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01/30/2011, 05:32 PM | #1 |
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Cozmo4's new 210g Reef
Hey all, I set up a 185g almost 2 years ago. After thinking for a while about setting up another tank smaller than the 185g, I decided to go bigger! I'm getting ready to start a 210g!
Here's a link to my old 185g build and an older picture as well. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1777344 The 185g was my first salt tank. I'm taking the build on this new one a little slower, but should have most of it set and ready to cycle within 2 - 3 weeks. I'll need more rock, but picked up 100 pounds of BRS Eco Saver to start and started building structures with a little PVC, zip ties and epoxy. I'll be using mostly dry rock and will seed the tank with some live rock. |
01/30/2011, 05:43 PM | #2 |
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I've started to accumulate some of the other things I'll need. The tank will be mostly SPS.
Here's a pic of the style of stand that I've got being built. This one is either 3 or 4 feet and my 210 will be 6 feet long and have 4 doors, but you can see the general design. I picked up a Vertex 170 skimmer... I've got two MP40's on my 185 that I'll be pulling out in place of a couple of Tunze 6055's. I'll be keeping primarily LPS in the 185 and primarily SPS in the 210. I picked up an additional MP40 ES and ES upgrade kits for the two MP40s I already have. I'll be placing one on each end and one on the back wall. I also picked up a BRS Dual Reactor to run carbon and GFO. That's it for now. The tank and stand should be ready this week. I'll be working on building additional rock structures this week if I can and am trying to decide if I'll reuse an old AC Junior I have or if I'll get an Apex (leaning towards the latter ). I'll keep this updated as I progress. |
01/31/2011, 05:20 AM | #3 |
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I'm still deciding on a lot of the equipment, but here's what I've decided on so far:
- 210g display, 70g sump - LED lighting - still deciding on the exact fixture, but definitely going LED - 3 MP40 ES for flow (enough for a 6 foot SPS tank?) - Reeflo Snapper return pump, I think (considering going with a submersible pump) - Vertex 170 skimmer (pic above) - Dual carbon & GFO reactor from BRS Still trying to figure out: - Re-use an old AC Jr controller or get a new Apex (have an Apex on my 185g and love it, but just not sure if I want to bite the bullet and get another since I have the AC Jr sitting around) - Calcium reactor or dosing pumps to maintain alk, calcium and Mg. I bet I'm missing some things that I'm not thinking of now... |
02/01/2011, 06:24 AM | #4 | |
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Quote:
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02/01/2011, 11:30 AM | #5 |
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Sump ready
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02/01/2011, 11:40 AM | #6 | |
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They are great price, great effeciency and great pumps! Also for your dosing dilema......I have been using the bubble magus triple doser for a few months now on my 250g SPS dominant reef and it works great. I only dose Alk & Cal daily & manually dose Mg as the amount needed is so small. It's been almost 3 months now and last look Mg was at 1350 a week back. have yet to dose any, just some WC's. Currently dosing 40ml of alk & cal each day spread over 6 doses a day.
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Inwall Basement Setup w/ Growout Tank & Common Acrylic sump, SRO XP3000E, Neptune Apex, Bubble Magus Triple Doser, CLS- Super Dart Gold + OM 4way, 2-400w MH & 4-80w T-5, ROX .08 carbon... |
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02/01/2011, 11:46 AM | #7 |
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Oh & you'll probably prefer the syncra's over the snapper for a return. Also why such a big return pump? I have the dart gold for my CLS and that pump is quite yet louder than the syncra 4.0 for sure. Also the flow control is a nice added feature.
Other nice pumps, but a tad more expensive are the water blaster pumps. they have some BIG internal pumps that are quiet & very energy effecient. Also, the 3 MP40's will creat a lot of flow in a 6's tank. I bet 2 MP60's would work better tho if on ends of tank. But an MP40 on each end & maybe one on the back wall somewhere would be sweet too i am sure. For your carbon & GFO, the syncra 1.5 or 2.0 should work great. I created a manifold an setup 4 outlets, one for GFO (if needed), Carbon, biopellets, extra or return for additional flow. I am currently using the syncra 2.0. about 450 gph thru biopellets & ~100gph thru carbon.
