Crystal Dynamics 72x24x24 Build Thread

[Mirkus]

The tank is cycling! Starting the tank with Zeovit. Still deciding if I like the aquascape. Here are some pics.

Nice setup, my cda tank should be arriving tomorrow. What are those things you used to attach to light fixture to ceiling?

 

[Tom Stevens]

Nice setup, my cda tank should be arriving tomorrow. What are those things you used to attach to light fixture to ceiling?

Congratulation on the new CDA tank. The fixtures are Aquatic Life Ceiling Mounts you can buy on their site.

 

[Billldg]

Tank is looking great!!! Its making me chomp at the bit, I won't order mine till the end of the year, the AGONY, LOL!!!

 

[Tom Stevens]

Tank is looking great!!! Its making me chomp at the bit, I won't order mine till the end of the year, the AGONY, LOL!!!

Thank you @Billldg, I have been having fun with it. COVID 19 is terrible. Thankfully, I had this tank to keep me busy as I work from home.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I think you will be happy with them, Zoya is pretty much the reason I went with them. She answered all questions in a timely manner, well as timely as possible being that I’m on the east coast.

My tank is 72x36x24 my stand is made out of 8020.

Hey there, I'm looking into doing a stand for my 180 (72x24x25) out of 8020. Do you have any design tips or considerations that have worked for you? What size extrusions did you use for the frame?

 

[Tom Stevens]

Time for an update. Starting with Zoevit has worked out so far. The tank is doing good and has already shows signs of coralline algae growth on the bottom and back. There has been enough
coralline growth It gave me the excuse to put together the calcium reactor. Fun stuff.
I also bought some more fish. A male and female squareback anthias. Beautiful fish. They both hid for the first few days but they are now out and about and eating well.

here is my calcium reactor set up. It is a Geo. So far so good.

I have put in two tester frags I collected from the 75 gallon. A purple stylo and a neon green birds nest. Both are doing fine. If they continue to so good I will add a few more frags.

The “work from home” has had a silver lining. I have been able to spend quality time on the tank and having a lot of fun!

 

[Reef370]

Looking good Tom, glad to see everything is doing good !! If you don’t mind me asking.... what regulator are you using?

 

[Tom Stevens]

Looking good Tom, glad to see everything is doing good !! If you don’t mind me asking.... what regulator are you using?

No problem. I preferred a dual stage so I went with SR Aquaristik.

 

[Reef370]

Thank you sir, I haven’t hooked mine up yet. I’ve been looking for ideas...

 

[Tom Stevens]

I picked up a purple tang a couple of weeks ago along with a yellow and put them both in QT and copper. The purple did great, the yellow, not so much. The yellow turned out to be sensitive to copper and did not make it.

I put the purple into the tank 3 days ago in an acclimation box in the evening, The next day he did great. So well I decided to release him into the tank population. Well, that was a scene. The powder brown and kole tang had at him to the point he was cowering in the top corner of the tank. I read about using a mirror to distract the bullies, so I rushed to the drug store and picked up a couple of hand mirrors and then placed them on the outer glass of the tank. Immediately, the powder and kole started to fight the mirror and leave the purple alone. The mirror worked like a charm. This morning I took the mirrors down and all is well. Here is a picture of the beauty.

 

[Tom Stevens]

I took advantage of the Summer / Father’s Day sales a bought some corals. The Coraline Algae is going crazy and the corals i put in so far are starting to color up. I got some great deals at @CherryCorals.

 

[Billldg]

Working OT, I have the money in the bank for the tank, now I just need CDA to have a sale, LOL!!! Hopefully they will have a 4th of July sale. They said they would extend the 15 percent off sale to the tank, but I would rather have 10 percent off the whole thing. As I am sure you already know, these dream tanks cost a small fortune, need to save as much money for other things. I have started to buy smaller things already. Started to buy the rock, already have all the foundation Marco Rocks, not I will start to buy 180 pounds of shelf rock.

