Blackthunda77's 80Gal Shallow Reef Build

Thanks, I sold a few things to get it. LOL. Ill put up a pic or two tonight. Nothing really new, but ill show how and where. I mounted the pump.

Oh yea, I went on a shrimping adventure. I suspected my pepermints were aggravating my birds nest colonies. I literally saw 1 or 2 picking the polyps off them once or twice. Then I saw one do it at night. My green birdsnest and some of the bird of paradise have some random bald spots so I'm concluding it was the pepermints.

Between the DIY bottle trap and quick action of my handy dandy hand net i was able to catch 4 of the 5 shrimp saturday night/sunday morning. Went to bed at 2am. One of them however Keeps outsmarting me. I believe its the female as i thought i saw some eggs on her. I feel like the guy at the end of the first Jurassic Park movie when he is hunting the Raptors in the Raptor enclosure..."Cleva' Gurllll!"
 
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VERY NICE and thanks for the tread. I am SERIOUSLY considering changing over from my 72 Bow-front to this exact tank. Still happy with it? :-) Anything you would do differently? I am looking at going with a 42" over the standard 36" stand since it won't be a Peninsula tank and I don't want to be looking down into the tank every time I walk by it. What size pump are you running in the sump? I was just planning on using my Mag 7 with a 29 gallon sump and a Reef Octopus NWB150.
 
treetopflyn said:
VERY NICE and thanks for the tread. I am SERIOUSLY considering changing over from my 72 Bow-front to this exact tank. Still happy with it? :-) Anything you would do differently? I am looking at going with a 42" over the standard 36" stand since it won't be a Peninsula tank and I don't want to be looking down into the tank every time I walk by it. What size pump are you running in the sump? I was just planning on using my Mag 7 with a 29 gallon sump and a Reef Octopus NWB150.
Click to expand...

The only thing I would change is the type of sand I initially put in. I put in the typical live sand but it was too fine. Rocks were already in and scaped so i decided to just put a more coarse grade sand on top. For the most part its fine but some of the bottom layer fine sand is making its way to the surface. I'm in the process of vacuuming out the current sand in sections and replacing with more of the seaflor reef grade sand.

as for stand height, its.perfect for my scenario. I have a more.modern low profile couch so the tank is at the perfect height in reference to the couch.

My return pump has been a mag 7 for years. Even when I had a 55 gal, 54 corner, 90 gal and now this tank. I make flow in the tank with my powerheads, I never relied on my return pump for that. I have a 55 gal sump and a swc160 cone Skimmer.
 
treetopflyn said:
VERY NICE and thanks for the tread. I am SERIOUSLY considering changing over from my 72 Bow-front to this exact tank. Still happy with it? :-) Anything you would do differently? I am looking at going with a 42" over the standard 36" stand since it won't be a Peninsula tank and I don't want to be looking down into the tank every time I walk by it. What size pump are you running in the sump? I was just planning on using my Mag 7 with a 29 gallon sump and a Reef Octopus NWB150.
Click to expand...

Do it. Shallow FTW!:lol2:
 
Okay here is a brief photo update. Here is the tank pre vortech. See all the koralias and wire? I don't like the look either! ;)

a6937b21-d42b-9666.jpg


Here are some pictures after I installed the mp 40
a6937b21-d40a-0cad.jpg

a6937b21-d41a-7d7a.jpg


Here you can see the mp 40 on the back glass. I'm planning on tinting the back glass black to make it blend in even more
a6937b21-d3ea-d308.jpg


This is the space behind a tank I was referring to. I want to make a frame out of wood with audio sound proofing material.
a6937b21-d46a-a6c2.jpg
 
Here is a picture of 1 of the acros i picked up from rogers tank. I just fed the tank from cyclops and oyster eggs check out the massive feeding polyps. I thought it was a cool shot.
a6937b21-d51b-d3d6.jpg
 
I see you only have one pump in there do you like the overall flow that you get across ? Do you think two mp 10 would be better ? Im debating between those.. Or koralias with a wave maker. I was gonna get out of the hobby but.. Everyone here knows how hard that is.
 
SirReefer said:
I see you only have one pump in there do you like the overall flow that you get across ? Do you think two mp 10 would be better ? Im debating between those.. Or koralias with a wave maker. I was gonna get out of the hobby but.. Everyone here knows how hard that is.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with the mp10s so I can't attest for their performance. The only benefit I can see is that your running 2 pumps and can run the different modes better. For me I wanted all 3 sides free of clutter so I only wanted 1 pump. The flow is just about perfect. I can pretty much run it full blast and it won't cause a sand storm and when running lower speed it still provides enough flow to easily reach the other side of the tank. I usually run it from 65-80%

I knew flow was an important factor in reef tanks but never realized just how important till i got this pump. All my corals are reacting positively, even the softies and lps. The green birdsnest that was being picked on by the peppermint shrimps is quickly recovering.
 
For the back side where the mp40 is at maybe you should consider some of that black vinyl that reef savvy uses gives it a really clean look ..
 
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