60 gallon school build

kangadrew · Sep 1, 2016

Hey, wanted to share my newest build - a 60 gallon reef for a school! It was donated and set up yesterday, it's gonna need a bit of work done to it before it's show quality so bear with me

The tank's got coral gravel, a bit of sand, about 5 big live rocks (completely covered with coralline), a HOB filter (woefully unequipped), two big powerheads, and a nice-quality T5 fixture on it - plus a heater and some fish. We're talking about a monster 4" royal gramma, a full-grown adult banggai cardinalfish, one of the nicest looking lemonpeel angels I've seen, and two green chromis. It's nothing too special, but the gramma and the angel are interesting specimens. There's also a single small frogspawn coral in there.

The first step with the tank is to ditch that filtration system - I hate it. Everything is clumped up in one corner, it looks pretty terrible not to mention the parameters are probably less than ideal. I don't know if I want to drill it or not yet, but there's going to be an algae turf scrubber built and a sump/refugium to house all of the equipment and a bit of media - the fuge is going to become a display fuge as well. Instead of the powerheads, since the tank is so small I'm going to ditch the regular pheads and use dual loc-line returns positioned around the tank coming from the return pump - one or two on either side of the tank. So that will be the new filtration system we're running - that should hopefully clear up a bit of space in the tank.

Next step - build a hood for the tank. I want to use eggcrate top versus the plastic salt-crusted covers that are on there right now, so that the light can properly penetrate the tank and we can keep some more "advanced" corals. That shouldn't be too difficult, and since it should match the stand it shouldn't have to be anything special - the stand is just solid black wood, not even any trim on there (still looks nice though, by all means).

Once that's done, I want to look into changing the stock - what do you think should happen with it? There are a few other saltwater tanks on campus, I want to rehome everything for now into those tanks - except for the angelfish, which is probably about 3" right now. I will probably end up keeping the chromis as well, and probably trying to get one more of them. I want to try a midas blenny, however I think with the lemonpeel angel in there, there will be too much yellow in the tank - thoughts? I know I want to attempt to breed firefish (I've wanted to try this for years), so I'm going to source out a pair and keep them in the fuge (probably a 20 long). Clownfish are popular with kids, so maybe a pair of them. Any other stock ideas? That royal gramma already seems like a bit of a bully, so he's going to be rehomed for sure. I want to get the banggai cardinal a mate, but rehome both of them as well.

Any other stocking thoughts? I think it's a tad bit too small for any kind of starfish, was thinking about a chocolate chip starfish. I was going to do a nemo-themed tank, but it's a bit small for a tang, puffer, or moorish idol (even if I substituted with a heniochus butterfly).

Pics to come later today. Any other thoughts or comments?

Jackcarp · Sep 1, 2016

I would add an anemone to host the clownfish. Especially since it will be around kids.

kangadrew · Sep 1, 2016

Jackcarp said:
I would add an anemone to host the clownfish. Especially since it will be around kids.

Might be a good idea. The tank is very well established (at least 5 years) so once it settles I may get one. My only concern is that the tank is 13" wide - a nem might fill that in too quickly. I also don't want it causing trouble with any other fish

Pair of clowns sounds like a good idea, especially for kids.

Desmond · Sep 2, 2016

If you don't want to drill the tank you could consider and overflow box. I would also keep 1 powerhead for extra circulation. I would not add a new for at least 6 months until the tank settels down again and all parameters are in check.

kangadrew · Sep 7, 2016

I've got a good final plan for the tank. We're going to start by replacing the plastic tops with eggcrate for more light penetration and air-gar exchange. Then we're going to also build a 12" high canopy to go overtop, and hang the light fixture inside of it - I'm going to go about 7-8" above the water to keep mostly softies and SPS. Might install a few fans at the back as well, we will have to see if it ends up getting too hot or not. I'm going to make some new doors for the bottom portion of the stand next - this will be a storage space now (BTW the stand is a Marineland Hearltand stand). The larger space with doors already will house the sump/fuge and a few other things.

We're going to keep the heater we have in there now, but move it to the sump when it's finished. We're going to remove the powerheads, will explain why shortly.

The filtration will start with an overflow bow - thanks for the idea Desmond, I found one online I really liked so I will be attempting to build that (shouldn't have too many problems). That's going to flow into a turf scrubber, with a LED light on it to get the algae growing. This is going to be positioned horizontally so that it will properly fit in the sump - I think. I don't have other ideas for it, so I guess this is going to be what happens - the only other idea would be to put it in the sump, which is a possibility. Anyways, then it will flow into the sump which will have a small compartment for the intake, heater, and a bag of carbon. Then there will be a large refugium, with some kind of fish living in it. After that there will be a very small compartment for the return pump which will bring it back to the display. There will be three loc-lines coming off of that, one will be on the far side of the tank with the overflow and two will be at the other end. These will be flexible so we can position them pretty much any way we like and get flow going in any spot of the tank so there are no dead spots.

Under the stand, there will also be a 5-10 gallon tank for RODI water - I think we should be able to fit a 10 gallon under there with no issues.

I will have to post a picture of one of my sketches, but the aquascaping will consist of three piles of rock. The one on the far left will consist of mushrooms as well as most of our tall-growing corals like frogspawns. The middle pile will have all zoanthids - this rock will have a cave structure in the middle for the fish to hide in. The one on the far right will probably be the biggest and it will have everything else, like all different kinds of LSP (mostly acans) as well as some other assorted softies. I also might grow GSP on the overflow, need to think about it.

Now, this part I will probably get flamed for. I want to really stock this tank to the absolute maximum. There will be a water change every week or two, we're going to be running insanely heavy filtration as well. I have seen teh turf scrubber work its wonders many a time, and it should do no different this time. With regular maintenance, this will be able to support a lot of fish load. The stocking list will probably be 2 ocellaris clowns, 2 red firefish, the current lemonpeel angelfish, a midas blenny, a tailspot blenny, a yellow watchman goby, and two more fish. Those other fish will be a mandarin (when the copepod population gets high enough) and some other type of goby - any suggestions for a cool-looking goby for the tank? I am also open to the idea of an orchid dottyback or a blue eye purple dottyback (orchids aren't exactly cheap though, especially when you have a $0 budget so far).

There's also going to be a few inverts and a CUC in the tank. I know there will be 2 peppermint shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, and an emerald crab. I think the CUC will consist of a mixture of scarlet hermits, turbo snails, nerite snails, strombus snails, margarita snails, cerith snails, and nassarius snails. Can I get some numerical recommendations for the clean up crew please? I'm having a hard time coming up with a number of how many. Hair algae in the tank is BAD right now, we're considering blacking out the rock in a few tubs with a powerhead and a heater just to get that stuff off of there.

Thoughts?