The 770 litre seawater aquarium by Matthias Schütt

28.01.2016

Matthias Schütt has already presented his aquarium to us once before, back then with 500 litres. The article has had over 24,000 hits to date. The videos in particular were really great. Now there is a new tank and with it new photos and videos. But see for yourself. It's worth seeing and very well done.

Matthias Schütt had already created a picture and video documentation of his previous 500 litre tank under the following link in 2011, which has meanwhile been read 25,000 times.

Now there is a new project, which we would like to present in detail.

The documentation of the 770 litre saltwater aquarium by Matthias Schütt

The project had been ripening in my head for a long time, and when the government gave its approval, it could start in March

The 500l tank (120 x 70 x 60) that had been running for 4 years had to be closed for various reasons (e.g. because of overfilling with corals) and a larger tank was needed: 160 x 80 x 60 cm makes 770l + technical tank.

Width is only to be replaced by width!

The aim of the action is of course to make everything better than the old tank, which was my first work.

The specifications are:

- More space, loose structure with plenty of swimming space and thus also easier to maintain für the corals, also better flow.

- Easier maintenance for the water changer (you don't get any younger), i.e. the osmosis system now directly fills the refill tank and the replacement water can now be directly fed into the waste water downpipe in the house. This eliminates the need for lugging.

- The energy consumption should remain the same. The biggest factor is, of course, the light. Until now I had 2x130W LED (cheap Chinese lamps)+ 2x 45W T5 makes 368W. Now I got 2 Giesemann Futura, 1x with 4 modules, 1x with 2 modules across - From a purely visual point of view, they have almost twice the brightness as the two China LEDs (also 260W) with their total 390W. Unfortunately, I cannot measure the par values. I will either use one of the two old lamps or add a new one.

The Rückförderpumpe will be exchanged for a Tunze Silence: more power, less consumption. The flow pumps will remain for the time being.

We will continue with many weekends for substructure and technology, piping etc. It always takes longer than planned. The aim here was to separate electricity and water cleanly, which has been achieved with the exception of the refilling basin.There are now 3 compartments in the base cabinet, and everything is hopefully ümore clearly arranged and user-friendly.

And then the tank arrived, delivered At the weekend with 3 men from the tank builder - good service. They were also necessary, with a glass weight of 180 kg.

Now comes the hot phase: setting up the tank, moving it and parallel operation for 3-4 weeks. After filling, some new live rock was added. After inoculating with Bio Digest, all LPS were gradually moved (except for the Rückwand and the hammer coral). Then, the next weekend, all the SPS and 80% of the existing live rock.

Here I had the peculiarity that I briefly rinsed everything that comes into the new tank with fresh water to get rid of some flatworms. The method works perfectly and all LPS and SPS and the anemones tolerate this procedure without any problems. Only the xenia suffered a lot, but the loss is bearable.

The fish don't like it very much in the almost empty tank, and they fight a bit over the best sleeping places in the rest of the LG. This shows how important it is to have a properly structured reef with hiding places.

The coral conversion was absolutely amazing. You wouldn't believe how full 500 litres can get. With every move, the new tank got fuller, but the old one didn't get any emptier. And then the ReefBond also runs out and you can't finish the columns...

When I wanted to move the super heavy Rückwand with corals, but smoothly the pallet doc is stuck in there and won't come out. I almost missed it and gave it a salty water bath. Thank goodness he played dead and didn't wriggle and so no injuries.

The plan is to keep the right part free except for the large reef column and a few corals on the bottom, the left part will then be a bit denser with the fully stocked Rückwand and 2 more columns. In addition, some Hölen from LG. Let's see if it succeeds.

The water values are almost perfect so far: (Salt: 2/3 TM pro Reef, 1/3 Red Sea Coral pro)

Density: 1.023

KH 7.0

CA: 460

MG: 1390 bisserl hoch

NO2: NN

NO3: 0.2

PO4: NN

PH 7.7

The final spurt:

At the weekend, the remaining equipment and all the remaining SPS and LS were moved. In addition, a thick layer of sand from the old tank was added for inoculation, with approx. 15 kg of fine coral sand on top.

The reef construction is as planned: on the right a nice column with lots of swimming space and stratification, on the left highly structured with possibilities for territoriality and hiding places.

The reef is as planned: on the right a nice column with lots of swimming space and stratification, on the left highly structured with possibilities for territoriality and hiding places.

The green algae are coming in nicely, so the Hawaii Doc and Einis have already been allowed to move in. The saddle case is also already there, and the Doc is always near him :love: otherwise he is probably too lonely. Now it is time for the remaining fish, which are already very annoying ;( despite remaining coral and PVC pipes. This action will probably last 1 week until they all fall into the fish trap...

Here are some pictures now:

Current (January 2016):

The tank has been standing for almost 3 years now and is overgrown to no end, so that I don't know where to put the offshoots. The coral stock consists of 70% SPS and 30% LPS, mainly a huge hammer coral. There are also several quadricolours, which divide regularly but are stable in their location.

With the light output of approx. 0.5W/litre I am certainly at the lower end of what is feasible and in the meantime also have some shading.

The care looks like this: every 2 weeks about 8% WW with changing salts, that there are occasionally cyanos. A zeolite filter is running, but the zeolite is only changed every 6-9 months, as there are no detectable nutrients.

The water tank is constantly empty and bored...

When I am highly motivated, I use the basic system of coral breeding, but I can t see any significant difference in the coral colours. Otherwise I run "Balling light" with a dosing pump, which however does not make me very happy, as the feed rate is very unreliable for various reasons.

The water values:

Density: 1.023

Temp: 24°C

KH 4.0 to 8.0

CA: 400 to 460

MG: 1350

NO2: NN

NO3: NN

PO4: NN

PH 7.7

There are now some really great videos about it, have fun :-)

Video 1 -