BrianKC's 65g Rimless Rebuild

[BrianKC]

I realized the other day that I never started a build thread for my tank when I started over in October 2015. Time to remedy that.

To explain why this is a REBUILD thread. We have to go back to Thanksgiving 2013. After a great six days in California visiting family (my profile pic was shot on that trip; serves as a reminder to me not to get complacent with my maintenance), while I was unloading bags from the car at 11pm, I heard my wife yell what no reefer wants to hear; "BABE! THERES A BIG PROBLEM WITH YOUR AQUARIUM!"

I run inside and find a pool of water around my tank, and everything inside was obviously dead. Later I found it wasn't everything; somehow my clownfish and my goby were alive. But, 5 years of coral, including some huge colonies I started as frags were all dead.

The culprit; idiocy. I had my RODI hooked up as my ATO. Despite having a hose timer and a float valve, both failed while we were gone and ran (just trickling) for at least 5 days. I know it was that long because our housekeeper comes every other Monday and noted that she saw a little water on the floor in front of the aquarium.

LIFE LESSON: NEVER, EVER, EVER connect your RODI up as your ATO. Use a reservoir that is smaller than what would kill your tank if it all emptied into your system.

After tearing it all down and a very expensive insurance claim (which turned into a basement remodel, much to my wife's delight), I took almost two years off to get over it.

So, with that as a backdrop, let me post some updates to catch us up to current.


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[BrianKC]

This was me setting things back up. Wife and I agreed that this time the tank should go in our newly remodeled basement instead of on the newly refinished hardwoods upstairs.

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[BrianKC]

After a lot of debate, I decided to go with Tampa Bay Saltwater (aka, TBS). I highly recommend. Their responsiveness and helpfulness was great. This was the first shipment. You see the boxes, the cloudy tank after the sand went in, and how it settles out.

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[BrianKC]

After the second TBS shipment. Also one of the hitchhikers I missed that was subsequently arrested and sentenced to live in the sump.

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[BrianKC]

A hitchhiker that emerged. Turned out I had three. They were baby long-spined urchins. They're doing well and are happy, though I think they may be eating my zoas. Can't confirm.

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[BrianKC]

First fish and a couple corals added. The wall hammer hasn't been doing well but moved it to lower flow and light decently and it's starting to bounce back.

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[BrianKC]

One of my cooler hitchhikers from the TBS. A pistol shrimp!

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[BrianKC]

February 2016 FTS.

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[BrianKC]

About a month ago I couldn't take the mess under my stand so did a total overhaul. My wife laughed that I bought a label maker so I could do things "just so."

Before:

After:

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[BrianKC]

FTS from today. Recently dialed my lights down and set them to ramp up/down more. Had some bleaching in the SPS up top. Also dialed back my vodka dosing (that's what's in the Schweppes bottle in the previous shot).

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[BrianKC]

And a montage of my fav pieces right now. More to come!

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[HuskerBioProf]

Did the TBS rock come with all of those sponges and gorgonians on it? That is crazy.

 

[BrianKC]

Did the TBS rock come with all of those sponges and gorgonians on it? That is crazy.

Sure did! Was a pleasant surprise...I've seen other people who's "extras" were even cooler.


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[krusieski]

sweet tank!


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[BrianKC]

sweet tank!


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Thanks!


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[307charles]

Nice tank! Love the set up. Is that a deep sea aquatics neo 65? Check out my 65 gallon build on you tube. 65 gal rimless reef tank.

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[BrianKC]

Nice tank! Love the set up. Is that a deep sea aquatics neo 65? Check out my 65 gallon build on you tube. 65 gal rimless reef tank.

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Thank you! Honestly I'm not sure what brand it is I will check it out tonight!


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[BrianKC]

Nice tank! Love the set up. Is that a deep sea aquatics neo 65? Check out my 65 gallon build on you tube. 65 gal rimless reef tank.

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Checked out your vid...nice work and looks great! Yours was definitely more "build" than mine was. I would never trust my own carpentry to hold up a glass box of water and rocks, lol!


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[BrianKC]

A couple people have asked, so I decided to show more of my TnA (tank and accessories!).

Here's how the tank sits in the room. Don't worry, there's more space between the table and the tank that it looks. The nice-looking (and twice as expensive as the next-best) stand was a condition my wife placed on having a tank. I do not know what brand it is; I got it several years ago and didn't write it down. If anyone does know, would love to be enlightened.

Here are my Build My LED (BML) lights. I love them. I'm so bummed that they left the aquarium market. They're really high quality and put out some awesome light. They're set on this schedule:

4pm: turn on at 60%
6pm: 70%
7pm: 90%
11pm: 70%
1am: 40%
2am: turn off

So "ships time" for the tank is set around when I'm home. Fortunately it's in the basement and it gets pretty much no light during actual daytime.

Behind closed doors, we find my Precision Marine Redline skimmer. It was originally on my 180 tank that I tore down and sold many years ago when I moved. I believe it was rated for 225g max. Works great, though I've been debating getting something different because it takes up literally the entire main area of the sump and I'd love to carve out an area as a fuge and detritus trap (I just can't do filter sleeves...too much work and there's no way I'd be allowed to put them in our washing machine!)

There's also the Solunar controller for my BML lights. In hindsight, I wish I'd have just gotten an Apex since this only controls lights and was about 1/3 of the cost of the Apex anyway. Does its job as a light controller just fine, just seems like I could have gotten more bang for my buck on an Apex. Though, now some new options are coming out so I'm paralyzed in deciding.

You can also just barely see my Jebao dosing pump. Right now it's just dosing the vodka you see in the Schweppes bottle (2mg twice a day...was doing 3mg BID but started to have "too clean" of water), but I think soon I'm going to need to start using it to dose calc. (Right now alk is maintained by baking soda in my ATO and calc gets consumed slowly enough that I'm manually doing it about once a week).

You can also see the sensor for my Hydor ATO stuck to the front wall of the sump.

Not pictured is my Hydor wave maker. I'm a pretty big fan of the Hydor stuff. (Side note; my spellcheck keeps wanting to change Hydor to Hodor. Miss you man...)

So, those are the exciting accessories running my rig. Between the doser, ATO, and my auto-feeder, I pretty much can go a week without HAVING to do anything. On a normal week I do throw plenty of extra foods in there to keep things thriving and clean the glass, but I can leave for a week and things are fine.




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[BrianKC]

BrianKC's 65g Rimless Rebuild

Oh yeah. There are fish in the tank as well (they're mostly my wife's...it's about the coral for me):
- Buster Bluth, the tomato clown
- Gobe Bluth, the black clown goby
- Ghost Face Killer, the Kole Tang (named after one of the Wu TANG Clan, if you didn't get the reference. We picked that member because this fish turns ghost white when he gets excited about food)
- Placeholder for "something pink or pretty" to replace the carpet-surfing pseudochromis I had. So, anyone who knows something pink or pretty that doesn't want to jump out of my topless tank is welcome to suggest.


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