Triple-S Fish Ranch - 1700gal 164” x 48” x 56” SPS peninsula build

[pmrogers]

Thanks, everyone, for the supportive comments. All in all, I think you are too kind to someone who has squandered such a level of investment to achieve a mediocre result on every axis other than size, install tidyness and fish health, but I do very much appreciate your patience.

Regarding the questions, yes, the DT was hyper saline as well as the QT. The QTs and DT are essentially always in sync given that over a third of each QT's water is replaced with DT water each week. It seems that the fish, other than perhaps the yellow tangs, are just not as sensitive to salinity changes as the invertebrates.

One thing I've noticed most recently in the DT is that the coraline algae seems to be dying back, and the rocks are becoming less purple rather than more purple. Also, the soft corals and anemone in the FQT3 tank are looking unhappy. I'm a little worried that moving to the daily filter sock replacement routine on the DT as a result of the vodka-induced bacterial filter sock clogging is letting too much chlorine into the DT system. I'm planning to start soaking the washed filter socks in a RO/DI + Amquel bucket for a day before re-introducing to the DT. In the meanwhile, I'm keeping a close eye on the Coral QT health as the amount of water exchange with the DT is ramping up. So far, no bad signs; fingers crossed.

[innerspark]

Love following your tank through the ups and downs. We all have them and we all learn from it. Glad to hear you getting back into the coral game. Try washing your filter socks without bleach at all. It's how I do mine. Super hot water, inside out and ran twice.

[Mishri]

Thanks for all in the info, i've been following your thread for awhile and found a lot of it useful/things to watch out for.

For the filter socks, do you have a bunch? for my 300 gallon I plan on running 2 socks at a time, and ordering about 30 of them, so if I change my socks every 2-4 days I'll have about 1 to 2 months supply, then I can throw them all in the washing machine without any detergent. (recommendation is run 1 empty load to wash out the washing machine, then do the socks, no detergents... my washer also has a steam setting that might help get them cleaner) from videos ive seen of people using a washing machine like that the socks come out looking like new.

[pmrogers]

innerspark, thanks for the suggestion. I will try going back to water-only wash. I did this in the early days but my OCD just couldn't deal with the socks still being discolored after washing. The fish room washer is a bare bones old tech unit without steam. Better unsightly filter socks than dead corals, though!

Originally Posted by Mishri

Thanks for all in the info, i've been following your thread for awhile and found a lot of it useful/things to watch out for.

For the filter socks, do you have a bunch? for my 300 gallon I plan on running 2 socks at a time, and ordering about 30 of them, so if I change my socks every 2-4 days I'll have about 1 to 2 months supply, then I can throw them all in the washing machine without any detergent. (recommendation is run 1 empty load to wash out the washing machine, then do the socks, no detergents... my washer also has a steam setting that might help get them cleaner) from videos ive seen of people using a washing machine like that the socks come out looking like new.

Hi Mishri,

I have 15 socks at the moment, though I'm about to have a bunch more as I'm going to try 400 micron socks which are custom order in minimum batch of 50.

Be aware that the 32" socks get quite stinky in a day or two unwashed. You will want a trash can with tight lid or something similar to store them in if you're going a month+ between washings. The washer in our fish room is a mini, so it can only do 4 socks per load. I would guess a full size washer could only do 12 or so socks per load.

[ADVRESOURCE]

I do a small cap of bleach for socks and towels. Then run another full cycle with water only. Both cycles on hot. Then I let air dry. Since I bought a lot of socks, I let them sit and air out before cycling through the tank. I learned this from my lfs.

[dave.m]

Instead of soap or bleach I add a cup of double-vinegar, instead. It's used especially for cleaning and can usually be found at the grocery store.

Dave.M

[worm5406]

Balsamic or apple cider?

Just kidding I know it is white. Don't want marinated fish swimming around.

LOL

[fairymary58]

hi,
ive just spent the last 4 days reading your entire journal. i am in awe of your tank and the honesty in the god and the bad you have shared.

Im hoping you can share exactly how your run your closed loop as i got confused in the earlier post. i am hoping to create a 12ft long by 2.5foot wide by 3foot high tank which will not have a tank room and everything will have to be contained in the stand itself.

i hope to hear from you soon

[alton]

I like others are joining this build late, but wow! This is awesome, sorry about your set backs but sounds like you have it figured out and are your way back to perfection. Also having Ty as a friend definitely helps. Some have a green thumb, Ty has a coral thumb. It is amazing what he can do when it comes to growing coral!

