First 12 hours of skimmate. The tank has ~190lbs of Walt Smith Fiji Ultra and Pukani. There was very little die off and some fun shapes. So now I am trying to get the Profilux up and running while the rock cures. I am running into issues with network connectivity right off the hop. Crappy.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-rmvJm2r-L.jpg

Looks cramped but it's not that bad, lens makes it a little distorted haahaa!

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-8tRXXcB-L.jpg

Electrics and controls, reactors, wiring, etc. The bottom reactor rack is just temporary. There will be some organization, a drip tray, and the ozone system will be purring when I am done. Also the Tunze ATO will be replaced with the Profilux system once I have time to program it. There will be a custom ~25g ATO reservoir where the 5g pail is sitting as well.


http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-TH73qVJ-L.jpg

Top Sump. I am getting a frag rack built for it and a removable grate where the old glass baffle was. The heater will be moved to a cleaner location as well. I installed a GF check valve on the bottom sump return (locline) so that I didn't siphon out the top sump if the lower pump shuts off. There is also a float valve that will tell the profilux if the top sump isn't draining to the lower sump for some reason (snail in the herbie, etc.). The profilux in turn will shut off the lower sump return pump and send out and alarm.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-ZpV8KL2-L.jpg

Bottom Sump. The ATO wiring is a mess but will cleaned up next time I get back from work. A gate valve is on order to convert the overflow to a herbie to get the noise and bubbles down. I am still waiting for the Abyzz pump for the lower sump but installed an old quite ones just to get the system flowing. Damn it's a loud pump. The left chamber still may be a refugium, but I am also thinking it will make a great water change chamber as well. I haven't decided yet. Small ~5-10g water changes every week sound good to me.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-BFtL3Pc-L.jpg

Close up on the pump controllers. So far I have nothing but praise for the Abyzz A200. It's SILENT. It's a powerhouse. The controller is simple but has a lot of options. So far so good. The RD3 Speedy is doing its thing as well, making lots of bubbles and skimmate.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-nHSD2Fg-L.jpg

Just another view. You can see the VorTech module, Profilux Touch module, humidity/temp probe hanging between the profilux and doser. I am going to put another shelf right about where the touch screen is so I can set the dosing liquids right under the doser. The touch screen will get relocated to the display side of the tank, on the upper right bulkhead.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-5NCTDfW-L.jpg

Regrets so far are not enough regular receptacles. Some things don't need to plug into a profilux, like the Mitras, VorTech's. That's 7 plugs right there. I may add another gang box by the lights/vortechs just to feed them on their own. Free up the profilux sockets.

Looks rad and I love the cable tracks. I wish I had gotten some for my tank room as there is just no way to make loose cables look tidy on their own!

I am sure I will take it apart again and re-do the cords at some point, but I am content for now. The tracks are called Panduit if you need some. I bought mine from Eccol Electric. There are all kinds of sizes, but I ended up getting 2"x2".

This is a little off topic put pretty darn cool. I saw some art of animals on dictionary pages a little while back and thought it was awesome. I contacted the artist, Luca Grant and asked him to create some for our basement development. We asked him for a Golden Rhomboid Wrasse, Satanic Leaf-tail Gecko, Zebra Plecostomous, and an Australian Frilled-neck lizard. We just received them and couldn't be happier! You can check out his site here.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...8J2x98G-XL.jpg

The artists name is Lucas Grant, not Luca…. I wish the post editing time was longer.

Is the collection cup on that skimmer tapped so skimmate does not run into the tank in the event of an overflow? It appears to be, just see some brown on the outside of the skimmer.

LOVE those!!! I've been collecting art for years and the concept is so Victorian-era etnobotany.

WOW man that tank setup is retarded. looks very well put together

Hey Dave,

Nope nothing is taped. The skim mate chamber had filled quickly, forcing some of the skimmate out of the breather holes on the top of the collection cup lid. That's where the brown gunk came from. I will connect the cup drain to a skimmate locker once I get the system purring, and I'd love to put on a neck cleaner, but that's down the road as well.

Should I be taping something? I am not familiar with that technique if I should be :)

Check his site out! He's extremely reasonable with pricing!

