Sully's Reef - 36 gal Bowfront Reef Build

[SeanNTX]

Hi Everyone!
I am in the process of building my first saltwater tank in 30 years! I was "gifted" a 36 gallon bow front aquarium and stand recently and decided to go for it.

System Profile

• Aquarium: Glass Top Fin 26 Gallon Bow Front Aquarium and Stand
• Skimmer: Shark Skimmer 300
• Filtration: Shark Pro Internal Filter 900
• Flow Pumps: Hydor Korilla Gen 3 1350 GPH Wave Pump
• Wave Controller: Hydor Korilla Smart Wave Pump Controller
• Lighting: Maxspect Jump MJ-L290 Blue
• ATO: Duetto 2 ATO
• Heater: BRS Titanium 100W Heater
• Heater Controller: Inkbird ITC 306A Wi-Fi Controller
• Utility Pump: Rio+ 1100 Aqua Pump 382
• RO/DI: BRS 5 Stage Premium Plus 75 GPD RO/DI System
• Seawater Refractometer: Milwaukee MA887 Digital Seawater Refractometer
• Test Kit: API Saltwater Master Test Kit
• Power Hub: Centro Power 10 Outlet Rack Power Hub and Surge Protector
• Aquascape: CaribSea Live Rocks Approx. 40 lbs.
• Sand: CaribSea Fiji Pink Live Sand
• Salt: Tropic Marin Pro Reef

I think that is just about everything. Now for a couple of starting photos.

So this is what I started with....



....and here it is after final cleanup. It actually cleaned up much better than I expected.


I decided to install Avery SW900 Gloss Black vinyl to the back of the tank.


Next up was a week of playing with the aquascape. I was careful to keep the rocks far enough from the sides to allow for cleaning.


This is what I finally landed on. This photos shows the wet sand just prior to adding water.


RO/DI station and filling the tank for the first time...





The clamp for my light is not designed to work with a rim on the tank. Since this tank has a center support strap, I decided to mount the light on the wall which ended working out perfectly. I did a quick 2 minute test of the light and then unplugged it. Planning to leave the light off for quite some time.


Finding a clean and economical way to build a top proved to be challenging until the LFS suggested this grid material. Love it!




Here is a quick shot of my under storage and power hub. Everything has it own lighted switch for easy on/off during maintenance and feeding. On the left side I have a 2.5 gallon tank of RO/DI water that supplies the ATO.




And that brings us to today 4/12/2025 when my fist two guests arrived to help with the live fish cycling of the tank.


More to come as things progress!

Cheers!
Sean

 

[Tahoe61]

Great job. The tank looks really good.

 

[Anna K]

Looks fantastic! Love that custom lid you created.

 

[SeanNTX]

Update 4/20/2025

The two clowns that I added on day 2 are doing fantastic. They are definitely feeling very comfortable now and eating like pigs. I have been feeding them a frozen cocktail once a day.

All of my readings thus far have been identical since day one (This is day 10).
pH 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

I guess the Dr. Tim's "fish in" method really works. I think the CaribSea rocks and live Fiji sand definitely allowed my tank to skip cycle or at lease mini cycle. I only test once a day, so I think there is a very good chance I missed a mini ammonia spike visually.

At any rate, I decided to up the load a little in an attempt to start to see a measurable Nitrate result. I added a YWM Goby/Pistol pair, and a small Royal Gramma 2 days ago. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning to find the Goby dead. However, the Royal Gramma and pistol appear to be thriving, along with the Clowns. Everyone seems to be getting along well with each other. I'm not convinced that my tank killed the Goby, but who knows.

Tested everything again after his death and all zeros still.


I am still patiently waiting for my Shark 300 Skimmer to quit inundating my tank with micro bubbles. It's not noticeable with the light off, but the few times I've tested the light, it is CRAZY how many bubbles are in the tank. Here is a little photo evidence for your viewing pleasure.

That's my update for today!
Cheers,
Sean

 

[SeanNTX]

Performed my first extended water tests.

Nitrate 5
Phosphate 0
Calcium 400
Alkalinity 8
Salinity 1.025
pH 7.8

I am using the simple API test kits but I think I am happy with these results. I was happy to finally get a small move in NO3. I have a water change scheduled for Friday and might put a couple small frags in to "test the water."

Cheers!

 

[SeanNTX]

Water tests are still looking good. New livestock added a few days ago and all are doing well. I added a Watchman Diamond Goby, Zoa frag, INDO Gold Torch.

I decided to replace the Shark filter and skimmer. I could not take the micro bubbles and really wanted to up my game in filter media. My Aquafuge2 (large) arrived yesterday and here is what I came up with....