[iced98lx]

Originally Posted by ADVRESOURCE

I do a small cap of bleach for socks and towels. Then run another full cycle with water only. Both cycles on hot. Then I let air dry. Since I bought a lot of socks, I let them sit and air out before cycling through the tank. I learned this from my lfs.

Similarly I do a "Rinse and Spin" cycle after the first wash with bleach and then allow to air dry completely.

[OzIA]

I am assuming everyone has seen the Roller Mat. I believe they are only rated for 600 gph, so it may take more than one for these large tanks but I have to say, I am a big fan. No washing socks, no worry about having someone change them while you are out of town or on vacation...

[AkoAung]

Your fish collection looks fantastic. Who needs sticks when you have pretty fishes.

[chris o]

Here is a larger version that I have been looking at for my 430. I plan on calling them next week to get more info.

http://www.seavisions.com/CADS%20PAGE.htm

Chris

[Masedaddy]

I use a large bucket for filter socks, I fill with RODI water add a capful of bleach and let them sit with a lid on till I have enough dirty ones for a washer load. Then I wash with hot water with extra rinse. I add Prime (chlorine neutralizer) to the wager once it's filled with water. Occasionally I'll wash again with the socks turned inside out... this process works extremely well and I have seen no issues with residual bleach in the socks.

On a side note: always run a hot wash cycle with extra rinse after you wash socks if you don't have a dedicated washer for fish supplies.... my wife was ****ed and I learned the hard way....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pmrogers]

Thanks everyone for the comments and filter sock advice. Those of you with heart conditions should look away now as this is in fact my second update in less than a month. I'm excited because. . .

Coral D-Day Set!
Feb 11th is the date for first installation of corals to the display tank. Farmer Ty and another local reefer have graciously offered to do the diving/wading and gluing honors for this first batch. I will post pictures and/or video shortly thereafter.

Moving on to other updates:

Nitrates
After the last post I upped vodka dosing to 300mL/day for a couple of weeks to try and push past the plateau of 8-12ppm nitrates that the system seemed to be stuck at. This worked after about 10 days and Nitrates dropped to between 2 and 4ppm. Since I'm targeting 5ppm, I reduced dosing to 240mL last week. Concurrent with the reduced dosing, I broke down and ordered another Liter Meter to automate vodka dosing (bringing me up to 20 channels of dosing now).

Filter Socks
Using vineger rather than bleach to wash the filter socks was not sufficient to flush the jelly-like bacteria that was clogging the socks every 36 hours: vinegar-washed socks would clog within 12 hours.

While waiting for the 400-micron socks and Amquel to arrive, I started double and triple washing the old socks using only water for the later cycles. Even with a triple wash/double rinse, the socks still had a faint odor of bleach 24 hours after washing. I suspect the front-load washer just isn't using enough water to thoroughly flush the socks. On the encouraging side, I noted with a sock held back from rotation that the bleach smell dissipates completely by the beginning of the 3rd day of drying. Not that my nose is the ultimate chlorine detector, but still encouraging.

Next up: 400 micron socks. These didn't clog at all. However, pore size is too large to filter out the finer detritus.

At this point it seemed the best course would be to order an additional 18 of the 200-micron filter socks. This would allow 3 full days for a batch of socks to dry and release any bleach.

End of the jelly slime bacteria?
I haven't ordered the additional filter socks yet, though, because the jelly-like bacteria that was clogging them seems to have gone away. I have a few hypotheses for this. The first, and the one I hope is true, is that other bacteria have developed enough to outcompete the jelly slime. Another possibility is that the switch from manually dosing 100mL of vodka three times per day to dosing continuously caused the jelly slime to go away; perhaps it required the higher carbon levels of bulk dosing to get established whereas as the continuous smaller doses allow other organisms to consume the carbon first.

Whatever the cause, I am hugely relieved that I'm now on day 4 of the same filter socks with no perceptible clogging as of yet.

Titanium/Teflon Film Algae Progress
Last update I mentioned the new-to-me film algae that is so impossibly tough, completely impervious to the tools that work against calcareous algae. I remove much of it using metal scrapers prior to a holiday party, at the expense of adding numerous scratches to the viewing pane glass. 3 weekends ago, I decided to go after the algae with plastic acrylic-safe implements. 1 hour in with my 5-foot scraper pole and plastic Kent scraper blades I had cleared off about 3% of the algae, and strained a shoulder muscle as a bonus. Getting sufficient leverage to remove the algae was requiring 30+ pounds of force delivered with almost no leverage. This was not going to work.

