Matt's 227g Mistress

This labor of love has taken on some real life over the past few weeks. Enough so that I felt it was finally time to start a build thread.

The Tank.
I absolutely LOVE the dimensions of this tank. 72"x27"x27" In my mind a tank can'tbe too long, but in my wife's mind, 6' is as long as she would like. So... It's the perfect length. If I had it custom built I would have made it 30" wide, but it's not! The price was right, and it's very nice!

The Stand & Canopy
The stand is being skinned professionally. I'll be painting it white on the inside and black on the outside. Everything will be sealed to look all shiney as well as be water proof. The canopy will rest on the top rim of the tank, but will be able to be suspended above the tank during maintenance.

The Overflows
Two overflows. Each 12"x6" in each corner. 3/8" glass interiors, black acrylic exteriors. Two 1.5" drains with dursos and two 1" returns. An extra 1.5" emergency drain as well.

Under the Stand
Acrylic 40x20x20 approx sump with dual sock filters and simple two chamber setup. NextReef SMR1 Solid Media Reactor for biopellets. Dual BRS Reactor for carbon and gfo as necessary. Reef Octopus Triple Recirculating External Skimmer. MRC CR-2 Calcium Reactor. P303 Ozone Generator. Reeflo Dart 3600gph return pump.

The Rock
One Hundred Pounds of pukani/shelf from BRS mixed with another 50+ lbs of hand selected rock by me from various purchases.

The Flow
One MP40, One Tunze WaveBox and other koralia powerheads as needed.

The Controller
Reef Angel Plus Controller with several add-ons. PWM Expansion module to control LEDs, WiFi module for wireless control from my phone/mac, and a custom pH/ORP module to allow me to monitor two pH probes (one for display, one for calcium reactor), and ORP (for my ozone reactor). Also has 8 controllable outlets. Being controlled will be my heater, a fan (hopefully the combo will keep my temp within 1 degree), my Calcium Reactor (two outlets, one for the solenoid, the other the feed pump), the feed pump to the biopellets/skimmer, ozone generator, my powerheads and a few more things... who knows what I'll add!

The Lights
LEDs of course. I'm going to try for a full spectrum LED setup. My three main heatsinks will have 28 LEDs each. After I set those up I'm going to look at the color temp and decide what other colors I will add. In the end I'll have 9 different color LEDs. Neutral White, Warm White, Blue, Royal Blue, UV, Cyan, Green, Red and Red/Orange. Whites will be about half and half. A few blues with mainly Royal Blues and just a handful of the rest to give that full spectrum coverage. Going for 20k when everything is at full blast. Will be able to fade between other colors with the Reef Angel Controller.

One tunze 6015 recently added to the mix in some way? Lol

http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85839

Sounds great Matt! I hope to see some pics

Well darn... lets look at Matt's recent prizes.
First Place ... awesome son, to add to his wonderful family. Nothing can beat that.
2nd First Prize... A great new challenge up north, teaching the heathens about the necessity of white gravy to their diet.
3rd First Prize....Didn't someone win a fantastic rock of coral?
4th First Prize... a Tunze powerhead
5th First prize.. a bunch of buddies that may not have seen him to frequently, but will miss him when he emigrates.

Now about that clam you've been holding for me for 8 months???

ritter678 wrote:One tunze 6015 recently added to the mix in some way? Lol

http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85839

This will go on the frag rack. :-)

I love that you literally posted that you don't know why you invited me to the forum because I win everything. Then.... I win. Lol

Danny21 wrote:Sounds great Matt! I hope to see some pics

I'll try to take some pics when I get the overflows and tank stand going. It's got to happen soon or it won't happen before my move!

First Place ... awesome son, to add to his wonderful family. Nothing can beat that.
True story. He's still healthy and happy. Starting to smile and laugh, so he's more fun each day.

2nd First Prize... A great new challenge up north, teaching the heathens about the necessity of white gravy to their diet.
Amen and amen. They don't even realize that white gravy could be used as a beverage. Salvation is on the way!

