The ‘Most of you will completely disagree with everything I did’ 180g Mixed Reef

[Gregg @ ADP]

A lot of you are going to hate this build.

Not because you’ll be envious. More because you will be baffled, annoyed…possibly even angry…that I would ignore all conventional modern reef keeping methods and wisdom and just carelessly slap this thing together. I am about to commit several R2R bannable offenses.

OK, little backstory. First and foremost, I already set this thing up, so the beginning is going to be sort of a retrospective. Secondly, my goal is to spend as close to no money on this thing as possible. I had a 180g acrylic () tank lying around that I found a perfect space for in my new classroom, and wanted to just go full ecology-mode with the design and management.

Also, I have started a few build threads, but never keep them going. I promise I will keep this one going.

Reef System Goals:

- spend as little money as possible (except for livestock)
- use no life support other than a circ pump
- I refuse to test a single water quality parameter (but at some point will simply to post results here)
- no media (carbon, GFO, etc) or skimmers
- have the tank be as natural as possible (maricultured live rock, etc)
- no medications, QT, etc
- get my students pumped about science (this one is pretty far-fetched)
- be successful (possibly also a stretch)

Concept:

This system has been designed to feature and display multiple zones that constitute (to the extent I can) a complete reef ecosystem.

- shallow lagoon zone with mangroves, some sort of turtle or eel grass, and lagoon-ish inverts. This will be from 3-8” deep.
- reef wall zone: shallow to deep, higher light intensity, lot of water flow, etc
- deeper reef zone (as deep as you can get with a 24”H tank)
- macro-algae zone (separate tank)
- micro-algae zone: haven’t put this together yet
- cryptic zones: one in the display, one in the sump

Equipment:

- acrylic sump that I built maybe 15 years ago (actually, 2 sumps hooked together)
- Jaebo pump that had been rolling around in the back of my vehicle for the last 2 years
- used IceCap wave gyre and controller
- some very used AI 52 and 26 Hydras
- a powerhead to move water into macro-algae tank

Here we go:

The first issue I encountered was that I did not have a stand for the tank. I thought about building one, but then got lazy. I then realized I had a 72”x 18” cabinet stand from another tank, which is obviously not wide enough for a 24” wide tank. Nothing that several feet of 2x6s and some deck screws couldn’t fix. Of course, that created an issue with the plumbing coming out of the overflow, so I had to build a little gap in there to accommodate.

Mistake #1: You know how on a build, you should plan ahead? I didn’t. The aquarium cabinet I used had a solid plywood back panel. Given that the overflow plumbing was coming from outside of the existing cabinet, one would think I would have considered that before I put everything together and set the tank up, but I did not.

Cutting an opening through the back with a Sawzall one-handed while lying on my side with 90% of the plumbing done was not impossible, but it wasn’t far off. Still managed to pull it off with only minor injuries (and no damage to plumbing).

Pics incoming…

 

[HiggsUSA]

This sounds fun.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Shallow Lagoon Zone:

The first challenge was to have nearly half of the length of the tank be a shallow zone between 3-8” deep in a 24” tank.

I wanted the shallow zone but did not want to a) have 1/3 of the tank volume filled with rock, etc, and b) have the shallow end come all the way up to the front panel (I wanted a few inches of rock wall that lower-light corals could grow on), and c) be able to actually use the mangroves and grass for some level of nutrient uptake, which meant I needed to get water moving over the roots.

I also wanted the tank volume under the lagoon to be sort of open and usable by animals.

Here’s what I came up with:

Using a couple of plastic storage crates, plastic louvre, fiberglass screen, hydraulic mortar, and live rock pieces, I started to out together this ‘bubble’ structure that would allow for a shallow end, some DSB, and advection of water through the sand bed to bring additional nutrients over the plant roots.

Here are some more angles after a little more was built:

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

A little more on the lagoon end:

Again, I wanted to try to achieve a shallow lagoon end, deep sand bed, and advection of water downward through the sand bed with using as little aquarium volume as possible.

I used plastic storage crates, plastic louvre, fiberglass screen, hydraulic mortar, and live rock to make what is essentially an elevated bowl.

From the top it looks like this:

Crates in place, with fiberglass screen-covered louvre. In theory, here is what should happen:
- the wave gyre will pull water from the bottom of the tank. That water will need to be replaced. Because there is less resistance, most of the that water will come from the more open parts of the tank. However, this advection should pull a small amount of water downward through the bed.

The hope is that the amount of water going through the bed is enough to move significantly more water over plant roots than if the bed was more static, but a small enough volume of water that the deeper portions of the bed still go anaerobic toward the bottom of the bed and allow for nitrate reduction.

Because even the relatively small grains of aragonite sand will essentially liquify and drain out of the bowl given a chance, this upper part had to be sealed up pretty well.

The bottom layer of substrate is composed of larger pieces/crushed coral. I did this primarily to avoid compaction that I thought might happen with small grain sizes. Then, smaller grain substrate was placed on top of it. The bed slopes up from front to back, so toward the back, the bed is about 6-7” deep. I also wanted to have a pistol shrimp and goby, and it’s easier for the pistols to construct tunnels with larger grains/pieces.

