Custom 65g KISS Build

[ange062]

Well I've been meaning to get around to this journal for quite some time now, but I didn't so it's time to catch up! I started in this hobby back in 2010 and the whole chronicle was documented over in the Nano Tank forums right here on RC. I came up with the idea many years ago that I'd like to eventually build out two custom aquariums, which while matching exactly externally, would be vastly different on the inside. One tank would house a planted freshwater biotope, and the other an SPS dominant reef. Both of these systems would be on opposing sides of the same room of the house to create an awesome natural dichotomy that, in my head at least, would be fascinating to sit in the middle of and observe.

Well the purchase of a new house late last year presented the perfect opportunity to bring the idea to life. Some changes were driven by design needs, and some by further experience in the hobby since my original concept, but the core concept remained intact.

The main change on the reef was to move away from SPS dominant. While gorgeous, challenging, and fun, my years of experience with that made me switch to a "keep it simple stupid" system because I wanted it to be easy to care for and sustainable long term. This means minimal equipment, minimal water changes, and easier to keep corals.

I will spend a few days retrospectively covering the build from it's start in December 2017 and catch up to present day, then plan to maintain regular updates. Feel free to post any questions or comments you may have along the way!

The tanks as they stand in August.

More to come soon!





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[ange062]

So my original concept was matching 100gal shallow cubes but from a design perspective that just wasn't going to work in the new house. I also got into planted tanks not long after starting my first reef tank and have been keeping at least one going at a time since.

Last year I absolutely fell in love with a planted aquarium manufacturer named Ultum Nature Systems. They use ultra-low iron glass and do a 45 degree edge bevel that looks phenomenal and the cleanest silicone job in the industry. I started off this project wanting to do two of their 90cm tanks (~36x22x22" / 75gal).

After consulting with Aquarium Design Group in Houston, who I worked with on this project, the conclusion was reached that drilling one of these UNS 90U's was not a good idea, so I instead went with a custom build Planet Aquariums tank with similar dimensions. The tank was pre-drilled for a TideLine ghost overflow and has 3 sided starfire glass with a black back. Once I finalized the placement in the new house I also had to make a concession on the planted tank and go with the smaller 90P (36x17x17" / 45gal).

So we kicked everything off in early Jan 2018. The stands were also custom built by ADG and showed up at the beginning of Feb.

And with the salt and fresh tanks side by side in the warehouse:

And after delivery, final placement, and leveling:

Now one of the biggest challenges I had to face was that both of these systems were replacing already running and stocked systems that were running at my previous home. So I was on a short and firm timeline to get the old tanks broken down and livestock transferred. This left very little time for a proper cycle, so I had to take measures to minimize the cycling time.

To accomplish this I used about 50lbs of Real Reef rock that had been cycling in storage tanks at ADG, and also added a Brightwell Biobrick that had been cycling in the sump of ADG's 400gal long running gallery display. Finally I used AquaVitro Seed, a product that I truly love and use at water change time even on my established tanks to keep the biologicals thriving.

With final hardscapes completed:

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[ange062]

So this brings me to a good place for the equipment list.

Tank:
Custom build Planet Aquariums 36x21x21 Crystalline Series

Stand:
Custom build wood and laminate stand by ADG

Lighting:
2 x AI Hydra26 with HMS mounting arms

Filtration:
TideLine ghost overflow (bean animal)
Eshoppes RS-200 sump
Eshoppes S-200 skimmer
CurrentUSA Eflux DC 1050gph return pump

ATO:
Eshoppes 5gal reservoir
Tunze Osmolator

I had all kinds of other equipment laying around (MP10's, dosing pumps, various reactors for biopellets, GFO, etc, etc) but again I wanted to use KISS methodology on this tank so didn't plan to use any of those extras.

Empty tank:

Cabinet:

Hardscape:

Then filling the tank for the first time:
https://youtu.be/n3aqF8wpQx0

After adding sand:

And after clearing some:

Then it was time to hope for short cycle and just add the required dosage of Seed daily. I had a week until my drop-dead date for breaking down the old tanks and completing the livestock transfers.

Of course, it wasn't just one system but two (reef and freshwater) that had to be transferred which compounded the time and effort required.



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[ange062]

On the very last day possible, I broke down my old 30g and transferred livestock over to the new aquarium. It really never showed any NH3 spikes, and only minimal algae blooms since the lights were left off, so I was pretty much relying on the quick cycle plans and hoping for the best, I was out of time.

The old system housed a pair of mated clowns (Wyoming white and a phantom), a flame angel, flameback angel, and a Midas blenny. All of the fish were years old and fully grown. I wanted an extra pair of clowns in the new system, and I thought it would be best to add all 4 at the same time to minimize territorial aggression.

