60g 36Lx24Wx18H brick build log (56K go home)

[ReeferMonkey]

So after sitting on some equipment and other stuff for a while, I've decided to try to build some positive pressure for this project by starting a build log. I've been wanting to upgrade to a bigger system since I moved to Dallas and brought the Minibow with me. I made a temporary step up to a 20L while I planned a 5' x 3' system. Unfortunately, the financial realities of a system that large started to set in and I put my plans off for a while.

Finding that Glass Cages had a truck coming my way in about a month, I got the ball rolling to design my new system. The tank specs were:

36L x 24W x 18H, approx. 60g
brick style, 1/2" glass
Calfo-style linear overflow

I originally wanted to go with low-iron but felt that it wouldn't have made a massive difference on a 3' tank. The upgrade was also 25% of the cost of the system, so to keep it lean I decided against it. The tank, with shipping, came to a modest total of $390.

Here is the 3d rendering I sent to Tom at Glass Cages. It later changed to remove the return line completely.


I got excited, made arrangements for the pick-up and unfortunately, upon my arrival at the delivery site, found my tank built incorrectly. Lisa, the delivery driver for GC, got me on the phone with Tom. My impression was that he didn't want to waste his time with a hassle and told me to just leave it. Unfortunately, their next delivery date was 6+ months away, so that wrecked my plans. I chose to take the tank home and negotiated a partial refund for the upgrades paid for but not delivered.

Here's the tank I got.






Not the end of the world but not exactly what I paid for. The sides were spec 3/8" trim with euro and trim. Again, not brick and not what I wanted. In speaking with Tom, he said that his crew built it incorrectly the first time, rebuilt it and then shipped the wrong aquarium. There was a truck coming through Oklahoma City, a 3 hour drive, and I opted to exchange tanks.

I took the day off of work and rode with a friend to pick up the aquarium. This time it was built correctly, but had a 1/4" wide x 1/8" deep chip on the right pane at the very top. Disappointed but not outraged, I took the tank home.

Here it is.

[ReeferMonkey]

A local hobbyist is building my stand as we speak. It's a maple stand with simple lines and clean details. The construction is complete and we've made one round through stain selection. I'm going over to his place tomorrow to approve the final color. I still need to select some hardware as well. After that, I should have the stand by the weekend!

This was the first picture that really inspired me. Very clean, very sleek, very minimal.


RRodrigues tank build also was very inspirational. This helped define the look I'm working towards.


I found a system for sale in Jersey that was a beautiful furniture-grade stand with clean lines. Unfortunately, the pics are on my work machine. I'll have to post them later.

Meanwhile, I've been amassing equipment.

Eheim 1262 and 3/4" sea swirl.



Two Via Aqua 150W heaters.


This I already had, PGS Lumenarc 3 Mini, 250W ARO e-ballast and 10K CV Reeflux bulb.


A local buddy of mine had 40# of nice Marshall. I'm planning on getting a little Tonga branch to use as a support system for the Marshall, keeping it up off the sandbed. I also prefer a minimal rockscape. I'm a landscape architect by trade and look forward to aquascaping the tank. I love the dimensions!

[ReeferMonkey]

I'm still a few items short. For a combo sump/fuge I plan on going with a Trigger Systems TS30BR, a 30" combo Berlin sump and refugium.


David @ TS is an excellent craftsman and produces beautiful work with some very nice bells and whistles. I'm pushing a lot of flow through the sump, so the diffusers on the sump and refugium drains are a nice touch, as are the media baskets. Eventually I'll have David add probe holders and an effluent cup like he did for Ryan (Servo), one of my local buddies.

I'm on the fence about a skimmer. My dream skimmer is a H&S A-150 F2001, but with a price tag of $650 I don't think it will be my immediate choice as there will be other setup and equipment costs to manage. My current thought is to get a smaller Euroreef for around $200. The CS 80 is rated for a system of this size and is reasonably priced. At a later date, I can upgrade to the H&S and shuffle the ER off to my prop/quarantine tank.

