My 50 gallon slice of the ocean

[LEOreefer]

hello all name is Brian and this will be my official build thread. I'll share some of my background then we will get into the good stuff!
My last saltwater tank was about 5 years ago when I lived with my parents. I went from a 30 gal to a 150 and nothing could stop me. If I remember correctly my 150 was 48x24x30 with a home made stand. Well long story short it was way to much for me to handle at the time. I did not have the room or drive to maintain it. The sump would run so the return pump was sucking air, I added supplements just by adding the powders right to the tank and rarely did water changes. The few beginner croals I tried literally melted within days and all but a few of my fish died and I didn't know why. I eventually switched the tank to fresh water then brok it down all together.

Fast forward 5 years I now own my home with my fiancé the distractions that existed 5 years ago are no longer a factor ( I was a volunteer firefighter that took up tons of time ).

 

[LEOreefer]

Tank selection.

I did a ton of research into tank descion. Originally I was going to go with a Red Sea reefer 170 but the price point and total volume of water just didn't appeal to me. I read hundreds of post over that last few months and thought I was pretty much set.
Then I came across the SCA owners thread on another forum and saw I could get a 50 gal aquarium with pretty much the same footprint as the reefer 170 with just 4 inches added to the with! I started in hours and days of research to make sure it's exactly what I wanted. I placed the order Friday and the tank is due in the first week of June hopefully unharmed. It's the SCA 50 gal with regular stand no sump return pump or skimmer. We will cover that later

 

[LEOreefer]

The plan


Like I said this is going to be a well thought out executed plan.

This is the space in question where the tank will sit. As you can see I have a entertainment center to the right and the wall ends to the left. There is about 31" of space from the entertainment center to the corner of the wall. The tank will sit flush with the corner, with the extra space on the other side I will be installing a vertical slide out shelf that will be attached to the exterior wall of the stand. The shelf will slide out almost 2 feet and will hold all my electrical equipment. I know this isn't ideal but space is an issue inside the stand. The slide out shelf will make it easy to add/remove equipment as well as work on the electrical components. There is a closet behind that wall that we use as our pantry, I will house my ato container in there and run the line through an existing hole in the wall.

 

[LEOreefer]

Items still needing purchasing.

I will be posting pictures of equipment I have but this section is for stuff I don't have yet. Most of it speaks for itself.
-Neptune Alpex gold controller with all probes and leak detection sensors
-skimz up14 sump
-echotech mp10wqd
-lighting ( either ai hydra 26 hd or 52 hd) we will talk about that more later
-sand
-various other small items i.e. Salt, nets

As you can see I, almost there !

 

[LEOreefer]

Here is some equipment I went with the new icecap ato , I've read good reviews. Eheim return pump 3000, eheim Jager 150w heater, spare colbolt pump and a no spill Matt for maintenance days

 

[LEOreefer]

This is going to be my DIY cheto reactor. I will wrap the outside in the led light strip and keep it in a reverse cycle from my daylights. The light strip is from Amazon and advertised as a Red/ purple grow light. I'm hoping this will be able to keep my phosphates and nitrates(?) low but not so low my water is stripped. This will be mounted on the inside of the cabinet and ran off its own pump in the skimz sump

 

[LEOreefer]

Btw I also have a dual gfo/carbon reactor from BRS just in case I need some additional phosphate removal.

 

[LEOreefer]

BRS 75 gallon per day or hour I can't remember with dual carbon resin, tds meter , and membranes. My only concern is that you can smell the chlorine in my water so I want to make sure I strip it best as possible. This will be set up in my boiler room on my front porch

 

[LEOreefer]

Skimmer is a skimz 123 should fit nicely in my sump. It was a little to big to fit in the sump that comes with the plug n play package from SCA

 

[LEOreefer]

Now this one I'm excited for, I spoke with Steve from SCA and asked if I could get my tank drilled for a 16" reef shadow overflow! He said no problem! So it arrived today via ups. The tough thing of not having the full length overflow excites me as I get more room in the D/T !

