DIY 20g Long Build Thread

[JasonBJones]

Not much time to write so I will mainly just post up some pictures.

The shrimp and goby decided to play nice and build their tunnel to the front, so I ended up not using the PVC tunnel I created. I also begin to worry that water might become stagnant in there, although I am sure I could have drilled some holes throughout to mitigate that concern.

Water is testing out great. The alk is too high and won't come down because the salt I am using, H20 Ocean Pro+, tests at 11.5. I may be switching salts soon. The last test showed P at .08 and N slightly below 1. I am very happy with the results of using vodka/MB7. I have to be careful dosing the MB7 or it creates a thin brown covering on the rocks. I am currently dosing .07ml of MB7 and .6ml of vodka daily.

I now have most of the zoas I want, I will just pick up single frags from local reefers of the few other varieties I want. A group of SPS should be arriving soon to compliment the ORA Red Table and Tyree Phonape Birdnest that are in there now. Picked up a purple fungia that I really like, has some very nice white marbling. Also found a beautiful red open brain locally.

Well enough blabbering as my secured credit textbook is calling my name, so here are some pics. Sorry the white balance is way off, its the best my poor iphone camera can do. Still waiting on the back wall to finish curing!

 

[cooper13]

Looks great! I love the aquascape--I think your plan has worked well.

 

[MPevine11]

I LOVE THIS TANK!

amazing work

 

[JasonBJones]

Looks great! I love the aquascape--I think your plan has worked well.

Thanks a lot. I think it will look great once the backwall is back in and I can get the frags off the sand bed. I really despise having my sandbed covered in frags but I have no where else to put them until their "home" is ready.

I LOVE THIS TANK!

amazing work

Thank you for the compliments. I am really happy with how it is coming along and seeing the long hours of work and "mental" work coming together.

Not to get ahead of myself, but I really look forward to seeing all the frags grown out in a year or two. I figure that about the time this tank is really kicking, I will finish school and finally have the money to build my real dream tank. Perhaps this can be a tank at the office...

 

[JasonBJones]

The shrimp and goby were out of the nest and I was able to capture a little video of the shrimp working on their home. I think a goby/shrimp pair may be one of the neatest things I have ever watched in a tank.

It is easier to see if you expand it

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[JasonBJones]

Time for a big update. A couple of weeks ago, the rear wall finally finished curing, so I was able to get that installed and mount all the frags that have been sitting on my sand bed. I have most of the frags of everything that I want now, so it is just time to let it sit back and grow. There are still a few zoa frags I want, but I will slowly add those as I find them locally.

Tank is testing out very well. I am still frustrated by the high alk, 10.2 so I am changing salts. I having been using D&D H2Ocean and will be switching to Tropic Marin Reef Salt. Otherwise the tank is testing as follows

Cal: 420
Alk: 10.2
Mg: 1270
Nitrate: 0.5
Phosphate .15

I am currently dosing one drop of MB7 and 1.0ml of Vodka daily.

I purchased a pair of ORA Tiger Gobies and also have a small tank raised banner cardinal in there. The Yasha Goby and shrimp still amaze me and are very enjoyable to watch.

I am happy with the open design of the tank and the fact that I can crank some serious flow with just the return and MP10 since there is little deflection and obstacles to impede the flow.

I have seen some good growth in the Zoas already. I got a frag of joker palys that had two polyps that has grown to 5 in the three weeks or so that I have had them. Many others are sprouting new heads as well.

Currently, I am only dosing MG to maintain the level, and slowly raise it to 1300. I do give the tank a squirt of DTs every couple of days and feed daily, sometimes twice a day (small quantities).

I have purchased several different copepods and amphipods to seed the tank with. My cleanup crew consists of 20 nassarius snails, 10 zebra snails, and 5 scarlet hermit crabs.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to ask any questions, I love answering them. I should have a decent camera soon so I can stop taking pictures with the phone. Without further adieu, the pictures.

 

[JasonBJones]

Realized there was no FTS so here you go.

 

[JasonBJones]

Well its time for a little update. Everything has been going really well in the tank. All the SPS frags are encrusting and growing and I have had several polyp frags double in numbers over the last month or so.

