ELOS 100 Upgrade

[jRatanak]

Hey all! I am currently in the middle of piecing together an upgrade and figured I'd document the process and share my experiences along the way!

A Little Background:

My current system is an Innovative Marine Fusion 40 AIO tank. I've had it running for a bit over 2 years, and as well as it's served as a simple aquarium system, it's time to move on to something slightly bigger, and miles better.

Originally my plan was to go with a more affordable reef system, as much as I had been wanting and dreaming of getting the ELOS 100, the money seemed unnecessary at the time. After placing an order and receiving a shattered aquarium in the mail, I figured this was a sign I should just shell out the money for what I'd been wanting from the beginning ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. This is going to be my final system upgrade for the foreseeable future, so may as well ball out I guess, right?

Where I'm at Now:

Currently, I have the ELOS tank and matching cabinet on order and waiting for it to ship. In the meantime, I have been getting all the equipment together that I want for the upgrade.

Equipment that I currently have:
- Return Pump: RE Red Dragon3 Mini
- Heater: IM Helio PTC Heater System
- Skimmer: Deltec 600i
- Lighting: 2x Ecotech XR15 G5 Blue (on my current tank), 2x Orphek OR3-90 Day Plus Bars
- Flow: Vortech MP10, Tunze Wavebox 6208; both used in my current tank at the moment. Waiting until the transfer to see what else I may need for flow!
- Dosing: GHL 2.1 Doser Stand-Alone model
- Waterbox sump that I gathered, temporary*

Equipment I have on order:
- AUV Classic UV Sterilizer
- *Geosreef GEO SU30R-AFR Sump
- Custom Lid from TopLids

Since I don't have the tank or stand yet, I haven't had much I can get done for prep work really. As far as I've gotten, is I've made a custom light mount system that levers off of the wall the tank will be up against.

Once the tank comes I'll have a better idea of how everything will sit, as well as cleaning up/organizing the space that the tank is going to be in. I'll most likely be redoing the shelving, especially once I can figure out how much stuff I can fit into the tank stand.

Anyways, thanks for reading! I'll try my best to update as things move along!

 

[blaxsun]

Equipment list looks good. Will look forward to more updates.

 

[jRatanak]

Equipment list looks good. Will look forward to more updates.

Thank you! Excited to get things moving soon hopefully

 

[jRatanak]

Hi all! sorry to start this and then go mia, been a lot going on over the last couple of weeks, so haven't been dedicating much time to this upgrade!

I'm supposed to be moving in early November (surprise to me!), I got a new job in CT and I need to find a place to live asap. So I'm putting off the tank transfer until I can set up in the new location. The plan currently is to get the system to the new location (4 hours away) once I can get access to move in, set the tank up there, and then take the livestock over at a later date.

However, the tank has arrived and I have it mocked up in the spot I originally wanted.



I had a change of plans for lighting as well. I got a dual MH fixture and will be using that alongside the Orphek light bars. As it is, the lighting mount looks a little jank and I'm going to need to redo it at some point down the line to make it look a bit cleaner. Or maybe look at an off-the-shelf option that looks nice? Not sure yet! Let me know if you have any ideas!



Also, anyone that has moved livestock over long-ish distances, advice would be much appreciated! Or if anyone has a small apartment for rent in the Fairfield County area in CT that'd be sweet too

 

[Supa]

That’s going to be awesome!

 

[jRatanak]

That’s going to be awesome!

Thanks!

 

[jRatanak]

Found a place to live! So now begins the process of planning for the move at the end of the month

In the meantime, I rebuilt the light fixture, but I'm trying to figure out an unobtrusive way to mount them over the tank as I'm not completely sure whether hanging from the ceiling will be a possibility. Any ideas are welcome!

I'm also debating whether or not I want to offload some of my current fish and take this upgrade/move as an opportunity to properly think out my stocking. Currently, I have;

- Clarkii Clownfish
- Wide-bar Clownfish
- Orange Storm Pair
- Yellow Spotted Scorpionfish
- Banggai Cardinal
- Sailfin Fairy Wrasse
- Sailfin Blenny

The ones in bold I'd be willing to part with, I think. Still not sure, but if you're in the Southern Maine area, send me a message and maybe we can organize something. Or if I have to make a proper 'for sale' ad in the forums I'll do that, idrk how that works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[jRatanak]

Moving day is coming really fast , but I've been trying my best to make sure the tank can be set up as quickly as possible once it's at the new location. Since the tank will no longer be set up as a peninsula, I decided I'd add a frosted backdrop to it, so that I'm not looking directly through to a wall haha

Took three frustrating attempts, but this was the result!



