New Tank Build, looking for advice

C

CaravanShaka

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Decided to get out of my other hobby (racing R/C cars) and focus my attention and $ on this one [smilie=wink.gif]

I'm going to have a custom tank built, probably by David Varela, and depending on pricing it's either going be 60x24x24 or 48x24x24 with starfire front glass and dual overflows. Here are my thoughts so far:

Stand: would like to know of any custom steel frame stand builders in the area, I know we've got at least a couple. I could cover it in the material I would prefer, would just like a nice base to work with and steel leaves a lot of room for working underneath.

Lighting: I'm going to center my current CoralVue 48" T5 4-bulb fixture over the tank in a canopy. If I get the 60" wide tank, I'm going to add 63 Steve's LED's (42 blue, 21 white) in a box around the T5 setup to cover the new real estate. If it is 48", I will do a strip on the front and a strip on the back of LED's, probably 28 blue and 14 white.

Flow: Any thoughts on a decent flow setup without going to a controller and wavemaker? I might consider doing a reefkeeper lite and some Koralia controllable heads, but I haven't priced it out yet

Heating: probably dual 250-300w heaters in the sump

Skimmer: I'm leaning towards Bubble Magus or Reef Octopus here, one rated for 200-250 gallons

Sump: Probably a DIY Sump/Refugium in the 30g range. Been drooling over Marc's custom Acrylics, but I don't think I will have the funds for one of those beauties :)

Reactors/dosing: Here is where I am not at all experienced. I've got a phosban reactor on my tank right now, but I also don't have a refugium. Would the reactor be necessary with a fuge? If not, would it be beneficial to use the reactor utilizing bio-pellets instead? As for dosing, I'd like to setup a 2-part doser to help keep calcium and alkalinity up, but do not really know where to start here.

Rock: I've got about 130 pounds of live rock already, and would be ordering 50-75 more marco rock to setup the base before moving the existing live rock.

Substrate: Bare-bottom, 1-2" sand bad, or DSB? I like the really thick reefs with bare-bottom that allows for lots of water movement, but that is mainly if the floor of the tank is nearly entirely covered in rock. Is it difficult to keep clean that way? I'm thinking about getting the Marco Cut Rock and lining the whole bottom of the tank with pieces and building my aquascape up from that. If this is done, will I have enough live-rock to host the necessary bacteria? I assume I will need a DSB in the sump with a fuge as large as I can get it, correct? I currently have about a 2" sandbed, and I feel like the sand just gets everywhere whenever a fish swims near it.

Can you think of anything I am forgetting at this time?

Thanks!

~Joe
 
Bubble magus makes a great doser

If you go biopellets it really depends on how many fish you have and how much you feed as biopellets actually might out compete the macro algae and eventually will die off. Especially if you go BB you prob don't need a refugium

Davids tanks are beautiful he is making my new one.

Might look at itech skimmers or ati powercone (releasing in march) also.


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David made my tank and it's FANTASIC.

I recommend a recirculating skimmer as it's set and forget, never have to adjust it. I love mine (have a pacific coast rps-2000). Also go small on the return; get your flow from more efficient powerheads like vortech or koralias etc.

I run koralias on a rkl also and it's great!
 
Thanks for your suggestions guys! Decided on 48x24x24...the additional cost of more lighting, more rock, etc for the 60" just wasn't worth it to me.
 
Well, I am picking up a 48x24x24 reef ready tank used from a local guy (couldn't beat the price, was less than 1/3 of having a new tank and stand built) that is in like-new condition. I couldn't find a scratch on it, just a little bit of coralline left on the overflow and the glass was nice and clean except for a little bit dirty in the bottom inch where sand usually is.

Already Ordered:
- 90 more pounds of marco rock...50 key largo, and 40 shelf.
- I'm picking up 2 Koralia 1400's this weekend, and am considering at least 1 more.
- Salt, a nice refractometer, a hydor 200w heater, and some misc. stuff from premium aquatics that will arrive Monday

Going to order soon:
- Reefkeeper lite L3 - was going to get it from BRS to help my order there get over $175, but they are out of stock :(
- BRS 2-part dosing system, possibly dual pumps as well, but I may dose manually for a while
- Steve's LEDs - Apparently he won't let me pick up my order even though we are in the same zip code, so if shipping is ridiculous I'll start looking at Cree's instead
- Sump and Protein Skimmer - talking to Bill at Neptunes about getting this done

Stuff moving over from my original tank:
- Phosban reactor
- Probably about 80lbs of my current live rock, will sell the rest (I have a mixture of Tonga and Fiji styles, going to sell the Tonga for a more uniform look)
- another 200w heater so I can run duals
- Possibly a couple power-heads until I upgrade later

Any thoughts?
 
