70 Gallon SPS Living Room Reef

OrangeGoblin

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We have a new home and it's time to upgrade our seriously aged 11.4 gallon reef setup. I wanted a medium sized tank with furniture-grade cabinetry, and also a depth of 22 inches to enable some good aquascaping. We had Midwest Custom Aquariums build the tank and stand. The final tank size is 36x22x20, with a 36" high stand and a matching hood. This setup will be for SPS corals, clams, and a couple of our current LPS corals. With several custom components the build will take a little bit of time but hopefully worth it.

The equipment list is:

Lights - as shown above, 2x Radion XR30 G5 Pro
Sump - custom build from Lifereef. Jeff does a great job engineering a great custom sump. Hopefully I can fit in a refugium.
Controller - Neptune Apex. Accessories include Trident, feeder, ATO, water flow monitoring, leak detection, dosing pumps, and LCD display
Return pump - Neptune COR-15
Skimmer - Bubble King Mini 160
Flow - 2x MP40 QD, 2x MP10 QD
Heaters - 2 x Eheim

Here are pictures from the tank delivery this week:

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Fragile - must be Italian.

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Lights mounted into the hood with cooling cutouts:

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Next to the tank it is replacing:

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View towards the kitchen:

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I had a door put on the left side of the cabinet so that I can install a controller board and access all of the equipment controls from the side of the stand:

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OrangeGoblin

OrangeGoblin

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So I've decided to try the negative space aquascape following the Bulk Reef Supply video instructions. I've ordered 50 lbs of marco rock, the base foundations, as well as the mortar and glue. Really looking forward to doing this. The only trick will be making it in 3 components so I can fit them through the eurobrace openings.

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OrangeGoblin

OrangeGoblin

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Big box of marco rocks from BRS arrived yesterday. 50 lbs total, plus 3 flat cut foundations (2 small, 1 medium). The 3 foundations are pretty small - I placed them into the aquarium for reference. I'm not sure any of them will be large enough to support a structure that will fill up this tank given the height & depth. I'm going to order a large support - I think my aquascape will be weighted toward the right hand side of the tank with a larger structure there, and smaller structures in the middle and on the left. I've put the rocks into a 10% bleach solution to dissolve the organics for a week.

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OrangeGoblin

OrangeGoblin

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Went to work doing more prep for the NSA. I ordered an additional 10 pounds of marco shelf rock. This stuff is not shelf in the sense like you'd get from Tonga, but it more like thinner marco rocks and not giant boulders. If I had to order again I would just get a bunch of this stuff, it would work well for small to medium size tanks to build he entire structure. It's porous and interesting throughout, unlike the standard marco rocks - I got some giant boulders there and when you break them down, the core is just chalky calcium rock and not as interesting. Here's the shelf:

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I've got this soaking in bleach until next weekend (last batch soaking, the other 2 are done). I picked up a hammer and heavy duty chisel and went to work breaking down the bigger pieces. That is a chore. Compare these pieces to the shelf rock and you can see what I mean.

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Anyways lots of hammering to break down into smaller pieces:

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Aside from needing some strength, it's not particularly difficult to do, just have to keep in mind making different size/oblong pieces, and not just smaller circular rocks. I have a smaller chisel set on standby to use on final construction for fine shaping. Before long had smashed up a good bit :

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As I said, some of the rocks from the interior are uninteresting chunks of chalky rock:

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However I think I have more than enough for a couple of interesting structures. Next step is to soak overnight in a RO/DI water and dechlorinator solution to get rid of the bleach. On the left is the clean smelling rock drying, and on the right a bleached batch prepping for an overnight soak.

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Between these 2 pics are about 80% of the rocks - the complete set of boulders and original foundations I ordered, about 60 pounds total.

Speaking of the foundations, one thing that is annoying are the sizes. In the below pic - small, medium, and large. The difference between S/M to L is comical. The small is fine for a very small foundation. Mediums were not much bigger, so I ordered a large. It's huge. I did break it down into 3 or 4 pieces which is also soaking in bleach along with the shelf. Just a heads up if you follow the BRS marco rocks NSA route.

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Next steps, bleach the final batch until next weekend and dechlorinate them. Then we are ready for construction.
 
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OrangeGoblin

OrangeGoblin

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A few update pics from my construction progress. Still very much a work in progress! Because of the eurobracing on top of the tank, I have to build the NSA in three pieces. The idea is there are two larger outer pieces, and a smaller center piece and form a small semi-circle in the lower center front for lower light corals, and the rockwork arches over for high light SPS. It's a learning process but definitely a lot of fun, and although it's a lot of work its not particularly difficult (I'm not artistic in the least) and is very rewarding. I've definitely had to order more CA accelerator. The Marco cement is a definite must, and also helps sculpt it into one piece. Still trying to figure out how the left side side piece will work, more to follow!

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OrangeGoblin

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After a long wait, my sump from Lifereef is complete! I really loves Jeff’s work and recommend him highly. The sump has a skimmer chamber, a secondary chamber to which I will add a calcium reactor down the line, a third chamber for three reactors, the ATO and the return. There is also a refugium that has its own overflow back into the sump. Very happy with how it came out.

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OrangeGoblin

OrangeGoblin

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Question....does anyone have any lighting setups in their stand sump area with a cabinet door open/shut switch? Researching options on Amazon for units.
 

Mellotang

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Looks great

Please understand I’m not Criticizing when I say this but I think your rock might be a little high if you’re going for a true “negative space” look.

I think the idea of negative space, as BRS refers to it, is that you use minimal rock and let the corals fill the aquarium.

Maybe off set the structures. Have one structure further back than the other, keep the highs and lows staggered.
Symmetrical doesn’t look too Natural.

IMO aquascape looks better when it doesn’t go all the way up to the top, fish can swim above the reef and corals can grow in naturally to fill the space.

Different heights and depth add more to the reef than rock all the way to the surface.

Again, these are just my opinions, To each is own.

Either way, nice tank, nice build!

I look forward to seeing it progress.
 

1Tlew0

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Lovely setup!

Question regarding the rock ~ Are the holes within structure large enough for plugs? Or what's your angle when adding corals down the road? Sorry for the noob question.
 
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