This leads me to the lighting problem. I gave 1 AI mounting bracket that I was going to mount a hydra 52 hd to, but now with the shadow overflow I'm not sure that mount will fit center in the tank. So now I'm waiting to see if I need to do 2 hydra 26's one on each side of the overflow. What does everyone think?

 

[LEOreefer]

I also have BRS dry live rock, I'm a big fan of open spaces so when the time comes I will defiantly be seeking advise from you the pros on how to aqua scape my tank. The descion to go with dry rock vs rock for somewhere like Tampa bay salt water I took very seriously. I weighed through thread after thread of the debate and in the end I decided I wanted 100% full controll over what goes into my tank. I know I won't get the crazy biodiversity but it will give me a piece of mind to an extent.

This is going to be a slow build as stated in an earlier post my tank should be here in the next few weeks. I am getting married in October so there definitely won't be any livestock before then. This will give my tank plenty of time to cycle . I sincerely want to take a moment to thank all of you wonderful people for the amazing information on this site. Ive been reading here since November of last year and feel like I now have the knowledge to create a successful reef tank. Please I urge you to put your opinion in I'm always looking for criticism. I am working on a coral and fish stock plan that I will reveal down the line for adjustments and suggestions. Thank you again I look forward to sharing this all with you ! Happy posting !!

 

[tvu]

IMO you may be overthinking things. I don't run gfo nor carbon. Actually I started dosing nitrates because my system is sucking up everything and I have no NO3 nor PO4 readings.

You can do a lot with the cost of an apex gold and other stuff you have.

Here's my tank up almost 2 yrs now. Simple setup with a refugium that's barely thriving now and bio pure ceramic balls to control nitrate.

I'm using the SCA stock atman return pump and skimmer.

 

[LEOreefer]

IMO you may be overthinking things. I don't run gfo nor carbon. Actually I started dosing nitrates because my system is sucking up everything and I have no NO3 nor PO4 readings.

You can do a lot with the cost of an apex gold and other stuff you have.

Here's my tank up almost 2 yrs now. Simple setup with a refugium that's barely thriving now and bio pure ceramic balls to control nitrate.

I'm using the SCA stock atman return pump and skimmer.

Thanks for the input! Your tank is beautiful !!

 

[LEOreefer]

The apex is more for piece of mind so I can see what's going on at all times

 

[tvu]

The apex is more for piece of mind so I can see what's going on at all times

Lol, I understand because I have a Apex on each of my other 2 tanks. I probably don't fully use it to its abilities. I bought them used. They're more of a convenience for me to shut down pumps, control the heater limits, etc.

For me I like having a separate camera on the tank which I probably use the most on a daily basis.

Good luck with the tank. The hobby is addictive! Somehow even with my busy work schedule I still have 3 tanks to maintain when I'm home [emoji16]

 

[LEOreefer]

The funny part is that my fiancee pretty much said I had to get it so if I wasn't home and something went wrong I could shut it down remotely. I will also have a camera On The tank and in the cabinet for sump view.

I enjoyed the hobby last time and I had no idea what I was doing I'm even more pumped now that I feel I have a handle on things

 

[LEOreefer]

So today's update: the tank is in transit and I should be receiving a call to schedule delivery. BRS is having a group buy thus weekend and I'm trying to decide what I should purchase I'm leaning towards the sump.

I will try to come in and give a daily update. It's hard right now as progress is slow

 

[Brew12]

Nice build thread! I'm following along to see how you like the SCA tank. I'm thinking about upgrading my system next year and right now they are high on my list.

 

[LEOreefer]

Thanks for the kind words. I can't wait to get my tank. The sca tanks I see on here all look top notch. I feel as though I have a solid plan and am more than ready to start building ! There will be lots of pics!

 

[LEOreefer]

So today I received a call from the shipping company. My tank is scheduled for delivery between 12-4 pm this upcoming tues! Hopefully it's in one piece