Headline: "Relative noob puts big tank in office"

[rhitee93]

I wouldn’t mix the water in tank. Even if it takes you a day or 3. Mix in something else

I think I'm going to get a couple of 55gal drums to store water in. I can mix up salt water in those to get started.

 

[rhitee93]

Not a lot of progress to report, but I have been doing a lot of learning and planning while I wait for the tank to arrive.

I have realized that the critters that make my heart flutter are more along the lines of softies and LPS because of the motion they bring to a tank. If I am honest with myself, the main attraction to the SPS path is that it is harder to do. So, I have decided to start the tank out with some soft corals once I feel it has stabilized enough, and move into some LPS after things are going well with the softies. I'm still expecting to only have fish in the tank for quite a while to let the system mature a bit.

My only hesitation is that I really want to have a clam someday. I'm thinking a Derasa would be compatible with the type of lighting in a softie/LPS tank, but I have more to learn there.

I am getting some hardware in. I decided to start off with a couple of Maxspect XF350 gyre pumps. These are the older models, but I got almost $200 off the price of the kit presumably because the new ones just came out. I figured it was a good place to start. My Osmilator has been hanging out here in my office for a while too.

My sump came with 3 pipe connections. Two went into the reef mat, and one was for the return. I decided to leave the drain going into the reef mat, but move the emergency overflow to the chamber with the skimmer. The sump had an extra location to mount a bulkhead for the emergency overflow, but didn't come with enough brackets. I drew one up real quick, and 3D printed it. I'm not sure how well PLA will hold up, so I may fab one out of some acrylic.

My aquascape is still in the same shape it was a couple of weeks ago. I'm still kind of digging it, but I'm not sure how much of that is me being afraid I won't be able to recreate it if I try something else

 

[rhitee93]

Minor adjustment to the aquascape concept:

Since I'm interested in a number of soft corals that tend to become a problem as they spread, I wanted to create a few islands that I can use to isolate a few things. Not sure what might go on them, but mushrooms, zoanthids, and GSP are all likely culprits.

The highest point is only 15" which leaves a fair bit of room below the waterline. Not sure what is ideal in that respect, but that seems to be in line with the variety of opinions I have heard.

I'm trying to decide how to glue some of this together to make it more stable, but to also make it practical to pull pieces out of the tank if/when I need to eradicate some sort of pest.

 

[rhitee93]

I still have a few weeks before the tank is expected to arrive, but equipment keeps trickling in. I opted to go with an Octo Reef Regal 150 INT skimmer, and ordered one last week when everyone had them for 20% off. This thing is huge compared to the Ramora HOB skimmer I had back in the day

It fills in the associated spot in my sump pretty well. I'm not entirely sure this skimmer is large enough, but I'll have to use a space saver style if I go bigger. I have a roller matt, and plan to start a fuge when the time is right. I'm also planning on a relatively low number of fish, so we'll see how the skimmer size works out.

I also got suckered into the "New" Hanna bluetooth master test kit. I won't need most of this for a while, but I am an instrumentation junkie. Someone offered me a 10% discount, so I took the plunge.

One major piece of equipment I haven't been able to make much progress on is the return pump. I want a DC pump. but that doesn't help knock down the field very much. Anyone care to make suggestions? The common wisdom seems to indicate that I need to be close to 1000 GPH, and I'll be pushing against about 7' of head according to the rules of thumb I have seen online. (5' vertical lift plus a couple of 90-deg pipe fittings)

 

[rhitee93]

Engineers don't idle well while waiting for new toys. I started laying out the plumbing for the new tank in CAD while I wait for it to be built. I've run into a bit of a snag. I asked for the stand to be made a bit taller than typical at 36" high because my tank will only be 24" tall. However, after looking at how much vertical height decent valves take up, I'm wishing I had a bit more room. The tank and stand in this pic are just mocked up, but the critical dimensions are correct. The sump is not drawn in any detail, but again, the critical parts are correct. All the fancy looking stuff are models supplied by the manufacturer of the components.

As you can see, I don't have enough vertical height to run things this way. I could probably turn the pipes 90 degrees right out of the tank, and mount the valves horizontally. However, I thought I'd see what the collective thought before I try that.

 

[rhitee93]

Well, another decision made, and piece of hardware acquired.

If I had a tank, I would actually be able to assemble enough of a system to keep fish alive.

The last major expense will be the lights, but I don't know where I am going with those yet. I am heading towards a softie and LPS tank at this point. That means I can probably get away with less lighting, but I want to add a clam in a year or so, I'm trying to decide what the best approach for me is.

My first clam will probably be a Derasa because, as I understand it, they prefer lower light than the Maxima or Crocea clams and are a little more forgiving. I'm wondering if I can keep a Derasa in a softie dominated tank, but haven't done the research on that yet.

I saw a quad T5 fixture that had slots down the middle to allow for some LED pucks. That seems like an easy upgrade path. However, one of the few unpleasant memories I have of my tank from 20 years ago was the "Are my T5 bulbs worn out?" anxiety. Then again, I guess you can just change them out on a schedule and not worry about it.

 

[rhitee93]

Another option on the plumbing. This is still a bit tight on vertical space, but it may still work. I don't know the exact dimensions of the interior of the stand yet, so I had to make some assumptions in the CAD model. I'll probably look for some shorter valves to make things less cozy. I've got time yet, but I want to have all the plumbing parts here by the time the tank gets here.

