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Unread 01/28/2010, 02:22 PM   #26
Untamed12
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Ahhh! Two vlamingis! They'll use all 500 gallons!


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Unread 01/28/2010, 02:56 PM   #27
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Originally Posted by Untamed12 View Post
Ahhh! Two vlamingis! They'll use all 500 gallons!
And a Unicorn! I love those fish and yea, they like their big home. The 3 of them came from a much smaller system.


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Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
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Unread 01/28/2010, 03:14 PM   #28
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Wow, that is quite an undertaking. You did a fabulous job, beautful tank!!


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Unread 01/28/2010, 03:21 PM   #29
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wow!


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Unread 01/28/2010, 03:22 PM   #30
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Wow that must of been alot of work. End result was well worth it the tank looks great.


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Unread 01/29/2010, 04:25 PM   #31
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Thanks guys! As with any large tank, the work can be endless but the system as it sits right now requires minimal maintenance. Of course the build was a bit of an undertaking but it was well planned out and went like clockwork. The same can be said about the upgrades along the way. With the correct planning, a large job can be greatly minimized.

The next big project will be the sump removal and upgrade. Its looking like that will happen week after next. I will continue to update this thread as it gets closer as I should be able to get some pics of the new sumps being built. The sump removal and new sump(s) install will be videotaped so I expect we should have some really great stuff to show when that goes down.


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Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
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Unread 02/03/2010, 03:01 PM   #32
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Here are the final sump designs... The sumps are going together this week and should be ready by first of next week. I will try to get some pictures of them being assembled.
This is the layout of the main sump and refugium


This is the refugium.



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Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
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Unread 02/03/2010, 03:56 PM   #33
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Thank you for sharing. It is always interesting to see how things change over time.

Most people show changes over a year or two but you did it over a decade.


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Unread 02/03/2010, 08:18 PM   #34
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Untamed12 View Post
Ahhh! Two vlamingis! They'll use all 500 gallons!
In one pic I thought I saw two vlamingis in frame and the tail of another vlamingi U-Boat, searched the pics to see if it was really three, but the pair is awesome enough!

Great system and great upgrade plans. That skimmer is dead sexy! I am officially a fan!


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150 gallon Perfecto with 1500 gph GH overflow / DIY stand-wine bar / Dart Return / SRO XP3000 Ext skimmer / 75 g frag / 40 g fuge / 40 g DIY sump / Orphek P156 & Kessil 150A

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Unread 02/03/2010, 09:23 PM   #35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bax View Post
In one pic I thought I saw two vlamingis in frame and the tail of another vlamingi U-Boat, searched the pics to see if it was really three, but the pair is awesome enough!

Great system and great upgrade plans. That skimmer is dead sexy! I am officially a fan!
Here you go. I just snapped some pics of them. Not great pics but good enough. Two of them are vlamingis. The third is a unicorn near as I can tell. I got all 3 together as part of a package buy out of tanks livestock.

















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Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
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Unread 02/03/2010, 11:44 PM   #36
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super nice ive always dreamed of a tank big enough to house a couple of vlamingi tangs one of my personal faves


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Unread 02/04/2010, 12:00 AM   #37
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Everything looks really nice so far, I always wondered what my tank would look like with some vho's added to the Mh'ds.
If I may make a suggestion on the sump, you might want to add some type of baffling between the socks and the skimmer, from experience once the socks become dirty they will tend to flow over the top of the socks causing microbubbles in the sump and cause the skimmer to become erratic possibly.
Then that might cause those bubbles to make it up to the tank.

BTW did you remove the eggcrate on the bottom from the first time, if so did you see a build up of detritus under the rockwork now?

Keep up the good work. oh one more thing the valimgi and unicorn tangs will probably gorw to over a foot in about a year.


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Unread 02/04/2010, 04:43 AM   #38
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Nice tank. I saw the LA Fishguys episode with this and was suitable impressed. I can't wait to see the sump installed. I love the Yorkie skimmer too.


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Unread 02/04/2010, 07:27 AM   #39
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Ha! I thought I saw the tail of a third sea monster in there. Good thing you have the foot print to enjoy them for a while. Just love big vlamingis they are like lap dogs of the reef personality wise. Too bad they need huge tanks like this to even be considered.


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Unread 02/04/2010, 09:19 AM   #40
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Crazy One View Post
Everything looks really nice so far, I always wondered what my tank would look like with some vho's added to the Mh'ds.
If I may make a suggestion on the sump, you might want to add some type of baffling between the socks and the skimmer, from experience once the socks become dirty they will tend to flow over the top of the socks causing microbubbles in the sump and cause the skimmer to become erratic possibly.
Then that might cause those bubbles to make it up to the tank.

BTW did you remove the eggcrate on the bottom from the first time, if so did you see a build up of detritus under the rockwork now?

