MitchM tank build

[MitchM]

After 1 year of letting the sandbed mature and another year of unsuccessfully getting a reliable supply of sandbed critters, I'm changing direction and going with the Zeovit method.

I've removed the sand, changed over the dart pumps to Speedwave.
I bought a few Mitras but wasn't completely happy with the spread. I would probably have to go with 6 units to cover the tank properly.




As luck would have it, the old Aquamedic fixture over my freshwater Amazon tank burnt up (literally) so I put 2 of the Mitras over that.

I purchased 2 4' ATI LED/T5 powermodules and got them up and lit this past weekend. I also purchased 100 lbs of fresh live rock that you can see in the tank now and I'm treating my old 400 lbs of live rock to a bleach then acid water bath over the next few weeks. The old live rock is probably about 15 years old now and full of junk.

[Delphinus]

The spread is definitely better with the ATI's! Although, I have to say I'm impressed if you thought that only 6 Mitras would have worked over a tank with these dimensions. That's no small feat to get coverage of that magnitude..

15 year old rock! I tip my hat to you, sir.

But seriously? Hurry up and put some reef into this tank!

[kien]

1. Holy crap that's a lot of sand!
2. I love the simplicity of your new aqua scape. I would be tempted to leave it as is, add some fish and call it a day :-)
3. See #1 above.

[MitchM]

Tony, what's the rush?

Thanks kien, it almost took me a full 20 minutes to design that.

The spread does look good on those ATI's. - and yes, 6 Mitras may have not been enough - another reason I went for the ATI's

[MitchM]

In the sump I'm replacing my electric heaters with a coil of PEX that will be heated with a hot water recirc loop controlled with the Profilux.
There are plastic PEX fittings available for corrosive environments.

[Delphinus]

Interesting ... where would the water for the loop get heated?

[MitchM]

I tap into the hot water tank and run domestic water through it.
A 25W recirculation pump pulls hot water in a loop from the hot water outlet pipe and returns it to the cold water inlet pipe on the hot water tank.

So the heat comes from the normal operation of the hot water tank.