So I cherry picked a gorgeous black storm, a clown I had lusted over since I saw the announcement of the first one years back, long before they were publicly available. My local shop FJW Aquarium in Houston always has a huge selection of the most exotic clowns so I had this guy picked out and in quarantine for several weeks already:

And an onyx Picasso was the choice for my 4th, also added at the same time:

And at first, everything seemed copasthetic! All 4 clowns in my transferred rainbow BTA.

Little did I know that this was the start of a long and hard fought "battle of the clowns".

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[ange062]

The tank continued to run smoothly with no signs of a cycle or issues. So over the next few months I continued to stock the tank. But first, the OCD in me had to get the cabinet organized.

The next addition was a blue star leopard wrasse. I've always had a thing for wrasses but kept very few over the years because I always had nano tanks and not many are suited to that.

I always wanted a larger tank to keep anthias so they were on my "must have" list. So over the following weeks I added a small purple tang, 3 small barletts anthias, and 2 dispar anthias.

The fire shrimp had been in my 30g for about 4 years and was transferred over, but I added the two scarlet cleaner shrimp as well to help with the inevitable ich that comes with a tang.

This pretty much rounded out the livestock selection so it was time to start focusing on corals.

You may notice in the pictures that the onyx Picasso is by himself often, this is because he was singled out by the other 3 clowns and constantly picked on. I'd seen this before with clowns to some extent, but the 3 on 1 was concerning. More on that later.





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[ange062]

With the fish stocking completed, it was time to shift focus to corals. A local friend of mine, whose tank is of EcoTech fame (it's been used it their brochures and marketing material) let me come over and frag up his tank which was overgrown like crazy, a win-win situation because it helped get his tank into shape and I got a ton of free corals!!

After everything had been transferred over:

And a topdown from while I was working on placement of everything:

And once I got final placement completed and everything glued into place:

You'll notice the large barlets anthias in this picture, which is a new addition at this point. I had lost one of the 3 originals to a carpet surfing mishap and this full size male was a stunner!! What I didn't think about at the time was how aggressive he would get towards the dispar anthias.

And finally, just doing some routine maintenance with my water change station:

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[Ramracer32]

Wow looks great love the soft corals

 

[ange062]

Wow looks great love the soft corals

Thank you!

As far as corals go, I continued stocking. I got about a dozen and a half different zoa and paly frags, some common and some more exotic from WWC or local collectors of the rarer stuff. I also got about a half dozen of various mushrooms in the rhodactis, ricordia, and Yuma variants.

And of course, even though I had planned to do all softies and nems I caught interest in some key pieces of LPS that I thought would be nice additions. Ended up with a meat, scoly, trachy, acans, and Duncan's.

The "ultra" LPS collection:

Also, I mentioned previously the war of the clowns. My two clowns from the old system that I've had for years got territorial quickly. Thankfully, they left the tiny black storm alone, but they would pick on the larger onyx Picasso especially when he was attempting to pair up with the juvenile black storm.

I found this odd and unexpected since the older two have been paired for years. I was thinking that the two new clowns would pair up and everything would be fine. The onyx could handle the female Wyoming white fine, but when the male phantom joined in it became problematic, and when the juvi black storm jumped in on the bullying it was just too much.

The onyx jumped out of the tank, not once, but TWICE, and fortunately I happened to be close by both times and got him back into the tank. But after months of being teamed up on he was showing signs of acute stress and I was having to hand feed him daily. I made the decision to trade him out with a friend to a more peaceful system so that he could recover and survive.

So at this point I picked up a tiny juvi Davinci thinking it would have a better change since it wasn't sexed and was much smaller. Unfortunately the bullying commenced almost immediately and I found it on the floor the second day. It was at this point I decided to pick up a RedSea DIY screen cover. It was a little more labor intensive then I had anticipated to put together, but the end result was clean looking, fit perfectly, and I am all around a big fan of it. So much so that I added one on the freshwater tank as well.

All in all, aside from the clown troubles things were mostly going smoothly and I was really happy with the progression of the systems.

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[ange062]

The goal was to keep equipment to a minimum, however, it was at this point I started to run into a couple of nuisance problems that had to be addressed. First, some of the new LPS started to struggle, which was quickly followed by the start of cyano. Since the stocking list was heavy, I already had as much biofilter mass as I could cram in the sump. There were 2 Brightwell Biobricks, 2 Maxspect bioblocks, and a large filter bag filled with Eheim Biomech media. But even all that didn't quite seem to be cutting it.

I started by adding one of my old TLF150 reactors powered by an Eheim Compact600 pump and running Phosban. I had also started using a UV Filter on the planted tank and was so impressed with the results there I added an AquaUV 15w Classic sterlizer again powered by an Eheim Compact600.

