Well the time has come to upgrade my very first reef aquarium, a SeacClear System II 46G bow front tank, to bigger and better things.

I am moving everything into a 210G (60x24x30) AGA tank with a custom oak stand and canopy. I'll be picking it up in mid August and I'll be planning until then. I'll have a skimmer and sump from the get go, but I still need to figure out the lighting, CA reactore, fuge, ATO, etc... I looked at the LED lighting, but I could not convince myself that the technology merits the huge premium that they charge for them now. I think in two more years, they'll improve even more and start to be well positioned to take over the MH market with real potential of return on investment. For this round, I will probably go with luminarc minis, 400W and two VHO atinic tubes as supplements. I am also looking at T5s.

It will be a mixed display with mostly SPS and LPS. The yellow leather will make the move from the 46B though as will a RBTA that host my mated black clowns. This and a few zoas should be the only softies.

This thread will track the progress of my 210G system. It is in the living room, so I have to keep it presentable unlike my frag tank hiding in the basement that can only really be viewed from above

I can't wait to stock it with some fish that I have never had the space to keep as well. Perhaps a powder blue, naso, achilles and a school of anthias. Not sure which ones will make the final cut.

In homage to the retiring 46B that started my addiction, I'll post some tank progression shots since it never had a tank thread of its own.

Thanks for looking.

46G Bow progression shots

First LR - Feb 2006


First corals March 2006


2nd Corals March 2006


April 2006 FTS


May 2006 FTS


July 2006 FTS


July 2007

Monti Cap

Holy Xenia!!!!!

LOL!

Yeah, it took off early in that system and eventually got ran out of the tank by the GSP and the Evergreen star polyps (brown with green centers).

My son moved some to his nano and it took over it too

I look forward to watching this progress, gonna grow out some of your sps into super huge colonies?

You'll love having all the new room in that 60" tank. My first SW aquarium was a 46 bowfront also. 2 years later I've upgraded 4 times and wound up in a 125.

I'll be following along.

Thanks! That is the goal I think I have enough different types frags now to fill the 110 and a 210 as they mature. My tri-color in the 110 is already 8 inches across and it seems like it fills a large portion of the tank. I'll need more frag surface area sooner or later

Its about time. Def go with the lumenarc minis 400W Radium's. Send me some of the tricolor.

Thanks! Seems to be the common trend amoung us reefers

I have a 110 now that started as a frag tank for the 46 and is slowing turning into a display. The problem with it as a display is that it is 5 feet long and only 18 inches wide. A 125 footprint is much better - shorter and 24 inches wide I think.

Looking forward to this one Brett!

*sigh* all my 46b buddies are upgrading.. ......I wanna play too!!!!
Sadly I don't thing I can go larger than a 72 bow. Not sure if it's even worth the trouble.


Pfft, yeah right. I'm sure it is.


This is gonna be great. Tagging along for sure Buddy.

I have frags of the tri you can have/trade for whenever you want. The big colony is not the Tyreee Bali tri-color though. That one is still too small to frag.

I need to check out you frag system sometime. Maybe I can drop off a tri-color when I come to check it out.


Thanks NRF! Careful with comments about upgrades not being worth the trouble. You could lose your NR badge for that LOL..

Your montis are growing out. I still need to make the purple death frag though.

Maybe in early to mid August then. Of course I might need some help moving the monster into the house on 8/10. I guess I could pay you in frags

I have a rental turnover to paint for the next two weekends anyway. The old tenant burned a lot of candles and smoked up all of the trim and walls. It is taking two coats of paint to cover - walls and ceilings

You didn't think I was serious about that did you??
In time it will happen. It will have to be a bow though as its a tight corner it sits in and the taper helps leave room at a door way.

Sounds good my friend, looking forward to them, Thanks.

