My new buildthread - the 'goal' tank I always dreamed of

[Creggers]

Hello Reef2Reef,

It's been a long time - about a year since I updated my previous build thread. I didn't fall out of love with the hobby however I spent some time in the hospital (4 months) due to getting struck by a car. It's put a lot into perspective for me and one of those is reprioritizing things that bring me joy... I'm here to document my new tank build as I have a waterbox frag 145 coming on Monday . My coral has all but perished, I only have a stubborn head of hammer that refuses to die (despite cracking and splitting prior to my absence) and some other various frags.

Without further delay here's the (re)build plan (subject to change)

Part	Name	notes
Return Pump	Maxspect Jump 6k	Repurpose from old tank
Flow Pump	Maxspect Gyre 4k	Repurpose from old tank
Flow Pump	Maxspect Gyre 2k	Repurpose from old tank
Flow Pump	Nero 3 pump	Repurpose from old tank
Flow Pump	Neptune WAV	Repurpose from old tank
Skimmer	Red Sea RSK 300 (this is going to get replaced soon)	Repurpose from old tank
Heater	~400 wats worth	Repurpose from old tank
Filtration	BRS carbon/gfo combo	Repurpose from old tank
RODI	4stage	Repurpose from old tank
Neptune	Power / trident / dosing	Repurpose from old tank
T5s	36" t5 hybrid	Repurpose from old tank
ATO	Reefbreeders ATO	Repurpose from old tank
LEDs	Echotech xr 15 pros (X2)	Waterbox

I'm still trying to go slow and not burn through a lot of money (that'll come during stocking later). Speaking of stocking I'll be moving my old fish to rehome them as soon as the waterbox is here, wet, and flowed. The fish will be: Purple Tang, Christmas Wrasse, Royal Gramma, Fairy Wrasse, Blue reef chromis (x2).

As for salt I have a box of HW-Marinemix Reefer Salt, dosing will be courtesy of aqua-forest.

That's it for now - I'll probably run downstairs at some point tomorrow to document the sad state my tank is in... I'll take some photos of the tanks location too because it'll be cleared out tomorrow when I have someone coming by to grab the old tank that's sitting in that space right now.

 

[BlakeStew]

Looks like a solid setup. I like your equipment list, you will definitely have plenty of flow and light.
I'm assuming your planning on keeping some SPS? If so, do you have an idea of any special pieces?

 

[Creggers]

Looks like a solid setup. I like your equipment list, you will definitely have plenty of flow and light.
I'm assuming your planning on keeping some SPS? If so, do you have an idea of any special pieces?

SPS is certainly my goal - as far as special pieces probably whatever catches my eye on SBB corals site.
I have a preference for a mixed reef so it's fair to say its wide open as far as preferences go (no GSP!)

 

[BlakeStew]

SPS is certainly my goal - as far as special pieces probably whatever catches my eye on SBB corals site.
I have a preference for a mixed reef so it's fair to say its wide open as far as preferences go (no GSP!)

Since you will be doing SPS I highly recommend @TopShelfAquatics. They have some awesome pieces. You can get some awesome pieces for a good price!

 

[Creggers]

Since you will be doing SPS I highly recommend @TopShelfAquatics. They have some awesome pieces. You can get some awesome pieces for a good price!

TSA is always sending me texts because I was a shopper of theirs on my previous tank... They'll earn my business again!

 

[Creggers]

The area photo is still pending but I've given a lot of thought to my stocking / aquascaping. The aquascape is going to be made with dry rock and my plan is to break it down in the backyard and glue it together with reef safe puddy to make it sturdy. I plan on buying some rock from KP aquatics to keep in my sump but I'm not moving any of the rocks out of my old tank to prevent bringing nasties along with it. I'm keeping it out of the display this time for no reason other than it's hard to aquascape with it.

As for stocking I'm going to keep my inhabitants: Purple Tang, Christmas Wrasse, Royal Gramma, Fairy Wrasse, Blue reef chromis(s)

I'm planning on adding another tang, probably a bristle tooth. A blenny, maybe a lawnmower. Getting 2 clownfish (types to be determined later). A goby (probably yellow). Kinda want a school (around 7) cardinal fish, but this'll be the final introduction as it'll be dictated by my bioload. (Also how often I need to change my filter floss)

Also eventually adding a cleanup crew probably from @reefcleaners cause I've had nothing but good experiences with them.