I then created an extension arm for the scraper to take it to 8' of length. "What?", you say, "8' scraper for a tank only 5 and a half feet deep?" Yes. I took advantage of the resilience of schedule 80 PVC to warp the extension arm into nearly a 90-degree arc, resulting in immensely effective pressure at the scraper blade against glass. The warped extension arm is braced against a towel over the aquarium frame and then agitated vertically to scrape the opposite viewing pane with substantial force. Still took a while, but 8 hours later, the primary viewing panes are 95% clear of the nasty film algae. The only major trouble spot remaining is the narrow pane at the end of the tank, where there is no opposite frame to use as leverage for warping the scraper extension.

Fortunately, Farmer Ty has volunteered to hand scrape the remaining trouble spots while he is in the tank with it 20% drained.

And finally, questions. . .

Originally Posted by fairymary58

hi,
ive just spent the last 4 days reading your entire journal. i am in awe of your tank and the honesty in the good and the bad you have shared.

Im hoping you can share exactly how your run your closed loop as i got confused in the earlier post. i am hoping to create a 12ft long by 2.5foot wide by 3foot high tank which will not have a tank room and everything will have to be contained in the stand itself.

i hope to hear from you soon

Thanks, fairyman58!
I went with "option 2" as described in post #276. There are two 2" holes in the bottom of the tank at opposite ends. The one closest to the overflow is the intake, the one at the far end is an output. The output runs through a custom manifold box that splits it into four 3/4" loc-line outputs, shown in post #494. The plumbing underneath the tank is as simple as can be since there is nothing else under there to complicate things. The intake bulkhead connects to a ball valve, then 2" flex PVC runs along the bottom middle of the drain shower pan to the intake of the Abyzz 420. The output of the Abyzz goes directly into a ball valve, followed by bulkhead then the custom manifold.

Originally Posted by OzIA

I am assuming everyone has seen the Roller Mat. I believe they are only rated for 600 gph, so it may take more than one for these large tanks but I have to say, I am a big fan. No washing socks, no worry about having someone change them while you are out of town or on vacation...

Hi OzIA, thanks for the pointer. I love the design concept of the roller mat and did consider it a few years ago when designing the system, but a few issues led me away from it: #1, a bad experience when evaluating their Dialyseas unit 12 years ago for the 750; and #2 my system would have required 8 of their largest units at the time. Now, I see I could get away with 2 of their 55gpm units, which is reasonable, but the bad experience with Dialyseas still leaves me inclined to stay away from them.

One of the main things I noted at the time of the 750 setup still applies today, which is that they seem to be a fish-only oriented company. In 1995, they had zero demo systems with live corals, showing only fish systems with fake plastic corals; today, they have 1 and it is almost as unimpressive as my current system.

The other thing that stood out to me at the time was that it appeared they had no consideration of ongoing maintenance time or cost. Basically, they seemed to assume daily dedicated maintenance service and zero cost sensitivity, neither of which worked for me. Even with the relatively generous budget standards of this system I considered them unreasonably expensive. They wanted on the order of 500k for a 300 gallon system that would then have ongoing $1500/month maintenance cost. And maybe not fair to judge the whole company by, the but sales person I spoke with came across as a stereotypical high-pressure used-car salesman.

[AkoAung]

Sounds awesome! Looking forward to it.

[locito277]

Originally Posted by pmrogers

Thanks everyone for the comments and filter sock advice. Those of you with heart conditions should look away now as this is in fact my second update in less than a month. I'm excited because. . .



Coral D-Day Set!

Feb 11th is the date for first installation of corals to the display tank. Farmer Ty and another local reefer have graciously offered to do the diving/wading and gluing honors for this first batch. I will post pictures and/or video shortly thereafter.



Moving on to other updates:



Nitrates

After the last post I upped vodka dosing to 300mL/day for a couple of weeks to try and push past the plateau of 8-12ppm nitrates that the system seemed to be stuck at. This worked after about 10 days and Nitrates dropped to between 2 and 4ppm. Since I'm targeting 5ppm, I reduced dosing to 240mL last week. Concurrent with the reduced dosing, I broke down and ordered another Liter Meter to automate vodka dosing (bringing me up to 20 channels of dosing now).



