45G Shallow Rimless Peninsula Aquacultured SPS Reef

[jroovers]

Recently moved and have put a lot of thought into my future reefing plans. I was going to refurb my 120G tank and set it back up. My basement however doesn't have any obvious spots for a laundry tub and drain, and was going to be a lot of work to prepare for a large volume of water. So I'm selling my 120.

I acquired a beauty of a tank from Tyler aka Teebone110 who had it set up as a frag tank, but he's a bit pre-occupied with his 210 gallon build at the moment lol.

Hence the new build. 45 gallon rimless tank, with external overflow. Dimensions are 36" by 24" by 12". Big enough to keep me interested, but not overwhelming, hopefully the best balance between family and reefing.

The goal of this tank is to grow an aquacultured SPS reef solely from frags sourced from other hobbyists. I want to minimize the impact of this reef, so no wild or mari-cultured frags or colonies. Only frags that have been taken from corals in other captive reefs. Where possible, I would also like to source my fish from other reefers who are getting out or who want to move in a different direction fish wise.

Equipment:

250w MH DE Pendant with Phoenix 14K bulb
Supplemental RB Cree LEDs (salvaged from my 120)
40 breeder sump
Eheim 1262 return (split to feed refuge)
2 x Jebao RWs for flow
AquaMaxx/JNS ConeS CO-2 skimmer
2-part dosing on BRS dosers
Reefkeeper Lite

My thoughts are to run this as KISS. Heavy skimming, strong lighting, decent load, no GFO or pellets unless necessary. No supplements, additives, etc. other than 2-part dosing.

 

[Arkayology]

The tank plan sounds great. When will it be set up?

 

[stancfii]

I'm looking to upgrade from a 40br to a 36x24x? next year. A single 250 may be too much on only 12" deep, but if you hang it high enough with a good reflector, it could work really well.

 

[jroovers]

Here's some low quality phone photos of the tank.

Tank will stick out from this wall. There is a crawl space behind the wall, and that is where I plan on sticking the sump to reduce equipment noise. It isn't too much of a crawl space, but definitely can't stand up straight under there. The tank is only 2' wide, so I figure it will fit here nicely and the bulkhead on the right won't be too much in the way, and will allow three sided viewing.

My plan is to skin the stand and overflow section, but leave the tank rimless and have a pendant MH light fixture combo MH/LED, with some DIY trim to make it all match.

This room is a separate small room that is first entered when coming down to the basement. I'm planning on making the rest of the room a "gallery" with many framed photos on the walls.

 

[jroovers]

The tank plan sounds great. When will it be set up?

Thanks! Hoping to position it and start working on it immediately, and have it running early in the new year.

I'm looking to upgrade from a 40br to a 36x24x? next year. A single 250 may be too much on only 12" deep, but if you hang it high enough with a good reflector, it could work really well.

I think it will be perfect. I'm planning on centralizing an island or two and really going minimal with the rocks and corals. The corals I plan on picking will have to light strong lighting, with maybe some others that are less strong light demanding on the sides. This is more about aesthetics, ease of care, and corals sourced from other reefers. Something to keep me in the game, but not be overwhelming.

 

[jroovers]

My former 120 in its glory

 

[jroovers]

Light. Plan is to fab a square of LEDs (Cree RB's) around this and make a hanging fixture. Thanks Phil (Overexposed) for the ballast and pendant!

 

[Bill@IA]

Great to see you back, Jordan. I will be following your build for sure.

I see you won't be using T5 this time around. Any idea what Bulb you are going to use in that fixture?? I might have gone with a mogul socket so you could use a 250w Radium 20k.

Cheers!

 

[Wayner2]

following along too - I'll be setting up a similar size tank down the road , I just orderd a reefbrite Hybrid pendant with the XHO Royal Blue LEDs and will run that with a Lumatek select a watt ballast

I'll be going mogul 250/400 watt Radium - my choice - Good Luck with your build

 

[teebone110]

Sometimes less is more, I think your simplistic approach will produce stunning results.

I think we often under appreciate many of the captive grown, proven sps winners that are readily available from local hobbyists. Excited to see your selections!

 

[cFloor]

Your 120 was incredible, I'll definitely be following along with the new build.

 

[4bruceinc]

I am sure that this will be bursting with colors too...Subscribed

 

[markalot]

Subscribed, can't wait to see the progress. That undata was incredible, not to mention the acros, the scape, the fish ....

 

[westreef]

Looking good. Can't wait to see your future water garden.

 

[jroovers]

Great to see you back, Jordan. I will be following your build for sure.

I see you won't be using T5 this time around. Any idea what Bulb you are going to use in that fixture?? I might have gone with a mogul socket so you could use a 250w Radium 20k.

Cheers!

