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New SPS tank!

Hey guys! its been awhile since I updated my old builds/done something new. Our old tanks are still up and running but I decided I wanted to try something 'new'. Sooooo I bought a red sea reefer 525XL and it gets here tomorrow!

So some of the things I wanted to focus on in this build was making everything easy. We are setting up auto waterchanges on our 120 and will eventually set one up on this as well, you just don't need it for the first month or so.

couple of things we are doing differently this time:
  • barebottom - I want to have a ton of flow and when I tried to do this with sand it was everywhere! PLUS I hate cleaning sand.
    • the first year will suck.
  • refugium - oddly enough we have never had one before, so its on the list.
  • super strict QT for coral+fish - we've had our fish QT for awhile but we are converting one of our old tanks into a coral QT as well.
    • Last time I did sticks, we got AEFW from a well known/trusted store. we dipped and looked with a magnifying glass but still missed it... destroyed all my sticks.
  • being patient - I am super impatient... this time I am taking things slow. we are doing a 4 month long cycle for coral, fish in around 1 month or when safe for them.
  • actually taking photos/posting in our build thread! I am bad at this.
  • less tank turnover - more flow.
    • I want to have more flow in the tank, to keep the bottom clean of detritus/keep food particles suspended for coral/fish to grab instead of just wasting away.
  • rockwork only up to the halfway point of the tank, mainly so corals are getting blasted by light.
    • also not putting rock against the back wall so I can clean behind it if needed! (don't look behind our rock in the 120! lol)
    • going to be using real reef rocks with a couple of dry rock foundation pieces... I didn't want to use any dry rock but with the barebottom its kind of hard.
  • better coral placement - our 120 was our first tank and you can tell by looking at it. We never prepared for growth.
  • lighting... not 100% sure what we are going to do but:
    • no MHs... they are great and simple but the electric bill hurts so bad. also they mess with water temp/room temp.
    • most likely some sort of hybrid T5-LEDs... or maybe all LEDs?
      • no AI Hydras, I just haven't had any luck with them for sticks... this could just be because I had other issues but I blame it on the lights! (don't we all blame other stuff?)
    • I am thinking radion XR15s with diffusers but I am not sold on anything yet.
  • Placing the lights higher than normal, to try and get a blanket of par instead of the huge differences, this goes along with the only have rock half way up the tank.
  • calcium reactor need to learn how to use one, its an SPS tank so I figure why not.


One last note, Steph normally does all the work on our fish tanks.. she brought me into the hobby but this will be the first tank that is "mine". The attached picture is our load bearing wall where the tank is going to sit minus the cat thingy and stroller.
 

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Mark_C

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Beast of a tank, and a beauty. Gratz! Looking forward to the build thread.
 
So just a quick update, the tank came in and from what I can tell no cracks! I have always steered away from getting tanks delivered because of this. Tonight starts the assembly. I might actually stream the assembly but we shall see how that goes! I only took one picture because I was in a rush.... I am currently at the dentist :( IMG_20200729_114118.jpg
 
So just a quick update, the tank came in and from what I can tell no cracks! I have always steered away from getting tanks delivered because of this. Tonight starts the assembly. I might actually stream the assembly but we shall see how that goes! I only took one picture because I was in a rush.... I am currently at the dentist :( View attachment 30427
Very exciting.
 
So I was going to stream the whole thing but my dad tried to surprise me and build it while I was at the dentist.... he gave up as I pulled into the driveway lol!

I am streaming it here: www.twitch.com/geekialrage I will eventually upload it to a youtube channel for anyone that wants to watch.
 
okay so we have the stand "put together" and have the tank on it per the instructions. What a pain in the butt! Now we just have to even it out, put in the floor (of the stand) and start working on plumbing/the sump! Its all coming together pretty nicely so far. I'd like to work on the rock this weekend but have a ton of other stuff going on.... we shall see how it goes.
 

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Mark_C

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Watching the build. Stand directions are universally terrible. Just got my 30g IM yesterday and the wrong instructions were in the box. Calling customer service ked to confusion as they we're unsure if there even were instructions for the new stands. They ended up sending me a pdf of instructions for a similar stand and wished me luck.
 
Watching the build. Stand directions are universally terrible. Just got my 30g IM yesterday and the wrong instructions were in the box. Calling customer service ked to confusion as they we're unsure if there even were instructions for the new stands. They ended up sending me a pdf of instructions for a similar stand and wished me luck.

it was pretty awful, i had to get a newer set of instructions to figure out what I needed to use at one point. I am still not sure its 100% correct lol

Also my headset is annoying to wear while I am doing stuff, I need to get a standing mic if I am going to do this again!

Interesting watching you last night!

well hope ya had fun, it kicked my butt lol. My wife was like, I thought this was going to be easier than a normal tank.
 

diana a

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You have to do it again! Your wife is so calm and I can't believe the baby was a sleep at 7:30. All my kids slept threw a lot of noise too....but not early
 
You have to do it again! Your wife is so calm and I can't believe the baby was a sleep at 7:30. All my kids slept threw a lot of noise too....but not early

In general Steph is a pretty calm person. Depending on the night we feed the baby once or twice through the night and she generally sleeps through it... recently though she has been getting up because she is rolling around more.
 
So a bit of an update. Luckily we didn't lose power at all during the storm!

Tank wise Steph and I leveled out the tank, turns out we needed shims because our floor isn't level..... joy.

Ever go down to where you store all of your fish stuff only to realize you have the pumps you were thinking about ordering sitting unopened in a box? That happened lol. We found a pair of maxspect xf350s... I was going to get smaller Gyres for the front but since we have the bigger ones I can just run them at a lower % and use them! I bought an MP40 from Mark_c and am super pumped about it. I wanted something stronger along the back side of the tank to kick up detritus, think I might put another one along the other side and call it a day.

I haven't exactly decided on what I am doing for rockwork.... At first I was like oh i will use foundation pieces for the bottom but honestly, I think I can glue some pieces together and make it work. This will also give the fish some places to hide. I know I want to use real reef but I can't decide if I need foundation pieces or not. I think I am just going to order them tomorrow and figure it out when I stack em up.

I was going to do the plumbing tonight, but we had to re-setup our QT because we bought a Stars and stripes puffer for the 300.... which we had no plans on buying. Tomorrow we do the plumbing!

I still can't believe I forgot about the gyres we had.... sigh... we have too much stuff.
 

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myrjon

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Oh the joys or setting up a new tank. Leveling my tank took a bit (150) year old house. If your doing a sump check into a manifold section for your return pump.
 
Okay so after a bit of a delay we are getting rolling again! I think I have a rock structure I like but am looking for some opinions! We are mainly going sticks in this tank so I am hoping this looks good for it.

rockstructure.jpg


I am in the process of connecting the return pump and moving the MP40 into place. Almost there!


Oh the joys or setting up a new tank. Leveling my tank took a bit (150) year old house. If your doing a sump check into a manifold section for your return pump.

Yeah the setup actually came with the parts to do that which is super nice. Although its kind of hard for a tall dude like me to get into this thing LOL
 

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I particularly like the structure on the right. But truth is. YOU have to live with it. So my opinion shouldn’t matter to much LOL. Only advice I have. Is concentrate on the negative space and leave more openings and shelves than you think you need. The corals will fill the voids and flow around tank will be greatly improved. It also gives fish more swimming room and avoids that “pacing” look as they swim in and out as apposed to back and forth.
Love the build. Great posts and updates.
 
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