First Chamber - water inlet and filter floss with egg crate baffle.
Second Chamber - Future location for IceCap K1-50 Protein Skimmer followed by another egg crate baffle.
Third Chamber - Maxspect Nano Tech Bio Spheres followed by Blue Medium fiber mat
Fourth Chamber - Refugium area. This will be the location for chaetomorphia. Below are 2 blocks of Maxspect Nano Tech Bio Blocks, Maxspect Nano Tech Anaerobic blocks, and my heater.
Fifth Chamber - Exit area lined with Blue medium fiber for organics and Maxspect Nano Tech Clear Cubes.

Everything is installed on the tank and running now. This should be a nice replacement for my Shark Pro 900 filter.

Cheers!
Sean

 

[SeanNTX]

Completed a 10% water change today and made the switch to Fritz blue box salt. Here are my numbers post water change.

 

[SeanNTX]

dKH finally starting to come up a bit but PH is still lagging behind. The refug/Chaeto has been up and running for about two weeks now with only a marginal increase in PH (.1).

 

[SeanNTX]

Here is a quick video of the refugium doing it's thing. I ended up changing the layout a bit after I ditched the shark skimmer and added the Ice Cap (which is fantastic BTW!).

 

[SeanNTX]

DAY 45

I has been a month and a half since this journey started. I have added my final fish (3 green Chromis). A handful of new corals in the past few weeks and all is going very well.

My CUC has been attacking mild algae as it appears and I think the fuge is really helping out. My pods are visibly doing well in the fuge too. I have attached a few quick videos with it's current condition.

 

[SeanNTX]

90 DAY UPDATE

I just finished adding my new Neptune Apex system this week. Over the past month, I have been acquiring new and used pieces to complete my Apex system. I built a custom control panel below the tank and everything is set up and working now.



The livestock list has pretty much stabilized at this point and I am moving towards stabilization. I continue to add coral frags and keep trying to plan my grow out in my head. Below is a quick 1 min video from this morning. Thanks for watching!

 

[stoned-reefer83]

I love this tank. I'm currently building a 36 gallon bowfront as well.

 

[stoned-reefer83]

Hi Everyone!
I am in the process of building my first saltwater tank in 30 years! I was "gifted" a 36 gallon bow front aquarium and stand recently and decided to go for it.

System Profile

• Aquarium: Glass Top Fin 26 Gallon Bow Front Aquarium and Stand
• Skimmer: Shark Skimmer 300
• Filtration: Shark Pro Internal Filter 900
• Flow Pumps: Hydor Korilla Gen 3 1350 GPH Wave Pump
• Wave Controller: Hydor Korilla Smart Wave Pump Controller
• Lighting: Maxspect Jump MJ-L290 Blue
• ATO: Duetto 2 ATO
• Heater: BRS Titanium 100W Heater
• Heater Controller: Inkbird ITC 306A Wi-Fi Controller
• Utility Pump: Rio+ 1100 Aqua Pump 382
• RO/DI: BRS 5 Stage Premium Plus 75 GPD RO/DI System
• Seawater Refractometer: Milwaukee MA887 Digital Seawater Refractometer
• Test Kit: API Saltwater Master Test Kit
• Power Hub: Centro Power 10 Outlet Rack Power Hub and Surge Protector
• Aquascape: CaribSea Live Rocks Approx. 40 lbs.
• Sand: CaribSea Fiji Pink Live Sand
• Salt: Tropic Marin Pro Reef

I think that is just about everything. Now for a couple of starting photos.

So this is what I started with....



....and here it is after final cleanup. It actually cleaned up much better than I expected.


I decided to install Avery SW900 Gloss Black vinyl to the back of the tank.


Next up was a week of playing with the aquascape. I was careful to keep the rocks far enough from the sides to allow for cleaning.


This is what I finally landed on. This photos shows the wet sand just prior to adding water.


RO/DI station and filling the tank for the first time...





The clamp for my light is not designed to work with a rim on the tank. Since this tank has a center support strap, I decided to mount the light on the wall which ended working out perfectly. I did a quick 2 minute test of the light and then unplugged it. Planning to leave the light off for quite some time.


Finding a clean and economical way to build a top proved to be challenging until the LFS suggested this grid material. Love it!




Here is a quick shot of my under storage and power hub. Everything has it own lighted switch for easy on/off during maintenance and feeding. On the left side I have a 2.5 gallon tank of RO/DI water that supplies the ATO.




And that brings us to today 4/12/2025 when my fist two guests arrived to help with the live fish cycling of the tank.


