strawberry_reef

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Well, it’s finally time, again.

From 2009 to 2015, I ran a total of 650 gallons in tanks in my “fish room”. 180 fowlr, 90 LPS/Zoa, 60 SPS, 8x40 breeders for a mix of quarantine tanks and frag tanks. When I moved, I tore everything down and sold off everything I owned. Ever since then, I’ve been slowly getting the itch to build another tank.

Fast forward to 4 months ago, I stumbled across a painting at an estate sale and snagged it for $25 - sold it for…a lot more. That being said, my wife said I should finally build another tank with the money that I stumbled across. So here we are today, and I finally got my tank (and some gear ordered).

EDITED 09/05/21 WITH ACTUAL GEAR PURCHASED & USING:

Tank - Seapora 90 Gallon RR
Sump - Trigger Systems Ruby 36
Skimmer - Reef Octopus 110 4”
Return Pump - Reef Octopus 950 GPH
Flow - Two AI Nero 5’s
Control - Coralvue Hydros w/ temp, PH, two water level sensors, and leak detection
Lights - Two Radion XR30 Pros G4
Fuge Light - not purchased yet

So, that’s what I have coming to my local LFS sometime next week. Nothing is official yet unless someone here suggests otherwise…but that is what I’ve decided (for now) lol.

I will update as things roll in & the actual build starts!
 
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Radu

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Well, it’s finally time, again.

From 2009 to 2015, I ran a total of 650 gallons in tanks in my “fish room”. 180 fowlr, 90 LPS/Zoa, 60 SPS, 8x40 breeders for a mix of quarantine tanks and frag tanks. When I moved, I tore everything down and sold off everything I owned. Ever since then, I’ve been slowly getting the itch to build another tank.

Fast forward to 4 months ago, I stumbled across a painting at an estate sale and snagged it for $25 - sold it for…a lot more. That being said, my wife said I should finally build another tank with the money that I stumbled across. So here we are today, and I finally got my tank (and some gear ordered).

Tank - Seapora 75 Gallon RR
Sump - Trigger Systems 26
Skimmer - Reef Octopus 110 4”
Return Pump - Ecotech Vectra S2
Flow - Ecotech MP40 quiet drive
Lights - ???
Fuge Light - ???

So, that’s what I have coming to my local LFS sometime next week. Nothing is official yet unless someone here suggests otherwise…but that is what I’ve decided (for now) lol.

I will update as things roll in & the actual build starts!
Nice, that's awesome to hear about the painting :D
Was buying it blind luck or did you know it was valuable when you saw it? How did you find a buyer?
For refugium light I recommend Kessil H80 Tuna Flora.
For main lights I run aquatic life hybrid t5's with Ecotech Radion XR15 Blue gen 5 or Kessil 360's.
 
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strawberry_reef

strawberry_reef

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Nice, that's awesome to hear about the painting :D
Was buying it blind luck or did you know it was valuable when you saw it? How did you find a buyer?
For refugium light I recommend Kessil H80 Tuna Flora.
For main lights I run aquatic life hybrid t5's with Ecotech Radion XR15 Blue gen 5 or Kessil 360's.
Often I stop at those sales to look for vintage Star Wars toys, Lego, or comics and I will check prices and whatnot on eBay. The painting looked like an original so with a quick keyword search I was able to find it quickly LOL.

As for the lights, I stumbled across that Kessil the other night - seems like a good option!

I think for my main lights, I am going to stick with strictly LED's. I used to run a ATI 8 bulb fixture on my SPS tank and it was just a power sucker and got so hot.
 
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Alright...ordered the following stuff today! Should be here by Friday/Saturday. Trying to slowly build the inventory of everything I will need, no cutting corners this time around.

-55 LBS marco rock
-E Marco 400 mortar kit
-Fritz Zyme Turbostart 900
-BRS 4 Stage RODI system
-Milwaukee MA877 Digital Refrac
 
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Really struggling to choose my lights. Torn between a few options...if anyone wants to chime in feel free! Order below is my most likely to buy, to least likely to buy - unless otherwise convinced lol.

2 x Radion XR15 G5 Pro's
4 x AI Prime 16's
1 x Kessil AP9X
2 x AI Hydra 32's
 
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Well to make a long story short, I had to change the title of my thread. Unfortunately the tank that I had ordered came in cracked so my LFS was gracious enough to give me a 90 gallon at a discounted price. So here we are, 15 gallons more ready to have more fun and burn more money! LOL
 
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Well, some stuff arrived today. 30 lbs of dry rock (more coming), Marco mortar, some fittings, cutters, glue, and filter socks. Scored my skimmer for 25% off since it didn’t have the original box!

4673001D-B139-41FB-B47E-F214822010A7.jpeg
 
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Welllll ladies and gentlemen, the replacement tank is here! Guess I need to start ordering more stuff to get this thing up and running LOL
 

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Time to build a stand! Plan is to make a rather large “U” shaped stand to have my reptile cages/terrariums surrounding the tank. Hopefully this will be enough lumbar to get me started on one side!
 

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Stand has been started, as well as some aqua scaping (my least favorite thing ever). I need to pick up more dry rock tomorrow.
 

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Well I got the stand skeletoned out. However I ran into an issue once I got the top put on, realizing that the piping will not clear the back left 2x4’s. Going to need to rethink the position of them and still keep structural integrity in order to get the piping to run properly.
 

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So after a lot of debate, I basically took apart the entire stand today and rebuilt it since I did not structurally support it correctly the first time.
So with that being said…got the stand rebuilt, leveling mat on, tank moved on top, and started to paint the back.
Slow and steady wins the race, right..?
 

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Started to run the mocked up plumbing today, but this is as far as I can go before I have my sump here to know exact dimensions to run the lines. Also the aquascape design is coming along nicely I think.
 

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Well, here’s the semi finished product. I may add a bit more height to it if it looks too low in the tank. We shall see, stay tuned!
 

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Aquascape went in. Not sure if I’m happy though…may want to add more height to it, not sure yet. Thoughts anyone?
 

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Looks good to me, maybe two rocks at the bottom for each island and maybe another one that serves like a bridge between the two islands and use that one for additional height. Just a thought.
I am trying to keep the two sections separate for weight, if I ever have to pull them out. But II ended up adding some height to them last night, just waiting for the marco mortar to cure and I will snag some pics.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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