This is a very basic image of the plan for the rockwork / stocking.

 

[Creggers]

This is a quick video of the current layout of the rock work. The pile in the middle is going to be blastos around the bottom leading up to torches and the like up top. The Little Rock behind the arch I plan on putting zoas and the like there. The any high places will be peppered with Acropora. The ‘tree’ in the right corner will be out of the water some - I plan on putting mangroves their letting them grow into the water.
I’m sure that this’ll go through many revisions, but these rocks exceeded my expectations so they’ll be what I build my scape out of.

 

[Creggers]

Just some photos of the finalized rock work. I glued it all together in easy to remove pieces so this is likely the final way it'll look. I'm making some salt water right now so I'm heading towards making this wet faster - driven by the death of my ATO for my old tank. Also I put in an order at quarantined reef that'll be ready by the end of January so time is of the essence. I still have a bit of space to add another fish or two, but I'd like to get some kind of 'worker' fish or a classic saltwater fish.

I modified the stock list a bit:

Purple tang (Transfer from old tank)

Christmas wrasse (Transfer from old tank)

Flasher Wrasse (Transfer from old tank)

Bristletooth Tang (Ordered)

Yellow Watchmen (Ordered)

Lawnmower Blenny (Ordered)

Clownfish Frostbite bonded pair (2) (Ordered)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank is off to a good start. Can't wait to see what it looks like finished!

 

[Creggers]

So some developments:

I've elected to go with Kessil AP9x(s) - I've always loved them ever since my A80 over my nano.. I've also determined that running two of them is likely going to put out enough par to feed my SPS as well. The shimmer will add to the shallow reef esthetic that I'm going for too.

I also cashed in my Waterbox gift card and chose to get a return pump earlier than I had thought. I ended up getting the M2 from echotech.

I realized that when I transfer my livestock from the tank downstairs, and break it down, that I'll end up having a saltwater mixing station / area to rinse the filter socks etc. I'm going to include the build of the saltwater mixing station here as well, as it's an underrepresented aspect of the build process. This is where I'll elect to have the maxspect pump running to both mix the salt, and pump it upstairs.

The last and final update is I've made an instagram to spam photos on! I've chosen to keep it separate from my personal page too keep it 100% focused on the hobby. @The_Pheonix_Reef is my handle!

Edit: I found an Neptune refugium light that someone gave to me - so instead of the old light from my tank I'll be using that.

 

[Creggers]

I ended up adding water and fully plumbing the tank as soon as the echotech return pump came. I ended up ordering some sand from @Bulk Reef Supply and added it after getting the salinity up towards 32ppt. I ended up going with Original Grade Ocean Direct Live Reef Sand and Florida crushed coral. I unfortunately added the Florida crushed coral without rinsing it first and have been paying the price by frequently cleaning my filter socks and dealing with cloudiness for a longer time than I should have.

I have 1 ap9x set up and it's casting enough light that I can move my coral / fish in here when the cycles complete. I also have a clearview lids order that'll come in the first week of February. I'll likely move my existing fish as soon as it does, as my order with quarantined reef is waiting for the transfer of my fish / cycle / lid order to complete.

For the cycle I opted to go with @AlgaeBarn's ultimate reef cycle kit. I transferred some of my heaters / got some more to keep the tank at 78*. I've also noticed that about 2 gallons evaporates each day, so I elected to move my ATO to the tank as well. I'm on the fence as to whether or not the ATO is a long term solution, but it'll have to do for now.

The one thing of note - the larger crushed coral pieces are sitting on top of the ocean grade sand just as I anticipated. I even put my maxspect gyre on high to test it out and I am tentatively really excited with how it's been preforming. The sand needs to get feng shuied a bit but here's the picture of the current state:

 

[Creggers]

So my fish are coming tomorrow - the tank is fully cycled thanks to @AlgaeBarn and their cycle kit. Completed in about a week and it was able to process 3ppm of ammonia over night last night.

I did a small water change (no vacuuming of the sand bed) and put some fresh saltwater prior to adding my ‘old fish’ in. They quickly adjusted to the tank and I detected no stress. They quickly ate when I threw some food in so that’s an encouraging side. Being that I’m adding fish and increasing the bio load dramatically quickly I’ll pick up some bottled bacteria from my LFS to try to keep it fully cycled.

