Reefer1030
New Member
Hi all... This is my first post on R2R, and I figured I'd start by creating a build thread of my own. The only problem is that the build was started way back in the fall. The tank has been wet since December, and I didn’t document things photographically very well up to this point. Nevertheless I wanted a place to document things going forward, as well as a place to reach out to this awesome community for feedback and advice as things come up. I’ve had about 10 years of very basic reefing experience prior to this build and the R2R community has been an amazing place for me to gain knowledge along the way. I’ve learned so much from this site over the past decade or so despite the fact that I’ve never posted here before. Thank you all!
So, on to the build... This first post will be rather long, as it's a summary of how the build got to this point. The plan is for this to eventually be a well stocked mixed reef. A bunch of pictures follow further down the post.
The aquarium is a custom-built, 227 litre (60 gallon)-ish-, 1/2" glass, Euro-braced, "corner diamond-front” tank. It was built by Miracles Aquariums (which is local to me), as was the stand. Its sides are each about 76 cm (30”) long, and it has a 3-piece angled front pane. Hard to describe so take a look at the pics. It has an internal overflow in the back corner that is bottom-drilled and accommodates the 3 drains for a “Bean Animal” overflow and 1 return line.
The tank is lit by a SB Reef Lights "SBox Extreme wifi 18”". At some point I’ll probably need to turn it 90 degrees, slide it over, and add another light beside it for better coverage.
The sump is the largest tank I could fit in the stand. It's a cube that can hold 106 litres (28 gallons) to the rim. It’s divided into 3 chambers: back corner is the intake from the drain lines, filter sock (used as required only), Reef Octopus NWB-110 protein skimmer on a stand, media reactor pump, and Finnex heaters, controlled by an Inkbird temperature controller, set to 26 C (78.8 F) (the heaters themselves are set a degree higher as a fail-safe in the event the controller fails on). Water flows from this intake section over a baffle into the refugium section, which is a long chamber that runs along the front. It contains chaeto in the upper portion, and is loaded full of live rock rubble beneath. The chaeto and live rock are separated by a horizontal egg crate and gutter guard divider. From here the water flows over a baffle into the return chamber, which is in the back left corner. There’s an egg crate and gutter guard “fence” here to stop chaeto from going over the baffle. There is no bubble trap and I don’t seem to need one. I only keep the return chamber water level just slightly below that of the fuge. Between this and the water flowing through the chaeto there are no bubble issues. I find that having the water flow only along the top of the fuge section through the chaeto, it creates a low flow area beneath the horizontal divider, so the lower area packed with live rock rubble is basically a cryptic zone. Sponges, fan worms and others thrive here, as do pods and mysid. It even contains what I believe is some type of sea squirt that hitchhiked in and has grown nicely. The return chamber contains a DC return pump (don’t remember the brand, but it’s a cheap Chinese pump that I’ve had forever), heater probe for the Inkbird, Tunze Osmolator ATO sensors and line, output from the media reactor, and dosing lines. I use a Jebao doser to dose 2-part. In the pictures you’ll see the doser on its side on the cabinet floor. This is temporary until I can mount it.
Up in the tank additional flow is provided by a Coral Box DC controllable pump. The tank is covered by a “jump screen” that I made to fit inside the Euro-braced top. There’s also a guard to prevent fish from going into the overflow. Finally there are also 2 ground probes. One in the DT and one in the sump. I think that covers all the equipment.
On to the actual DT... it was rockscaped with almost all dry rock, except for a select few pieces of live rock that came from my previous system. Additional biodiversity was added by adding live rock rubble to the fuge and some live sand from a few trusted local sources. The tank has a deep sand bed because I plan for my fish to eventually include a yellowhead jawfish or two. They’re one of my favourite fish and I've had a colony of them in the past that thrived and fascinated me. I think they add so much personality to a tank with their home-building antics. They’re happiest in a DSB, so that's really the only reason why I included one. Despite their burrowing they also don’t really disturb the function of a DSB either, because they don’t turn over large portions of the sand bed. They basically build a tunnel home and that’s it once they’re settled. The DSB’s lower layers comprise of oolitic sand to add lots of surface area and create a functioning DSB, with the top layer consisting of special grade reef sand to help prevent excessive sand blowing. There’s also some crushed coral, various shells and small rubble mixed into the sand and strewn about the surface for the future jawfish to use to build their homes.
The plan is for this system to contain LPS and softies as well as a few select SPS. As mentioned above, the tank has been wet since December and I began slowly adding livestock in February. I'm taking it very slow.
