AgentSPS' 300 Gallon ***DreamReef***

[AgentSPS]

Sorry to hear about the lose Erik. The Spaths that I picked up is still doing well. Hopefully you'll find one that makes it for you.

Brian-

Thats really good to hear! Can you post some pics?

Anecdotally the feedback I am getting from others is that this is a really touchy species. I had a frag left over from a colony I lost about a year ago and it was doing great up until a month ago when it mysteriously RTNd overnight. Absolutely nothing had changed with my water parameters.

 

[AgentSPS]

New lps tank

New lps tank

Well I have been pretty tight lipped about my latest project. Pretty excited to share with you all. If you have been reading this thread, you will know I dabbled with a Japanese style freshwater planted ADA tank. It was fun for a while but not really for me. You would think with my ~20 years of experience I should be able to master FW planted easily but dang those tanks are tough!

So I had been thinking of selling the system for a while now but with the economy being the way it is, I knew I could not get anywhere close to recovering my costs. Especially on the custom made Tanto style Eucalyptus wood stand!

So I made the decision to convert to an LPS tank! For the past few weeks, I have been stockpiling on equipment. To be honest, I am shocked to learn that setting up a small (~23 x ~19 x ~19) tank is costing me close to what a much larger tank would cost!! I think I am in close to $1500 already!!! :eek2::eek2:

 

[AgentSPS]

Here is the equipment list so far:

1) Custom made sump
2) Bubble Magus Nac7 skimmer
3) Bubble Magus doser
4) Bubble Magus dosing containers x 3
5) Maxspect 160 Extreme LED fixture
6) X-Aqua return
7) Tunze recirculation pump 1073.020
8) Tunze Osmolator

Coming Soon...

1) Custom made Eucalyptus wood ballast/dosing/topoff box
2) Custom black acrylic water reservoir
3) Neptune Apex controller


Here are some pics of the FW planted system I am converting:

 

[Robb in Austin]

Wow, that looks(ed?) nice. Were you CO2 dosing?

But, it will look better with some nice LPS in there. What are you going to stock it with?

 

[Dejavu]

Brian-

Thats really good to hear! Can you post some pics?

Anecdotally the feedback I am getting from others is that this is a really touchy species. I had a frag left over from a colony I lost about a year ago and it was doing great up until a month ago when it mysteriously RTNd overnight. Absolutely nothing had changed with my water parameters.

I'll have to get some update pics, but heres one shortly after I got it. it nearly as yellow as my PL now.

 

[AgentSPS]

Wow, that looks(ed?) nice. Were you CO2 dosing?

But, it will look better with some nice LPS in there. What are you going to stock it with?

Yes had the whole ADA CO2 system.

I am going to move over my Fungia collection from the main tank as well as some acans and favias. I also picked up a true teal teardrop maxima for it. On the hunt for a blue striped/teardrop squamosa next! Have not been able to house clams in over 3 years in my main tank.

 

[AgentSPS]

I'll have to get some update pics, but heres one shortly after I got it. it nearly as yellow as my PL now.

Beautiful specimen!! That's cool that it didn't turn green on you as most yellow corals do. Maybe I will just have to try growing out a colony from one of your frags

 

[ryanjiang]

Great looking Spath Brian! Best luck with it!

 

[ryanjiang]

What up with the plant tank Erik? It looks great.

Though it is great to have a separate LPS tank, they simply look amazing under LED.

 

[aquaph8]

I think it looked pretty good. I've always liked Fe planted tanks.

 

[AgentSPS]

Some shots I found of the stand when it was being built:

 

[AgentSPS]

Time for a build update on the LPS tank. Decided to go with Fish Heads Real Reef liverock. Picked up a bunch of small pieces from my LFS (Thanks Robert at Neptune). Inspired by some of the really cool structures people have been making with dry rock I decided to try it out myself.

After looking everywhere for the two components recommended for mortar suitable for aquarium application (BASF Emaco R400 and Acryl 60), I read that people have had good results using Quickrete Hydraulic Cement. The other option is Marco Rocks Emarco 400 (uncanny resemblance to the names is no coincidence...same ingredients).

This cement is pretty amazing stuff. It set up in no more than 3 minutes so I had to mix it up in very small batches. I also found that it would crack fairly easily if I didnt keep it moist when it was setting. I used a spray bottle for that. Apparently the Acryl 60 in the above recipe helps prevent cracking and make the mortar more flexible? Not sure about the flexibility part

In less than two hours I am pretty happy with what I came up with!!

 

[maxxII]

I've used the Quickrete and Thorite myself in my tanks for the last three years with no ill effect. One thing I can recommend when using it on PVC is to rough up the PVC surface so that the hydrophilic cement has something to hold onto. Otherwise, it cracks off easily.

Looks good, cant wait to see your LPS all set up.

Nick

 

[Dejavu]

Love the new rock work. The LPS tank should be great!

 

[AgentSPS]

I've used the Quickrete and Thorite myself in my tanks for the last three years with no ill effect. One thing I can recommend when using it on PVC is to rough up the PVC surface so that the hydrophilic cement has something to hold onto. Otherwise, it cracks off easily.

Looks good, cant wait to see your LPS all set up.

Nick

Nick-

I was lazy and the rocks were really small so I just used cement with not supports. It held up great but was definitely scared when I was lifting it up into the glass tank!

 

[AgentSPS]

Here is a shot of the tank all cleaned up and ready to go:

The Maxspect LED puts out some intense light!! You can see those colored zip ties GLOWING!

Also wanted to show off the X-Aqua drain system. Its from Italy so, like everything from Italy, its expensive but really achieves a clean look. It was pretty scary drilling the tank though.

 

[Bricky]

I have that same unit running on a 40B and love it.

 

[Rickyrooz1]

I am curious to see how well the X-Aqua handles your water flow.

 

[AgentSPS]

I have that same unit running on a 40B and love it.

The X Aqua or the Maxspect LED?

 

[AgentSPS]

I am curious to see how well the X-Aqua handles your water flow.

Well the Tunze is about 600GPH minus the head pressure (3'). Flow is pretty decent going through the X-Aqua and the drain is about 3/4 under the water line of the tank.

Also there is some sort of oscillating/pulse mechanism inside the return which does actually work. Because of the high flow from running two Vortech MP10's, its not really noticeable though. Cool feature anyways.