The more or less finished aquascape:

Remember that under this structure, it is entirely open, so fish and cryptic inverts can utilize this space. My hope is to get significant sponge, worm, etc populations growing in that zone.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

The macro-algae zone (aka refugium):

I wanted to have a macro algae tank that would serve as its own display for students. Because of the way I built the sump, there is a really useful refugium chamber. But…it’s under the tank, and I can’t see too many students getting down on their hands and knees to look at it.

So I took a 20g tank that I had lying around and added it to the counter space on the right end of the aquarium. To patch it in to the main display, I drilled it near the top on the back panel for a bulkhead, and then drilled a hole through the end of the main tank into the overflow. I then cut the drain standpipe in the overflow down to be lower than the drain from the fuge coming in so that there wouldn’t be any issues with the water draining from fuge into overflow. Then I placed a small powerhead on the bottom of the overflow and then made a 1/2” PVC return from the overflow into the fuge.

The thing I’m going to change now that this is done is that I want the front of the fuge to be flush with the front of the aquarium. The primary reason for this is that there is a lot of sunlight (entire wall of south facing windows on top floor of school), and I want more sunlight coming in.

I had an AI Hydra 26 to light it, but I was being careless and dropped it in the tank while it was on. I quickly unplugged it, dropped it into a bucket of freshwater, and then stood it up on its end to drain. After 2 weeks to dry out, I plugged it in, and it worked fine. It was a miracle.

Unfortunately, when I dropped it back in the tank the next day, I wasn’t so lucky and it officially died.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Out of curiosity- since I don't see a heater listed - what temp does/will this tank run?

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Out of curiosity- since I don't see a heater listed - what temp does/will this tank run?

Upper 70s. Our school did a complete climate control overhaul last year, and my room is pretty steadily in the mid-upper 70s 24/7, and the tank stays a couple of degrees warmer.

Of course, I’m headed back from winter break tomorrow and will probably tragically find out when I walk into my room that the school lowered the heat over break.

 

[FrugalReefer]

Sounds like my tank, which is a nano. I also run no GFO, carbon or any other media. I have a skimmer though (a $20 Amazon special). This along with a bunch of Xenia in the sump, live rock and even the corals are the only filtration. Oh and water changes too which I really don’t count since I do them once in a blue moon. Keeping it simple and natural. I don’t hate your tank, I love it.

 

[VintageReefer]

I am “kinda similar”

I generally don’t test parameters, I don’t do water changes, I don’t use reactors or a skimmer. I do use Chemipure, and my sump is a return pump, floating algae turf scrubber, and a cryptic zone.

This looks interesting and unique, I like the concept and the layout and look forward to seeing how this turns out!

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Last one for the day…

This system is far from completed, but has been running for about 3 months. I just realized that I don’t really have many pics. Here it is from about 2 months ago. Water level is low, so I must have had the pump turned off for some reason:

This was probably when the algae blooms started. Diatoms then cyano then dinos then briopsis then all of them, and then finally some red and green turfs.

Once I hit peak algae density, I took a bunch of it out with a brush (we are going to be using it for an algae bead photosynthesis lab) and added a small CUC to finish off the rest.

I’ll try to post more tomorrow. Not sure if I’ll get updated pics or not. Supposed to be snowing most of the week in Chicago, and I want to get some pics with the sun shining in.

Before continuing on…

*Trigger warning*

- I used Chicago tap water, straight out of the faucet

- I have not (and will not) quarantine anything that goes into the tank. I have gotten fish straight from the distributor and right into the tank

- I set the tank up with uncured live rock, and on top of that, added maricultured rock from Gulf Live Rock, so I probably have countless types of parasites and pests in the tank

- I’m pretty sure my water is in the 1.024 range, but I can’t swear to it. Didn’t actually measure it.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Sounds like my tank, which is a nano. I also run no GFO, carbon or any other media. I have a skimmer though (a $20 Amazon special). This along with a bunch of Xenia in the sump, live rock and even the corals are the only filtration. Oh and water changes too which I really don’t count since I do them once in a blue moon. Keeping it simple and natural. I don’t hate your tank, I love it.

Beautiful. Love it.

I’ve got a designated monti cap area in the tank that I will get going soon.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Upper 70s. Our school did a complete climate control overhaul last year, and my room is pretty steadily in the mid-upper 70s 24/7, and the tank stays a couple of degrees warmer.

Of course, I’m headed back from winter break tomorrow and will probably tragically find out when I walk into my room that the school lowered the heat over break.

Many schools in many states do not control their own heat/cooling and instead rely on a central service somewhere in the state….

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

Beautiful. Love it.

I’ve got a designated monti cap area in the tank that I will get going soon.

Man some montis grow like wildfire once they get going. I've got a red cap and a rainbow entrusting monti that are especially fast growing and aggressive.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Many schools in many states do not control their own heat/cooling and instead rely on a central service somewhere in the state….

