I'm not a very active person online; have no Facebook page, have never been to twitter, and pay no attention to all the other pseudo-reality stuff out there. Figure I'd document this build as it is a culmination of 20+ yrs of reefing with a 10 yr pause in the middle due to deployments and movements around the world. This is where the 21ft long 20,000 gallon dream crashes with physical and fiscal reality for the development of a realistic retirement system.
The system:
The tank will be a 316 gal Reef Savvy tank, 78" long, 36" deep and 26" tall. I've always wanted an emperor angel so that set my lower size limit goal. Originally I was planning a 450 gal 8 ft long tank but estimated long term maintenance costs and other logistical challenges like lighting forced me to go smaller.
I still have the 125 gal tank I started back up with in 2014 when I knew I was most likely done moving around. This tank will be used as a deep sand bed refugium plumbed into the return chamber of the sump.
Sump is a Dreambox 3.0 eco fleece and will be plumbed to the main tank Bean Animal style. Total system volume will be around 500 gallons.
So, in summary, I will have a 500 gal bare bottom deep sand bed system. The reason I am doing this is because I have had my best successes w/ both systems but not really the in-between ones. And I like both for different reasons so I figured combining them might be the best of both worlds while having the ability to isolate them will give flexibility if this turns out to not be the case.
The Tank:
The order for the tank was placed in Dec of 2020 but there have been tons of logistical challenges for Felix at Reef Savvy so it is not built yet. Originally the external overflow was going to be in the back panel but this creates logistical challenges for blacking out the overflow portion of the back wall. To help alleviate this issue--as well as the soaring costs of supplies--I've moved the overflow to the right side panel where a smaller thickness of smoked glass can be used. Haven't heard back yet from Felix so this may not be confirmed. This comes w/ a little re-planning of the fish room and tank placement but I'll get to that later.
I should mention we are building the retirement house as well and are just as far behind. The goal is to have the tank when the initial internal framing is up so I can place in the wall before all the finish work. The "stand" will be built into the framing along with the stand for the 125 (the current one is shorter than I'd like). Planning on about 36" of clearance under both.
Will stop there for now as this post is already getting ridiculously long.
Goal for in-service date is the summer of 2023.
The system:
The tank will be a 316 gal Reef Savvy tank, 78" long, 36" deep and 26" tall. I've always wanted an emperor angel so that set my lower size limit goal. Originally I was planning a 450 gal 8 ft long tank but estimated long term maintenance costs and other logistical challenges like lighting forced me to go smaller.
I still have the 125 gal tank I started back up with in 2014 when I knew I was most likely done moving around. This tank will be used as a deep sand bed refugium plumbed into the return chamber of the sump.
Sump is a Dreambox 3.0 eco fleece and will be plumbed to the main tank Bean Animal style. Total system volume will be around 500 gallons.
So, in summary, I will have a 500 gal bare bottom deep sand bed system. The reason I am doing this is because I have had my best successes w/ both systems but not really the in-between ones. And I like both for different reasons so I figured combining them might be the best of both worlds while having the ability to isolate them will give flexibility if this turns out to not be the case.
The Tank:
The order for the tank was placed in Dec of 2020 but there have been tons of logistical challenges for Felix at Reef Savvy so it is not built yet. Originally the external overflow was going to be in the back panel but this creates logistical challenges for blacking out the overflow portion of the back wall. To help alleviate this issue--as well as the soaring costs of supplies--I've moved the overflow to the right side panel where a smaller thickness of smoked glass can be used. Haven't heard back yet from Felix so this may not be confirmed. This comes w/ a little re-planning of the fish room and tank placement but I'll get to that later.
I should mention we are building the retirement house as well and are just as far behind. The goal is to have the tank when the initial internal framing is up so I can place in the wall before all the finish work. The "stand" will be built into the framing along with the stand for the 125 (the current one is shorter than I'd like). Planning on about 36" of clearance under both.
Will stop there for now as this post is already getting ridiculously long.
Goal for in-service date is the summer of 2023.