Filter Socks

Using vineger rather than bleach to wash the filter socks was not sufficient to flush the jelly-like bacteria that was clogging the socks every 36 hours: vinegar-washed socks would clog within 12 hours.



While waiting for the 400-micron socks and Amquel to arrive, I started double and triple washing the old socks using only water for the later cycles. Even with a triple wash/double rinse, the socks still had a faint odor of bleach 24 hours after washing. I suspect the front-load washer just isn't using enough water to thoroughly flush the socks. On the encouraging side, I noted with a sock held back from rotation that the bleach smell dissipates completely by the beginning of the 3rd day of drying. Not that my nose is the ultimate chlorine detector, but still encouraging.



Next up: 400 micron socks. These didn't clog at all. However, pore size is too large to filter out the finer detritus.



At this point it seemed the best course would be to order an additional 18 of the 200-micron filter socks. This would allow 3 full days for a batch of socks to dry and release any bleach.



End of the jelly slime bacteria?

I haven't ordered the additional filter socks yet, though, because the jelly-like bacteria that was clogging them seems to have gone away. I have a few hypotheses for this. The first, and the one I hope is true, is that other bacteria have developed enough to outcompete the jelly slime. Another possibility is that the switch from manually dosing 100mL of vodka three times per day to dosing continuously caused the jelly slime to go away; perhaps it required the higher carbon levels of bulk dosing to get established whereas as the continuous smaller doses allow other organisms to consume the carbon first.



Whatever the cause, I am hugely relieved that I'm now on day 4 of the same filter socks with no perceptible clogging as of yet.



Titanium/Teflon Film Algae Progress

Last update I mentioned the new-to-me film algae that is so impossibly tough, completely impervious to the tools that work against calcareous algae. I remove much of it using metal scrapers prior to a holiday party, at the expense of adding numerous scratches to the viewing pane glass. 3 weekends ago, I decided to go after the algae with plastic acrylic-safe implements. 1 hour in with my 5-foot scraper pole and plastic Kent scraper blades I had cleared off about 3% of the algae, and strained a shoulder muscle as a bonus. Getting sufficient leverage to remove the algae was requiring 30+ pounds of force delivered with almost no leverage. This was not going to work.



I then created an extension arm for the scraper to take it to 8' of length. "What?", you say, "8' scraper for a tank only 5 and a half feet deep?" Yes. I took advantage of the resilience of schedule 80 PVC to warp the extension arm into nearly a 90-degree arc, resulting in immensely effective pressure at the scraper blade against glass. The warped extension arm is braced against a towel over the aquarium frame and then agitated vertically to scrape the opposite viewing pane with substantial force. Still took a while, but 8 hours later, the primary viewing panes are 95% clear of the nasty film algae. The only major trouble spot remaining is the narrow pane at the end of the tank, where there is no opposite frame to use as leverage for warping the scraper extension.



Fortunately, Farmer Ty has volunteered to hand scrape the remaining trouble spots while he is in the tank with it 20% drained.



And finally, questions. . .







Thanks, fairyman58!

I went with "option 2" as described in post #276. There are two 2" holes in the bottom of the tank at opposite ends. The one closest to the overflow is the intake, the one at the far end is an output. The output runs through a custom manifold box that splits it into four 3/4" loc-line outputs, shown in post #494. The plumbing underneath the tank is as simple as can be since there is nothing else under there to complicate things. The intake bulkhead connects to a ball valve, then 2" flex PVC runs along the bottom middle of the drain shower pan to the intake of the Abyzz 420. The output of the Abyzz goes directly into a ball valve, followed by bulkhead then the custom manifold.









Hi OzIA, thanks for the pointer. I love the design concept of the roller mat and did consider it a few years ago when designing the system, but a few issues led me away from it: #1, a bad experience when evaluating their Dialyseas unit 12 years ago for the 750; and #2 my system would have required 8 of their largest units at the time. Now, I see I could get away with 2 of their 55gpm units, which is reasonable, but the bad experience with Dialyseas still leaves me inclined to stay away from them.



One of the main things I noted at the time of the 750 setup still applies today, which is that they seem to be a fish-only oriented company. In 1995, they had zero demo systems with live corals, showing only fish systems with fake plastic corals; today, they have 1 and it is almost as unimpressive as my current system.



