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.

 

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%

 

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.

Heater- Wann 500w titanium heat exchanger

Chiller- Cyclone 1/2HP chiller with titanium heat exchanger

 

Currently provided by an ATI Sunpower 6x54 watt. However LED's or plasma are in the not so distant future...

 

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.

 

 

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.

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.

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). 

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!

 

It's this one.   

 

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?