Custom Diamond Line Elos 160XL / Dreambox Build

Siasl · Dec 4, 2016

Hey all,

I have been a quiet lurker for a few years since my heart was broken and I had to sell my house, move, downsize, and sell off my tank / equipment. What makes it worse was that @zibba bought the tank, sump, and most gear - and he turned it into something amazing. Hats off to him - I have been living vicariously through his posts for the last three years.

However - I am moving out of Manhattan and to to Tampa (for work, again), and so am starting the process up again! I am thrilled. My wife... well... a new house, a new car, and two new fancy purses and I hope she is distracted long enough for me to go into debt to get what I want!

The tank is a custom penninsula style Elos 160XL. The standard tank size was great, but I wanted a better and centered overflow, the diamond line out-flow, and custom stand. I also went with a customized Royal Exclusiv Dreambox 100cm X 60cm sump (Eco-Dreambox, but in white with red seams). Both of these key components are ordered. Enclosed are first pics (note, rotate the "overflow" to be flat on wall versus sticking out) and I hope to catch up to Zibba in 18 months to two years.

Build thread to follow - I have already received 18 boxes from bulkreefsupply, 10 from premium aquatics, and a few more in transit from uniquecorals. I hope you enjoy - I am sure to screw up a few things along the way...

Mike_J · Dec 4, 2016

This is going to be a killer tank! I love Elos

Best of luck with the relocation and the tank build! I'll be following for sure!

Siasl · Dec 4, 2016

For initial suppliers ordered, I am taking advantage of a "fish room" under the stairs. I have decided that a few things have been the primary elements of my mistakes in the past in this hobby.

1) Overfeeding and not emptying filter socks enough
2) Not keeping a "perfect" Alk level and being laxidazical when I should be obsessive

So - the plan is a super clean / empty sump under the tank. The overflow will drain to the "fish room," go through filtration, sterilization, and then return to the sump.

Hence - I introduce my wet-dream (pun intended) of the theiling roller mats. Google them. Amazing. If you have every said to yourself, "I really should empty my filter socks much more often - this is for you. I had to relearn german (joking, somewhat), to get these ordered (and then found bulkreefsupply sold them), and am in love. The overflow from tank comes here first, then through sterilization, then back from fish room to sump.

Additionally, I will have two pumps in the sump - one for return, one for flow to the fish room. The flow to fish room is divided between a chiller and the super sized pax bellum chaeto reactor (premium aquatics). From there, the flow goes into 2 x 100 gallon plastic-mart tanks.

So - I have a 200 gallon display, with a 200 gallon fish room plastic tank, and another ~50 gallons in the sump. Stability people. Stability.

That flow will then return to sump. Sump has three reactors (Carbon, Phos, and Pellets (Pellets on hold)).

I will be running triton method on this tank - so no calc reactor (yet). The DasTaco (sp?) looks amazing - but i'm already downgrading from an amazing car to a ford taurus (equivalent) to afford this system...

..More to come.

Siasl · Dec 4, 2016

Mike_J said:
This is going to be a killer tank! I love Elos Best of luck with the relocation and the tank build! I'll be following for sure!

Thanks man - I hope to have some good comments / critiques! I am on my third Elos and third Dreambox combination. You pay through the ****, but they are so amazing...

rvlcf · Dec 4, 2016

Definitely following! Good luck!

MCooper · Dec 4, 2016

This is gonna be sick

Garia666 · Dec 4, 2016

Altough this sounds all amazing , i realy hope you dont go in to debt for your hobby.

Daniel@R2R · Dec 5, 2016

This looks like a whole LOTTA awesome going on! Following!

Broadfield · Dec 5, 2016

Garia666 said:
Altough this sounds all amazing , i realy hope you dont go in to debt for your hobby.

... it's the American way! lol

Garia666 · Dec 5, 2016

Broadfield said:
... it's the American way! lol

Ah lol im europian..

Siasl · Dec 9, 2016

Thanks for the positivity! I finally got all the initial boxes...

...And it felt like Christmas morning!

So besides the tank, sump, media filters, and skimmer - the above is most of the "order." Heavy filtration, heavy sterilization, dry rock, Tropic Eden (Reeflakes are amazing), Bionic Salt, Sch 80 Plumbing, two 800 watt heaters, trade winds chiller, new Neptune Apex system, and some acropower!

