I think you understand the measures... 1.200l are about 310gal.
He has try to optimize the equipment and get the maximum water volume. For example, in large aquarium with a length of more than 2m (80 inches) we need several MH/HQI. His tank is like two 150 gal tanks together: length 67 inches and wide 47 inches. In this way he has get a depth of vision of 47 inches... the length of a lot of tanks, and the fishes behave is more similar to the reefs, because they don´t have to swim in front of the front glass all the time.
On the other hand, the height of the table (41 inches) let you to see the tank at the eyes height as it gives a magnificent vision of field (I don´t know if the last phrase is correctly translated ).
The height of 23,6 inches, is may be the maximum to avoid to have a bath every time you clean the tank.
99 gal sump and 44gal RO water tank.
Skimmers; he has used skimmers he had before start this tank.
- Aqua Medic Turboflotor 1.000 multi.
- 2x Berlin (Red Sea) in which Franciso has made some improvements: He has replaced the original pumps and has put Eheim 1060; he has reduce le heigth of the skimmers because of the water volume and bubbles production is very superior. He has also replaced the original wheel, now the skimmers are running with the Aqua Medic needle wheel.
With this three skimmers, he gets a REDOX of 380-400 mv without ozone.
Powerheads:
-2x Eheim 1060 (484 gal/h) up te water from the sump.
-Maxijet (220 gal/h) with a derivation which feeds the calcium reactor.
- 2x 550gal/h Rio sweeping the bottom
- Tunze 7420 (880 gal/h)
- 6x Tunze 6100 (2640 gal/h)
- OTTO (374 ga/h) sweeping the bottom
- 550gal/h Rio to feed the cooler
- 2x 880 gal/h Sicce sweeping the bottom
Total: about 17,600 gal/h, 80 times the tank volume per hour.
The pumps disposition let Francisco to arrive to all the corners of the aquarium, and the on and off of the pumps create a circular flow cross-sectional to the aquarium, that make all the sediments acumulate in a point to facilitate the sediments collection.
At first, 6600 gal/h was the total movement of the water, but with the SPS grow, he had to improve the water circulation.
Lighting:
-3x 250w HQI 10.000ºk 10 hours per day.
-2x 150w HQI 20.000ºk 10 hours per day (at the moment they are off... they don´t like very much to Francisco).
- 4x 36w T8 actinics (Osram 67) 14 hours per day.
All the lighting about 14 inches over the water level.
KH maintenance: Aqua Medic pH-meter calibrated every three weeks.
Calcium reactor Aquacare, for aquarium up to 550 gal. he is very hapy with this reactor, it had several advantages: it runs like a fluidized bed filter, it had a prove for the CO2 enter, so it always works with the same pH without needing pH prove; and finally it has a ventilation camera where pH up.
But also some disadvantages... it waste a lot of substrate and CO2.
It is a very powerful reactor.
For the reactor substrate he uses Reef Base (by Red Sea) and now also some ARM.
The reactor works at a pH lower than the indicated (which is 7.0-7.3) , and with a greater flow, 25-28l (5.5-6.1 gal). The reactor runs 7-8 hours each day.
All the SPS loves the reactor, and they grow very fast.
The Ca fall is also very fast... about 10ppm each light hour; that´s why Francisco test the Ca every day.
Temperature:
Cubigel cooler, 1.000l (220 gal) conected to an Aqua Medic temperature controler in Summer; and Jagger heaters in Winter.
Evaporation control: System 2.000 level controller conected to a Eheim (260 gal/h).
I think you understan the parameters.... Dureza de carbonatos is KH, and is too high (18), but it don´t seems to damage corals.
He add KI (5%) 1ml per week.
SrCl2 (10%) 40ml each week.
Trace elements (Biosanal).
Sometimes Fe and K2NO3 for the macroalgae.
He feeds his fishes every day, withh flake food, and sometimes with froozen brine shrimp.
He cleans the glass two times per week.
He cleans the skimmers evey day.
Evaporation of 2.2 gal ech day.
Water change: 5.5gal/month with sea water. Then he collect all the sediments that are acumulatd in the same point. Sometimes he change more water, it depends of the number of sediments acumulated.
Fishes: there must be, about 80
Corals: a lot, the 85% are frags from themselves.
Livre rock, about 200kg from Kenia.
The decoration is elevated four centimetres of the crystal to favor the cleaning.
Another defects that commonly present reef aquariums is the production of acid sulphidric because of low zones in oxygen underneath the decoration by sediments accumulation, like a consequence of rock (lives and not live) that are used, (and still more if sand of bad quality is used). In this case the best thing is to use a support that elevates the reef and lets underneath pass a water flow, I prefer to use a PVC structure and united backplanes with PVC, so it can move 12.000 l/h
The system is Berlin, without substrate, when Francisco start it, there was any good sand in Spain.
Troubles Francisco has had:
1.- After a year, the wiring wasn´t enough, and he had to do it again, because the bulb didn´t get the right ºk.
2.-Electricity in the aquarium, because of a defective Ocean Runner. After solving these troubles, the Ca levels areeasy to be kept, having problems to avoid beating 500ppm (Saliferte test).
3.- On March, a storm put off the power of the aquarium for 15 hours, Francisco was traveling. Although it wasn´t a lot of time, more than 30 fishes died and he filled a 5l bottle (about 1,3gal) with died acros. Now the aquarium is recovered thanks to the growth.
Since then, Francisco made some improvements:
He installed a web cam which let him see the aquarium every time he wants (the aquarium isn´t at home, it is in his office ); you can see it in his web.
He also installed a phone warned, that calls him if the aquarium tunr off, and aslo installed a device which automatically turn on.
Pocillopora:
Un saludo
Francisco Arrabal
He has try to optimize the equipment and get the maximum water volume. For example, in large aquarium with a length of more than 2m (80 inches) we need several MH/HQI. His tank is like two 150 gal tanks together: length 67 inches and wide 47 inches. In this way he has get a depth of vision of 47 inches... the length of a lot of tanks, and the fishes behave is more similar to the reefs, because they don´t have to swim in front of the front glass all the time.
On the other hand, the height of the table (41 inches) let you to see the tank at the eyes height as it gives a magnificent vision of field (I don´t know if the last phrase is correctly translated ).
The height of 23,6 inches, is may be the maximum to avoid to have a bath every time you clean the tank.
99 gal sump and 44gal RO water tank.
Skimmers; he has used skimmers he had before start this tank.
- Aqua Medic Turboflotor 1.000 multi.
- 2x Berlin (Red Sea) in which Franciso has made some improvements: He has replaced the original pumps and has put Eheim 1060; he has reduce le heigth of the skimmers because of the water volume and bubbles production is very superior. He has also replaced the original wheel, now the skimmers are running with the Aqua Medic needle wheel.
With this three skimmers, he gets a REDOX of 380-400 mv without ozone.
Powerheads:
-2x Eheim 1060 (484 gal/h) up te water from the sump.
-Maxijet (220 gal/h) with a derivation which feeds the calcium reactor.
- 2x 550gal/h Rio sweeping the bottom
- Tunze 7420 (880 gal/h)
- 6x Tunze 6100 (2640 gal/h)
- OTTO (374 ga/h) sweeping the bottom
- 550gal/h Rio to feed the cooler
- 2x 880 gal/h Sicce sweeping the bottom
Total: about 17,600 gal/h, 80 times the tank volume per hour.
The pumps disposition let Francisco to arrive to all the corners of the aquarium, and the on and off of the pumps create a circular flow cross-sectional to the aquarium, that make all the sediments acumulate in a point to facilitate the sediments collection.
At first, 6600 gal/h was the total movement of the water, but with the SPS grow, he had to improve the water circulation.
Lighting:
-3x 250w HQI 10.000ºk 10 hours per day.
-2x 150w HQI 20.000ºk 10 hours per day (at the moment they are off... they don´t like very much to Francisco).
- 4x 36w T8 actinics (Osram 67) 14 hours per day.
All the lighting about 14 inches over the water level.
KH maintenance: Aqua Medic pH-meter calibrated every three weeks.
Calcium reactor Aquacare, for aquarium up to 550 gal. he is very hapy with this reactor, it had several advantages: it runs like a fluidized bed filter, it had a prove for the CO2 enter, so it always works with the same pH without needing pH prove; and finally it has a ventilation camera where pH up.
But also some disadvantages... it waste a lot of substrate and CO2.
It is a very powerful reactor.
For the reactor substrate he uses Reef Base (by Red Sea) and now also some ARM.
The reactor works at a pH lower than the indicated (which is 7.0-7.3) , and with a greater flow, 25-28l (5.5-6.1 gal). The reactor runs 7-8 hours each day.
All the SPS loves the reactor, and they grow very fast.
The Ca fall is also very fast... about 10ppm each light hour; that´s why Francisco test the Ca every day.
Temperature:
Cubigel cooler, 1.000l (220 gal) conected to an Aqua Medic temperature controler in Summer; and Jagger heaters in Winter.
Evaporation control: System 2.000 level controller conected to a Eheim (260 gal/h).
I think you understan the parameters.... Dureza de carbonatos is KH, and is too high (18), but it don´t seems to damage corals.
He add KI (5%) 1ml per week.
SrCl2 (10%) 40ml each week.
Trace elements (Biosanal).
Sometimes Fe and K2NO3 for the macroalgae.
He feeds his fishes every day, withh flake food, and sometimes with froozen brine shrimp.
He cleans the glass two times per week.
He cleans the skimmers evey day.
Evaporation of 2.2 gal ech day.
Water change: 5.5gal/month with sea water. Then he collect all the sediments that are acumulatd in the same point. Sometimes he change more water, it depends of the number of sediments acumulated.
Fishes: there must be, about 80
Corals: a lot, the 85% are frags from themselves.
Livre rock, about 200kg from Kenia.
The decoration is elevated four centimetres of the crystal to favor the cleaning.
Another defects that commonly present reef aquariums is the production of acid sulphidric because of low zones in oxygen underneath the decoration by sediments accumulation, like a consequence of rock (lives and not live) that are used, (and still more if sand of bad quality is used). In this case the best thing is to use a support that elevates the reef and lets underneath pass a water flow, I prefer to use a PVC structure and united backplanes with PVC, so it can move 12.000 l/h
The system is Berlin, without substrate, when Francisco start it, there was any good sand in Spain.
Troubles Francisco has had:
1.- After a year, the wiring wasn´t enough, and he had to do it again, because the bulb didn´t get the right ºk.
2.-Electricity in the aquarium, because of a defective Ocean Runner. After solving these troubles, the Ca levels areeasy to be kept, having problems to avoid beating 500ppm (Saliferte test).
3.- On March, a storm put off the power of the aquarium for 15 hours, Francisco was traveling. Although it wasn´t a lot of time, more than 30 fishes died and he filled a 5l bottle (about 1,3gal) with died acros. Now the aquarium is recovered thanks to the growth.
Since then, Francisco made some improvements:
He installed a web cam which let him see the aquarium every time he wants (the aquarium isn´t at home, it is in his office ); you can see it in his web.
He also installed a phone warned, that calls him if the aquarium tunr off, and aslo installed a device which automatically turn on.
Pocillopora:
Un saludo
Francisco Arrabal
