zemuron114]

stan, your PM box is full

[JG24]

Stan, Thanks for the PM and Clarification about the Calcium Reactor. I appreaciate it.

It's been said many times already. This system looks awesome in person. If you saw a picture without the exterior of the tank, you would swear it was the ocean.

[Elliott]

Energy, did I hear you correctly, you don't use a computer controller? do you use ozone and/or uv?

I noticed you have sand but not that much, is that for cosmetics only? do you have a remote deep sand bed?

[Energy]

Elliott- no computer controller and I used to but no longer run UV or Ozone. Shallow sand bed in the main display with no remote deep sand. I have run systems that way but do not do this currently. I believe a top notch skimmer will provide filtration than a deep sand bed. To recreate the spawning area that a sand bed provides I have excess live rock in a remote refugium, lifted off the bottom on eggcrate so I can blow out any accumulated detritus.

[Elliott]

do you leave the sand alone in the display or remove/replace the way Steve Weast does? any cyano problems?

[Energy]

I don't touch it, I let the critters filter the snd, IE gobies and starfish.

[youngreefer33]

Amazing system. When did you put this all together?
I had Chris do a custom tank as well, and it has turned out to be an excellent addition.
Where have you gotten most of your livestock from?

[MarkO]

Have you ever considered natural lighting? I understand it may be impossible with yoru current tank, but maybe comething to consider for your book.

[jonathanws]

WOW

[arbee]

Stunning tank! Congratulations!!

[pmpier]

Magnificent!

[moses13]

Phenomenal tank! Gratz on TOTM.
Did you ever post build up pics? I'd love to see the island builds in more detail.

[Elliott]

Energy, can you go over how you provide flow in such a large tank? again, many thanks for sharing your experiences

[ihavtats29]

im lost for words bravo!!!!

[reefCrawler]

unbelivable beautiful tank,

how giant and healthy everything grows, beautiful, just astonishing beautiful!!

book title? I'm waiting it to publish