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CapnMorgan 
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The Capn'
Joined: August 19 2009
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 Topic: 710G Stingray Reef
Posted: July 01 2012 at 10:13pm |
Well I finally went and did it... I have loved stingrays since I started this crazy hobby. I have kept a varierty of them on the freshwater side, but gave them up when I set up my first reef. With the permission of my lovely wife we have decided we need a few rays around the house. So thus begins the craziness around our home...
I picked up an 8' diameter 24" tall tank for the main display which will be drilled for alternating gyre style flow, and then flush mounted into a cabinet which on one side will have a bar top, where I can sit and sip my favorite beverage while watching the rays. The center of the tank will have a reef mound with smaller fish and corals topped off with a few mangrove trees. Another main goal of this tank is to be energy efficient, so equipment has been carefully picked for maximum performance on minimum power.
Photos will be slow coming as my good camera is MIA at the moment, so here's a list of equipment and specs to get us started.
Circulation:
Closed Loop: Provided by 2 Waveline 10000 DC pumps- 10K lph 85 watts at 100%
Return pump: Waveline DC 10000- 10K lph 85 watts at 100%
Filtration:
Skimmer- ETS1600 powered by another Waveline 10000- 10K lph 85 watts
Refugium- 60 Gallon bare bottom refugium with Caulerpa and Chaeto
Chemical- (2) two XL phosban reactors: one carbon, one phosguard.
Temp. Control
Heater- Wann 500w titanium heat exchanger
Chiller- Cyclone 1/2HP chiller with titanium heat exchanger
Lighting:
Currently provided by an ATI Sunpower 6x54 watt. However LED's or plasma are in the not so distant future...
Inhabitants of this tank will include:
Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray
Yellow Cortez Ray
California Ray
Assorted Wrasse
Assorted Angelfish
A few anthias
and a tang or two.
As always questions and constructive input are always welcome! I'll be updating with pictures over the next month or so this project will take to complete.
Edited by CapnMorgan - July 02 2012 at 12:57am
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Steve My Old 180G Mixed ReefCurrently: 120G Wavefront Mixed 29G Seahorse & Softies Running ReefAngel Plus x2 435-8
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jdinchak
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Posted: July 01 2012 at 10:21pm |
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Awesome. I want to see how this 8' tank fits in your bar!!!
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180G Mixed Reef Tank
170G Dart Frog Tank
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CapnMorgan
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The Capn'
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Posted: July 01 2012 at 10:24pm |
 jdinchak wrote:
Awesome. I want to see how this 8' tank fits in your bar!!!
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Thanks man! I'm pretty excited about it! My wife insisted on a little backsplash so we didn't so any unintentional "dosing" to the tank. A precaution I'm sure will pay off.
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Steve My Old 180G Mixed ReefCurrently: 120G Wavefront Mixed 29G Seahorse & Softies Running ReefAngel Plus x2 435-8
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Schmidty
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Posted: July 01 2012 at 10:26pm |
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This sounds awesome can't wait to see it.
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fishnfresh
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Posted: July 01 2012 at 10:27pm |
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wow I so want to see this when its done lol
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Fatman
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Posted: July 01 2012 at 11:17pm |
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I'll have a Gin and Tonic and set there for hours. Can we see it???? Soon????
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bstuver
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Posted: July 01 2012 at 11:33pm |
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Sounds amazing! Can't wait for pics. I told my hubby if I ever get a big tank again I want me big enough for rays. I also kept freshwater ones and loved them!
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Jackie Stuver
"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart
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CapnMorgan
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The Capn'
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Posted: July 02 2012 at 12:53am |
Schmidty- Thanks! It's all starting to come together.
FishnFresh- After it's all finished feel free to stop by!
Fatman- Gin and tonic it is! I'll be sure to send you an invite when it's through!
Jackie- I loved my FW rays, they were a blast! I'm hoping to have even more fun with these!
A few quick bits of info:
I will be posting photos in phases, as I have most of the equipment now (still waiting on the pumps as they aren't available to me just yet) I will post photos of the cabinet build, then the plumbing, filling, and then stocking of the tank. This will likely be a very long build thread! I'll also update the original post with info as we go along.
As for stocking this bad boy, since this is going to be a look down tank, it's critical (to me at least) that the livestock colors are very bright, this coupled with the controllable pumps will allow great viewing from the top down.
Inhabitants of this tank will include:
Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray
Yellow Cortez Ray
California Ray
Assorted Wrasse
Assorted Angelfish
A few anthias
and a tang or two.
Our cleanup crew will be mostly comprised of a couple sea stars, a few hermits, snails, and plenty of urchins. This will be another challenge as the rays will snatch up any stray crabs or snails, so the urchins will be a key component here.
I don't imagine the sand will get very dirty with three rays constantly sifting through it for food.
