A 15 year olds dream reef!

noahreefer · Apr 30, 2018

Hey guys I am 15 years old and I have been in the hobby for about 4 years. This is going to be my first tank above 100 gallons this is going to be my build thread and tank progression thread for my new 200 gallon. I have a Total of three tanks after purchasing the 200 gallon. One is a 20 gallon frag tank and the other is a 50 gallon tank. My main reason for getting an upgrade was because of my two tangs in my 50 gallon. I got them when they were smaller and had the plan to upgrade to a larger tank so they will be getting a new well deserved tank! As for the tank dimensions it is 84inx24.5inx25.5in

We are going to be picking it up tomorrow so I will hopefully get some more pictures!

VtecGuy88 · Apr 30, 2018

Nice! Good luck with everything, can't wait to see how it goes. Thankyou for the inspiration today.

noahreefer · Apr 30, 2018

For the skimmer I think I’m going to go with a bubble magus. I’ve always liked them in my previous tanks so I have high expectations

VtecGuy88 · Apr 30, 2018

noahreefer said:
For the skimmer I think I’m going to go with a bubble magus. I’ve always liked them in my previous tanks so I have high expectations

Good to know. I'll keep that in mind. I'm still fairly new and the only skimmer I've ever had is a hob. I do plan to upgrade but I haven't found a sump big enough to put one in. I'm still running a little 10 gallon and its barely big enough for my hob with the refugium next door to it.

vegamedic · May 1, 2018

Congratulations on such a big system at such a young age. I'm looking forward to seeing this progress but I just want to caution you that equipment costs will scale with the size of your build...skimmer, pump(s), powerheads, lighting, etc all start to become very expensive at a tank this size. Unless you have some sort of large-for-your-age income (allowance from parents, job, whatever), it could hold you back pretty quick.

Note for anyone that wants to tell me decent powerheads or a return pump for an 84" tank isn't really that expensive, think about how much money you had at 15, it's a legitimate concern.

noahreefer · May 1, 2018

vegamedic said:
Congratulations on such a big system at such a young age. I'm looking forward to seeing this progress but I just want to caution you that equipment costs will scale with the size of your build...skimmer, pump(s), powerheads, lighting, etc all start to become very expensive at a tank this size. Unless you have some sort of large-for-your-age income (allowance from parents, job, whatever), it could hold you back pretty quick.

Note for anyone that wants to tell me decent powerheads or a return pump for an 84" tank isn't really that expensive, think about how much money you had at 15, it's a legitimate concern.

Thanks!! And Yes I have been saving for quite some time for a bigger system. I am going to sell my 50 gallon so I will hopefully make back some money from that.

noahreefer · May 1, 2018

Update we are picking up the tank tomorrow so I will have pictures then

litenyaup · May 1, 2018

Congrats. Is it going to be a fish only?

samnaz · May 1, 2018

Impressive !

noahreefer · May 1, 2018

litenyaup said:
Congrats. Is it going to be a fish only?

Thanks but No it is going to be an sps/acro

litenyaup · May 1, 2018

What other components are you going with i.e. lighting, sump, powerheads, etc?

hwntunda · May 1, 2018

Congrats on the new large setup, looking forward to see the progress!

noahreefer · May 1, 2018

litenyaup said:
What other components are you going with i.e. lighting, sump, powerheads, etc?

For the lights I am going to do three of the single ai prime lights, the tank comes with a basic sump, and for the power heads I think I’m going to buy two of the 1k gyre icecap pumps. I already have a tunze auto top off (might be a different brand). Would two of the 1k gyres be enough??

Hayduke · May 2, 2018

AI Primes only cover a 12" x 12" area at high enough PAR to keep SPS, so you'd need 14 of them on a tank that size...

If you're on a budget and want some inexpensive, but really high PAR lights, I'd highly recommend the OceanRevive T247 lights. Three (or ideally four) of them at $170 each would cover a tank that size and give you enough light to keep acros easily. A local guy has three running on his 10 year old SPS reef and it's packed to the gills with acros, montis, stylophpora, etc literally growing out of the water and has better color than any other tank I've ever seen in person.

As for the flow, for SPS you need 50-80x the tank volume for the flow rate, so really you'd need a bare minimum of 10,000 gallons/hour of flow. For perspective, I have 700gph on my 10 gallon SPS nano. Two 1,000gph gyres would definitely not be enough. The gyre is a good flow pattern, but maybe consider getting one gyre positioned back center, and two 5000gph-ish wavemakers like Jebao RW-20 which are a steal at $112 each positioned one on each end of the tank set to random flow mode. The above would cover you for lighting and flow for not much more than the cost of the two gyres and three AI primes you've already budgeted for but with much better results.

Good luck on the build! Can't wait to watch it and way to dream big.

reef lover · May 2, 2018

Quite impressive!! Wish my kids cared about anything except fortnite...lol!! Good luck with the build!

noahreefer · May 2, 2018

Hayduke said:
AI Primes only cover a 12" x 12" area at high enough PAR to keep SPS, so you'd need 14 of them on a tank that size...

If you're on a budget and want some inexpensive, but really high PAR lights, I'd highly recommend the OceanRevive T247 lights. Three (or ideally four) of them at $170 each would cover a tank that size and give you enough light to keep acros easily. A local guy has three running on his 10 year old SPS reef and it's packed to the gills with acros, montis, stylophpora, etc literally growing out of the water and has better color than any other tank I've ever seen in person.

As for the flow, for SPS you need 50-80x the tank volume for the flow rate, so really you'd need a bare minimum of 10,000 gallons/hour of flow. For perspective, I have 700gph on my 10 gallon SPS nano. Two 1,000gph gyres would definitely not be enough. The gyre is a good flow pattern, but maybe consider getting one gyre positioned back center, and two 5000gph-ish wavemakers like Jebao RW-20 which are a steal at $112 each positioned one on each end of the tank set to random flow mode. The above would cover you for lighting and flow for not much more than the cost of the two gyres and three AI primes you've already budgeted for but with much better results.

Good luck on the build! Can't wait to watch it and way to dream big.

dang ok thanks for the info... my lfs told me that the three ai primes would work fine. And the jebaos sound good thanks!

noahreefer · May 2, 2018

reef lover said:
Quite impressive!! Wish my kids cared about anything except fortnite...lol!! Good luck with the build!

Hahah I’ve had my fair share of that game...

noahreefer · May 3, 2018

update tank has arrived. We will hopefully be getting water for it and then start the aquascape!

noahreefer · May 3, 2018

Would two/three of the 3k gyres work in a tank this large?

Kmsutows · May 3, 2018

Great tank dimensions! You mention going to get water for it.... if that is the case you are far better off buying an rodi set up as you will use it for years to come and is VERY important to use as top off water. My 150gal needs about a gallon a day and in winter 1.5gallons a day. For such a long tank you may want to look into the xf280 gyres .. a lot of money but you need something strong to reach that long of a tank