Deep Sea Aquatics Prototype "High-Low" ~105g

[Daulken]

Hey all, very new to the hobby (literally my first experience with it was MACNA 2012) but fell pretty hard and ended up with this custom tank from Deep Sea Aquatics:

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In it's professional state at MACNA.

I didn't get registered and start taking pictures until it was already cycling, but here's where it's at so far.

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Pardon the lens flare, I'm too impatient to light it when there's nothing but water and sand yet anyway.

The display area on the right is about 75g cube rimless, the frag side is approximately 32g
(Dimensions are 29x23x25.5 on the display side, 29x23x11 on the frag side)

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With the cabinet open.

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aaaannnd, closeup.

It's still a mess, I realize, but wanted to start documenting the process.

Shopping List:
2 2' Veritas Controls Eclipse Smart LEDs
Super Reef Octopus SRO-1000I Internal
2 200 watt ViaAqua Titanium Heaters
Macro-Glo Refugium Light


I really want to thank Dan over at Deep Sea Aquatics and his excellent team in helping me get everything setup and answering my questions. Not only am I new to the hobby, but this is a prototype tank so they couldn't just refer me to videos and documentation on getting everything running just right.

Yuki over at the Aquarium Boutique has also been a tremendous help.

--Daulken

 

[shse666]

Great start and that is one sweet rig.

 

[Guest]

I wonder who ended up with that tank... I won it at macna but boss lady gave me the evil eye when I said I won the tank and decided to sell it before I was banned to the couch.

Looks good I wanted to do a reef tank on the shallow side and fish only on the other side (clown trigger and Aussie harlequin tusk)


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[Daulken]

So, haven't done an update in quite some time for a couple of reasons.

1) The tank used to be louder than I would have liked and messing with it was a task I wasn't sure I was really up to.
2) I moved, and so the tank was taken down for a while.
3) I'm lazy...

I'm attaching a couple of pictures here of some of my livestock, and I'll post pictures of the new place/setup below.

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First is my lettuce nudibranch. He's not the brightest little critter (I've fished him out of the return 4 times now) but I love him anyway.

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Second, the mated pair of harlequin shrimp I just got. The female was devouring this little asterina starfish within 12 hours of being in the tank.

 

[Daulken]

So, it's been a very long time since I posted anything and I thought I'd give it a try. I've redone the entire stack and put some new rock in there (picked up some great shelf rock that's covered in coralline and built around that)

Here's the new display side, where you can see all the fish (4 chromis, 2 black ocellaris from Proaquatix, a tomini tang, and a regal tang baby)

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I had Marc build me a custom ATO reservoir, and bought the Trigger Systems RUBY36S sump. I'm using a Tunze Osmolator and completely redid the plumbing on this system to make it quieter. I put new tubing everywhere and put gate valves instead of the ball valves. It looks like this now underneath:

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Now, I'm still not sure what I want to do on the frag side, but I'm thinking about eventually putting rock on it to make it more natural rather than having everything on plugs and in frag racks...but that's a question for another day. Right now, just tons and tons of livestock:

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Picked these up at Coral Con in Florida, didn't have a name that I'm aware of, but the best looking zoanthids I've ever seen per my personal taste

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Random Ricordia I picked up at NextWave

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Blue Xenia also from NextWave

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Tubbs blues that I picked up from another member

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I don't remember what these were called, or honestly where I got them

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I got these from Yuki over at the Aquarium Boutique, from his personal tank (small frag of cheapish Zoas but they are doing very, very well and growing quickly)

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Gorgonias from Frag Junkie (picked up at NextWave)

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Some Acan, don't remember where I got them

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Picked these up from another member, don't remember what they're called. They came with a little hitchhiker that I haven't had the heart to cut off yet (not sure what it is either, it looks like a little tiny feather duster, so I'll assume that's what it is until I'm told otherwise. Doesn't seem to be hurting anything)

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I think these are fire and ice, I picked them up at NextWave...but I'm not as much a "collector" as someone who buys stuff I like regardless of how cool other people think it is, so I might be wrong about what they are.

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I don't actually know what these polyps are. Lunar something, maybe? Picked them up at NextWave.

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These are fire and ice morphs I picked up from another member. I actually like them better than the real fire and ice, the orange is much brighter but the eyes are more dull.

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These are some blue hornets I picked up today from Rift 2 Reef on my "It's good Friday and I have the day off, how many stores that I've never been to can I hit today spree"

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This is a beautiful acan colony that I picked up at Coral Con in Florida. It absolutely refuses to be photographed in anything even vaguely resembling how awesome the colors are in real life.

Both of these pictures are of a hooker lipstick acan that I picked up today at Neptune's Cove. That insane crazy polyp extension is actually while it's still in the acclimate (shameless plug http://reef-gently.com).

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[goofchops]

those red acans are awesome lookin'