Circulation is also still a big unknown. I'm a big fan of the Tunze products. I previously owned a set of 6100s but sold them off when I put off the big upgrade. Ah, hindsight.... The new Nano Streams have caught my eye but of course I'll want the $200 controllable models.... For the time being I'll use the Seio 820s from my 20L as I piece together my new circulation system.

An option I've been kicking around is to use a corner Wave2K unit opposite the Sea Swirl. Another local buddy of mine has a center unit on his 40BR SPS tank and it moves a very large amount of water. However, this system may end up being near my bed and noise is a big issue with the Wave2Ks. We'll see.

[143gadgets]

Nice setup. Can't wait for more pics!

[rbaker]

[moved]

[ReeferMonkey]

Finally, livestock.

I'm a big nut about keeping fish - while I enjoy tangs and other large fish, I feel that the native range these fish have in the wild disqualify them from being well-suited for aquarium life. Instead, I prefer to keep fish that are reef-dwellers with small territorial ranges. Of course, this is not always the case, but I do my best to match fish and aquarium.

My preliminary stocking idea is:
Dwarf Pygmy Angel, added last
Yasha Haze + Pistol pair
5-7 Redspot Cardinalfish (Apogon parvulus)

I'm quite fond of Sunburst Anthias but given their temperment and difficulty in captive care I suspect I'm going to pass. I have a dealer holding 4 Redspots for me as we speak, once I give him the word he'll send them out. The Angel is intended to be the boss of the tank, I've had one before and find them to be well-behaved and entertaining. A Midas Blenny or possibly some Firefish may make it on the list but I'm not sure. I've also considered Fairy or Flasher Wrasses, as one of my LFS gets some beautiful specimens, but the open top makes me a little hesitant.

Inverts are some of my favorite critters for the reef tank, so I suspect I'll have cleaner and peppermint shrimp as well as emerald and porcelain crabs. I love Fromia and Linkia stars but am not sure I want to keep one in a system this small.

Corals will be heavy SPS with some zoanthids, mushrooms and LPS thrown in to keep things interesting. I've got some nice zoanthids and shrooms, but unfortunately due to a number of factors have lost most of my nicest acros, including 2 year old Cali Tort and Larry Jackson Tricolor colonies, a 4" deepwater piece and a few large frag/small colonies that I've had for a while.

Thankfully, there are some really great folks in our local club and several have some pieces waiting in the wings. Once the tank gets up and stable, I don't think it will be a lot of effort to get it up to snuff.

[SERVO]

Scwheeeet! Can't wait to see you get it up and rockin.

[melev]

Very nice, Nathan. Glad you finally got the tank you ordered.

[albert7753]

Glad your on your way...can't wait to see it up and running. If you need any help let me know I am not that far

[schwaggs]

Originally posted by ReeferMonkey
I'm quite fond of Sunburst Anthias but given their temperment and difficulty in captive care I suspect I'm going to pass.

A very good replacement for the sunburst is the Female Lyretail Anthias Pseudanthias squampinnis Live Aquaria Link . They are similar in color, are always swimming at the top of the tank (they don't hide like other Anthias), survive captivity very well and school together. The last cool thing about the Lyretail Anthias is that they are cheap!

[ReeferMonkey]

Originally posted by schwaggs
A very good replacement for the sunburst is the Female Lyretail Anthias Pseudanthias squampinnis Live Aquaria Link . They are similar in color, are always swimming at the top of the tank (they don't hide like other Anthias), survive captivity very well and school together. The last cool thing about the Lyretail Anthias is that they are cheap!

I'm pretty fond of Lyretails but due to a hectic schedule, I'm anxious about any anthias due to the regular feeding necessary, even if only for the first few weeks/months. That doesn't mean they're out of the running, though.

[mntl]

Following along.

Looks good, interested to see progress!!

Bump.

-John-

[TCU Reefer]

This is going to be a kick a$$ system! Can't wait for more updates.

[CamBarr]

sweet tank i cant wait to see a fts

[PrangeWay]

That sump is very very cool.

Are you going for more lighting besides just one lumenarc? I know it spreads the light well, but the output is still a fixed quantity.

