R3 Equipment
I'm going to record as much detail as I can this build, as much for my own benefit as anything else. As always I have to run this as a budget tank as I can no longer work.
The tank is a 'D shaped tank. pretty basic but it will do until I can find a decent second hand 4x2x2 or 5x2x2. It's 123cm x 48cm x 45cm. The diagram below shows it's shape and the Glass lid arrangement. There is a pine stand and hood to suit.
FLOW
After 3 years of running my cheap Koralia copies gave up the ghost. That leaves me with my single Sicce Voyager 4 (6000lph). I also just bought a Jebao Wavemaker that comes with a WP25 powerhead (up to 20000lph). I haven't used it yet but I'll set it up in the holding tank and if I like it, I'll buy a second wireless powerhead for it and run 3 powerheads in the tank. The Eheim return pump provides a further 3400 lph so all up that will give me a potential flow of up to 50000lph or 125 approx times flow. Of course with the wavemaker functions it will never get that level.
HEAT
Heat will be provided by 2 heaters, 1 in the sump and one in the tank. One is a Jaeger, the other a Jebao I think from memory. I run two and of different brands for redundancy purposes. The better heater is in the first section of the sump with the skimmer, the backup is in a corner where the back wall meats the weir and can't be seen. It's usually behind rocks but with my black background and the black heater guard on it, it's near invisible anyway. I have a habit of turning off all my pumps when I feed and forgetting to turn them back on for hours, so the one in the tank, though less efficient because of placement, does provide the tank with minimum heat variation. The tank heater is set to 24C and the sump at 25C.
LIGHTING
Tank lighting is provided by 2 x Dalua MW-11 units that I picked up for $60 each 6 months ago. My old 6x39w T5 unit finally died so I'm giving these a run. The will be mounted inside the tank hood and Ill be fitting vents in the hood above where the fans sit so they draw in cooler air, I'm also putting 4 smaller vents along the back of the hood for circulation.
TOP UP
I was having issues with my AquaAuto Smart ATO and not getting much response from where I bought it so I contacted the distributor, Beyond the Sea Reef Supplies and they were brilliant. Didn't even need the receipt, I sent it to them and they discovered that the controller itself had a fault so the replaced it with a new one and it's working perfectly, they're a clever device with a tiny footprint. They gave me the best possible service and were a pleasure to deal with. Guess who I'll be adding to my list of suppliers...
My Smart ATO is connected to a 10 litre food grade container that I can easily pull out and refill with RODI. The sensor is in the return section of my sump as that is where low water shows up first.
FILTRATION
Resurrection #3
Equipment
TANKEquipment
The tank is a 'D shaped tank. pretty basic but it will do until I can find a decent second hand 4x2x2 or 5x2x2. It's 123cm x 48cm x 45cm. The diagram below shows it's shape and the Glass lid arrangement. There is a pine stand and hood to suit.
FLOW
After 3 years of running my cheap Koralia copies gave up the ghost. That leaves me with my single Sicce Voyager 4 (6000lph). I also just bought a Jebao Wavemaker that comes with a WP25 powerhead (up to 20000lph). I haven't used it yet but I'll set it up in the holding tank and if I like it, I'll buy a second wireless powerhead for it and run 3 powerheads in the tank. The Eheim return pump provides a further 3400 lph so all up that will give me a potential flow of up to 50000lph or 125 approx times flow. Of course with the wavemaker functions it will never get that level.
HEAT
Heat will be provided by 2 heaters, 1 in the sump and one in the tank. One is a Jaeger, the other a Jebao I think from memory. I run two and of different brands for redundancy purposes. The better heater is in the first section of the sump with the skimmer, the backup is in a corner where the back wall meats the weir and can't be seen. It's usually behind rocks but with my black background and the black heater guard on it, it's near invisible anyway. I have a habit of turning off all my pumps when I feed and forgetting to turn them back on for hours, so the one in the tank, though less efficient because of placement, does provide the tank with minimum heat variation. The tank heater is set to 24C and the sump at 25C.
LIGHTING
Tank lighting is provided by 2 x Dalua MW-11 units that I picked up for $60 each 6 months ago. My old 6x39w T5 unit finally died so I'm giving these a run. The will be mounted inside the tank hood and Ill be fitting vents in the hood above where the fans sit so they draw in cooler air, I'm also putting 4 smaller vents along the back of the hood for circulation.
TOP UP
I was having issues with my AquaAuto Smart ATO and not getting much response from where I bought it so I contacted the distributor, Beyond the Sea Reef Supplies and they were brilliant. Didn't even need the receipt, I sent it to them and they discovered that the controller itself had a fault so the replaced it with a new one and it's working perfectly, they're a clever device with a tiny footprint. They gave me the best possible service and were a pleasure to deal with. Guess who I'll be adding to my list of suppliers...
My Smart ATO is connected to a 10 litre food grade container that I can easily pull out and refill with RODI. The sensor is in the return section of my sump as that is where low water shows up first.
FILTRATION
- Live rock
- TLF 150 reactor running 90% Rowaphos & 10% Lab grade activated carbon
- 1 x sachet of Purigen in sump
- 200 micron filter sock that catches the trickle outlet of the bean animal overflow. This provides particulate filtration without the need to change the filter sock daily. I change it about once a week.
- Refugium with a tiny amount of rubble and lots of Dead Man's Fingers macro algae. I was running a coral flare light on the fuge with great results but I was having corrosion issues with the globes, then I got zapped by it so the whole thing went in the bin. Based on my earlier experiments I've now fitted this cheaparse LED fom Guppys (new owner & good service) to see how it goes. It';s extremely low power but this may be all that's needed. If it doesn't work out, I'll put it on one of the kids' freshwater tanks.
