JLee's 45 gallon shallow

[jlee]

Hey all,

I've had the same 10g running for 5 years now and was ready to upgrade. I had a custom tank made by Crystal Reef Aquatics in Bellingham, WA and I thought that building my own stand would save me money over buying a premade/custom made stand. I'm pretty sure I was wrong but It's been very rewarding.

Equipment list:
Tank: 36"x24"x12" low-iron glass with external overflow
Light: Kessil AP700
Skimmer: Somatic 60S
Flow: Maxspect Gyre 330 (might add another if this isn't enough)
Return: Reef Octopus Varios2
Heater: Eheim 150W
Controller: None yet. I'll be adding an Apex when I feel like ponying up another $500

Here's the skeleton. Made mostly with 1x4 poplar and 3x3s for the corner beams


With the skin on


Painted exterior with 2 coats of Kilz, 3 coats of Rustoleum Painter's Touch Semi-Gloss, then 2 coats of Polyurethane. Interior was 2 coats of Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy. I will be adding moulding to top and bottom


Tank!


I will be cutting up and installing plumbing over the next few days and am hoping to get this thing wet soon. I've got 45lbs of Marco rock cycling in a spare tank for the last 2 months so hopefully any cycling is minimal.

 

[tupes]

@jlee Welcome to R2R. You definitely found the right place to hang out.

Your stand is coming out great. I built a custom stand for my jbj 65 and dont regret anything. Even though I spent way more building it than I could have bought one for I have a total custom stand that I would never had been able to find retail.

What are your stocking plans going to be?

 

[jlee]

@jlee Welcome to R2R. You definitely found the right place to hang out.

Your stand is coming out great. I built a custom stand for my jbj 65 and dont regret anything. Even though I spent way more building it than I could have bought one for I have a total custom stand that I would never had been able to find retail.

What are your stocking plans going to be?

I agree with your sentiment on the stand. I'm also very confident in the structural support compared to the MDF stands you see mass produced. This thing is a tank.

I'm not sure on stocking yet, I've been so limited with my first tank over the past 5 years that I just want everything so I need to take it slow and plan it out. I really like Wrasses though and I'll be bringing over a little clown that I currently have in my 10g. Later on down the line a couple years I would like to add a Mandarin Goby. My absolute favorite fish visually

 

[NY_Caveman]

Came out nice! Welcome to R2R!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

 

[jlee]

So I had a little roadbump. After getting my tank on the stand I noticed a LOT of imperfections/sloppy work in the seams and the black background. I contacted the shop and they took the tank back and reglued seams and redid the background. Everything looks great now so it's go time!



I'll be filling it up tomorrow! Doors will be finished up this weekend and I'll be adding in a shelf/drawer for electronics as well

 

[JumboShrimp]

Good job— keep the photos coming, from water through fish ;Happy

 

[Zoacoral]

Looks good!

 

[samnaz]

Coming along nicely, always a fan of shallow tanks.

 

[TheWB]

Very nice. Love the dims of the tank and I’ve heard really good things about Crystal Reef Aquatics. Surprised to hear the seams weren’t up to par the first time around. Are you here in WA so it was easier to get that fixed?

 

[jlee]

Very nice. Love the dims of the tank and I’ve heard really good things about Crystal Reef Aquatics. Surprised to hear the seams weren’t up to par the first time around. Are you here in WA so it was easier to get that fixed?

I've been buying from Julian at CRA since around 2014, I put in an order for this tank back in March but 2 weeks before I was scheduled to get my tank he sold the company to a hobbyist. The new owner told me that my tank was the first to go out after the transition and things weren't ironed out at the time. To his credit he was quick about it and came to pick the tank up and re-delivered it. To be honest I'm still underwhelmed, there's black foreign material in the front silicone seam and a lot of the seams are still sloppy. I just didn't want to wait another month to get it started so I'll deal with it

 

[jlee]

Been busy the last few days! Got the tank filled up and rock/sand in, I'm fairly happy with the rockwork but am open to any suggestions, particularly with the left side of things







I've had this rock cycling since late April and it was out of water for about 20 mins yesterday to set this up. Water parameters tested fine, how long should I wait to transfer over my lone clown I've had for the last few years?

 

[TheWB]

I've been buying from Julian at CRA since around 2014, I put in an order for this tank back in March but 2 weeks before I was scheduled to get my tank he sold the company to a hobbyist. The new owner told me that my tank was the first to go out after the transition and things weren't ironed out at the time. To his credit he was quick about it and came to pick the tank up and re-delivered it. To be honest I'm still underwhelmed, there's black foreign material in the front silicone seam and a lot of the seams are still sloppy. I just didn't want to wait another month to get it started so I'll deal with it

Well that’s not great news. At least they fixed it fast, if not totally to your satisfaction. I like your scape. Have you thought about maybe coming out of the water on the right side to give it a different height? That might look kinda cool if you’re not planning a screen top but if you want wrasses you’ll need the screen top. Not really a lot you can do with different height levels in a tank that shallow. What’s the plan for coral?

 

[jlee]

Dropped some food in yesterday and tested params today...no change. Looks like I didn't seem much of any die-off/cycle when moving my rock over

 

[jlee]

Hey all, it's been a while since I posted here. Thought I'd use my current struggle as a reason to revive this log and hope to continue this as a regular thing.

So the first 6 months were great, small algae outbreaks that are expected with a new tank. I added a baby clown pair(September), yasha goby & pistol shrimp combo(November), and most recently a yellow coris wrasse(January).
I added the wrasse about 5 days before I left on vacation for 5 days, which looking back was a bad idea. I came back to a huge GHA outbreak, worse than anything I'd ever seen and the wrasse was gone so I'm assuming those were connected.
That was ~January 21. Since then I've lost both my Yasha and one of the clowns. Three fish in one month is not a good sign. Things have not gotten any better despite all my efforts and I'm hoping I can crowdsource some solutions.

Things I've tried:
- picking it out with my fingers
- taking a toothbrush to the rock
- Red Sea NoPox (which I think is why it all looks white)
- Many, many water changes
- Couple days of blackout
- More flow
- Lowering light intensity

Water Levels:
Alk: 10.8
Ca: 450
Mg: 1350