MASRQ
Marine Aquarium Society of Regional QueenslandMarc's tank
This is my 4x2x2 120 gallon reef tank. I set it up in December 2006 after moving it in the back of my car (plus trailer) 1800 kms and 20 hours in one go. I have had the tank for approximately 2 years now and I must say I have learnt a great deal since first buying it. I was the typical aquarium purchaser having gone into my local aquarium shop and taking their ‘expert’ advice. I ended up with a tank with under sized bulkhead fittings and a sump full of bio-balls. Since that initial purchase I have completely redesigned my sump arrangement and although I wanted to purchase a new tank I decided to keep it as is. I still get reasonable turnover through my sump and I feel I do not need to target any more than 4–5 times turnover to get sufficient filtration.
I have set the tank up in what used to be the garage and have installed all my sumps etc in the cavity between the new wall and the garage doors. Starting with the ‘engine room’ I have a smallish sump that has an Aquamedic skimmer and the main return pump in it. It also has a pump that runs through my chiller and up to the refugium/second sump and frag tank. I plan on upgrading the primary sump and installing a single MD100 Iwaki pump to replace a number of smaller pumps I have. This will run a manifold that will feed the various parts of my system. I also have a DIY Beckett skimmer in the secondary sump and run a deBarry 15w UV. This side of the system also feeds my 2x2.5x1 frag tank. The tank is monitored with a TPS pH, conductivity, temp and redox monitor and I plan on updating to a Aquatronica controller in the near future so I will probably use the TPS unit as back up. Overall the system has around 600L capacity which makes for far more stability than with just a small sump and the main tank.
I decided to run the tank BB and I must say it was the best decision I made. It is easy to keep the bottom clean and I can run my pump outlets however I like with no fear of a sand storm. I have also found that I have far far less issues with hair algae (I expect due to less nutrient build up in the tank). Circulation is one of the most important aspects I believe and I use two MD70 Iwaki pumps as my primary circulation pumps and a Tunze Nanostream 6045 (soon to be two) as a secondary circulation pump. The tank contains approximately 70 kg of live rock and is dominated by SPS corals including some newer frags from ReefBug.
I am currently working on some basic DIY monitoring to make diagnosing issues with the tank easier for my wife if I am away. It will use buzzers and LEDs to indicate the issue and I will try to automate some of the solutions and if that is not possible just write out some basic instructions for my wife to follow.
It is now just a matter of waiting to see things grow and hopefully fill things out a little. I must say that resources such as RTAW and associated societies have given me access to a huge amount of experience and hopefully I can pass on some of my experiences.
At a glance...
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Tank dimensions |
4 X 2 X 2 (approx 430 L), with 150L sump and 110L frag tank (2x2.5x1) |
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Pumps |
Internal: 1X Tunz Nanostream 6045 (4500LPH) |
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Lighting |
Daylight: 2 X 250wMH (2 X 10k XM Bulbs) |
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Skimmer |
1 x Aquamedic Turbo Floater |
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Cooling |
1 x Resun Chiller |
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Filtration |
RowaPhos reactor |
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Freshwater topup |
Auto via a float switch in sump (DIY Unit) |
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Additives |
Aquamedic Kalkwasser Unit hooked into auto top-up |
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Water parameters |
Temperature: ~ 26° C |
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Water changes |
NSW - 100L every 2 weeks |
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Livestock |
Fish: Yellow Tang, Emporer Angel, Foxface, Blennie,
Blue Chromis, Humbug |
More pictures (click on the thumbnails for a larger view)
