Atomic's 800g In-Wall with fish room.

[McPuff]

Hey great to see your build here on R2R! I love this one and am eager to see if progress.

 

[Jakobe]

Im jealous! Ive always wanted to build a big tank out of wood like this. Cant wait to see more

 

[Devaji]

WOW! I have always thought about plywood tanks dream about them often.
can you speak of the price difference between your plywood tank VS a custom glass or acrylic?

guessing its a bit cheaper but I am sure it still adds up pretty fast.

 

[AlexG]

Its nice to see another great plywood build thread. I am looking forward to watching this reef tank grow out.

 

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

WOW duuuuuuude I'm so envious! What an awesome project! Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[LowLi]

so dope

 

[Mrx7899]

Very very sweet

 

[atomic081]

Hey great to see your build here on R2R! I love this one and am eager to see if progress.

Thanks, I seem to relate to this crowd better than some of the other big forums!

Im jealous! Ive always wanted to build a big tank out of wood like this. Cant wait to see more

TYVM

WOW! I have always thought about plywood tanks dream about them often.
can you speak of the price difference between your plywood tank VS a custom glass or acrylic?

guessing its a bit cheaper but I am sure it still adds up pretty fast.

I have right around 2000 in the tank itself. The wood for the walls is left over from other jobs i have been working on. So i bet someone might have 3000 total in just the tank. I got quoted 18,000 for a glass tank shipped to my door a few years back. Ive been told that was extremely high though.

Its nice to see another great plywood build thread. I am looking forward to watching this reef tank grow out.

Thank you, I have enjoyed reading your thread also!!

WOW duuuuuuude I'm so envious! What an awesome project! Looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks, Its taken alot of work but im very proud of it!!

so dope

TYTY

Very very sweet

TYVM

 

[atomic081]

Fish have been in QT for a little over a week. I had a few casualties, but im learning from them.
5 yellow tangs
3 yellowbelly hippo tangs (one is always laying on its side, dont know if it will make it long term)
5 Anthias (had most of my casualties here)
2 snowflake clowns (from old tank)
1 purple tang
1 sailfin tang
1 orange shoulder tang
3 bangai cardnails
1 coral beauty angel
1 midas blenny
3 matted filefish







Fixed the leak!!!! Im kinda stumped, as it wasnt a consistant leak. One day i would see a small puddle, the next day nothing at all.




Im on day 25 of cycling the tank and have had no algae bloom. I added a bacteria recommended by my LFS to start the cycle. I have been feeding the tank when im feeding the fish in QT. I added a damsel that i found as a hitchhiker in some liverock years ago to the tank. It seems to be loving the 800g to itself. I leave for Florida in 12 days and might add the fish to the display before i head to Florida if it tests ok at this point. Ill be ordering my CUC this weekend!!!

 

[Hemmdog]

Most insane build ever man, this is so sweet. Teach me your ways lol

 

[sde1500]

Fantastic looking build! Would love a monster tank like this one day, my plan is for one not quite as big, but close. One burning question, how do you plan on accessing stuff in the front of that tank? I could imagine it being a serious pain trying to get to anything on the sand bed near the front glass.

 

[atomic081]

Most insane build ever man, this is so sweet. Teach me your ways lol

TYVM

Fantastic looking build! Would love a monster tank like this one day, my plan is for one not quite as big, but close. One burning question, how do you plan on accessing stuff in the front of that tank? I could imagine it being a serious pain trying to get to anything on the sand bed near the front glass.

I am not going to be able to access the tank from the front. That was a stipulation my wife made when i built the tank. She didn't like light or sound leaking through doors. To combat this Im going to build a movable platform that will span front to back on the tank. I might have a few of these and ill be able to lay on my belly (with a snorkel) and clean or work on the front of the tank. It will be a pain i know. I also got a really good magnetic cleaner that is rated for a inch of glass. I hope this will limit the times i need to go swimming in my tank!!!!

 

[TVV]

Super! You could snorkel in your tank. Teach your kids to swim in it! Good luck and looking forward to stocked product.

 

[sde1500]

I am not going to be able to access the tank from the front. That was a stipulation my wife made when i built the tank. She didn't like light or sound leaking through doors. To combat this Im going to build a movable platform that will span front to back on the tank. I might have a few of these and ill be able to lay on my belly (with a snorkel) and clean or work on the front of the tank.

Hmm, thank you. Sort of how I pictured things going with my own long term plan. Well I already take my shirt of to work on my current tank, might as well do that and dip the face in on the next one lol. Thanks for the insight!

