Desert Reef: A Rimless Starphire Design

[CoralReefDoc]

Vision

To create an asthetically pleasing, natural mixed reef environment in my living room, by utilizing years of acquired knowledge, dreams, and visions, in order to successfully establish a thriving reef ecosystem within the confines of a glass aquarium

System Specifications

Aquarium

60 Gallon Rimless Starphire Glass 48L x 18W x 16H

Stand

Aquatic Fundamentals Model# 16751

Lighting

Aquactinics Constellation T5 Fixture w/ Apex Lunar Simulator Moonlights

T5 Lamp Configuration:

1. UVL Actinic 03
2. ATI Aquablue Special
3. ATI Blue+
4. KZ Fiji Purple
5. ATI Blue+
6. ATI Aquablue Special
7. UVL Actinic 03

Protein Skimmer

Reef Octopus XP1000SSS w/ Bubble Blaster HY1000 Pump

Overflow System

CPR Aquatics CS102 w/ Tom AW-20 Aqualifter Pump

Sump

20 Gallon Aqueon Glass Aquarium 30L x 12W x 12H

3 Sets of Customized Glass Baffles:

First Section: 9L x 12Wx 10H Skimmer Section
Second Section: 10L x 12W x 10H Refugium Section
Third Section: 6L x 12W x 8H Return Section

Refugium

5 Gallons w/ Mixture of CaribSea Live Caribbean Reef Sand and Walt Smith Fiji Mud

Refugium Lighting

Ecoxotic PAR 38 12k LED Spotlight and JBJ Macro-Glo 25W 6400K CF

Waterflow

Sicce Syncra Silent 4.0 Return Pump w/ Dual 3/4" U-Tube Return Nozzles
EcoTech Marine Vortech MP10wES Powerhead x2

Controller

Neptune Apex AquaController w/ Temperature, PH, and ORP
WXM Vortech Compatible Wireless Module
Lunar Simulator 3 Module
Energy Bar 8 x2

Dosing Equipment

Bubble Magus T01 Dosing Pump w/ Acrylic Bracket
Bubble Magus 2.5L Balling Canister x3

Top Off System

Elos Digital Osmocontroller

Live Rock

53lbs Real Reef Aquacultured Live Rock

Substrate

40lbs CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand
40lbs CaribSea SeaFlor Special Grade Reef Sand
40lbs CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink Reef Sand

My ultimate goal for this system is to have the honor of Reef Tank Spotlight. Any and all comments, suggestions, and/or constructive criticisms during this process can be of great help in pointing out details my reef OCD has overlooked and is welcomed and encouraged. Thanks in advance for everyones input ! [/I]

 

[SaraB]

Looks like you are planning out a great system and can't wait to watch the build!

One question/comment, are you doing a super deep sand bed with 120 pounds of sand? I have that much in my 183G.

 

[Viva'sReef]

Sounds like an amazing setup, but why not have the tank drilled? After setting up several tanks with hang on overflows, the choice is simple for me. Drill!!!!

 

[WhoDey]

Sounds like an amazing setup, but why not have the tank drilled? After setting up several tanks with hang on overflows, the choice is simple for me. Drill!!!!

Without a doubt... The aqualifter will fail, plus HOB overflows always look a tad ghetto rigged.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Sounds like an amazing setup, but why not have the tank drilled? After setting up several tanks with hang on overflows, the choice is simple for me. Drill!!!!

Drill Baby Drill LOL....sorry it's what came to mind hahaha but i agree!! Overall sounds great and i love the vision/mission statement. I should have you work on my resume LOL.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Looks like you're off to a good start, tagging along.

 

[CoralReefDoc]

Looks like you are planning out a great system and can't wait to watch the build!

One question/comment, are you doing a super deep sand bed with 120 pounds of sand? I have that much in my 183G.

Thanks Sara ! Im looking forward to it also, hopefully it will be a great system and live up to my expectations. The sand bed is 2-3 inches in most locations with a maximum depth of no more than 3.5 inches. While i prefer a shallow sandbed of around 1-2.5 inches, the reef will house a couple Blue Spotted Jawfish in the future and having a deeper, multi-particle sized sandbed will encourage them to exhibit more natural behaviors. This is essentially the sole reason for the deeper sandbed. Thanks for the input and following along

Sounds like an amazing setup, but why not have the tank drilled? After setting up several tanks with hang on overflows, the choice is simple for me. Drill!!!!

Thanks for the amazing setup comment. While it took longer to put all the components together, I tried not to cut any corners as we all know in this hobby you end up upgrading shortly after anyways. With that being said the one weakness in the system is the HOB overflow.

Without a doubt... The aqualifter will fail, plus HOB overflows always look a tad ghetto rigged.