Current corals are a frogspawn (which I’ve had for 10 years), toadstool leather, finger leather, long-branching Duncan, standard Duncan, various mushrooms, Grube’s gorgonian and purple bush gorgonian (both are photosynthetic gorgs), as well as a just-added monti cap.
Current fish are a pair of ocellaris clowns and a purple firefish.
Inverts are a fairly standard CUC of trochus snails, cerith snails, nassarius snails, a few token hermits, and a peppermint shrimp. The trochus are already breeding in the tank, with 2 small baby trochus spotted in the past week. Additionally there’s been an explosion of colonista snails, chitons and mysid as well as pods, which can be seen all over the tank at night.
And that’s where the system sits as of today! I think it’s coming along well, though not perfectly.
Here are some pics (most of the corals are not in their final placements, just semi-haphazardly placed for now. The monti on the sand bed is the newest addition and just being light acclimated). Also please excuse all the ambient room and photographer reflections on the glass.
Oh, and the cool sea squirt? in the fuge. This was just a blob of tissue when I first introduced the rock, now it's turned into this cool thing, and it seems like a second one is starting to grow a little deeper in the fuge, but I can't get a good pic...
Now for some concerns/challenges I have thus far...
Lighting... I like the light but I don’t think it’s big enough. I plan on needing to add a second, especially given the rockscape. The entire right side of the tower is shadowed and I doubt anything can be placed there other than NPS (maybe a possibility).
That brings me to the aquascape itself. I’m not super happy with it. I love the concept of the tower of rock on the right, but I don’t think it has enough lower shelves sticking off of it to place good corals, and the one uppermost shelf facing forward (hard to see in the pics) is way too high for anything useful as it has very little room between it and the surface. Even the large arm reaching out over the centre of the tank seems a bit too high now. I also love the kind of crevice that goes towards the back at an angle between the 2 rock structures. I like how it’s offset and requires the viewer to step to the left and view the tank at an angle to see what’s down there. Makes the tank more intriguing and involves the viewer a bit as they have to peer around, but I don’t think it’s wide enough. And as for the left rock structure with the cave, it now looks just like a blob to me. Wish I’d not built up the far left so much and could move the cave part a bit to the left. Oh well. A re-scape may be in my future. Any ideas?
The stand cabinet is very humid. I plan on venting it with a couple of AV cabinet fans. Just hope I don't ruin the cabinet look and finish in the process.
Then there’s the issue that living in a high rise condo presents its own minor challenges. Mainly that I want a bigger tank and a fish room and can’t have those here, but that's besides the point. Additionally the lack of space for a permanent QT system is irritating. I QT EVERYTHING and prophylactically treat all incoming fish. So this results in me constantly setting up, cycling, and then tearing down QTs in my bedroom. I like things neat and tidy, and hate the look of bare QTs on metal frame stands in the bedroom. Usually, within a week of tearing a QT down and packing it away in the storage locker in the parking garage, I spot something else I want. Then I have to put it on hold at the LFS, set up the QT again, etc. etc. I’m sure once the tank is settled and mature enough, with all the fish added, this will get much less frequent, but for now it’s a chore. Anybody else who has a reef in a condo/apartment have any ideas for me re how to deal with this?
Another concern is my paranoia and need for redundancy. I haven't reached the safety margins I'm comfortable with yet. I probably need a controller and some type of battery back-up for that, and am budgeting for it in the near future.
Some redundancies I have so far:
2 heaters on a controller, with neither heater individually powerful enough to grossly overheat my tank. This set-up would require a triple fail-on situation to overheat my tank. A fail-off situation is possible if just the controller fails, but I'm much less concerned about this. My tank naturally sits about 3 degrees C above ambient even with no heaters anyway (probably d/t the lack of venting in the stand as mentioned above).
The sump has enough space to accommodate an ATO fail-on situation (which would decrease the SG from 1.026 to 1.024 -not bad), or a return pump fail-off situation, but not both at the same time. This concerns me a bit, but I'm not sure how to tackle that. I think that combination of failures would be unlikely though. Any ideas here?
All of my tank equipment is divided between 2 circuits. Most importantly the return pump and the in-tank pump are on different circuits, so if either one fails the tank still has flow.
I guess my biggest concern re the failures is a power blackout situation. I haven't addressed this yet. I do have multiple battery-powered air pumps on hand. When I travel, in addition to having someone check the tank daily, I put the air pumps in the tank and hook them up (they're the type that can sense a loss of wall power and turn on), but they don't stay in the tank permanently when I'm not away. If I'm at work on a 12-hour shift and the power fails, the tank could go without flow that long before I get home to get the pumps in the water. I think that's too long. I'm still trying to figure this issue out. I don't have vortechs so their convenient battery backup won't work, and I'm pretty sure a permanent generator on my balcony is a frowned upon by the condo board. I'm always looking for ideas when it comes to this if anybody has any. It has to fit the space though, and look decent enough it it's sitting outside the cabinet.