 

[rhitee93]

Not much to update this week. I still have 2 or 3 more weeks to wait on the tank so I have been continuing to study what the first year of life with the tank will be like. Like many of my other interests, it seems like you'll get 11 opinions for every 10 reefers you ask a question. Finding that thread of commonality is the fun part I guess

I've been going through a bit of an existential crisis. I think I am heading the direction of a more soft coral dominated tank with some LPS. I like the big flowy motion.

However, I am also planning to leave this as a FOWLER tank for a few months to let the biome build up before really cranking up the lighting. One of the common threads that seems to run under the ugly phase opinions is that the more mature the biome, the less struggles there will be with diatoms, cyano, dyno, etc. Since I'm starting with dry rock, I'm thinking it makes sense to just have some fish for a few months with low lighting to let the rock cook for a while. (Of course, I don't really know what I'm talking about )

Since I'm going to be staring at fish for a while, I've gotten distracted with the notion of some predators. Any opinions on the long-term prospects of having a dwarf lion and a snowflake eel in a softie tank? Seems like flow is counter productive to the lion. Then, there are the issues with maintaining a CUC and utilitarian fish with the predators around...

I did make one big decision in the last week. My lights showed up:

~$600 for 3 of these with mounting arms. I just couldn't justify going with the bigger named lights yet. I'm thinking these will get me started for a while, especially if I stay on the softie train.

 

[rhitee93]

I received my 55 gallon drums this week to hold my water for changes. Not very exciting, but it's my update for the week. I'm hoping to see the tank from glass cages in another week or two

The drums are in a lab down the hall from my office. I have to work with EH&S to get them labeled properly. Anyone know the proper GHS label for aquarium water?

I had some work to catch up on this weekend, so I started making water while I was in. My first few ounces of water for the tank!

 

[srobertb]

You said engineer so I had to jump over and follow. You guys always have the best CAD drawings. Best I can do is graph paper

I’d label them non-potable but depending on your coworkers, biohazard may be a better option.

I wanted to say I also love clams. Even in a 3 year old mature tank I was unable to keep one. It did the “looked great until it didn’t” thing over a year. I would love to try again but typically will not do something without being able to point to a clear issue and resolve that issue. I can not with the clam.

At the time I was running 4, Kessil A360x’s over a 6 foot, 16” shallow reef (plenty of PAR) before switching to 4, Radion XR30’s. Since I’m going up to 7’ length and 25” depth shortly, I wanted to add more light.

I found something called an “A+ A7” which is basically just a Chinese version of the Kessil A360x. The Kessil were a nightmare and unreliable so I couldn’t fathom giving Kessil more money. They’re about $150 a light and mount and they also come with a 1/4-20 thread on top so they’re easy to mount yourself- I’m using a swivel mount and a carriage bolt on an RMS rail. I am placing them in between my Radions and with a lens (it comes with 90deg and 55deg I think) you can focus the beam of light and aim it with the swivel mount. This would allow you to significantly bump up PAR and spotlight a clam or anemone between the NP’s if you wanted.

I run a skimmer and refugium although admittedly my previous skimmer, due to space issues, wasn’t oversized by any stretch of the imagination. My new skimmer is humongous but I’m still running a 50g refugium with it. I think the two in tandem are all one needs for nutrient control as the refugium picks up what the skimmer misses and you can use the chaeto growth (or lack thereof) to gauge feeding and change nutrient levels with light periods.

Personally no matter how much I change the filter socks (2x a week) or even with rollers they don’t seem to change nutrient levels for me. They do keep my sump cleaner though so for that reason, I do like them.

 

[rhitee93]

...This would allow you to significantly bump up PAR and spotlight a clam or anemone between the NP’s if you wanted...

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking along these lines if I needed to find a way to keep a clam healthy in a tank that was otherwise too dim. I figure it will be at least a year before I feel confident about a calm. A lot can happen between now and then.

 

[srobertb]

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking along these lines if I needed to find a way to keep a clam healthy in a tank that was otherwise too dim. I figure it will be at least a year before I feel confident about a calm. A lot can happen between now and then.

Best of luck. They really are so pretty and I haven’t seen or heard a lot of success stories over the years but seeing a giant basketball sized clam in a fish store here and there is always so enticing. I hear more of the “They’re not difficult. I’ve had mine for 6 months and it’s fine!” I really hate things that seem perfectly fine then one day inexplicably are like “I’ve grown tired of living and think I shall die.”

Again, best of luck to you!

 

[rhitee93]

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since my last update, but I don’t have a lot to report.

I did get most of my plumbing parts in. It’s shocking how expensive decent valves are compared to the cheap-o ones at the home store.

I’ve also been making a lot of water. I’ve just aout filled both barrels. I’ll need some more water for my initial fill, but will probably just store that in some 5-gallon water jugs I have at home. I ran into some issues with my RO/DI setup, and it has since grown into a monster. I started a thread about it here: DI Resin Consumption

I’ve also settled on my salt mix. I thought I was going to go with one of the fancy pharmaceutical grade mixes out there, but decided I had better go with something I can buy locally. That limited me to Instant Ocean. I walked into a big box store that happened to have a “Buy one get one free” deal going on salt. However, they only had one bucket of the regular, and two buckets of Reef Crystals, so I am now an IO Reef Crystals guy

I also bought a Seneye. I’m a data junkie, and I thought it would be interesting to watch the ammonia do its thing as the tank cycles. I figured it might also be interesting to watch as I add fish to see if I’m pushing the bacteria too hard.

I’m told the tank should ship soon, so if all goes according to plan, I’ll actually be building in the near future.