100g Rimless - restarting the process after storage

chk4tix

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Edit: this has been quite the saga over the past 9 years, it’s not the biggest or the baddest tank, but it’s mine. In 2022, I have started another new chapter here On YouTube. However, please continue on reading the thread to see where it has been and updates on whats new starting Here



With this, here is a little history to start out with. I have been in the hobby a relatively short time, I crossed over from freshwater in 2005 and made the venture into saltwater when a LFS convinced me it would be only $300 (I wish) to setup a reef tank. Anyway, over the years I had built a nice 150g SPS dominate display on the main level of my home that was connected to a 40 gallon Anemone tank, and 75g frag tank in the basement. It wasnt the best build ever but I liked it. (old photos of my tank October 2010 TOTM - WMAS Message Board - Page 1 )

In a mix of good and bad, a year ago, I ended up having to move across the country in a very short period and had to sell off my livestock and tanks, so now it is time to start again.

For this build I looked around at what the local area had for tank builders and also searched the internet to get an idea of the route I wanted to go. Due to the floor layout in my home, I decided that the biggest footprint I could go with is 4'x2' without tanking up to much floor realastate. From my searching, I decided I wanted to go with a rimless tank. I have always liked the look and this is as good of time as any to get one.
I looked at all different tank builders, stand builders, etc., I ended up going with a with a 100g rimless, CAD lighting Artesian II, with a custom 36" high stand. The reason I went with this tank is primarily because of the total package price. Their package came with a Skimmer, sump, sump light, return pump, and all plumbing for the tank. (I do plan on expanding to the basement and creating a fish room with this build as well so much of what came in the package with be swapped out over time)

Here is a pic of the tank loaded in the back of my van:



The tank build is very good, the customer service could be improved upon greatly, there were a few delays in getting the tank to me and me getting them to answer their phone. However when it did ship it was quick and It was well packed for shipping, and I didn't have any issues related to the shipping aspect.

Here is the tank set up in its future spot after getting it unboxed at my house:



Here is a picture of the sump, I am not sure what they had planned for layout with this, so I ended up modifying it slightly. The chambers are a little small even for their upgraded skimmer, I was hoping to be able to use my XP-3000 simmer but that will have to wait until I expand my system.


As I was getting the plumbing figured out, there were no instructions provided by the vendor so it was a little difficult even with having some idea what I was doing, I decided that the current sump configuration wouldnt work with what I was planning on doing. It only allowed 4" to be used as a refugium, so I modified it to allow for more space.
Here is a picture with the modified center section, if you compare it with previous photo, you can see the center section has been expanded



For lighting, I went with 2 Radion Pro's. I really like the colors they provide and the program ability they have. ( I am still holding out for them to be controlled by my APEX)
Here is a shot of one light over the tank as I decide how I wanted to mount them, definitely not the best picture.


For my aquascape, I am using BRS reefsaver rock. I really like the textures and shapes it comes with. I decided to do a pretty simplistic aquascape, with 2 "islands", Here are some pictures of what I have come up with, it is difficult to see the depth and the shapes in these photo's since all the rock appears to be big block of white. I am looking forward to the rocks coloring up and being futher accented by SPS.




For the rest of the equipment I will be using items left over from my previous systems: APEX for automation, 2 x MP40ES for internal flow. I still have my GEO CA and Kalk reactors that I will add to the systems as it expands as well. But for now, I am keeping this pretty basic.

That all for now, will be adding more later....
 
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chk4tix

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This is a picture to better show the color of my stand, very deep brown, with plenty of space underneath. one thing i did have to do is temporarily remove one of the front supports to get the sump in under the stand. if the supports were 1" farther apart this wouldnt have been needed.
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Here is a picture of the hardware mounted under the tank.
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Here are a couple of pictures after filling the tank. I will work on getting better pics with my phone.
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chk4tix

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Looking great! Are you attempting a mixed reef?


Sent Via the R2R Forum APP

Yes, however it will be predominately SPS. I do have a two chalices and a few acans that I will be moving over as well

Here are a few of the frags to go in it
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I decided to go a little more in depth to the initial setup of this tank. I wanted to setup this tank in a relatively short amount, I missed having a large tank and my 12g nano just wasn’t filling the void any longer.

So in an attempt to get this tank up and going quickly, I started with live sand from a vendor in Florida. When the sand arrived, I placed it in a plastic tote with saltwater and a very large skimmer. I let the sand cycle on its own for over a month before I even received my tank. I checked the levels in the sand on a weekly basis to see how the cycle process was going. The sand had a very small cycle and was stable after about 3 weeks. I continued to monitor the levels during the entire holding process while setting up the tank
For this build, I mentioned that I used BRS reefsaver rock, one of the selling points for this was the possibility to have my tank cycle quicker than if I were to us live rock. When the rock arrived, I pressure washed it to remove any excess debris, if there was any. The rock was really clean, so power washing it was more of a precaution instead of a necessity. Again, I had this at my house well before my tank arrived. I setup a make shift area in my basement where I tried out different aquascapes to see what I wanted to go with.

Once I finally received my tank and got it in place, I moved the rock from my basement and reconstructed the aquascape structures in the tank. Before placing the tank in its final spot, I drilled the required hole inside of the walls baseboards to allow for my further expiation.

I also ran the waterline for an auto topoff to the tank from a 5 stage RO/DI system that is mounted in the basement.

