My "hey what's another tank" 72 bow reef build.

[southerntnreefer]

Talking to a few buddies, I think I'm goj g to run Seachem Reef Fusion 1 and 2 over the aquaforest 123 system. It appears to be the same price, and likely last longer. Plus it's only 2 dosing lines, which means when I upgrade to dos, I only need 1.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

So for years I had a 90 gallon reef. Used tank, overflow box, diy sump, beautiful, bit slowly became a maintenance nightmare etc.

Here's a photo of said tank

Safe to say I loved it, but some poor fish choices and we'll learning and growing as a reefer lead to some changes. I had also bought a 125 for the basement, and a 32 for my wife for her to have her own reef. She also wanted large angels, so the 125 was for grow out.

That tank downstairs tormented me for a while, as fish only sometimes can just be harder than actual reefs. When company bonus came around, we had enough left in the slush to upgrade that the a 220, so I took down the 90, moved remaining coral to the 32 ( I had lost quite a bit due to fish or one thing or another in the learning process.) All fish went to the 220. Fast forward many months, and my wife can see that I miss "feeding" I still am filling in her reef, but those corals are her choices.

So with that said, she decided to take me to our local LFS over the weekend, and order me a aqueon 72 bow front reef ready tank and stand for Christmas. ( She also let me buy a shark so she's totally a keeper!) It gets picked up today. Now i still have most of my hear from the 90, so fleshing this out will be super easy. I do need to renovate the living room before I can get wet, but expect lots of talks of building out the sump area for long term success, a couple orders that do need to be made for a few things I re used on the 220, but this one will be built from everything that 90 and the 32 has taught me.

More photos later. Tank is due to come in today, so I'll head to lfs after to pick up. We get our stuff from a local small shop, so we get it at cost plus freight, as he doesn't have room to store it.

Stay tuned!!

Like it.

 

[southerntnreefer]

Like it.

It was a great tank! Can't wait to get this one all dialed in and rocking and rolling.

 

[southerntnreefer]

Two months up. 3 weeks with clowns. Time to program these lights tonight! Glass got cleaned up today so it will look good later.

 

[southerntnreefer]

Programmed the lights tonight. Funny how much more active the clowns are with lights on. Let's see how they settle into the schedule, and if my schedule works the way I wanted in the AI App. One photo with my ice cap filter and another from my chair where I sit. Fingers crossed not running lights for 2 months helps the ugly stage be easier.... BRS recommended settings for spectrum and run time for hydra 32s lets get going!

 

[southerntnreefer]

First full day of lights. Clowns still settling to a lit tank.

 

[southerntnreefer]

Breakout box will be here Wednesday. First set of 3d printed parts for float mounts didn't workout, so I ordered 2 adjustable float to holders from harry aquatics. Still waiting on my actual flats to ship from Amazon. Hoping I can get this project in place before Christmas. After Christmas I'll be in the market for a ALD, or FMM to add leak detection. The breakout box will give me 4 floats, and 2 switches. ATO high, ATO low, ATO container low, and skimmer full. Switches will be for feed mode and a rocker switch for potentially a maintenance mode or something.

 

[southerntnreefer]

Captains log... Breakout box is not here. USPS still have it somewhere. Supposedly my Mounts from Harrys Aquatics, and my actual floats will be here tomorrow. I dont think that will happen, but ill get this project done whenever USPS decides i can have what i paid for...

 

[southerntnreefer]

Breakout box finally came!!

Still waiting on the mounts from harry aquatics. Float switches came in over the weekend. Once mounts are here I can get to work!

 

[southerntnreefer]

The mounts from harrys aquatic are finally here. I need to find the time I've the holidays to get everything installed and programmed for alerts. I however did butt first batch of cuc today. The cheato and carbon reactors are rely working well to keep nutrients down. Very little ugly stage thus far.

 

[southerntnreefer]

Ugly stage is here... Let's see how this goes. Update i got my apex breakout box,
And it got installed today. Working on getting feed mode buttons and alerts and alarms programmed now.

 

[southerntnreefer]

UPDATE! Breakout box has been programmed and tested. Had to do some soldering to extend some wire, and got some help from the forums here on some more deep apex coding to do what i want. I now have a feed button that mimics a feed mode, and a maintence switch. I also have ATO HIGH and ATO LOW floats in the return chamber to monitor my Hydor ATO system. I also threw a float in the ato resivor, and it will alarm when im almost out of water. So far with lights thats just over 7 days. i can technically go 8 before the pumps sucking water, but 7 is where i was after. Uglies are here so no photos yet. Im managing it manually, lots of turkey basting, and scrubbing to help it along. However i will be ordering more fish today. Looking at a blenny and possibly some other utilitarian fish to get the tank rolling etc.

I have a good cuc going too with snails so im in good shape for 3 months old.

 

[southerntnreefer]

One spot foxface small, bonded pair of kaudern cardinals, and a bi color Blenny along with a short spine pincushion urchin on thier way. Time for some utilitarian members of the reef! Photos once they arrive and are acclimated etc

 

[southerntnreefer]

Fish are here and established.nthe Blenny loves.lounging on the tonga branch, the one spot, is a murderous algae eater already. Urchin is super active. I need to put in a BRS order later this coming week to get some supplies to set a baseline on paramers.for calcium and alk. I'll then get some tester frags and get this baby rocking and rolling. A week after that, it will be time for the last batch of fish before we go on vacation in March, and we go on no change protocol until I get back.

 

[southerntnreefer]

Wife's always right right? She wanted more movement so we added 6 blue reef chromis. Tanks looking good. Preparing to add first frags so I tested alk, cal, phos and nitrate today.
Nitrate continues to be undetectable...

Phos is .083

Cal is 410

Alk is 9.4

Now we have baselines!! Next week off to get some starter corals. Few zoos, acans, duncan etc. All things I want in my reef that will get the tank rolling.

 

[southerntnreefer]

Starter corals are in!

Started with:
Green Brain
Eagle eye zoa colony
Utter chaos zoa frag
King triton Zoa Frag

 

[southerntnreefer]

Been a bit since I posted. We added a Captive Bred Royal Gramma, Flame Hawkfish, and a Coral beauty. All is well with fish, and added more coral.

WIfe suprised me and got me some dispar anthias off divers den, so that will be the final fish in the tank. Ill let the tank mature more through March, then ill add more coral at that point.

Wasnt planning on any SPS at least this early, but i ended up with some freebies so lets see if i can keep them alive!

 

[southerntnreefer]

Another update!! Dispar anthias eating well, and adapting to my tank well.. nutrients still seem to be a mystery, but I keep reminding myself of the fact it's only 4 to 4 and a half months old. I'm fully stocked on fish, but needed more cuc.

Today I ordered more:
30 astrea
10 nassarius
5 turbos
2 conch
Red tuxedo urchin

Some of the snails may end up in my wife's cube, but I had to spend 75 to get the package cost.

Because I love free shipping, I grabbed a couple divers den wysiwyg zoa frags. rastas and dreamweavers.

I also picked up a bottle of brightwell liquid nitrate for emergencies, as well as a ehiem auto fish feeder for vacations.

Tanks motoring along. I'll add more coral late March likely unless something falls in my lap. Here's some photos from today. Fish nice around alot, but there's so much movement!