Perry's Shallow Water Acro Dominant Build Thread

Perry

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Hello my fellow SPS friends, getting back in the SPS game with a new build. Next weekend I will travel to St. Pete to pick up a tank, stand, skimmer, lights, rock, pumps, all done in a deal from a previous owner. If you know me, I can be impatient, but for this "build" I am going to take the time to ensure everything is done proper. The stand appears well built, but likely I will refinish. Fortunately I have a spare room to do all the work necessary for cleaning, building, refinishing, etc. Please follow along and enjoy this project come to life :)

Here are some details so far of what's included.

1. 60 gallon rimless custom peninsula design. 36" long, 20" tall, 20" wide. Including stand and sump. Details unclear on sump and stand until arrival.
2. I-tech 100 protein skimmer. The skimmer could sell individually for what I got system for, lol. If you know about this skimmer, you know how lucky I was to even score it. I know, because this will be my second time owning one.
3. Geissemann Verve LED x2. Seems overkill, but just for fun, I will use them with a Kessil a360we in the middle of the two :)
4. Return pump, and 2 mp40's, but still need to buy wetsides.
5. Looks to be a about 50+ lbs of cycled live rock
6. Quarter size Jaw Breaker shroom for the drive, lol, won't be in this tank though, lol.

I am sure the guy is going to toss in more stuff, but these are my current details. I already have several acros frags, donated from a buddies reef, waiting patiently. This will be a mainly acro tank, I have LPS mixed reef already. So NOTHING but SPS :) More to come!
Cheers,

Note: Please forward to page 16 of this thread if you want to save yourself from a year worth of FAIL :)
 
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Perry

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Thanks Tim, I appreciate you looking in on the fun. Its been almost 3 years since I broke down the 120, and have not been successful with SPS in my current system, so I am super stoked to get this project going :) Next weekend will be a busy one, as I will be picking up the tank, then on to cleaning and sorting everything out. Should be turnkey, but, going to make sure and do this proper, may include refinishing the stand and plumbing. Hope all is well with you my friend. Cheers
 
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Thanks Tim, I appreciate you looking in on the fun. Its been almost 3 years since I broke down the 120, and have not been successful with SPS in my current system, so I am super stoked to get this project going :) Next weekend will be a busy one, as I will be picking up the tank, then on to cleaning and sorting everything out. Should be turnkey, but, going to make sure and do this proper, may include refinishing the stand and plumbing. Hope all is well with you my friend. Cheers
Thank you Perry all is great here. It's really weird how some tanks can just be a struggle. Your 120 was gorgeous so I'm excited for this new build!
 
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Perry

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Thank you Perry all is great here. It's really weird how some tanks can just be a struggle. Your 120 was gorgeous so I'm excited for this new build!
Hey Tim, you are right, some tanks just dont do well with certain corals. Thinking I can pull this one off, pretty much half of my 120, but much more volume than the AIO, with a decent size sump. This one will be an over sized skimmer, and likely using chaeto in its own dedicated tank plumbed into the system. Thinking about making a floating canopy, suspended from ceiling. Going all LED route, each Geissemann verve panel has I believe 56 LEDs, and a Kessil A360we in center. This will be a ton of light :) If I don't like this, I may use a 250 watt halide, with verve panels on either side running blues. Don't want to get ahead of myself, just a few things ob the mind, lol. Cheers buddy!
 
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Perry

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This tank will be designed to be a high energy bb reef, lots of flow, no detritus settling, with a strong fish load. Heavy nutrients in with efficient export. For this, I will try for fish that tend to thrive in shallow reefs, and school. As far as sps corals, here I will have to be selective, as the tank is not large enough to just toss any corals in. Probably lots of millis and tenuis. My goal is preferably acros :) Cheers
 

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Hey hey, happy to see this at the top of the SPS forum. Looking forward to the progress.

My SPS are alive, but still battling nitrates since I managed to eliminate the Xenia. Still stunned my how much those little buggers used up both PO4 and Nitrates.
 
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Hey hey, happy to see this at the top of the SPS forum. Looking forward to the progress.