3rd First Prize....Didn't someone win a fantastic rock of coral?
I've won a bunch of stuff. A nice chalice colony, two orphek led lights, this pump, the RBTA and who knows what else. Just lucky I guess. :-)

4th First Prize... a Tunze powerhead
Perhaps the smallest prize I've won, but I actually was going to have to buy something similar to this! Sweet!

5th First prize.. a bunch of buddies that may not have seen him to frequently, but will miss him when he emigrates.
I said this in a text last night... it's almost a bit creepy how close of friends we are in this fish tank club. Like... "it puts the lotion on it's skin" creepy. Ewww... and yet I have several close friends on here.

Now about that clam you've been holding for me for 8 months???
Talk to Jason. My defense mechanisms have caused me to forget the existence of any clams I may have or may not have had.

Clams? What clams.

.... "My prescious.. my prescious... MY PRESCIOUSSSSES!!!!! .. golum!"

Hahaha. Yes... very precious! Now I have to watch Lord of the Rings today!

Added in a few things to the original post also. Forgot about the calcium reactor, tank controller and lighting. :-)

Oh look, it seems that when I put on this ring I become invisible .... now to get into Matt's horde of clams and steal them away. Drats..... as usual, he;s curled up asleep on his stash.

matt_longview wrote:My defense mechanisms have caused me to forget the existence of any clams I may have or may not have had.

I will just walk in and walk out.

Its not like he will know what i took anywayz.

It appears I'm also going to be ordering a P303 Ozotech Ozone Generator and a custom reactor. Clearer water, better nutrient breakdown... I'm really excited about this setup!

Yea one of my friends had a tank with an ozone generator and it almost looked
Like there was no water, it was like the fish were flying!

Ordered my 100lbs of pukani. Asked for long pieces 15 inches plus! Ahhh! Sweet. :-)

Getting my stand skin today! Excited about that and my pukani coming in tomorrow. I'll have to take some pics for sure.

Awesome, Im really interested in the pukani I wanna see
If its really like it looks on brs tv, I think I might get me some

Sweet Matt. Can't wait o see some pics.

Got my pukani! 100lbs of this rock is much more than other types of rock. I've got several large pieces. The largest is 22"x15" and still doesn't weight over 35 pounds. There's a piece several inches larger than a basketball and can't weight more than 20. OH MAN this stuff ROCKS!!!


get it? Rocks! Lol. Okay couldn't help it. Here come the pics!

The first here just gives an idea of how porous it is. Incredible.


Here's an example rock layout. My BTA island is over to the left, and the larger sps dominant island is over to the right. This would leave about 2-3" clearance from the back wall and 5-6 inches clearance from the front glass. Highest point on the rock is about 17".




That's the rock update. I love it. Would do it again 1,000 times. If you're considering pukani rock... go for it. You'll love it.

Also I picked up a used Melev's Model G Modified Sump today (Check it out!) as well as two Sequence 4300gph pumps; one for a backup. I'm going to sell the Dart pump ($185ish?) and upgrade.

All in all, a good day for the tank!

Finally! Some pics. Just the unpainted stand and unfinished tank... but it already looks beautiful. You'll just have to imagine the thousands of dollars worth of fish and coral in there. ;-)

Thank you to my buddy Terry for hooking me up big time on the stand! Great work!


NOTE: Loved installing cabinets on the ends also for full three sided access!

Sweet stand buddy!!!

looks even better in person just don't ask to relocate it

grawlfang wrote:looks even better in person just don't ask to relocate it

Haha! Thanks buddy! Kevin came and helped me move yesterday. Worked his tail off for a good 4 or 5 hours! He was a beast! Thank you for the help bud!

np, now let me know what date you want to unload, maybe I can make a bike trip out of it

Friday morning! :-)

I'm hiring some help unloading, but i've only got three guys for four hours... I don't know if they can do it! Haha. Man I'm exhausted! Moving is so overrated.