New 50g lowboy frag tank build

[andrewkw]

The tank in the top right is my 10 gallon nano which was doubling as frag overflow. I'm getting all the frags out of that tank and it will return to a mini display soon.

 

[Peace River]

Everything has more or less been on hold, but a couple of days ago of this I decided I'll just plumb the tank. I just barely had enough plumbing parts. I really didn't want to have to order a few elbows online. I ended up using some 45's where I would have preferred 90s but couldn't find them locally. I knew the 55 was going to be hard to reach into but it's even harder then I expected. This is fine though, as the original frag setup was just the 55g and I would have to remove the frags to reach into it. I can still use this later for overgrown corals or as a fish prison.

The water level sits a little low in the tank but it wasn't possible to put the overflow any higher. I could always cover the bottom of the teeth but for now I'm just leaving it. The transfer was a real pain, but I don't appear to have lost any coral. I did water changes on my other tanks to limit the amount of new saltwater (with super high alkalinity) I added. I had been running this system super hot by accident 82-83, but with the extra 50 gallons of water volume it's sitting at about 80-80.5 this is still my warmest tank but nothing seems to mind. I never intentionally got the temp so high, but when I finally put an inkbird on the system it read 83 but everything was fine so I just left it. I have 2, so I usually try them both together to make sure they are accurate and then move one back to another tank.

The reason everything was on hold is the flooring I ordered came smashed. I'm not mad that it came smashed, things get damaged in shipping all the time. Especially when the package just consists of a shipping label. I am mad that it took 2 days to send out after a shipping label was created and even madder at the return policy for damaged. I wanted them to just send me 2 more boxes and they can take the damaged ones back. The only options they gave me where to send them back and reorder at my expense and within 7 days of them getting them back they would refund me OR take them to the store for a refund which still has not appeared on my card. After complaining on social media they offered me a $20 discount to keep the destroyed flooring and no refund. I complained further and mentioned the nearest home depot is a 53 minute drive from me and sent google maps directions. They decided after another full day to up their offer to $20 discount + $20 gift card and no refund. Finally I had it and took them back to the store. I was hoping the refund would be faster but I guess I'm just going to order 2 more and have them shipped to the store Monday. Now I'm almost done and 2 boxes is not a lot of money, but on principal I should not have to pay twice to get once. This is home depot not some little company. The one time I got damaged from an amazon package after 2 minutes in a chat I was given the choice of refund or reorder and it was done within 10 minutes.

Once I get all the corals arranged nicely and or get the flooring complete I will take some better pics. The water has cleared nicely though and everything has room. It's nice not to have corals on top of corals, on top of corals. I plan on doing a lot of trimming in my main display so it looks more like a display and less overgrown.

I am truly sorry to hear about your home repair challenges. The 50g low boy frag tank is on my bucket list to add so I am following along and glad that everything is still on track (even if a little delayed). I definitely understand how life gets in the way - cheering for you!

 

[andrewkw]

The tank is coming along well despite everything going slower then anticipated.

The room is only 90% complete. After much fighting with home depot and some token gift cards, I secured another box to finish the job. Only problem is it's at my sister's house 7 hours away. When I do get around to going to get it I will certainly come home with new corals. It's been a few weeks so I'm no longer super angry but this was almost entirely home depot's fault. They could have made arrangements to get me another box and I would have been fine without compensation. Instead I got $100 off and a lot of headaches.

Back to the corals. I got a 4 bulb T5 light - well it's sitting at my US mail box. I plan on going to pick it up tomorrow. I did not order any bulbs since I can get them when I go pick up the flooring. Now I kinda regret it but it should be within the next month. If the 6500K bulbs are not totally brutal I can try it out with the 2 20k bulbs I have here. I have been debating how to hang the lights and I'm leaning towards using pipe unless home depot will bend conduit for me. I'm not going to spend $70 on a pipe bender for 3 bends.

Most of the corals in here are nothing fancy. I have 20 pom pom xenia frags for instance, as well as a TON of pink palys. A few of them have morphed into really nice pieces. Not sure why. These things grow like weeds. I cant get rid of them locally so I bring them to a store for credit. Since all the stores I frequent are near where my sister lives I'm not that mad about going there to get the flooring.

For about 2 weeks I had some pretty bad "eggcrate algae" for lack of a better term. Almost looks like dinos, or cyano but it's from the eggcrate leaching who knows what. This was washed a long time ago but clearly not well enough and some new tank uglies ect. It settled down pretty quick though. As for the white bottom I really like it, but it's not going to stay clean forever. I will probably start occasionally scraping the bottom soon. Here are a few shots of some of the corals including my absolute favorite chalice. I've had it for about 2 months and it's starting to encrust nicely.

 

[andrewkw]

I've managed to complete my DIY project of hanging the lights without disaster!

The light is 99% supported by just one steel pipe bracketed to the stand. Since there is a tiny bit of play in the clamps it pulls everything slightly down so I have a small chain going up to the ceiling to keep it straight. Yes the wires are still pretty messy but eventually I will probably get around to that. I also want to replace the black box which is currently over the acros with some smaller leds that I can spotlight them with. Currently the tank is super white / yellow as I'm using 2 6400k bulbs that came with the fixture in addition to 2 20k bulbs. I will be getting new T5 bulbs soon. After that I will be adding more flow and the new leds.

On the plus side with the tank super white I can take pictures with my phone.

