BFcorals
New Member
Hello Everyone this is my first post on Reef2Reef. Ive Been in the Reefing hobby for about 6 months now. I can definitely say out of all the hobbies i’ve had this one particular has been nothing but an addiction 
. I started with a lifegard 14 gallon AIO peninsula ill put some photos down below. As every beginner Reefer(I still am and always will) A few things I’ve ran into with a nano aio tank was having stable parameters(Eventually around the 4 month mark I got them stable). Being in college and having a small room my choices of an upgrade were very limited but as a coral addict Ill find my fix. I wanted a tank where I could load it with tons of coral and about 5-7 fish. I fell in love with this 3 foot 12 gallon tank build I found on Reef2Reef and on youtube the reefer goes under the name of Eschulist. Heres the link to the video https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/3-foot-office-nano.226049/. I appreciated the simplicity of the Build and Decided I needed to have a setup similar to that. The only issue I had was the size of the tank. Going from a 14 to a 12 wasn’t quite an upgrade for me. After looking around I found a 22 gallon tank also from Lifegard The dimensions are 36 by 12 by 12. I ran to my desk and measured to see how much room It'll take and surprisingly it fit my desk quite well without losing too much desk space. I ran into some issues with stability of the desk so I pulled up a generic CAD software and started designing how I wanted the Setup to look like(photos will be included). I had a few requirements for this setup 1. Enough room to house 5-7 fish 2. Had to be a sump setup 3. I have to have extra frag space without taking room in the display part. I know the rule of thumb for a display and sump set up is 15 percent of your display volume as sump. Since I ran into issues with Nutrient export on my AIO I decided to go as big as I can and went with 45 percent of my display volume(10 gallons). I designed my stand to withhold 600-800 plus pounds with zero issues while using minimal space. After multiple prototypes I finalized my build. I used generic 2x4 Pine wood from home depot to build my stand. I had some leveling issues so I added a wooden plank under the desk that sandwiches between the stand and the table top(seemed to do the trick). Out of everything plumbing was definitely one of the more frustrating parts of this build. I used Food grade Schld40 Pvc. For my sump tank Im using an ebay refugium divider kit that is DIY with a 10 gal Aqueon tank(Petco).I went with a budget DC Return Pump From orlushy. For the overflow I was debating on designing my own “Ghetto” style over flow but I went with something a little nicer Eshops Eclipse S only because it has an emergency line incase the main drain gets clogged. Another issue I ran into with my old AIO tank was me cheaping out on lighting. This time I wanted to make sure I can safely handle Sps and Lps without any signs of bleaching with better coloration(Without breaking the bank ofc 
). For my lighting I went with PopBloom Rl60s I tested with my par meter and I have to say these are some very good budget lighting and I highly recommend them. I am currently running two but I plan on running Three to receive more par towards the middle of my tank. Moving everything was a breeze and This time I decided to cycle and start my tank a different way. I used some cycle media from a reputable LFS plus 1,000 grams of new bio media I ghost fed for about a week (Plus dose Seachem stability) and to my surprise my tank was cycled FAST. I did a 50 Percent water change right after with zero live stock. I was super excited and I went crazy transferring my coral to my New Display tank. After dealing with several issues from my 14 I learned so much on how to properly keep coral successfully. Its funny now instead if High nutrients Im running into low nutrients. Number 1 Rule I learned was Patience is the Key to success its ironic I say this when I had coral in my new tank while it was cycling(I housed it just to move some stuff around from my 14) I also have a hidden compartment on the right part of the stand for my Ato Reservoir. Ill eventually make the setup look pretty but I hope you guys enjoyed reading this I will update my journey with my new setup.
. I started with a lifegard 14 gallon AIO peninsula ill put some photos down below. As every beginner Reefer(I still am and always will) A few things I’ve ran into with a nano aio tank was having stable parameters(Eventually around the 4 month mark I got them stable). Being in college and having a small room my choices of an upgrade were very limited but as a coral addict Ill find my fix. I wanted a tank where I could load it with tons of coral and about 5-7 fish. I fell in love with this 3 foot 12 gallon tank build I found on Reef2Reef and on youtube the reefer goes under the name of Eschulist. Heres the link to the video https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/3-foot-office-nano.226049/. I appreciated the simplicity of the Build and Decided I needed to have a setup similar to that. The only issue I had was the size of the tank. Going from a 14 to a 12 wasn’t quite an upgrade for me. After looking around I found a 22 gallon tank also from Lifegard The dimensions are 36 by 12 by 12. I ran to my desk and measured to see how much room It'll take and surprisingly it fit my desk quite well without losing too much desk space. I ran into some issues with stability of the desk so I pulled up a generic CAD software and started designing how I wanted the Setup to look like(photos will be included). I had a few requirements for this setup 1. Enough room to house 5-7 fish 2. Had to be a sump setup 3. I have to have extra frag space without taking room in the display part. I know the rule of thumb for a display and sump set up is 15 percent of your display volume as sump. Since I ran into issues with Nutrient export on my AIO I decided to go as big as I can and went with 45 percent of my display volume(10 gallons). I designed my stand to withhold 600-800 plus pounds with zero issues while using minimal space. After multiple prototypes I finalized my build. I used generic 2x4 Pine wood from home depot to build my stand. I had some leveling issues so I added a wooden plank under the desk that sandwiches between the stand and the table top(seemed to do the trick). Out of everything plumbing was definitely one of the more frustrating parts of this build. I used Food grade Schld40 Pvc. For my sump tank Im using an ebay refugium divider kit that is DIY with a 10 gal Aqueon tank(Petco).I went with a budget DC Return Pump From orlushy. For the overflow I was debating on designing my own “Ghetto” style over flow but I went with something a little nicer Eshops Eclipse S only because it has an emergency line incase the main drain gets clogged. Another issue I ran into with my old AIO tank was me cheaping out on lighting. This time I wanted to make sure I can safely handle Sps and Lps without any signs of bleaching with better coloration(Without breaking the bank ofc ). For my lighting I went with PopBloom Rl60s I tested with my par meter and I have to say these are some very good budget lighting and I highly recommend them. I am currently running two but I plan on running Three to receive more par towards the middle of my tank. Moving everything was a breeze and This time I decided to cycle and start my tank a different way. I used some cycle media from a reputable LFS plus 1,000 grams of new bio media I ghost fed for about a week (Plus dose Seachem stability) and to my surprise my tank was cycled FAST. I did a 50 Percent water change right after with zero live stock. I was super excited and I went crazy transferring my coral to my New Display tank. After dealing with several issues from my 14 I learned so much on how to properly keep coral successfully. Its funny now instead if High nutrients Im running into low nutrients. Number 1 Rule I learned was Patience is the Key to success its ironic I say this when I had coral in my new tank while it was cycling(I housed it just to move some stuff around from my 14) I also have a hidden compartment on the right part of the stand for my Ato Reservoir. Ill eventually make the setup look pretty but I hope you guys enjoyed reading this I will update my journey with my new setup.
