Chuck's 90 Breeder; Custom SPS Dominated Shallow Peninsula Build

GroktheCube

GroktheCube

New member
I moved into a new apartment with my girlfriend this summer, and no move is complete without a tank build! The apartment complex didn't want a tank over 100 gallons, which meant that my old 120 wouldn't be making the move with me. While I probably could have lied to them and gotten away with it, as they run a pretty loose ship, it also gave me an opportunity to have a tank custom built to fit my needs exactly.

I've always had a thing for shallow tanks with a lot of floor space, and I've always wanted a peninsula. After some time thinking, I decided to go with a eurobraced shallow peninsula, 48" long x 30" wide x 15" high. A few hours of tinkering in Inventor, and I had my tank designed, along with a cabinet that could house all of the electronics, filtration, and assorted gizmos including dosing containers, RO/DI, and ATO.





I talked to a few different tank builders, and ended up going with Miracles. I ordered the tank and a steel stand from them, and opted to build the cabinet as a skin. Prior to the move, I got rid of a large portion of my smaller and more delicate corals, and kept the tougher ones, and ones I was particularly attached to so that I could get them through temporary housing as well as possible.

Tank and equipment information and list, before I get on to the actual build part of this thread.

-Tank: 48"x30"x15" Euro-braced Peninsula, custom built by Miracles. 1/2" Starphire for all viewing panels. Two holes drilled for 3/4" bulkheads for return lines. 24" external overflow box drilled for Bean Animal drain.
-Stand: 2" Steel stand sitting inside of a skin, including a ~65 gallon catch basin for water, and room for ATO, dosers, and RO/DI.
-Return: Ecotech Vectra M1 (Eheim 1262 while I wait for the damn thing to finally ship)
-Flow: Two MP40W QDs
-Lighting: Hamilton 48" Cebu Sun. 2 250W Radiums on Hamilton M80 ballasts, two 54W Coral+, two 54w Blue+.
-Skimmer: Skimz SK222 External, Reef Octopus 6" diameter Skimmate collector with auto-shutoff
-Controller: Neptune Apex
-Ca/Alk: ESV B-ionic, 2 BRS dosing pumps controlled by the Apex
-Other: Elos ATO, Two Eheim Jager 150W heaters, BRS Rox and HC GFO in bags inside my filter sock when needed

I started by building a base for the stand to sit inside of, and waterproofing the whole thing using PVC showerpan liner. God forbid anything ever goes wrong, it should be able to hold about 65 gallons of water.





The tank arrived in perfect condition, looking exactly like I wanted!





I'm glad I went with Starphire for the viewing panels. Even in these cellphone pics, you can see a clear difference between the side panels and the bottom.

After the tank was in place, it was time for more construction. I built a frame for the rear cabinet portion that would house equipment, and ran to the lumber yard to pick up some White Oak 1x8s and A4 1/4" plywood to use for the skin.







 
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I had been waiting on an Ecotech Vectra M1 to use as the return pump, but after a couple weeks of hearing "Ecotech says this week for sure, and insists they mean it this time." I decided to just use a Eheim 1262 I had lying around, step it up to 1-1/4", and just do a little cutting and gluing when the new pump finally arrives. Leveling the tank was a bit of a bear on the very uneven floor, but we got it done. After finishing the plumbing, I filled with tap water and let it run for a day to make sure everything was kosher.





It was around this time I realized that the two Gyre XF-150s I had been planning on using for flow wouldn't really fit properly in the tank, so I ran down to the LFS and picked up a pair of the new quiet drive MP40s. A bit of an unplanned expense, but they look better in the tank than the Gyres anyway, and allowed me to have the screen top perfectly flush with no wires coming in or out of the tank.

The next step was hanging up the lighting (Hamilton 2x250W Radiums, 4x54w T5s) and filling with SW.





I had a bit of a heart-attack moment shortly after firing up the lights for the first time. After about half an hour of running, the breaker tripped. The lights draw 7 amps at full power, and the rest of the equipment less than 2. Well under the 15 amps the circuit is rated for. I haven't had the problem recur, but since then, the lights are only pulling 6.2-6.3 amps instead of 7. Quite odd. I can't figure out why that's happening. If I do end up running into issues with the lights drawing too much power, I have a spare 8x54w ATI T5 fixture I can use, which should get the job done.

