Pickle Ricks new tank build!

[Davy Jones]

Well its more of a pre build but im working on it! I have had 4 reef tanks so far since starting the hobby. My first was an unresearched 55 gallon with hob skimmer and filter. I bought this off of craigslist already set up and did no research. I was in 7th grade at the time, and spent all my birthday and christmas money on the tank and buying fish. I (and unfortunately the fish) learned that reefing is hard.

I ended up getting a biocube 29 for my birthday the next year (i sold the 55 gallon) and did a ton of reading and talking to my LFS. This tank was successful for 3 years. I ended up giving it to my cousin as I left for military training.

Fast forward 3 years, I was fortunate enough to go scuba diving in Cozumel with my Girlfriends family, and that ignited the spark again! I returned home and purchased a used RSM130d. I quickly decided i did not want another all in one tank so it was only running for about 7 months.

Moved into my apartment and bought the setup of my "dreams" *with alloted space and size restrictions* Reefer 250, vertex omega 150, nanobox/ati LED T5 hybrid, apex, all the goodies i wanted. The tank did amazing for about 8 months, then the dinos struck. I fought the battle for 3 months, winning some weeks, losing others. In the end i had no fish losses but my coral were devestated from the fight. At the time we bought a house and moved out of the apartment. I set the tank up with 100% new water and removed sandbed, lost 1 fish in the move but the dinos had finally been bested. What coral survived started to recover and grow which was nice. Went on like this for a while, then growth stopped and everything just colored up and stayed as it was which i was happy with. Tank was on autopilot as life got busy and my doser kept dosing away.. until the resovior ran out. Lost some stuff with that and recovered. Left for military training for about 3 weeks and there was a large storm at home day 3 of being gone. Power was out at our house for 3 days. My girlfriend rented a generator and hooked it all up day 2 of power being out (we live in the city, so very strange it was out that long) and unfortunately the heaters brought the tank right back to the temp they needed to be.. in about 3 hours. Between the power outage and the rise in temp i lost my maxima clam, and the increased nutrients and stuff from that caused a slew of other issues with the tank before i got home from out of country. Shut the tank down and transferred everything to a RSM c-130 for temporary housing as i rebooted the reefer 250.

Finally we are caught up to today! Sorry for the long read. I type a lot and my posts get wordy and (eventually) picture heavy.

Instead of setting up the reefer 250 i decided i want to go bigger now that i have my own house. So here is the planned build!

SC Aquariums Custom!! 48"x30"x20" and stand to match
Sump - 40 Breeder with 3 socks and baffles for skimmer and return.
BK Mini 180 gen 3. Found a good deal. Should be a heck of a skimmer!
Starting out with kessil h80. May switch to ATS prior to start up of this build
RO Varios 6
4 mp40
Apex Classic
Tunze ato
GHL Mitras LX7 x2

More updates to come as i purchase gear!

 

[Maddlesrain]

I'm following this purely because of the Rick and Morty reference... I guess I'd like to see the tank get going too (;
Sounds like it's going to be a great build!!

 

[Davy Jones]

I'm following this purely because of the Rick and Morty reference... I guess I'd like to see the tank get going too (;
Sounds like it's going to be a great build!!

Can't go wrong with Rick and morty! Unless you're a jerry...

 

[Davy Jones]

First update to the original plan: I might now be going custom from SCA. I got a quote on a 48x30x20, starphire 3 sides and drilled for a ghost overflow! Surprisingly the price is very reasonable! I am very likely going to go with this.

This does cause issues with my lighting plan however. With the Width of the tank, It may not be realistic to use my 36" hybrid unit. Granted i am not going full sps so maybe proper coral placement will be fine. If i cant use the hybrid i will likely pick up a 3rd mitras lx7 to light the tank and have it full LED.

Also i decided i am not going to go triton. I may use the ICP testing here and there, and will likely run a decent sized Chaeto fuge but i will probably dose 2 part to cut back on costs. This also saves me from having to buy another apex dos as it only has 2 dosing heads.

As for sand I will be ordering 60-90 lbs of tropic eden reef flakes (3mm) and rock will be a mixture of pukani and fiji from bulk reef supply. I plan on doing an acid wash on it and in the tank it will go. at this point the tank will pretty much be "sterile" So i plan on adding a few different bacteria strains to the tank: Dr Tims one and only, Microbacter7 and zeobak. My hopes is this will provide a diverse population of bacteria to seed and that one will be effective for my particular system.

Current fish in my temporary tank
1 regular old clown (been with me in some form for the last 8 years)
1 six line wrasse
1 orchid dottyback
1 yellow eye kole tang
2 bengai cardinal fish
EDIT: Only the six line and clown remain. Had a bout of low oxygen in my temporary tank i guess and lost the others sadly.
Future fish:
1 yellow tang
1 tomini tang
midas blenny pair
4-5 royal gramma (I have seen this done before and i would like to recreate it. They are beautiful fish and always a fan favorite.) Maybe even mix in 2-3 black cap basslets as well. (I dive the carribean around once a year and i love seeing these fish in the wild. Such an awesome display.)

As for corals, I plan on doing around 10-15 sps frags. Mostly all ORA stuff or classics. Dont much care for the $300 1/4" frags but more power to you if thats your thing! I do however plan on having as many different colors of hammer and frogspawn as i can. Maybe a little area for torches. And some nicer anemones as well. I never splurged on the designer anemones but with this build i may at some point.

