Choss' 96 Gallon Reef Savvy Tank Build

A nice package arrived today. The final pieces are coming in. Hopefully I will have a productive weekend and get closer to getting the tank on the stand.

Sand Package by choerenz, on Flickr

Sand by choerenz, on Flickr

I spent a good amount of time researching sand options and Tropic Eden seemed to come out on top. I decided to go with the slightly smaller Meso flakes which also happen to be $17 cheaper per bag v. the Reefflakes. Here is a size comparison chart:

Aragasnow - 0.5mm
Tonga Special Pink - 0.8mm
Miniflakes - 2.0mm
Mesoflakes - 2.7mm
Reefflakes - 3.0mm
Reefflakes Grand Select - 4.5mm
 
The research you have done for this tank is amazing, I have never hearf of the sand you are using, along with the control unit too. My LFS has me sold on Apex, They have one running thier 245. He hasn't had any issues. But after reading post I'm going to have to do more.

I end up with Fuji Pink....
 
AZReef13 said:
The research you have done for this tank is amazing, I have never hearf of the sand you are using, along with the control unit too. My LFS has me sold on Apex, They have one running their 245. He hasn't had any issues. But after reading post I'm going to have to do more.

I end up with Fuji Pink....
Click to expand...

AZ - I thought long and hard about the APEX. It had some benefits including slightly less expensive. But research also showed the APEX units have had failures (which is a non starter for me since the whole point of a controller is to avoid catastrophic failures). I would seriously look at the GHL threads here and on the other forum and see if it is worth considering. To be fair, I can't yet review the GHL as the tank is still dry and in its crate :worried2:

But it will be wet soon if I can only slow down my travel! The sand you chose is also one that many reefers use so I think you will be in good shape. Thanks again for following along and I hope to have a few small updates soon.
 
Small Update

Small Update

Ok so the summer is getting away from me but I thought I'd include a short update. While travel and weekends at our summer place are cutting into my productivity, I a just one free weekend away from being able to move the tank in place. In the meantime, I glued up, stained, and polyurethaned the backboard behind the tank stand. The main purpose is to hide the wired and John Guest pipes that will feed the sump cabinet from the electrical cabinet. The latter will hold my Profilux 4, future dosing pump (and containers), and most of the electrical related to the operation of the lights and tank.

To attach the backboard I had to unscrew the stand and slot in these collars

backboard mounting attachments by choerenz, on Flickr

Then before I attached the board, I added a wood and plastic electrical channel to neatly hide the wires and pipes.

This shows the corner of the backboard where I have attached the channels

Backboard electrical chanels by choerenz, on Flickr

Finally, 4 screws later and I have the attached backboard. Once I put the cabinets back in place, it really should tie everything together.

backboard mounted by choerenz, on Flickr

August will be a busy month so I'm not expecting a lot of progress but I will add a few small updates as I check things off the list. Still waiting on my frag tank to cycle - seems to be taking forever.
 
AZReef13 said:
Summer seems to get the best of us, Unless you are here in Phoenix AZ, when we are happy its only 105.
Click to expand...

Weather out east has been great so that makes it even tougher to focus on the tank but I'm close now. Just ned a free weekend and a bunch of strong dudes and I'll have it in place.
 
bk. said:
Such a classy build. Looking forward to following along!
Click to expand...

BK thanks for following! I hope I don't disappoint. I do have some cool stuff planned - just need some time to get the big items done (like plumbing).
 
Update!

Update!

Ok so I have been traveling for both work and pleasure. I just returned from a week in the Black Forest area of Germany where my dad lives 1/2 the year. I flew in to surprise him for his 87th birthday! So this is the first weekend back home since early August. I have two significant updates.

First, my frag tank has finally cycled so I can start moving corals over from my temp holding tanks. I will add a few pictures over the next few days but we're only looking at a few very small frags. Still, I'm excited to get things into the frag tank as I plan to very carefully quarantine anything I will add into the main display.

Unfortunately the main display still sits in a crate in the garage but now I'm just about there, where I can move it into place in the next week or two.

However, I did get something else done this weekend, and that is hang the main lighting for the tank. He is a pic of a brand new Giesemann Spectra.

