CoralReefer's 680 Reef Savvy Build

CoralReefer2110 · Dec 22, 2018

J

jporter17 said:
Looks awesome! Great attention to detail and I’m sure it’s stunning when it’s right in front of you. JP

JP - hey man! great to hear from you. Been a long time for sure. I miss AZ a lot, not just the fish scene but living there too. My wife and I talk about it all the time. Even funnier is I was trying to envision my aquascaping and told her how much I would have loved to have a piece of the PearlBerry you used to share. Your tank has long been a source of inspiration to me. It was seriously one of the most colorful and vivid tanks I've ever seen. I don't know if you still have the same job but if you ever come this way the beers are on me!!
Keep in touch. Oh - and send me a FTS. I've got to know what it looks like these days..
Andy

jporter17 · Dec 22, 2018

Andy, lets sync how how to get you a frag of that Pearlberry (top left in picture). I still have some after a tank swap and some of it's ready for a Florida transfer. I still travel and next Florida trip I will let you know. Here is a picture from this week after refreshing the MH's. I got tired of the old tank depth and now have a shallow Elos 120XL. Great hearing from you and keep in touch. I'd love to see that tank in person. Merry Christmas! Jeff

Land Shark · Dec 22, 2018

Welcome to Tampa! That's quite an impressive and automated system. How long did you have to wait for Felix at Reef Savvy to build you a 10 foot tank? I ask because I own a 7 year old Reef Savvy tank myself but it's significantly smaller at 109g and still had to wait a couple few months before he could build it. I hear he is doing so well nowadays that build times can be 6 months+.

CoralReefer2110 · Dec 23, 2018

Land Shark said:
Welcome to Tampa! That's quite an impressive and automated system. How long did you have to wait for Felix at Reef Savvy to build you a 10 foot tank? I ask because I own a 7 year old Reef Savvy tank myself but it's significantly smaller at 109g and still had to wait a couple few months before he could build it. I hear he is doing so well nowadays that build times can be 6 months+.

Hey Landshark,
You local to Tampa? Yeah, Felix does tremendous work but you do have to be patient. I think I ordered mine last November and it came in around August? So about 10 months give or take.
You know what they say? Nothing good happens in this hobby quickly..
Happy Holidays and if you're in the neighborhood let me know.
Andy

CoralReefer2110 · Dec 23, 2018

So I finally got around to doing something about the rats nest of wires that tends to happen with any tank. Thought I would share some pics of what I managed to cobble together..

CoralReefer2110 · Dec 23, 2018

Here's a shot of the board in the garage near the sump. Very pleased with the Marine Depot board. Very easy to work with and while I haven't mounted it to the wall yet, just nice to have things in spot less prone to splash exposure.

CoralReefer2110 · Dec 23, 2018

CoralReefer2110 · Dec 23, 2018

Here is shot of the board under the main display. Got most of my gadgets on there but still have some Vortech controllers whose cords weren't long enough to make it to the center of the cabinet. But hey, better than nothing and a lot easier to see by just opening the door and peeking than having to crawl under.

Land Shark · Dec 23, 2018

CoralReefer2110 said:
Hey Landshark,
You local to Tampa? Yeah, Felix does tremendous work but you do have to be patient. I think I ordered mine last November and it came in around August? So about 10 months give or take.
You know what they say? Nothing good happens in this hobby quickly..
Happy Holidays and if you're in the neighborhood let me know.
Andy

Yes, I'm local to Tampa. I'll PM you with more details and such.

10 months sounds about right compared to what most people are waiting. Felix knows how to build awesome tanks and yours looks like a home run. What you did with your remote fish room and water change system is genius!

BrotherReef · Dec 25, 2018

CoralReefer2110 said:
Just thought this warranted its own pic....I told my wife if her purse came in a dust bag then why shouldn't my skimmer. She was not amused. Oh well, won't be the last time surely.

I run this same skimmer on my 500 gallon display. Except you have the newer version.

CoralReefer2110 · Dec 26, 2018

BrotherReef said:
I run this same skimmer on my 500 gallon display. Except you have the newer version.

BrotherReef,
Yeah, it's a beast for sure. It took me while to get dialed in. I wasn't used to having a skimmer that efficient and technical.
It pulls a lot of funk.

BrotherReef · Dec 26, 2018

CoralReefer2110 said:
BrotherReef,
Yeah, it's a beast for sure. It took me while to get dialed in. I wasn't used to having a skimmer that efficient and technical.
It pulls a lot of funk.

I’ve had mine for over 2 years and up until this last summer is when I finally, FINALLY got it tuned.

Ashish Patel · Jan 29, 2019

wow your tank is massive.... and you pulled it off with perfection

biecacka · Jan 30, 2019

I have been in this hobby for a LONG time and I have used many pieces of equipment over the decades. My all time favorite has to be my Bubble King skimmer. I know there are other good/great skimmers out there, but these things are unmatched. I use a double cone 200 on my 240 gallon cube with 30 fish that gets fed 5 times a day and the skimmer is able to keep up with it almost too easily. They are VERY conservatively rated in my opinion. Easy to dial in with the DC pump and then they just flat out get to work.
In my mind, worth the money over and over.

Corey

CoralReefer2110 · Jan 31, 2019

biecacka said:
I have been in this hobby for a LONG time and I have used many pieces of equipment over the decades. My all time favorite has to be my Bubble King skimmer. I know there are other good/great skimmers out there, but these things are unmatched. I use a double cone 200 on my 240 gallon cube with 30 fish that gets fed 5 times a day and the skimmer is able to keep up with it almost too easily. They are VERY conservatively rated in my opinion. Easy to dial in with the DC pump and then they just flat out get to work.
In my mind, worth the money over and over.

Corey

Corey,
I fully agree. I knew heading in I was going to be Anthias heavy and with that came absurd amounts of feeding. While no one piece of equipment 'makes' a tank without a reliable and properly sized skimmer it sure can break a tank. I am pretty OCD with my system so I've never let it run long enough to fill the cup up but with how much gunk it pulls it wouldn't take long. It really does set the bar for what performance looks like. Thanks for checking out my tank. I appreciate it!

CoralReefer2110 · Jan 31, 2019

Ashish Patel said:
wow your tank is massive.... and you pulled it off with perfection

Ashish,
Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate you looking. A lot of people worked real hard to get it to this point. Taking good care of it and 'prettying' it up seems like the least I can do to honor their work. More pics soon to come. I've got some cleaning and photo time set aside for this weekend. Thanks for looking!

Ashish Patel · Feb 1, 2019

Stop being humble - your Tank your Success haha... A tank as large as your needs a team to run otherwise you'll be spending more time on the tank then working and paying the bills.... Keep it up

Nolan Shinn · Feb 1, 2019

CoralReefer2110 said:
Got all of the remaining corals and fish placed in. The algae cycle has - knock on wood - moved through and the massive cleanup crew has been doing its job well. Starting to now get color back in everything that had become stressed. It's now feeling like a real display.

The tank looks epic man!