No I just couldn't pass up the joke


Perhaps a 90G corner bow then

Step one is complete. I got the tank and managed to get it into the living room. It needs some cleaning first. My son's shoulder was hurting so the tank was moved more with a series of make shift wheels (pipes) under it and we basically rolled it from the back of the truck to the living room. To get it on the stand, I lifted one side up to the edge and then lifted the other end up and slid it on while my kids stabalized it.

It looks too big at its current location which against the long wall in a 14x19 room. We are going to slide it (it is on felt pads) against the far short wall and see if it looks better there. It is the depth of the tank that looks out of place, so maybe it will work better at the end of the room against the short wall. There are 2 20 amp circuits already ran to where it currently is though and getting new circuits installed against the end wall is much harder due to the way the first floor lines up with the basement foundation - but I'll give it a shot.

A pic w/o the flash - you can see the old 46's reflection in the glass.

w/ flash


now for planning the lights and plumbing....

Sweet Brett!

Stand and canopy look to be in great shape and I'm sure the tank will clean up just fine.

And so it begins......

I'm jealous!

Thanks NRF! Just a little old coraline on the overflows and back - probably could actually be left without worry. The glass actually appears to be scratch free!

I meant to finish getting your frag pack together today, but kids football ate too much of the day I'll try again tomorrow.



Thanks! Now if it just had water in it Maybe by XMas.

Well, after looking into flooring load capacities a little bit, I may need to boost the floor joist some. Time for a real structural engineer to take a look. So, actually adding water will need to wait even longer...

Well, certainly not something you want to play around with if your not sure about it.

So, are we plumbing this into the basement?





No worries B, just LMK.

The thought had crossed my mind, but then I need to live in the basement

Actually, I just checked the joist under the most likely location, and for whatever reason, there is a triple joist right under where the tank will go already bridged to the joist that sits on the foundation - can't get much stronger than that, so I may be ok. I am still going to have it checked out though by an engineer.

Engineer should come next week to evaluate the floor.

Ordered a geo Kalk reactor and top off pump. Found a local CA reactor which appears to be a GEO 618 DIY clone for $50. Have the CO2 tank and regulator. Bought a 15G high top off resevoir tank for under the tank.

I am settling on lighting - right now it looks like three lumenbright reflectors with 400W 20Ks and 2 actinic supplemental tubes - probably VHOs. I may use a mixture of 400W and 250W since the lumen bright reflectors are so efficient. I looked seriously at LEDs but figured it is better to run MH and wait for the LED technology to mature more and come down in $$$. I can always sell high quality MH equipment later and move to LEDs when they are cheaper and brighter.

The rub is that lumen bright reflectors work best with bulb heights of 18 ~ 22 inches above the water and my canopy is only 12 inches high. I'll be doing some woodworking mods to put a 10 to 12 inch riser on it.

Hopefully the engineer will have good news.

Based on our phone call, my worst case is to add one LVL joist to the floor below. There is a drop ceiling there, but that still will not be too big of a job.

what about T5 lighting?

Thought about it, but I don't think that it will save any heat over the lumenbrights (the mount so high that heat is not as much of an issue) and I am pretty sure I will get better results with MH.

I have seen some T5 tanks that look good, but I prefer the MH.

MH all the way!

Cant wait to see it with water in it!

Yeah - I think so. There is a local reefer here running the latest line of Solaris LED lights on his SPS 450G setup. I think it is a 8 or 10 foot tank, so the lights costs a fortune. So far he is very happy with the growth, etc… but his tank is really too new to tell and the frags all seem too small in the pictures (at least to me) to see if they will ever show the color that I am looking for. On top of that, the payback period on LED lighting is multiple years (they are supposedly cheaper to run over time than MH due to lower electric bills and no bulb replacements) and you can bet that in a year or two a new LED system will be out that blows away the current ones in performance for half the price. So, for now, I'll stay MH and let others help fund the LED R&D costs

Plodding along slowly. Picked up a used ACIII w/ two DC8s today, an Icecap ballast/endcaps for the supplementals and some fans.