The only issue I had was a little vodka overdosing that caused an algae breakout. I thought I was overdosing bacteria so I cut that off for a week and increased the vodka dosing, well I was wrong. So I wanted to nip the problem in the bud and so I turned my lights off for three days and increased the bacteria dosing and stopped the vodka dosing. That pretty much did the trick and eliminated the majority of the algae. I had one spot in the tank where it wouldn't go away and I could not figure out why. Well it struck me today, that is the spot right below the moonlight. Now it is hard for me to believe that the moonlight could have given off enough light to support algae growth, but how else could I explain that it is only directly under the moonlight in a 5" wide section going down about 4" in the tank. I think I will now be leaving my moonlights off permanently as I don't think they really serve any purpose other than seeing the tank at night, and this has clearly shown that they can help support algae growth (at least in my tank). Unfortunately my SPS lost a little bit of color from the lights being off.

The tank is now just in cruising mode. There are just a few zoas and palys left that I want to get ( I feel like I keep saying that as I get more and more...) and the tank will be ready to be left alone for a while.

The only other change I might try is adding 3 LEDs to shine down on my SPS rock. I think they may not be getting as much light as I would like being so short right now. My ORA red planet is getting a bit more green then I would like and not holding its red as well, which seems to signal lower light. I will play with that when the LEDs come in and see what I think. I ordered a Tri-star LED with 3 luxeon rebels on it (1 natural white and 2 royal blues).

Thats enough blabbering, here are some pics. I borrowed my wife's camera- it is a little bit better than my iphone but not great.

 

[miller10]

you have your self awsome little tank going there. can only wish i could make mine as nice and clean as yours

 

[CHSreefer]

very nice

 

[BPro32]

Any updates? I came across this thread interested in putting together a rock wall for my biocube...

 

[JasonBJones]

Been a while, I guess it is time to update.

The tank has been doing really well. I lost a couple of fish over the holidays while I was traveling and someone else was watching the tank, but everything else has fared very well. I changed the lights out to a 24" Aquatinics TX5 and built a new skimmer, the other one was really inconsistent. The rock is really starting to color up and I am still very happy with the results.

Here are the pictures, feel free to ask for any more specifics.

Here are some pictures of the new skimmer in process and complete

 

[phi delt reefer]

looks like this is a 100+ gallon tank. You have keen eye for depth and shadow. Looking forward to seeing how the tank looks in a couple months once the sps grow out a bit.

congrats on an amazing tank!

 

[BPro32]

Everything looks fantastic. I'm back and forth between a diy rock wall or a foam/rock wall (for convenience) but I am impressed with the job you did on this one so I may stick with my original idea.

 

[MobyMD]

Wow! I had not seen this tank before. What a great design. I love the colors and the placement of all of the corals. The ric garden is so awesome! It seems like you have pretty fast growth from your sps. Well done.

Moby

 

[JasonBJones]

looks like this is a 100+ gallon tank. You have keen eye for depth and shadow. Looking forward to seeing how the tank looks in a couple months once the sps grow out a bit.

congrats on an amazing tank!

Thank you. I think the rock wall makes the tank seem much larger than it is, especially combined with the smaller rocks in the tank. Even in person it seems much larger than a 20g when you are looking into it. I can't wait to see it grow out as well.

Everything looks fantastic. I'm back and forth between a diy rock wall or a foam/rock wall (for convenience) but I am impressed with the job you did on this one so I may stick with my original idea.

Thank you. The rock wall was a slow process, but I have been extremely happy with the results. I think having so much rock, I bet the walls weigh at least 20 lbs between them, adds a lot of stability to the tank. For me, I can't justify making a foam wall after having this tank.

Wow! I had not seen this tank before. What a great design. I love the colors and the placement of all of the corals. The ric garden is so awesome! It seems like you have pretty fast growth from your sps. Well done.

Moby

Thank you. I really like the ric garden as well. My wife doesn't like it because she says the colors are so bright that it looks fake- can't win them all! I think the growth rate has been pretty good, at least the encrusting rate. I feel like all the SPS keep encrusting but not growing up, I hope they will soon.

 

[glennr1978]

Lookin' good man!! I took down both of my 20's and upgraded to a 40 breeder, no tank thread yet though.

My foam wall tank is now sitting in my garage dry .

 

[dogstar74]

You sir, have a gift. Amazing looking tank. In a couple of years, TOTM for sure. Keep up the great work.

Aaron

 

[KafudaFish]

Thanks for posting this build.

You should be very proud of it and NOT tear it down after law school.

Office tank maybe?

 

[DBreefs]

One of the best builds I have seen! Beautful ric garden also!