G. Ternatensis Tank Build!

[Islandoftiki]

Ok folks, last night the permanent tank for my G. Ternatensis arrived! This is Micro-Reefs.com's original main display tank that they no longer sell and Mike decided to break down and sell as they're focusing on sub-ten-gallon tanks now.

So I scored an unbelievable deal.

The tank is a 25 gallon Tru-Vue acrylic AIO tank with a matching black acrylic stand and canopy. It's really sharp looking and the tank is in excellent condition. I also got the skimmer and the chiller as well.

I'll be starting the tank build in the next couple weeks and I'll post updates as I go. Have fun following along, this is going to be a really nice tank when it's done.

Here's a couple pictures from late last night after we unloaded it from our friend's car who drove it all the way up to Portland, OR from San Francisco.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Here's a pretty good video of my G. Ternatensis being fed last night. He's getting much more comfortable being out and about.

It'll be great to get him set up in the main living area of the house.

 

[Jacwil]

Looking forward to this build!

That glass is SNAZZY!!!!

 

[Islandoftiki]

I'd like some opinions on this build from some of the more knowledgeable folks. Here's the basic plan:

Aquacultured live rock or dry rock. I'd prefer aquacultured live rock for all of the critters and things that come with it, but dry rock would make building the rockscape a lot easier.

Substrate: I'm thinking a mixture of medium fine and medium coarse dry aragonite? I'll seed it with some substrate from my 10 gallon.

I'm just going to use normal powerheads, no fancy anything there, probably two hydor koralias.

It's an AIO tank, with a pretty good size rear chamber with a media rack. It has bioballs in the back but those are going in the trash. I'm pretty sure they were never used, just put back into the tank after it was broken down. Filtration will be the same type of deal I have on my 10 gallon. Chaeto, Chemipure Elite, Purigen and a tunze 9002 skimmer.

I'm planning on using two smaller heaters for now as I don't think I'm going to put a RKL on this one right away.

And I've got a chiller for it, but probably won't need to set that up until next summer. AIO tanks usually run on the warm side with all of the powerheads and pumps submerged, so I'm sure it will be essential when things warm up.

Eventually I'll add an ATO, but since the tank is covered, evaporation should be manageable with daily top-offs.

Initially, no lighting, just ambient, but ultimately, I'm going to add a bunch of different kinds of mushroom corals, so a good two bulb T5 HO fixture with maybe an ATI blue plus and a purple plus bulb for nice color.

What do you guys think? Anything you would do different or anything specific that I should incorporate? I'm just in the brainstorming phase right now.

 

[Jacwil]

IMO your plan is very sound!

My only question is why you feel it's easier to 'scape with dry rock vs. live.

 

[Fretfreak13]

I contemplated an AIO for my tank, which is essentially an exact copy but smaller version of yours, and wound up really not needing it. Besides that one little part in the top right corner that is open for the return pump chord, it is sealed pretty darn tight and I really don't have evap at all. I put about 1/8 of a cup of topoff water back in it every week.

Hold off on the ATO. I'll bet you find you really don't need it and you'll save yourself a little dinero.

 

[TundraGuy]

Green with envy!

That’s a sharp set up you going on over there!

 

[Islandoftiki]

I just got home from 8 days at Disney World... You should see some of the saltwater tanks they have at Epcot Center. In particular one giant cylindrical SPS tank. Wow.

I'm going to get started on this tank project today, beginning with buffing out some of the small scratches and making it look like new again. Then, I'll do a full wet test of the pumps and heater/chiller with tap water for a couple days to make sure everything is working properly.

The rear chamber has bio-balls in it. I took those out. I don't plan on using them. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with the rear chamber area. I'll probably keep it simple with filter floss or pad and a bag of Chemipure elite and a bag of Purigen. I might consider putting chaeto in the back chamber, but more than likely I'll run without any macro algae.

Here's the current equipment I have:

25 Gallon TruVu Acrylic Tank.
Oceanic 1/10 hp heater/chiller and pump.
Tunze 9002 Skimmer.

Lighting: To be determined. Probably T5 or T5 and a LED stunner strip. I don't like the insane shimmer of all LEDs like I have on my 2 gallon tank.

Filtration will be 25 lbs of live rock, filter floss, chemipure elite and purigen. (maybe chaeto? Probably not.)

Water flow: I suspect I'll run a couple of Hydor Koralia Nano 425's. They're inexpensive, small, and look decent. I also like the magnetic mounts they use.

I think there are some mods that are recommended for the Tunze 9002 skimmer, so I'll look those up and see if they're worth doing.

Stay tuned for pictures!

 

[Islandoftiki]

And the moment you've all been waiting for...

Here are some pictures of the tank itself.

