Syntax1235
Valuable Member
This is my first build thread, but my third reef over the past 20 years. I ordered a Glass Cages 60 x 24 x 25 tank and had them build an external overflow peninsula style on the left side of the tank. The front and right side glass is low iron glass and I painted the back panel black. Due to the position of the tank, two side viewing angles would work best. I did not have the room for a coast-to-coast overflow behind the tank, space is at a premium. The tank took almost 4 months to complete with a few delays; however, the wait may just have been worth it... it is beautiful. I decided on a tank with a frame to cover the water line, Glass Cages used this nice high end feel material to wrap the bottom and top, doesn't feel like the cheap plastic of some tanks. The tank has euro bracing on the top and the bottom, it is very well built.
Here's a picture of the tank before it was put on a pallet and shipped:
Before the tank arrived I had four months to plan on how I was going to build the stand, plumb the tank, and decide on equipment. Here's a picture of the skeleton of the tank, notched 4x4's on the corners and 2x4's for the remainder of the support structure. Notice the lack of a center brace, there's no need since the skeleton is strong and covered with 1/2 inch plywood. I also have more room to work in the sump area with out that brace in the way.
Here's a picture of the lights. I'm using 2 Reefbrite 250 watt mh/XHO lights using the 20k twin arc bulbs. I had these in storage from a previous built.
After researching equipment I decided to go with the following:
The Particulars:
-Glass Cages Custom Tank
-Life Reef venturi skimmer
-Hydros controller: XP8 / XS4 / Wave Engine ETM
-Bashsea 46 inch sump
-Sicce Silent used for return pump and another for the skimmer.
-Heater is controlled by a Finnex controller using a 500 watt titanium heater The Hydros will work as the backup.
-ATO is controlled by a peristaltic pump located in the basement with two Hydros water level sensors located in the return chamber of the sump. I'm very happy not to have to lug up water from the basement to fill the ato. I'm using a 50 gallon bucket for the RO top off water.
-10% Water changes will be performed weekly. I plumbed a pvc line that empties into the sump, water is mixed in the basement and a Reeflo Dart brings the water up to the sump... no buckets
-Two Mp-40's and a Maxspect Gyre XF-280 for flow controlled by Hydros Wave Engine
-Bean Animal Drain
-Schedule 80 fittings
-Kessil H160 for the Refugium
-Four head doser from Red Sea for 2 part.
-I ordered around 60 pounds of dry rock from BRS (I soaked in RO for three months, changing the water frequently until phosphate stayed at 0 for two weeks) and created the ends of the scape by breaking the rock and mortaring it together. I also used about 20 lbs of CaribSea branch rock for the center piece of the Reef. In hindsight, I should have superglued some macro rock dust to cover the mortar. I'm not too concerned about it since it will all be covered by Coralline in a couple of months.
Here's a picture of bean animal drain. The design has been altered so many times, but I have decided to keep it as close to the original design that Bean Animal developed. If you haven't read the thread on Reef Central, it is located in their archives and worth the 5000 page thread.
Main Siphon:
Open Channel:
I can't get a good picture of the entire overflow box, too many reflections and there's a cabinet in the way. The emergency is not built using elbows like Bean Animal intended; however, it will function the same. I may decide to add the elbows at a later date.
Here's look at the sump view, keeping the gate valve as close as possible to the sump:
I did not glue all the drain parts together, instead using teflon tape to create an air tight seal for easier dissambly if needed. There are bulkheads under the over flow box that will allow me to disassemble all the drain plumbing if needed without much issue.
Here's a short video of the tank while it is being filled. Water is being pumped up from the basement, sooooo easy.
https://youtube.com/shorts/KbZnJZh5udg
The sump has four chambers: refugium / skimmer / mechanical filtration bubble trap / return:
Since the tank is bare bottom I added a Brightwell brick and 5 pound of crushed coral and 5 pounds of Carib Sea Live Sand and some rubble to the sump. All of this media has been sitting in a bucket for three months cycling using ammonia and bacteria. The Phosban 550 is full of Matrix Media that also has been cycling for three months.
I created a manifold and an extra possible outlet in case I have to use a UV sterilizer down the road. I can simply cut off the cap and add a the plumbing for whatever I may need.
Here's a close up of the manifold. For some reason, the port on the right pushed out after gluing making it slightly longer than the other two, it doesn't leak so I decided to keep it as it. I used standard pvc pipe that wasn't supposed to show, but apparently I did not measure the overlap of the fittings correctly.
