Hi!
New member here....have been out of the hobby for a few years and just now getting back into it. I've had a number of reef tanks throughout the years sized from 20 gallons to 240 gallons. I shut down my 240 gallon build in preparation for a cross country move 3 years ago. Long story short....we've finally moved from Virginia to Arizona and now that we're starting to get settled...I've got the bug again. I've made some progress and have been debating making a build thread. Decided to do it, so below is a few weeks of updates in one.
I picked up a 60 gallon cube, stand, return pump, light, and sump from the LFS here a few weeks back as a bit of a package deal and I was off!
Just after getting the tank into the garage:
I have had success and have witnessed many successful tanks utilizing the Triton Method and wanted to implement a good size refugium, which means the sump that was included with the tank wasn't going to suit my needs. I pondered building my own sump from scratch, but decided I didn't really want to take that project on. I'm going to be implementing a bit of a dual sump. Not sure how weird this idea is, but I once had a display refugium where the main tank would drain into the refugium sitting next to it, which would then drain into the sump, and pump back up into the display. I plan on somewhat mimicking this. The refugium will still be in the stand with the sump, but since the dollar per gallon sale is going on....I picked up two 10 gallon tanks and plan on plumbing them together for 1 entire tank to be the refugium and then the filter media, skimmer, and return pump in the other. Side by side they fit in the stand perfectly with a couple inches to spare around each side. Below is a photo of how it will be laid out. I have an overflow box, some bulkheads, and a diamond drill bit laying around from past builds and will be installing an overflow into the back of the refugium. I'll then build a little stand for it to raise it up and elevate it enough for it to be able to drain into the sump. Reason I'm doing it this way is I may decide to make it a display refugium again and put it next to the tank. This way it is already a "reef ready" style tank and could easily be transitioned into a display later on. Plus it will give me room to keep some things such as pellet food, test kits, etc... underneath the refugium for storage. Picture of sump layout below. Keep in mind I still need to silicone some baffles in and get the refugium elevated. This was primarily to make sure the skimmer fit in the stand/10 gallon and could be properly maintained.
I was speaking with the owner of the LFS I purchased the tank from and he didn't have a ton of LED's available. He did have an AI Prime HD. I'm not 100% sure how well this will do on this tank or if I should get a second. He seemed to think it would do fine as long as I wasn't looking to do an SPS tank. Looking for some input on that...feel free to chime in. My options are: It will be fine for the display (I only plan on doing LPS and softies. Maybe 1 or 2 SPS, but would be placed at the top right under the light if I put any in there at all) Get a second to supplement, or put this on the refugium and get a different light entirely. Cast your votes!
Location of the tank in our living room. Ignore the cable spaghetti and dog toys. We just put a new TV up and never went back and cleaned it up after hooking everything back up to test. Getting that wrangled will be part of this build too as all of that will be moved to a different receptacle, so the tank can be plugged into the corner there.
That's about where I'm at. Equipment so far: AI Prime HD light, Reef Octopus Classic 150 "Space Saving" Skimmer, Generic return pump I'm unsure the name of, but is about 700gph, Tunze Osomolator ATO. I used to have a couple of maxspect gyres in my 240 display and loved them....I see IceCap came out with a copycat. I'm tempted to give one a try for this build, so I can lessen the flow on the return pump and have a slower flow through the refugium. The price tag is much more appealing than the maxspects.
I did some BRS shopping....below is the color scheme for the plumbing. I got 50 pounds of reef saver dry rock and 20 pounds of the shelf rock. I'll be getting those in a brute trash can to start cooking this week once my old RODI unit arrives. My mother in law was kind enough to ship it out to me after it sitting in her garage for over a year. Whoops.
Anyway, that's all for now, folks! More updates to come as we keep progressing.
New member here....have been out of the hobby for a few years and just now getting back into it. I've had a number of reef tanks throughout the years sized from 20 gallons to 240 gallons. I shut down my 240 gallon build in preparation for a cross country move 3 years ago. Long story short....we've finally moved from Virginia to Arizona and now that we're starting to get settled...I've got the bug again. I've made some progress and have been debating making a build thread. Decided to do it, so below is a few weeks of updates in one.
I picked up a 60 gallon cube, stand, return pump, light, and sump from the LFS here a few weeks back as a bit of a package deal and I was off!
Just after getting the tank into the garage:
I have had success and have witnessed many successful tanks utilizing the Triton Method and wanted to implement a good size refugium, which means the sump that was included with the tank wasn't going to suit my needs. I pondered building my own sump from scratch, but decided I didn't really want to take that project on. I'm going to be implementing a bit of a dual sump. Not sure how weird this idea is, but I once had a display refugium where the main tank would drain into the refugium sitting next to it, which would then drain into the sump, and pump back up into the display. I plan on somewhat mimicking this. The refugium will still be in the stand with the sump, but since the dollar per gallon sale is going on....I picked up two 10 gallon tanks and plan on plumbing them together for 1 entire tank to be the refugium and then the filter media, skimmer, and return pump in the other. Side by side they fit in the stand perfectly with a couple inches to spare around each side. Below is a photo of how it will be laid out. I have an overflow box, some bulkheads, and a diamond drill bit laying around from past builds and will be installing an overflow into the back of the refugium. I'll then build a little stand for it to raise it up and elevate it enough for it to be able to drain into the sump. Reason I'm doing it this way is I may decide to make it a display refugium again and put it next to the tank. This way it is already a "reef ready" style tank and could easily be transitioned into a display later on. Plus it will give me room to keep some things such as pellet food, test kits, etc... underneath the refugium for storage. Picture of sump layout below. Keep in mind I still need to silicone some baffles in and get the refugium elevated. This was primarily to make sure the skimmer fit in the stand/10 gallon and could be properly maintained.
I was speaking with the owner of the LFS I purchased the tank from and he didn't have a ton of LED's available. He did have an AI Prime HD. I'm not 100% sure how well this will do on this tank or if I should get a second. He seemed to think it would do fine as long as I wasn't looking to do an SPS tank. Looking for some input on that...feel free to chime in. My options are: It will be fine for the display (I only plan on doing LPS and softies. Maybe 1 or 2 SPS, but would be placed at the top right under the light if I put any in there at all) Get a second to supplement, or put this on the refugium and get a different light entirely. Cast your votes!
Location of the tank in our living room. Ignore the cable spaghetti and dog toys. We just put a new TV up and never went back and cleaned it up after hooking everything back up to test. Getting that wrangled will be part of this build too as all of that will be moved to a different receptacle, so the tank can be plugged into the corner there.
That's about where I'm at. Equipment so far: AI Prime HD light, Reef Octopus Classic 150 "Space Saving" Skimmer, Generic return pump I'm unsure the name of, but is about 700gph, Tunze Osomolator ATO. I used to have a couple of maxspect gyres in my 240 display and loved them....I see IceCap came out with a copycat. I'm tempted to give one a try for this build, so I can lessen the flow on the return pump and have a slower flow through the refugium. The price tag is much more appealing than the maxspects.
I did some BRS shopping....below is the color scheme for the plumbing. I got 50 pounds of reef saver dry rock and 20 pounds of the shelf rock. I'll be getting those in a brute trash can to start cooking this week once my old RODI unit arrives. My mother in law was kind enough to ship it out to me after it sitting in her garage for over a year. Whoops.
Anyway, that's all for now, folks! More updates to come as we keep progressing.
That will be everything underneath the stand. I also got the rock in some saltwater starting to cure.
