45 Gallon Shallow Reef Build

[Patx]

Video working here.
Nice tank, scape
Following!

 

[CBonito]

Video working here.
Nice tank, scape
Following!

Thanks Brother! I'm glad you like it!

 

[CBonito]

Water is a lot clearer today. I'm just running with a skimmer and some socks right now, so all that sand gunk has to make its way out. Every now and then I kick it up in the sump and the skimmer starts taking it away. I love this skimmer. It immediately started working and didn't require any break in. I have to play with the pump speed and valve to get the right height, but even now with a basic setup it's doing good.

I might go grab a fish later if I see something I like. My LFS is a pretty safe bet with fish.
Not sure what though. I dont know if I want clowns at all, I would love a purple or tomini, but eventually they will grow...I'm thinking gobies, wrasses, anthias...but for now I have to find something that is hardy that I will want to remain as things evolve. It's hard choosing fish because the first one sets the whole tone, and adding the wrong one down the line can blow everything...hmmm...

 

[CBonito]

Enjoyed reading through your build so far! Looks awesome and clean! For some reason the videos are not working. If you ever order SPS online, check out Battle Corals, Adams stuff is some of the best.

Yeah, looks like they have some really nice stuff. I'm really liking what I see. I'll have to order a few pieces from them when the time comes.

 

[JoJosReef]

Love your setup! Following. What stock are you thinking?

 

[CBonito]

Love your setup! Following. What stock are you thinking?

Thank You.

For fish? I want a Flame Hawk to be the centerpiece fish I think, and I want lots of schooling activity in the mid/topwater. I want like 6-10 schooling fish. And then a few others for the rocks and sand that won't be eaten by the Hawk...like a wrasse of some sort. I would also like a midas blenny. I think these will all work together.

For the schooling fish, I was thinking of maybe 4 anthias (1 male and 3 females) and then a few chromis.
It's an ambitious list, but I think the key to it is keeping everyone fed and happy with lots of hiding spaces and plenty of swimming room.

I'm not worried about bioload since I have some tricks up my sleeve that I will be talking about soon.

 

[CBonito]

Got my 1" flow sensor working. So with my varios 6 pump and 2 half inch returns, at the lowest pump speed I get 258gph which is super quiet with an open standpipe and only consumes 20 watts, and at the next setting I get close to 400gph, so this pump is more than I need really. The lowest setting is all I need. There is no shortage of flow. I have a lot more than I need available, and then I have the Nero 3s which can do it all on their own with ease. Just having a general idea how much flow I have made the sensor worth it. Plus it's a good tool to know what the state of my pump is. I would imagine if it starts to go down, I should probably take it apart and check it out. A lot of people hate on the Apex, but I'm really loving it for all the ways you can watch your junk.

 

[Patx]

For fish? I want a Flame Hawk to be the centerpiece fish

I choose a flame hawkfish as a starter point too.
I see him 30% of the time and he eat my cleaner shrimp.
If you really want one i give it to you lol

 

[CBonito]

I choose a flame hawkfish as a starter point too.
I see him 30% of the time and he eat my cleaner shrimp.
If you really want one i give it to you lol

Yes, they will eat shrimp unless the tank is really big and they have room to escape.
But they are really smart and interactive. I love the way their eyes follow you all the time.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Thank You! I'm glad there are people taking interest.

I don't know why the videos don't work. They work for me and they turned out nice. They're mp4 format. That's a shame. I wonder what the problem is...

Videos have worked great for me! Awesome build can't wait to see you add some livestock and coral! What size and brand heater are you running?

 

[CBonito]

Videos have worked great for me! Awesome build can't wait to see you add some livestock and coral! What size and brand heater are you running?

I'm running a BRS Titanium 300 watt element with the inkbird controller. The controller thinks it's maintaining 78 degrees, but according to my Fluke sOOper dOOper Laser Thermometer, it's 77 degrees. It maintains that "one degree off" temperature quite nicely and quickly though. ;) 77 degrees is actually fine, so I'm not fighting with it. It's like 68 in my studio right now. I'm going to move it to my apex and set a high limit so the apex will shut it off if anything ever acts funny.

 

[CBonito]

Looks pretty good, red plumbing is nice. Kind of random but what are you hoping to gain with the flow sensor?

Now I can come back this and say definitively the flow sensor was worth the 60ish bucks.

I have a varios 6 pump which is rated like 1700 or 1800gph at 0ft. Something like that.
At the lowest setting through my 2 half inch returns, I am getting 258gph...

If I bump it up one notch, I get 380ish gph. And the pump only consumes like 20 or 30 watts like that which is nice.

If I go to the third setting it does about 430gph, so I can see where the pump being reduced from 1.25" to 1", and then to 2 half inch outlets is restricting flow, but even the lowest setting is more than fine in a modern tank that produces current within.

So it's given me an idea of what kind of flow I am dealing with. I am sure it's not 100 percent accurate, but
I'm sure it's pretty close.