I think that's enough rambling for my first post. I'll be updating and adding to this thread as I add to my system and take better photos.
So, on to the build... This first post will be rather long, as it's a summary of how the build got to this point. The plan is for this to eventually be a well stocked mixed reef. A bunch of pictures follow further down the post.
The aquarium is a custom-built, 227 litre (60 gallon)-ish-, 1/2" glass, Euro-braced, "corner diamond-front” tank. It was built by Miracles Aquariums (which is local to me), as was the stand. Its sides are each about 76 cm (30”) long, and it has a 3-piece angled front pane. Hard to describe so take a look at the pics. It has an internal overflow in the back corner that is bottom-drilled and accommodates the 3 drains for a “Bean Animal” overflow and 1 return line.
The tank is lit by a SB Reef Lights "SBox Extreme wifi 18”". At some point I’ll probably need to turn it 90 degrees, slide it over, and add another light beside it for better coverage.
The sump is the largest tank I could fit in the stand. It's a cube that can hold 106 litres (28 gallons) to the rim. It’s divided into 3 chambers: back corner is the intake from the drain lines, filter sock (used as required only), Reef Octopus NWB-110 protein skimmer on a stand, media reactor pump, and Finnex heaters, controlled by an Inkbird temperature controller, set to 26 C (78.8 F) (the heaters themselves are set a degree higher as a fail-safe in the event the controller fails on). Water flows from this intake section over a baffle into the refugium section, which is a long chamber that runs along the front. It contains chaeto in the upper portion, and is loaded full of live rock rubble beneath. The chaeto and live rock are separated by a horizontal egg crate and gutter guard divider. From here the water flows over a baffle into the return chamber, which is in the back left corner. There’s an egg crate and gutter guard “fence” here to stop chaeto from going over the baffle. There is no bubble trap and I don’t seem to need one. I only keep the return chamber water level just slightly below that of the fuge. Between this and the water flowing through the chaeto there are no bubble issues. I find that having the water flow only along the top of the fuge section through the chaeto, it creates a low flow area beneath the horizontal divider, so the lower area packed with live rock rubble is basically a cryptic zone. Sponges, fan worms and others thrive here, as do pods and mysid. It even contains what I believe is some type of sea squirt that hitchhiked in and has grown nicely. The return chamber contains a DC return pump (don’t remember the brand, but it’s a cheap Chinese pump that I’ve had forever), heater probe for the Inkbird, Tunze Osmolator ATO sensors and line, output from the media reactor, and dosing lines. I use a Jebao doser to dose 2-part. In the pictures you’ll see the doser on its side on the cabinet floor. This is temporary until I can mount it.
Up in the tank additional flow is provided by a Coral Box DC controllable pump. The tank is covered by a “jump screen” that I made to fit inside the Euro-braced top. There’s also a guard to prevent fish from going into the overflow. Finally there are also 2 ground probes. One in the DT and one in the sump. I think that covers all the equipment.
On to the actual DT... it was rockscaped with almost all dry rock, except for a select few pieces of live rock that came from my previous system. Additional biodiversity was added by adding live rock rubble to the fuge and some live sand from a few trusted local sources. The tank has a deep sand bed because I plan for my fish to eventually include a yellowhead jawfish or two. They’re one of my favourite fish and I've had a colony of them in the past that thrived and fascinated me. I think they add so much personality to a tank with their home-building antics. They’re happiest in a DSB, so that's really the only reason why I included one. Despite their burrowing they also don’t really disturb the function of a DSB either, because they don’t turn over large portions of the sand bed. They basically build a tunnel home and that’s it once they’re settled. The DSB’s lower layers comprise of oolitic sand to add lots of surface area and create a functioning DSB, with the top layer consisting of special grade reef sand to help prevent excessive sand blowing. There’s also some crushed coral, various shells and small rubble mixed into the sand and strewn about the surface for the future jawfish to use to build their homes.
The plan is for this system to contain LPS and softies as well as a few select SPS. As mentioned above, the tank has been wet since December and I began slowly adding livestock in February. I'm taking it very slow.
Current corals are a frogspawn (which I’ve had for 10 years), toadstool leather, finger leather, long-branching Duncan, standard Duncan, various mushrooms, Grube’s gorgonian and purple bush gorgonian (both are photosynthetic gorgs), as well as a just-added monti cap.
Current fish are a pair of ocellaris clowns and a purple firefish.
