AGA 210 Setup
 

Since everyone is doing it, I might as well post mine up :). Here is the setup of my AGA 210 (72x24x30) after a week of progress.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3172.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3173.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3174.jpg
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3176.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3177.jpg

Still need to do quite a few things.

1. Run wire holders behind the tank to hide those ugly electric plugs
2. Plumb my skimmer
3. Plumb my UV Sterilizer inline with my chiller and my fuge feed
4. Install a third LumenarIII
5. Plumb my closed loop system with a Marlin and some penductors

Will keep you guys updated.

Gabe

What a clean setup. Very nice! Got any tank pics?

Thanks for compliment :)

I do have full tank pics but it is hideous since i'm missing one light and i just threw everything in there. Here it is anyways.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3171.jpg

Sand is all in one side because I threw the rock and livestock in and had to scoop out the sand from my old tank and clean it before putting it in my new tank. I didn't want to leave anything in the tank while i scooped teh sand because who knows what the water condition will be like when that happens. I'll have to aquasapce and probably buy more rocks. Here is my old tank for kicks :). Acrylic 60x18x20

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...tank_0511a.jpg

Here are some new pics
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4.../210/front.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...m/210/left.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4.../210/right.jpg

That is an absolutely gorgeous tank, very clean.

Beautiful tank. What kind of MH's are you running?

Thanks guys. I am running 14k hamiltons on a 250w icecap ballast. Will shortly add a third one, still debating whether to go with a 250 or 400 for the middle reflectors. Anyone have any suggestions?

That is a great looking tank! I'm currently in the planning/buying equipment stage for my AGA 210. I've already decided on the equipment, its just a matter of coming up with the money to buy it!

I think I will be getting two of those for my 90g once I get around to buying equipment for it. :)

I personally think you should go with another 250 in the middle instead of a 400 so the light will be nice and balanced.

wow!!!! imagine how great it will look a year from now. nice job!

I really like the 14ks from hamilton as well and htey are so cheap, you just can't go wrong.

That is what i was thinking as well, might as well go for another 250 to make things even, but the only concern i had was that i hope i won't need to get 400 because of the height. I'd go with two 400watts but the darn tank brace is right on top and casts an annoying shadow.

Thanks, it'll look nice if i have enough money to buy frags!!! I think corals cost more than equipment at the end of the day.... I thought my spending spree was close to being over but you just reminded me of the price of SPS...

I think the 250s look really good, and a third one would look even better. I'm not sure about the height though. Where did you order your hamiltons from?

If you are talking about the bulbs then i don't quite exactly remember who i bought it from since it came off my old system. However i was browsing www.thereefstop.com this morning and they had them for 58 a bulb.

Gabe3d, How much live rock do you have? I had mentioned I was getting a 210g, but it just worked out that I'm getting a 180g! I'll have it next week. I placed the order yesterday! I'm really diggin the aquascaping, it doesnt look like you have a ton of rock which is nice because the fish have more swimming space! Good luck with the tank!

Yeah, not too much rock in my tank about 185. I like to keep it really open for swimming and also keep the rock away from the side and front glass so that i can clean the glass easier.

The one disadvantage of having such an open tank is with more aggressive fish. They can have almost full visibility of what fish are out and charge at them in an instance.

I really like your aquascaping Gabe!! The island on the left with the two caves on the far left, fantastic!! Really great job. I wouldn't change much, IMO. I think the two lights over the two islands looks really good. It would be swell if you could borrow someone's light for a week and see if a third light will be necessary. If the aggressive fish can see too far, you could build the two islands just a tad taller. JMO!

Beautiful!

That look awesome~

Very nice indeed :)

Absolutely beautiful from the inside out. It's nice to finally see someone who keeps the outside area neat and clean as well as the inside. You don't have equipment and wires all over the place or shelves with all your stuff lined up on it or an ugly fuge on a table. I like the low profile canopy with the lights neatly placed on top. The rock work is superb, maybe it could be a tad higher. What can I say? You just impressed the pickiest, most perfectionistic neat freak ever ; ) Please post lots more pictures.