It looks better in the pictures, there are still a couple of small spots where dust got under the film, but I don't think it will be very noticeable once there's life in the tank. I'm thinking I'll eventually get a backlight to shine a dark blue through the backdrop to give the overall appearance some depth, but for now, it's looking good I think!

I also got a bit of foam to lay under the tank on the stand, there wasn't any leveling mat included with the tank/stand and I don't feel super comfortable going without it. In all honesty, the stand that came with the system was a slight let-down. It wasn't the same style as pictured on the site, and the quality felt a little lacking compared to the old-style stand that I've seen in person.

 

[jRatanak]

Okay yeah, it's been a bit, that move took a heck of a lot out of me. But I'm now in the new place, the tank is set up, and I'm in love with it! There's still a LOT of work to be done though! Which I will talk about in a second, but first here are the few pictures I took of the tank during the move/set-up process, and then how the tank looks after about two days of being brought to life.

Now clearly there's quite a bit of empty space in the whole right third of the tank, and that is one of the next things on the list of to-dos to take care of. First, I need to replace my MP10 with an MP40 since the glass thickness is too much for the magnet of the MP10 (I'm going to be selling the MP10, msg me if you're looking for one). Along with this, I need to figure out the cable management and set up my dosing pump at some point. I'm probably going to look for a cheap cabinet to house most of that gear next to the aquarium. So that's the short-term plan for now! Later down the line I'll be thinking more seriously about livestock and getting a quarantine system set up.

I still have my lid from TopLids on order, so hopefully will be getting that in the not-to-distant future. Then eventually my GEO's sump will be made, and I'll get to plan out the plumbing for that project!

Thanks for stopping by!

PS. Here's a video of my celebration of the upgrade/move/new job to myself (I know some of you will hate them lol, but I think they're gorgeous)

 

[jRatanak]

I'm not very good at keeping updates on here but today I added an MP40 to the system to boost the flow! I was originally planning to place it on the back wall of the tank, but when I placed it back there, it was an absolute eyesore and I decided to mount it on the right side of the aquarium.

I'm also having second thoughts about the Orphek light bars. The only reason being that the color of the lighting is not even across the bars. It doesn't show well in the picture, but when the MH are off and only the Orpheks are lighting the system, there's an obvious difference in the color of the light from one side of the aquarium to the other

You'll also see that I changed the arrangement of my existing rockscape. I'm currently figuring out arrangements for the remaining empty space. I'll try my best to remember to upload during that process!

 

[trmnl5]

I’m a sucker for ELOS tanks. Nice setup!!

 

[jRatanak]

I’m a sucker for ELOS tanks. Nice setup!!

Thanks! I finally got the rockwork sorted, I still have to update this thread though lol

 

[trmnl5]

Thanks! I finally got the rockwork sorted, I still have to update this thread though lol

I'm the same way...goes in spurts lol.

 

[jRatanak]

Wow okay yeah I have been fully neglecting updating this thread

I've added a fair bit to the system;
1. a Versa pump, that I was originally going to use to dose kalkwasser, but I've been lazy on figuring out how to implement that properly, so it's just topping of evaporation for the time being.

2. I got a Profilux Mini because I wanted to start being able to consistently monitor the pH of the tank, as well as have a better system to control the lighting (I was using simple wall timers before). Using the Profilux, it made staggering the bulbs throughout the day a lot easier.

3. I've also set up an Avast Marine auto-feeder which is placed in the return chamber of the sump. Currently it adds food to the tank twice a day, I may increase this to three times in the coming months after I see how nutrient levels change with the current schedule. On top of the auto-feeding, I feed Selcon-enriched frozen foods and Phytofeast most evenings after work, as well as bits of nori.

As far as livestock goes, I've added a couple Acropora frags to the tank. I'll be getting more this week though, a friend and I are going in on a Battlebox this week! For fish I was able to come across two juvenile Achilles tangs and I couldn't pass them up. Knowing that the only way to potentially have them get along was to introduce them at the same time, so I went ahead and got both of them. So far they have been getting on perfectly well and they've been absolutely demolishing algae!

On a more disappointing note, I did have a Yasha goby for a time, but found he had jumped one day after getting home from work. I'm still waiting on the delivery of my lid, which I definitely should have made sure I had before introducing the goby

But that's about it as far as it goes here, I'm just letting the system do its thing for the time being! Just waiting on the GEO sump as the next major change!

Here are a couple pictures of the tank and cabinet area I took this weekend. I know the cabling is a nightmare, but it is what it is for now haha

 

[jRatanak]