Upgrading to a new tank - the adventure begins ;)

After me spending hours yesterday and last night messing around with rock corals that back ground thing seems like a very good idea..

What's it made of???I'm presuming the same stuff as aquaroache????

HEy Chris

Its a similar concept, except that this guys do their own one in Germany. I believe they are one of the main reef ceramics sellers in the world, they provide it to aquariums all over the planet (or so I read somewhere).

Its a mixture of natural materials rich in magnesium and calcium. Highly porous and light in weight.

Although I dont yet have any I think it will work great. We will see, worse case scenario I take it out and put other stuff in but I have never read anyone complaining about this type of rock. They have been selling this stuff for many many years. They make it, mix it and then have it hand made by an artisan, then they cook it in the over and pack it well.

Their website (although in German) is www.korallenwelt.de

Have a look, even if you dont want a background and only want reef structures such as minireefs etc you can go for it and the tank will still look great.

They are also the main filtration in your tank! as good as the best live rock.

Yeah it s in German but Google translator made short work of that

If it's made of magnesium and calcium...does that leach back into the water column and reduce the need for dosing????


Only asking. Cause once it had finished leaching was wondering if it compromised the structure or does the baking of the structure stop leaching???

The "cooking" process stops some of the leaching but the rocks are made to emulate the real reef rock, so in the same way those rocks could leach those materials so do this ones. Helping you maintain an stable environment.

Its basically the same as life rock, argonite sand etc. Also these rocks will likely absorb both Ca and Mg at some point.

I will be interested to see how it does in an aquarium once established.


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Facinating stuff the background is gna make this thank stand out a mile from other thanks for me i cant wat to see it in the tank, will the middle sections be fixed to the floor of the tank

Hey Alan

The middle section will just rest on top of what they call mortar (kind of a paste) and covered with some sand, not too much. they will be, however, siliconed/glued to the wall in some parts (if I decide to connect them) so they will be fairly stable.

I am absolutely wrecked today. I finished installing the electrics for the right side of the sump and God I am so tired.

My aquarium's cabinet is pretty big but my size didnt help and I have the flexibility of a PVC pipe

As I said I have split everything (electric-wise) in two section, R and L. And I have put 4 water proof double outlets on each side of the cabinet (roof). So I have 1 R and 1 L per side, so I will have 1 wall socket per side with 2 different energy sources. I will put pictures of these outlets when I finish everything.

I still have to tidy the cables but it is starting to look good (I think)

Each Apex Power Bar feed from a different wall plug (therefore electrical source), should come handy in case of failure. Each side have a different Circuit Box and RCBO, I still have to do the left, hopefully I will finish that this week. The main unit is on the left side of the cabinet, outside of the sump.area where is always dry.

The cables all have drips, the right side will have a wood shelf as well at some point (one I am finished with this) so most of it will be hidden. I still need to decide where am I gonna put the other PDU I have (normal power bar).

Just make sure the middle sections of ur background display set up have plenty of room around them for removing debrit before fixing anything in, this tank is so high tech maybee it will take off ☺☺☺☺

lol

I will, I would say it will take me a while before I find a "proper" layout...

Just paid for it today so its on is way here now!

Hopefully it wont take too long

Id say it cost a pretty penny so im sure ul get it quick enough u will be like a child on xmas day opening that

More goodies came in today, few bits and bobs but most importantly my two new titanium heaters!

One step closer!

On a very different aplication I have used a titanium heated in my pond for the last five years it's linked to an external thermostat which has a sensor in the pond , been 100% reliable and deadly accurate . Robert

Hey Robert

You are right on that. As yours, these heaters dont have a built in thermostat but I will use the Apex to control them. I have heard really good things about Titanium heaters, more specifically Schego, cant wait to use them, the only "con" is that the cable is only 1.5 meters long so I will need to install 2 water proof sockets just to make sure it reaches my wall socket perfectly, otherwise it might be too tight!

Did you ever posted pictures of your pond/aquariums? I wouldnt mind to see them if you have a link to them!

OK so more goodies have arrived, important stuff, lights, dosing pump and reactors

More pictures to follow, the cat is not there on purpose, I just couldnt get rid off him, he kept popping back in everytime I would turn around...

Ok so after a lot of time opening packages I finally got to test the lights, and I tell you they are heavy, just the thought of hanging this from the ceiling gives me the shivers!

