My First Build Blog
by
, 06-23-2011 at 06:06 PM (1424 Views)
Despite being in the hobby for about a decade now, and having set up numerous tanks, I've never made an official build thread, so I figured I'd share this process with the members here on RA. Heres a tank that I set up in my the entry way of my house, Its the first tank in my new home and I've been collecting parts over the past few months. With plenty of tanks to maintain and set up between customers and my store, my personal tank was, sadly, not on the top of my priorities. But its not all bad, all this time has really given me sufficient time to think about all the details of the tank, as well as to collect a good assortment of quality equipment, at good deals (most of which was traded for farmed frags.)
I've always been fairly patient, but find it even easier when you are constantly busy, I've been letting the tank cycle for about two and a half months and the rocks are covered in various 'pods and all the frags and invertebrates are doing excellent.
The 'scaping was inspired by natural reef formation and created using acrylic rod and epoxy, I'll include some photos from wild reefs that I use in club presentations so you can see some of my inspiration.
I tried to create a very open foundation structure for an SPS dominate mixed reef, with plenty of flat real estate and room for growth. I really like canyons and bommies that provide plenty of open swimming paths for fish and to help channel water current. I was able to acquire a good variety of premium shelf rock over the past 8-12 mos that I've been saving for personal use (one of the benefits of buying 12-14 boxes at a time). Shelf rock is perfect, because as can be seen in some of the following photos, the old skeletons of stony corals like giant tabling acropora build the foundations for the next generation of growth, massive encrusting corals like Montipora or Faviites or Porites do their job to knot together the dead branches that break off the reef into solid form.
Here the vitals
Tank: 150g 5x2x2 Visio Tank I acquired from customer (would've strongly preferred eurobraced lee-mar but couldn't beat the price) on a custom (meaning I built) walnut skinned stand.. Still Have yet to finish (or even start...) the frame and panel doors. whats that saying about the mechanics car....
Main Light: 48" 8-lamp Tek Light Elite (fan-cooled) still considering various LED accent/moonlights
Main Pump: Reeflo Blackfin 1800
Circulation: 2x Vortech MP40s, Sicce Voyager 1600, Koralia 1400
Roughly 75-100lbs live rock
Filtration
48"x20"X20" sump with 7" filter sock, (ran occasionally) with large Refugium chamber housing 12lbs fiji mud and 20lbs crushed coral
Skimmer: Temporary Warner Marine SC-150? until my new one comes in the mail.......
TLF Kalk Reactor hooked to ATO
Going to hook up the Bio-pellet reactor in a few weeks.
Since its a new tank, all the dosing is done by hand, besides the kalk top-off. Considering various brands Dosing Pumps, Calcium Reactor, or both. Recommendations? its going to be about 300 total gallons
I guess thats about it for now, now what everyone wants, the photos. Most of these are just of the initial aquascape, but more are to come. Theres one of my Sump in need of a new Fuge Light and awaiting my new skimmer..
The wild pics are from one of my suppliers and are from a dive trip in Australia. Then it goes to pics of me setting up my rocks in the tank and trying to see how things fit and what looks good. After that you see me starting to drill the rocks using a Hammer drill and 20" long 5/8" diamter masonry bit that makes short work of liverock, with the help of a trusty sidekick and using 5/8" acrylic rod for support
Love to hear any questions/ comments