DB's Flat Frag Tank Build

[drainbamage]

it's allliiiiiiiiive! Since you probably aren't that excited, I'll be excited enough for the all of us :tongue:

I'll get some pictures up, just filled it with enough water to turn the pump on, going to get some lights plunked on it just for looks, and gather up some dry rock to get going, and maybe even a few chunks of live rock out of the corner tank. Also may drop a few chunks of GSP and some random zoa rocks in there just to see how things look (used 30% mature water from other tanks, and dosing MB7, so not worried about having too big of a cycle as no uncured rock will be going in, and no fish will be going in.)

Very stoked!

 

[sexycorals]

Yesssss im excited!!!!

 

[revhtree]

Soooooo excited! HAHA! Nice work so far!

 

[drainbamage]

thanks...got the dry rock in, got fed up with the power bars (after dropping one I was hooking up into the sump full of water... *sigh* ) and rearranged them a little bit. Might totally redo it all again, but for now it's the best I could make happen, especially without a lot of space to work with (I'm not a small guy, and the sump takes up most of the space as is.) But did get a light rigged up so going to take a few pics in a moment, then start adding some livestock. Not sure if I'm sleeping tonight :tongue:

 

[drainbamage]

% <- GPS

yea baby

The sump- notice the nature made skimmer in the left-most chamber :tongue: Going to wait a few days or a week before dropping chaeto into the fuge, but if anyone has mangroves at MAX going to pick them up.

Carefully dosing some MB7...

Just a few random shots with the frag rack and shelf in place, though you can also see my viewboxes that now float (much better than the alternative...)

This one's called "this goes into there" can't wait to have all the space compared to the 20!

and the shelf in it's alternate placement letting me get to the frag rack real easy bellow where it'll normally sit. can also see how the runners brace the shelf compared to it's earlier sag. Will still have some sag once it gets weighted, but still, not too bad at all (at least I hope :tongue: )

 

[drainbamage]

first livestock hit the tank today, so far things are looking good. Went ahead and dropped the chaeto into the fuge to get it going

 

[Troylee]

Looking good what's the first livestock???

 

[drainbamage]

Looking good what's the first livestock???

GSP rocks, some Teal Candycanes, and a few random zoa frags... the opposite of anything fancy or delicate, just stuff that was laying around. Oh, and a green clown goby that hitchhiked, so I guess he's got a new home for now. Waters continuing to clear up from the mineral mud causing a bit of a fog, so no pics just yet cause it doesn't look very good :squigglemouth: but the corals are all open and loving it, so that's a good sign. Can't wait to get these acans moved over so I can get back to feeding them aggressively...

%

 

[Macropora]

Looking good DB!

 

[skinz78]

Looking sweet Brian!

 

[CJO]

That is looking great! Can't wait until you're sure it's stable and you can move some special chalices over! That fruitloop acan is amazing. Did I read right, you keep them under high light and high flow?

CJ

 

[drainbamage]

Looking good DB!

Looking sweet Brian!

Thanks guys!

That is looking great! Can't wait until you're sure it's stable and you can move some special chalices over! That fruitloop acan is amazing. Did I read right, you keep them under high light and high flow?

CJ

Which one you calling the fruitloop? They all have names that I've given them, but I never actually kept their original names, so not sure which is what at this point. Think the one in the middle of the 2nd to last pic may be the FnF Black Hole Sun- got it from a guy who was good buddies with FnF so wouldn't be surprised.
And yea, i did have them in high light (4x24" teklight, so basically the highest power T5 fixture I've seen as of yet) running all 4 bulbs 8-12 hours a day. All the acans did a red-out to varying degrees, have colored up since I switched to only running the 2 actinic+ bulbs. Have also been dosing mag more regularly though, so I believe it's a combination of those factors.

Very excited to get this new tank stabilized for exactly that reason! Main reason for the tank actually is so I can feed as often as I'd like to without worrying of nutrient overload. Big 'fuge will help with that- also found out a buddy has a euro-reef skimmer that I may be able to pick up if I can raise some cash. Very much love euro-reef's, so would like to make that happen.

 

[CJO]

Which one you calling the fruitloop?

I was referring to the middle one in the second picture.

And yea, i did have them in high light (4x24" teklight, so basically the highest power T5 fixture I've seen as of yet) running all 4 bulbs 8-12 hours a day. All the acans did a red-out to varying degrees, have colored up since I switched to only running the 2 actinic+ bulbs. Have also been dosing mag more regularly though, so I believe it's a combination of those factors.

All of mine seem to fade out in high light. I've moved all of them that I could to the shade. The magnesium level didn't seem to affect them one way or the other in my tank.

Very excited to get this new tank stabilized for exactly that reason! Main reason for the tank actually is so I can feed as often as I'd like to without worrying of nutrient overload. Big 'fuge will help with that- also found out a buddy has a euro-reef skimmer that I may be able to pick up if I can raise some cash. Very much love euro-reef's, so would like to make that happen.

Feeding = good!

CJ

 

[drainbamage]

I was referring to the middle one in the second picture.

Gotcha! I got that one from Ian@ ReefOdyssey- call it the Ashen Sunrise- I expect to get more orange inside the mouths with the lower lighting-so far its been getting oranger as i've cut back on the lighting more

All of mine seem to fade out in high light. I've moved all of them that I could to the shade. The magnesium level didn't seem to affect them one way or the other in my tank.

yea, I have some before and after pics of a few of these I could put up somewhere to show the redding out and then the return to color. The mag is something I wasn't dosing often enough- realized it was low and started bumping it up in all the tanks- did it near in the same time frame as the light reduction though, so can't attribute it to one more than the other- but have noticed increased colors everywhere on my LPS's, so regardless, I'm happy :xd:

Feeding = good!