And after all the equipment was installed I did another round of cabinet organization. I'd like to hard plumb the system with PVC at some point but that'll be hard to do while it's running so not sure if I will ever get to it.

Mooshi, my black storm, was doing great in his solo BTA.

But out of nowhere the large barlets anthias got super aggressive and I came home to a badly injured dispar that died shortly after this pic

Such a shame, the two dispar were shy but so beautiful when schooling together. The 2nd dispar still remains in the tank but the male barlets is still aggressive towards it.

Here is a shot of Torpedo, the male barlets, just before the dispar incident (you can see both dispar in the frame):

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[Jsarrow]

Awesome build and great aquascape, but it's looking a little less simple under the tank!

 

[ange062]

Awesome build and great aquascape, but it's looking a little less simple under the tank!

I know right?!? It's still fairly simple though, sump, skimmer, UV, and GFO. It could definitely be a lot more complex (doser, biopellets, carbon reactor, etc etc). I am currently plotting out an install of a Klir DI-7 which will be a welcome "complication" in hardware to make a common maintenance item an almost non-issue. Unfortunately it's not a drop in for the dual 7x4" square socks on this sump so I am CNC laser cutting a plexiglass adaptor to make it work with only minimal cutting of the sump.


Well fast forward a bit and it comes to the beginning of June, the 4 month anniversary. The meat and scoly had withered away much to my dismay, and I found a clown that, being now the 4th attempt, seems to be working after several months.

And "pretty boy"

Magoo the purple clown is getting pretty big pretty quickly, I am not sure how much longer I will be able to keep him in this system.

Beginning of July

And mid-July

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[ange062]

And this pretty much catches up to current day. I added a longnose hawkfish "Axelrod" and a super male lineatus wrasse "Prince". Unfortunately, Prince died during a 1.5-wk out of town stint and "Duke" now resides in the system, though he is smaller and not yet a "super male".

Topdown shot at begenning of August.

Axelrod:

Prince:

Mid August

The tank sunlit only, a look that isn't very common but that I've always loved

And finally the tank as it stands at the beginning of September:

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[ange062]

I had an unexpected experiment this past weekend - how long can tanks survive without power...

The power unexpectedly went out, not too big a deal, but after an hour I started to get concerned. Then I received notice that it may be 4-hrs before the power was restored. This wasn't an experiment I wanted to conduct!! I ran to the store and picked up some bait box battery powered bubblers to keep the tanks oxygenated and hopefully keep things going for multiple hours.

But after a few more hours I got notice saying it may be 8-hrs or more before the power was restored!! Yikes!

So I ran out again and bought a Honda EU2200i generator, something I had honestly been meaning to buy anyway as we are in prime hurricane season in Houston (and I have a little too much experience dealing with Hurricane's).

Of course, by the time I made it home the power had been restored. Everything was fine after 8-hrs of power outage total. 6-hrs of that time had the battery powered bubbler running. Potential disaster avoided.

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[ange062]

Tank on 9/22, been out of the country for a few weeks but it's looking good after a little TLC

https://youtu.be/Dz1DLBveuYo

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[Jsarrow]

Tank is looking great!

 

[ange062]

Tank is looking great!

Thank you!

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[ange062]

I think I like the tank better in 12000k color temp, thoughts?

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[ange062]

Enjoying the tanks on 10/11:

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[Michael Hoaster]

I like your two tank, and keep it simple concept. I did the fresh water planted tank too, and loved it. Having both has got to be fun. Instead of keeping both, I decided to combine them into one, salt water planted tank.

Your photos are great but huge. They don't fit on my 27 inch mac! Editing your image size down a bit would make it possible to see the whole pic at once.

How do your flame and flame back angels get along? Did you introduce them together?

 

[ange062]

I like your two tank, and keep it simple concept. I did the fresh water planted tank too, and loved it. Having both has got to be fun. Instead of keeping both, I decided to combine them into one, salt water planted tank.

Your photos are great but huge. They don't fit on my 27 inch mac! Editing your image size down a bit would make it possible to see the whole pic at once.

How do your flame and flame back angels get along? Did you introduce them together?

Woah! I didn't realize it was doing that as I rarely log into RC on my PC anymore, I just use the Tapatalk app on my phone. On the app the pics are resized to fit on screen then you can click on them to zoom in on details. I'll have to figure out how to get that resolved for desktop viewing.

The two angels get along fine now, I've had them for about 5-yrs, they were previously in my 30g. The flame angel was in that tank first, and when I introduced the flameback it was all out warfare. I tried to catch the flameback to relocate it to another tank, but if you've ever tried catching an angel you know how difficult it is.

I didn't think it would survive the initial beating - missing fins and even a big nip out of it's side. But once in a weakened state the flame left it alone, the flameback healed up, and it's never been an issue again. They actually interact peacefully and even somewhat school together on occasion.

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