More to come as things progress!

Cheers!
Sean

Where did you find that grid for your top? I've looked everywhere for black grid. Only thing I can find is white lighting grids from lowes

 

[Gumbies R Us]

90 DAY UPDATE

I just finished adding my new Neptune Apex system this week. Over the past month, I have been acquiring new and used pieces to complete my Apex system. I built a custom control panel below the tank and everything is set up and working now.



The livestock list has pretty much stabilized at this point and I am moving towards stabilization. I continue to add coral frags and keep trying to plan my grow out in my head. Below is a quick 1 min video from this morning. Thanks for watching!

I love the way you have your apex mounted in your stand! It looks great!

 

[SeanNTX]

Where did you find that grid for your top? I've looked everywhere for black grid. Only thing I can find is white lighting grids from lowes

My LFS sells the black ones. Not sure of the location buy is Franks Tanks in Fort Worth.

 

[SeanNTX]

I love the way you have your apex mounted in your stand! It looks great!

Thank you! This took a lot of work and planning.

 

[SeanNTX]

120 Day Update

Sad news friends! Two nights ago my tank sprung a catastrophic leak in the front lower seam. Water was pouring out on the floor and I jumped into panic mode. It was a miracle that I was literally sitting next to the tank when it started. I was able to get towels on the floor just as my Neptune leak detector started to alert me. I guess things could have been MUCH MUCH worse.

I spend the next 6 hours systematically breaking things down and building life support tanks. In the end I managed to put all of my rock and coal into plastic tubs. The fish were put into two 5 gallon buckets. I was able to give flow and aeration to each vessel. The next day (Monday) I went to PetSmart and purchased a 20 long for my fish while I sort things out. The 20L now has a lot of live rock and all of my fish and seems to be in a good holding pattern. All of my cleanup crew reside in the coral vessels for now. I was finally able to breath and figure out the next step.

I decided to order a Tideline 48x24 internal reef kit since Planet is local to me. I will be picking that up tomorrow to start this entire process over again! I really hadn't planned on starting a "real" reef in this house since I will be building a new house sometime next year. However, this is the tank I was wanting for my office in the next house. On top of that, I now have experience breaking down a tank, so moving a system doesn't seem so daunting now. I guess I will have to start a new build thread soon.

The 36 bowfront was as incredible learning experience and it seems like I had the tank way longer than just 4 months! Just as I thought my tank infrastructure costs were over for the foreseeable future. Oh well!

Here are a few photos during the incident....








Here are a few photos of the current state of affairs......

 

[azreef729]

120 Day Update

Sad news friends! Two nights ago my tank sprung a catastrophic leak in the front lower seam. Water was pouring out on the floor and I jumped into panic mode. It was a miracle that I was literally sitting next to the tank when it started. I was able to get towels on the floor just as my Neptune leak detector started to alert me. I guess things could have been MUCH MUCH worse.

I spend the next 6 hours systematically breaking things down and building life support tanks. In the end I managed to put all of my rock and coal into plastic tubs. The fish were put into two 5 gallon buckets. I was able to give flow and aeration to each vessel. The next day (Monday) I went to PetSmart and purchased a 20 long for my fish while I sort things out. The 20L now has a lot of live rock and all of my fish and seems to be in a good holding pattern. All of my cleanup crew reside in the coral vessels for now. I was finally able to breath and figure out the next step.

I decided to order a Tideline 48x24 internal reef kit since Planet is local to me. I will be picking that up tomorrow to start this entire process over again! I really hadn't planned on starting a "real" reef in this house since I will be building a new house sometime next year. However, this is the tank I was wanting for my office in the next house. On top of that, I now have experience breaking down a tank, so moving a system doesn't seem so daunting now. I guess I will have to start a new build thread soon.

The 36 bowfront was as incredible learning experience and it seems like I had the tank way longer than just 4 months! Just as I thought my tank infrastructure costs were over for the foreseeable future. Oh well!

Here are a few photos during the incident....








Here are a few photos of the current state of affairs......

Sorry to hear this! My dad just set up this tank for his self and I was afraid something like this would happen to his as I’ve heard bow fronts can be weaker than a normal square tank. Any plans for a new tank?

 

[CBonito]

Started with an old tank outside, and ended the same way.

At least you were able to catch it and everybody is ok. So that's good.
To me, this is the scariest part about owning a tank.

 

[SeanNTX]

Started with an old tank outside, and ended the same way.

At least you were able to catch it and everybody is ok. So that's good.
To me, this is the scariest part about owning a tank.

So true! It's pretty ironic.