The light is the Pacific Sun Hybrids (T5 + LED) Pandora Hyperion R2+, this model of R2+ just came out onto the market this year and it is not available on their website (or at least it wasnt when I looked). The main difference between this model and the R2+ on their website is that this one has 8 T5s instead of 4

It has 3 x 135 w LEDs and 8 x 54 w T5HO so total output around 837 watts!!!

Some pictures

They look really nice, heavy as I said, but really well built. Great attention to detail on every single aspect.

Software is also very easy to use.

Power consumption around 3.4 amps or around 600 watts at 100% power (or at least I think it was at 100%, not sure yet)

I will do a proper review of the lights at a later stage, the rest of the stuff I got was a dosing pump and a couple of reactors, more into this again at a later stage. Not sure when am I gonna find time to mess with all this! More pictures on the next post

(cont)

Pictures of the Reactors and the dosing pump

And the dosing pump

I will expand on the contents of the package at a later stage.

All I can say is that both the reactors and the dosing pump are amazing quality. They do deserve a separate review, as the lights so I wont go to much into detail. Wont be able to do a review until I have the tank up and running though!

its like Christmas for you

the cat is sitting on your equipment thinking fish for dinner , I have posted some photos of the 350 litre tank but not any of the pond , waiting for things to warm up and get moving .

Ur certainly on a journey Alex fair play to yeh

I remember how excited u where when u first seen my old tank I new we had a salty connection straight away
I can only imagine how excited you must be now on building this beauty it's looking great

Hey Rob

Well he will def be interested in the fish... he is a pig in disguise!

Jeff, you knew it back then, I had never seen a cleaner tank in my life. I said to myself maybe one day. And now here it is!

Funny thing is that I cant wait to get a house now so I can build a bigger one!! lol

Haha cheers, Yeh I knew you have something nice one day can't wait to see it up and running now,
A big 10 footer next wha!!

Last major buy came in today, pallet weighted around 80 kg, took me 2 hours to bring it up to the concierge, had to unpack it and bring the pieces one by one.

Looks much better in person but thats some amount of rock.

Just a couple of pictures below, Bart is coming this thursday to finish the return, once its done and leaks are sorted I will put some rock inside (first the back ground) and then play with the landscape.

Also finished the left side of the electrics in the aquarium. Looking good! only missing a couple of things and tidying up some cables

that rock looks absolutely freckling amazing when that colours up it will be savage and all the spots and shelves for corals it is the making for one of the best tanks out their fair play bud that's what you call money well spent, love it

Thanks Jeff

Its quite unusual. I like it but I will need to careful think the layout. Fortunately I have a lot of rock to play with. I dont want ot make it too overcrowded inside, because if it feels overcrowed now, it would be much more when corals start to grow!

Anyway back in the box.. there is very little room left in the apartment.. wife is not too unhappy, yet...

Cats love it though

I'm sure you will create a master piece but yes keep in mind the growth of corals its cought me out a few times
I'd say the gaff is looking like a building site at this stage haha
I'd say the wife at this stage is a ticking time bomb if you step out of line even a tiny bit ur proper fu,,,, but on the plus side I can always take it off ur hands (tank and equipment) not the wife I have one of them
The cats are laughing their heads off saying won't be us soon, .......walking the streets thinking of a way to get back in on the good books

mindblowinng

Thé rock very cool...

Can't wait to see the tank filled .

ok guys so the return is practically finished. Took a couple of days to get it right. Some pictures:

I am very happy with the design, I tried to maximize flow, I have moved from a single 25 mm (giving a max output of 2600 lph) return to a 40 mm return with 50 mm unions (using reducers) splitting in 32 mm (right return to tank) and 40 mm left which then split into 1 x 32 mm (tank) and 1 x 25 mm (UV). There are ball valves on each return line to allow me to compensate for back pressure and so that I can manipulate flow better. I tried to minimize friction and headloss and also backpressure. We will see how it works in the end.

I am hoping that this setup will allow me to increase the flow to ~ 10000 lph (considering headloss etc). I dont really need that much flow but it would mean I can run my pump at 65% and output around 6000 lph. We will see during the weekend when I do the test.

This weekend will do the leak test and then start working on the rock layout.

We are just one step closer!

Well done another big step closer

And so what are the cable ties for!?!?
Were they just there to hold up the plumbing while the glue set?

And in your fist picture, why is there no feed coming out of one of the bulkhead fittings?

I love reading your updates, make me jealous every time.