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Inwall Basement Setup w/ Growout Tank & Common Acrylic sump, SRO XP3000E, Neptune Apex, Bubble Magus Triple Doser, CLS- Super Dart Gold + OM 4way, 2-400w MH & 4-80w T-5, ROX .08 carbon... |
02/01/2011, 02:50 PM | #9 |
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Inwall Basement Setup w/ Growout Tank & Common Acrylic sump, SRO XP3000E, Neptune Apex, Bubble Magus Triple Doser, CLS- Super Dart Gold + OM 4way, 2-400w MH & 4-80w T-5, ROX .08 carbon... |
02/01/2011, 03:23 PM | #10 | |
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I'll likely end up moving my Litermeter III from my 185 to the 210, or just get another down the road. I'll check out the Bubble Magnus. Also considering the Drews dosing pumps from BRS. All I know for sure is that I don't want to be manually dosing...did that for too long on my 185 initially. |
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02/01/2011, 03:36 PM | #11 | |
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If I didn't already own two MP40s, I would have thought about the 60s. I just had a hard time justifying buying two 60's rather than one more 40. I'll have to see how the aquascape ultimately turn out, but for now I'm thinking of one MP40 on each end and one on the back in the middle. |
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02/01/2011, 03:38 PM | #12 |
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02/01/2011, 04:37 PM | #13 | |
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The cost of the bubble magus for a triple pump is about the same as all the other options yet seems a bit better as the programming options are there.
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Inwall Basement Setup w/ Growout Tank & Common Acrylic sump, SRO XP3000E, Neptune Apex, Bubble Magus Triple Doser, CLS- Super Dart Gold + OM 4way, 2-400w MH & 4-80w T-5, ROX .08 carbon... |
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02/01/2011, 04:40 PM | #14 | |
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Also the 3 MP40's would be plenty of flow. Thus the low flow thru sump will save electricity, provide nice settling area for detritus, and reduce microbubbles
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Inwall Basement Setup w/ Growout Tank & Common Acrylic sump, SRO XP3000E, Neptune Apex, Bubble Magus Triple Doser, CLS- Super Dart Gold + OM 4way, 2-400w MH & 4-80w T-5, ROX .08 carbon... |
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02/21/2011, 06:26 PM | #15 |
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It's been a while and figure it's time for an update. I got the the tank, stand and canopy in a few days ago and got it plumbed up. I also picked up some additional pieces of equipment - an Apex and three Maxspect G2 160w LED fixtures. Now I just need to figure out how to mount those suckers inside of the canopy...
I also got the dry rock set in the tank. Let me know what you guys think of the scape from the pic below (be critical...I'm not that excited about how it looks at the moment). I decided to abandon my rock structure building previously discussed. It was a heck of a lot of work and wasn't getting the results I was hoping for. I'll be adding at least 25 lbs of live rock to seed it once I get water in. That will probably be this weekend at the earliest...it will be a few days as I crank out enough RO/DI water to make up 250g +/-. |
02/28/2011, 05:21 AM | #16 |
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Okay guys - update time... I spent most of the weekend working on the tank and I'm making headway.
For a good week I've been struggling with thinking of a good solution to mount my three Maxspect LED fixtures inside my canopy. There are fans on top of the fixtures, so I couldn't flush mount them. Nearly the entire top of my canopy rolls up and back to open, so I couldn't us the hanging kit that comes with it. The rails didn't work either. I needed to find a way to mount them inside the canopy with a couple inch gap so as to not impede the flow out of the fan on the top. Here's my solution and I'm happy with the way it turned out... I got a couple of one inch wide aluminum strips. With a little cutting, bending and drilling, here's how it turned out. Homemade bracket attached to the fixture before mounting in the canopy: Mounted close up: Full shot: |
02/28/2011, 07:02 AM | #17 |
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Your tank is going to be sick! I'm also upgrading to a 200-ish gallon tank in the next couple of weeks and will follow your build for advice!
