Sam11909

Or should I say downgrade? My current total volume is around 85g and I will be "upgrading" to a total of around 60g. Many things have lead up to this, but the decision was finally made when my tank crashed while on vacation a few weeks ago. sometime within that week the electricity turned off (normal occurence here) and when the power came back on my return pump didn't. To add to the problem, the fuge light was submersed (because of rising sump level) and shorted out the ATO. I don't know why the skimmer overflowed, but it dumped about a weeks worth of skimmate in the sump. When I got home the DT temps were low and the salinity was high. In a panic I turned the sump back on which added to the problem by throwing all the skimmate and junk in the displays. A day later, while bringing up the salinity, all sps coral lost their zooxanthellae and turned white. The only corals not affected were acans and zoanthids. Suprisingly I only lost 2-3 sps, but both my derasa and maxima clam died a few days after returning.

Plans for the new system

The problems with the last system were many, as stated before. The main problems were plumbing and maximizing space. One of my main concerns is keeping the area neat and free of electrical cords, so the power supply and ATO will be in the garage while the DT's and sump will be on the wall paralleling the garage. This way I will only need to cut a small hole in the wall behind the stand to run power cords through. All of my extra equipment (like test kits and dosing materials) will also be kept in the garage.

Aquariums

I will be using 4 aquariums on the new system. The sump is going to be a custom 30g long with dimensions of 55"x9"x14". The first display tank will be a 17.4g Mr. Aqua rimless with the dimensions 24"x12"x14". This one will be a display refugium with caulerpa and shoal grass. The next tank will be a 11.4g Mr. Aqua with the dimensions of 19"x12"x12". This one will be used as the main reef tank to house sps, lps, and other coral. The last tank will be my 7.5g Do!Aqua cube (12"x12"x12"). This will be used for anemones like maxi mini's and rockflowers. The width is the same for all 3 diplays making them aesthetically pleasing when viewed from the end. I wanted to make 3 sides viewable on each tank so I could maximize the nano space. To do this I will have all 3 tanks stacked in a stair step design with the largest top tank end against the wall. This way you will be able to walk around and view the tank from all 3 angles. The sump will also be viewable because the stand will have no doors. Water will flow from the return pump to the 17g then to the 11g then to the 7g and eventually end up back in the sump. If you don't exactly understand, check out these pictures. the person on the high end of the "stairs" is where the wall will be located. It will act as a divider for our kitchen and living room area.





Filtration

Filtration will consist of biological filtering and skimming, nothing else. The SWC 160 cone skimmer will be from my old system. It's a little oversized for this new system, but I would rather be on the safe side. Obviously the 17g DT fuge will act as part of the biological filtration, but it will be aided by another 10g fuge with chaeto. There will also be a lot of LR from my old system in the return section, maybe about 20lbs extra. Plus I will be utilizing an algae scrubber, also in the return section against the wall.

Lighting

This was an easy choice for me. I needed a sleek, low temp, and high intesity light source, so I will be lighting all the tanks with DIY LED's. I'll have most of them on dimmers so I can control what spectrum i want over each tank. I'm still debating whether I should use LED's for the fuge in the sump and/or the algae scrubber.

Once I decide on a few more things I will post another blog. Thanks for reading, and if you think of anything I can improve please post!