WOW, this is TOM material. Are you in CA? If so glad to know one of our locals can do right!

gabe3d, very nice indeed. thanks for sharing...

Stunning!:eek:



-Chris-

Thanks guys for all the nice comipliments. I'm very glad it turned out reasonably well given the short amount of time I transferred and brought the tank up.

Thanks :). I like the lower canopy as well it makes the tank look a little more proportionate. I just bought a bunch of wire fasteners and holders from Fry's so that i can run and hide the cables a little bit better. I've tried every to find these things and finally go them.

Yeah, you read my mind on that one. I actually bought 20lbs of base rock last week but haven't gotten to it yet. I was going to do it last night but i noticed that the area i wanted to build up had my clown fish eggs, so i will wait until they hatch (quite impossible but it's good to hope, haha) or until the parents eat them.

I just got some more equipment the last two weeks but haven't gotten to it yet with the holidays and all. Hopefully I have the will to do it today and if i do i'll sure to post more pics.

Haha, I wish. Yeah, I live in the south part of Elk Grove.

I'm picking up my 180g today! How do you like your aquaC skimmer? I'm leaning towards a PM bullet 2 or a MRC 2 skimmer with a blueline 40hd-x. It will be my first beckett skimmer. I've heard great things about them. Kinda funny how more people dont use them. They just preffer to mod their needle wheel skimmers! I have a ASM G2 that I'm not impressed with. However, I want a skimmer I can use outside of my sump.

I'm going to copy your aquascaping.

Hulley,

At first i hated my skimmer and wished i bought a different one but after upgrading pumps and fine tuning it (which is a really tideous process) it pulls out about 2 cups of dark skimmate a day on my new system. I really like the small size of the skimmer. For any beckett type injectors make sure to get a high pressured pump. The 40hd-x does not handle pressure really well and has a steep drop off in flow compared to the 40hd. I'm not sure what the pressure requirements are on the MRC or PM so it's hard to say which may work better for you.

Gabe

I really like your aquascaping! I want to copy it as best I can in my 125. What kind of rock is it? And how did you go about setting it up? Did you just stack them on each other randomly? Or big rocks on bottom small on top? Did you leave much open space inside of your rocks or are they pretty tightly stacked? Thanks in advance!

Gabe,
Now that I look a little more closely, I realize that the 40HD-X is not the high pressure pump. I'll probably go with the 55hd and use the 40HD-X as my return pump only. I'm using tunze in the display for turnover. I may even go with two 55HDs not sure yet. I dont want to turn the display over too quickly, I want the skimmer to do its job! Just another theory!

Great looking tank thanks for sharing..

Most of it is Fiji LR. The rest are base rock that i bought from hi rocks. At the bottom of my sand i actually added eggcrate material so that the base rocks do not slide. When i didn't have any corals on my LR i would actually stack them outside of the tank and then just repeat the procedure inside of the tank. This time i had a bunch of corals attached on them so i had it to do something else. I laid all the LR on the floor and the ones that had corals were either laid in the tank at the bottom or in a bin so that i can see them. From there on I had full view of the shapes of all my LR and can start aquaspacing what i had in mind. Both of the islands have a lot of crevasses and caves for the fish to swin and sleep in.

Fantastic looking tank. Both the old acrylic and the new one.

I really like the aquascaping job. Thats pretty much exactly the look I'm going for in my new 120g that I'm setting up in the next few weeks. Good Job!

Very nice job, especially on the aquascaping.

Thanks everyone. While I was repumbing and rewiring my tank, i had the windows open and the top off and took this pic i thought looked pretty nice.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3317.jpg

beautiful tank! could we get some close up shots of the corals & fish? :D

Sure i'll take some more pics of the livestock. Since i had some spare time i was able to do some of the work i needed to do to my tank. Here are some updates.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3326.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3327.jpg
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Great tank!!! I got a couple ?'s for you.

