Atomic's 800g In-Wall with fish room.

[2Sunny]

Beautiful tank and reef and truly amazing initial build. I would give my right arm to have developed those skills years ago. Fortunately I have learned I can trade pieces of paper for skill savy youngsters to keep make my tank nice . . . just gotta keep getting more of that paper, hah!

Just wanted to share one experience that you can file away or not. I've been using an HSA-1000 for 20 years now, and for a while I ran it as you are doing today with a bucket and a sensor. I did so until the sensor broke and I flooded my basement. Today I use the extremely simple overflow container with a ping pong ball instead. 15 years now with no skimmer overflow.

Anyways, awesome reef! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Smarkow]

OMG ping pong ball, love it haha

 

[atomic081]

Hey @atomic081, one of the reasons I follow your build is bc I am doing my own plywood right now. Like literally RIGHT now haha. (View from inside)

I wondered, did you do anything for corner bracing? Like I actually installed these today at potential stress points:

Any advice for further reinforcement?

I’d love it if my build is half as nice as yours at the end hahaha

All of my corners are fiber glassed with more coats than I would like to admit, (i dont remember the exact amount as its been 2 years ago). To me this keeps anything from cracking, but the overall structure on my tank is kept together by the overlapping walls I built around the tank. 2x4 on the side and 2x6 on the back. I would not trust anything less myself.

Beautiful tank and reef and truly amazing initial build. I would give my right arm to have developed those skills years ago. Fortunately I have learned I can trade pieces of paper for skill savy youngsters to keep make my tank nice . . . just gotta keep getting more of that paper, hah!

Just wanted to share one experience that you can file away or not. I've been using an HSA-1000 for 20 years now, and for a while I ran it as you are doing today with a bucket and a sensor. I did so until the sensor broke and I flooded my basement. Today I use the extremely simple overflow container with a ping pong ball instead. 15 years now with no skimmer overflow.

Anyways, awesome reef! Thanks for sharing!!

My skimmer gets me by, but I'm not thrilled with it. Its one of the things I will definitely be upgrading in the future. Can you explain your Ping-Pong ball and how it works? I'm assuming the ball is just a visual to tell when its full?

 

[Smarkow]

Do you recall the “weight” of the fiberglass cloth you used, ie 2/4/6/10oz? Were you happy with how it handled wedges and corners, or do you wish you had gone lighter/more flexible?

 

[atomic081]

Do you recall the “weight” of the fiberglass cloth you used, ie 2/4/6/10oz? Were you happy with how it handled wedges and corners, or do you wish you had gone lighter/more flexible?

I dont remember exactly. I had a buddy get it for me, he owns a business making concrete molds for yard decorations. He had it left over. It was pretty thick I remember.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

how much money did you spend at the reef in Indy?

 

[atomic081]

how much money did you spend at the reef in Indy?

I don't frequent "The Reef" much. Not because I dislike it, its come a long way the last few years. Its much cleaner than it was before. But its location is out of the way for me to go. I frequent Modern Aquatics the most locally, especially for Fish.

Truly though I get most of my coral from other reefers though trades. I'm consistently on Facebook getting people who want to trade corals and it unusually works out in my favor!

 

[NoahLikesFish]

if you ever have invasive softies I can take care of them

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Do they have oddballs there? I’d rather not order from LA but o want orange spot blenny and clingfish

 

[atomic081]

Do they have oddballs there? I’d rather not order from LA but o want orange spot blenny and clingfish

Any place locally will order fish for you. I've ordered from both the Reef and Modern Aquatix. The selection at The Reef is better for walk-in though. Modern Sells out fast when they get the shipments in on Thursday!

 

[atomic081]

Update time!

The INDMAS frag swap was a few weeks back. Tank300 and I went in together and set up tank. It was the first time in 4 years ive set up. So I was pretty happy with how things went. We learned a few thing though. More towels are better, Bring an extension cord, Bring frag plugs, and next time we are going to have a black vinyl table cloth.

