65g Mixed Reef for Seahorses.

[aquaman99]

I am just about ready to put this plan all together so I wanted to make a build thread for it.

Just so everyone doesn’t freak out about the cycle, I have had my sand in one 5gal bucket and my dry rock in another with air pumps with ammonia doses for the past 4+ months so they are both properly cycled.

I am going to start this thread with pictures and reasons why I chose the equipment that I did. Then move to rockscape picture ideas. Then planing DIY sump design ideas. Then macro algae and pod selection. We will see where the thread takes us from there. Hope you all enjoy and stay active with feedback.

 

[aquaman99]

Lets start with which substrate types I decided to go with.

The bulk of the rock work in terms of size is Aquamaxx Ecorock. I went with this because of it’s aesthetics along with it being very light. The peices flow and fit together very well. The negative to this kind of rock is its poor ability to house good bacteria based on my research compared to other types of rock.

The bulk of the sand I chose was called pink flamino by Caribsea but has since been renamed or discontinued. I didn’t want just plain white sand and I was curious what this sand would look like under 20k lighting.

I had some basic Oolite from an previous Brackish build and so I threw that into the Flamingo as well totalling about 20lbs of sand. I know this is a small amount for the foot print but since It’s a seahorse tank, I wanted the sand to be just barely enough to cover the bottom glass so no food has time to settle and decompose in a deeper sand bed.

I also bought a tunnel shape from my LFS of Caribsea Liferock. This is stained purple. And I also bought a peice of Pukani at that same LFS to go as a topper on one of my rock structures.
I bought 5lbs of what is called Stax. It is made to create shelves. I am still unsure how I plan to use most of this.
Finally I bought 5lbs of mixed rubble. This stuff was filthy when I bought it and had to cure it. It’s going in the ‘fuge. I am also considering puting 5lbs of fireplace lava rock in the ‘fuge also. I have it left over from a failed build.

 

[aquaman99]

Salt:
I decided to use a mix of Red sea Coral Pro and Tropic Marin Pro Reef.
I wanted a mix of the best “natural” and “artificial” salts I could find. I am thinking a 3:1 ratio of Red Sea to TM.
That should give me expected perameters of: 450mg/l of CA, 1350mg/l of MG, and 11.275dKH. I know those are just rough estimates. I’ll know more of a baseline after actual testing. I plan to do my first fill up with Distilled water from the grocery store and use RODI water from my LFS for water changes and topoffs

 

[NY_Caveman]

Nice start! Looking forward to more.

 

[aquaman99]

Components of the DIY 20g long sump.
AKA mechanical filtration.

To start, I bought the cheapest (per unit) filter socks they had at the store. I’m still experimenting with which brands I will prefer.

I am debating if I want to put the Tripple Combo Pack Filter Media in the sock or have a separate compartment for it later in the sump. Please leave your thoughs on this. I use this pack with all my tanks and love it’s effectiveness.

The Mignon Filter 60 is another of my favorites. I plan to put that in the ‘fuge section to help air-rate and also house a bag of the aquaclear carbon in it’s chamber. The bag of carbon is small but I feel will be effective for it’s purpose.

Rio 2500 pump. Pretty basic and standard. It was the best bang for my buck.

I went with the Aquatop CPS-1 for the display because if it’s compact size. I might add another at a later date

Reef Octopus NS80 Nano Protein Skimmer was used because of the custom stand I am having built. I am very short guy and wanted to make the overall height if the tank and stand as low as possible so I could not use one of the normal sized protein skimmers due to the extra inches in height above the sump.

 

[aquaman99]

Lighting:

I was origionally going to go with one Kessil AP700 but the tank I got has a center bar for the lids and I thought there would be too much shadowing. At the time, I think the Aquanest M8 had just came out(early this year) and they were doing a HUGE 40% off sale at the store I bought them at. So I got two of those. I don’t have a Par meter and there is limited info on them but I have a really good feeling about them. They are very customizable however the app is also a bit glitchy and hard to work with. The light I would give an A but the app I give a C-.
Attached is the box plus my lighting schedule I plan to start with. Please give me feedback if there is something wrong with my lighting intensity, spectrum, or schedule

 

[aquaman99]

Aquascape updates coming soon. I've been busy with the holidays.

Side note: my first batch of coral arrives on friday. I plan to quarantine for at least 2 weeks in my 5g quarantine tank. There will also be 3 peppermint shrimp with the coral order. Next week I will have 2 other orders of coral come in.

 

[LaraLouM]

This looks exciting! I am fascinated by seahorses.

 

[aquaman99]

Tank is on the stand. It’s a lot taller than I had hoped. But then again I am a short guy lol. I guess I’ll be needing someones help to fill and aquascape it.

 

[aquaman99]

I just found the par specs for my light and I calculated the following.

At the surface there should be a 400Par with a 6" radius, 275Par 2" after that, 160par 2" after that, less than 100Par up to 12" after that.
At the sand bed there should be a 200par with a 8"radius, 125Par 8"after that, and less than 100Par up to 6" after that.

I plan to check these calculations with a rented par meeter once I fill the tank with water but based on these numbers I should have no problem keeping any of the corals I want; including the two RR sps that I want/have.

 

[aquaman99]

I tested my numbers for my frag tank last night. They should be the same as my tank since I used the same everything.

PH: 8.2
NH4: .25 (I have no idea why!?)
KH: 11.5
CA: 470
MG: 1500 (this seems wrong)
Temp: 75f
SG: .0255

Using Walmart brand distilled water with 7tbs of Red Sea Coral Pro and 1tbs of Tropic Marin Pro Reef per gallon.

 

[Be102]

Looking good! Also have a I have a 65 gallon reef and interested in seeing how you scape it!

 

[aquaman99]

Looking good! Also have a I have a 65 gallon reef and interested in seeing how you scape it!

I am putting off opening the directions for plumbing it due to perceived difficulty. How was plumbing yours? Any tips or warnings?

 

[Be102]

I’m not too sure I am of much help considering I have a hang on back life reef overflow ( which I love) I did all my plumbing myself and it was quite the experience! When I get home I’ll snap some pics for you

 

[aquaman99]

I’m not too sure I am of much help considering I have a hang on back life reef overflow ( which I love) I did all my plumbing myself and it was quite the experience! When I get home I’ll snap some pics for you

Thanks! And just a heads up on my aquascape planning. Lots of small zoa islands at the bottom. 2 small arch/circles and 3 “pillars”. More of a negative space look with the rock work. Most every structure will be stand alone; not touching another structure.

 

[aquaman99]

$83, 2hours and a plexiglas splinter later and I have a bunch of baffles that dont fit or are missing big chunks. I guess I need to rethink my sump. Any ideas? I am thinking those rubermaid treys drilled? Really upset I spent so much in plexiglass! That cutting tool is useless for precise cuts.

 

[aquaman99]

It is so interesting to see how some corals like parameters (x) and some like (y) or (z) ...ect. I have had great polyp extension from all of my zoas until today yet no extension from my clove polyps. That was with "clean" water. I let the water get a little "dirty" and the clove polyps love it but the zoas hate it.
I'll get you some picture of my frag tanks later this week. I just increased their lighting So they should get nice and bright like they came shipped. I wanted to acclimate them before putting them in my full power lighting cycle.

Look forward to lots of zoas, an octospawn, a hammer, a clove, and a toadstool.

 

[aquaman99]

I created my sump. It’s a 20g long with about 10.5g of water. I am also posting some coral teasers.

 

[aquaman99]

So I made the mistake of thinking I made 5gal of saltwater last night so I did a big water change on my frag tank and within 3 minutes all my shrimp, snails, and crabs died so I knew something was wrong. First thing I always do because it takes 10 seconds is check salinity and I saw it was freshwater so I had to try and salvage. I hope I saved most if not all of the coral but only time will tell. I'll know more on Monday.

I started aquascaping. It will be done this weekend and I will post pictures.

I also bough pods from Algae Barn. I went with the ultimate refugium starter pack. That should be here on tuesday. I am going to wait until I get my order from Aqua SD of corals this week and then put everything in the display.

 

[aquaman99]

I am about to finish aquascaping in a few minutes and then post some pics. I added phyto last night and adding my 2800 pods in about an hour.
I got some very unexpected readings when I tested the display tank final CA, MG, ALK numbers.
I was expecting parameters of: 450mg/l of CA, 1350mg/l of MG, and 11.275dKH
I actually got parameters of: 350-400mg CA, 1100-1200mg MG, and 8.6DKH. There is a range because I was adding 3 drops every time because I didn't expect the actual numbers to be that much lower than my expectations.
Any ideas why my actual numbers were so much lower?