Redesigning my 75 Gallon Main Tank System

BrianPlankis · 10-30-2006, 11:15 AM

Hey all,

I have decided to redesign my 75 gallon main tank system rather than setup the ELOS 79 gallon system. There are many reasons I've decided to redesign the main system, the main ones are:

1. I am going to be attempting to breed some corals in the main tank. The first is actually known to species: Manicina areolata I will be receiving 5 specimens from Eric and it is possible that I have an additional 3 specimens already in the tank (came from TBS live rock hitchhikers). The specimens I will be receiving from Eric will be placed on the sandbed as that is their natural environment. Since they'll need a decent amount of space to be comfortable on the sandbed, I'm going to rearrange my rockwork to open up about 1/3 of my sandbed for them.

Here is the most recent full tank shot I have:

I will be moving some of the LR over to the left side of the tank to make the rockwork higher and cover up the overflow more. One or two of the smaller pieces of rock will be broken up into rubble and any excess LR will be sold off. I will also be building a PVC pipe and eggcrate support system to hold most of the live rock off the sandbed.

More in a minute...

Brian

BrianPlankis · 10-30-2006, 11:28 AM

I will also be redesigning the system because the remainder of the corals I'll be attempting to breed are corals that like high flow and medium to high light. The other coral I know I'll be trying to breed is Pocillopora damicornis. They are known brooders and there have already been several reports of them breeding successfully in captivity. They like medium to high light and high flow, both of the SEIOs in the picture above have failed and I'll be replacing them with TUNZE pumps:

1 6060, 6080 or 6100 depending on availability (1600gph, 2250gph or 3175gph respectively)
1 TUNZE 6045 Nanostream once they are available (1,189 gph)

I'll also have my return pump at 400gph
Depending on flow, I might keep my maxijet 900 in the tank as well.

That should be enough flow

I hope I can keep my sandbed in place!

Brian

BrianPlankis · 10-30-2006, 11:48 AM

Another major reason for the redesign is that I did not plan out the stand space very well and it is a real pain to work in the stand and there is a LOT of wasted space. Here is the current stand and contents:

That is a 29 gallon tank and it takes up a lot of space and does not have enough space to have a proper refugium. I'll be replacing it with a 20 gallon custom acrylic sump and a 10 gallon custom multipurpose tank. The custom refugium and the auto top-off container will both be placed on top of stands to open up storage space underneath for all the other junk I keep in the stand

The 10 gallon multipurpose tank will run as a refugium when not used for breeding efforts. It will also serve as a holding tank for inverts that will be shipped in or out to Breeders. You can see my current 10 gallon holding tank sitting on the ground by the fireplace right now:

This tank is against House Rule 1.1.54b which states "Brian shall not have more than one tank setup in the house to cut down on clutter, if Brian exceeds this one tank rule, he shall not have a fish room in the next house". So needless to say, this redesign will eliminate the need for a separate tank and put me back into compliance

Brian

BrianPlankis · 10-30-2006, 11:53 AM

I definitely will be adding a new piece of equipment to the new setup, one of the Phosban reactors. Most of the time it will be used to run actived carbon actively, but it might occasionally be used to run Phosban.

Here is a link to the one I will use:
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=TL4311

Brian

BrianPlankis · 10-30-2006, 12:03 PM

The tank will be divided into three zones:

1. Right side of tank: Open sandbed zone

This area will be left open for critters that enjoy open sandbed. More than likely this is where my Manicina corals will go. Eric and a few others think they might be brooders when they get larger, so I'll be putting them in their "natural" environment , scattered rock rubble and open sand bed. I might have some sea grasses here, but not sure yet.

2. Right center (6-10"): Rubble zone (indicated by brown rocks)

This area will be a place for animals that like rubble. I will probably have my Ricordea florida corals here. I know they are not brooders, but they are beautiful corals that will stay in the tank

3. center and left: Edge of reef zone

This is where the majority of my live rock will go in the system. I will first build a series of eggcrate and PVC tubing racks that will be placed in the tank and the live rock will be piled up on top of the racks. Some of the PVC tubes will double as airlift tubes so I can run airlifts in the case I ever decide to do anemones in the main tank.

I have two homemade shelf rocks in my current tank that will be zip tied to the eggcrate to prevent them from falling and they will look more like ledges. I eventually plan on having two ORA captive raised yellow assessors and I've heard they like to swim under ledges. The ledges will also supply a lot of area for high light corals.

Brian

wwest · 10-30-2006, 12:07 PM

I might of overlooked it but how long has your tank been setup?

BrianPlankis · 10-30-2006, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by wwest

I might of overlooked it but how long has your tank been setup?

The tank was purchased in Sept of 2004, but LR did not go in until January 28, 2005, so in a couple of months it will be 2 years old.

Of course it doesn't look very old because most of the corals I chose were corals that didn't grow up, just over the rocks. I also have traded away many frags that had become small colonies to reduce chemical competition in the tank

Another coral that I'll be attempting to breed is Acropora sp., what I think might be A. millepora. Those should grow up well and make the tank look more "full".

Brian

wwest · 10-30-2006, 12:21 PM

I really like the way your tank looks. My tank always looks new lol. i have coraline algae everywhere on the rocks but know where esle. I clean it once a week but i stay away from the good stuff. but it still looks new lol. i would like to have a tank look like yours. looks very mature and stable. mine looks like there shouldnt be creatures in it yet.

jnarowe · 10-30-2006, 02:48 PM

You so need a larger tank and I am not a fan of the "One Tank Rule".

I have 5 and I still don't think that is enough.

One suggestion I have is to increase your refugium space as much as possible. Too often reefers dedicate too much space to a sump when there is very little need for that. A refugium provides so much more usable habitat and functions to help export nutrients. Mine is 50g and I wish it was 200g! I love using it to house snails and clearly based on my discoveries this week, that is panning out nicely. I have thousands of baby snails, probably DIBS turbo sp.

So, when do I start shipping them? Right now we are looking at 1 - 5 mm for the majority.

BrianPlankis · 10-30-2006, 02:58 PM

Originally Posted by jnarowe

You so need a larger tank and I am not a fan of the "One Tank Rule".

I have 5 and I still don't think that is enough.

One suggestion I have is to increase your refugium space as much as possible. Too often reefers dedicate too much space to a sump when there is very little need for that. A refugium provides so much more usable habitat and functions to help export nutrients. Mine is 50g and I wish it was 200g! I love using it to house snails and clearly based on my discoveries this week, that is panning out nicely. I have thousands of baby snails, probably DIBS turbo sp.

So, when do I start shipping them? Right now we are looking at 1 - 5 mm for the majority.

Well, I don't like the one tank rule either, but to be honest I don't have time for more at the moment. The fish room in the next house is well worth the compromise. I would definitely like to increase the space for a refugium, but with all the other equipment in the stand, it just isn't going to happen. I am going to throw some algae in the sump and have a light on it to utilize some of that space. Either way the new setup will have 10 gallons dedicated to a refugium (when not holding breeding stuff), which is a step up from the current 2 gallons that isn't designed properly. When I get the fish room, most of the room will be sump

It is generally not a good idea to ship snails (except Collonista and small Ceriths) until they are at least the size of a pencil eraser, given the size of your system, if you could grow them out to the size of a dime or nickel (18-22 mm) that would be even better. I would be very curious how long it takes them to grow to that size.

Another piece of equipment that is DEFINITELY getting added to the new stand so I can quit unplugging equipment:

American DJ powerstrip:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...0&src=3SOSWXXA

Brian