There’s a reason I set up a token nano reef tank in the early days of the Reef Builders Studio, and that’s because it was a quick, couple hour affair which would give me happy corals in a tank before the sun went down. On the other end of the spectrum, as the tanks in the Studio get bigger and bigger, it takes more planning, more space, more equipment, and especially more help to get things up and running.
Case in point is the placement of the Planet Aquarium Crystalline series 400 gallon display aquarium which has been in our ‘receiving area’ for over two months. The intervening period has not been idle though as we’ve gotten the fish system up and running, the coral table has become dialed in and the Red Sea Peninsula Reefer is now rocking a great assortment of Montipora.
Finally it was time to get the eight footer aquarium in place, both on its stand and where it will be going in the studio. After visualizing the Planet Aquarium for nearly ten weeks it is so satisfying to finally see it in place and virtually placing equipment around it and corals & rock inside of it.
Beside the high clarity glass and stainless steel frame, one of the more exciting features of this reef tank is a PVC bottom which is pre-drilled with four holes which we plan to use for one helluva closed loop. Propeller pumps have gotten so great these days that fewer and fewer tanks have need for the power of a closed loop but we’re really looking forward to flexing some reef building and engineering muscle with this one.
Huge thanks to Planet Aquarium for building this tank & the crew at Aquatic Art Inc. for helping to get this behemoth in place.