Since I only had dry rock in the tank, I slowly filled the tank with water. After it had filled, I mixed the salt (oceanic and instant ocean mix) in the tank with the water. After reaching the proper levels, I let the tank rest for 3 days with the vortechs at full power. After 3 days, I slowly added the sand and added a small HOB filter to help clean out the super fine sand particles in the water column.

I ran the tank like this for 2 weeks before removing the HOB and during this time I had a small ammonia spike and then the levels dropped to 0. Then I seeded the 100g tank from my nano, both sand and water, to help speed up the process. I also threw in a couple of snails and hermits to test the tank after another week of consistent tests, I moved my clowns over as a test as well.
Sump:

The pictures shows the light that the sump came with, I have since changed out the light and added rubble rock and sand from my nano to the sump.

I was a little concerned with the skimmer as well since I have never owned a CAD Lights anything and finding reviews on line wasn’t an easy task, but since it was included in the package, I decided to give it a try. After the 2 week break in period, this skimmer is working better than I had expected, it is pulling some nice skimmate.

After a few days, with all things going fairly smoothly, I pulled all livestock from my nano and put it in the 100g.
Since that time, I have added a few more items to the tank. Some of the corals have browned out a little because I am running an acclimation program on the Radions so I don’t melt the corals. I have also had to dial back my vortechs because they are just a little too powerful for this tank size with both at full power. So far all have responded greatly. Here are some current tank shots. I still need to find a home for a few of my corals, but here it is…
FTS

Left Side

Center

Right Side

Random.




 

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Congrats on ur new 100g Cadlight Artisa II...that is a nice tank and great value package. I got mine last week, but could not set it up yet. I did not get the Stand from Cadlight...I have someone to do a custom stand at 38" tall.
 

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Great job and I love the tank and stand!
 
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chk4tix

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Thanks for the comments, I should be receiving some more I candy over the next few days. Also the corals I have in the tank are starting to color back up. So once the start looking a little more festive I will post some updated pics. I am still looking for a tank(s) to start working on the expantion but as of yet I haven't fully decided which route I want to go.
 
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I received a few more pieces today, I need to perfect my photo skills with a phone (or find time to break out mt canon) but here are a few pics of the scully's and plate I got from AD.
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I still have a bunch of coral on the sandbars because I am waiting for them to color back up so I can coordinate the colors better throughout my tank when I get to that point. I will break out my real camera.
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Do you have stocking plans for fish?

I have a few fish from my nano. A lawn mower blenny, a scooter blenny, a couple of little clowns. I am not sure If I will keep the clowns or get some platinum clowns instead. Once I build a screen for the top I plan on getting a few wrasse but I haven't actually decided on the fish list yet. I would like a blotched anthias but that's about as much thought as I have put in as of now.
 
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For today's project, I made a screen for the top of my tank. I purchased a window screen kit from the local hardware store, then cut it to the correct size. After which, I stretched the clear netting that I bought at BRS to the frame. I originally bought black colored frame but decided to sand it down to give it the brushed aluminum look. I was planning on taking pictures of this but there was just a little to much going on that I forgot :squigglemouth: So I can only show the final product.



I have another order of corals coming in this week, so I will be posting more photos shortly. I will probably break out my real camera to get some better pics.
 

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Awesome idea in using window screen. Does not look like it affects the lighting to much. In the past I tried egg crate on my illuminata but it blocks to much light.
 
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I have used the screen on a few tanks now. I was worried on how it would look with a rimless tank, but I personally think it worked out well to have the brushed aluminum casing.


As I get this tank running, I have run in to the issue of some corals not liking the high flow compared to others. I have spent quite a bit of time moving corals and adjusting power levels of the mp40's. Hopefully I get this figured out soon before I start to lose corals due to flow problems. The tank is pretty well stocked with SPS and some LPS, now it is just a waiting game to get things to mature. I have been trying to figure out how to add my CA reactor or my Kalk reactor to the tank, but I do not think I have enough room under the stand for this. Therefore, I might be moving forward to my fish room expansion sooner than I previously thought. :)
 
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Well it has been a while since I have done updates to my tank. It took a lot longer for my tank to really not feel like a new tank then previous systems I have built. I had a really hard time keeping my SPS alive and I couldnt figure out what was going on. I did weekly water changed, and all my fish and inverts were doing just fine, so I figured it must be some level out of balance. I checked the levels daily (mag, alk, calc, PO, etc.), and they always were pretty stable and solid. I adjusted my lighting, I adjusted my flow, but I still couldnt seem to figure out what was slowly killing off my SPS and it was getting frustrating watching my money go down the drain. I searched the internet for any possible reason for the problem I was having and then by accident stumbled on R2R FB post asking if it is possible to over-skim your tank. There was a lot of discussion, but it was the only thing I hadnt tried. So I dialed back my skimmer just to see what would happen. Within days my corals were looking better. After a month, I had corals that I thought were completely dead slowly coming back. I was dumbstruck, I couldnt believe something as simple as adjusting from a slightly wet skimmate to a dry skimmate would make as big a difference as it did.

Anyway, back to the update, I never got around to plumbing the sump in the basement, but that is usually how it goes, have something big planned then life gets in the way. The biggest change I made was adding my geo kalk reactor to the sump, because daily dosing got to be a pain with me going out of town for business frequently. However, with the Kalk reactor in the sump it makes it pretty packed under the stand now, so maybe I need to start working on the basement project sooner rather than later.
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Now on to the updated photos (I'm no pro and I'm still working out how to use this camera)
FTS
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Random Shots
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