My SPS are alive, but still battling nitrates since I managed to eliminate the Xenia. Still stunned my how much those little buggers used up both PO4 and Nitrates.
Hey Mark,
Long time man, thanks for looking in on the journal :) Glad to hear the tank is still running, you had a time with palys, as I remember, and xenia can be just as hard to eradicate, lol. Yeah, back in the day, I remember people running xenia and/or aptasia scrubbers, so makes sense how removal could impact nutrients. I will continue to run my AIO cube, I have some nice corals in there, some could help fund this project as time moves on.
For the acro tank, I will not start it until I am 100% ready, I will take learned experiences, and do my best to establish it correctly. If that delays things, so be it :) Iwant to design the system with acro requirements in mind, so corals or fish not liking high flow will not be added. Lighting will be interesting, but if all fails, I still have a halide I could use. I prefer LED only to keep heat down, and given the amount of LEDs planned, should be zero shading issues. I plan for this Saturday to puck up the system, pics will come after everything cleaned up. Thanks for following along, should be a fun build :)
Cheers
 
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Picked up the tank today, It's a beast for a 60 gallon tank. Correction on a couple of things. The tank is 36" long x 20" wide and 20" tall. Also the skimmer is a beast, not the I tech 100, actually I tech 200! Came with a tunze return pump, tunze hydro foamer pump for skimmer, and the sump is massive, 31" long, by 23" wide x 13" tall. The sump has 2 fuge chambers, a return pump chamber, and a return chamber, a total of 5, very unique design. Got to get things cleaned up. Also, as a nice touch, the top to the stand is made out 1.5" granite, actually the heaviest piece moved, lol. Will get some pics up soon ")
Cheers
 
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Work in progress, but cleaned, plumbing assembled, will be making magnetic skins down the road. A few pics :)

20191013_170415.jpg 20191013_170426.jpg 20191013_170441.jpg
 
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Tank is almost full, but I still need another 40 gallons or so to finish filling tank, and the rather large sump. Using TMPR salts. Rock is already mature, and given size of skimmer, with Bio S nitrifying bacteria from AF, I suspect fish are not far away. The plan was to take things a bit slower, but had to break down, move, and reset my Lps mixed cube, as it occupied the space needed for the new tank. Also, after cleaning and assembly of the new tank components, nothing other than skins needed updating. Trust me, I got my wife's approval, and allowed her to decide where the tanks would go. She is going to maintain the mangrove pico jar, and help with the cube, which allows me to focus on this project, yay for me, back to my passion of keeping SPS :)
Cheers!
 

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Hey Perry - hope all is well. Great to see another tank up and running by plyle :). Excited to see the BB setup; high-energy designs are my favorite. I must admit, I'm sad to see the 250w wasn't your first choice. Will be keeping tabs, chatting.

Take care.
 
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Perry

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Hey Perry - hope all is well. Great to see another tank up and running by plyle :). Excited to see the BB setup; high-energy designs are my favorite. I must admit, I'm sad to see the 250w wasn't your first choice. Will be keeping tabs, chatting.

Take care.
Hey Nate!
Hope you are well, long time my friend :) still have a halide setup, but going to try LED panels 1st, but that could change. Have tons of lighting options at this point, we shall see. Have a Kessil a360we on there right now, just for lighting until I make a firm lighting decision. Either way going to have to purge some equipment, lol.
Tank is full, no leaks yet, but still have to get around 25 more gallons to fill sump, then the real leak test to come, lol.
Cheers
 

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Hey Nate!
Hope you are well, long time my friend :) still have a halide setup, but going to try LED panels 1st, but that could change. Have tons of lighting options at this point, we shall see. Have a Kessil a360we on there right now, just for lighting until I make a firm lighting decision. Either way going to have to purge some equipment, lol.
Tank is full, no leaks yet, but still have to get around 25 more gallons to fill sump, then the real leak test to come, lol.
Cheers

No worries - I'm just giving you a hard time. I was sold on Orpheks for my current build until I came across a couple used Giesemann fixtures - an Infiniti and Spectra. Another one of my favorite LED setups is the Kessil 360 on an AquaticLife DX18. Either way, I know your display will look sharp. Let me know when you're ready for corals - I've got a 110g Reef Savvy w/ 100+ frags with another month and a half to go on QT (WD, couple nice chalices, lots of other sticks, etc). You can stop by and pick some up.

Great news on the first fill-up. God it takes forever, right?

Best.
 
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