Pre-Buffing.... It's in pretty good shape, won't need much work:

This is the rear chamber. The pump goes down at the bottom on the right side. There is a bulkhead fitting with a nozzle that goes in the hole on the left at the bottom, there are two media trays that fit on those shelves:

This is the chamber for the skimmer. It also holds the pump and the plumbing for the heater/chiller:

About an hour and a half later and 95% of the scratches are gone:

I've got both of the pumps running in a bucket with some water and some vinegar to clean them out. They are working great.

That's it for today. I hosed the tank out thoroughly after buffing it to remove any leftover debris. Tomorrow or tuesday, I'll fill it with water and hook up the pumps and chiller and let it run for a couple days to make sure the temperature is stable and the pumps are working well. During the testing period, I'll polish up the stand, the canopy and start working on moving shelves around in the room where it's going. It will be sharing a room with two African grey parrots.

I'm also going to give this tank it's own GFI electrical circuit since the nearest outlet only has two prongs and is on the same circuit with a bunch of other junk. I don't want to risk overloading it and losing power.

The LFS has some really nice live rock, so I'll pick some up once the tank is upstairs and filled with salt water.

 

[TundraGuy]

Its so funny to me...........

Ok I have two Nuvo 38s up and running i also have another one brand new unopened in a box. These are great little tanks if you get your hands on one. With that being said why do i see your new toy and want it so much.?. Lol fish tank addiction is real b#*&$!

Again let me say great little tank looking forward to see what u do with it.

 

[Islandoftiki]

So, It looks like I'm going to not be putting a tube in this tank. After getting back from vacation, I see that he's abandoned tube altogether and started constructing his own home from rubble. He's a very accomplished builder like my G. Viridis is, so I'll skip adding any tubing and just give him a good amount of rubble to work with and set the rockwork up in such a way that he has options.

Question: Do any of your put your rock on acrylic rod stanchions to hold it up at sand bed height, or do you just rest the rock on the sand bed?

How much water flow should I shoot for? I was thinking a pair or Koralia Nano 425's should be sufficient for 25 gallons. There will also be the flow from the filtration pump. I might also install an extra bulkhead lockline jet for the return from the heater/chiller. I think the pump for the chiller is about 500 gph.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, we're wet with tap water! Pumps are running; chiller/heater is doing it's thing.

I'll let it hum away for a couple days while I sort out the details of where it's going to reside in the house.

I want to get a feel for what level of evaporation to expect, how effective the heater part of the chiller is (will it need a supplemental heater), and make sure there are no leaks.

So far, so good. Everything is happy. I might stuff the skimmer into the 7.5 gallon tank in the next day or two, fire it up and see what it can produce.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Looking for some opinions from others here...

Mushroom corals or maxi-mini carpet nems? For this tank? I'm going with medium to lower lighting... probably a two bulb 24" T5 HO fixture, and I want to keep it a one type of coral tank. Mushrooms would obviously be the least amount of hassle, which I like.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Well, fair enough. I think I'm going to stick with my original plan and load this up tank up exclusively with discosoma mushrooms for corals. I think it will be a fun way to go.

Here's a couple pictures of Chuck and his mad building skills....

These guys could get jobs building stone walls if they were large enough... and terrestrial. Look at this beauty!

 

[Islandoftiki]

This afternoon, I did the airline mod for the Tunze 9002 and I'm testing it out in the temporary 7.5 gallon tank. Looks a little out of place, but Chuck doesn't care that it's in there.

I also got the two Koralia Nano 425's today, so I threw them in to make sure they work and the water flow is good. It is.

 

[Islandoftiki]

The stand is in place. Tomorrow I'll wire in a new outlet.

 

[areucrazy]

NIce job. Lookin good. Im sure your mantis buddy will love it. My Googly didnt do much rearranging with my rocks. He must have like my engineering! LOL... I gave him several exits and a large dome room in the middle. He stuffed the holes he wanted filled with chaeto. LOL.. He did the insulation job. Mine also live with a black cucumber and he never even looks at it funny. So if you need a sandsifter you should be safe with a cucumber. Your Chuck is a cutie!

 

[Islandoftiki]

This morning I installed a 15 amp dedicated GFCI circuit for the tank.

Time to drain the tank and bring it upstairs!

 

[Islandoftiki]

The tank is upstairs! I'll start filling it this week.

 

[Kharn]

How does the Tunze go ?

I'm looking at getting a few in the near future basically same except 1 size up I think.

I hear great thinks about Tunze (specifically money worth) all round from there filters to there pumps/powerheads.

To me Deltec is the be all end all but the price isn't justifiable...can get 2 Tunze skimmers for the price of 1 Deltec and I cannot see a Deltec outperforming a Tunze twice over...