 

[atomic081]

Next up.....

I'm in the process of rearranging the fish room. The breeding system is gone and I have a 4x2 50g lowboy for a grow out system to replace it. My buddy who works on Acrylic tanks is going to do some work on the tank and I hope i get it back soon. The tank was in BAD shape. scratches everywhere and it didn't have any top bracing. He is gonna try to buff the tank and add Euro bracing on the top for support. I don't expect this tank to be show quality, just good enough to grow corals!

After this I'm going to add a 30"x24" tank to propagate Anemones in. Both tanks will sit where the breeding system/Ro water was. Ill need to move the RO water reservoir to under the display tank, but I don't this will be an Issue as nothing is down there.

I hope to have all this up and running by mid July. I'm hosting the INDMAS August meeting at my house and I want everything to be looking good by then.

 

[Andrew D]

2 Years old!!! This past week my tank hit the year old mark of being cycled. I'm very happy with the progress made so far.

Its been a month since I updated this because I've not a lot had happened on the tank. I added the Unicorn tang with success and all my corals seem to be looking good!

I have started a small venture with a few local buddies called "Rush Reefing". I've always sold frags out of my basement and recently it has made enough to pay for my maintenance and enough to reinvest back into some fun frags! This venture is a way to advertise via Facebook easier and it gets my buddies involved. Our plan is to also setup at some of the local Midwest Frag swaps! I'm super excited about this as the swaps have always been my favorite day of the year.

Pictures!!!

New Swap setup!



New Gopro 7 setup for our upcoming trip to the beach....Videos in a few weeks!


Coral Pictures!!:

Other than the obvious "purple stylo", what please is the name of the coral in the 8th and 9th pictures have a different name? I've been looking for it for years and cannot find.

 

[McPuff]

Other than the obvious "purple stylo", what please is the name of the coral in the 8th and 9th pictures have a different name? I've been looking for it for years and cannot find.

It looks like a Milka Stylo to me. Great coral and I highly recommend it to anyone! Not sure where you're located but if it's anywhere near SE Michigan, I'll give you a piece. :0)

 

[Andrew D]

Thanks very much. Unfortunately I'm in southern Ontario, Canada so not easily driveable especially with the *&$!% COVID restrictions in place.

 

[atomic081]

Thanks very much. Unfortunately I'm in southern Ontario, Canada so not easily driveable especially with the *&$!% COVID restrictions in place.

Yes its just a normal purple Stylo. Super easy coral and with amazing purple coloring I have not been able to find in any other coral.

 

[atomic081]

Exciting News! The INDMAS August meeting will be held at my house this month. Im starting to finish up a few of the "Projects" that I have put off for a while. During the summer my tank goes on cruise control so and Im really excited to finish the projects up and have the group over to my home!

The first project was to add the Zoanthid frag tank and the Anemone frag tank. I filled them this morning and will be hanging the lights this weekend.



Next on the list:
Paint the frag tank stand
Install new Rubbermaid for RO Topoff water
Install Carbon reactor
Clean!!!!


Another thing to note: I had one of my Tunze powerheads go out. These things are expensive and after 2.5 years of use, I expected more. I called Roger at Tunze and he gave me a heck of a deal on a replacement Motor for the powerhead. Tunze has been great to me over the years!!!!

 

[Sltloser]

Can we get some updated tank pics? Things are looking great, can't wait to see how everything grows out!

Also, I've used tunze on and off for the past 10 years and I've never been disappointed in their customer service or products. I'm glad to hear Roger is keeping that going strong!

 

[KRoach260]

Amazing build. Awesome to read through this on my day off while I plan my first build.

 

[atomic081]

Can we get some updated tank pics? Things are looking great, can't wait to see how everything grows out!

Also, I've used tunze on and off for the past 10 years and I've never been disappointed in their customer service or products. I'm glad to hear Roger is keeping that going strong!

Ill try to get a updated tank picture soon. Im still trying to clean the fish room and get things looking good before I take pictures!