Keep up the good work. oh one more thing the valimgi and unicorn tangs will probably gorw to over a foot in about a year.
Thanks for the advice. There will be a fair amount of live rock between the socks and skimmer and I should have enough sock between the four 7" socks to last about 7-10 days between swaps. I picked up a case of 60 socks so I can swap as needed. I might also make some removable baffles if needed with acrylic if that becomes a problem. One other thing I did was to make all the air trap/baffles in the exit boxes of both sumps removable in case I need to make adjustments to their height. The baffles will slide into slots in the boxes.

As for the egg crate and detritus. There was none as I had a PVC manifold onder the rocks with holes drilled in it connected to my return pump which entered through the overflow. That kept constant flow under the rocks and pushed any sediment towards the glass. I still have the manifold under the rocks. Just no egg crate. If you look under the rocks (the pics dont show it) the flow has actually kept the sand out from under them.

Vlamingis over a foot in a year. I hope not!! That would be way to big. From my experience with other large fish such as sharks, the enviornment has a bit to do with the size potential of the fish.. I will admit that these are my first vlamingis so I dont really have any experience with them. My hope would be that the tank will help to keep them from growing too big to fast. Granted my tank is big by most standards but its not like they have a whole reef to them selves. The tank they came out of had them in it for a year or so and they didnt grow that much in that system but it was a much smaller footprint too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nitro4kthompson View Post
Nice tank. I saw the LA Fishguys episode with this and was suitable impressed. I can't wait to see the sump installed. I love the Yorkie skimmer too.
Thanks.. Cant wait to get the new sumps in either!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bax View Post
Ha! I thought I saw the tail of a third sea monster in there. Good thing you have the foot print to enjoy them for a while. Just love big vlamingis they are like lap dogs of the reef personality wise. Too bad they need huge tanks like this to even be considered.
I got the Vlamingis about a month ago. They certainly do have personality. They are very sociable. They will follow you around the tank and love to be hand fed. Then again, most of my other fish will follow you around too. In the system they came out of, they would come to the surface and let you pet them!

I think the fish with the most personality in my tank thus far would have to be the long horn cow fish. He is funny. He will get into the current of the sea swirls and surf in it. Whats really funny is when he chases you around the tank. The little guy can pick up some speed when he wants to.


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Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476

Last edited by slief; 02/04/2010 at 09:33 AM.
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Unread 02/04/2010, 11:18 AM   #41
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wow. You have serious planning and project management chops to pull off this kind of tank move in such a tight window of time. I am in awe. In all seriousness, do you do event planning or engineering as your profession? The thought of having a 480G tank in transit to a home I still didn't officially own makes me break out in a cold sweat. Or maybe that's the fatalist Murphy-driven Jersey resident in me talking.

This is a terrific thread, and I'm learning a lot from your description of your thought processes regarding upgrading everything. Thanks!


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Unread 02/04/2010, 12:18 PM   #42
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wow. You have serious planning and project management chops to pull off this kind of tank move in such a tight window of time. I am in awe. In all seriousness, do you do event planning or engineering as your profession? The thought of having a 480G tank in transit to a home I still didn't officially own makes me break out in a cold sweat. Or maybe that's the fatalist Murphy-driven Jersey resident in me talking.

This is a terrific thread, and I'm learning a lot from your description of your thought processes regarding upgrading everything. Thanks!
The move was only a few blocks. It was timed to coincide with the closing of escrow. The company that built the tank was close by as well so they were able to pick it up from the old house, polish it and and bring it to the new house within a pre determined time frame. Since the system was already setup at the old place, it was simply a matter of transferring everything and reconnecting it all. The biggest burden was on my carpinter but we had that all figured out in advance as it was planned out during escrow.

Im a technology guy. I run a computer and data storage business that caters to film and post as well as military and aerospace. My primary focus is on system design. Our systems are very high end and range from around $10K up to well over $50K. In the film and post side they are used for visual effect and color grading of uncompressed high resolution (2K & 4K) content. We pack them full of all kinds of expenive stuff.. The graphics cards alone are several thousand dollars. Everything is custom starting with the chassis. Movies such as Flags of Our Fathers, Superman returns, SpiderMan, Speed Racer, Transformers and many more used our hardware in conjunction with 3rd party software in various part of the finishing process.

Here are a couple pictures of some of my chassis designs. Due to the size of some of these cards and the number of cards that go into some of these systems, I designed our chassis with 10 card slots so we can relocate cards. We even use sealed liquid cooling on some of the systems to free up space inside.







I think I damn near derailed my own topic..