 

[Tbabcock]

I've managed to complete my DIY project of hanging the lights without disaster!

The light is 99% supported by just one steel pipe bracketed to the stand. Since there is a tiny bit of play in the clamps it pulls everything slightly down so I have a small chain going up to the ceiling to keep it straight. Yes the wires are still pretty messy but eventually I will probably get around to that. I also want to replace the black box which is currently over the acros with some smaller leds that I can spotlight them with. Currently the tank is super white / yellow as I'm using 2 6400k bulbs that came with the fixture in addition to 2 20k bulbs. I will be getting new T5 bulbs soon. After that I will be adding more flow and the new leds.

On the plus side with the tank super white I can take pictures with my phone.

I got mine filled last week but man your light is high.

 

[Tbabcock]

I got mine filled last week but man your light is high.

Its now 8" off the surface with par range from 230 to 350. But im mostly into SPS.

 

[Peace River]

Congrats on the successful project! Like @Tbabcock, I was going to ask about the height of the lights. Are you planning on lowering them over time? Do you have access to a par meter?

 

[Tbabcock]

Congrats on the successful project! Like @Tbabcock, I was going to ask about the height of the lights. Are you planning on lowering them over time? Do you have access to a par meter?

I own a per meter and adjusted the lights to be as close to the par range as my display. Im not done with my fixture yet because i still have a reef brite bar to mount to it so i may have to do a final adjustment after i get that on.

 

[andrewkw]

I do not have a par meter unfortunately. I hung them high by design. I can always lower them if need be, but I never want to work on a way to raise them higher. I probably will get some adjustable hangers, but we'll see how the corals react. This is why I have the black box over the acros and why I want to add some smaller lower profile led's that will spotlight the higher light corals. The bulk of the tank is soft corals.

 

[Tbabcock]

I do not have a par meter unfortunately. I hung them high by design. I probably will get some adjustable hangers, but we'll see how the corals react. This is why I have the black box over the acros and why I want to add some smaller lower profile led's that will spotlight the higher light corals. The bulk of the tank is soft corals.

Cool.. they just looked more the 12"off the tank.

 

[Blutspitze]

Awesome build so far - love the peninsula look and the frags look amazing!

 

[andrewkw]

The tank is full I am hoping to change that tomorrow. I'm posting some frags I'm going to hopefully take to a store but I need downsampled images to email, so why not share them here :

 

[andrewkw]

 

[andrewkw]

Still loving this lowboy. It's just a good sized tank to work with / play with. I have slightly lowered my lights but they are still quite high. Again mostly softies. I also just took out over 100 frags, but there is still so much in the tank. Living in the middle of no where I usually try and find someone who will take a bunch and give them a great deal so they can resell them at their leisure. Works for me for now. I picked up a few new nice frags and a lightning maroon male I'm going to try and pair with my mean female.

I was happy to get rid of a lot of palys and other corals but getting rid of this chalice tile was a little sad. I have a bigger colony in my display so there was no need to keep this and let it encrust to the bottom. There is something very satisfying about filling up these 3x3 frag tiles.

So I started another one. Probably within 6 months it will be the size of the one above. For whatever reason this type grows super fast. Now if only this one would grow at that rate :

I would like to add the cespitularia to my display but I just love looking at it from the top down. I'll wait a little longer and frag off a piece for display. Those clove polyps I'm also growing out.

I am starting to get more algae - this is a combination of new eggcrate frequent feedings with minimal filtration (there is no skimmer, just live rock). Eventually, which should be sooner rather then later I'll have to break down and get a proper cleanup crew. I have just 2 snails in the tank, but one of the corals I got last week came with a hitchiker hermit so there are 2 snails and 1 hermit lol. There are some stometellas and other tiny inverts but a small tang is probably required. There are also a modest amount of flatworms. Not too worried about that, I'll get some flatworm exit the next time I order stuff and then probably get them again the next time I add a bunch of stuff. While I don't follow a strict QT, I do put new arrivals in here to settle in, and let stuff like the flatworms come off them here as it's easier to treat this tank then my displays. Once I clean up the tank a bit I'll take some proper photos of the setup. One final thought is the white background is working out great. Yes it does require some cleaning but its great for both viewing and photographing.

 

[Blutspitze]

Wow... the pics are looking great and the corals beautiful. Hopefully the hitchers aren't an issue for the tank

 

[andrewkw]

Wow... the pics are looking great and the corals beautiful. Hopefully the hitchers aren't an issue for the tank

Thanks, they are not an issue. I treat for things in the frag tank and they don't become a problem in display tanks. I also feel like these days people are too worried about minor problems. Even in my display there are a few aiptasia. I don't let it get out of control it's not an issue.

 

[Katrina71]

+1 don't freak about the nbd stuff

 

[andrewkw]

As much as I love having big corals on display in my display tanks it's so much easier to have tiny frags in my frag tank where I can target feed them at any time without worry of a fish taking their food.

Also my first RBTA in several years. Will be adding this and a male lightning maroon to a tank with one mean female. Hopefully it all works out.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

As much as I love having big corals on display in my display tanks it's so much easier to have tiny frags in my frag tank where I can target feed them at any time without worry of a fish taking their food.

Also my first RBTA in several years. Will be adding this and a male lightning maroon to a tank with one mean female. Hopefully it all works out.

That's a good-looking nem!

 

[Blutspitze]

Gorgeous looking nem and corals! Loving doing the targeted feedings in the smaller space.