My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots of pics

[slief]

Jim took the other cowfish home with him and I picked up another one from him today along with a used 30 gallon tank and stand he had. Hopefully the new cowfish doesn't bug my coral like the last one. The other cowfish I've had never bothered corals so I'm hopeful this one will be fine.

On to this new tank. It's 24"x24"x 12" tall. I'm setting it up as a display refugium. It will be fed by a line off my manifold and drain back into the main refugium under the tank near the return inlet. I will keep the flow coming into the tank very slow and augment it with an MP10 or something. I have a small Koralia which I will start with. I have to get a light for it and am leaning towards a single Kessil 360 N or W depending on how high I go with the light. You can see in the photo below that the stand included a light light hanger mount of sorts.

The plan is to have some live sand on the bottom with a live rock island in the middle that rises out of the water. I will probably add a fiddler crab or something that can take up residence on the island. I will add some mangroves which will be suspended off the bottom so that their roots create little habitats as they grown down into the sand. I will also add a variety of macro algae, sea fans, gorgonia etc. I will seed it with a variety of copepods and maybe add some sea horses and a pair of cardinal fish that can breed in it.

I will work on the plumbing over the next couple days but water will drain via a stand pipe and enter the tank via a stand pipe with a couple lock line fittings positioned near the surface of the water.

Here is a shot of the tank. I've got to get the 14 gallon tank out of there and move the cabinet that the 14 is on so I can center the new tank in the room.

 

[slief]

Got the inlet and drain inside the tank setup and painted black. I may add a T fitting with a 1/4" semi rigid line to the inlet side below the 2 lineloc lines. I would route that line to the top of the island to create a stream or some sort of flow from the peak of the island to keep it wet above the water line. I'm going to Plasticoat the back of the tank tomorrow so it's a black back.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

Great updated video and love your new additions. What is the flow rate in your tank(like 10X or 20X). Will it be suffice for like a boxfish considering as you said fighting for food? Hope I explained that correctly.

 

[slief]

Great updated video and love your new additions. What is the flow rate in your tank(like 10X or 20X). Will it be suffice for like a boxfish considering as you said fighting for food? Hope I explained that correctly.

I'm not completely sure of my flow rate. I've got a hammerhead gold (5500GPH Max) return pump that's gated down a bit, a dart gold (3600GPH Max) for recirculation,, two Tunze 6205's (5800GPH Max), one 6105 (3400GPH Max) and a Koralia 1400 (1400GPH) . At it's peak, I'm sure it's WELL over 20X inside the tank which is not ideal for cowfish. It's less than 10X through the sump though.

I've had a couple cowfish that did fine and were able to chase the food down or pick up leftovers off the bottom but there were others that didn't and had to be relocated. We will see how the new one does. Worst case, I will program in some feed timers via my Apex that shut the power heads down during feeding. It's a feature I've never used though as I use the flow to disperse the food around the tank. That said, if I can train him to eat in a certain place in the tank, there is an area with less flow that would provide an easier spot for it to eat. Problem is that in my experience, cowfish as dumb as nails! LOL

It will be off to Lowes shortly to get some union ball valves for the bottom of the new tank. Depending on how outgoing I am today, I might just get it plumbed in to the rest of the system. Hopefully I will have a worthy update later today.

 

[slief]

New tank is plumbed into my system and up and running. I through a few pieces of live rock from my sump into it as well as a couple from my refugium that were covered in coraline. Also put some live sand on the bottom.

I'll put more live rock in tomorrow and mess with the layout a bit more. I may glue the rocks together to create something more interesting as I still plan on building an island that extends out of the water a bit. Good news is that there are no leaks. It's fed from my manifold and drains into a "T" fitting I placed in my chiller return line. Since the tank is well above the sump level, it drains just fine through the chiller line which returns into the sump near the return pump bulkhead. I will order up some macro algae and some mangroves this week and may transplant a mangrove from my sump tomorrow.



