After 3+ years running a 7225 waterbox peninsula in the north side of Chicago, I now am focusing on a new 300 gallon custom Crystal Dynamics Aquarium mixed reef in my new home in the south Chicago suburbs.
It started like this:
The aquarium has been running since the start of August, with 50% rock from a smaller reef system that’s been running for a little over a year. 50% of the other rock has been maturing in a tub with fish and seed rock from that prior system.
The tank can be classified as an extra wide peninsula or an extended cube.
Dimensions: 48” wide x 60” deep x 24” tall.
Powder coated black steel stand custom built by CDA, black plumbing throughout leading to and from a custom Advanced Acrylics black out sump.
Lighting rack also custom built by CDA starting with two black powder coated stainless steel racks leading to aluminum railing that holds XR15s and XR30s.
The system volume upgrade was 3X, so I made sure to support that with 3X the fish biomass which involved a lot of quarantine work alongside the tiring tank setup, plumbing, etc.
Livestock:
Black storm clownfish pair
ORA onyx percula clownfish pair
Leopard wrasse
Tomini tang
Scopas tang
Purple tang
Naso tang
Achilles tang
The current coral collection is an even mix across mushroom, acan, Bowerbanki, goniopora, chalice and hammer coral, with a larger amount of zoanthids and acropora. Over time this system will become more acropora dominant.
So far the uglies have been mostly avoided thanks to the wealth of information and experience shared here on reef2reef.
It has been quite the journey to get my dream tank built in my first home. It feels good to have all that hard work behind me and the tank finally in a good spot to share.
The old 7225 waterbox is still running as a new concept, and I will update that build thread in the near future.
I’m looking forward to documenting this tank’s evolution in this thread.
It started like this:
The aquarium has been running since the start of August, with 50% rock from a smaller reef system that’s been running for a little over a year. 50% of the other rock has been maturing in a tub with fish and seed rock from that prior system.
The tank can be classified as an extra wide peninsula or an extended cube.
Dimensions: 48” wide x 60” deep x 24” tall.
Powder coated black steel stand custom built by CDA, black plumbing throughout leading to and from a custom Advanced Acrylics black out sump.
Lighting rack also custom built by CDA starting with two black powder coated stainless steel racks leading to aluminum railing that holds XR15s and XR30s.
The system volume upgrade was 3X, so I made sure to support that with 3X the fish biomass which involved a lot of quarantine work alongside the tiring tank setup, plumbing, etc.
Livestock:
Black storm clownfish pair
ORA onyx percula clownfish pair
Leopard wrasse
Tomini tang
Scopas tang
Purple tang
Naso tang
Achilles tang
The current coral collection is an even mix across mushroom, acan, Bowerbanki, goniopora, chalice and hammer coral, with a larger amount of zoanthids and acropora. Over time this system will become more acropora dominant.
So far the uglies have been mostly avoided thanks to the wealth of information and experience shared here on reef2reef.
It has been quite the journey to get my dream tank built in my first home. It feels good to have all that hard work behind me and the tank finally in a good spot to share.
The old 7225 waterbox is still running as a new concept, and I will update that build thread in the near future.
Build Thread - Waterbox 7225 Chicago SPS Reef
Its been a long wait, but the waterbox 7226 peninsula is alive. I’ve been in the hobby for over 20 years since being a little kid and haven’t had a tank in 5 years. During this time I always wanted one, have been reading the forums but it just wasn’t the right time to set a tank up. I’ve been...
www.reef2reef.com
I’m looking forward to documenting this tank’s evolution in this thread.
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