240G upgrade
 

So back on August 12, 2014, my temperature probe came out of my 125 gallon's sump on a weekend(the tank is in an office). Needless to say, the water got a little warm over the weekend. Almost all my coral, my 2 RBTA's and 3 fish died. This is what ended up being left:
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...pskskff3xe.jpg

This is a shot of the the tank from the previous year:
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psrjqasrua.jpg

I had to do massive water changes over the next week to try to save what was left. This is after days of water changes:
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...pselxga8nt.jpg

I had considered a tank upgrade in the past, but never wanted to disrupt the system, or try to deal with a tank loaded with corals/anemones/fish. My heart was sank at this point.

After pondering for a long time and getting over nuking my tank, I decided on a 8x2x2 upgrade, along with an Apex controller. After tearing down my old system, moving it to the back of the office and partially refilling it, I was ready for the new system.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...pskwap82rm.jpg

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http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psvomihfrf.jpg
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I went with a side overflow, and beanie animal system. It is dead silent, and the only noise you hear is a slight amount from the powerheads, skimmer and return pump. My old system was quite loud due to the design that the manufacturer had decided on.

My stand is 4 feet high as we get a fair amount of kids in the office, and they loved to bang the glass on my old tank. That was why there was a jut out on the old system. Already the height under the tank is awesome for working in the sump. I did bolt the stand into stubs in the wall to prevent tip over.

I still have a tonne of finishing work on the canopy and stand, but the tank being 8 feet long is awesome! My regal tang has been loving it!

I had just upgraded to 2 radions and 2 - 4 foot 2 bulb T5 fixtures for my 125 gallon, so I added 2 more radions to this system. I would have prefered to use the new Kessil's for cost sake, but felt it would be a waste of the radions and I didn't want to mix different types of LED's.

I picked up 2 Jebao RW15's and use them with a Tunze nano and a Jebao 25 from my old system. The amount of flow compared to my 125 is very nice. The regal tang and female clownfish love to ride the streams from the pumps.

Im doing something similar with a new 210G. Looking forward to seeing your canopy and stand design. (cause im still thinking about mine lol)

Picked up some new items and got a little more wood working done. Going with mainly softies and euphyllia.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psvjulnqmc.jpg
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...pshh7nbb41.jpg
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I was lucky enough to find a firefish pair. I'm also trying a school of 9 chromis. Some people on reefcentral have had some long term success with multiple feedings per day, so I've got automatic feeders set for 5 times per day.

ru going to put some SPS in that tank later :) ?

No, I want to try to keep things simple and avoid a calcium reactor/dosing. Otherwise I would be filling this system with clams. It will be a mix of softies, euphyllia and anemones. The more movement from the corals, the better without having to spot feed.

Nice tank


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks.

Looking great!! Gonna have to stop by the office and check it out soon :biggrin:

oooo i know that tank hehehehe ;)


looking good buddy glad to see it come together for you:)

cheers

denny

Feel free to stop by anytime we are open.

Thanks Denny. Still lots of work to do on the woodworking, but the tank is awesome and very quiet. Such a change from my old 125 gallon.

I connected my 2 pumps on the right side of the tank to the T5 lights that are only on 9:00am to 5:00pm. Does anyone know if this is an issue to have your flow drop down at night time? I still have my return pump, Jeboa 25 and one of my Jeboa 15's on and you can still see the flow in the system, just not near as much. With all my pumps on, there is a tonne of flow to the point where I have to really look hard for places for some of my corals.

Probably should have waited longer, but couldn't resist picking this up from someone selling it off of kijiji.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psdvfutqtx.jpg
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A few updated pictures.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psm85sl4vf.jpg
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psyetmcy3t.jpg
For whatever reason, this recent heat wave hasn't had a huge effect on the tank temperature. What a huge difference compared to my old 125 gallon that would overheat quickly.

Ohhhhh. Purdy...:smile:

Thanks. :biggrin:

My zebra eel seems a lot different from what i've read about them. He comes out a few times a day to look around. Whenever I feed the fish, he comes right out trying to catch some mysis in my powerhead stream.

Is that a purple LTA? Things look great who built your tank?

That is a purple LTA. I bought it off someone on canreef and feed it regularly so it has grown quite a bit.

The tank and metal stand were built by Concept's in Calgary. The white wood top, bottom and side I built.

Got the stand and canopy close to completion. Still need to do some fine finishing work, but I'm just about done.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psfwzk80r0.jpg
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psnih1ypcl.jpg

New full tank shot:

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...pss7yi08fr.jpg

I never saw your thread when you were building it. The cabinetry is awesome! How's the eel's behavior? Is he a good boy or does he get into trouble?

Thank you for the compliment.

The eel has perfect behavior. I have no missing fish or clean up crew. He comes out quite a lot now and eats daily. With the tubing under the rock work, the eel never knocks anything over either.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...pssmt1mvb2.jpg

He's so cool, and he's so big! :eek: I didn't see any mention of the tubing, what do you have set up for him in there?

It's 2 6 foot long 3 inch thick black tubing running the length of the tank joined in the middle in 2 locations that sits under the rock. The eel actually doesn't live in the tubing though, but between the gap between the 2 long lengths. I went with 3 inch as zebra eels get 5 feet long and almost 3 inches wide. I thought I had a picture of it before it went into the tank but can't find it.

This is a side view where you can see the ends of the the 2 tubes.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...pslasaq4fh.jpg

Ha, that's annoying the little booger doesn't even live in the tubing! :lol:

It was at first but some of my other fish hang out in the tubing so it hasn't gone to waist.

Great setup, im very jealous of the zebra moray! Wow!

Thank you. I'm surprised you don't see them more often as they are reef safe. I guess their maximum size might scare off a lot of people though.

My wife is terrified of eels and snakes, so im forbidden. :D Living vicariously through others keeping them!

Changed around the right side of my tank as my chalice was getting some dead spots. 2 of my pumps died so i've switched over to Gyre's and love them.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psip2n9zoa.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...psyprxxoye.jpg

Looking great. That's one massive chalice!

Thanks! It's got some nice growth since being added.