When I made my current tank, a 120 gallon SPS reef, I sort of jumped into it head first, and while I was somewhat thoughtful about how I did things, I made some clear planning mistakes that I'm sort of stuck with and I want to improve upon. Not to say there aren't great aspects of the current tank, but I want to take those and improve upon the bad parts.
So with that goal in mind I'm going to list all the problems I have with the old tank and how I will improve upon them. This exercise is mostly for myself to really think out the tank and try to catch any design problems before it's too late! I'd also love any feedback or suggestions for any section.
First about the size, the tank is replacing the spot where a pool table was, so the new dimensions are designed to roughly fit that space. Bigger is better! So the tank will likely be 96" x 36" wide x 30" deep, which I think is around 400 gallons. It will be acrylic like my current tank, which is working well and I see no reason to change.
Equipment section:
Problem: Accessing the back and side of the current tank is very hard
I put the tank in the corner of a room, which makes accessing the back and one side extremely difficult. When I drop stuff in the back of the tank or there is an aiptasia I need to zap back there, it's very hard to get to.
Planned Solution: New tank will be a peninsula, designed to be viewable on 3 sides and accessible on all 4. The good part about replacing a pool table is there are a few feet all the way around it so you had room to shoot, and now that space will be useful so I can access the tank all the way around. The reason I'm planning on 36" wide is that I believe I can comfortable access any point 18" from the side, and since I have access from all 4 sides every point will be within that distance.
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Problem: Sump is too small
This causes many problems. First, I have a 30 gallon glass aquarium as the sump, and the section with the return pump is only about 6 gallons. This means when I do water changes I can only take out about ~4 gallons before the return pump start shooting air. This is annoying.
Additionally, the sump is too cramped and there is no room for addition stuff. Just fitting the skimmer, the heaters, the return pump barely leaves any room for anything else. I think I'll be able to stuff an ATS in there, but that will be it. No room for improvement and very little space to tinker with equipment if necessary.
It also doesn't do a good job of getting rid of micro bubbles. The homemade baffles stink and the flow goes through it so quickly (since it is so small) they don't have time to go away.
Planned Solution: New sump will be big. Previously I spent all my time designing the aquarium and little to no time designing the sump. Not this time. The sump will have some key requirements. The section with the return pump needs to be big enough that I can comfortable remove 10% water volume without the pump sucking air. So this section will probably need to be at least 60 gallons. The baffles need to not suck and be designed thoughtfully so they actually get rid of micro bubbles. There needs to be space for the skimmer, heaters, as well as space around them so I can access them easily. There needs to be room for anything that might create bubbles (ATS for example) to be placed before the baffles. No microbubbles in the tank! Probably also should be room for a 50 gallon refugium. This will require further research but will probably be custom made as well with the tank.
--
Problem: Not enough T5s
To my eye I really love the color from T5s and mixing and matches bulbs to get the color I want. My current setup is 2 250w MHs with 4 T5s, but my flexibility is a bit limited with only 4 T5s that can only be controlled as sets of 2. I want a full actinic dust/dawn, but at the same time my desired color doesn't require 50% actinic bulbs.
Planned Solution: Instead of buying an off the shelf light I'm going to build myself a canopy so I can create whatever setup I want. At minimum I want 6 T5s going over the width, probably with 3 MHs going down the middle. Will research this further when I get to that point. I also want the canopy to be able to be raised and lowered by switch.
--
Problem: Microbubbles
My current tank has 2 corner overflows that each just have one hole. Currently I have stockman standpipes in each of them that are suitable quiet, but they create a lot of microbubbles as the water enters the sump and my poor sump design doesn't do a good enough job of getting rid of them.
Planned Solution: Smarter overflow! The peninsula style overflow will be done designed with a beananimal design which should minimize splashing and bubbles, and coupled with a smarter sump design should get rid of microbubbles.
--
Problem: Return pipes over the tank
I didn't get any holes drilled for the return flow, so I have loc-line pipe that wraps around the side and top of the tank. I actually specifically had designed this for some reason, but in retrospect this is annoying because I had to custom make covers that can account for the pipe, which is annoying and looks odd.
Planned Solution: There will be holes drilled for return pipe so there will be no pipes above the top of the tank. In fact all plumbing should be on the peninsula side of the tank. I actually like the look of plumbing so I think I'll keep it exposed, but once it goes over the tank it creates practical problems that I want to avoid.
--
Tank design/livestock problems:
Problem: Rocks are too close to the aquarium sides
When I made the rockscape, I was smart not to be rocks right up against the sides, but even still I have rocks that are 3-4" away which makes cleaning the acrylic too difficult. As coralline algae is the bane of my existence and will cover my acrylic in a few weeks if left unchecked, I have to clean it a lot. When the rocks are only 3-4" away, there isn't enough space for me to muscle it off.
Planned Solution: All base rockwork will be at least 8" from the aquarium sides. So this means the usable rockspace area in the middle will be 80" x 20", which I think should still be more than enough to have a creative design. And as corals grow out this space will be naturally taken up anyways, but with corals I can just frag them if they get too close to the sides.
--
Problem: Rocks aren't where the lights are
I'm running out of places to put corals because I designed a rockspace I thought looked cool, but with little thought into where the high PAR zones were and to optimize surface area around these spaces for the most SPS.
Planned Solution: The new rockspace will focus heavily on maximizing the surface area where SPS corals can be placed in high PAR zones, and then I'll get creative about other aspects of the rockwork in the low PAR zones. So basically there will probably be pyramids or large flat sections centered under the MHs.
--
Problem: Vermetid snails
These guys are annoying and everywhere. I will prevent them from getting into the new one.
Planned Solution: I'll experiment/research and find a dip that kills them without killing my corals and do that with all corals going into the tank. No rock will be re-used. I will also make sure there are potential predators (wrasses) stocked in the tank early on, so hopefully they'll kill any if they manage to get into the tank.
----------
Things that are working great on current tank and will be continued:
- Calcium reactor + Masterflex pump + Electronic Regular
- Apex controller
- MH + T5 (mentioned above)
- Pukani dry rock (phosphates reduced with Lanthanum chloride last time -- this time I'll probably also do bleach + acid baths before the Lanthanum)
- 2-3" sand bed
So with that goal in mind I'm going to list all the problems I have with the old tank and how I will improve upon them. This exercise is mostly for myself to really think out the tank and try to catch any design problems before it's too late! I'd also love any feedback or suggestions for any section.
First about the size, the tank is replacing the spot where a pool table was, so the new dimensions are designed to roughly fit that space. Bigger is better! So the tank will likely be 96" x 36" wide x 30" deep, which I think is around 400 gallons. It will be acrylic like my current tank, which is working well and I see no reason to change.
Equipment section:
Problem: Accessing the back and side of the current tank is very hard
I put the tank in the corner of a room, which makes accessing the back and one side extremely difficult. When I drop stuff in the back of the tank or there is an aiptasia I need to zap back there, it's very hard to get to.
Planned Solution: New tank will be a peninsula, designed to be viewable on 3 sides and accessible on all 4. The good part about replacing a pool table is there are a few feet all the way around it so you had room to shoot, and now that space will be useful so I can access the tank all the way around. The reason I'm planning on 36" wide is that I believe I can comfortable access any point 18" from the side, and since I have access from all 4 sides every point will be within that distance.
--
Problem: Sump is too small
This causes many problems. First, I have a 30 gallon glass aquarium as the sump, and the section with the return pump is only about 6 gallons. This means when I do water changes I can only take out about ~4 gallons before the return pump start shooting air. This is annoying.
Additionally, the sump is too cramped and there is no room for addition stuff. Just fitting the skimmer, the heaters, the return pump barely leaves any room for anything else. I think I'll be able to stuff an ATS in there, but that will be it. No room for improvement and very little space to tinker with equipment if necessary.
It also doesn't do a good job of getting rid of micro bubbles. The homemade baffles stink and the flow goes through it so quickly (since it is so small) they don't have time to go away.
Planned Solution: New sump will be big. Previously I spent all my time designing the aquarium and little to no time designing the sump. Not this time. The sump will have some key requirements. The section with the return pump needs to be big enough that I can comfortable remove 10% water volume without the pump sucking air. So this section will probably need to be at least 60 gallons. The baffles need to not suck and be designed thoughtfully so they actually get rid of micro bubbles. There needs to be space for the skimmer, heaters, as well as space around them so I can access them easily. There needs to be room for anything that might create bubbles (ATS for example) to be placed before the baffles. No microbubbles in the tank! Probably also should be room for a 50 gallon refugium. This will require further research but will probably be custom made as well with the tank.
--
Problem: Not enough T5s
To my eye I really love the color from T5s and mixing and matches bulbs to get the color I want. My current setup is 2 250w MHs with 4 T5s, but my flexibility is a bit limited with only 4 T5s that can only be controlled as sets of 2. I want a full actinic dust/dawn, but at the same time my desired color doesn't require 50% actinic bulbs.
Planned Solution: Instead of buying an off the shelf light I'm going to build myself a canopy so I can create whatever setup I want. At minimum I want 6 T5s going over the width, probably with 3 MHs going down the middle. Will research this further when I get to that point. I also want the canopy to be able to be raised and lowered by switch.
--
Problem: Microbubbles
My current tank has 2 corner overflows that each just have one hole. Currently I have stockman standpipes in each of them that are suitable quiet, but they create a lot of microbubbles as the water enters the sump and my poor sump design doesn't do a good enough job of getting rid of them.
Planned Solution: Smarter overflow! The peninsula style overflow will be done designed with a beananimal design which should minimize splashing and bubbles, and coupled with a smarter sump design should get rid of microbubbles.
--
Problem: Return pipes over the tank
I didn't get any holes drilled for the return flow, so I have loc-line pipe that wraps around the side and top of the tank. I actually specifically had designed this for some reason, but in retrospect this is annoying because I had to custom make covers that can account for the pipe, which is annoying and looks odd.
Planned Solution: There will be holes drilled for return pipe so there will be no pipes above the top of the tank. In fact all plumbing should be on the peninsula side of the tank. I actually like the look of plumbing so I think I'll keep it exposed, but once it goes over the tank it creates practical problems that I want to avoid.
--
Tank design/livestock problems:
Problem: Rocks are too close to the aquarium sides
When I made the rockscape, I was smart not to be rocks right up against the sides, but even still I have rocks that are 3-4" away which makes cleaning the acrylic too difficult. As coralline algae is the bane of my existence and will cover my acrylic in a few weeks if left unchecked, I have to clean it a lot. When the rocks are only 3-4" away, there isn't enough space for me to muscle it off.
Planned Solution: All base rockwork will be at least 8" from the aquarium sides. So this means the usable rockspace area in the middle will be 80" x 20", which I think should still be more than enough to have a creative design. And as corals grow out this space will be naturally taken up anyways, but with corals I can just frag them if they get too close to the sides.
--
Problem: Rocks aren't where the lights are
I'm running out of places to put corals because I designed a rockspace I thought looked cool, but with little thought into where the high PAR zones were and to optimize surface area around these spaces for the most SPS.
Planned Solution: The new rockspace will focus heavily on maximizing the surface area where SPS corals can be placed in high PAR zones, and then I'll get creative about other aspects of the rockwork in the low PAR zones. So basically there will probably be pyramids or large flat sections centered under the MHs.
--
Problem: Vermetid snails
These guys are annoying and everywhere. I will prevent them from getting into the new one.
Planned Solution: I'll experiment/research and find a dip that kills them without killing my corals and do that with all corals going into the tank. No rock will be re-used. I will also make sure there are potential predators (wrasses) stocked in the tank early on, so hopefully they'll kill any if they manage to get into the tank.
----------
Things that are working great on current tank and will be continued:
- Calcium reactor + Masterflex pump + Electronic Regular
- Apex controller
- MH + T5 (mentioned above)
- Pukani dry rock (phosphates reduced with Lanthanum chloride last time -- this time I'll probably also do bleach + acid baths before the Lanthanum)
- 2-3" sand bed