What's the eggcrate at the bottom of the tank for? any pros-cons on that? |
02/28/2011, 08:13 AM | #18 |
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tank is going to be awesome. some ppl use the egg crate to keep the rock off the bottom glass.
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02/28/2011, 09:18 AM | #19 | |
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I'll get some more pictures and updates up later. I took the plunge and got another Apex controller for this tank and also got a bigger skimmer - a Vertex Alpha 200 (decided to use the 170 on my 185g tank instead). |
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02/28/2011, 09:32 AM | #20 |
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looks good. Which version of the LED's did you get? Also what type of reef tank do you plan? Mixed?
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Inwall Basement Setup w/ Growout Tank & Common Acrylic sump, SRO XP3000E, Neptune Apex, Bubble Magus Triple Doser, CLS- Super Dart Gold + OM 4way, 2-400w MH & 4-80w T-5, ROX .08 carbon... Last edited by 110galreef; 02/28/2011 at 09:48 AM. |
02/28/2011, 10:24 AM | #21 | |
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02/28/2011, 10:36 AM | #22 |
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It will be interesting to see how these LED's work on this size & SPS tank. I was about to pull the trigger on a 3w Cree DIY build for my 250g SPS tank. But I quickly realized 2 250w MH & 2 140w VHO's were not much more cost savings of that of ~ 168 3w LEDS. Plus it appears I need the extra heat the MH's produce to keep my 300w heaters at bay! They are running about 15hrs as it is! Basement tank...but you are down in the heat so I bet will help a lot and save the need for a chiller too!
But w/ the sweet things I could do with color balance & optics...i will be upgrading in a few years as the cost will come down a ton in a yr or two & the LED's will even get more output, thus need less for my build! LED's are surley the way of the future tho, I believe.
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Inwall Basement Setup w/ Growout Tank & Common Acrylic sump, SRO XP3000E, Neptune Apex, Bubble Magus Triple Doser, CLS- Super Dart Gold + OM 4way, 2-400w MH & 4-80w T-5, ROX .08 carbon... |
02/28/2011, 11:38 AM | #23 | |
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I considered halides, but I was too afraid that I'd need a chiller. I've got 7 T5s mounted in the canopy of my 185g and I struggle to keep the temp below 82 sometimes. I considered DIY LEDs for about 3 seconds until I realized that I don't nearly have enough of an understanding of that stuff to pull it off without doing some serious damage to me, the tank or my less than fireproof house. |
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02/28/2011, 11:51 AM | #24 |
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awesome....yeah the LED's cost savings & heat reduction will be huge for you.
DIY is kind of scary & time consuming. I really lookied into the maxspect as well.
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Inwall Basement Setup w/ Growout Tank & Common Acrylic sump, SRO XP3000E, Neptune Apex, Bubble Magus Triple Doser, CLS- Super Dart Gold + OM 4way, 2-400w MH & 4-80w T-5, ROX .08 carbon... |
03/01/2011, 05:21 AM | #25 |
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Another quick update:
Here's a shot with the LEDs on - blues and both the 30W whites and the 3W whites. The picture came out a little more blue than what it really looks like and I'm not good at editing. I tried to adjust the white balance a little and I just made it look bad, so here it is unedited: Apex is in with the panel mounted on the the back left outside corner of the stand. The rest mounted inside in the back left corner of the stand. I also mounted an American DJ Power Strip in the back of the stand. I've got cords everywhere on my other tank...lesson learned. I'm trying to keep this one a little cleaner and more organized. Lastly, for now, here's a look under part of the stand. I mentioned earlier that I originally bought a Vertex Alpha 170, but decided to use it on my other tank. I picked up a Vertex Alpha 200 for this tank. Here it is along withe a few pieces of dry rock that I tossed in the fuge portion of the sump. I got the rest of the water in last night, but wasn't able to get any pictures yet. I'll get another update posted shortly. Let me know what you guys think so far. |
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