Phil Edwards

Hey folks,

I just fell into a fantastic opportunity for a tank like I've been dreaming about for years. It's a custom made 72x30x24 inch, 225 gallon aquarium with a custom built stand, canopy, and 60 gallon sump. The original owner is a reef enthusiast who really took his time to make sure the tank was built and set up right. It's going to be a month or so before I get everything settled down and planted but I wanted to get the journal started now.

Lighting will be 6x 55 watt AH supply retrofits fitted lengthwise front-to-back. I'm considering attaching them to an aluminum frame that can be raised and lowered for maintenance or adjust concentration as needed to fight algae or slow growth. The goal is to illuminate the rear of the tank more and leave the front as algae free as possible. I've never kept a tank with a sand front but it seems to be a good idea with this one. I really don't want to have to maintain a huge mass of HC or Glosso.

One of the things about this tank that excites me so much is it's pre-drilled for a closed-loop. No need to rig some ghetto over-the-back spraybar like I've had to in the past. This is going to be 100% pure CO2 reactor love. *glee!*








Closed Loop



Acrylic sump



Since the tank was originally a reef the owner had the sump built with a separate refugium area. With two downdrafts from the overflow this is going to become a place to breed fish, store cuttings, and/or grow things out for flowers. It's the full section in the left-rear.



The other nice touch is the electrical work. Everything's wired into the panel of outlets and then hooked into the DJ stations. No more having to unplug pumps, heaters, or other misc. stuff during maintenance!





I hope you enjoy following this journey as much as I'm going to enjoy it.

Jdinh04

What an amazing sized tank. Looking forward to see what you do with it!

Phil Edwards

Thanks John! As soon as I found out the dimensions I knew it was perfect. It's hard to beat a tank with close to a 2:1 length:width ratio.

Cheers,
Phil

Dielectric

Nice! makes me want all those bells & whistles in my cabinet.

niko

6x55 Power Compact will be hot. I had put only 2x55 under my 180 hood and the heat hit my face when opening the canopy. As you know the canopy is open on the back too. I do believe that 6x55 is a disaster.

I maybe wrong but once you can afford it I strongly suggest T5HO. Giesemann Midday.

--Nikolay

Phil Edwards

Thanks for the advice Niko but I've already got the lights on my 75 and plan on using them on this tank. Besides, I need the extra money to buy fish from you!

Cheers,
Phil

Knotty Bitz

Are you going to have problems with outgassing of co2 with a sump filter?

TAB

Is that a geosreef sump? it sure looks like one. he builds good quality stuff at affordable* prices.



* by reef standards anyways. Its not unheard of to drop 5 digets in a tank before a single drop of water is put in it. don't ask me how I know...

Phil Edwards

KB,

The photos show probably 3,000gph moving through the sump. I'll have, at most 1,000gph so turbulence won't be a huge issue. In the end, the flexibility and options presented by this particular sump outweigh any potential outgassing problems there might be.


TAB,

The sump was made by Marc Levenson aka Melev on Reef Central.

Cheers,
Phil

gonathan85

Amazing setup! I can tell someone took their time preparing the setup.

I have heard people combat the sump C02 loss by covering the open air portion with a piece of glass/acrylic.

Not sure if this will even be an issue with the closed system though...

Looking forward to following this tank!