equipment planning
when planning a tank, it’s easy to over-engineer many facets of the setup. for example, the stand for my old 75g tank could have probably held a tank 4x the size. it was unnecessary and ended up causing me tons of grief when trying to deal with moving the tank. many times this complexity is added in the form of filtering equipment. i always tell people that reefing is just as much an engineering hobby as it is a biology one. some tanks are better described as a mad scientist’s lair than a fish tank. here’s an example of that in weatherson’s fish room. i think that’s great, actually. this hobby can be whatever you make it. it’s not about wrong or right, its about what makes you enjoy your tank and the act of maintaining it.
but for me, i realized that simplicity is more desirable. living in a modern apartment means having to make compromises, especially when overall aesthetics is one of things you are trying to focus on. i too almost fell into the “just one more thing” trap of equipment planning. for some insight, my plan at one point included manifolds on both the return and drain lines to feed my reactors, chiller, refugium and skimmer! talk about complicated…
so i took a hard look at my plan and started stripping out the unnecessary. now my only problem will be how to organize everything under the stand! here is my current equipment list, subject to change of course :]
Lighting:
- ATI Powermodule 10×39w T5HO fixture
Filtration:
- Custom acrylic sump 24×16x16 (2 compartment), built by Kritter
- Nutrient export via bacterial strains supplied by Prodibio system (or similar: Zeovit, etc)
- ATI Bubble Master 160 Skimmer
- 2x TLF Phosban Reactors (1 carbon, 1 GFO)
Flow:
- Quiet One 3000 return pump
- 2x Tunze 6055 Nanostreams
Supplementation:
- “Balling light” method via Profilux dosing pumps
Monitoring/Controlling:
- GHL Profilux Plus II Ex reef controller
- Temperature, pH, Redox, Salinity
Heating/Cooling:
- Standard aquarium heater
- GHL Propeller Breeze 3-fan
Auto Topoff:
- Undecided RO/DI reservoir*
- via Profilux controller and dosing pumps
* I still haven’t found good containers to store water for top-off and water changes. Since these either have to fit under my stand or behind a nearby screen I’m limited by size, so BRUTE trashcans or anything that big just won’t work. These containers look promising, but mixing salt water doesn’t seem feasible since they are not open top. Still looking for suggestions!
You’ll notice a few “key” components missing.
- Chiller. By using T5HO instead of metal halide, this allows me to use evaporative cooling as the primary means of temperature control. Also, since I live in San Francisco, other than for a few weeks in the summer the average high temperature here is between 60-70° F.
- Refugium. Due to the fact that I plan on using bacterial means to remove nitrate and phosphate from my tank, a refugium would only effectively serve as a home for pods. I don’t plan on keeping fish who have pods as their primary diet, so I should be OK there.
- Calcium Reactor. As you can probably tell by now, my tank is heavily influenced by successful European tanks. (Both functionally and stylistically) Even though I have no personal experience with this, I’ve decided to jump in and try out the “balling light” method. It seems very similar to popular “2-part” methods currently used in the US, but more robust in terms of overall element balance.
Hopefully with this setup I’ll be able to keep an outstanding SPS tank with a simple and efficient equipment setup. Any and all feedback welcome!
Here are some more sketchup mocks to help me visualize how everything will come together.