And what program was used for the rendering?


PW

[tesfeld]

Lookin good! Time spent during the planning phase can't be beat and you will be rewarded for it. Glad glass cages got you squared away.

[ReeferMonkey]

Originally posted by PrangeWay
That sump is very very cool.

Are you going for more lighting besides just one lumenarc? I know it spreads the light well, but the output is still a fixed quantity.

And what program was used for the rendering?


PW

For the time being, I think one 250W lamp should be enough. I don't like the shadows that it will generate but the coverage from the L3M is very good and should suffice for a while. I've got a long list of items that are more important to me than another lamp, so until those are acquired the extra lamp will have to wait.

In my 20L, I've had to pull the lamp 14"-16" up from the surface of the water (heat issues) and I was getting good growth before things started to go south. I plan on putting a shield in the L3M and lowering it to about 6"-8" from the surface, so I think that in an 18" tank that should be fine. Hopefully it will also help contain the light bleed I'm getting (my bedroom is lit up like Christmas from 2P-10P daily, admission is $1

I used SketchUp for the drawing - www.sketchup.com.

[ReeferMonkey]

Getting up this morning, I was excited because I was going to go approve the stain and take some pictures of the stand at the builder's place. Unfortunately a large resort project in our office had some 11th hour changes before a Tuesday AM meeting and I became one of the people responsible for getting the work done. If everything goes to plan, I should have pics Wednesday.

[gary faulkner]

Start of a very nice tank. I'm going to be tagging along.

[Milleme]

This looks like its gonna turn out realy kool.

the only thing i would have done differently is put the the overflow on the outside.

[jman77]

Looks good ...

[ReeferMonkey]

Originally posted by Milleme
This looks like its gonna turn out realy kool.

the only thing i would have done differently is put the the overflow on the outside.

That was originally my plan, but GC wouldn't build an external overflow. If I had gone with AO, will would have definitely hooked it up (apparently they're doing a lot of them these days) but unfortunately it was not to be.

[SERVO]

Originally posted by ReeferMonkey
That was originally my plan, but GC wouldn't build an external overflow. If I had gone with AO, will would have definitely hooked it up (apparently they're doing a lot of them these days) but unfortunately it was not to be.

Deja Vu!!!

Happy Birfday Shorty

[ReeferMonkey]

For my birthday, my fiancee decided I needed a good skimmer and donated a generouse $225 to the cause Now I'm forced to make a difficult decision as to which skimmer I actually want. This is where you come in! Help out by relaying your experiences with any of the models listed below. I'm primarily interested in recirculating needlewheel skimmers for ease of use, direct overflow feed and low W consumption. I'm also VERY limited in sump space (about 9" x 15") although there will be a small amount of room in my stand that I could use.

There are two ways I can do this - I can buy one that I can afford now or I can scrimp and save for another month, possibly letting my new tank run for a while without a new skimmer. I'm not real hot about this idea, but I don't like buying equipment over and over either. I think that due to the long list of stuff I still need, I'm probably going to go with affordable now and buy premium way down the road.

That said, the contenders are:

H&S A150-F2001 $650
H&S A110-F2000 $450
Big pros here are high build quality, recirc, great pumps, great product support. Lows are high cost. The A150 is pretty much my dream skimmer for the new setup.

ER CS80 $200
Solid reputation, good skimmer. Not recirc, product support questionable.

DAS EX-1 $250ish (retail $330, but I should be getting a good deal)
Recirc, affordable, Deltec imitator, can skim like a beast. Questionable build quality and product support.

PCI RPS 2000 $280
Recirc, relatively affordable, Deltec imitator. Even more questionable build quality and product support.

I'm leaning towards the DAS EX-1 for now, with a long-term goal of acquiring the A150. Your thoughts?

[nebraskareef]

I've got a RPS-2000 and the build quality is great! Where have you heard of people with problems? The one thing I really hate is the drain on the cup. It makes it kind of a pain to remove the cup with one hand.

I'm waiting on my DAS ex-2.

Any of those choices will be good ones though.

Daniel