The other thing that stood out to me at the time was that it appeared they had no consideration of ongoing maintenance time or cost. Basically, they seemed to assume daily dedicated maintenance service and zero cost sensitivity, neither of which worked for me. Even with the relatively generous budget standards of this system I considered them unreasonably expensive. They wanted on the order of 500k for a 300 gallon system that would then have ongoing $1500/month maintenance cost. And maybe not fair to judge the whole company by, the but sales person I spoke with came across as a stereotypical high-pressure used-car salesman.

Brother there is nothing unimpressive about your system! Glad Ty got you to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Need reefers like you that give us other reefers something to reach for. Well need more pics of the tank btw!! Maybe a YouTube channel?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[IANick]

Quote:

"They wanted on the order of 500k for a 300 gallon system that would then have ongoing $1500/month maintenance cost."

I know this is an elite system in nearly every respect, but surely that is a typo. $500k?

That question aside, I continue to be fascinated and enthralled by the progress of the system. I think we all could sense your discouragement when faced with your coral issues, and I'm glad that you have found your "second wind" so to speak. I will echo the comments of many others - your forthright manner in admitting mistakes, and not just owning your successes, is a refreshing and needed resource for all reefers and aspiring reefers (as I seem destined to remain).

In any event, my comments bring another few questions to mind: have you ever regretted the scale of your ambition on this project? Coral specific issues aside, has the project to date met your expectations?

Thank you, and continued best wishes in turning your fish only tank into a true reef!

[King Jason]

Was reading about your issues with the ECM-63 and snails. Do you have the Honey Comb Basket around it and this still happened?

[OzIA]

Paul,
I wanted to say how much I admire your museum quality, home system. I have really enjoyed reading through your post. Your planning and attention to detail leave us all something to aspire to.

I am also glad to see that you seem to have turned the corner and pushed through the difficulties. I appreciate your honesty and really felt your pain late last year.

I hadn't seen the SeaVision version of the automatic felt changer until Chris O. pointed it out. That vacuum cleaner unit seems sort of funny.

There is a nice post about carbon dosing that may be worth your read, if you haven’t already.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...+carbon+dosing

I am surprised the bacteria slime in your filter socks seems to have resolved itself on it's own and not surprised that cleaning them with vinegar was not a good idea, since it is an organic carbon source itself.

Looking forward to your next post.

Aaron

[chris o]

I actually ordered the 600 head unit yesterday for my current 430 build. Spoke with the owner who was very helpful and answered my questions. Just the be clear it is the cads cloth head unit only and not the vacuum thing. I will let you know how it turns out. Hopefully no more socks (except for my QT tanks).

Chris

[Dxpert]

Fantastic updates! Thanks for sharing in the restart and more importantly the trials and tribulations of the tank. I've enjoyed the journey of following along and have learned a bunch. More pictures would be very appreciated.

[Griff500]

Clarisea in the UK have released some roller filters that have good flow capacity (just got one and impressed). They are going to be bringing out larger models but I've no idea if those they would have sufficient flow capacity. Royal Exclusive also now do a filter roll version of their Dreambox. I wouldn't be surprised if they could build a standalone unit but I've no idea about flow capacity.

Love everything about your build and looking forward to seeing it develop.

[VanJuKy]

[QUOTE=iced98lx;24913155]I think it has been said before, but I'll say it again, as hard it is to write about the downs (scratches, death, etc) it is a benefit to the community to learn with you and I appreciate the insights into running such a large system. QUOTE]

Well said!

[pmrogers]

Who woulda thunk it? A mere 103 years (subjective) after starting the build, we have corals in the display tank. FarmerTy and John S came over on Saturday to install the first batch of 11 corals in the display.

A few observations from the day:

• Coral Quarantine has some pests: aiptasia, pyramid snails, hydroids. I had spotted the aiptasia previously, but it took John's eagle eyes to find the couple of hydroids, pyramid and vermetid snails.
• Because of the pests, we cut all frags off of their bases with the exception of a couple that had completely encrusted around their plug or mounting disc
• The large jedi mind trick colony was not transferred due to the vermetid snails on its base rock. Next round, Ty will bring his band saw to cut the base away from the colony.
• 79 degree water gets cold in a hurry when you are not actively swimming. Both Ty and John (despite his "nordic blood" his words, not mine) were shivering 15 minutes into their 90 minute dive. I did at least set up one of the guest bathrooms with a space heater and had it waiting for them at about 95F when they got out of the tank.
• Buoyancy is a challenge-- weight belts recommended!
• Tunze Coral Gum sets almost too quickly. Very nice that it doesn't have a smell or leave residue on the hands, though.
• 2 Hydrowizards from 6 feet away have enough force to make it difficult to move against them even as a full size human. They were turned off for the duration of the install.
• The Coral Beauty and Borbonius Anthias are the bravest fish in our collection; they were the only ones to occasionally swim out from under the ostrich to inspect Ty and John at work.
• 28" from the output of a hydrowizard pulsing between 10% and 100% may be too close even for SPS. While it is difficult to tell with a skittles granulosa, it appears that the flow force may be ripping the polyps off of the skeleton.