After getting that squared away, it was time to move LR and corals. I ended up using about 1/3rd of the LR from the 120, and the rest of the aquascape is Marco Rock that I put together with quite a bit of help from my girlfriend, as she is much more artistically inclined than I am.

Here is the tank as it sits tonight. Please excuse the dirty glass and low quality cell phone pictures. It was a long, long day and I was a bit too tired to make things look pretty before taking pictures.







My giant red cap (first SPS coral I ever got, ~3" frag two years ago) was subjected to some rather sloppy intentional (and even sloppier unintentional) fragging during the transfer, I think I have a good dozen 3-4" pieces I can try to trade for some store credit. I may end up needing to frag the base off of my big stylo , but we shall see. I'm confident it'll pull through the trauma, but it's definitely looking a bit ragged right now!

Several of my bird's nests are looking quite ragged at the bases. I'm going to keep an eye, and frag if I need to. Unsurprisingly, none of the montis cared about a couple months or neglect, being kept in rubbermaids, or being accidentally fragged into dozens of pieces.

I'll be moving in the first and the rest of corals and inverts tomorrow. After that, I need to do quite a bit of clean up around the apartment before my very patient girlfriend finally snaps over fish-tank crap lying everywhere, get the skin put on (one more coat of polyurethane to go!), and then get a QT set up so I can finally buy frags again! It's only been 8 months or so since I last purchased a frag, but it feels like an eternity!

I plan to keep this thread updated as I make progress with the build, and as the tank begins to mature and gets stocked. The tank will be run in a relatively simple and straightforward way. Big skimmer, lots of light, lots of flow, lots of food. I'm not really one to use supplements or carbon dosing. My first "maintenance" task is to track Alk over the next few days so I can get the dosers dialed in correctly. It was ~9 dKH tonight.

I'll also pull out the real camera and get some halfway decent pics up tomorrow!
 
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Alk tonight: ~8.7 by Salifert. 0.3dKH consumed over past 24 hours. Not unreasonable given the corals are still settling in. I figure I'll take two more days or measurement before I start dosing. I'd like for it to be settled right around 8, and the sooner the better, because I have a serious itch to go frag shopping.

Most of the corals are looking pretty good today. Decent PE and color all around, given they were just dropped into the new tank two days ago. I think at this point they're glad to have clean water, decent lighting, and good flow. I'm still trying to decide between alternating direction gyre vs anti-sync reef crest on the two Vortechs. I think I'll probably need to place some more frags around the tank to figure out what works best. I got word from Premium Aquatics that my Vectra was mailed to me today, so I should have it in a couple of days. It'll be a busy weekend.

As can be seen, most of my montis were fragged to bits during the move. Still trying to decide whether to play humpty-dumpty with them to make them branchy-looking again, or just pile them up on the rock where I want them to grow and let them do their thing.

The big Stylo definitely has some STN at the base, but it doesn't look any worse than yesterday. I can see some tissue flapping in the breeze right at the edge. I'm going to take a wait-and-see approach for another day or two. If I see any sign of it progressing, I'll frag the base off and super glue around the edges where tissue has been lost. I'd rather be as hands off as I can, but I also don't want the STN progressing up past the base, because that would make addressing it via fragging/gluing much more of a PITA!

My Favia/Favites and Galaxea have settled in quite well, as has my big ole toadstool leather. They'll be the resident non-SPS, and are the first corals I got. They were all under 1" when I first got them a few years ago.

I didn't manage to get pics with the Radiums on, these are T5s only, but still give a decent idea of color, and problem areas (Yes, I know there are quite a few Aiptasia near those digitata that need to be zapped!). The area of pale tissue on the encrusting Monti is where he had grown under an over-hang in my 120 and shaded himself. I expect that'll be all colored up in fairly short order.

Now, on to the pics.