Thanks! I am trying to avoid having to go back and make major alterations down the road, so I am hoping a little planning goes a long long way. Steve has already had me make some alterations, warning me to do them now instead of when the tanks full of life. I started the same place everyone else did, a used main tank, repurposed tank for a sump, turbo floater skimmer, some cheap power heads, bla bla bla. I truly believe in you get what you pay for. Be it quality of the parts, ability, service, etc. so with this build I wanted reliability to be the number one aspect. I am away for a while at a time so I wanted to be able to keep an eye on things so a computer was a necessity.

I really hope I can nurture a unique tank, that takes cues from some of my favourite tanks such as Darryl and Dave's tanks. I really think the rock work sets the tone, so I will be spending a good amount of time on that Saturday.

Cheers and thanks for looking!

I am going to work on live rock on Saturday, wish me luck! Any suggestions are welcome. These aren't my pictures but are what I am using for inspiration. I won't have the emarco R400 I was hoping for. Too hard to get in Canada. So I will be doing what I can with putty and I may use threaded rods.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-Nbzz292-L.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-5CBRThP-L.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-PKJZWFx-L.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-fVrtnZ3-L.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-VWG2tDW-L.jpg

Good luck!

Second kast photo what is the yellow fish in that oic?

blotched anthias

"tapped" rather than "taped".............the process of making a threaded connection where one did not previously exist, such as on older skimmer collection cups to allow draining. As you noted, appears yours does have one, using the orange colour plug at this time.

Ty!

Haahaa I see now Dave! Yes it is tapped and has a drain. It's not all setup to drain yet as I want a safety backup in case the skimmer decides to overflow uncontrollably. I wouldn't want the ATO to add copious amounts of RO to the tank.

?

i had asked what the yellow fish was (blotched anthias) in the second last photo that u posted, someone answered my question and i said ty but forgot to quote.

:)

I gotcha! Steve knows his fish :)

I want to live in your fish room. Is that weird?

Nope, bring a pillow :)

Not the greatest shots but you can get the idea from them :)

There is a valley through the middle of the tank and two dominant structures to either side. The left has a large cave under it and the right has a high arch and a bit of a cove feature. The water will flow in a counter clockwise direction when looking at the tank from the front. High energy from the lower left and top right (moving left). The lower energy will be the lower right hand side of the tank and the sand. I really wanted to add more rock to "join" the structures a little more but I keep telling myself "no, the corals will do that in time!"

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...vMsmmBK-XL.jpg

Left
http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...vGRbvWm-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...z64P3Sm-XL.jpg

Right
http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...VSP9JbX-XL.jpg

From the right viewing pane
http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...tZNNxbJ-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...zgcV5rw-XL.jpg

Nice looking scape. I like it.

I love your setup:thumb:
Man going through the pages making me want to start my build sooner than I am suppose to...

Nice work with the rocks!

Man, pity about the Emaco. Was thinking about you as I had some concrete to fix in my basement floor and I ended up using some of my R400 because I really didn't want to run to HD anymore that weekend. The bag's been open for 2 years and at the time I bought it at half price because it was past it's "sell by" date (who knew concrete had expiry dates). Anyhow the stuff is good as a filler but maybe on account of its age it was no good anywhere where I put it on thinly (just crumbled to dust after it dried). So it sucks but I think I have to chuck out the last bit of it. A bit disheartening to hear we can't get it up here in Canada anymore. That makes no sense .. but yet another thing to add to the long list of things that don't make sense "because Canada" like 30% more expensive whatevers. Sheesh!

But I digress... Awesome aquascape!

I shouldn't say I couldn't get it, more so I chose not to. BASF retailers wanted ~$1100 for one 55lbs bag and 4 containers of the polymer. The product itself was about $200 of the cost. Shipping was $900.

Thanks for the compliments everyone! I just need some coral to fill it up now :)

Wow that's crazy.. Yeah epoxy looks mighty fine. A wee bit less than $900 to ship too..

I am going to grab another mp40 and have two on the left side creating flow across the bottom of the tank from left to right. Then I am hoping by having the three returns on that side all aimed high they will continue moving the flow to the overflow weir. That should get as much of the surface skim as possible to the sump. The other three mp40's will be along the back of the tank pushing to the front.

I am hoping to take some of my corals from the 40g and transfer them to the 270g. I will have to wait and see if the peppermint shrimp have cleaned up my aptasia problem or not. I don't want to willingly add aptasia to my new tank if I can avoid it.

