Outdrsyguy's 940 gallon DT Build

[outdrsyguy1]

Update: clowns still being lame and not sitting up shop in the LTA. However, it hasn't jumped ship yet so that's good. Keeping my fingers crossed still.
Started getting the uglies once the lights were installed. Massive cyano forming. I raked the sand and got tired of seeing it so I started throwing in frags from back of house tanks. Also have a new batch of fish coming this Saturday that's exciting. Need to set up qt system for corals so I can start buying acros again.
Been looking into diy algae scrubbers lately and may try to put one together. Also working on a solution to automate cepex valves I have so I can create alternating gyres.
Couple pics here.

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[outdrsyguy1]

Man I really gotta get on my backdrop design soon. Get tired of seeing the ladder and back of house stuff lol!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Okay, so finally got around to testing my gyre design. I'm trying to not use like 8-10 power heads because it really slows down cleaning the glass and cleaning them becomes a big pain imo. So I decided to try using penductors and a hammerhead reeflo pump. I connected 5 - 3/4" penductors to a supply manifold. My goal is to have one on each side of the tank and switch the flow every 5 to 30 minutes. I'll probably lean towards the higher numbers as I don't want to prematurely wear out my cepex ball valves. I have no idea the effect of opening and closing them 150 times a day. I'll be attaching actuators to divert flow to spin the tank counter clockwise and then clockwise with a discharge manifold on each side of the tank. Right now I'm just doing the left side to see what kind of flow I'll actually get. I was a little worried I wouldn't have the head pressure in the reeflo to drive them but I'm pretty happy with it so far. The issue with having to rake the sand once a week or so to kill cyano is no longer an issue lol. Now there's sand all over the tank and giant bare spots. I'm really going to have to play with the heads to get the flow more evened out. I originally thought flow would go to the end but after about 6' it starts to get wonky and dive down to the bottom in the trench. There's definitely some crazy riptides in places as it feeds back through the rocks. The fish no longer dare to venture in the top 1/3 of the tank lol.
Manifold assembly

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Return pump setup:
I don't really have a good place to put a bulkhead in this sump so I decided to try something. I ran the return up and over the wall of the sump and put a tee in the top to catch air. Once primed it never needs it again unless the sump goes totally dry. I just hooked up an aqua lifter to suck out all the air and then removed once it was all out. I'm really happy with how well it's working.

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Couple other pics here. LTA doesn't come out nearly as much anymore as it's pretty breezy even in its semi protected spot.
I also changed the original reeflo pump tank return from 2" open pipe to 3/4" penductor. It puts out some serious flow since about half the pump feeds this one penductor. Might have to back it down a tad.
The 5th Circ pump penductor is behind the rock pillar.

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[outdrsyguy1]

Also testing out new overflow configuration. The problem as all the flow flying down the trough and into the box was colliding with one of the pipes and making too much water noise. So I flipped it around and recut a test piece and it's much quieter and working at a water level I like better.

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I have a check valve on the circ pump but due to the manifold on the utility pump the water can back feed into the sump on a power loss in so many ways that I have to be careful not to overflow the sump.
I drilled a small hole in the supply line just under the water level in the 2" open pipe but with the new penductor outlet the same strategy doesn't work as well. There's just so much pressure it causes air to sometimes suck down from the surface similar to a Venturi effect.

 

[Trizzino]

Looking good. I need to stop looking at this thread. It always makes me start looking for a bigger tank... haha

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Thanks bassett22. Feel free to steal anything in here and improve on it .
And don't do it trizz! It's best to have a life. I look forward to getting mine back in to next year or so lol.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

New fish out of QT! Baby queen angel, empires angel, two lyretail anthias, and 3 cardinal fish.

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Super excited about seeing the queen angel grow up. It's always been my dream fish since I was a kid. Never thought I'd have a tank big enough to have one.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Rough day. Had the first casualty of flow. Apparently my 4 year old male Bartletts anthias was hiding under a rock a few nights ago. During that time the newly changed flow built a sand drift around the rock and suffocated the fish. I noticed he had been gone a couple days and started blowing out sand under a couple rocks I had seen him before when I found his body. Nothing seemed wrong with him physically so I'm pretty sure that's how he died. He was the king of the tank and spent his days bullying everyone but he sure was a beautiful fish.

Then about 30 minutes ago my LTA went for a hike and I caught it circling the tank. No injury but I think I'll sell him as I just can't get him to stay out for more than a month. Did a 2 year stretch in my old tank but can't get him to stay here. Sure is a beautiful purple nem. I think I may try to source a cool ritteri (h magnifica) some day as that's always one I've been interested in trying to keep.

