20 // UNS // SPS

[fissues]

I haven't had a tank in about 6 or 7 years. The last one was a low budget 75 that I tore down while I did a stint as a photographer for a high end reef shop in the midwest. I only ever had the desire to do 1 more tank, and it's this one. It's been in the plans the whole time evolving with the knowledge I've gained from consulting on hundreds of builds, caring for some of the rarest fish to be imported, and farming crazy amounts of coral. I've just been waiting for the right combination of money, gear, technology, and life balance to make it work with my highly eratic lifestyle.

I'll try not to screw it up


Current stage:

 

[fissues]

Also, this..

 

[SPR1968]

That looks great so far and welcome to R2R!

 

[Jon Fishman]

Your tank has an open front, and it's made of cardboard...... I'm afraid it won't hold water.

Welcome! Following along.

 

[fissues]

That looks great so far and welcome to R2R!

Thanks, I'll have more to look at shortly!

Your tank has an open front, and it's made of cardboard...... I'm afraid it won't hold water.

Welcome! Following along.

D4mn, for a few minutes there I thought this was gonna be easy... Well, I guess now you at least know where the username comes from.

 

[fissues]

1/2" Baltic Birch on the bottom and sides. 3/4" on top. So many people underestimate the strength of a simple plywood box made with quality lumber and some strong wood glue.

 

[Pbh-reef]

Welcome! Following to see what you have planned!

 

[fissues]

Welcome! Following to see what you have planned!

Thanks. The goal is to get water in by the end of the week, but I've got a packed schedule so it may take until early next week.

 

[KorD]

Welcome to R2R. I like the stand, and with an open front it will disperse the heat of the pumps... I totally forgot about that and have to get a fan..lol

 

[fissues]

Welcome to R2R. I like the stand, and with an open front it will disperse the heat of the pumps... I totally forgot about that and have to get a fan..lol

Thanks.

Actually it's going to have a single, solid front door. I'm going to have to cut a hole for plumbing in the back, and then I will most likely cut something separate for ventilation which will probably also involve a couple computer fans for efficiency.

 

[dantimdad]

1/2" Baltic Birch on the bottom and sides. 3/4" on top. So many people underestimate the strength of a simple plywood box made with quality lumber and some strong wood glue.

Completely 100% agree!

 

[fissues]

So I got hired for a few video jobs out in Nashville the first half of May, so I haven't even been in town to think about the setup. I'm about ready to start putting things together over the next week or so.

Here's where I'm at...

I still haven't finished the door for this stand, but I wanna get some water in this thing so I'll add that later.


'scape' s done... TOTM, please.

Today I'll try to finish getting the display looking how I want it and post some pics. I will have a sump on this thing, but I need to drill a couple holes in the back of the stand, so ill be able to add the overflow/plumbing later in the week. Any guesses what I chose?

 

[fissues]

The sand finally settled from yesterday, and I think this is the aquascape I'm gonna go with...

I had a few other ideas before this, but I specifically wanted something minimal that draws elements from the freshwater iwagumi world. This one also looked the least like a awkwardly balanced pile of rocks out of all the other hardscapes I tried. I can already imagine exactly where to place which species to compliment the overall look as everything grows out.

I probably only used about half of the rock I bought and spent a number of hours trying different combinations and deciding over 2 days until I settled on this.

 

[dantimdad]

Amano would be proud.

Looks great!

 

[fissues]

Amano would be proud.

Looks great!

Thanks man! I feel like it's much harder to do with reef rock than it is with most freshwater components.

 

[Aaron4890]

Any updates? Tank looks good

 

[fissues]

Any updates? Tank looks good

Hey, sorry it's been so long... I had a trip out of town at the end of June and my photo/video jobs have been keeping me way behind on this build...

Nobody really missed much, except I finally figured out how I wanted to make this happen a few days ago...

Just a few cell phone shots for now. I'll try and take out my god setup and get some better ones.

Now that I finally have a light I can really start hunting for some of the fish and SPS I want. I'll try not to wait so long to update you next time

 

[tabungrahim]

This is using what overflow?

 

[fissues]

This is using what overflow?

It's the Mame glass overflow... Although mine still isn't dialed in quite right, but I've got all sorts backups on my Apex to make sure nothing disastrous happens in the meantime.

 

[fissues]

Update... Getting some things settled before I leave town at the end of the month

Got the Apex ATO running, although I had to ditch the float valve to in order for it to fit in the sump...

Next I noticed my skimmer hasn't been giving me what I want so I decided to set it up a bit different by removing the stand it was on... It performs way better now...

And I've been interested in bumping my pH a bit, if possible, so I decided to connect a CO2 scrubber to at least help, seeing as the idea is to grow SPS.

Stuff is still kinda just thrown together, but I'll make it look neat at some point.

This is what I'm getting on the Apex today after doing this stuff the other night... PH was my around 7.8 during the day so I'm happy with the increase so far.

Finally, I'm gonna be testing out the Apex auto feeder for when I leave town so I set it up for this weekend while I'm dog sitting for my parents in the burbs. This is how I'm planning on leaving it...

When I'm in town I'll just unplug and remove it so I can still keep that clean rimless look.