I asked for juveniles - and none of my live stock order are dirty eaters so I don’t think the bio load will lead anywhere bad.

There’s something that’s worth pointing out, I didn’t plan on moving my fish upstairs this quickly but my tank downstairs had not one but two equipment failures and I didn’t want to throw $ at that tank when I’m already this deep into a new build.

 

[Creggers]

So a bunch of updates!

(you can follow my instagram if you want basically weekly updates)

I transferred my surviving live stock into the tank the 25 as I said in my previous post. It was my Purple Tang and a Royal gramma. They are currently swimming in with the new residents that I introduced which were detailed in a previous post.

As a result of the fish coming - I elected to purchase some tester coral(s) from a LFS they're all still thriving. I purchased a Christmas monti, Rasta zoas,m and a green stylo. I figured it was a little early but I wanted to test out my parameters, lighting, and flow.

My starter coral survived and is still thriving. As a result of this I joined in on the WWC / TCK live sales at the end of last month. The size of this tank is both a blessing and a curse because there's so much room for activites!

Something worth pointing out, is I reached out to clearview lids about a lid and wanted to have a section so I could grow a mangrove... Much to my surprise and satisfaction they we're able to send me a 'portal' as a test. At this point I don't have a mangrove growing but you guys can imagine from the photos below what it'll look like. I'm super thankful to the clearview team - especially Kerri!

Here's some photos! Seriously cannot wait for the mangrove! (I'm letting the algae grow on the glass for a little)

 

[Creggers]

Had a huge tank day today!

Had a chance to do a deep clean on my glass, still in the midst of the ugly stage and I’m tempted to increase the size of my undersized cleanup crew to deal with the algae.

I did a water change to keep my levels under control and also switched to Tropic Marin to give that a shot. My alk/cal/mag has been dropping beyond what my 3 part dosing could keep up with. I was going through a whole bottle of the 3 tropic Marin a week so I switched to BRS bulk additives today and I’m hoping that solves the amount of dosing I have to do. I already have a hole in the bay I pour money into (boat) I don’t need one in my house too!

I got some corals from a local shop called Reefer Madness and they’re absolutely thriving! I see new growth on all of the SPSs in my tank so I’m doing something right!

I am going to get more fish and that’ll likely be the next time I make a post!

 

[Creggers]

New Fish Thursday! Just got my new aquarium inhabitants from quarantined reef and dispite the postal service tossing them willy nilly over my back fence and them sitting in direct sunlight (in my garden no less) as soon as I dropped them in they immediately joined the community and are swimming around picking at the rocks. Check out a video of them right after I put them in: Link

In other news I sent off some water to triton labs and it came back showing that they's multiple heavy metals in my tank that implies the stainless steel rack I had next to the tank's to blame (there's some mild rust that I noticed). So I promptly moved it outside and I'm doing a series of 20% water changes to sort that out.

The water changes will start after my new filters for my RODI unit come in early next week. I'll likely take a pause from introducing anymore coral but I've been taking it slow so (other than the test acros) it's mostly easy coral... Other than the torches that I have in there but I feel confident that their gonna be okay cause they look happy and they've been in there for a long time.

***I have another Triton N-Doc test out to figure out the algae on my sand bed - open to suggestions!***

 

[Creggers]

Just got my triton test back and much to my dismay my tank has a high level of Tin and Zinc, and slightly elevated levels of copper and aluminum. I realized that my final stage of my 5 stage RODI system hasn't been changed in a long time (fully depleted based on color) and I'm questioning if the water coming out of it was truly zero. I tested it as zero with 3 testers prior to mixing my initial batch of Saltwater and they all showed 0.

I'm going to follow the instruction and make a series of water changes (planning on weekly 15%) for about six weeks and than sending off another test. My SPS has been passing but my LPS is currently looking happy. I'm not going to introduce anything (corals / fish / etc) until I send another water test out and get the all clear.

 

[Creggers]

So I finally got tired of the rats nest in my ikea garbage cabinet and I opted for a cabinet with an outlet built in. My wiring is basically 75% cleaned up and I'm able to access everything I'd need to do water changes and the like.

I'm holding off on adding new corals / fish until I do another triton test and solve the heavy metal issues. So for now I'm knocking out all the tasks I've been putting off. Excuse how much algae's on my glass in this photo - I've been away for father's day and a bridal shower.

From this:

To this: