Rovster's Custom Reef Savvy build......FINALLY!!!

rovster

rovster

New member
I know, I know....it's about time. As many of you know talks of this build started many moons ago, and due to certain life circumstances (aka...new baby, new business) things got delayed...very delayed. I have been posting many little tidbits of my build along the way, so many of you know where things are. My goal with the thread is to create a comprehensive build thread for my tank. I've always enjoyed going through build threads, and the more pics and DIY, the more enjoyable. I hope to provide just that here. I have tons of little projects I've completed along the way, and several more to come.

So stay tuned, grab your popcorn, and I hope you all enjoy. I will apologize in advance if this build thread is as slow as the actual build. Keep in mind I have almost 2 years worth of projects and hundreds of pictures to upload and sort through.

As for where I am right now in this project. Tank is wet and running. I'm in the process of cycling and still programming things. I have a few small projects to complete, but overall, tank is ready to move forward. A recent pic to wet your whistle.....



Lots more to come.....:uhoh3:
 
When choosing the equipment for the build, I tried to go with all solid components. As far as the tank goes, I chose Reef Savvy for their impeccable reputation. I decided to go custom because I wanted to squeeze the most tank I could in the space I had, and to be honest, I LOVE rimless and shallowish tanks. I say shallowish, because I my tank is now what I would consider a true shallow, but its width is greater than the depth. Its no secret that Reef Savvy tanks are not cheap. I tried to offset that cost with building my own stand. I will later post in exhaustive detail how I built and finished my stand. The dimensions of the tank are 52" x 26" x 19"tall. The closest stock tank to these dimensions is a 120, but I did not like the 24" height. So my tank is pretty much a 120 with the top chopped off. Here is an equipment list:

  1. Lighting: 3 Radion G2 Pros with Ecotech Hanging Kit. When I bought my lights, there was no pro, and no G2. When I upgraded my lights to pros, there was no G3. This has been the only sour point in my build. Had I had some forsight, I would have not bought the lights when I did, and probably gone with an ATI hybrid. That said, I have faith that these lights will work out well, and I can't wait to prove to Eddie that LEDs work, LOL! I had great success with LEDs in my biocube, so there's no reason these shouldn't do great. I am of the mentality that LEDs biggest shortcomming is not power but spread. If you notice, I could have easily got away with 2 Radions. I chose a third to get better spread of light, and more even distribution. I rather have more modules run lower, than less run at peak. I feel lots have problems here and it leads to more hotspots and burnt corals. We'll see if my theory pans out.
  2. Skimmer: SRO 2000 XP (Cone). Its a little overrated for my tank size, but I wanted to do SPS dominant with hopefully a good fish load.
  3. Flow: Origionally I had 2 MP40s. I added a third recently to better compliment my scape. Again, same theory as with the lights. More units turned down, then a couple at full blast.
  4. Return: Water Blaster 5000. Origionally I had an Eheim 1262 but quickly realized it was not enough pump for what I wanted to do. I also chose the WB for its supposed efficiency and quietness.
  5. Controller: Apex Lite. I chose the lite because I knew I was going with Ecotech lights and pumps, so all the controllability is built into those. I added a WXM for enhanced control of the lights and pumps.
  6. Sump: 40 BR DIY. More info on that later.
  7. Reactors: 2 Vertex reactors for Carbon and GFO.
  8. Dosing: 3 BRS 1.1 mL/min pumps. Right now planned for 2 part and Vinegar. Controlled via Apex.
  9. ATO: Tunze Osmolator. Love this thing. I had a custom acrylic ATO container made that holds about 10 gallons.
  10. Ecotech Battery Back up.
  11. 250 watt Eheim Jager heater, controlled via Apex


As far as sand and rock, I chose Tropic Eden Reef Flakes for my substrate. I chose it because everyone raves about it and being that I was going for tons of flow, I wanted a slightly larger grain that would stay put, at least mostly stay put. For rock, I got my stuff from BRS. Its mostly Pukani with some shelf and Tonga. I ended not using much of the shelf at all and will probably be for sale soon.
 
Great write up so far. Finally see this tank wet.. can't wait for the livestock to go in, good luck!
 
Thanks for all the nice comments. Speaking of live stock, I'd love for you guys to give me some feedback and possibly some suggestions. As far as coral, I plan on mostly SPS. I already have some ideas of where I will place most if not all of my pieces to create the masterpiece in my head, but we all know it never pans out that way.

What I was thinking was putting some of the branchier stag-like corals at the top of each island so that they can grow up and out. I was going to place the tabling and bushier variety a little lower and spread out on the lower half of the scape which should grow outward. As far as space fillers, I was going to use birdsnest and montis in the back half of the tank to sort of fill in the background and provide some depth and contrast, but I want the acros and milles to be up front and in your face. I was also thinking of some euphylias in the background as well, again for filling space and for some movement.

I'm also into favias so would like to place a few of those in the more shady areas around the perimeter of the islands. I really hope I can keep zoas in this tank, because in my 30 gallon, zoas look like crapola. I've almost given up on these beautiful little flowers.

I have a lot of the coral that I will be using, but there are still a few select pieces I'd like to get. As you all know, adding new corals and watching them grow is what makes this fun and exciting.
 
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Looking awesome Rovi. Im sure your SPS will do fine.

Regarding zoas, just put them on the floor. Even a monkey can grow those things. Clean, dirty water it doesnt matter. They grow like weeds.
 
You should see mine Eddie. They all are tiny and look like crapola. Frustrating really, because I love zoas.
 
Very nice, glad to see it going.

As for Zoas, They can be a bit more finicky than what Eddie describes. Clean/Dirty water, Yea, pretty much. But i think the key is that they get fed. I find that if i dont feed much, even if the water is clean and nitrates low or high they dont look right. When i feed more and there is more particulate matter in the water, they prefer that. Also, you dont have cyano, diatoms or dino in the tank currently do you? Based on experience, i can almost assuredly tell you that those will irritate many types of zoas and prohibit them from opening up. Mine looked like they were stretching for light (long stalks, small polyps) I had dinos recently and almost all my zoas started to shrivel, esp my rastas, jokers, and blooodshots. I did a 3-4 day black out period with a water change after. Dinos are gone and all my zoas are now open and plump. I have come to the conclusion that they stretch to try to get away from the dino/cyano/diatoms growing on the substrate around them.

Just my 2 cents on zoanthids.
 
blackthunda77 said:
Very nice, glad to see it going.

As for Zoas, They can be a bit more finicky than what Eddie describes. Clean/Dirty water, Yea, pretty much. But i think the key is that they get fed. I find that if i dont feed much, even if the water is clean and nitrates low or high they dont look right. When i feed more and there is more particulate matter in the water, they prefer that. Also, you dont have cyano, diatoms or dino in the tank currently do you? Based on experience, i can almost assuredly tell you that those will irritate many types of zoas and prohibit them from opening up. Mine looked like they were stretching for light (long stalks, small polyps) I had dinos recently and almost all my zoas started to shrivel, esp my rastas, jokers, and blooodshots. I did a 3-4 day black out period with a water change after. Dinos are gone and all my zoas are now open and plump. I have come to the conclusion that they stretch to try to get away from the dino/cyano/diatoms growing on the substrate around them.



Just my 2 cents on zoanthids.
Click to expand...

I sometimes see a tiny bit of cyano, but never on my zoas. I attribute that to the carbon dosing. You really have to look for it to see it, as its not detracting at all. I recently had an issue where my phos dropped to 0 and I lost some zoas. That said, my 30 has TONS of flow in it, and I think that is a big factor. I've noticed when my pumps bog down from needing a good cleaning, the zoas plump up along with my ricordias.

I'm hoping with my new scape, I can create some "sheltered" areas for zoas and my LPS.