On a positive note, got a float valve installed on the make up water tank so no more floods from forgetting to turn off the water after making fresh water for 12 hours lol!
Also half way done with my diy ato which will feed the sump via a high speed peristaltic pump (ato barrel is higher than the sump so a positive shutoff is needed. I also put together an actuated shutoff valve that runs on 120v I may connect to my apex as a backup safety.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Interesting note, in less than 48 hours one of the lyretail anthias turned male. It's crazy, he's almost a total different color. crazy! It's interesting timing with the dominant male bartlett's passing. I was wondering if different species of anthias would develop one male per species. Time will tell, but so far it's been just one male in the tank at a time. Currently there are 9 anthias of 2 species but i have a group of resplendant coming so if qt goes well we'll add another 8+ of resplendant anthias. Might get a couple bartletts too since they are on super sale this week.
i'll throw down the current fishlist in the tank for those interested. I've got a wish list along with an "acquired" column to represent what's actually in the tank currently. (sorry, excel doesn't paste well).
Fish Name Qty desired acquired
Bartletts anthias 5 0
Carberryi anthias 8 1
Lyretail anthias (F) 8 7
Lyretail anthias (M) 1 1
disbar anthias 4
resplendant anthias 8 10
Fathead sunburst anthias 3
Flame Angel 1
Bellus Angel (F) 1
Blue Reef Chromis 6
Blue/Green Chromis 15 2
Firefish (red) 3 3
Blue Gudgeon Dartfish 2
Red Mandarin (pair) 2
Copperband Butterfly 1
Lamarck's angelfish 1
Powder blue tang 1
Blonde Naso Tang 1
Orange shoulder tang 0
Powder brown tang 1
Convict Tang 1
Yellow Tang 3 1
Mckosckers Flasher Wrasse (M) 1
Longfin Fairy wrasse 1
OC clown 2 2
Pink Skunk clown 2 2
Dartfish zebra barred 3 3
Blue Tang 1 1
Sailfin Tang 1 1
Tailspot Blenny 1 1
starry Blenny 1 1
Schooling Bannerfish (Heniochus diphreutes) 3
Emperor Angelfish 1 1
Queen Angelfish 1 1
Regal Angelfish - Orange (Red Sea) 1
Cardinal fish 3 3



total 98 41

 

[Dmitri]

Post some pictures


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Trizzino]

outdrsyguy1;1101864 wrote: Finally got the light rack up and settled on my current pulley paradigm. I have a rope for each corner area and I also put in larger safety ropes in case I do something stupid with the pulley system. The safety ropes keep the rack from slamming into the tank or hitting water. I still need to put up one more ocean revive light on the front rack and then put up the back rack which will have 4 led lights across (turned perpendicular to the front lights. The posts in the corners and middle are for t5 lights I'll be putting up.
Things look a little jumbled because I have the lights aimed at rock structures instead of open sandy areas. Will need to pull out par meter soon and make some adjustments. I think the t5 may wash out the spot lighting effects. If not I might raise things a little. Also trying to keep light off the acrylic as much as possible.

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Is there a reason you didn't put the lights on t slot sliders to allow for easy placement and adjustment and clean up all the hanging kit and its wires?


Still jealous of this whole setup.


Austin

 

[lsu_fishfan]

outdrsyguy1;1104999 wrote: Interesting note, in less than 48 hours one of the lyretail anthias turned male. It's crazy, he's almost a total different color. crazy! It's interesting timing with the dominant male bartlett's passing. I was wondering if different species of anthias would develop one male per species. Time will tell, but so far it's been just one male in the tank at a time. Currently there are 9 anthias of 2 species but i have a group of resplendant coming so if qt goes well we'll add another 8+ of resplendant anthias. Might get a couple bartletts too since they are on super sale this week.
i'll throw down the current fishlist in the tank for those interested. I've got a wish list along with an "acquired" column to represent what's actually in the tank currently. (sorry, excel doesn't paste well).
Fish Name Qty desired acquired
Bartletts anthias 5 0
Carberryi anthias 8 1
Lyretail anthias (F) 8 7
Lyretail anthias (M) 1 1
disbar anthias 4
resplendant anthias 8 10
Fathead sunburst anthias 3
Flame Angel 1
Bellus Angel (F) 1
Blue Reef Chromis 6
Blue/Green Chromis 15 2
Firefish (red) 3 3
Blue Gudgeon Dartfish 2
Red Mandarin (pair) 2
Copperband Butterfly 1
Lamarck's angelfish 1
Powder blue tang 1
Blonde Naso Tang 1
Orange shoulder tang 0
Powder brown tang 1
Convict Tang 1
Yellow Tang 3 1
Mckosckers Flasher Wrasse (M) 1
Longfin Fairy wrasse 1
OC clown 2 2
Pink Skunk clown 2 2
Dartfish zebra barred 3 3
Blue Tang 1 1
Sailfin Tang 1 1
Tailspot Blenny 1 1
starry Blenny 1 1
Schooling Bannerfish (Heniochus diphreutes) 3
Emperor Angelfish 1 1
Queen Angelfish 1 1
Regal Angelfish - Orange (Red Sea) 1
Cardinal fish 3 3