In the first chamber resides the refugium: I am using a Kessil A160 to light the chaeto. I purchased some chaeto when I added pods from Algae Barn, I don't expect it to do well, but maybe it will be ok while the tank matures.
I purchased a tall cabinet for storage and to hold the electronics. It is a mess at the moment, but I haven't had time to get everything as I would like.... wire management truly is a skill.
Here's a few pictures of the Hydros App.
Here's a view of how things look when everything is closed:
I used a bottle of Dr. Tims and added a quarantined fish from Reef Chasers, a BiColor Foxface. During the first week I never detected any ammonia (Red Sea) or nitrite (Red Sea), I'm currently at 2ppm of Nitrate (Red Sea) and undetectable phosphate (using a fluvial kit). I attribute that to adding the precycled media in the sump.
I was looking for a little more biodiversity so I added some pods from the Algae Barn, Sand from AquaBiomics. I also purchased twenty pounds of live base rock from KP Aquatics. The KP rock is in my QT, I have only put a couple of the rocks in the tank, I plan on putting more in later. I'm not sure if this extra bacteria and biodiversity is needed, but I don't think it can hurt.
Sooo, I am concluding my second full week of having this tank running and I'm putting a little bit of light on the tank. I'm only using one XHO for each pendant running at the lowest dimmable setting, I think that is 20% for 6 hours a day. The Foxface seems to be more active and feeds better when the lights are on. I've been running the lights for about 4 days and I haven't noticed any algae growth yet. I'm anticipating some uglies so I have a Kole and Mimic tang coming from Dr. Reef in a week or so. I'm also going to order a clean up crew, but I'm not sure when I'm going to add them, I'd like to get in front of any potential algae issues, but I also don't want them to starve. I'm hoping to avoid some of the worst uglies by having the seeded media and avoiding the nitrate spike that occurs with traditional fishless cycling.
I did my first round of testing the BIG three and it seems that some of my numbers are pretty low, I'm using Brightwell Salt and it took an entire bucket to fill the tank and sump. Here are the numbers: Alk: 7.5 CA: 380 Mag: 1310. I'm now using BRS two part to bring the numbers where I want: Alk: 8-8.5 / CA: 440 / Mag 1400. I have another bucket of salt and if this one registers low numbers I may look at other options.
That's it for now. I'll update as the tank progresses. Please feel free to ask questions or suggestions.
The last picture below won't delete for some reason.
Here's a picture of the tank before it was put on a pallet and shipped:
Before the tank arrived I had four months to plan on how I was going to build the stand, plumb the tank, and decide on equipment. Here's a picture of the skeleton of the tank, notched 4x4's on the corners and 2x4's for the remainder of the support structure. Notice the lack of a center brace, there's no need since the skeleton is strong and covered with 1/2 inch plywood. I also have more room to work in the sump area with out that brace in the way.
Here's a picture of the lights. I'm using 2 Reefbrite 250 watt mh/XHO lights using the 20k twin arc bulbs. I had these in storage from a previous built.
After researching equipment I decided to go with the following:
The Particulars:
-Glass Cages Custom Tank
-Life Reef venturi skimmer
-Hydros controller: XP8 / XS4 / Wave Engine ETM
-Bashsea 46 inch sump
-Sicce Silent used for return pump and another for the skimmer.
-Heater is controlled by a Finnex controller using a 500 watt titanium heater The Hydros will work as the backup.
-ATO is controlled by a peristaltic pump located in the basement with two Hydros water level sensors located in the return chamber of the sump. I'm very happy not to have to lug up water from the basement to fill the ato. I'm using a 50 gallon bucket for the RO top off water.
-10% Water changes will be performed weekly. I plumbed a pvc line that empties into the sump, water is mixed in the basement and a Reeflo Dart brings the water up to the sump... no buckets
-Two Mp-40's and a Maxspect Gyre XF-280 for flow controlled by Hydros Wave Engine
-Bean Animal Drain
-Schedule 80 fittings
-Kessil H160 for the Refugium
-Four head doser from Red Sea for 2 part.