Inverts are a fairly standard CUC of trochus snails, cerith snails, nassarius snails, a few token hermits, and a peppermint shrimp. The trochus are already breeding in the tank, with 2 small baby trochus spotted in the past week. Additionally there’s been an explosion of colonista snails, chitons and mysid as well as pods, which can be seen all over the tank at night.
And that’s where the system sits as of today! I think it’s coming along well, though not perfectly.
Here are some pics (most of the corals are not in their final placements, just semi-haphazardly placed for now. The monti on the sand bed is the newest addition and just being light acclimated). Also please excuse all the ambient room and photographer reflections on the glass.
Oh, and the cool sea squirt? in the fuge. This was just a blob of tissue when I first introduced the rock, now it's turned into this cool thing, and it seems like a second one is starting to grow a little deeper in the fuge, but I can't get a good pic...
Now for some concerns/challenges I have thus far...
Lighting... I like the light but I don’t think it’s big enough. I plan on needing to add a second, especially given the rockscape. The entire right side of the tower is shadowed and I doubt anything can be placed there other than NPS (maybe a possibility).
That brings me to the aquascape itself. I’m not super happy with it. I love the concept of the tower of rock on the right, but I don’t think it has enough lower shelves sticking off of it to place good corals, and the one uppermost shelf facing forward (hard to see in the pics) is way too high for anything useful as it has very little room between it and the surface. Even the large arm reaching out over the centre of the tank seems a bit too high now. I also love the kind of crevice that goes towards the back at an angle between the 2 rock structures. I like how it’s offset and requires the viewer to step to the left and view the tank at an angle to see what’s down there. Makes the tank more intriguing and involves the viewer a bit as they have to peer around, but I don’t think it’s wide enough. And as for the left rock structure with the cave, it now looks just like a blob to me. Wish I’d not built up the far left so much and could move the cave part a bit to the left. Oh well. A re-scape may be in my future. Any ideas?
The stand cabinet is very humid. I plan on venting it with a couple of AV cabinet fans. Just hope I don't ruin the cabinet look and finish in the process.
Then there’s the issue that living in a high rise condo presents its own minor challenges. Mainly that I want a bigger tank and a fish room and can’t have those here, but that's besides the point. Additionally the lack of space for a permanent QT system is irritating. I QT EVERYTHING and prophylactically treat all incoming fish. So this results in me constantly setting up, cycling, and then tearing down QTs in my bedroom. I like things neat and tidy, and hate the look of bare QTs on metal frame stands in the bedroom. Usually, within a week of tearing a QT down and packing it away in the storage locker in the parking garage, I spot something else I want. Then I have to put it on hold at the LFS, set up the QT again, etc. etc. I’m sure once the tank is settled and mature enough, with all the fish added, this will get much less frequent, but for now it’s a chore. Anybody else who has a reef in a condo/apartment have any ideas for me re how to deal with this?
Another concern is my paranoia and need for redundancy. I haven't reached the safety margins I'm comfortable with yet. I probably need a controller and some type of battery back-up for that, and am budgeting for it in the near future.
Some redundancies I have so far:
2 heaters on a controller, with neither heater individually powerful enough to grossly overheat my tank. This set-up would require a triple fail-on situation to overheat my tank. A fail-off situation is possible if just the controller fails, but I'm much less concerned about this. My tank naturally sits about 3 degrees C above ambient even with no heaters anyway (probably d/t the lack of venting in the stand as mentioned above).
The sump has enough space to accommodate an ATO fail-on situation (which would decrease the SG from 1.026 to 1.024 -not bad), or a return pump fail-off situation, but not both at the same time. This concerns me a bit, but I'm not sure how to tackle that. I think that combination of failures would be unlikely though. Any ideas here?
All of my tank equipment is divided between 2 circuits. Most importantly the return pump and the in-tank pump are on different circuits, so if either one fails the tank still has flow.
I guess my biggest concern re the failures is a power blackout situation. I haven't addressed this yet. I do have multiple battery-powered air pumps on hand. When I travel, in addition to having someone check the tank daily, I put the air pumps in the tank and hook them up (they're the type that can sense a loss of wall power and turn on), but they don't stay in the tank permanently when I'm not away. If I'm at work on a 12-hour shift and the power fails, the tank could go without flow that long before I get home to get the pumps in the water. I think that's too long. I'm still trying to figure this issue out. I don't have vortechs so their convenient battery backup won't work, and I'm pretty sure a permanent generator on my balcony is a frowned upon by the condo board. I'm always looking for ideas when it comes to this if anybody has any. It has to fit the space though, and look decent enough it it's sitting outside the cabinet.
I think that's enough rambling for my first post. I'll be updating and adding to this thread as I add to my system and take better photos.
