Dual 250 gallon Marineland Monterey Deep Dimension build

[davidfrances]

After almost a year of planning, last week I ordered two (yes, that’s 2) 250 gallon Marineland Deep Dimension tanks from Midwest Reefs, my local aquarium store. I finally completed finishing off my basement, and purposefully designed a space for both tanks. Both tanks will have factory stands and canopies, and will sit directly on the basement slab. I’m expecting to take delivery of the tanks in 2-3 weeks, so I’m now in the process of sorting through and cleaning all my old aquarium equipment and seeing what can be reused, repurposed, sold or otherwise disposed of.

Both tanks will be Berlin method, bare bottomed. In the 90’s, I ran all my tanks without substrate, and had very few problems. After a few months, the glass was covered in coralline algae and soft coral and polyp growth usually followed. In the mid to late 2000’s I ran a shallow sand bed in my tanks, and seemed to have nothing but problems with dissolved organics and algae. I understand this is a hotly contested topic, and if I change my mind, I can always gradually add a SSB after the fact.

Other significant departure from my past experience:

• Lower overall turn-over rates.
• Abandoning my fanatical devotion to MH’s, and switching to LED’s and T-5’s. Specifically, I’m weary of the high utility bills and excess heat output of the MH’s, and for once would like to run my reef without a dedicated chiller.
• No more “wall of reef” look. Given the footprint of these tanks (60” x 36”) I’m going to incorporate reef bommies in my aquascape.
• I’m thinking of trying a blackout window film for the backing on the tank. I’ve painted the back in the past, but if anyone has other ideas I’d like to hear them.

SOFT CORAL REEF
One of the250 gallon tanks will be a dedicated soft coral reef. I will likely have a few hardy SPS’s, but not many, as well as clams. In the past, I’ve had good luck with montipora’s and heliopora’s, and will initially limit the tank to those. The remainder of the corals will be softies, including zoanthids, mushrooms, leathers, etc.

Equipment:
1. Lighting – 6x Mazarra Maxspect P-series LED units
2. Sump – modified 40 gallon breeder
3. Return Pump – two (2) Eheim 1262’s, each plumbed to a separate overflow return.
4. Skimmer – Skimz SM 251 Monzter E-Series (I may need to change this depending on the inside dimensions of the stand, right now I’m worried it will be too tall)
5. Calcium Reactor – Korallin C-3002
6. Freshwater top-off (to maintain constant osmotic balance) – 25 gallon transport tank, bellows pump and float switch
7. Water motion – 4x Tunze Turbelle Streams (the original versions). I’ve had these in operation almost continuously for 5+ years and four cross-country moves without a single problem and don’t see the need to change them unless they begin to fail.
8. Heater – TBD depending on temperature fluctuations.

FOWLR
The other 250 gallon tank will be a Fish Only With Live Rock tank, specifically dedicated to larger more aggressive marine fish. My wife and I both like the larger marine angels, and have seen photos of tanks that break all the compatibility rules. This will be one of them. I’ll try to keep some of the more noxious softies here, but the focus will be fish and not inverts in this tank. Given the design of the room, this tank will receive some natural sunlight on the right side.

Equipment (much the same as above):
1. Lighting – 48” T-5 TEK light (8x54W)
2. Sump – modified 40 gallon breeder
3. Return Pump – two (2) Eheim 1262’s, each plumbed to a separate overflow return.
4. Skimmer – Skimz SM 251 Monzter E-Series ( I may need to change this depending on the inside dimensions of the stand, right now I’m worried it will be too tall)
5. Freshwater top-off (to maintain constant osmotic balance) – 25 gallon transport tank, bellows pump and float switch
6. Water motion – I’m going cheap here, and will try the Hydor Koralia product.
7. I may run a UV sterilizer on this tank, especially given what I expect will be a high bio-load. I recall reading an article by Randy Holmes-Farley(?) about the interaction of UV on organics and nutrient export; I plan on doing some additional research before I commit.
8. Heater – TBD depending on temperature fluctuations.


Existing System
My existing system is an approximately 200+/- gallon quarantine/holding system composed of seven (7) 10 and six (6) 20H tanks drilled and plumbed to a 40 gallon sump and a 15+ year old Lifereef trickle filter. This system will handle quarantine duties and may be converted to a breeder system in the future.

I’ll begin posting pictures upon receipt of the tanks (Although I need to remember how ). I’m off tonight to pick up the 40 breeder’s I’ll use as my sumps, and will likely order a combination of live and dry reef rock from Liverockranch.com as soon as the DD tanks arrive. You are welcome to follow along. Feedback is also welcome.

[ClownNut]

for fish only try reef brite led(50/50), it grows a lot less algea. 2 should be able to cover your tank with only 120w.