FTS:







Orchid Stylo. Pretty sure the bald spot on that one branch is from handling during the transfer. The colony was exposed to air for about 30 minutes during the transfer, as it was WAY too big to fit into a bag or bucket. I cut up some bags and tossed them over him to keep humidity.:


Base recession on Stylo. Will watch and frag/glue if need be:

Accidentally fragged Forest Fire Digi, Purple Digi, plenty o' Aiptasia:


Encrusting Monti, and some more Aiptasia:


Galaxea, isolated in the back away from potential victims:


Is it just me, or does this little tier look like it's thinking about growing already?


I know the tank and corals aren't much to look at yet, but this thread should help document their recovery from a traumatic few months of less than ideal conditions!
 
Thanks for the interest guys.

The recession on the Stylo looked like it had progressed slightly overnight, so I decided to use my lunch break for a little coral surgery. The skeleton was over an inch thick in some places, and was a major challenge to cut through. After 45 minutes, three tubes of superglue, three sticks of epoxy, and a bit of cursing I managed to frag off all the dead skeleton that I possibly could and put superglue around the edge of all healthy tissue. The Trapezia living in the Stylo was rather annoyed with me.

I generally prefer to avoid such drastic measures, but I didn't want to risk losing such an impressive colony. I think it also looks slightly better positioned a little ways back from the glass.

FTS and more updates to come when I get home tonight, here are some quick shots of the Stylo. Already showing some PE after the surgery, pretty tough coral!



You can see a bit of the superglue above the epoxy in this shot. I think the pale tissue on the bottom should color up nicely thanks to the white bottom glass.

 
Alk Tonight: 8.3. 0.4dKH consumed over past 24 hours. I think I'll take a reading tomorrow afternoon, and then start dosing based on that.

Tomorrow I'm planning on swapping in new T5 bulbs, getting the fish into the tank, calibrating a new pH probe (large Xanthid that guards my sump ate the old one), and experimenting with the flow a bit.

I'm not totally satisfied with 5 on 5 off alternating between the two MP40s. I feel like it leaves a bit too much slow moving water in the middle of the tank. I don't mind a little slow water towards the bottom, but I'd like everything in the top 3/4ths of the tank to be pretty high energy. I'm going to try running them both in Reef Crest mode anti-sync to see if that does a bit better. If not, I may try messing with the turn nozzles to see if I can liven things up a bit there.

A couple FTS to show the post-surgery Stylo in its new location. I think having it set slightly further back in the tank will be better in the long run, as that will allow me to have some complimentary colors in front of it, and create a better sense of depth.



 
Enjoying your thread! Could you provide more info on your light hanging system and maybe even some close-ups please?
 
zeebies said:
Enjoying your thread! Could you provide more info on your light hanging system and maybe even some close-ups please?
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I use two sets of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0098R0600?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

They attach on one end to little black eyelets screwed into the top of the Cebu Sun fixture (came with the fixture):



On the ceiling, I cut four pine 1x4s into squares and painted them white. I put two 3.5" screws through each into a stud, and then screwed an eyehook to the blocks to attach to the other end of the light hangers:



They raise and lower via a simple ratcheting mechanism. Not super attractive, but fairly unobtrusive.
 
Sweet looking tank and build. I would probably leave the stylo for a bit before cutting him up. In my experience they seem hardy and re over from stress pretty well. If it's not RTN I see no reason to rush.
Work on that aiptasia, I hate those suckers! They were the reason I went with all new rock when I upgraded.
 
Thanks for the interest. I love my Cebu Sun fixture, and killing some of those aiptasia is on the to-do list for this weekend. I may even add some berghia nudis to the stock list.

Alk tonight is about 7.8, so I'm going to start dosing 20ml per day, and recheck daily to confirm that will work.

It's been a pretty good day for the tank.

When I got home this afternoon, I found my Vectra waiting for me.


Looks to be a well made and very compact piece of kit. I'll get it hooked up over the weekend.

I got the rest of my livestock moved into the tank today. My fish include a Magnificent Foxface (who immediately put on Camo and hid), a pair of lineopunctatus flasher wrasses (who immediately hid), and a pair of black ocellaris clowns who immediately swam over to the red cap and started celebrating being reunited with it.