Stay tuned. The sumps will be done soon. I plan on laying them out on my floor, taping off the floor to mark where walls and studs would be under the tank. I will build the plumbing for the new sumps using the taped of area on my floor for reference. This will all be done prior to installing them. The morning this will go down, I will shut the return pump, skimmer pump and recirc pump off, remove the pumps and sump and let the carpinter do his job. The plan will be as little downtime as possible when we swap the new sumps in. Again, the biggest burden will fall on my carpinter as I am having him remove the drywall under the tank. It will be replaced with sound proof drywall. A pond liner on the floor which will go up the wall and then we will add a layer of FRP to finish it off. All that will need to be done within a handful of hours so the sumps can go in the same day. Everything will be on hand and ready to go in advance to insure that it goes without a hitch. The goal is 8 hours from start to finish. The sumps and plumbing will be the easy part since it will all be layed out and ready to install well in advance.


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For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476

Last edited by slief; 02/04/2010 at 12:33 PM.
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Unread 02/04/2010, 06:56 PM   #43
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Just stopped by the tank mfg. The sumps are going together. They had the perimeters built and curing. I took these with my phone so they aren't great. Tomorrow the insides will start to come together. I should have more pics then. They are on my way home from work so its all to convenient to stop by. Fortunately I know them well (20 years now) as they do some work for my business as well as my tank hobby so they put up with me, my constant changes and my impromptu visits.







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Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476

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Unread 02/04/2010, 08:30 PM   #44
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Quote:
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Vlamingis over a foot in a year. I hope not!! That would be way to big. From my experience with other large fish such as sharks, the enviornment has a bit to do with the size potential of the fish.. I will admit that these are my first vlamingis so I dont really have any experience with them. My hope would be that the tank will help to keep them from growing too big to fast. Granted my tank is big by most standards but its not like they have a whole reef to them selves. The tank they came out of had them in it for a year or so and they didnt grow that much in that system but it was a much smaller footprint too.

I got the Vlamingis about a month ago. They certainly do have personality. They are very sociable. They will follow you around the tank and love to be hand fed. Then again, most of my other fish will follow you around too. In the system they came out of, they would come to the surface and let you pet them!
If that is true, your vlamingis may have been slightly growth stunted in their previous tank because they will easily achieve 1 foot in less than a year. Mine might be 16" or more now and he is at 2 years.

While they all get called "unicorn fishes", that third one doesn't look like N. unicornis (Blue Spine Unicorn). I don't know quite what that third one is, but it will also get LARGE.


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Unread 02/04/2010, 09:09 PM   #45
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If that is true, your vlamingis may have been slightly growth stunted in their previous tank because they will easily achieve 1 foot in less than a year. Mine might be 16" or more now and he is at 2 years.

While they all get called "unicorn fishes", that third one doesn't look like N. unicornis (Blue Spine Unicorn). I don't know quite what that third one is, but it will also get LARGE.

Thanks for the info! I hope they are growth stunted! Pygmy vlamingis wouldnt be so horrible!! The biggest 2 are around 6-7" or so now. I would love to see pics of your fish! Feel free to post it here! A 16" tang is a monster!

I googled unicorn tang and that was the closest fit I could find picture wise. It definately didnt look like like many of the pics I saw but it did look like some which is what brought me to my conclusion. If its not a uni, I would love to identify it. Perhaps thats a subject for another thread.


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Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
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Unread 02/05/2010, 12:37 AM   #46
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Sure..here are my three boys.

Freckles is the largest (2 yrs). His streamers have developed a lot since this photo was taken 4 months ago.


Lance is gaining fast and is the youngest (1.5yrs):


Moe is the oldest at almost 3yrs, but the other two have already passed him in size.



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Fishlist: Tangs: Yellow, Vlamingi, Blonde Naso, Unicorn, Atlantic Blue
Others: Maroon Clown(s), Foxface, Majestic Angel, Hawkfish and more..

Current Tank Info: 400gal Envision Acrylic reef started 04/07
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Unread 02/05/2010, 08:52 AM   #47
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Untamed,
Those are abosultely beautiful!! Great pictures too! I really need a better camera and some better photo skills! Thanks for posting the pics!!


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Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
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Unread 02/05/2010, 12:39 PM   #48
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You said that you were turning off the return pump and skimmers for 8 hours.
Are you going to keep some type of flow going inside the tank maybe drop a powerhead in there with an air stone or something? Just askin?


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Unread 02/05/2010, 12:40 PM   #49
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Sure..here are my three boys.

Freckles is the largest (2 yrs). His streamers have developed a lot since this photo was taken 4 months ago.


Lance is gaining fast and is the youngest (1.5yrs):


Moe is the oldest at almost 3yrs, but the other two have already passed him in size.
Those are some awsome pictures, I wish my Valimngi had those vibrant colors.


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Unread 02/05/2010, 01:02 PM   #50
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i had a 13" vlamingi and 11" dussumeir tang from a friend but it was too big for my tank and basically give it away although he have it on 150 FOLWR with a lot more big fish without problem but i don't think its good to have this guys if you have a lot of corals and live rock.

ps post a picture of your other hobby


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