So for example if I need 10x per hour of tank turnover, I can set the pump to match that based on the GPH reading I have. Do I gain anything? Yeah sure. I know what's going on. I can also use it as an additional indicator of a problem or that I need to clean the pump out. One thing you should totally do if you use one is to use teflon tape on the metric to union adapters that it comes with, or they will leak. I knew going in it would leak if I didnt do that.

I'm satisfied.

 

[CBonito]

Alright, so I got my Apex cooking, all probes calibrated and this is where we're sitting. It was cool because I got to experiment to learn how the probes work and respond. I'm good. Still gotta get my ATO in. I want to clean the pump compartment first. There's sand gunk in there.

But it looks like we're off to a good start in my barren dead tank full of rocks. Those rocks sure look happy man.

Oh, and I fitted the panels to my stand that cover all the badassery going on underneath. It looks great I think.
All you see is this tank with like no pipes or wires going everywhere and all the things you hate about the hobby.
And all the things you want to see that are cool are there right where you can see them.
That was the goal. I got lucky because My sump is like 35.8 inches long and the stand is like 36 inches long so the panels JUST fit. But that's good. And I don't have any splashing out of the sump or anything like that so "salt creep" shouldnt be too much an issue. I'm just not seeing anything making it's way up.

So what fish should I get first???

 

[CBonito]

I see Aiptasia. LOL Like 4 of them so far. I have to get some joe's tomorrow and nuke those fools.

 

[JoJosReef]

You got nothing in there. How about boil some water and shoot it at them with a feeding pipette? Show them you mean business!

Edit: that's what I used to do before I had coral everywhere and it was pretty darn effective.

 

[CBonito]

You got nothing in there. How about boil some water and shoot it at them with a feeding pipette? Show them you mean business!

Edit: that's what I used to do before I had coral everywhere and it was pretty darn effective.

That's a good idea!

 

[CBonito]

It's nice having a running tank with nothing in it to experiment and work everything out before putting anything in.
I've never done that before. Never had the patience. It was always "OOOH OOOH NEW TANK!!! and slap it together...lol I just noticed how patient I've become in the last few years. It's really weird...

But tomorrow if someone has a nice looking flame hawk, he's coming home with daddy. In all these years I have never owned one and I have always wanted one.

Tomorrow or Tuesday, I am receiving pods and phyto. You never get many pods on fake branch rock regardless of how long it's been in a system, so we have to introduce them and keep them fed something. I intend to stock them two more times in different varieties over the next several weeks. Slowly build the foundation...and once i start to see film on the glass every couple days or so from any algae, I'll get some snails.

It's also time to put my refugium together...

I have a Bash Sea Sump/refugium from an old 20 inch acrylic cube I had. I am going to feed it with half inch pipe from my manifold right behind the tank on a small table, and it's going to gravity drain from a bulkhead to my return pump compartment. This way if pods or whatever get dumped, part of them make it into the tank and part goes back to the refugium again. The substrate will be overpriced miracle mud. I dont know if it's any more special than any other mud because I dont have the balls to try, but it is the absolute best substrate to use in a refugium from my own experience.
It's amazing how much I paid for 5 lbs of what I believe to be dirt, but cant prove it. lol

The first compartment the water enters will contain macroalgae with a light, the second part will be the mud refugium for cryptic organisms. Various types of filter feeders, pods, clams, and rock rubble. This will be a big part of the success of the tank. The best systems are such because they produce their own food outside of what they are fed by their owners AND they consume whatever is left instead of it decaying. Clams from the local seafood market are killer for this.
I am also going to throw a couple mangroves in there. Just because I like them.

Trying to keep as much of the filtration as natural as possible.

 

[CBonito]

So this is interesting. looks like my heater is causing fluctuations in the salinity readings.
Not sure what to do here. my heater is in my skimmer compartment with my probes.
I could shove it in the pump compartment, but I don't think that's a good idea...and I dont want to move my probes to the pump compartment either. Screw the pump compartment!

Or I can just deal with it knowing that at 78 degrees, I am pretty much right at 35ppt.
I mean, I know my salinity isn't changing like that. lol

I really like the Apex. It's pretty cool being able to track this stuff. A great problem solving aid...or a great problem in itself? hehe

 

[CBonito]

Here you can see my ph was tanking yesterday. I gave a small hit of 2 part just to see what happens. That's the little hum you see the little hump between 7:30 and 7:45...that was only like a 2.5ml dose of each to show the sensitivity. That was educational for when I start dosing. Anyway...then it started going down again...I opened my windows a crack and it's been climbing since. It's over 8.1. So yeah, feed your skimmer fresh air. I'm going to run a silicone hose to my window from my skimmer input.

My ORP which was in the 170s, dropped into the 160s, but seems to be slowly coming up too. There is definitely an ORP correlated drop with a rise in ph. How much that really matters is open for debate, but I think these probes have to run a little before they start reading correctly so we'll see. Just been interesting seeing how everything works.

I'm gonna go look at fish man...

 

[CBonito]

This is what I was talking about with the ph/orp. Just interesting how it works.
Tank is new so it's kind of silly to try and trend anything, but I'm enjoying being able to see what's happening.