ADA 120P Drilled Reef Tank Build

K

kodiak23

Member
After reading what seems like every thread on Reefcentral I am finally ready to start my first reef tank build. Over the years I have kept fresh water African Cichlids, but decided to try a marine aquarium a few months ago. I started with a small 30 gallon non-sump set up and quickly wanted more. I have now purchased most equipment and am ready to build the stand and put it all together. Wish me luck. My plan is to create a rimless aquarium with no visable equipment. I've opted for a 65 gallon ADA 120P high clarity aqurium that will be drilled, yes scary!! Here is the other equipment I plan to start with, although I am sure much more equipment will be coming shortly after.

SWC 160 Xtreme Cone Skimmer
Ehiem 1262 Return Pump
Reef Brite LED Lights
Reefkeeper Light Controller
Powerheads - TBD

The plan is to drill the bottom for two 1 inch drain pipes (main and back up) and two 3/4 inch returns. All will hopefully be covered with live rock that is drilled to fit over the PVC and built into an island overflow.

Many pictures to come; hopefully the tank is filled with water within a couple weeks. Let me know your thoughts.
 
Here are a few pics with my not so great camera.

Day 1

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Here it is on a temperary stand.

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Here is a close up of the glass.

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Here is the tank in the garage doing a water test after the four holes were drilled.

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And another.

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Here is the tank in the house on the new stand that is still in progress.

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And a close up of the holes I drilled.

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From underneath.

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Side view.

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From farther away.

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Great job, man!!
Can you shed any more details about the tank drilling?
As far as I knew these tanks, specially the bigger ones, couldn't be drilled.
I'm impressed.
Rafo.
 
Beautiful tank and home to boot! High quality glass there, must be a treat to view! I know starphire is one of those things that must be seen in person to appreciate. Ive drilled a lot of tanks but even I would be twitchy about that one my friend! The scaps seems a bit sparse like its lacking depth, is that intentional or are you planning to fill in with rock mouted colonies?

I would like to see some closeups of the returns as you cannot see them at all! Awesome im sure thats what you were going for. Judging by the surface it doesnt seem like this will be your final water movement decision. Really with those clean lines rear mounted vortechs would be about the only thing id consider. That or if you REALLY like to keep things clean and keep that amano theme going, you could use glass lilly pipes from a closed loop! Could look nice if it were done right.

Overall, very impressive look and work! Grande quevos!
 
Here is a picture of the rock work in my old tank when I first got the Reef Brite LED's to test, as you can see the rock work is much more filled in. Let me know what you think about this rock work or if you think I should continue keeping it fairly sparse, knowing that many more corals will be added soon? My tank currently has the Reef Brites off my old 3 foot tank, which is one 50%/50% blue/white and one all blue. I plan to order my new 4 foot Reef Brites in the next couple weeks. I am planning to get two 50%/50% blue/white and one all blue, just deciding if I should go with the XHO's or the regular Reef Brites. The tank is only 18 inches deep, so the regular Reef Brites should be fine, but might go with the XHO's anyway.

The drilling was a bit sketchy, but was suprisingly easy. I will admit I did test a few pieces of glass before drilling the tank. I used my 12v lithium Milwakee with a template, which was just one of my test pieces of glass, because it is fairly hard to start the drilling without the template. Each hole took about 10 minutes to drill and came out great. I now have 4 small hockey puck pieces of glass:)

I dont have any close ups of the returns, but will snap a couple pictures in the next few days. As for surface movement, that is one of my next projects, once I finish the baffles in the sump. Vortechs would be great, but probably my second option at this point. The water movement is great when only one side of the tanks returns are turned on. So I am probably going to start with a 2-way Ocean Motion Squirt and see how that goes. As you can see, the corals are still lacking in the tank, only 8 at this time, so as soon as I am happy with the water movement I hope to start adding more. My guess is the OM Squirt will be sufficiant to for the short term, but will eventually add Vortechs.

This entire process has been so great; look forward to the months and years of learning and enjoying ahead.

