michaellee's 120 Reef + new 151 Waterfall

In Palau Micronesia, I resided in the capitol Koror, 7 degrees off the equator, beautiful reefs beyond my wildest dreams, I swore I would never have an aquarium. Palauans would have systems in their houses (huts) that had pumps taking in water and filling tanks in their houses. No need for a filter, constant ocean water. Upon returning to the states, I had to build my 120. I decided to go with a model 4 sump. I realized later that with such a small area under the cabinet, I would need a "tap into" addition, another reservoir for skimming andall the extras. I built a square stand. 2 tanks were siliconed side by side. One in the back would have a constant water flow in via bulkhead, and higher output via gravity. I also drilled that tank to allow the use of a canister filter. One that I could shut valves off and quick disconnect. So in the left reservoir I now have my u/v sterilizer, Hydor Performer Skimmer, Hydor Performer Calcium Reactor,and back-up heater operating. Directly in front of this tank is another reservoir. RO-DI res with auto top-off. The RO-DI is always running, and shuts off with float shut off. My auto top-off is run with an auto top-off kit and aqua medic IV style dosing pump. On the right side I have dual refugiums running from the 120 sump. The refugiums are fed and return via gravity to the 120 sump. The top refugium draws from the bottom and returns after being skimmed. A sort of dual refugium action. The lighting I use is (2) 250W 13,000K Metal Halide Mogul style with (2) 96W Dual Actinic Power Compacts. I use 10,000K on both refugiums. NEW ADDITION IN PROGRESS is my 151G 3-stage waterfall reef. Friends of the owner of Advanced Aquarium Systems, I was in his basement and passed up a system he had running in the 80's. 3 rimless tanks 27 and a half inches square. They were taken down after running fresh water for many years. Crusted with hard water deposits and deteriorated silicone lines, restoring was a pain. I cut all lines and cleaned for weeks, a few hours a day. Siliconing on yachts as a living, running the new lines was the easiest. I plumbed the system PVC from my main 120 sump with PVC return. I used an external Coralife Turbo pump for this application. I finally got the substrate last week and started washing the system , running RO-DI, and getting the system filled. My plan is to acclimate these tanks to the best parameters possible and turn on the main pump and slowly starting the flow in a 2 hour timeframe. My systems total water will be around 300G. Lighting for the waterfall is awkward and really a decision I made specifically to support reef if I want, but mostly for the fish I want that are not reef safe. So I went with a HQI 150W 14,000K Metal Halide Pendant. This really gives light to the first and second waterfall tanks. The 3rd I am still thinking on. $$$ is the factor here and I have put 12 grand into the system, and need to manage the funds. I will try the 14K and see if that does the trick. if I shut my 120 actinics off my 13K are really yellow. When I turn them on they match very well the 14K HQI that are on the waterfall, so I am hopeful that I don't have to run actinic on the waterfall. I love any and all comments and suggestions. I am a big fan of constructive critisism, and am here to share and learn from others. Here are a few photos of the system. I am at an old schoolhouse built in 1912. The basement was something out of Amityville until I decided to tare it apart, repaint, run heat and remodel. Turned out fine with all the available space to work with.

more picts

more picts, including filling 151. 1st tank of 151 full as of today 4/5/2011

more picts

You said you wanted to do angels in there right?

Looking at the set up, three connect cubes right? I dont think that is enough room for any of the large angels, just the dwarfs. The big dudes need lots of swimming room to properly grow into their adult colors and to be healthy and those little cubes are too small me thinks.

Very nice set-ups you have there.

That looks like a fun project. Good luck, keep us posted.

Thanks , yeah, I think they looked bigger empty. Now that theres water I can see angels would not work. Perhaps some of the dwarf angels.

That would be cool, i like the dwarfs, especially the lemonpeel. Are you going to do a reef or FOWLR?

Maybe in one of the other boxes you could a harem of these guys:
Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse

I think I am going to do reef FOWLR in the 1st tank , then a reef in the 2nd, going into the 3rd, my plans are with 1ft of water to do some clams. Whatcha-think? I am just set back with light. Do I need actinic if I am running a 14K 150W Coralife pendant above 1 cube. It seems like a lot of light. I have a bulb 96W Actinic Power Compact. Should I add that. See - the fixtures I have are cool. One is what apparently came with the cubes 30 years ago. 3 hanging spotlights. So I put them up and they are really cool "looking", with an old grey box that bolts to the wall. So they are hanging now with blue spotlights (just to keep original). Then I added the HQI 14K over the area i want coral. So,,,,,, the question is do I need more. Definately over the clams, was thinking 20K Pendant later when I get into them. But should I hang that acftinic? I made a canopy style housing to hang, but it would take away from the organized hanging look on the display now. It may look crowded. I however seem to believe ya make it look the best you can - but it's what the aniamls "need" that's important. Do they absolutely need the extra actinic?

They dont need the actinic lighting, but you might loose a lot of color without it. But it would be really cool to see some giant clams in that last chamber.

I just wired up the 96 and held it over the 1st, and it doesn't seem to do anything actinic, but when there are fish I know the difference will be seen. So I am going to hang that. Then what I'll do is replace one of the spotlights, the back tank with those new LED 10K spotlights or 20K and do clams there. I know those lights are like 100 a piece but I have heard they work real good. Intense. yeah - i don't wanna go cheap here. I think the 96 needs to be over the tanks with the HQI. That clam area I will work with after the system is running a few months. I want it to purple up and mature a bit before clams, but thats what it'll be.