[davidfrances]

Here's a few updated pictures of my build. Narrative to follow:

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[davidfrances]

This posting will update the build status of my two 250 gallon Marineland Deep Dimension tanks. I purchased both tanks from Midwest Reefs, a local aquarium store. I ordered both in mid-October, and they were delivered to my dealer by mid-December. Some scheduling snafu’s around the holidays resulted in a delivery to my home of one of the tanks on December 26th. Unfortunately, we discovered that Marineland factory personnel forgot to silicone in one of the overflows to the other tank, which delayed it’s delivery to my home until January 5th.

So now that they’re both delivered, it’s time to transition from the planning phase to the assembly stage. As you can see from the photograph, both tanks are placed end-to-end against an outside wall. The tank on the left will be the mixed reef, the tank on the right will be for softies, shrooms, and zooas.

MIXED REEF
This tank is intended to be a mixed coral reef. My equipment thus far follows:

1. Lighting – 2 x 5' Hamilton Belize Sun 2 x 250W 14k HQI’s + 2 x 80W HO T5’s + LED Lighting. Total 4 x 250W 14k HQI’s and 4 x 80W HO T5’s. Given the 36” front to back dimensions of the tank, and the fact that I’m using the factory canopy, I needed two fixtures to obtain the proper coverage.
2. Sump – modified 40 gallon breeder
3. Return Pump – two (2) Eheim 1262’s, each plumbed to a separate overflow return.
4. Skimmer – Skimz SM 251 Monzter E-Series
5. Calcium Reactor – Korallin C-3002
6. Freshwater top-off (to maintain constant osmotic balance) – 25 gallon transport tank, bellows pump and float switch
7. Water motion – 4x Tunze Turbelle Streams (the original versions). I’ve had these in operation almost continuously for 5+ years and four cross-country moves without a single problem and don’t see the need to change them unless they begin to fail.
8. Heater – Eheim Jager TruTemp 250 Watt

SOFT CORAL TANK
This tank is intended to be a dedicated to larger more aggressive marine fish. I’ll try to keep some of the more noxious softies here, but the focus will be fish and not inverts in this tank. Given the design of the room, this tank will receive a fair bit of natural sunlight on the right side.

Equipment (much the same as above):
1. Lighting – 60” T5 ATI SunPower (8x80W)
2. Sump – modified 40 gallon breeder
3. Return Pump – two (2) Mag-12’s, each plumbed to a separate overflow return.
4. Skimmer – Skimz SM 251 Monzter E-Series
5. Freshwater top-off (to maintain constant osmotic balance) – 25 gallon transport tank, bellows pump and float switch
6. Water motion – I’m going cheap here, and will try the Hydor Koralia product.
7. Heater – Eheim Jager TruTemp 250 Watt


Existing System
My existing system has been revised to an approximately 180+/- gallon quarantine/holding system composed of four (4) 10 and six (6) 20H tanks drilled and plumbed to a 40 gallon sump and a 23 year old Lifereef trickle filter (I think I bought it in the summer of 1990). Most of my used and leftover equipment over the years has been repurposed for this system. This system will handle quarantine duties and may be converted to a breeder system in the future.


CONSIDERATIONS

1. Canopy – I’ve received a fair bit of criticism over my use of a canopy on both tanks. Our previous tanks had always been open tops. My spouse always wanted a canopy. Both tanks have canopies to maintain symmetry. Period.
2. Natural light – The right hand tank will receive quite a bit of natural light, given that it’s right side is next to a very large window. That window is on the south side of the house, facing a patio. The patio is below a large second story deck and during certain times of the year it will receive direct sunlight. The rest of the year it will have indirect illumination from the outside.
3. Natural light part 2 – Both tanks will receive some ambient light from the windows and doors in the picture. If this proves to be problematic, I will have to develop a solution to address.
4. Quarantine tank(s) – Never used them before, and I always have had problems with ich outbreaks. I don’t really care about stories from people who never use them and never have had problems. Too much like Russian roulette. I now have a system dedicated for quarantine and intend to use it.
5. Sand Bed - I had originally intended to go BB, but after a fair bit of consideration I decided to experiment with a half and half approach. There are a number of animals I’d like to keep that would require some substrate. I plan on placing my rock on a base of glass blocks, and leave a SSB area. Until I actually get down to the aquascaping, I won’t know exactly how much sand versus BB I’ll actually have. I did something similar to this once before
6. Aquascaping – I’m using about 320 lbs of “Prime Cuts”. I placed ~180lbs in the mixed reef, the remainder will go in the other tank. I did something a little different with the aquascaping – I built a base of glass blocks, added a few sheets of ½” plexiglass, and stacked the rock on top of it. The result was a pretty open structure under the rockwork.
7. I also learned a lot about glass blocks:
a. glass blocks float (I would have thought they didn’t displace enough water), so I used my 2 ½” glass hole saw to drill them out.
b. glass blocks have a vacuum inside of them – the first one I drilled with the 2 ½” bit imploded rather dramatically. I drilled all the others with a ½” bit to break the vacuum, and then drilled one of the sides with the 2 ½” saw. Now each block can serve as a refuge for smaller fish up to the size of pygmy angels.
c. glass blocks are edge coated with some form of polymer (or latex paint?) – I don’t know the composition of the coating, and therefore didn’t want it in the tank. A little bit of acetone takes the coating right off.
d. glass blocks drill a lot easier than tanks. After the first failure due to the vacuum, I drilled all the others in a couple minutes or less each.
8. Photoperiod –On the mixed reef, I’ll be running four (4) 250W 14k HQI’s and four (4) 80W HO T5’s. I’ll be able to stagger the duration of all lights by utilizing timers, but will seek to have a 100% intensity for 4 hours, 75% for 4 hours, and 50% for the remaining 4 hours for a total artificially illuminated photoperiod of 12 hours. This may need to be modified based upon ambient light and spillage from the adjacent tank.