IMG_8174.jpg
 
kodiak23 said:
Here is a picture of the rock work in my old tank when I first got the Reef Brite LED's to test, as you can see the rock work is much more filled in. Let me know what you think about this rock work or if you think I should continue keeping it fairly sparse, knowing that many more corals will be added soon? My tank currently has the Reef Brites off my old 3 foot tank, which is one 50%/50% blue/white and one all blue. I plan to order my new 4 foot Reef Brites in the next couple weeks. I am planning to get two 50%/50% blue/white and one all blue, just deciding if I should go with the XHO's or the regular Reef Brites. The tank is only 18 inches deep, so the regular Reef Brites should be fine, but might go with the XHO's anyway.

The drilling was a bit sketchy, but was suprisingly easy. I will admit I did test a few pieces of glass before drilling the tank. I used my 12v lithium Milwakee with a template, which was just one of my test pieces of glass, because it is fairly hard to start the drilling without the template. Each hole took about 10 minutes to drill and came out great. I now have 4 small hockey puck pieces of glass:)

I dont have any close ups of the returns, but will snap a couple pictures in the next few days. As for surface movement, that is one of my next projects, once I finish the baffles in the sump. Vortechs would be great, but probably my second option at this point. The water movement is great when only one side of the tanks returns are turned on. So I am probably going to start with a 2-way Ocean Motion Squirt and see how that goes. As you can see, the corals are still lacking in the tank, only 8 at this time, so as soon as I am happy with the water movement I hope to start adding more. My guess is the OM Squirt will be sufficiant to for the short term, but will eventually add Vortechs.

This entire process has been so great; look forward to the months and years of learning and enjoying ahead.

IMG_8174.jpg
Click to expand...

When I see ADA tank, my first thought will be open space rockwork, but your new rockwork is kind of crowded, and barely leave any room for SPS on the top. My 2 cents is remove the top layer of rock (where the barnacles is) will give more room on the top.

Or move the top rock on the left in original rockwork to the right to create 2 islands for open space look.

Just my 2 cents.
 
150er said:
When I see ADA tank, my first thought will be open space rockwork.
Click to expand...

+1 It just looks one dimensional like you would make a wall in the yard.

I know its silly but everytime I set up a new tank and get the the scaping I always reread amanos nature aquarium world(vol 1) several times just to get in the right frame of mind. He truly forces the viewer to like his scape because they just look natural and you never see a single layer of stacked rock ever. its always form over function but somehow both are served. I feel that your rockwork sets the "mood" of the tank for its life.

Now im not saying I haevnt seen a hundred beautiful tanks with bland rockwork turn into masterpieces with the placement and growth of coral! THats why im not sayin you should change anything just giving feedback of my thoughts. Sorry for the novel.
 
I think it is interesting rockwork but would have to agree on changing it up. I believe that if you built around the three pieces coming towards the front of the tank and left the back completely open it would look amazing! Then again it is your reef and your style so do what you feel!
 
I also feel it to much rock, could stand to loose 30lbs at least. But its your tank and you have every right to do as you please. Nice setup.
 
ill tell ya, what im most impressed with is those reefbrites! I cant believe they have so much punch to them! I am looking into getting some of the 12" ones to mount on my lumenmax fixture to provide dawn dusk. After seeing this im not sure that id need two of them on my 24" cube. What do you think?

Also, how heavy are they? My concern with only using one would be that it might weight down the one side of the fixture making it crooked. However, at 130$ a piece I just cant justify spending more on the supps than the whole halide setup ballast and radium included!

I think they are perfect for the design you have there. Very modern and clean lined.

What I think would be nice for your scape would be the mountain range layout. Obviously with your overflows and returns you have to have rock in those areas but if you make the overflows the high point of an uneven triangle on the left then have the right return area be the high point of that uneven triangle on the right, that would look very nice. so you would just lose the 3 or 4 rocks in the center that are teetering on one another. Does that make sense?

Or like weve all said, tell us where to go and leave it the way you want! lol
 
In the first pic shown . I would remove those two or three rocks in the third left side close to the surface of the water . Should be $$ after that .
 
mordibv said:
In the first pic shown . I would remove those two or three rocks in the third left side close to the surface of the water . Should be $$ after that .
Click to expand...

He kinda cant, thats where his overflows are. THey are just free standing dursos I believe.
 
That's he's old tank! But yeah, too much LR is not good for SPS tank, they do need plenty of space! Nice build btw :)
 
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