1. Is that an AGA stand? It looks too nice to be.
2. Will the tank be getting sunlight on a normal basis? or was that just a one time thing.

Love the aquascaping!

i'm pretty sure that's the AGA mission stand.

:) thanks.

1. Yup the stand is the AGA Mission stand. I orginally planned to build one myself but then this stand was almost identical to my drawings. Also I don't want to rely on my woodworking skills to support this heavy of a tank.

2. No, this was a one time deal. I think if i had constant daylight on it I'll probably run into an algae problem.

Gabe3d, acouple of ?s, what size pipe do your drains connect too? They look larger than 1" pipe. And what are the connectors used throughout the plumbing that look like twist connectors? are they some kind of quik disconnect so that you can remove plumbing without having to cut anything? The stand is almost done for my 180g! I bought a Blueline 40HD-X for my return, but I have not decided on a skimmer yet. I'm gonna mod my ASM G2 and continue to use it for a little while. I figure as long as I dont add anymore live stock than I already have, it should be ok for now!
Thanks
Hulley

The hole itself was unmodified however all the pipings right after are 1.5''. It is recommended that you use as big of a piping as possible and not restrict yourself to the size of the inlet our outlet of your tank or pump. This will allow you to reduce friction to increase in/out flow.

I think you are referring to the true union ball valves (with blue handle correct?). They are used so that i can shut water off in or out quickly, regulate amount of water, and to remove the plumbing without the need of cutting. It'll make your plumbing job much easier as well since it will be done piece by piece.

Good luck on your tank setup. I'm also debating whether or not i should upgrade skimmers as well, it's such a hard decision. The AquaC I currently have is pulling out so much skimmate, 3-4 cups day and it is hard to imagine if another skimmer can pull anymore than that out of my tank.

I did some updates to my tank and thought i'd post it up.

1. Added more rocks to make the left side taller to give a little more contrast.
2. Added an Aquacontroller Jr
3. Added two Phosban Reactor, one with Warner Marine Phosar and the other with Two Little Fishees GAC2 Carbon
4. Changed skimmers from AquaC EV180 to Schuran Jetskim 150
5. Installed the WavySea unit to the return
6. Also added bunch of misc. clean up crew (20 fighting conches and 4 Skunk shrimps)
7. Also added some fish. 4 Bartletts Anthias, 5 more Blue/Green Chromis, and 1 Blue Speckled Rabbitfish
8. And finally 8 frags of corals bought from DrMacs

I'll post some pics up over the weekend of the livestock but in the meantime this pic was the only pic i was able to get last night.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3474.jpg

Here is a closer look at the left side of the sump so you guys can take a better look at this not so popular skimmer. I'll need to reposition the skimmer so that the cable is not right in front like that, it is quite annoying to look at it. Luckily the skimmer allows this customizable assembly where i can have hte pump or outlet in any direction i want.

One thing i also added was this diagonal removal baffle right at the intake section to help eliminate bubbles from entering the main display.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0/IMG_3482.jpg

How are you feeding water into your hammerhead?

Keep up the good work, I plan to upgrade so this EXACT same tank. I love the stand also but mine will be inwall.

Looking good Gabe3d, I just did a 4 day leak test with tap water. All is good, now I gotta drain, move tank, repaint wall (per fiance) reposition tank, fill will RO/DI and move rock/fish from 90g to new tank! I've got a bunch of base rock recently and I need to order a new skimmer this week. I'm going with a Bermuda 5C.

Yeah, the AGA mission stands are awesome i love them as well. The dimensions on this tank are really nice minus the fact that it is realy hard to aquaspace and position corals and such.

I feed my pump with the two 1'' predilled AGA hole. I didn't want to drill holes on the back because of suction and looks. So I did something not really acceptable to the RC community and plumbed my CL in my overflow box.

Gabe