After a few hours, the Foxface reverted back to his normal colors, but still didn't want to come out. He got a few superficial scratches thrashing about during his capture, so that may have made him extra shy, but he's always a bit of a baby when anything about his tank changes.



No pictures of the wrasses today. The male darted out of hiding to to check things out a few times before promptly retreating.

I did find two surprise frags while I was moving the fish and inverts. A green cap and a hydnophora that had been buried under rubble. They look a bit rough, the hydnophora in particular, but hopefully they'll bounce back.





As you might note in the background, I've got a brown dusting starting to grow on the bottom glass. That's reminding me that I badly need to restock my CUC. I'll try to make it a priority to get an invert QT up and running over the weekend. I'm not sure if the tank can wait the full 72 days I normally like to do, but given how rare it is for ich to actually go that long, 4 weeks should buy me 95%+ safety, and keep me from being over-run by algae.

What I'm thinking of picking up:
-30 trochus
-10 nerites
-10 money cowries
-5 astrea

I figure that should probably be adequate to keep the algae at bay while the tank gets settled. The Foxface does a good job with most algae that will grow on the rocks, but doesn't do much of anything for the glass. Some sort of Blenny will be going on the "to buy" list as well. My poor little tailspot blenny died to some sort of cyst on his liver (performed necropsy) about six months ago.
 
Hey, great idea for hanging the Cebu! While my tank is 100% level the ceiling isn't so my chain idea won't work. Does the mechanism move smoothly when you adjust the height? What did you do with the extra rope? 7' is way long for my needs, thanks for the info, and great looking upgrade BTW :)
 
M007 said:
Hey, great idea for hanging the Cebu! While my tank is 100% level the ceiling isn't so my chain idea won't work. Does the mechanism move smoothly when you adjust the height? What did you do with the extra rope? 7' is way long for my needs, thanks for the info, and great looking upgrade BTW :)
Click to expand...

It's not as smooth as the braided metal wire mechanisms on ATI fixtures, but it ratchets in ~.5" increments, which is adequate for my needs. I just trimmed most of the extra rope off, and have a bit looped through the top carabineer incase I ever need it.

And thanks! I think the tank will end up looking pretty good as things progress.
 
Today I swapped out the old T5s in the Cebu Sun for two Blue+ and two Coral +. I also did a good bit of cleaning, got the ph probe calibrated, and started cutting pipes for the new return pump. The fish came out of hiding, so I spent a good amount of time taking pictures of the tank.





Female Linespot:





Male Linespot:







Foxface:



Clowns:



Buddies:

 
A few coral macro shots now that things are starting to perk up.

Purple Digi:



Forest Fire Digi:



Dark Green w/ Blue Polyps Cap (this guy still has quite a bit of color left to regain):



Red Cap:



Orchid Stylo:



Sarcophyton:

 
So today I spent quite a bit of time mixing up a batch of SW and setting up an invert QT. Unfortunately, during the cleaning process, I managed to break the tank I had been using as an invert QT previously. Doh!

I fished out an old 20H I used to QT fish in the past and cleaned the heck out of it with plenty of white vinegar, just incase it had seen copper at some point. I used some spare LR from the old 120, a Tunze 6015, and a 14k 24" LED strip from BML.


5 minutes after getting it up and running, I was on reefcleaners placing an order for a few dozen snails. I need to a get my CUC beefed up in their ASAP, as I already see some algae popping up. If I were smart, I would have put snails in QT two months ago so they'd be ready around now.

Tank params tonights:

Alk- 8
Ca- 440
Mg- 1450

The Mg number is a little higher than I'd expect, so I'm going to pick up a new kit to double check. Alk seems to be hanging right around 8 dKH, so I think my current level of dosing is good. I'll continue daily checks for a bit longer just to make sure. Might even double-check with the Hanna meter if I feel ambitious.

If I'm a good boy tomorrow, I might reward myself with a trip to the LFS for some frags to go in the QT.
 
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