Not pictured (arriving soon) is the MP60s, the Triton Chemicals, the Pax Bellum, and lighting.

Lighting. I am having a massive internal debate on lighting. I used to have a monster tank with a gorg Geismann Spectra 3 x 400w MH and wow to the growth and wow to the look.

But also wow to the electricity bill. It was about 250 a month to pay for lighting and the chiller (lived in arizona and it was HOT!).

I had radions G3 on a small tank in NYC, and I hear the G4 are even better, but it would be $$$ to cover an SPS tank like this. TBD.

More to come and thanks for the comments!

Siasl · Dec 9, 2016

My first little DIY project was to build the pennisula back walls. I hate cleaning the out of the way back wall, and so this time was planning on doing something to make it look like a natural rock wall.

Marco Rocks (and I think it was Marco, but could have been Mark) had a good recommendation.

Take egg-crate cut to size, layer in cement, and put his "prime cuts" (perfect flat on one side, natural on the other) on the egg crate in the design you want. (Had to be careful to make the appropriate holes for the 4 MP60s.

Here is where I landed with it. When I was finished, I honestly hated it. The next morning, I didn't hate it (after it dried), but I still might try again with larger natural tonga shelf (in above post) cut to size and zip tied.

And before you asked - yes, I forgot to cut out the holes in the egg-crate for the MP60 until after I put down the concrete and yes, I caught the fact I didn't mirror image the two sides initially.

Note - the PVC in there is exactly 4" in diameter - the same size as the wet side of an MP60. Let the concrete dry a bit, and then twist them right out.

What do you think? I totally forgot to take a morning / dried picture look. It does look a lot better. However, I just don't like the concrete look:

Siasl · Dec 9, 2016

When the daily diver's den instagram gets you drooling, but you have no place to put the fish!!!

zibba · Dec 22, 2016

Awesome start! Following along!

The 450 AGE's seam is separating, fast! Apparently they had issues with the design and no longer design tanks the same way -- metal bracing on the corners now and different eurobracing technique. I have ordered a new tank and it's shipping out this week. Hoping to do the transfer without a total loss! Wish me luck and very happy to see you're back into the hobby.

Merry Christmas!

Golden State Reefer · Dec 25, 2016

Looks great! Who are the Elos dealers in the US and how long does it take to get a tank after ordering? Is there US stock or do I have to wait for someone in Italy to build and ship?

Siasl · Jan 8, 2017

zibba said:
Awesome start! Following along!

The 450 AGE's seam is separating, fast! Apparently they had issues with the design and no longer design tanks the same way -- metal bracing on the corners now and different eurobracing technique. I have ordered a new tank and it's shipping out this week. Hoping to do the transfer without a total loss! Wish me luck and very happy to see you're back into the hobby.

Merry Christmas!

Sweet Jesus I am sorry to hear that. I hope you banged like hell on them to get a discount on the new order. I wish you all the luck. Do you need anything from me? (Receipts, email designs, etc.?)

Siasl · Jan 8, 2017

Golden State Reefer said:
Looks great! Who are the Elos dealers in the US and how long does it take to get a tank after ordering? Is there US stock or do I have to wait for someone in Italy to build and ship?

The answer is basically, it depends. Coralvue is the US distributor, but there are two elos shops in the US (Texas, and NJ). If you are going with a standard design, you can pretty much get it shipped in short order. If you are going with custom, it is 3-4 months. I am still waiting on first pictures of build in process, but I gave them money about 6 weeks ago.

X-mas holidays have delayed things, but waiting sucks. However, I went with AGE last time (and you might have seen Zibba is having problems with the old AGE tanks) and despite the fact I loved the old AGE tank, Elos was worth waiting for this time. Much more pricey, but worth it (I hope).

Siasl · Jan 8, 2017

Sorry for holiday delay, some progress on the "fish room." The goal is to have a super clean under tank area, with just the sump, skimmer, and 2x media reactors. The fish room will have the extra tanks (on right), the AC unit, the dual over spec-ed UV reactors, and the pax belleum.

The foreground area is where the two 600 gph theiling roller mats are being plumbed...

And spectrapure, Neptune, dosing, heating, etc...

It never ceases to amaze me on how long all this dang plumbing takes.