I agree, but for now thats the best option. Only 3-5 gallons in the return section before the pump will run dry. Thanks

Drill Baby Drill LOL....sorry it's what came to mind hahaha but i agree!! Overall sounds great and i love the vision/mission statement. I should have you work on my resume LOL.

Drill baby, drill ... lol. I'd like to, trust me. However, the system is a peninsula design with the short side coming off the wall and i didn't want to make the commitment of drilling the shortside of the tank. Internal corner overflow is out of the question, takes up too much tank space. Thanks for the vision statement comment, will work for frags ! Thanks for following along. Go Phins !

 

[xmetalfan99]

I think you should drill the tank as well. Nothing takes the seamless look away from a rimless tank like something hanging off of it.

I understand your concerns with drilling the short side, but you could always build your own smaller corner overflow. Like the ones Elos uses.

 

[Viva'sReef]

Why not use the Glass-holes.com 700gph overflow kit? This will take up the same, or less tank space then a HOB overflow.

700 gph Overflow complete kit - Glass-Holes.com dope aquarium stuff

 

[CoralReefDoc]

Sneak Peek

This system has been up and running, albeit primitively, for the past 6 weeks (03/05/2011) in order to get a jump start on cycling and establishing a healthy, thriving pod and micro fauna population, one of the early keys to a successful, diverse reef system, IMO. The cycle was insignificant and only lasted about a week.

On 03/26/2011, 21 days after initial setup, I seeded the reef with two different sources (Reef Nutrition and Southwest Reefs) of live Tigriopus Californicus copepods.

Not much in this hobby is instant gratification, however, in the spirit of getting everyone excited and involved in this process I want to leak a few pics of the aquascaping and overall look of the reef for everyones viewing enjoyment. I will go into detail on the aquascaping process/philosophy, etc. in a future post.

As of a few days ago, before most of the high end equipment arrived, here is what the system/reef looks like:

Mind the iPhone4 picture quality ...

Left Side

Right Side

Continued ...

 

[CoralReefDoc]

Center

Overview

Feedback appreciated !

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Hey good to see the new progression shots. I love the aquascaping you went with!!!

 

[xmetalfan99]

I really like the rockwork and the tank. Looks really good. Are you worried about the aqualifter failing and your hang-on overflow breaking syphon?

 

[Akwarius]

This is a classy looking setup. I like that it can be viewed from three sides (like my display). Any future plans for livestock?

 

[CoralReefDoc]

Hey good to see the new progression shots. I love the aquascaping you went with!!!

Thanks fsu1dolfan, I do too ! I tried to make the reef as natural as possible, while still allowing for maximum usable space for specimen placement.

I really like the rockwork and the tank. Looks really good. Are you worried about the aqualifter failing and your hang-on overflow breaking syphon?

Thank you. Not really, I designed my return section to be rather small and shallow, allowing only enough water to be pumped back into the system that it can handle without overflowing. Therefore, a failure with the overflow would just cause the pump to burn up.

This is a classy looking setup. I like that it can be viewed from three sides (like my display). Any future plans for livestock?

Thanks for the nice words Akwarius ! Whenever I see some of the truly great reef systems from around the World, on this site and others, that is one of the first words that come to mind. So for you to say that about my system is a great compliment, thank you. I like the peninsula design also, it allows for maximum allowable placement of speciemens and viewing. With all the nuances that go on within a thriving reef system 1 or 2 panels is not enough to truly enjoy all the action.

While i would like to divulge that information it is a little early in the thread to do so. However, I can tell you that it will be a mixed reef with some choice LPS bottom-middle and SPS middle-top with a Tridacna or two. Thanks for subscribing, I look forward to your future thoughts !

 

[Aquaph8]

Your tank is really looking great. I love the rockscape. It should be fun watching it mature.

 

[CoralReefDoc]

Your tank is really looking great. I love the rockscape. It should be fun watching it mature.

Thanks alot Aquaph8 ! Im glad the aquascaping suits your eye as much as it does mine. I spent a considerable amount of time imagining the formations in my minds eye as well as in choosing the individual pieces. I couldnt be more satisfied with how they all came together. Believe it or not, there were only two locations where I needed to use epoxy, the rest is freehand ! This reef should be very interesting to watch mature, stay tuned and involved !

 

[johnanddawn]

agreed that is a nice scape - penninsula style tanks are always a bit harder to scape nice

 

[CoralReefDoc]

agreed that is a nice scape - penninsula style tanks are always a bit harder to scape nice

Thanks John and/or Dawn lol ! I couldnt agree more with your assertion regarding the difficulty in aquascaping peninsular style reefs. Normally, it seems either one or two sides look great and you have to settle for the other side(s), or you sacrifice sections of each side in order to just have it all come together without self destructing. Luckily, the time and effort put into the planning, selection, and construction of the aquascape yielded a final product on par with the high level of expectations. Thanks again for the compliment and insight

 

[revhtree]

Looks great Love it!