My 135 Gallon SPS Tank

Ryan Hunter · Mar 2, 2016

After many requests from members in my New to R2R thread I figured it was time to get some info on my tank up. I have been in the hobby for roughly 7 years and have had many ups and downs but I have finally got things dialled in. The tank is an Oceanic 135 gallon starphire housing SPS and a few zoas.

FTS

End Shot

Lighting is handled by an 8x80w ATI sun power and a Kassil A360 on the one end. Skimmer is a Vertex 180i and I also run Zeovit for filtration. Tank flow was always handled by Vortech MP40's but I recently made the switch to WAV's and could not be happier. I also recently added a DOS and switched to continuous water changes.

30 Gallon for new sea water and a 20 for ATO. I can't wait for Neptune to release the FMM as I am fed up with dealing with float switches.

My maintenance routine is pretty simple. Basically just clean the glass, replace the carbon and zeolites every 6 weeks and occasionally top up Calcium and MAG. Calcium and MAG are usually handled by a Sichuan Jetstream calcium reactor however I find I need to boost things occasionally. Below are some pics of a few noteworthy corals.

18" Across Red Planet

Bonsai

Bright and light green Acro

Setosa

Purple Prostata

Left side of tank

Recently added several new frags and will get some more pics as they progress.

Thanks for checking out my little piece of ocean.

Chrisfish · Mar 2, 2016

Really nice! Your little piece of ocean looks like a little piece of heaven

choco24 · Mar 2, 2016

Nice growth and colors. What your parameters like?

fragit · Mar 2, 2016

How are you doing continuous water changes? Can you explain you system to accomplish this?

Ryan Hunter · Mar 2, 2016

choco24 said:
Nice growth and colors. What your parameters like?

Thanks. My parameters are as follows:
Temp 78-80
Salinity 1.026
Calcium 380-390 ( I like it up in the 400's but lately have been struggling to keep it up and have started supplementing my calcium reactor)
Mag 1380-1420
Alk in the range of 7-8DKH

I probably shouldn't admit this but I can't remember when I last checked Nitrates and Phosphates

Ryan Hunter · Mar 2, 2016

fragit said:
How are you doing continuous water changes? Can you explain you system to accomplish this?

Using the Neptune DOS continuous water changes are dead easy. It is simply pulling old sea water from the first chamber of the sump and dumping it down the drain and adding new sea water from my 30 gallon storage tank. The storage tank is in the basement and the DOS is mounted just above it.

revhtree · Mar 3, 2016

Wow sweet tank!

mikem · Mar 3, 2016

Ryan Hunter said:
Using the Neptune DOS continuous water changes are dead easy. It is simply pulling old sea water from the first chamber of the sump and dumping it down the drain and adding new sea water from my 30 gallon storage tank. The storage tank is in the basement and the DOS is mounted just above it.

Beautiful setup. About how much water changes in a day?

Ryan Hunter · Mar 4, 2016

revhtree said:
Wow sweet tank!

Thanks revhtree.

mikem said:
Beautiful setup. About how much water changes in a day?

It is doing 5500 ml a day. Roughly 10 gallons a week.

aaron23 · Mar 4, 2016

Love the grown in feel sweet!

Ryan Hunter · Mar 4, 2016

aaron23 said:
Love the grown in feel sweet!

Got a ways to go still but finally getting there.

revhtree · Mar 14, 2016

Ryan Hunter said:
Using the Neptune DOS continuous water changes are dead easy. It is simply pulling old sea water from the first chamber of the sump and dumping it down the drain and adding new sea water from my 30 gallon storage tank. The storage tank is in the basement and the DOS is mounted just above it.

Ryan I would like to hear ore about how you set this up? I would like to do this with my new tank!

Ryan Hunter · Mar 14, 2016

revhtree said:
Ryan I would like to hear ore about how you set this up? I would like to do this with my new tank!

I will take some better pics of how it is setup and try and explain them in detail. Thanks to the folks at Neptune and the new quick start guides it is pretty simple. I added some more complexity to my setup with automated ATO and NSW tank refilling using floats and WIC valves. I haven't got that part dialed in yet due to some float switch issues and probably won't bother until the Fluid Monitoring Module is released with optical sensors.

Ryan Hunter · Mar 14, 2016

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My Paint skills leave something to be desired but this is basically how the AWC portion is plumbed. Note that head two on the DOS runs in reverse so inlet and outlet are swapped. Reservoirs are on the basement floor, DOS is 4 feet above them and sump is on the second floor. are Long term results of AWC to be determined but so far corals are all happy and I certainly don't miss doing manual water changes. Any other questions let me know.

Salty1962 · Mar 14, 2016

Awesome tank! Love the Red Planet..

Ryan Hunter · Mar 14, 2016

Salty1962 said:
Awesome tank! Love the Red Planet..

Thanks. The red planet is starting to be a hassle. It's growing at an alarming rate into the glass and it is growing in large formations making fragging difficult. I may need to just chop off large sections all at once.

Ryan Hunter · Mar 14, 2016

Here is how I accomplish automated re filling of my reservoirs and how the virtual outlet for each is programmed. Both have a low and high float switch that trigger and shut off the process. Also if the NSW reservoir fills it shuts off the DOS and sends me an alarm. Once I had salt I re enable the DOS and it carries on doing it's thing.

Salty1962 · Mar 14, 2016

Ryan Hunter said:
Thanks. The red planet is starting to be a hassle. It's growing at an alarming rate into the glass and it is growing in large formations making fragging difficult. I may need to just chop off large sections all at once.

Let me know if you decide to do that. I need a piece.