-I ordered around 60 pounds of dry rock from BRS (I soaked in RO for three months, changing the water frequently until phosphate stayed at 0 for two weeks) and created the ends of the scape by breaking the rock and mortaring it together. I also used about 20 lbs of CaribSea branch rock for the center piece of the Reef. In hindsight, I should have superglued some macro rock dust to cover the mortar. I'm not too concerned about it since it will all be covered by Coralline in a couple of months.
Here's a picture of bean animal drain. The design has been altered so many times, but I have decided to keep it as close to the original design that Bean Animal developed. If you haven't read the thread on Reef Central, it is located in their archives and worth the 5000 page thread.
Main Siphon:
Open Channel:
I can't get a good picture of the entire overflow box, too many reflections and there's a cabinet in the way. The emergency is not built using elbows like Bean Animal intended; however, it will function the same. I may decide to add the elbows at a later date.
Here's look at the sump view, keeping the gate valve as close as possible to the sump:
I did not glue all the drain parts together, instead using teflon tape to create an air tight seal for easier dissambly if needed. There are bulkheads under the over flow box that will allow me to disassemble all the drain plumbing if needed without much issue.
Here's a short video of the tank while it is being filled. Water is being pumped up from the basement, sooooo easy.
https://youtube.com/shorts/KbZnJZh5udg
The sump has four chambers: refugium / skimmer / mechanical filtration bubble trap / return:
Since the tank is bare bottom I added a Brightwell brick and 5 pound of crushed coral and 5 pounds of Carib Sea Live Sand and some rubble to the sump. All of this media has been sitting in a bucket for three months cycling using ammonia and bacteria. The Phosban 550 is full of Matrix Media that also has been cycling for three months.
I created a manifold and an extra possible outlet in case I have to use a UV sterilizer down the road. I can simply cut off the cap and add a the plumbing for whatever I may need.
Here's a close up of the manifold. For some reason, the port on the right pushed out after gluing making it slightly longer than the other two, it doesn't leak so I decided to keep it as it. I used standard pvc pipe that wasn't supposed to show, but apparently I did not measure the overlap of the fittings correctly.
In the first chamber resides the refugium: I am using a Kessil A160 to light the chaeto. I purchased some chaeto when I added pods from Algae Barn, I don't expect it to do well, but maybe it will be ok while the tank matures.
I purchased a tall cabinet for storage and to hold the electronics. It is a mess at the moment, but I haven't had time to get everything as I would like.... wire management truly is a skill.
Here's a few pictures of the Hydros App.
Here's a view of how things look when everything is closed:
I used a bottle of Dr. Tims and added a quarantined fish from Reef Chasers, a BiColor Foxface. During the first week I never detected any ammonia (Red Sea) or nitrite (Red Sea), I'm currently at 2ppm of Nitrate (Red Sea) and undetectable phosphate (using a fluvial kit). I attribute that to adding the precycled media in the sump.
I was looking for a little more biodiversity so I added some pods from the Algae Barn, Sand from AquaBiomics. I also purchased twenty pounds of live base rock from KP Aquatics. The KP rock is in my QT, I have only put a couple of the rocks in the tank, I plan on putting more in later. I'm not sure if this extra bacteria and biodiversity is needed, but I don't think it can hurt.
Sooo, I am concluding my second full week of having this tank running and I'm putting a little bit of light on the tank. I'm only using one XHO for each pendant running at the lowest dimmable setting, I think that is 20% for 6 hours a day. The Foxface seems to be more active and feeds better when the lights are on. I've been running the lights for about 4 days and I haven't noticed any algae growth yet. I'm anticipating some uglies so I have a Kole and Mimic tang coming from Dr. Reef in a week or so. I'm also going to order a clean up crew, but I'm not sure when I'm going to add them, I'd like to get in front of any potential algae issues, but I also don't want them to starve. I'm hoping to avoid some of the worst uglies by having the seeded media and avoiding the nitrate spike that occurs with traditional fishless cycling.
I did my first round of testing the BIG three and it seems that some of my numbers are pretty low, I'm using Brightwell Salt and it took an entire bucket to fill the tank and sump. Here are the numbers: Alk: 7.5 CA: 380 Mag: 1310. I'm now using BRS two part to bring the numbers where I want: Alk: 8-8.5 / CA: 440 / Mag 1400. I have another bucket of salt and if this one registers low numbers I may look at other options.
That's it for now. I'll update as the tank progresses. Please feel free to ask questions or suggestions.
The last picture below won't delete for some reason.
Last edited:
