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syedjilani

My 300G Reef in Saudi Arabia

Rating: 16 votes, 5.00 average.
8 Comments
by
syedjilani
, 06-06-2010 at 05:36 AM (3944 Views)
Hi Guys,

I know it is little late to start my 300G thread on Reef Addicts, but infect i came to know late about Reef Addicts. Any way here we go........

Little Back Ground:

My name is Syed and I have been addicted by Life under the Sea. After 15 years of freshwater tanks I decided to take the plunge into saltwater in 2001 and built, my first reef Aquarium in Bangkok – Thailand.

When I move to Saudi Arabia in 2004, the addiction of Marine life was very strong, which forced me to start again a Reef Aquarium. So in August 2007 I started again 120 G Aquarium.

27th August 2007


In January 2010 I decided to upgrade my 120G to 300G Starfire custom-made. My current tank is 145cm x 41cm x 52cm custom-made with internal overflow box including a lot of gurgle and vortex sound. Lol…, which I sort out last year with playing with Ball valve.

First two years I was completely fail to keep SPS and LPS. Only able to keep Leathers zoos and mushroom. Last November a friend of mine force me to start SPS again, maybe this time I will get good luck and will able to keep them survive. Staghorn and stylopora coral.

Re-aquascaping in left side of the aquarium to place them.
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I took some colonies of Bird Nest, Pocillopora, montipora, Purple and Green Acropora.

SPS on the place.
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My current system is very simple. No calcium reactor until today, and will not in future because I am too much happy with Randy Holmes Two Part recipe for dosing calcium and alkalinity. But I keep space in my sump for Calcium Reactor in case.

After six months, I realized that this time I got good luck and able to keep SPS.

April 2010 - Left side
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April 2010 - Right Side
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April 2010 - FTS
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Current Tank:

My current tank and equipment.
Lighting: 1 x 400W MH 10K.
2 X 150W MH 20k.
4 x Actanic Blue T5.
1 x Fuji Purple T5.
3 x VHO.
Protein Skimmer: Weipro SA2014 with Atman AT105.
Return Pump: Atman AT106.
Canister filter: ROWAphos 50grm - Activated Carbon 300grm.


Now, Here we go…..:

After much deliberation and research, I've decided The tank will go into the same room the first tank is in and to the right and left of the tank just past the light switches 110V & 220V. The stuff, which are from USA and other countries, are 110V and locally stuff are 220V.

The Room is approximately 10 X 12 and is cooled via 2 Ton (or 24000 BTU) air conditioner. Heating the room is not a big issue, because we have four beautiful season, summer (hottest) winter (Hot), Autumn (Also Hot) and spring (Hot again). My AC runs 20 Hours a day to control room temperature.

Because of the current use of the room and the available space that remains, the tank will be 72”L X 30”W X 24”H.

Thanks Andrew. Andrew from Hong Kong send me his Aquarium stand diagrams for my 300g.

I have made little changes. Instead of making the sliding doors I prefer to use clips for completely remove the doors from the stand. Color will be completely white. I have already ordered the stand, which I will receive by today evening. I’ll post more photos by tomorrow.

STAND
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With Ahmed (A brilliant guy) suggestion I choose Starfire tempered Glass 10mm thickness.
This is known as Crystal glass as well.

I decided and designed two external 50cm overflow with 3 x 1.5” holes in each box. One for Regular drains one for Flood drain (in case) and one for return from the sump. I choose Herbie silent overflow for drain. Hope it will work well. I’ll post more details as it goes together. Most probably, Glass will be ready by next week. According to the factory, it will take 5 to 6 days.

AQUARIUM
TANK MEASUREMENT

Length: 185cm = 72 inches = 6 feet
Weight: 76cm = 30 inches = 2.5 feet
Height: 60cm = 24 inches = 2 feet

Hope easy to understand for all kind of level.


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My plan to make back wall like .......

AQUARIUM BACK WALL
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I made three plans for sump. The existing aquarium will be converted as sump and existing sump will be frag tank.

Plan C is final until now from my side. (Suggestions are most well come) But the problem is only 2 cm bigger then table size. I have to make some amendment in Frag tank to fix under the stand.


SUMP
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Updated 06-06-2010 at 10:04 AM by melev

Categories
‎ Tank - Full Summary

Comments

  1. melev's Avatar
    Hi Syed, I tried to reassemble all of your entries into a single blog post. I also sent you a PM to explain how this site works along with some suggestions. Let me know if you need any more help.

    Now I'm going to go make a pot of coffee, then I'll come back and read all of this and see if I can be of assistance.
  2. Hat39406's Avatar
    Well, good morning! I read all your blogs, I think...lol. I already had my two cups of coffee to get the day started. Your tank is very nice Syed and your plans for the new tank looks great! It looks like your SPS are doing good in your tank too. You came to the right place to gain more knowledge on reefing; the people here has re-opened my eyes and has steered me in the right direction. Awesome job on the planning of your new setup. I just use the diagram in my head, never used CAD in a while. Nice!
  3. melev's Avatar
    Alright, I just read the entire thing from top to bottom. If you don't mind me asking, what is your first language? I have a feeling you are translating from another language, and with your moving around I was just curious.

    Your description of the weather in Saudi Arabia made me laugh. It sounds completely true, too!

