BBMarlin

Look and sounds great! How did you plumb your drain stand pipes?

This sounds like a good option for me. Thanks.

That sounds like a great setup! My garage is directly below the tank and I certainly have considered a similar configuration. I would have to drill a hole in my floor to accomplish this and not sure what kind of pump I could use to deal with ~25 feet.

Indeed! I'm thinking I will go with a RO/DI reservoir under the tank with a float and still run a ATO. I will plumb the RO/DI unit to the sink and to the reservoir in the stand and run it manually when I'm running low. This way I can flush the membrane before I use it, and I won't have to worry about floods as long as I don't forget to turn the main going to the RO/DI unit off. I really wanted to just leave the RO/DI running all the time and not have to worry about top off any more but this is probably not worth the risk. @jolthow are you doing it on your larger tank?

Tank arrived today! Still a construction zone in my media room, but happy to get this beast up the the stairs as it was a lot heavier than expected.

Let there be (lots of) light! Interesting that the fixture enclosure on the 2 new T247s are a shade or two lighter than the older lights (~2years). Jake says he should have my tank on Friday!

My aquarium will be here next week! The custom planet aquarium I ordered is a 48” x 24” x 25” with an internal overflow, crystal 36 sump and a gray stand. I initially was going to go with an external overflow but since my tank is against a wall and feedback from @Jimbo662 regarding the noise of the OEM external - I felt it made more sense for me to go with the internal overflow. I love taller tanks, so I decided to go with a custom aquarium that added a solid 4” to the height of the tank compared to the prefab builds. I ordered another custom “kit” from eztube to extend my OR T247 light rack to 4 lights. You can see my custom light rack that I designed in my other build thread here: Still need to assemble the new light rack and figure out how I’m going to attach the two light racks together to make my 4-light fixture. I had great success with 2 of the T247s over my 76 Gallon, I figure adding 2 more T247s will be lighting overkill for this 125. I would rather have too much light than too little for this SPS dominant tank (can always adjust downward) , I'll take PAR measurements once I get everything set. Circulation will be driven by el cheapo Jabeo PP-20s. My experience with Jabeo has been mixed, I’ve found that as long as you keep their circulation pumps running at a lower setting they tend to last. If you run them full blast, they crap out on you in < 6 months. Their return pumps seem to be solid however. No skimmer will be used in this set up unless something prevents me from controlling nutrients with simple water changes. I’ve always used 2-part dosing to control chemistry for my demanding SPS coral, once I get this tank stable and growing I plan on plumbing in a calcium reactor to eliminate the PITA with two-part maintenance. I’m fortunate to have a sink adjacent to my tank that I will plumb a RODI unit directly into my tank for topoff and no longer having to lug 5-gallon jugs upstairs!!!! For controlling I will use a APEX Jr. for those very few items that I need to control/monitor remotely. **I'm going to try my hardest to not overstock this tank with coral - and provide significant spacing between frags. This to prevent SPS colonies from gowning into each other - I believe this has caused me issues in the past.** Pics coming soon.

Thanks Jimbo. I'm considering changing my order (if I can) to the internal overflow after reading more about the noise of the Tideline. I sure don't want to have a noisy tank!

Update! Total Crash! Well unfortunately my tank crashed earlier this summer. All acros were lost. I’m not exactly sure what happened, once things started to go downhill; things spiraled out of control very quickly (Alk swings that I tried but could not control). This is the third time I’ve had my tank crash in the 10 years I’ve been keeping SPS corals. Part of the problem I believe is my success in growing large coral in a smallish tank. The margin of error that I have in my two-part dosing is small given the demand of the larger coral and relatively small volume of water. The LPS corals I have are fine notwithstanding my prized rainbow wellsophyllia. The wellso probably succumbed to the wild ride of Alk swings with the extreme change in demand in my 76 gallons. Time for a change: Stopped by RCA today and ordered a Planet Aquariums Crystaline Premium Reef w/external overflow (125 gallons)! I’m looking forward to an increase in water volume and more stability in the years ahead! Tank should be here in 2-4 weeks and keep an eye out for my new build thread, still going go skimmerless and looking forward to implementing a calcium reactor. Never had a calc reactor before so I’m going to need advice on equipment and setup. See you soon in another thread once I get my new tank! This is my ICP water test from my tank in June during the crash, let me know if you spot something, Aluminum?:

Light bar setup is very cool!

Anecdotally i have an anthias that had swim bladder problems (could not right itself and would swim upside down mostly). He was eating and otherwise healthy, it took several weeks but eventually the issue resolved on its own.

I'll typically take a few cuttings and place them at various places par/flow to mitigate this type of thing. Nice piece, been there!

Looks good!

Drill the rocks and use acrylic rods to stabilize the structure. You will be glad you went through this effort long term.

I'll take 11 and 9. Thanks

Is an mp40 available?

I sealed the wet and up with silicon to make it waterproof. It comes in handy from time to time when trying to figure out where the bright/not bright spots are in the tank.

Yep! You still got yours? Let me know if you need another frag.

Thanks! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep I’ve read it, great recommendation. I have experienced more than one crash over the years due to most likely DOC from the excessive algae once the balance of the tank is upset. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! Few of those corals are from you. I think that red robin is invasive, lol.

New Year Update! My tank has been running without a skimmer for over 6 months now. Since removing my skimmer, I have noticed an explosion of sponge activity in my system. SPS corals are growing at a faster rate as well! If you look closely at the pics you should see white sponge in all of my shaded areas of the tank. The rubble I keep in my sump is covered in sponge as well. I am now dosing BRS 2 part at over 130ml/day, and I have been able to keep my parameters stable. PO4 runs anywhere from .05 - .1 and my system seems to look the happiest when PO4 is on the lower side of that range and algae growth is slow and manageable. I ended up having to dose potassium nitrate to bring my nitrate up to ~5-12PPM. This was only needed one time and it’s been fine since. Before dosing the KNO3, nitrate was undetectable. I did have an issue a few months ago where I could not get my calcium level above 300ppm, I was dosing about 2x the amount of calcium carbonate as compared to soda ash and still could not get above 300. Then one day it started snowing white stuff in in my tank (calcium precipitate) with my CA still at < 300. Scratching my head, I tested my Mg at < 900ppm. Once I corrected my Mg my CA shot up to 450 and my Alk decreased from 7.5 (sweet spot for this tank) to 5DKH! Everything has since stabilized, while I’ve read about magnesium’s role in the reef aquarium, I’ve never watched it that closely. I will be testing it more often now! Since running without a skimmer, I have observed a few things. When my coral are not happy, (visual observation) nutrients spike up significantly. I assume that these issues are more pronounced in my system given that I have no filtration other than the coral and sponges. Without careful observation things could spiral out of control quickly with algae wining the battle for nutrient consumption and upsetting the balance of my reef. I keep 8-10 fish in this 80-gallon system and various inverts (snails, urchins and a few crabs). Typically, I do a 4-5 gallon a water change every week and most of my maintenance time these days is dealing with corals growing into each other. Check out my tank from a little over 12 months ago: And today (just cleaned, corals are a little peeved):

Persistent manual removal (including scrubbing rocks with a toothbrush) and small weekly water changes will likely do the trick. it's important that your corals are happy and consuaming the nutrients in the water column to out compete the algae. You will never be 100% free of hair algae IME.

I can come up to your school next week, if that works for you.