My dream tank in mini

[Kimberlee]

When I first thought of this system I was reading The Book of oral Propagation, by Anthony Calfo. Great book full of interesting and not often applied techniques. he book has helped me a lot in planing the final set up, and the system is still not complete now.

The build
One of the ways the book influenced this tank, was by giving me a better understanding of a coral garden vs a tank dedicated to one type of coral. Anthony Calfo's book explained how to set up for best growth rates and elimination of issues associated w/ keep a mixed garden.
I decided I wanted the ability to section off my corals and to shut down any section of the tank.

The system is 3 tiers





Equipment is coming up next

 

[darrend]

breeding or corals?

 

[Kimberlee]

breeding or corals?

Both actually I am ambitious if anything

 

[Kimberlee]

The Equipment

So if you noticed the 2 10s on the left, those are for breeding pairs and are being plumbed into a separate 30gal sump, w/ LR and a skimmer as filtration. Everything else is plumbed into the 55gal sump under the main system. he sump for the main tank includes a SWC skimmer (it is an older model) but rated for 300gals on a 150 total WV system. We have 100lbs LR in the sump and another 200lbs threw out the system. Can't remember the return pump model, I'll have to get down there and look Light consist of 2 reefstar LED's they are 3 watters above the top tanks, and 2 no name 1 watters on the bottom tanks + a third 1 watt fixture above the mid section of the sump.

Valves for turning off the different tanks


Behind, the tank the plumbing

 

[Flameback Pair]

Well I'll have to say I've never seen anything like it.

 

[Kimberlee]

Well I'll have to say I've never seen anything like it.

I am just getting started, needed a typing break. It defiantly gives me what I want....total control.

 

[Kimberlee]

Some current pics 2 months and kicking

 

[Kimberlee]

Feeding the Monster

As part of my tank thread, I thought it would be nice to include my culture station. It does play a huge roll in this system, and aids in my over all goal, which is the culture and breeding of any and all spieces that will be bred or cultured. It also is the solution to achieving my secondary goal. The elimination of prepared tank polluting foods, or at least 90% of it. I do not use any prepared coral foods (such as reef chili), instead I harvest a rotifer culture, or acartia pods, and at times I throw in brine shrimp.....fish and corals will eat those depending on size. (Brine shrimp must be fed nutritional foods to be of any value as a food source) I am still researching and refining the food choices for the cultures. One of the main food sources is home grown phyto. But enough of me typing on w/ the pics.......
One right before all the cultures were moved to the new set up......T5s are used for the phyto, mostly because I happen to have the extras.


And the phyto

 

[eliramos]

wow this is pretty cool!

 

[Kimberlee]

wow this is pretty cool!

Thank you. his is part of why I culture,

The section that had the tomato clowns has now been turned into a lps garden. Part of the reason I am culturing is so I can feed these guys non stop for grow out. Heres some of my acans under blues. I was playing w/ the white balance on my camera.









Feeding

 

[reefgeek96]

that is sweet to keep a wide verity of corals and fish you really need to do something like this looks great

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

I planed an almost identical system for seahorse breeding.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Awesome! This setup is fantastic.

 

[Kimberlee]

that is sweet to keep a wide verity of corals and fish you really need to do something like this looks great

Thx, that was exactly the idea

 

[Kimberlee]

Thx guys....thought I'd load some full light pics....they are also being fed. I cut this tankoff from the rest of the system and threw in some bb and rotifers, these are less the ten mins after.
I would really not want to be a bug in here!!

 

[Usatennisfan]

This is a really neat idea! How long has the entire system been up? Tagging along for future updates! Any way you could send me some of the plans, my fiancee and I LOVE this idea! Really curious as to what the return pump is. Seems like with that height and all the bends you would have a TON of head loss.

 

[Kimberlee]

The system has been up less than 3 months, but all LR was going for 6 before that. Some came from my old tank (it was cursed, don't ask), and this is 2x 40gal that are split into 20s. So I guess it would be 4x 20s, but the dividers could be removed if I wanted to drain the tank and remove them. It all drains down into a 55gal sump, holding about 30gals.

 

[Flameback Pair]

Do you get a lot of polyp extension when you feed phytoplankton?

 

[larangcon]

Interesting concept, one thing that I do not understand; it drains into one sump and returned to each compartment the chemistry will be the same throughout. SPS needs are almost nutrient free and yet you are able to feed the LPS continuously, adding more nutrient to the system. I think I am missing something here. It's obviously working out, how are you able to keep nitrate and phosphate down in order to satisfy your SPS

 

[Kimberlee]

Do you get a lot of polyp extension when you feed phytoplankton?

No, very few corals, even soft eat phyto. The phyto is mostly for the zoo plankton.