    The dimensions of your tank (72 x 30 x 24) is 224g, not 300g. My own tank is 72 x 30 x 30 and holds 280g. Is the tank bigger or are you counting the sump as part of the 300g?

    SUMP
    Your sump's design is fine. The only thing you didn't go into yet is an automatic top off system to replenish evaporated water. With those reactors in the return section (which is fine), they displace some water so that area will drop more quickly than if it was only a body of water. An ATO will keep it filled at all times, so I hope you have a way to do so.

    You have some eggcrate in the bubble trap baffles. Are you planning to put some filter floss in there from time to time or all the time? Once the floss fills up with detritus, the water will pour over the baffles instead - you'll want to be sure to change out the floss often, or only use it when you need it. You have the baffles at 8cm apart. You only need it to be 5cm apart, that's plenty even with stronger flow. Additionally, that will allow you to have those sections at the sizes you listed, which didn't factor in the thickness of the outer walls and baffles.

    The sump is 58" x 20.5" x 16.75" -- The skimmer section is 14" x 20", the bubble trap will use 4" with two 2" gaps, the refugium 20" x 20", and the return zone is 17.5" x 20"

    If you add those up: 14" + 4" + 20 + 17.5 you end up with 55.5" of the 58" total. The two end pieces and the four baffles would use up 1.5" to 2" of that leftover length, depending if you are using 1/4" or 1/2" material for the sump.

    I would suggest some type of teeth or eggcrate be added to both ends of the refugium to keep the macro algae in that zone at all times. When the return pump is off, the water level will rise and those plants could spill over into the return zone and clog up the pumps there, or possibly flow back into the bubble trap where you don't want them either.

    Just minor adjustments, nothing that alters your big plans at all.

    Congrats on your new setup. It's going to be fun following its growth.
  4. Douwant2play's Avatar
    Wow, that is a nice tank. I love those clams! Keep us updated through out this project. And nice description of the seasons
  5. Midnight's Avatar
    Thanks Marc for the conversion from metric to standard. I would die if I ever had to live in the metric system as I have known the standard system my whole life.
  6. syedjilani's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by melev
    Alright, I just read the entire thing from top to bottom. If you don't mind me asking, what is your first language? I have a feeling you are translating from another language, and with your moving around I was just curious.

    Your description of the weather in Saudi Arabia made me laugh. It sounds completely true, too!

    The dimensions of your tank (72 x 30 x 24) is 224g, not 300g. My own tank is 72 x 30 x 30 and holds 280g. Is the tank bigger or are you counting the sump as part of the 300g?

    SUMP
    Your sump's design is fine. The only thing you didn't go into yet is an automatic top off system to replenish evaporated water. With those reactors in the return section (which is fine), they displace some water so that area will drop more quickly than if it was only a body of water. An ATO will keep it filled at all times, so I hope you have a way to do so.

    You have some eggcrate in the bubble trap baffles. Are you planning to put some filter floss in there from time to time or all the time? Once the floss fills up with detritus, the water will pour over the baffles instead - you'll want to be sure to change out the floss often, or only use it when you need it. You have the baffles at 8cm apart. You only need it to be 5cm apart, that's plenty even with stronger flow. Additionally, that will allow you to have those sections at the sizes you listed, which didn't factor in the thickness of the outer walls and baffles.

    The sump is 58" x 20.5" x 16.75" -- The skimmer section is 14" x 20", the bubble trap will use 4" with two 2" gaps, the refugium 20" x 20", and the return zone is 17.5" x 20"

    If you add those up: 14" + 4" + 20 + 17.5 you end up with 55.5" of the 58" total. The two end pieces and the four baffles would use up 1.5" to 2" of that leftover length, depending if you are using 1/4" or 1/2" material for the sump.

    I would suggest some type of teeth or eggcrate be added to both ends of the refugium to keep the macro algae in that zone at all times. When the return pump is off, the water level will rise and those plants could spill over into the return zone and clog up the pumps there, or possibly flow back into the bubble trap where you don't want them either.

    Just minor adjustments, nothing that alters your big plans at all.

    Congrats on your new setup. It's going to be fun following its growth.
    Thanks melev, i did mind because of my bad English you aske me my first language. My first language is Urdu.

    You are right, tank is 224g and sump is 75g. I was calculating 300g total volume.

    SUMP
    I have A,B,C and D plan for sump, according to you suggestion I will change baffles as 5cm and will post. Please suggest which one is fine. From my side plan D is more better with Refuge and Frag tank.
    Of course ATO is the part of my new 300g.
  7. syedjilani's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hat39406
    Well, good morning! I read all your blogs, I think...lol. I already had my two cups of coffee to get the day started. Your tank is very nice Syed and your plans for the new tank looks great! It looks like your SPS are doing good in your tank too. You came to the right place to gain more knowledge on reefing; the people here has re-opened my eyes and has steered me in the right direction. Awesome job on the planning of your new setup. I just use the diagram in my head, never used CAD in a while. Nice!
    Thanks Hat, You will see more update today. Stay tuned.
  8. syedjilani's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Douwant2play
    Wow, that is a nice tank. I love those clams! Keep us updated through out this project. And nice description of the seasons
    Thank you Douwant2play,

    More updates are on the way. You will see what happend with my clams.