Thanks Bill. I'll be using a Phoenix 14k 250w DE bulb. I plan on supplementing with a modest amount of Cree RBs as well, given that I already have them from my 120. I was able to get the pendant and ballast from Phil so it worked out well in that regard. Otherwise, I may have gone with a mogul fixture.

following along too - I'll be setting up a similar size tank down the road , I just orderd a reefbrite Hybrid pendant with the XHO Royal Blue LEDs and will run that with a Lumatek select a watt ballast

I'll be going mogul 250/400 watt Radium - my choice �� - Good Luck with your build

That will be a very nice lighting set-up! I'm pumped to be going back to MH. More than anything, I like taking photos under the MHs compared to T5s and LEDs (and combos of the two).

Sometimes less is more, I think your simplistic approach will produce stunning results.

I think we often under appreciate many of the captive grown, proven sps winners that are readily available from local hobbyists. Excited to see your selections!

Yes, I'm going to have to resist the urge to look at new maricultured pieces and try and find something different or unique. In a smaller tank though I think I can limit my coral choices to 10 to 15 proven stunners and sort of know what I'm going to get.

Your 120 was incredible, I'll definitely be following along with the new build.

I am sure that this will be bursting with colors too...Subscribed

Subscribed, can't wait to see the progress. That undata was incredible, not to mention the acros, the scape, the fish ....

Thanks guys. Hopefully I can get it up and running and full of coral sooner rather than later.

Looking good. Can't wait to see your future water garden.

Thanks Bernie, hope all is well with you.

 

[larcat]

Hi! Really looking forward to seeing this go forward. We have a very similar setup -- Peninsular rimless 38.5 gallon display with a bean animal.

Your 120 was... Perfect. No the absolute flashiest SPS tank I've ever seen, but just.... Elegant... Perfect. Is there a thread floating around?

Our tank has a similar scape, on a much smaller scale. 2 islands of live rock.

 

[tripdad]

Great to see you with a new tank, can't wait for the coral photo's to start. Love the idea of a photo gallery but stay out of that wine cellar before hanging the photo's....heehee. Really like the mission statement of this build too, I'm thinking we're getting close to not having to take so much from the ocean. Maybe in my lifetime I will see a fully captive grown hobby.

 

[sahin]

Hey man, good to see you are running a tank again. Cant see any of hte pics as they are blocked out at work, so will have a look when I get home. I like your equipment choices. :beer: This is going to be a great tank I'm sure.

 

[jroovers]

Hi! Really looking forward to seeing this go forward. We have a very similar setup -- Peninsular rimless 38.5 gallon display with a bean animal.

Your 120 was... Perfect. No the absolute flashiest SPS tank I've ever seen, but just.... Elegant... Perfect. Is there a thread floating around?

Our tank has a similar scape, on a much smaller scale. 2 islands of live rock.

Can you shoot me a link to your thread, not sure that I have seen it, but given the similarities to my new build I'd love to look at it and get some ideas.

My old build is here. Far from perfect but I really came to love this setup, and I learned a ton. I wish I would have had another year with this setup. It was just reaching its full potential in my opinion when I had to tear it down due to our move. We closed on our sale and purchase on the same day, so it would have been way to crazy to try and move it to the new place and get it set up. The move was crazy as it was without the tank, I definitely made the right call.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2175051&highlight=120

Great to see you with a new tank, can't wait for the coral photo's to start. Love the idea of a photo gallery but stay out of that wine cellar before hanging the photo's....heehee. Really like the mission statement of this build too, I'm thinking we're getting close to not having to take so much from the ocean. Maybe in my lifetime I will see a fully captive grown hobby.

Lol the wine cellar is pretty much empty from the move! At least I won't have far to go when the reef gods are not in my favour and I am in need of a drink.

I am excited about the sourcing of corals for this build from other reefers. We're pretty lucky to have a good number of reefers in SW Ontario, and skilled ones at that (one need not go further than this month's TOTM for example, Sweetride's 110). It shouldn't be a problem to get frags from other reefers and fill a dozen tanks, let alone a 45 gallon.

Hey man, good to see you are running a tank again. Cant see any of hte pics as they are blocked out at work, so will have a look when I get home. I like your equipment choices. :beer: This is going to be a great tank I'm sure.

Thanks Sahin. I'm going to go back and re-read your thread. I was going to refurb my 120 and was eager to do so based on your refurb project, and then I came into this 45 gallon tank from Tyler (Teebone110). Originally it was going to be a frag tank, but the more and more I got looking at the logistics, the more and more I started leaning towards the current plan. Your tank certainly helped with that decision making (still able to have a great SPS tank even on a much smaller scale). Hope your AEFW battle is going ok.

 

[cugly]

Can't wait to see what you do with this one last one was amazing