[davidfrances]

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updated

[Reefed419]

Looking good David. Wish I had the space for a project like this. Nicde documentation so far. Look forward to seeing this build progress. Like the rock work. Interesting fact on the glass blocks. I am sure that will come in handy for someone down the line, thanks for sharing that with us. How far into the cycle are you? When u going to start adding live stock?

[davidfrances]

Thank you. The left tank has been running for about a month, I cycled it with a liquid product and just added livestock this weekend.:

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[worm5406]

Very nice. How much sun does the other tank get? Or is it not direct?

[davidfrances]

The right tank is against a south facing window and currently gets a fair bit of direct sunlight in the mornings. Since I have to hold down a full time job to afford the hobby , I only get to observe the natural light photo-period on the weekends. I'm guessing it's only an hour or so of direct sunbeam through the tank, then a few hours or strong indirect light.

I'm going to have to monitor it through the seasons.

My artificial light photo period is:

1100-1300 - 160W actinics
1300-2000 - 500W MH's
2000-2200 - 160W actinics

[worm5406]

Nice.... Yeah I understand that having to have a job part. It puts food on my table and gas in the vehicles. Which in turn takes me to work or the LFS. (hahahaha I do not know which is stressful the most)

[hoooop54]

David, it looks like your skimz fit. I am looking at this stand and canopy (120g version or 150xh), how much space do you have on the inside of the canopy? So far, do you like the stand and canopy?

[davidfrances]

Yes, the Skimz fits in the stand, with about 1.5" to spare. There's not much space in the canopy for lights. The stands and canopies are well made. If I had to do it over, I would jettison the canopies, they are a two man (not a man and his tiny wife) job to lift off the tanks, especially the way I have them configured.

[davidfrances]

updated pictures:

[davidfrances]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/al...ictureid=53462

[Newbie Aquarist]

The double DD dimension tanks look good. Cant wait to see the growth and more fish.

[david00061]

looking great. We need to get together soon

[moppy]

The Marineland DD tanks are great. My new tank was designed using similar dimensions, just wanted a coast to coast overflow incorporated.

Looking good with the 250 however!

[davidfrances]

Test upload, side by side shot

[davidfrances]

[david00061]

Looks assume

[david00061]

If you have time can you share this build on salt-city.org

[davidfrances]

Update:

After almost 4 months, I've decided I dislike the Hamilton Metal Halides. I plan on switching over to LED's, so please stand by.

Stocking list so far:
Right hand side 250 -
Harlequin Tusk (Choerodon fasciatus);
Sailfin Tang, Desjardini (Zebrasoma desjardini);
5x Spotted Cardinalfish (Sphaeramia nematoptera);
Blue Girdled Angelfish (Pomacanthus navarchus);
Annularis Angelfish (Pomacanthus annularis) - tank raised juvenile;
Yellowstripe Maroon Clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus);
Red Coris Wrasse (Coris gaimard)

Left hand side 250 -
Coral Beauty Angelfish (Centropyge bispinosa);
Red Stripe Angelfish (Centropyge eibli);
Flame Angelfish (Centropyge loricula);
Yellow Wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus);
Purple Dottyback (Pseudochromis porphyreus);
Six Line Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia);
9x Yellowtail Damselfish (Chrysiptera parasema);
1x Blue Damselfish (Chrysiptera cyanea);
2x Blue/Green Reef Chromis (Chromis viridis);
2x True Percula Clownfish (Amphiprion percula)

So far I'm pleased with my stocking choice. I'm considering adding a Goldflake Angel and a Purple tang to the left side tank.

[davidfrances]

Example of my sump and ATO. Both tanks have identical set-ups. (pH is a little low in the morning)

[davidfrances]

New lights: Four (4) ReefBreeder Photon 24's over each tank:

[davidfrances]

New pictures: