Sticks and clams 70G

gus6464 · Dec 4, 2015

I bought this tank back in May at MAX but never set it up as we were planning to purchase a new home. We finally moved 3 months ago and it is time to setup. Once we moved I found that where tank was going I could route the plumbing to the garage and put sump along with everything out there so a lot was changed. I went with a custom sump from Advanced Acrylics which I got at RAP and things just spiraled from there. Bought the rest of equipment during black friday but now it is all coming online. Tank actually has been cycling with just water in the display and a Gyre 150 since Sept.

CADlights Artisan 70G display and stand
Advanced Acrylics sump
Nanobox retrofitted ATI Powermodule 24x8 with 10x Beam strips
Neptune Apex
Vertex Omega 130
GEO 612 CA reactor with Reborn and Zeomag media
Victor VTS dual stage regulator w/ Fabco needle valve
20lb Co2 tank
Gyre FX150
Jebao DCT6000 return
Tunze Osmolator 3155
BRS dual reactor with MJ1200
2x Jager 150W heater
Jebao DP-4 doser

The sump

Has adjustable skimmer water level baffle with 6G ATO reservoir among other goodies like built-in probe holder, 4x dosing ports and of course superb build quality.

The light

I got the light used and Dave completely refurbished it plus got brand new reflectors. I am pretty much going to be keeping this baby forever.Nothing comes close nowadays to the build quality of old school powermodules.

Unit has 30 LEDs per row running at a max of 500ma.
40x Luxeon T Royal Blue
10x Luxeon ES Cool Blue
10x SemiLED violet

Bulb combo is the following:
2x Coral+
2x Purple+
2x True Actinic

I might end up ordering 2x 24" Beams from Dave in the future to add to the side.

GEO 612

First time using a CA reactor. I decided to go with it as I already had a nice Victor dual stage regulator I put together myself during my plated tank days so figured why not. I am still trying to source a Cole Parmer Masterflex pump for effluent delivery. The Jebao doser will be used to dose Potassium and DIY coral snow. Going to see if I can also put Aquavitro Fuel on the doser as well.

Everything is in my garage. Only thing with the display tank will be the Apex display unit, lights, and Gyre.

I am using filtered ocean water from Scripps Institute in San Diego.

Corals
I will only have one type of coral and that is SPS. I am doing bare bottom as it's super easy to keep clean.

Clams
Will have a couple of clams on the bottom sitting on big frag discs.

Fish
No clue yet

kschweer · Dec 6, 2015

This should be a good one! The light looks awesome. I'll be following!

ah Chris · Dec 6, 2015

Nice setup. Keep the updates coming!

gus6464 · Dec 6, 2015

Plumbing to garage is done.

I converted the durso plumbing on the overflow to a herbie. The CAD artisans come with those pesky metric bulkheads but BRS carries adapters that allow you convert to standard. They can be found here:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/metric-to-standard-pvc-adapters.html

For the main overflow you need the 40mm to 1 1/4in adapter. What one can do as well if you want to convert everything to standard when you order the tank just tell them to send you the bulkheads without the PVC attached to them. That way you can attach the adapters to the bulkhead and then cut the PVC they send to the sizes you want.

gus6464 · Dec 6, 2015

Plumbing to sump in garage is complete and system is up and running. Apex is also up and running in the garage. I decided to control my Powermodule with my Apex so waiting on a special board to come so I can hook it up.

Rob.D · Dec 6, 2015

Great build thread! Although there seams to be one very important pic missing......where is the display!?!?!

gus6464 · Dec 10, 2015

FTS. The Apex board for my light comes in today so we will be ready to rock and roll.

I'm not a fan of tons of rock in a display. Going for minimal look and hopefully SPS will fill out the rest.

gus6464 · Dec 10, 2015

And we have light.

dturner · Feb 9, 2016

Awesome setup. I am jealous of your fixture. Any updates?

gus6464 · Feb 12, 2016

dturner said:
Awesome setup. I am jealous of your fixture. Any updates?

Yeah I have a couple SPS in the tank and they are all doing great. I took out my GFO/Carbon reactor and now doing a different method which is Matrix in the sump and Prodibio Biodigest with carbon dosing via home made coral snow. The system has stayed ULNS with phosphate at 0.04 and nitrates at <5ppm without the need for gfo or carbon.

This is my sump now.

This is the my home made coral snow 100% purity.

FTS

Doing a slight upgrade to my lighting as well. Got a hold of these unibody heatsinks so going to putting 2x of these on the sides flanking my ATI on a gooseneck firing down diagonally at the corals for more shadow control.

Each unit will have 2x of these nanobox pucks.

2x of these violet LEDs
http://www.rapidled.com/total-spectrum-violet-uv-led/

And I am going true ultra violet with these 390nm UVA LEDs. Most MH emit quite a bit of light in this range so I want to see how my corals react.
http://www.rapidled.com/semileds-ultra-violet-uva-led-390-400nm/