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Steve My Old 180G Mixed ReefCurrently: 120G Wavefront Mixed 29G Seahorse & Softies Running ReefAngel Plus x2 435-8
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Molli
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Posted: July 02 2012 at 1:40pm |
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I've been reading quite a few posts on the site about some pretty large tanks. I only have a 29G as my first tank, but hope to purchase a much larger tank for myself for Christmas. May I ask, what kind of floor will this tank sit on? It is a concrete slab? For those who have their tanks on a floor above the concrete slab, do you reinforce your floor first? I could put my large tank in a family room in the basement, but don't tend to spend a lot of time in that room. Was hoping to put it in my family room on the floor above the basement.
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: July 02 2012 at 1:53pm |
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My three hundred is upstairs. I'm not worried. Then again maybe I should be.
Steve_ awesome updates
Adam
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Come to a meeting, they’re fun!
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DLindquist
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Posted: July 02 2012 at 2:55pm |
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Sounds exciting Steve. It may even be worth the drive to Tooele to see it.
In terms of the weight, or 270 sits on the main level. However, when we built the house I anticipated an upgrade and reinforced the floor then.
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A government strong enough to give you everything you want, is powerful enough to take everything you have.
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CapnMorgan
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The Capn'
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Posted: July 02 2012 at 3:53pm |
Molli wrote:
I've been reading quite a few posts on the site about some pretty large tanks. I only have a 29G as my first tank, but hope to purchase a much larger tank for myself for Christmas. May I ask, what kind of floor will this tank sit on? It is a concrete slab? For those who have their tanks on a floor above the concrete slab, do you reinforce your floor first? I could put my large tank in a family room in the basement, but don't tend to spend a lot of time in that room. Was hoping to put it in my family room on the floor above the basement. |
The tank is actually going in our basement, so it will be sitting on concrete. The finished weight is not to be trifled with so a solid floor was a must (Also i have no room for it upstairs  ). My 180G reef currently sits on the main floor and we've had no problems, but we did level the tank to start with (very important).
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Steve My Old 180G Mixed ReefCurrently: 120G Wavefront Mixed 29G Seahorse & Softies Running ReefAngel Plus x2 435-8
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CapnMorgan
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Posted: July 02 2012 at 4:18pm |
Well, everyone has been asking for some photos, I'm still not going to spoil the build with not-so-great photos, but I will show you some of the work that we're doing to get the pieces ready to fit together!
Stage 1 of the sump system. This is the "return section" of the system. The skimmer for this system is very large so it has to be run externally. There are ports on the sides for the return pump, and for the skimmer pump, as well as an effluent return from the skimmer.
Our ETS1600 skimmer. This was being used on my large QT system, but was way oversized for the system. So I swapped it out for a good size cone skimmer to keep QT clean and moved the beast out for the ray system.
A sample of some of the rock we will be using. An Eco-friendly alternative to natural LR. Hiding in the background is a container filled with some special guests, who will appear later on in the program...
 Various water pumps, the chiller and odds and ends (building a tank gets messy)
More plumbing parts we're building it piece by piece and then putting things into place, thus my garage looks like standard plumbing about now... just a whole lot less organized.
And of course salt in a couple different varieties. A fish-only formula (Aqua-Craft BioSeas) for our QT system, and a dual phase reef formula (Aqua Craft Marine Environment) for the ray system. Great stuff!
The waterfall tank that will greet visitors to the bar... I mean basement has been moved to it's new spot, and will be cleaned, buffed, and put back together. The stand is being painted black to match our end goal. This tank will house 4 different biotopes. But that's a whole other story 
Thanks for following along! More photos of our actual build progress to come soon and in HD!
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Steve My Old 180G Mixed ReefCurrently: 120G Wavefront Mixed 29G Seahorse & Softies Running ReefAngel Plus x2 435-8
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: July 03 2012 at 3:09pm |
Found and saved this awesome pic a while back. If I remember it was taken near Thailand. I miss my Mr Ray.   Shallow water! The other day we were at the beach where it was only 1-2 feet deep for ~10 yards out. Here comes wiggling in, this foot long Porcupine Puffer as close as 6 feet from shore! Awesome
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Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks:www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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cba191
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Posted: July 03 2012 at 3:40pm |
I don't usually follow threads, but when I do.... It's this one.
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CapnMorgan
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Posted: July 03 2012 at 8:09pm |
Well time for today's update.
I'm still waiting on my new water pumps to ship. I may just put a couple Iwaki's on there to get it running faster. Also still working on the cabinet, slowly but surely it's all coming together. Now... Anyone know where I can get 750lbs of sand?  |
Steve My Old 180G Mixed ReefCurrently: 120G Wavefront Mixed 29G Seahorse & Softies Running ReefAngel Plus x2 435-8
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Brandon1985
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Posted: July 07 2012 at 7:24pm |
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Sand.... Cant u use Utah sand or is it to fine? I know Rays have one kind of sand u have to use!!
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24G JBJ Nano with LEDS
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