Center arch before frags



Getting Started



Ty and John placing the corals without glue for layout approval



Epoxy and superglue sandwich for each frag


Frags installed!



Jelly Slime Bacteria
In other news, my declaration of victory over the jelly slime bacteria was premature. Shortly after the last post I realized that vodka level in the source bottle wasn't draining as quickly as it should. Sure enough, there was a kink in the output hose and only the tiniest dribble was making it to the tank. Once I started truly dosing 240mL again the slime came back.

A few days of experimentation established that the slime bacteria kicks in just north of 140mL. I'm currently running 140mL/day and hoping that this is sufficient to slow the nitrate buildup until the Biochurn 10T reactor arrives. Not super hopeful, though, as with just 4 days of zero dosing following by a day of 240mL then a week of dosing between 100 and 150mL, nitrates are already back up to 5 after being at zero 3 weeks prior.


Questions
Moving on to the questions since last post:

Originally Posted by OzIA

Paul,
I wanted to say how much I admire your museum quality, home system. I have really enjoyed reading through your post. Your planning and attention to detail leave us all something to aspire to.

. . .

I am surprised the bacteria slime in your filter socks seems to have resolved itself on it's own and not surprised that cleaning them with vinegar was not a good idea, since it is an organic carbon source itself.
Aaron

Thanks for the kind words, Aaron. And yes, you were absolutely right to be surprised by the jelly bacteria 'resolution'. If only it could have been so. . .

Originally Posted by King Jason

Was reading about your issues with the ECM-63 and snails. Do you have the Honey Comb Basket around it and this still happened?

Thanks so much for asking this. No, I do not have the honeycomb basket and was not aware that it was an option. This must have been released since the time of my last purchase (or surely they would have mentioned it to me when I ordered 6 replacement impellers?).

Originally Posted by IANick

Quote:

"They wanted on the order of 500k for a 300 gallon system that would then have ongoing $1500/month maintenance cost."

I know this is an elite system in nearly every respect, but surely that is a typo. $500k?

That question aside, I continue to be fascinated and enthralled by the progress of the system. I think we all could sense your discouragement when faced with your coral issues, and I'm glad that you have found your "second wind" so to speak. I will echo the comments of many others - your forthright manner in admitting mistakes, and not just owning your successes, is a refreshing and needed resource for all reefers and aspiring reefers (as I seem destined to remain).

In any event, my comments bring another few questions to mind: have you ever regretted the scale of your ambition on this project? Coral specific issues aside, has the project to date met your expectations?

Thank you, and continued best wishes in turning your fish only tank into a true reef!

Thanks so much, IANick. For your first question, nope, not a typo, though I do recall now that the system I was considering when I spoke to them was a 900gal system, not 300gal. This was for a turnkey system with filtration integrated into the stand, and it wasn't a formal quote. I suppose it is possible that the sales person decided that I wasn't a qualified buyer and was just throwing out a crazy number to blow me off. If so, it worked.

As for the second question, no I do not at all regret the scale. Coral issues aside, this system has been easier to manage than our previous 750gal. If anything, I would go larger. In the earliest design phase I had to choose between a smaller see-through peninsula tank with windows behind it or a larger opaque-backed tank. If I'd gone with the solid back option, the tank could have been 17' x 7' and would have been much easier to maneuver in for maintenance and coral install purposes. Plus the fish would likely have treated it like a 3D environment rather than 2D (i.e., with this system they never really swim directly toward or away from the main viewing panes, only along the length and up and down).

Originally Posted by Griff500

Clarisea in the UK have released some roller filters that have good flow capacity (just got one and impressed). They are going to be bringing out larger models but I've no idea if those they would have sufficient flow capacity. Royal Exclusive also now do a filter roll version of their Dreambox. I wouldn't be surprised if they could build a standalone unit but I've no idea about flow capacity.

Love everything about your build and looking forward to seeing it develop.

Thank you for the tip, Griff500. I've reached out to Royal Exclusive to see about a standalone filter roll option.