 

[Tom Stevens]

Working OT, I have the money in the bank for the tank, now I just need CDA to have a sale, LOL!!! Hopefully they will have a 4th of July sale. They said they would extend the 15 percent off sale to the tank, but I would rather have 10 percent off the whole thing. As I am sure you already know, these dream tanks cost a small fortune, need to save as much money for other things. I have started to buy smaller things already. Started to buy the rock, already have all the foundation Marco Rocks, not I will start to buy 180 pounds of shelf rock.

I bought my tank at the Cali Reefapoloosa sale. Unfortunately, that route won’t be available this year. Keep an eye on their website for a sale (@Crystal Dynamic Aquariums) . Another route is to just give them a call. Zoya is very easy to work with and she can get you a quote.

Don‘t buy too much rock. I ended up with a bunch of left overs as I ended up buying 50 pounds of live rock from a local reefer. I QT’d the rock in a HomeDepot tub to make sure there were no unwanted pests. There were some of the white starfish, but they were dealt with by a harlequin shrimp. All and all it has worked out real good. It only took 2 months for coralline agae to explode! Starting a tank with only dry rock is a real pain.

One other thing, it will take a while for the tank to be built which will give you enough time to wait for the black Friday sales (If they are going to happen this year)

 

[Billldg]

Yea, that's the reason I would like to put in for in as soon as possible. I don't plan on starting on it till the end of the year, or the beginning of next year. I plan on buying 60 pounds of live rock to seed the tank. Initially I will place some in the tank, but eventually I will move it all to the sump. I am mainly buying things right now were warranty doesn't matter. The other things I will buy on Black Friday, mainly MAP items. I already have several Marco Rocks base rock, I plan to use only Shelf rock in the DT. This being a dream tank, I want to make sure I have the types or shape of rocks needed to get what I want. I have been up in the air, but I will probably go with a hybrid again with 5 xr15 G5 blues. If I went strictly LED's, the amount of money it would cost to cover that tank would almost rival the cost of the tank itself.

 

[Tom Stevens]

New clam

 

[Billldg]

Talking with Zoya right now, may be placing the order today.

 

[Eric Dorfner]

How’s the protein skimmer doing? I’ll be putting together a 180 system later this summer and was looking at a Bashsea 8x24 or Aeraqua Duo AD600 Protein Skimmer - Maxspect. Any updates on the skimmer would be appreciated. Keep the updates coming.

 

[Tom Stevens]

How’s the protein skimmer doing? I’ll be putting together a 180 system later this summer and was looking at a Bashsea 8x24 or Aeraqua Duo AD600 Protein Skimmer - Maxspect. Any updates on the skimmer would be appreciated. Keep the updates coming.

Hi,
The skimmer is a beast. It took a while to break in and for a moment I thought I made a mistake. It was real loud and made gulping sounds. It is now broke in and adjusted and works great! Get your sump first before ordering the skimmer as it has a large footprint. The skimmer is of a beckman type, not a needle wheel. Since I went Zeovit, I also took their recommendation and did not get a needle wheel. They seem to think certain elements precipitate faster with a needle wheel, but I am not sure why or if that is possible. I recommend Bashsea, but only if you can tolerate a little noise as it is seems louder than a good needle wheel.

Setting up the tank has been very fun, so I am excited for you and your upcoming journey.

 

[Eric Dorfner]

Thanks for the advice and this unit will be in my living room under the tank. Performance wise great but you think I’ll hear it in the cabinet a few feet away?

 

[Tom Stevens]

Thanks for the advice and this unit will be in my living room under the tank. Performance wise great but you think I’ll hear it in the cabinet a few feet away?

No. My tank is about a 10 feet away and with the cabinet closed it is pretty quiet. You Just need to give it time to break in. With new tanks, there is not much to remove at first. You also need to purchase the collection container as the skimmer needs the output of the collection cup open to allow airflow.