Jrpark22000 - 110 rimless tank

jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
I cut my reefing teeth on a 30 breeder system, learning a nano’s limitations. With this system I decided to go SPS heavy with tons of flow and filtering. My current setup has been running since Oct 2011, but the build started in March of 2011. I picked up a used Miracles rimless 48x24x21 (100-110gal) with starphire front and side from customdusty (RC). The tank is in the basement family room, so I need a quiet self contained system. I don’t have access to punch the plumbing threw the wall so everything needs to be inside the cabinet. It needed to be on wheels, and tried everything possible to avoid needing a chiller. Most importantly, it must be reliable. I travel for work and cannot be worrying about the tank or if my wife can take care of something while I am away.

I’m OCD and never rest. I’ve found the tank a nice place to spend the hours engineering, building, and tweaking. I’ve built all the cabinetry, the acrylic overflows, sump baffles, reactors, etc, etc. Currently I’m in the process of adding to the LED system. After plenty of research I don’t believe all of the spectrum is provided by the AIs and the blue is not as pleasing to the eyes. I’m adding Violet, Cyan, and 3 different whites. One of my quirks is I document a lot of my projects including this one, www.basementreeftank.com is the webhome of the tank. Many, many more of the details of the system are located there.

The smaller tank is my 45QT. Currently it’s empty but I’ve got a couple trips in the near future. My last trip went poorly for a mimic tang who decided to go carpet surfing while I was away.

On to the PICS!!! (Some are with a camera phone, others are quick shots with a SLR (neither of which I spent the time to adjust white balance on, and my white shirt reflection on the glass)

The system as of last night….

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BADGUS

BADGUS

Active member
Awesome setup and to your credit you fit 12lbs of crap in a 5lb bucket with WHEELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
BADGUS said:
Time to upgrade to professional units ;-)
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I don't follow? Are you talking about professional LEDs? I have 3 AI SOLs (adding a forth) but believe their spectrum is lacking. The drivers I metnion I can't fit in the cabinet are for a DIY supplemental LED build. No professional LED company offers supplemental strips with high power LEDS in the configuration I want.
 
tenvibes

tenvibes

New member
very well put together! I'm hoping you keep up to date with the updates as much as you are OCD with reefing. I'd like to see the progression of this
 
Nxt

Nxt

Active member
Thats alot of equipment in a little area! Awesome job with that. Your whole setup is very well done!
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
Tethered_Limbs said:
sweet. nice having reefers around who arent an hour and a half away.....
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Send a shout if you need anything, if work and the honey do list don't have me tied up I'm here.

rosko23 said:
Wow.. Tank looks great man... How's the copepod thing working?
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Almost too easy. The phyto is reproducing faster than the copepods eat so the only thing I do is a partial water change one a week or so. I then filter the water and toss the copepods into the tank after lights off. The SPS love them.


tenvibes said:
very well put together! I'm hoping you keep up to date with the updates as much as you are OCD with reefing. I'd like to see the progression of this
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NP. Anytime I have a change I update the RC build and my website, I'll do the same for this thread. I only do a big update once a year, documenting coral growth with pictures.


lunacris said:
very nice whats maintenance like on that system with the stand so full
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It's not near as easy as compared to having it in a large fish room, but I thought every piece of it out during the design. Nothing is difficult to get to or to change when it breaks. The most difficult is the return pump but even changing that out is less than an hour job.


Smitty said:
Very nice setup...great job.
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Thank you.


RedDevil.258 said:
What are the wheels for???
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Both for maintenance and to avoid dead space in the fish room. I can keep the tank close to the wall most of the time and roll it out if I have a big job to do behind it. As this is in my basement, the off chance of ground water can be handeled by rolling the stand out and cleaning the carpet.


NxtGenCowboy said:
Thats alot of equipment in a little area! Awesome job with that. Your whole setup is very well done!
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Thank you.

The tank sits up against 2 foundation walls and the next room over is my wood shop. I really didn't have any choice but to make it self contained.
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
Anniversary

The new tank is 1 year old this month. There were some bumps in the road, it took about 8 months for me to stop tinkering with major components, but the last 4 months have been hands off enjoyment. Except for monthly maintenance, water testing, and stocking changes the system is running autonomously. The coral is growing like crazy and the fish are fattening up nicely.

Notable observations;
1. The BB with marble appears to be working well with no noticed harmful leaching. I lifted a few tiles during the 1 year maintenance and found no detritus under any. Detritus only collects in the small joints between the tiles, but spaghetti worms and amphipods also live the cracks. I use a diatom filter monthly and suck all the accessible joints clean.
2. I’m currently treating for red bugs and will now treat all incoming coral with interceptor in QT before being introduced in the display... The outbreak never got bad and I only noticed them on 3 SPS pieces but I wasn’t going to risk anything. The Interceptor treatment is going as easily and painlessly as advertised and I don’t foresee any problems.
3. The copepod setup runs by itself. I change about 50% of the water monthly but otherwise seldom touch the tank. The phyto multiples faster than the copepods eat so I very rarely add more. When I change the water, I filter the bugs out and dump them into either the sump or display.
4. Water quality is great. Nitrates and phosphates are both low, cheato grows out of control, the ozone keeps the water invisible and the diatom filter clears all the detritus great. I feed the fish and coral medium to heavy and have no nuisance issues.

Recent changes;
1. I built custom screen tops for both the QT and the display. I used BRS 1/4 “ netting and homedepot window screen frame. Instead of sitting the frame on top of the rimless tank I recessed the frame inside the lip of the tank. I made acrylic corner pieces and riveted them on top of the frame. These acrylic corners sit on the top of the tank and allow for the frame to hang into the tank. The screen top has little visual impact but will hopefully prevent any further carpet surfing…
2. I’ve added the 4th AISOL about a month ago. I’m going to wait another month or more before I add the other supplemental cyan, violet and white LEDs. I learned my lesson, it is far too easy to bleach corals under LEDs, even when using a par meter.
3. I’ve lost and added some fish; lost 2 to the carpet, 3 in QT, and 2 to a crazed killer Kole tang. I brought in a pyramid butterfly fish that gave the 2 other noobs in QT something nasty that killed all 3. Whatever it was ate the face off the butterfly before killing the fish. Since adding the replacement pyramid butterfly, the dominance issue with the Kole has subsided and hopefully it’ll no longer slash any more fish.

Future changes;
1.The Supplemental LED build will use some new to the market LED drivers from MeanWell. Instead of the ELN series I was originally going to use, the new LPF series are; current output fixed, have active PFC front ends, have up to 54V output, and are as small as 16W output. I’ll see how they work when received from powergatellc.
2. I’ll redesign and reimplement the AutoWaterChange. I just don’t like how the new saltwater reservoir is located and plumbed.


There is probably things I am forgetting, but onto the good stuff… The pictures.


My colors are way off. the last photo has pink lemonade, becker tort and lime in the sky, none of the colors show up in the photos.
 
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