My nitrates are at ~10 and the phosphates are at 0.1. I have GFO in place for the phosphates, but decided not to run my biopellet reactor until my A200 for the bottom sump is installed. The Quietones 6000 didn't have the juice to run the reactors and the return tot he top sump. I bet if I had a ball valve on the return to the top sump I could have got the bio pellets churning a little better but that defeats the purpose. The cleaned water needs to get back into the top sump.

Also, I am going to pick up some tumbled marble tiles for frags. I am going to use them in the frag section of my top sump after soaking them to leach out any bad stuff.

I should be home in 10 days and get back to work on the tank when I can around the holidays. Right now my three fish from the 40g are transferred. A yellow tang, royal gramma and long nosed hawkfish. I also added a small clean up crew to start dealing with the small amount of algae that's starting. There are 4 conches, some cowries and some turbo snails. Oh, I also moved my long spine urchin into the 270g as well. Really all there is left to do is move the corals

Cheers,
Scott

With a tank this size, once somewhat mature, get a copperband butterfly. Great looking fish, and eat aptasia. I had a CBB for about 3 years and never had one, and if I had one on a rock, I placed it out in the open and he made short work of it.

However - do NOT add a mandarin goby! They compete for the same food, my 3 year old CBB died in one week after adding one.

Looking forward to more updates. dave

Thanks Dave. I had a CBB in my 85g for a good 2 years until he disappeared into the rock work forever. That was a very well established tank with tons of pods, etc. I will give one another shot in the big tank a year down the road maybe. Like you said, once it has an established microfauna.

I can't wait to get home and see what the peppermints have accomplished. I want to move corals haahaa!

I got an A200 from Abyzz instead of an A100 since it wasn't ready yet. I pulled the Quietones out and adapted the 1.5" output of the Abyzz to the 1" manifold.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-76XNXBV-L.jpg

Here is the A200 on the bottom sump.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-Pr92fgq-L.jpg

You may have noticed the large white zip ties holding the silicone connectors on to the Abyzz pumps. This is why I took the stainless shell hose clamps off.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-nL8dCcG-L.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-gM8P4h7-L.jpg

And my little buddy was hanging around so I had him pose for a couple.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-hpmrFFC-L.jpg

I still need to add two more MP40's. I have one running on the 40g coral tank that will be transferred once that tanks shut down.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-tnnkBWc-L.jpg

I added some corals. I hope to get some shots this weekend. A nice green/orange scolymia, a pink wall hammer, an orange frogspawn, a nice acan colony, and a small zoa frag.

Cheers,
Scott

Wow nice job in the fish room very neat and clean, looks good

Thanks! I originally wanted a 360 :) 6x4x2! But there was an issue with having it built in the basement so I had to drop it down to 6x3x2 :(

Cheers!

Here are a couple quick photos from the holidays :)

Pink with gold base.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...z5Wqj9r-XL.jpg

Sort of blue with gold base. The blue is getting closer to a true blue everyday.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...JhMVRTB-XL.jpg

Good ol' acans.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...tBtDmnR-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...L7sDVW5-XL.jpg

Golden hammer.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...LZZNT6W-XL.jpg

Scoly.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...rNqc2xZ-XL.jpg

Just some random shots.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...szzHsFr-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...gNGLSps-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...pzSGCsr-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...NMF6h9T-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...CfTScJh-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...wLL3487-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...Vht8Pvw-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...kWGtQ5c-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...N7z8CGV-XL.jpg

Some new corals from a great local boxing day sale and ones I transferred from the 40g. They aren't the best pictures but I wanted to share :)

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...dFDgwVr-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...tTXkQWp-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...M7VqVkB-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...BMhNVd7-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...xh2BxMX-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...HVvSkZ2-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...-W7pN5Lk-L.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...ksb8m8p-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...nNxwX3J-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...FhD9gp9-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...TXKbXNT-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...TfTNt6W-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...pDJXXzQ-XL.jpg

I have high hopes for this one.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...8mr9PfS-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...NCRjsFk-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...4w8KKmh-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...nBtJtTC-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...LrwBk97-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...cWTDGKJ-XL.jpg

Bought this when it was brown. It had a hard time, but now is off the hook!

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...sWF7c2H-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...8VPBLQD-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...JV9fzxc-XL.jpg

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...vrCd6s2-XL.jpg

Red Fungia sp.

http://www.lithicimages.com/photos/i...kn6bN8W-XL.jpg

Nice....glad to see those frags surviving the transition.