Chris' Acropolis (Reef Savvy 88)

gettaReef · Jun 21, 2016

Love the sleek, artistic, beautiful little videos you put out, also love your aquariums and this build so far

Jstn · Jun 21, 2016

Excellent work, thank you for sharing/inspiring.

josh.j.avila · Jun 21, 2016

I can only image how many hie bulbs you would need to use to light a 3,000 sq ft house

ChristopherKriens · Jul 5, 2016

A proper photo of the sump all plumbed up. The water is cloudy from adding more bacteria than I needed.

I've decided on sticking with Radions for this build. I know them well, and it will make transitioning coral between tanks pretty painless. Even though I've got significantly less water, I'm going to need to add four units to cover the larger surface. Hanging is going to be difficult with the positioning of the tank and joists, and I already have plans to move the tank a few inches, so I'm going to try out EcoTech's rail mounting system which I've seen but have yet to work with. If I hate it, I can always revisit the hanging option as the RMS converts to a hanging kit pretty easily.

Starting out with:

4 Radion XR30w G3
4 RMS Arms
2 40" RMS Track

shadow1013 · Jul 5, 2016

I know it maybe a bit more expensive but you could buy the arms for the lights instead of the rails. Ecotech told me they are the same arms except the one for the light has the part to mount the light to the end of the rail.

Buy four of them and buy two rails. That way if you don't like the rail system it should be easier to sell the arms because more people are looking for the light arms instead of the rail arms.

rpolino · Jul 6, 2016

Sharp looking

.AcroKiller. · Jul 7, 2016

Did you removed the led bar from them sump?

ChristopherKriens · Jul 7, 2016

iiluisii said:
Did you removed the led bar from them sump?

Good catch. I did remove the bar. Neither the 3/4" return nor the 1" emergency drain bulkheads could be installed, and instead of trying to work around it I just decided to remove the bar. Bad design in my opinion. It might work with silicone hoses, but it's just incompatible with hard plumbing.

I do still plan to use the LED strip itself, but I have to find an alternate way to mount it and protect it from splashing.

.AcroKiller. · Jul 7, 2016

ChristopherKriens said:
Good catch. I did remove the bar. Neither the 3/4" return nor the 1" emergency drain bulkheads could be installed, and instead of trying to work around it I just decided to remove the bar. Bad design in my opinion. It might work with silicone hoses, but it's just incompatible with hard plumbing.

I do still plan to use the LED strip itself, but I have to find an alternate way to mount it and protect it from splashing.

[emoji51] oh wow yea I see. Which pump you get? Is it the RO various DC pump?

Xmoji · Jul 7, 2016

More more more!

Jmonks · Jul 7, 2016

Amazing, great build

ChristopherKriens · Jul 8, 2016

iiluisii said:
oh wow yea I see. Which pump you get? Is it the RO various DC pump?

Yeah, I went to order one of the original RODC pumps as I use two of them on my other tank, only to find that they were discontinued and replaced with this new VarioS version. A lot of minor improvements, and it will be nice to have the option for Apex controllability.

Xmoji said:
More more more!

Soon! All of the lighting equipment is on the way and the resident White Tailed Bristletooth from Diver's Den is set for Saturday delivery.

Jmonks said:
Amazing, great build

Thank you!

eg8r210 · Jul 8, 2016

Can't wait to see some coral to match all the hardware beauty going on!

ChristopherKriens · Jul 14, 2016

EcoTech toys are here. I should have some time before the weekend to get everything configured and thread up to date.

.AcroKiller. · Jul 14, 2016

Great looking dog.

revhtree · Jul 14, 2016

ChristopherKriens said:
EcoTech toys are here. I should have some time before the weekend to get everything configured and thread up to date.

That photo just screams awesome! LOL!

Saltwaterwill · Jul 14, 2016

Following

ChristopherKriens · Jul 15, 2016

These were much easier to hook up than I thought. I'm not used to actually finishing a project without having to run to the store or order something else. Everything you need is in the box, down to the tools and locks for routing the wiring. I really like that the Radions can be rotated 90º and everything slides in two dimensions; nothing is permanent. They also look really sharp and accent the clean lines of the XR30 fixtures.

My only hesitation is that this tank is going to be best viewed looking down, and mounting the lights this way obstructs viewing pretty significantly; something of a unique problem for this setup. I could switch to 20" bars with hanging kit instead of the 40" rail kit and have a lot more room to work with frags (and take photos) on all three sides.

Last week, I added what will likely be the only resident of the tank, a 4 inch tang - Ctenochaetus flavicauda. He's appreciating the light and has been much more active. This is the first new tang I've acquired in years and the first time I've kept a bristletooth, so it's an interesting experience for me.