 

[atomic081]

UPDATE TIME:

Clean up crew was added 10 days ago before I left for vacation in the keys! Shout out to Adam for helping with the tank while i was gone.
80 Nassarius
150 Florida Ceriths
6 Conchs
125 Assorted Hermits
125 Nerites

The Hermits are big and i love it. John at ReefCleaners is great!!!

2 Days ago i added all the fish to the big tank. Im not having the best luck with this batch of fish. Alot of them are not eating. Ive tried Pellets, flakes, LRS, Caviar. 2 of them looked good the first night but are MIA now. 2 also got stuck in my powerheads and died, so i turned down the flow a bit.

My stock list as of now:
4 yellow tangs
1 purple tang
2 clowns
1 midas blenny
1 Bangi Cardinal
2 Anthias
1 Coral beauty angel
1 Naso tang (MIA)
1 Orange shoulder tang (mia)

I tried to save money and all the fish i bought at my LFS still in the bag and got a pretty good discount. After the losses that I have taken, I am considering using LiveAquaria from now on or another LFS does a 2 week QT and i can see the fish eat in store. Lesson learned.

 

[atomic081]

I got the light rack made today. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I still need to get some sort of blue supplemental lighting. Not sure if I want LED, t5 or t12. I only have 3 MH bulbs right now also, so I'll get a fts once I get the 4th.

 

[atomic081]

FTS as promised!

FRAG SWAP!

Yesterday was the indmas frag swap. I was able to pick up 52 frags from the swap. Thanks to aquavista99, budman, Humphrey, and puffdragon for all the frags. I didn't spend over 30 on any corals, most were 20 or less. Had to go for quantity over quality this time. About half of the corals are easier SPS and the other half are zoanthids. I also have a green stag colony to pick up from a buddy that's 16 inch across. It's a start for corals!

At the swap I did something I never do. I made a impulse buy. I got a lobster! not just any lobster, a big F$%&ing blue lobster! It's about 6 inches from head to tail and 12 inches including the antenna. It's a Caribbean blue Reef lobster, they are reef safe with caution. They owner said they had it with fish and never had a problem. It eats mysis shrimp and flakes. I gave it flakes last night and it took it right away. I know it could do some damage on my fish, but it's so cool that I had to give it a shot....and for 25 dollars!!!

This morning I also made a map for my tank.

The ultimate goal is to map out every coral. For instance a blue hornet zoa might be at yellow C8. I have forgot the "name" of corals too many times and I don't want this to happen again.
I also am going to put a big map in the fish room and make a book of all the fish in the tank. This way my kids can learn the names of all the fish/corals and maybe something interesting about them. If they also want a pet name for each fish, I'll put it in the book.

The lobster is already named Brock btw......

 

[AlexG]

I am looking forward to seeing this tank grow out. I really like the aquascape design.

 

[aquavista99]

Those SPS frags in the first picture are Huge!!! Very nice score my friend.

The lobster is over the top nice too!

FTS as promised!
View attachment 1011611



FRAG SWAP!

Yesterday was the indmas frag swap. I was able to pick up 52 frags from the swap. Thanks to aquavista99, budman, Humphrey, and puffdragon for all the frags. I didn't spend over 30 on any corals, most were 20 or less. Had to go for quantity over quality this time. About half of the corals are easier SPS and the other half are zoanthids. I also have a green stag colony to pick up from a buddy that's 16 inch across. It's a start for corals!
View attachment 1011612
View attachment 1011613
View attachment 1011614

At the swap I did something I never do. I made a impulse buy. I got a lobster! not just any lobster, a big F$%&ing blue lobster! It's about 6 inches from head to tail and 12 inches including the antenna. It's a Caribbean blue Reef lobster, they are reef safe with caution. They owner said they had it with fish and never had a problem. It eats mysis shrimp and flakes. I gave it flakes last night and it took it right away. I know it could do some damage on my fish, but it's so cool that I had to give it a shot....and for 25 dollars!!!
View attachment 1011616View attachment 1011617View attachment 1011618


This morning I also made a map for my tank.
View attachment 1011619
The ultimate goal is to map out every coral. For instance a blue hornet zoa might be at yellow C8. I have forgot the "name" of corals too many times and I don't want this to happen again.
I also am going to put a big map in the fish room and make a book of all the fish in the tank. This way my kids can learn the names of all the fish/corals and maybe something interesting about them. If they also want a pet name for each fish, I'll put it in the book.

The lobster is already named Brock btw......

 

[puffdragon]

Nice start to stocking your tank. I really like the layout.