And yeah, its nice to have this thing going already. Loving the ramping up and down of the Radions, and the custom programming of the Vortechs is insane. The other morning I was just watching the empty tank, when a small wave got going. It was the pumps going into Tidal Swell mode. So cool!
 
So, as I stare at this empty tank, I've been thinking a lot lately about how and with what kind of fish I want to stock it with. I was hoping I could get some pointers on compatibility, and order of stocking if it makes a difference. As far as fish load, the more the merrier, LOL! I currently have 9 fish in my 30 gallon, but most are on the small side. I definitely prefer more smaller fish than fewer large "show" fish. I like the aquarium to look busy, with lots of movement and such. Below I'll list some of my thoughts on what I would like to stock the tank with. I'll break it down to Large medium and small. These are relative terms, and "large for me" is not necessarily a big fish, but big for the size aquarium.

Large:
What is an aquarium without a tang? Face it, they are active, beautiful, and provide lots of movement. They are also very nice for the "non-reef" visitors. Unfortunately, my favorite fish the Achilles gets way to big for my tank, so getting one will have to wait for the next upgrade. Discussing tangs with different people will give you a huge range of opinions, from the tang Nazi's on the general forum, to some that have told me I can have multiple tangs in there. I believe the truth to be somewhere in between. My top choices for tangs are:
  1. Purple
  2. Yellow
  3. Kole
  4. Powder Blue

I was thinking realistically 1-2 from that list would be appropriate. My favorite fish from that list is the purple, that said I think a yellow tang, even though it's a very common fish, is a gorgeous blast of color for any aquarium. I would be worried that a yellow and purple would fight to the death.
as both are considered pretty aggressive. My concerns with the powder blue is how prone these guys are to ich. I do plan on a qt period for all fish, but if I decide on a powder blue, I will likely treat it actively, or at the minimum do an extended QT. The Kole is the obvious most "practical" choice, and although its a nice fish, the other 3 are much more attractive to me. The other reason for a tang or 2, although secondary, is hopefully they will help with grooming.

On to the medium fish. In this category, the first I would love to get is a dwarf angel. Very risky with all the corals I want, but man are they nice. Top contenders in this category is a Potters or a Flame. I'm thinking of adding this guy last, after the aquarium is a little more established, and most of the frags have had a chance to settle and grow out a bit.

Other medium fish I want to get are a group of anthias. Sunset and Bartletts are my favorite, but I may stick to the Lyretails because they seem to be a little more hardy. I love the color and movement a group of anthias provides. Whether I can keep them long term history will tell. I know some of you have had issues with them in the past. I will try though, that is one of my MUST TRY fish, LOL!

I was thinking that the first additions to the tank would be a trio of Blue Green chromis. Personally, I think these are cool fish. I hate the last man standing reputation, but they are cheap, good looking, and a good "tester fish". I know that sounds all wrong:rolleyes:

The last guys in the medium category is I think it would be nice to have a wrasse or 2 in there. Top contenders are the flame wrasse, but any of the variety of flasher and fairy wrasses is fair game.

In the small category, I already have a few of those, but one of my must haves is a Goby shrimp pair. I would also love to maybe have a few different varieties of gobies, as I think its cool to see them all hanging out in front of their dens around the perimeter of the islands.

Some of the fish I currently have will also be joining the party, which includes a pair of clowns, starry blenny, tanaka wrasse, pair of swissguard basslets, and 2 purple chromis.

The last one I am undecided on is whether or not I want to be brave and get a jawfish. They are SO COOL! That said, I know they come with their baggage, so I'll save that decision for later.

I know I listed a lot of fish up there. By no means am I going to get all of them, but those are the top contenders. I figure I got room to add a good amount of the smaller to medium fish, and I purposely went with a heavier skimmer for that reason. I also plan on carbon dosing to keep nutrients in check.

Any suggestions, recommendations, and tips regarding QT, compatability, and concerns with the above mentioned, feel free to comment. I'll try to get some more pics and DIY going in the next few days.
 
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