Only one minor problem.... I've got to come up with a light for it. I'm leaning towards a Kessil.

 

[slief]

Just got through adding more rock, rearranging to create a bit of a raised island that I will probably add too. I also pulled two mangroves from the sump below my display and transplanted into the new tank. I've got a fair amount of soft corals growing all over the bottom of my main display. I will probably pick a few of the leater or finger coral frags from the bottom of my tank and stick them in the new tank to give it some life. Hopefully I can get a light on this thing in the next couple days so I can proceed with those plans. I'm going to add a fiddler crab tomorrow though.

Here are a few pics. The water was still cloudy from me digging around in the sand. It's hard to see because of the cloudiness but there is a great cave front and center.

 

[slief]

I picked up a couple small Fiddler Crabs, a feather duster and a cleaner shrimp from my LFS. I also moved a small xenia from from dispaly and put it on the sand bed along with a small mushroom rock.

I also borrowed a Kessil 350W from a friend to try out on the tank. Pretty cool little light.

Here are a few pictures.

 

[Mr. Brooks]

Looks great!! I see you went with the chain

 

[slief]

Looks great!! I see you went with the chain

Yea, I got a threaded rod that I can use instead of the chain but the chain was simple and easy for test purposes. Thanks again for letting me play with the light. Not bad at all though. Maybe a bit on the blue side but I like it! It's hard to get a decent picture though with the led on. Now I've got to decide which way I'm going to go with the lighting. If anything, I would go with the 360We unless I go another route entirely.

 

[slief]

One of the two little crabs sitting on the island.

 

[dave.m]

Super blue lights are fine for corals, but how will the mangroves respond to it?

Dave.M

 

[slief]

Super blue lights are fine for corals, but how will the mangroves respond to it?

Dave.M

That was my thought too. If I turn the blues all the way down, the color is better but not very bright. This light is a loaner anyways so I've got a bit of time to decide what to light it with.

 

[MxReEfEr92]

That was my thought too. If I turn the blues all the way down, the color is better but not very bright. This light is a loaner anyways so I've got a bit of time to decide what to light it with.

I am trying to get that 360 for you. It's better because you can have the light at 100% intensity with 10k color instead of being forced to run 50% at 10k, 50% at 420nm or 100% at 20k

 

[reef_of_flames]

Looks great!

 

[slief]

I've been moving some smaller pieces of soft coral that have been growing on the bottom of my display and putting them in the new little tank. It's starting to look pretty good. Even cut off a couple pieces of my star polyps that are growing like weeds. I'm pretty pleased with the way this new little tank turned out. I need to get some macro algae ordered up and I'm also thinking about adding a pair of Bangai cardinals or clowns to it so they have a safe breeding area. I've had lots of luck with breeding cardinals and even clownfish in my display however the babies always end up part of the food chain.

 

[slief]

Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

 

[reef_of_flames]

Wow that new tank came together super quickly, AND it looks awesome!

 

[ERivera65]

Wow looks badass!

 

[coraltastic]

Wow awsome tanks

 

[slief]

Wow that new tank came together super quickly, AND it looks awesome!

I'm not one to waste time! It's especially convenient when you don't have to worry about cycles. I still need to remove some more coral fragments from the bottom of my display and transplant them into the new little tank. I also need to order some macro for it.

Wow looks badass!

Wow awsome tanks

Thanks guys! I'm really pleased with it thus far.

Now I just need to decide on the permanent lighting. I've got a line a used Maxspect Razor 120w 10K fixture that might just be ideal for this tank. I like the Kessil but it's single point source creates some shadows around the mangroves and I've also got it adjusted more to the white side which at the height I have it hanging off the water, reduces some if it's brightness. That is one area I think the Kessil 360 would improve upon over the 350 that I am currently borrowing. If I decide to go with the Razor, I could have it as early as tomorrow. I like the fact that it's 10K and gives me the ability to have a gentle sunrise/sunset cycle.