Modded MaxJets with a wave maker will be the initial cut at circulation. Vortechs or TUnze will come later.

Next step - ordering some reflectors which will probably mean time to upgrade the 110 reflectors too (that's logical right? ). I also need to start working on getting the canopy higher which means a quick woodworking project.

Kalk stirrer should get here this week so I can start arranging things in the stand.

Hoping to see water in the tank for Christmas

For Christmas hun , sounds good. Those Lumen brights should work well.

I hope so. 400W actually seems like overkill with them!

Did you make it to the CMAS meeting on Sunday? It was my first time going and I have no idea who anyone is...

No, I could not make it. Too many soccer ganes to go to Usually they have a speaker and not just a "garage sale". I'll try to get there next time.

Yeah, that's what people were saying. I am now officially a member so hopefully I should be at meetings from now on.

Welcome! and hope to see you there some time! I'll be the one with the 6' 3" son and a teenage daughter with me

I have a couple inches on your son so i kinda stick out too

I guess Im still a member there.

Wow - the tallest two there You should be easy to find at least.

My kalk reactor came in today. It is a GEO model and I must say that I am very impressed with it out of the box. It is well put together and designed with maintenance in mind. The lid comes off easily, there is an easy access fill hole in the top, there is a valve for draining fluid out of the reactor for PH testing or having fluid for a slurry to fill in the top again. It blows my other reactor, a Grey Seas K6 model, out of the water. The Grey Seas has been ok, but there are flaws in its construction and design. For example, the tube for the fresh water feed was too short so I had to remove it and replace it.

So far the GEO looks superb. I may buy their calcium reactor too if the local sale that I am trying to make on one falls through.

Here is the unit.

nice, my new light should be here tomorrow. I got a phosban reactor coming too for the frag tank that Im gonna try the neo zeo method in.

Cool. What is the neo zeo method?

Brightwell aquatics verison of the zeo vit method. Water filteration and dosing supplements.

Ah. Let us know how it works!

Plodding along:

This week:

Ordere 3 lumenbright mini reflectors for the lighting. Picked up some T5 Icecap endcaps and an IceCap ballast for the supplemental lighting. Ordered 5 foot T5 reflectors. The last foot will have no supplements

Also picked up a used ACIII with pH probe, temp probe, 2 DC8s, etc... I got its firmware upgraded and got it on the net monitoring the old 46 gallon for now. I ordered an ORP probe for it too.

I also found a used Tunze WaveBox that is coming and I picked up a $50 GEO 618 knockoff calcium reactor from a local club member. It looks like a great little reactor, although the pump needs to be replaced. I already had found a used regulator and tank.

I'll take some pics of the new hardware as it comes in.

Nice, got my TEK light up over the frag tank, BIG improvement in colors Only running 4 bulbs now, still need two more bulbs

DTF - good news on the lights! Frag tub is looking up.

A used Tunze Wavebox came in. First cut at circulation in the 210 will be the wavebox and modded MJ 1200s on a wavemaker power strip.

I put the Wavebox in the 110 to test it out and it works well. If the corals like it, I may buy the nano-version for the 110 long term. The 110 has plenty of flow now: a wave box, two tunse 6100s and about 1K per hour of return flow from the pumps.

Still waiting for the LB reflectors Everything else is in.

cool, wavebox should be neat. Got my phosban reactor, rowaphos on the way along with two Giessman pure actinics to finish off the lighting for the frag tub.

Latest progress (if you can call it that). Still now LBs!?!?! I ordered them from Aquacave a while ago. It may be time to track that down!

The structural engieneer recommended sistering the joist under the tank with 3 LVL joists, so that is the next step.

I got the wood to make risers for the canopy.

Soccer and football season are in full force with the kids, so weekend progress has crawled to a halt...

I got the joists today, but with the finished walls in the basement, I can't get them in place without cutting them. So, I will either need to figure out how to splice them together to code or pic a different spot for my tank.