Talk to Wayne imagex he owns custom reefs about a led fixture. I really like how he builds his fixture and mounts his LEDs compared to steve he uses a rivet to hold it in

Doser I would go bubble magus through brs if you decide to automate it. I will prob do a gb with brs again end of march beginning of April as I will need plumbing odds and ends for my new tank


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@kuyatwo wrote:
Talk to Wayne imagex he owns custom reefs about a led fixture. I really like how he builds his fixture and mounts his LEDs compared to steve he uses a rivet to hold it in Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk said:
I will be building the fixture, just using Steve's parts. I'll be adding a few computer heatsinks to each tube for supplemental cooling, and definitely won't be using rivets for mounting any of it.
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@CaravanShaka wrote:
[I]@kuyatwo wrote:[/I][quote="Talk to Wayne imagex he owns custom reefs about a led fixture. I really like how he builds his fixture and mounts his LEDs compared to steve he uses a rivet to hold it in Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk said:
I will be building the fixture, just using Steve's parts. I'll be adding a few computer heatsinks to each tube for supplemental cooling, and definitely won't be using rivets for mounting any of it."]


Still contact Wayne he might get a better deal and I would go Cree only


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If i may chime in on LEDs,

There are plenty of places to order LEDs from, the place I ordered all of mine from stopped recently because demand was so high that they were back ordered 2-4 weeks at a time. Rapidled is fair pricing and not too bad on shipping. I personally will not buy anything but Crees. IMO, they are the standard in reef lighting LEDs.

Do you have any drafting ideas? Optic choices? How about a moisture shield? Any drivers in mind?

Also, have you considered a Vortech? I was a bit skeptical on the price on them, but i dove in and couldnt be happier with it. I am considering getting one more and running just 2 Vortech MP40s for my tank.
 
@Capt_krill wrote:
If i may chime in on LEDs said:
Through my research, getting Cree's is going to nearly double the cost of the project, putting it out of my price range. Since they are for supplemental lighting, and not my entire light source, I feel comfortable using steve's and not the industry standard.

As far as optics, I'm planning on 90 degree's and having them at a slight angle pointed towards the middle of the tank to get the best spread. The tank is only 24" deep, so I definitely won't go any lower than 60 degrees if I decide to add optics later down the road.

For a splash shield, I am custom building my own canopy, so I will incorporate an acrylic shield into the design.
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I have a 25" high tank with 60 Degree optics on mine. Colors on softies and LPS are great, not so much for SPS EDIT. (At the bottom of my tank)

What is your tank going to mainly consist up coral wise?

Also, the reason that Crees are expensive, is because they are top of the line.
 
@Capt_krill wrote:
I have a 25" high tank with 60 Degree optics on mine. Colors on softies and LPS are great said:
I understand they are top of the line, I've been doing LED headlight modifications for a couple years now, and actually have a box full of 1w Cree LED's that I use for that.

Towards the bottom I've got Zoa's mostly. I've got a frogspawn frag that is growing like crazy in the sandbed right now too with just the T5 lighting. In the middle range I've got a few Acans and some branching hammer and Xenia. Up at the top I've got a couple birdsnest and an elkhorn.

I am planning on doing a shelf that has about 6-8" between it and the top of the tank where I will do exclusively SPS, and then the rest will pretty much soft/LPS
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Update:

Tank picked up and got it installed and leveled, waiting for plumbing and rock to start filling up!

Koralia 1400's picked up at the meeting and waiting for water to start moving

LED's purchased and wired, just need to make the canopy now to get them mounted.

Reef Octopus XP-2000 skimmer will be picked up this afternoon (Thanks Blide!)

30g sump being built as we speak by Bill at Neptunes Cove

2-part BRS stuff, Return Pump, Marco Rock...all on it's way and will arrive by thursday.

I'm probably forgetting stuff, but I think I've got a good start now!
 
@Capt_krill wrote:
Pics man! PICS! said:
Lol, I'll start taking pictures as things start coming together. Right now it's just a pile of stuff cluttering up my office, at least that is how my wife describes it [smilie=wink.gif]
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thats part of the process.

Parts in the mail
Parts unpacked
Parts bundled together
Parts unwrapped
Parts coming together

and so on. [smilie=wink.gif]
 
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