 

[Davy Jones]

Finally sold my reefer so it looks like we might be making progress with this build! Just in time for black friday too

I may go the route of a standard 120 fatboy to cut down on costs. A lot will depend on sales and such so we will see! Right now i can pick up a rimless 120 starphire brand new for $500 from Fiji Cube (local company) drilled herbie method. Still would need a stand however, and they use 1/2 inch glass which scares me for a 120 with no rim or euro bracing.. Honestly so far i havent officially decided on anything really which sucks since i am very indecisive. Sales will determine much of what i buy for this system. There are a lot of nice equipment out there for tanks of this size and a sump large enough to fit decent skimmers and fuge will definitely make things harder haha

One thing is for sure however, I need to get moving on this asap. I have lost 2 fish and a couple different coral due to the temporary tanks size and the amount of livestock. I do large water changes every week to 2 weeks but there is no skimmer, just filter floss and carbon. Cyano has been an issue for quite a while as well.

 

[Davy Jones]

UPDATE! Decided (and purchased) Reef octopus varios 6 return pump and kessil h80 used locally. Also will likely pick up a BK Mini 180 gen 3 used as well!

Custom order will be placed with SCA soon hopefully, then the 8-12 week wait time will begin..

Still need powerheads for the build. Now undecided on what I want for flow. Tunze 6105 pair, neptune wav kit or gyres.
Still need a sump. This is a hard choice for me, and is one of the most expensive pieces to the build it seems. Since i cant diy it is looking at costing around 5-700 for a decent sized sump with the layout i want.

 

[Davy Jones]

Tank+Stand: Sca Custom 48x30x20
Return: Varios 6 Purchased!
Skimmer: BK Mini 180 Purchased!
Sump: 40 breeder Purchased!
Fuge light: H80 Purchased!

First issue. Sump does not have a fuge section. So I will need to plumb a seperate fuge which scares the hell outta me. But i think i have an idea. The hard part will be getting something large enough to fit in the cabinet still. And plumbing. And all of it. Im in over my head. lol

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Hmm...we needs some pictures for this thread!

 

[Davy Jones]

Hmm...we needs some pictures for this thread!

I will absolutely be posting pictures soon as I have something to take pictures of! I still need to put the order for the tank in saddly

 

[revhtree]

Let's go!

 

[Davy Jones]

 

[Davy Jones]

Alright, so this is where we are at.
Sump (seen above, kitty tested and approved) Is a 40 breeder with baffles and sock holders.
Return is a RO Varios 6
Skimmer is a BK Mini 180 gen 3
2 Buckets of red sea coral pro salt arrived (thanks to BRS 30% off sale)
25 lbs of dry fiji rock and 50lbs of reefcleaners rock. plus about 15 lbs of pukani. I will begin curing the rock in a rubbermaid tote as soon as the rest of the rock arrives. Can i just use tap water for this or does it need to be salt water?
90 LBS of Tropic Eden Reef flakes (dry) which i will rinse multiple times until there is no dust/residue remaining.
Tunze 3155 ATO ordered from premium aquatics for over 30% off
Kessil h80 i somehow need to incorporate in the build for a fuge. Ill unfortunately likely have to plumb a separate fuge which scares the hell out of me
ALL new replacement filters for my 6 stage rodi including RO membrane
Lighting will be either 2 GHL Mitras lx7's OR a 36" ATI sunpower/Nanobox hybrid. 4 t5 bulbs and 6 NanoBox Reef LED pucks OR Ill use all 3.. somehow.
Apex classic will be carried over from my previous reef

The final hurdle will be in tank flow. There are a lot of good options out there. Originally i wanted the gyres but there seems to be quite a few people unhappy with them both short and long term. I think because of this i will take a deeper look into getting tunze pumps instead due to reliability. Or possibly vortechs. Wav's are also an option but i cant seem to find many users with them when compared to the other options out there.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Like the catfish and the new build!

 

[Davy Jones]

Quick video of all that remains from my original build this is in the temporary tank (c130) with a Mitras lx7 over top. None of this rock will make it into the new build but the coral will if it makes it that long haha

EDIT: not letting me upload, will look at it later when i have time! Sorry!

 

[Davy Jones]

Just ordered the tank and stand from SC Aquariums! Going to use the 21" reef savvy ghost overflow as well.

Last thing I need is flow. I have 1 mp40, so I think I will get another.

From there I will either get 2 more mp40's or get a pair of tunze 6095/6105s. This should provide plenty of flow options through out the tank with differing flow types.

Lighting I am going to try the ati/nanobox hybrid I have. AND the pair of mitras's. That should provide plenty of light for anything and there should be no shadowing. I'll likely run the Mitras perpendicular with the tank and the hybrid parallel. Everything will be dialed down to around 60% when starting until I get a good idea of the light output

 

[Davy Jones]

The catfish is loving the aquascape!

 

[Davy Jones]

Update! Got a good deal on some used mp40's. So this build will have 4 mp40's running around 65% or so max. That should be enough flow to cover the 30" width of the tank and take care of any deadspots my aquascape creates.

With that said, I think i will either need to pick up the adapter to control the vortechs from my apex or pick up the reeflink to connect them all together for programming.

 

[d_adler]

any updates?

 

[Davy Jones]

any updates?

Confirmation the tank arrives March 20th, I received my reef savvy ghost overflow as well! I'm trying to move the sock holder in my sump over a few inches so I have enough room for a small fuge in the sump so I can try out the h80 I have.

 

[Davy Jones]

Update! Lighting will officially be the 2 GHL mitras LX7's i own. A friend is buying my hybrid light so problem solved of making that choice!

Possibly will be going with an ATS instead of trying a fuge, My local reef club has a really nice one that was fabricated and using the mars hydro 300watt grow light. Produces roughly 3 cups of algae every 2 weeks.