CJ

yea, and my corals like it too!

 

[drainbamage]

Here's some updated pics :bigsmile:

Got the light hung up- for now going to use this Glo-light as it was laying around. The bulbs in it are old and shot, so need to get them replaced- just planning on running it with 2 geismann actinic+'s and somewhere down the road, going to install some LED's most likely.

First livestock that got placed in there-some random GSP that got torn out of Scubajay's tank when it took over and placed on some rock. For me- it was a hardy coral to test the water and the rock was a bonus for bacteria seeding. Now just need to get rid of it before it takes off :xd:

Topdown shot with the light in place, using the droid2, shooting through the top-down box I made (with specs from Troylee for sizes, that i modified because uhm...yea, no good reason, just did.)

Just another shot

And first test frag of some semi-delicates- two magicians, looking not too bad under a 12+month old aquablue and a 12 month+ old actinic plus

 

[CJO]

Sweet. Looks like things are coming along nicely. Any signs of a cycle? Also, did you say you seeded the sand?

CJ

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Moving right along very well Brian!!! Looks like the wall worked out well so far! The egg crate table on the left looks good...whats holding the one on the right up?? Is it dipping down or is it the way it looks in the photo?

 

[drainbamage]

Sweet. Looks like things are coming along nicely. Any signs of a cycle? Also, did you say you seeded the sand?

CJ

Thanks- as of yet no sign of a cycle. The water was cloudy for a few days which I blamed on the mineral mud, but was also caused I believe by the dissolving of any dead organics on the dry rock. The drain from the tank was actually causing enough agitation that the entire first chamber was filled with a thick foam, sort of had a skimming sump, hah. That foam has faded out which leads me to believe the bacteria I added from the MB7 won the fight, plus the good live rock that I placed (both in terms of just the rock, but also the big chunks of GSP rock thats in there) is getting the other rock going. I didn't do any form of sand seeding (never do really) besides placing some of the live rock on the sand bed. That said, when I tear down the 20, I'll probably place all the sand from it into the tank and just deal with the cloudiness again for a few days.

Moving right along very well Brian!!! Looks like the wall worked out well so far! The egg crate table on the left looks good...whats holding the one on the right up?? Is it dipping down or is it the way it looks in the photo?

Thanks- and yea, the left one is rock solid, the legs I made for it are sorta overbuilt. The shelf thats picture on the right is held up by the tabs I mounted (up in the first post). on the back of the tank, there's an over/under tab that the shelf slides into in two locations, and on the 'side' of the tank, there's an under tab that the shelf sits on. I was hoping to not have as much sag as I do, but I believe I would need to heavily reinforce both the shelf and the mounting system to prevent it. So I'm going to just accept it as what it is, and probably build a little 'tower' piece that will sit on the bottom rack or sand bed and then provide support to the shelf. Not as clean of a look as I was hoping for, but it's just what i'll have to deal with.

 

[Electrobes]

I never thought I would say this, but now I want a frag tank. Wish I had a place to put it! Do you still dislike that it was acrylic? TBH I would have thought that acrylic would be better for frag tanks because it's not a display and there is a lot less change for leakage. Plus it would be easier to fix scratches as opposed to a display tank.

Awesome build, love looking at these things!

 

[drainbamage]

I never thought I would say this, but now I want a frag tank. Wish I had a place to put it! Do you still dislike that it was acrylic? TBH I would have thought that acrylic would be better for frag tanks because it's not a display and there is a lot less change for leakage. Plus it would be easier to fix scratches as opposed to a display tank.

Awesome build, love looking at these things!

I don't really mind that it's acrylic- but I still would have preferred a glass tank, preferably a rimless one just for ease of use, and ease of maintenance (nothing like cleaning coralline off with a razor blade compared to a plastic scraper!) That said, it is nice being able to modify the tank so easy- if this was a glass tank, none of the tabs I mounted would have worked at all, so shouldn't complain about it (not that I really do, lol.) Plus if I do add another drain to it sometime, much easier to drill the acrylic than it would be to drill glass, so yea, overall it's probably a plus that it's acrylic, but I'm definitely a glass guy in general. The whole not leaking thing...well, I rarely have a tank set up for more than 5 years, which is the very beginning of concern for a glass tank leaking typically (IME) with most being good for much longer.

And yea- I'm totally loving this thing. I've always been more of a collector than a decorator, so having this big, wide, super easy to access tank (big open top that's a bit bellow chest level, suspended lights that have an easy way of being raised for extended periods of times) is just really fun to play with.If I didn't have my display, it'd probably not be nearly as fun, but having the display to have as my 'nice' tank, this one is great to focus on my collection. Getting all my zoa's lined up yesterday was great fun realizing how many I have in my collection now!


= General update- got a skimmer running. It's a euro-reef of some sort, but not sure the exact model, and trying to find info on euro-reefs is real difficult seemingly. I'll get a picture put up, but it's a 20" tall, aprox 6" diamater with a sedra 3500 running a pinwheel impeller. Within minutes it was pulling gunk out (combo of nutrients, but also bacteria from having added an overdose of MB7 to prevent cycling issues.) If anyone tries to look up the model- it has a union fitting, not the quick-lock, and the pump mounts to the slip-fit grommet that allows the pump to easily be slid in and out. Grey lid and base, with the base being round not the big square blocks they had for awhile. Stand-pipe adjustment for water level adjustment.
Only mods I'm planning on it is drilling it for a drain fitting for the collection cup, and probably going to drill the lid as well and plug the air intake into the collection cup to act as a de-pressurizer as well as a muffler.