Review of Ian's I-Aqua Tank, Skimmer!

[chanbi]

Finally i am back to reefing again!!! I have stopped since May 03 due to some work commitment and i have started on the planning for my "new born" (btw, it is my 3rd attempt) early last yr. It took me almost 8 mths to get it up and running. The tank came in on Nov 18th and it is now more than 10 weeks old.. I will take some time to step through my whole process of planning, buying of "wanted" equipments, working with one of our sponsorer, Ian (I-Aqua) to go through various possible designs to build my tank, cabinet. And of course to take this opportunity to give some review and feedback of my tank, cabinet etc...

REVIEW OF MY I-AQUA TANK, SKIMMER

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You may want to wait for another thread thread (My Dream tank, Ian's I-Aqua!) that i am planning to pen down in more details on my journey to restart a SPS tank. This is more specific to Ian's product...

Ok, i have spent quite a bit of time planning for my tank (~8mth to be exact) and i finally decided to look for Ian. Well, there are a few reasons to that..

1. I know him since back in 2002 and i find him trustworthy

2. He is also into reefing which make it easy for him to understand my

requirement (i have bad experience previously that made me almost vomitted

blood while trying to tell the tank maker my requirement).

3. He is willing not only to make my tank but also do up all the piping, connection,

layout for my equipment etc.. (haha.. promise my wife that this time round will

not take up as much time as my previous setup)

4. I have seen one of his tank, the one found in Eaquanature and pretty happy

with the workmanship (btw, he has more gadgets nowsaday and the

workmanship has improve further vs then).

5. I wanted to try something that can give me better clarity and i have decided to

take up the challenge to go for acrylic (and of course i also feel safer drilling

through acrylic for close loop which i have in mind).

It all started with me asking him for a rough quotation of the tank i have in mind and after some quick negotiation, i have decided that he is the man i am looking for.. And when i finally gotten all the equipments that i look for, i bring all of them down to his workshop in Tampiness. Just a quick update of what i need to "squeeze" inside the cabinet..

1. I-aqua custom made beckett skimmer (8" body, 28" height)

2. Deltec Kalk stirrer KM500

3. Deltec Calcium Reactor PF600 with Catalina (maybe the spelling is wrong?) 5lb

CO2 tank

4. Zeovit reactor

5. 2x 8m3 RD pumps

6. Sump

7. Topup box

So finally with a creative layout by Ian, i managed to squeeze them to a 3ftx3ft cabinet and yet i get to have a ~3ft sump to take care of the high flow & micro bubbles from the return and skimmer and a ~40litres topup box! Truly amazing...

And as i am using IKS to control all my equipments, we have decided to do up a drawer to separate out all the electronics and it also help to prevent water splashing.. I really like this cool idea!

And one of the thing that bother me previously is the "viewing height". i realise that most of the time i need to do a half squat to view the tank which took out some of the enjoyment i have. So this time round, the cabinet is planned at a height of 43" (~1.1m) and the view height will be from ~1.1m till 1.65m (my tank is only 22" tall and i am going for a "sandless" design).

[chanbi]

Now back to the actual review and with more visual... photos!

A point to note for reefer who is planning on a new tank (i'm almost screw up the whole plan if not cos' of a reminder from Ian!). Pls make sure that your door and lift or walkway or staircase is BIG enough for your tank. For my case, my gate/door is ok, walkway is ok, but the LIFT is not ok! It is only 85cm wide. I really panic when i realise i may be getting into (Ian has already make the tank but luckily not the cabinet yet). And with some discussion with his bro (btw, Ian bro is the one who do up my cabinet, what a good combination right?), they manage to come up with a creative idea to help me get around it!

[chanbi]

A pic of my tank with Ian work in progress!

[chanbi]

My main tank is 36"x32"x22" (LxWxH) with a external overflow that is 25"x4"x22" housing 2x 1.5" durso pipe and some space save behind for my close loop (aim is to aim from behind the rocks blowing underneath them to prevent debris build up..

[chanbi]

Another shot with the close loop.. It is really very nicely done up and i am confident with the seal at the drill through at the back.

[chanbi]

In order to reduce flow loss due to all the 90 deg elbow and and so from the return, my design is almost straight up. Ian is also very thoughtful to include a clip to secure my return pipe.

[chanbi]

To reduce the "flushing sound" from the durso, we also "sound proof" it with those aircon insulator. And it really work btw!

[chanbi]

A pic of the ~40litre top up box that i mentioned earlier on that Ian made..

[chanbi]

And how he manage to "squeeze" it in for me nicely right behind!

[chanbi]

Now let have a look at the sump tank that he made for me. Really nicely design and well built!

[chanbi]

And the probes holder that i asked for (to hold my iks probes consisting of pH, redox, temp, water level, sg)..

[chanbi]

A quick view of how it look like when they are squeeze in (have not tidy up the wiring,piping when this photo is taken)..

[chanbi]

And of course one of our proud design, the drawer to house the controllers!

[chanbi]

And finally...................... my cycling tank!

I am very happy with the clarity and do take a look at how nicely the joint is done up. It is slightly curve and smooth.. My request to "hide" my overflow and close loop is also well take care of!

[lightningstrike]

2 thumbs up. hope to see it filled with life again.

[hermit]

Ian acrylic tank is always a good tank indeed..............

good workmanship too.......

the only problems lies only wif the acrylic tats all..............

if it is scratch proof i think Ian will be having a hard time running wif orders liao...........

however acrylic tank is still looks better than glass tank lor.........

can consider to take i setup frm Ian also..........

good work Ian........!

[chanbi]

On Nov 19th, 5 BIG rocks are added into the cycling. Have learnt my lesson previously when small rocks keep falling or out of position and spent lots of time scaping. Stacking just 5 rocks took me less than half an hr but it is definitely very tough work (each rock is at least 10kg!)... And 3 out of 5 are tonga like with lots of branches and holes (easier to hold sps corals and hopefully dun get blow off by my ~20k litre/hr flow). Btw, the rocks are either with me (which i cycle for 2-3 mths already in a big toyogo box) or already "book" and keep with lfs some time back. "kiasu"..

[chanbi]

After one mth of cycling with Zeovit, added some frags..

[chanbi]

And lastly (before i move on to Ian's beckett skimmer), my first fish, AT!

[chanbi]

In conclusion, i am very satisfied with the workmanship and the attention to detail. And the clarity is really solid. But what is most outstanding is the excellent service that i have gotten from both of them. To be honest, i think i am quite a difficult customer with lots of requests (this one i need to add in, that one also must take care blah blah blah) and they have been very accommodating! Thumb up!

But what is worrying me now is how to maintain the tank without scratching the tank? I am learning on this and will update more on it when i have more hand-on..

[chanbi]

Now moving on to Ian's beckett skimmer... and again it is customed made especially for me to "squeeze' into my limited spacing cabinet. It is 8" body with 28" height with super huge collection cup!

[chanbi]

Ian has helped me to fully optimise the space with the huge cup that come with the internal overflow chamber at ~5.5" diameter.

[chanbi]

I am impress with how nicely the joint is made and the steps specially made to prevent bubbles trapped. Btw, after been maintaining this skimmer for the past 10 weeks+, i really love the thumb screws. It is really useful and easy to dismantle the cup.

[chanbi]

After one day of running the skimmer (with the 5 pieces of live rocks) and then was still learning how to tweak the performance (the first few days has been set to pretty wet skimming)..

[chanbi]

One of the biggest problem for beckett skimmer users! micro bubbles... Initial plan is not to put in foam (reduce maintainence work) but looking at it there is no way out. Have spent quite a bit of time to reduce the bubbles going back to the return.