My Planet Aquarium build

yan2pr

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Hi everyone, i am finally in the process of building my planet aquarium crystaline 48". Im upgrading from a 25 gallon nano to a 105 gallon tank, with not a lot of experience or years in reefing under my belt, i am hoping this ride is as fun as im expecting. This is a family project so i will be taking things slow and easy, we are trying to do things right or at least thats the plan ill probably mess up here and there anyways.

Equipment list:
2- Octo pulse 2 wavemakers
1- Reef Octopus varios 4 return pump
2- Red Sea led 90
1-Bubble magus curve 5 Skimmer
1- BRS Dual reactors for carbon and GFO
1- APEX EL ( I won it on a raffle at my LFS, Wooooot)
The tank comes with a trigger crystal 36" Sump

My stocking wish list is not complex, i want my 2 clownfish to move to the new house, a blue tang, a yellow tang and maybe some other cool fish, i really dont want a crazy bio load.

We started on the hobby for the fish and forgot about that once we started having corals

The tank is going to be a mixed tank focusing on softies and LPS. We never had any SPS but hopefully at some point i feel confident enough and experienced to have at least some.

20191204_151929.jpg
 

hyprc

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Looks like it's going to be an awesome build! Congrats on the beginning of an amazing journey! Looking forward to seeing how it develops!
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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Yesterday was a busy day, i spent a lot of time and when i say a lot i mean it. I found out the hard way that setting the apex is the most frustrating, enfuriating thing i have done so far in this hobby. I used 2 different computers and my android cellphone and the setup is impossble, instructions are useless and it got the best of me. I was defeated. I set it aside because i realised i was acting like a mad man and waited for my wife to come home with her iphone, setup with IOS is ridiculously easy, made me feel stupid but i still had that same feeling you have when you beat a boss in a video game after the 50 try. On a side note i will not break i will never switch to apple.

20191130_120858.jpg
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After the setup, incident i put the apex in this false wall i created with the limited wood working skills god gave me. I did it this way because im not the most carefull guy in the world and im scared to get it wet at some point.
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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After dealing with the tank leveling for a while it was finally time to aquascape. I have been looking around for some time trying to get ideas and so far this is what i came up with. I put a cardboard with the tank measurements in the garage, of course my wife did not appreciated this but i was better than doing it in the living room possibly messing up the tank or the floor. When i got my nano tank i was clueless noob and my aquascape was literaly a rock pile, i did not wanted to make the same mistake now that im a less clueless noob. I tried to have space between the rocks for better water flow and less detritus traps also i did not wanted the rocks to be too high for growth. The tank is 20" high and the highest point which is the right side is 13". I think it should be safe if at some point i add an SPS for growth.

IMG-20191220-WA0011.jpg


ill appreciate if anyone has ideas or any input. Im here to learn and the idea is doing things as better as i can from the beginning.

Hopefully you guys enjoy this build as much as me and my family are enjoying it and the more help and tips we get to achieve our dream tank the more blessed and confident we feel.
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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I will try to get a better picture and a top view once i get back home.
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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Its finally wet, now the hardest part begins.
20200109_141407.jpg


Quick question to the cycle experts. I have some bacteria but before throwing it in i wanted to raise ammonia so it has something to eat. I threw in half a cube of mysis shrimp, how high should tha ammonia be? Before adding the bacteria. Im thinking about throwing another half tomorrow too.
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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Update on the progress. The tank is finally cycled or at least i think it is.

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
5 nitrate

Went ahead and connected the red sea led 90 and boom, one of them is not working. I connected the lights to the app having to do a hard reset to the one giving me issues out of the box, later it received a notification of connectivity issue, now the light wont reset or do anything. Its just there with the backlights on doing nothing. I am frustrated and not to happy with red sea right now, sent them an email and now im just waiting to see what can i do to fix this. I think i should have gone with the Hydras but too late now.
 

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For now they have a decent excuse with it being a new product. Hopefully they get the software issues sorted out quickly. Congrats on the 3-week cycle. As long as you keep an ammonia source going so the bacteria can stick around, you should be good.
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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For now they have a decent excuse with it being a new product. Hopefully they get the software issues sorted out quickly. Congrats on the 3-week cycle. As long as you keep an ammonia source going so the bacteria can stick around, you should be good.
Thanks, i am ghost feeding to keep the ammonia going until i can get some fish. As for the lights i cannot express how frustrated i am right now, i can say that the one that actually worked was super easy to connect and to play with it, but the other one is a mess. For me its unnaceptable that they released a product like this, ive been reading around and its a common thing, for me 50/50 chance of working right is not good enough.
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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New toy arrived, the cables mess were driving me crazy so i decided to give the hydros waveengine a try.
20200205_113752.jpg


So far has been pretty straight foward, the only issue i had is that i cant make the return pump work. I sent an email to coralvue lets see were i messed up. Ill post pictures with before and after once i can get some of the cables out of the way
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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Alright finally it looks way better. Picture doesnt do justice, but cables are way better organized. Still driving me crazy but this will have to hold until i get to make a cabinet for the apex and all the crap i have in that corner. As promised before and after the hydros waveengine.

Before
20200205_113818.jpg
20200205_113821.jpg


After:
20200205_214904_HDR.jpg
20200205_220233.jpg
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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So far the waveengine has been amazing, it is so easy to install and to program with all the videos and instructions coralvue has out there. I am in love with this thing. I had a minor hiccup while installing (User error) but it was easly corrected and its working like is supposed to.
 

infinite0180

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Nice tank. I like these planet crystalline tanks. Whats the overflow made of? Is it glass?
 
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yan2pr

yan2pr

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Nice tank. I like these planet crystalline tanks. Whats the overflow made of? Is it glass?
The one i have is the one with the internal overflow and is acrylic, not sure about the one that has the external one. So far i love this tank, it is excelent quality, i havent had any issue with it.
 

JoshH

Tank Status: Wet...ish, growing things....
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So far the waveengine has been amazing, it is so easy to install and to program with all the videos and instructions coralvue has out there. I am in love with this thing. I had a minor hiccup while installing (User error) but it was easly corrected and its working like is supposed to.

So nice to see you with a new product that's actually working the way it's supposed to :)

The build is looking great! Keep coming with the updates:)
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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  • None.

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  • Other.

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