Mielo's 1200L Octagon Tank Journal

[wayne2.0]

Which way did you decide to go?

[Mielo]

Which way did you decide to go?

I am still not 100% sure at the moment. I have created another post where I am receiving some invaluable information:
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=267497

[Mielo]

I am contemplating a reef setup and was considering splitting the tank into 4 sections, making each section different in terms of scape and livestock.

Side 1 (Primary Side): Caves -- As many caves using the width between the glass and the weir.

Side 2: Acro/SPS -- Shallow reefs emphasizing the coral, so a bunch of branch work is nice and easy, allowing me to place a colony on each individual branch tip/end. Additionally, it shouldn't impede flow.

Side 3: Vertical Walls -- Built high and kept tight to the weir. Making the tallest parts thinner than the mid parts, mid parts thinner than the bottom, and bottom Widest (Front to back width) it will look like a vertical drop off into deep water. This side could house gorgonians and seagrasses (depending on how deep the light will penetrate),etc.

Side 4: LPS deep reef -- Huge sweeping corals here,like giant hammer colonies, torch colonies, etc etc.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

[roboreefer]

Lovely looking tank, I'm looking forwards to watching your build.

I'll throw my 2 cents in about the overflow. In my experience, it's usually best to use the larger diameter holes for the gravity drains and the smaller ones for the pressure returns from the pumps to reduce the chances of flooding. If I was in your situation I'd probably set up a bean animal using a 25 as the full siphon line, and 32's for the open channel and emergency overflow lines. I'd go with one return line (with in tank flow pumps) and the conduit for cables.

I used a bean animal overflow on my last tank and never needed the emergency overflow (i.e. a herbie would have been fine) but I liked having it there just in case.

[Mielo]

Well......Its been over 3 years now since my last post and I think its high time that I dust off the tank and set it up. In all honesty, I was actually prompted after my cousin decided to disassemble his 4fter after having for over 8 years. I have basically taken everything including his livestock, i.e. 12cm Yellow tang, 15cm Blue tang, 15cm Navarchus Angel and two breeding ocellaris clowns. Over a 2 month period, I have set up a two temporary tanks (using some of his liverock and livesand) and brought the fish home one by one over a 4 week period.

My cousin's tank is currently running with no live stock, just a few pieces of live rock, live sand and a DSB to keep all the beneficial bacteria alive. I am planning to start dismantling his tank now that the livestock is safe. My plan is to take his 3ft sump and leave the 8year old DSB as is and try to transport it with just enough water to cover the DSB and set it up temporarily. As the Octagon is not ready yet, I will place the sump under the octagon and just let the sump run on its own with a heater and recirculating pump to try and maintain the health of the DSB.

I will then take all his existing water, live sand and live rock and place it in the octagon and let it run with a heater and some power heads, not connecting it yet with the weir as the water of the 4ft (roughly 350lts) should only fill the octagon by just under a third. This is apparently good as I have been told that the tank should not be filled completely first time round due it standing so long without water. I have been informed that I should do it gradually, to mitigate the chance of a potential disaster (tank leak) so I will fill the tank over a 3 week period and hope for the best, I will then connect the plumbing and link up the weir to the sump and let it run for about 4-6 weeks, then gradually introduce the fish over another 3 week period.

This is my thought process, but I thought I would post it here and try and tap into the wealth of knowledge here on this forum to see if this plan could work. Any feedback, suggestions, constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.