total 98 41

Awsome fish list! Many I hope to have some day.

 

[seth the wine guy]

Beware mixing in Bartletts. They came become very aggressive toward other Anthias like Carberryi or Lyertail. Especially when the alpha males emerges. I was tempted to get some Bartletts while on super sale but wasn't willing to risk the 50 Carberryi's I bought several months ago.

When the "Super Males" developed in my tank they became more aggressive toward each other. (The Super Males grow streamers as long as their body themselves.) While my tank is half the size of yours, I have A LOT of Anthias experience and the tank size difference won't matter. These fish are pretty and flashy for a reason. To put themselves on display to attract females attention. I'd suggest picking one (tight schooling) species and getting as many as you can of that one and not mix in others. You can mix in ones that are a little more solitary like Sunburst and Borbonius. This is a fish that deserves to be put together in large numbers in a tank that can handle it. It's so awesome seeing a massive school of creatures acting like one organism in a box you built.

 

[Adam]

For moving your light rack I posted in ender's thread about using a bicycle lift for mine. After thinking about it you'd probably need two of them to be able to keep the rack level. That would be a pain having to use two ropes every time.

I don't know if you're on R2R at all or follow Rev's build over there but he's using a http://www.garagegator.com/shop/products.html">Garage Gator</a> for his light rack. This is probably the best bet for you and it adds a little more to the cool factor you've already got going.
Here's a link to a post where he shows it installed. Post 1191 is with the lights attached.

[IMG]https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/revs-400-gallon-basement-inwall.243934/page-56#post-3322638">Rev's 400+ Gallon Basement Inwall</a>

For your setup you could attach some eye bolts to the rack and use chain or cable to attach to the lifting points. Then use turnbuckles on the back side connections to level it out.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Austin: didn't know "sliders" exist for the extruded aluminum stuff. They have so many items I just couldn't find what I was after so I just looped the hanging kit over the frame. It's easy to adjust but connecting them directly would have been better if I knew how.

Seth, thanks for the tips! My old bartlets was a big male and yes he bullied the whole tank like you said. I just figured it was an anomaly. One of my lyretails just turned male but hasn't bullied anyone yet. I was honestly wondering how different species groups of anthias would do together. So far the 1 carberry I have gets along fine with others. Unfortunately I added 4 bartlets to my order when I saw they were on sale and they are shipping any minute now so no time to stop it. I'll just have to catch them in the fish trap if they become a problem I guess. I'm going to pm you about your qt methods with anthias because I have a tough time with them in qt.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Thanks Adam. I'll look into it. I do watch r2r from time to time.
The problem I had with the bycicle lift was the weight. This rack is likely over 100 pounds by the time I finish putting everything on it. Plus there's not much room for a double pulley system to reduce the force to lift.

 

[Adam]

The Gator come in 2 models. 125# and a 220# capacity.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Couple upgrades complete!
ATO is gravity feed through a normally closed valve and energizes open by apex. Backup to that is a float valve if for some insane reason apex locks it open some day. Seems to be working well.

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Also bought a label maker and started labeling all the wires which will be a life saver someday when there's an emergency and I need to start ripping cords out of the sockets.

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Not sure if I mentioned this yet but finally got alk and calf dosers installed and set up in apex. I need to find a larger container for storage though. Roughly 5 gallon and clear would be nice. Cheap a serious bonus lol.

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Ato switch broke when I was trying to make it fit over the large rim but I managed to make it work in the end.

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[atlorange]

Looking good! I can't imagine having that much volume. Some day.

 

[Adam]

outdrsyguy1;1105686 wrote:
Not sure if I mentioned this yet but finally got alk and calf dosers installed and set up in apex. I need to find a larger container for storage though. Roughly 5 gallon and clear would be nice.</em> Cheap a serious bonus lol.

Not sure if you've thought of this but I would think a couple of used plastic Carboy water jugs would be perfect for this. You might be able to get them for free so that would be cheap enough

Then get some