Planet 235 Upgrade - The Requiem Reef

[skyrne_isk]

"How do you get to heaven? Something terrible has to happen."
-Don Draper

So this is my first build thread. I have had saltwater tanks for going on 20 years now, and probably 3 or 4 proper reefs that I have always intended to do a build thread but have always talked myself out of it for one reason or another. I was this close to giving up on doing this upgrade but then I thought I would take the reason to not do it and make it the reason to do it. My current tank is a Planet 60 x 30 x 18 and tomorrow my upgrade arrives: Another Planet but 72 x 36 x 21. A little wider and deeper and a foot longer. I am probably more of an anemone keeper than anything else, but my tanks always end up having plenty of SPS in them too. Current tank has a gigantea and a magnifica in the display along with a mertens in the sump. Over the next couple days I will get a complete livestock and equipment list posted.

You ever have a favorite fish? Sometimes it's not even the most expensive, or most colorful, or most rare fish you have but it's still your favorite? Here's mine:

And this is earliest pic I could find of him - from 2013. That tank was first set up at my office and then moved home, so I am guessing I got my goldflake angel in at least 2012. He started eating out of my hand and survived more than 10 years - and was most usually the reason I kept getting bigger tanks - to give him a bigger space to grow in. Definitely the fish who was king in any of my tanks - always keeping everyone in line but never bothered a new addition once. I heard no ends of clicks and or grunts when I would walk by and he always followed when I was in the room. Just a cool fish that by itself made me into a QT freak for new fish. At some point it dawned on me that I had had him for a while and I became much more worried about introducing pathogens than I was excited about getting that newest fish in the display. Best reefing advice you can find anywhere: quarantine.

And now onto the bad thing happening that hopefully leads the good thing happening....

Over the last couple of days in prepping for move I made some adjustments to the sump - name taking out the Tunze to give it a citric acid bath overnight. I noticed that the Mertens moved a bit yesterday morning when I put the Tunze back in service. I stepped out for a couple hours to get some plumbing parts and when I came back I noticed none of the wrasses were out and most of the fish were lurking in the corners. Weird. It immediately hit me what was happening and I sprinted to the basement to confirm that the Mertens had walked over and got into the Tunze. I shut the pump off and immediately pulled the carpet and powerhead into a bucket and did a 40G waterchange but the damage was done. Over the next hour or so I lost a pink margin fairy wrasse, Maculiceps tang, and of course the goldflake. As far as anemone and powerheads getting together it wasn't really too bad - only a bit of the disc was shredded - but Mertens have a pretty decent sting and it was enough.

Here he was:

And that by itself is why I had half a mind to not do a build thread. I was super bummed (and still am) but eventually decided to do the build thread and share the whole story. We all go through setbacks, hopefully this is the big one for me and I already got it out of the way before the new tank even arrived. This fish was absolutely the inspiration behind this upgrade - sad that he didn't get to see it - but I couldn't really tell this story without him.

Here is the last shots of the old reef before I took it down. Total time to get it all in a kiddie pool (!) was right at three hours. Not too bad.

Busy day tomorrow getting the new tank in and some plumbing finished up, but here's the kiddie pool with everything in it.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Looks like a coral farm. Stunning. Can't wait to see your new tank and what you do with it.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Can't wait to see what the new tank is going to look like!!

 

[skyrne_isk]

Plumbing of the overflow is all done.

 

[skyrne_isk]

And the new tank is wet! I’ll get a bigger update tomorrow when I am not as exhausted.

 

[skyrne_isk]

Most of the progress today was breaking corals off of rocks. Here is how far I got. In the back standing on edge is some epoxied sand. I typically put some in high flow areas of the tank and end up glueing frags to it

All in all not bad progress for the day, but nothing close to a finished aqua scape.