Giesemann Spectra by choerenz, on Flickr

I'm really excited to see things grow under this light. I'll elaborate more on why I'm going with a MH/T5 combo but this decision is mostly based on my old school success I had with MH, and fantastic reviews I've seen of this light on forums, BRS TV, etc.

For bulbs, I will be starting with a 250 W Radium, 2 24" ATI Blue+, one ATI Coral Plus, and one Purple Plus. I also purchased a 250 Phoenix 14k bulb so I'd love to get opinions on one v. the other for growth and color.

I also will use a luxcore selectable ballast so that I can later go up to 400w but I think based on the dimensions of the tank, the 250 should be fine. As I am again traveling, I will post a few more pics of the light and frag tank by the weekend.
 
Great build so far. I miss my Reef Savvy tank, Felix is a great guy and their craftsmanship is second to none. Following along to see how this progresses.
 
James404 said:
Great build so far. I miss my Reef Savvy tank, Felix is a great guy and their craftsmanship is second to none. Following along to see how this progresses.
Click to expand...

James thanks for tagging along. It has been a long ride for me so far but I know it will be worth the wait when I finally get the tank wet. I may give it a shot this weekend, subject to having a few local reefers around to help me move the tank in place. I'd love to see the ReefSavvy you had running - is there an old build thread? Looks like you are running a smaller tank now. I'd love to hear the tradeoffs between the old tank and the new. It was a long debate in my head on whether I should go bigger but I'm very happy where I settled in. I agree, Felix is an amazing guy. So helpful in getting things tight on the dimensions and features of the tank.
 
choss said:
James thanks for tagging along. It has been a long ride for me so far but I know it will be worth the wait when I finally get the tank wet. I may give it a shot this weekend, subject to having a few local reefers around to help me move the tank in place. I'd love to see the ReefSavvy you had running - is there an old build thread? Looks like you are running a smaller tank now. I'd love to hear the tradeoffs between the old tank and the new. It was a long debate in my head on whether I should go bigger but I'm very happy where I settled in. I agree, Felix is an amazing guy. So helpful in getting things tight on the dimensions and features of the tank.
Click to expand...

Thanks Choss, unfortunately all the images from my build thread here on RC is gone due to the photobucket bug.

I loved my tank but looking back there were a few things that I regretted I guess.
My tank was 72x24x29. The 29" height made it very difficult for me to do anything in the bottom third of the tank.

I was running 3x400w MH's at the time and my electric bill skyrocketed, especially during the summer with a chiller.
 
I am glad that for this build I kept the dimensions manageable. A huge consideration was the heat. I am switching back to MH but I'm only running a single bulb with T5 and potentially LED supplement. While the length of the tank is a bit long for a single bulb, I'm planning on keeping my SPS front and center, with some LPS, acans etc. wider out. The tank sits in a small room so heat was one factor. Ultimately as well, I wanted to run a size tank where I could reduce the maintenance down to bare minimum. While certain functions are the same regardless of tank size, everything seems to multiply - bigger saltwater station, bigger pumps, more pumps, more maintenance. Anyway, we shall see how this one plays out.
 
Really enjoyed reading up on this this thread choss, subbed along.

Good luck with the journey. It's definitely a system design mentality I mesh well with (stealing some inspiration)
 
rus15.rb said:
Really enjoyed reading up on this this thread choss, subbed along.

Good luck with the journey. It's definitely a system design mentality I mesh well with (stealing some inspiration)
Click to expand...

Rus glad you and following. I've taken plenty of inspiration from all the great threads here on RC so I'm glad if I can give a bit back.
 
choss said:
I am glad that for this build I kept the dimensions manageable. A huge consideration was the heat. I am switching back to MH but I'm only running a single bulb with T5 and potentially LED supplement. While the length of the tank is a bit long for a single bulb, I'm planning on keeping my SPS front and center, with some LPS, acans etc. wider out. The tank sits in a small room so heat was one factor. Ultimately as well, I wanted to run a size tank where I could reduce the maintenance down to bare minimum. While certain functions are the same regardless of tank size, everything seems to multiply - bigger saltwater station, bigger pumps, more pumps, more maintenance. Anyway, we shall see how this one plays out.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you got a good plan so far.

Was able to relink most of the images from my 225g Reef Savvy build if you ever want to check it out

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1945361
 
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