DBarsotti's Tank in Town

A few of you may have followed my old thread "Tank On A Hill", well I've moved off the hill and down into the confines of "town", so since I no longer reside on the hill it only seems right to start a new reefing chapter/thread. ha. This Thread will be my new home and i plan on keeping up with it for the life of this new system.


Back on the hill I originally started with a 40g breeder... then Moved up to a 120g... then came the 48x36x12 90g Lagoon.


Heres a few pictures to sum up my past systems..


40g Breeder






120g






90g Lagoon










All these systems have had their problems and design flaws..


40g breeder
This was my first real SPS reef so its size was appropriate at the time but quickly filled up with coral since my SPS addiction grew pretty rapidly. The tank had a serious lack of swimming room for the fish and used an external overflow, which on occasion would cause unfortunate floods.


120g
This tank was a really nice size, 2x2x4. This offered a good amount of swimming room for the fish and also a lot more open sand bed which i definitely favor as i feel it makes the tank look a lot more natural. The problems i found with this tank were, the overflows in this tank took up WAY too much room (6" which made the tank only 18" wide) This also made the rock work thin and tall which left little room for corals to grow without shading each other.




90g Lagoon.
Originally this tank was meant to be used as a frag system but I wanted to combine my prop system and my display so the 90g 48"x36"x12" became my new display and at this point now is in the process of being slowly taken down and moved to my new house.
The foot print of this tank is awesome. The rock work is set up peninsula style and looks super awesome top down. I feel it resembles a natural reef pretty well. The height of the tank really limits what you can do but makes it extremely easy to work around fragging and what not. This tank only has a single overflow which i don't care for. I've learned redundancy typically works in your favor, so a second overflow would definitely come in handy if the first ever decided to clog/fail.






Anyway.. The planning and set up for my new build has begun..

New Display Tank:

Tank: Truvu 180g 48x36x24
Lighting: 2x150watt MH
4x48" T-5
2x48" blue reefbrite LED for extra awesome POP



Unfortunately the new system has to reside in the garage because the land lord doesn't want a tank in the house but i don't really mind, kind of turns my garage into a hiding place. ha


The new system will consist of a 90g prop system, 15g mangrove fuge, 100g sump from the old system, 50g water change tank to make life easier and the NEW 180g 48x36x24 that i am hopefully ordering within the next month or so. Total water volume will be around 435g
I am hoping this new display will meet all the needs i have and be a tank i can stick with and be happy with for the next few years. But more about the new display as we go.


I have moved over 1 of the 2 90g tanks. I have a few corals, fish and rock in the tank and it is plumbed into a temporary sump (this sump will eventually become the 50g water change tank). I have also plumbed in the new 15g mangrove fuge.


Alright. Enough blabbering..


Heres a few pictures of moving the 90g prop and plumbing in the new mangrove tank. (Everything is a disaster right now)








Cleaning the water as i plumbed in the tank

 

Ill be following along for sure. Looks great! I love the lagoon tank the shallow waters and beautiful colors are great.

 

Drilling holes like an idiot cause i was too lazy to drive to my shop to get a saw.



Float valve installed in temporary sump/future Waterchange tank. (I still need to drill a few more holes in this tank for plumbing but i'll wait till i'm done using it for a sump)




temp sump plumbed



Mangrove Fuge


The mess that is my tank right now



And a few corals i've moved over last night.


more pictures to come later. thanks for looking!

 

thanks! Yeah the lagoon was neat, I loved to turn off the flow and be able to view everything top down.;D

 

Your tanks all look amazing...will definitely be following along while you set them up in your new place.

 

subscribed! Looks very overwhelming and I'm sure you've had a few moments of extreme frustration. Gotta admit my jealously as well. I really love all of your tanks. The lagoon tank is just an awesome added treat to the other two tanks. I really love looking down on the water too but it's hard with most tanks, most aquarium glass filters a lot of color out especially on clams and looking down you get an entire different perspective.

Can't wait til I upgrade, I already have 3 tanks (1 FW 1 SW 1 reptile) so a forth I think would make my landlord and room mates a little upset. (taking over the entire living room with my habit hehehe)

Keep the pictures coming and good luck!!!! I hope the move isn't too stressful on you and your livestock!

 

thank you!! hopefully my new display will finally cure my itch and be a tank i can hold on to for awhile ha. It seems like every year for the past 2 i've upgraded.





Here is the new fixture that will be going over my 90g Prop tank

 

thanks! yeah this hobby gets a little out of control sometimes. haha;D

The lagoon wasfun but I'm really looking forward to having 24" deep tank again. I'm obsessed with SPS and the lagoon was definitely good forcoral, but its nice to be able to see the fish swimming around ha

 

With the lagoon tank: I would move all the rock work to the sides of the tank so that you can wear a bathing suit and sit in your tank and let the fish and shrimpies play with their master.

Haha I bet only working w 12" of water can be aggravating at times! My gf won't allow me to get any more addicted than I already am until I move into a new apartment!

 

Subscribed! Great looking systems. Cant wait to see them all at their best after the move again!