Here is the current stocking list:

Ctenochaetus striatus - Striped bristletooth tang
Zebrasoma gemmatum - Gem tang
Pomecanthus annularis - Annularis angelfish
Centropyge multicolor - Multicolor angelfish
Amphiprion percula (x2) - Percula clowns
Macropharyngodon moyeri - Moyer’s leopard wrasse
Macropharyngodon negrosensis (x2) - Black leopard wrasse
Halichoeres melasmapomus (x2) - Earmuff wrasse
Salarias fasciatus - Lawnmower blenny
Amphiprion milii (x2 in the sump) - Western Australian clownfish

Immediate plans are to add a couple yellow coris wrasses as the one I had sadly died yesterday - also due to the carpet mishap. And to also replace the Maculiceps - probably my favorite tang. Will get pics up once they get in; should be later this week.

Also trying to figure out what angel addition(s) to make to replace the goldflake. Looking for another Apolemichthys of some kind (not a flagfin though, lol). Maybe I can get some suggestions?


As far as inverts are concerned, here is what is in the tank:

Heteractis magnifica (pic included)
Stichodactyla gigantea
Stichodactyla mertensii (in sump)

 

[thelonereefer1]

Super cool build and I love the dimensions. I am a big fan of depth in a tank front to back. It allows you to create some really cool affects

 

[skyrne_isk]

Super cool build and I love the dimensions. I am a big fan of depth in a tank front to back. It allows you to create some really cool affects

Thanks! Updates have been slow as the last couple days have felt more like breaking a reef than building one! I have used a screwdriver and hammer more than anything else, but now have everything loose and ready to mount. That being said, I’ve never had 36” to use and it’s been fantastic!

Here’s a limited shot of what I have so far. It’s a shot down the front of the tank…

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Loving the updates!

 

[skyrne_isk]

Today’s efforts were mostly around starting the aquascape and getting the sand in. When I took out the sand it went into 3 5-gallon buckets filled a little over half full. The move took a little over 24 hours and by the time I thought about the sand it had already started to turn a bit anoxic. It was the slightest bit black at the bottom and started to get that sour smell. So into the 100G rubbermade stock it went until I could check it out.

Most of all this sand is from @LiverockRocks. When I sat up the last tank I placed an order of sand and rock - will never do another tank without them. Some of their rock is a bit mid; too dense and lacking in voids for my taste, but the life that covers it is second to none.

And some of their sand is a bit chunky for my taste so I rigged up a maxi jet and a filter sock and sieved out all the bigger rocks and shells. This gave me a chance to get rid of all anoxic areas and shed some detritus while I was at it.



Here were a couple random hitchhikers I didn’t know I had:

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Loving your updates. Please don't leave out any juicy details. Some of us live vicariously thru others lol.

 

[skyrne_isk]

The first challenge to handle from a aquascaping perspective was the rock in this photo. It has several corals on it, most of which haven’t grown out much but have instead heavily encrusted. It’s a super old piece of Fiji rock that I couldn’t bring myself to hack apart. So now to figure out how to incorporate it into the reef structure that was intended to stand alone.

This rock was part of the left side structure in the last tank but wasn’t able to stand on its own now that I broke that structure down. It’s a bit of an overhang piece with very unbalanced proportions. My solution was to take an epoxied slab of sand and super glue the rock to the slab. It’s now a cantilevered structure held by the weight of the left reef structure.

Only bummer is all the exposed to air time bleached the far right coral. It had been basically a deep purple, you can see directly under the wrasse it’s barely even pink. Here’s to hoping it colors up again….

Am still trying to decide if this addition to the left side reef structure eliminates too much of the negative space I had planned between the left and right side structures. Right now I am leaning toward it’s okay, will get a FTS shot here in the next day or so and you can all chime in and tell me if you agree. Good news is that epoxy slab moves independently and can theoretically moved anywhere if I end up not liking it.

 

[skyrne_isk]

Here’s a shot of where the aquascape is at this morning. Right side is effectively done. Luckily all of that structure came from the old tank intact. The right side structure is two separate pieces - am really impressed with Aquaforest stone fix. The structure has be be 50+ lbs now with all the coral growing on it and the concrete is a couple years old at this point.

Edit: Added link for mobile

 

[skyrne_isk]

Evening project lined up….after I glue some more animals to rocks

Details to come.

 

[skyrne_isk]

Yesterday’s project is running a little behind, but the aquascape is getting close. Should have an update tonight with it done. Here’s feeding time today.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Lovely start of a thread off to a great start! I too lost my favorite fish an angelfish a few months ago. If you are still looking for an angelfish suggestion(s) Genicanthus angels are among my favorites like the G. bellus or the G. semifasciatus

 

[skyrne_isk]

The lighting update

My lighting project is all done, but before I get to that here’s a rundown of what lighting I use.

I run a bunch of different kinds lighting - without really a lot of allegiances to any one camp. In my opinion they all do something better relative to the others, and I basically group them into coverage vs effect.

T5s: I run 4 x 54W ATI, with 2 bulbs blue plus and two bulbs coral plus or purple plus. Even though the coral plus shades a bit red, it pulls some excellent colors that seem flat without it. For me, T5s give you a lot of grace in ensuring even coverage when running alongside LEDs which is why I enjoy them.

VHO: Nothing can compete with the actinic glow of VHOs, IMO. Call me old school I guess so I run two 110W URI super actinic for as long as can find them.

Halide: I’ve been in the “skeptical of LEDs” camp for a while and always preferred halides to anything for the shimmer lines. I run one DE 250W electronic ballast that was marketed as PFO, but really is just an Icecap e-ballast on the inside. I usually run cheap eBay 20Ks that really burn closer to 12K. I will probably try some Hamiltons next.

LEDs: My LED of choice was a little off the beaten path, and when I bought them I ran half of the last tank of halides and half under the LED to see what would happen. I was super impressed with LedZeal Alpha 120. There’s a thread here where I chatted through the layout with @oreo54 : https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ledzeal-alpha-120-spectrum-selection.664150/

The spectrum I landed with is fantastic, and grew a Cali tort from 1” to roughly 10” in a couple years. It baked directly under the LED and is my biggest coral at the moment - so am no longer skeptical of LEDs. I am skeptical they save you any electricity, though. Not really a fan of the overly neon look but the strong 450nm in LEDs is amazing for colors. Plus, it’s nifty at night with 420nm and 450nm.

 

[skyrne_isk]

For the lighting project:

I needed to get the second Alpha 120 installed - the second unit has been in the basement for three years now. With the extra tank length I knew it was going to be needed. The halide and LEDs sit in a channel of angle aluminum that runs parallel to the tank. It gives me a lot of flexibility in moving lights to where I need them. So basically I needed to build a “cradle” to screw the LED cluster into. Some pop rivets, aluminum angle/channel, and a couple hours later gave me this.

It is three dimensional so as to raise the height of the LED to be flush with the bottom of the canopy. I don’t even want to think about pop rivets for a good long while

Here is the aftermath.



Here is the created product in place - you can see the angle aluminum channel as well.


First impressions is I am pretty happy with the coverage. I don’t intend to be able to grow SPS on the sand anywhere in the tank. In fact the design goal was to have the ends of the tank with “high” aquascape to accommodate the fact that the canopy of still only 48”. Time will tell how that will work out - am considering light strips along the edges of coverage isn’t good enough. What’s another couple lights at this point?

 

[skyrne_isk]

Lovely start of a thread off to a great start! I too lost my favorite fish an angelfish a few months ago. If you are still looking for an angelfish suggestion(s) Genicanthus angels are among my favorites like the G. bellus or the G. semifasciatus

Thank you for the kind words!! And great call on the semifasciatus! A pair of that species is on my short list for this tank. Only problem is, my LFS can source all kinds of high end fish but haven’t seen this on the list in more than a year I’ve been asking them to look. If you know of a place that can get them in, do let me know.

 

[skyrne_isk]

Here’s a random shot of my cryptic zone. Was
doing some work in the sump a couple days ago and had the PVC lid off for the first time in ages… was a bit shocked at how much was going on in there!! I will have a skimmer update coming soon - with a mini build post about it.