Yikes.

Our building engineers have control of our system. Being on the top floor, my room is one of the most constant in the building. It can get pretty warm (even in winter) when the sun is shining and I have all of the blinds up. And it’s always warm when I get in at 7:15am, which leads me to believe they don’t draw the heat down at night.

 

[t5Nitro]

I really like the shallow zone with the rocks built up around the crate. That’s going to look really nice when everything is grown in.

 

[Devaji]

I do like a all "natural "stye tank.
this will be interesting to fallow. please do keep the updates coming.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Man some montis grow like wildfire once they get going. I've got a red cap and a rainbow entrusting monti that are especially fast growing and aggressive.

Oh, for sure.

One of the few corals I have in there now (spoiler alert) is a Monti setosa. It’s been in there for a little over a month and seems pretty happy. It’s grown a little already.

 

[kevgib67]

A lot of you are going to hate this build.

Not because you’ll be envious. More because you will be baffled, annoyed…possibly even angry…that I would ignore all conventional modern reef keeping methods and wisdom and just carelessly slap this thing together. I am about to commit several R2R bannable offenses.

OK, little backstory. First and foremost, I already set this thing up, so the beginning is going to be sort of a retrospective. Secondly, my goal is to spend as close to no money on this thing as possible. I had a 180g acrylic () tank lying around that I found a perfect space for in my new classroom, and wanted to just go full ecology-mode with the design and management.

Also, I have started a few build threads, but never keep them going. I promise I will keep this one going.

Reef System Goals:

- spend as little money as possible (except for livestock)
- use no life support other than a circ pump
- I refuse to test a single water quality parameter (but at some point will simply to post results here)
- no media (carbon, GFO, etc) or skimmers
- have the tank be as natural as possible (maricultured live rock, etc)
- no medications, QT, etc
- get my students pumped about science (this one is pretty far-fetched)
- be successful (possibly also a stretch)

Concept:

This system has been designed to feature and display multiple zones that constitute (to the extent I can) a complete reef ecosystem.

- shallow lagoon zone with mangroves, some sort of turtle or eel grass, and lagoon-ish inverts. This will be from 3-8” deep.
- reef wall zone: shallow to deep, higher light intensity, lot of water flow, etc
- deeper reef zone (as deep as you can get with a 24”H tank)
- macro-algae zone (separate tank)
- micro-algae zone: haven’t put this together yet
- cryptic zones: one in the display, one in the sump

Equipment:

- acrylic sump that I built maybe 15 years ago (actually, 2 sumps hooked together)
- Jaebo pump that had been rolling around in the back of my vehicle for the last 2 years
- used IceCap wave gyre and controller
- some very used AI 52 and 26 Hydras
- a powerhead to move water into macro-algae tank

Here we go:

The first issue I encountered was that I did not have a stand for the tank. I thought about building one, but then got lazy. I then realized I had a 72”x 18” cabinet stand from another tank, which is obviously not wide enough for a 24” wide tank. Nothing that several feet of 2x6s and some deck screws couldn’t fix. Of course, that created an issue with the plumbing coming out of the overflow, so I had to build a little gap in there to accommodate.

Mistake #1: You know how on a build, you should plan ahead? I didn’t. The aquarium cabinet I used had a solid plywood back panel. Given that the overflow plumbing was coming from outside of the existing cabinet, one would think I would have considered that before I put everything together and set the tank up, but I did not.

Cutting an opening through the back with a Sawzall one-handed while lying on my side with 90% of the plumbing done was not impossible, but it wasn’t far off. Still managed to pull it off with only minor injuries (and no damage to plumbing).

Pics incoming…

I’m baffled, annoyed and angry and can’t wait for more!

 

[NeedAReef]

don't worry about the R2R police, you do you.

 

[HiggsUSA]

Last one for the day…

This system is far from completed, but has been running for about 3 months. I just realized that I don’t really have many pics. Here it is from about 2 months ago. Water level is low, so I must have had the pump turned off for some reason:

This was probably when the algae blooms started. Diatoms then cyano then dinos then briopsis then all of them, and then finally some red and green turfs.

Once I hit peak algae density, I took a bunch of it out with a brush (we are going to be using it for an algae bead photosynthesis lab) and added a small CUC to finish off the rest.

I’ll try to post more tomorrow. Not sure if I’ll get updated pics or not. Supposed to be snowing most of the week in Chicago, and I want to get some pics with the sun shining in.

Before continuing on…

*Trigger warning*

- I used Chicago tap water, straight out of the faucet

- I have not (and will not) quarantine anything that goes into the tank. I have gotten fish straight from the distributor and right into the tank

- I set the tank up with uncured Fiji live rock, and on top of that, added maricultured rock from Gulf Live Rock, so I probably have countless types of parasites and pests in the tank

- I’m pretty sure my water is in the 1.024 range, but I can’t swear to it. Didn’t actually measure it.

I honestly can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans happen.