nuxx Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Hey everyone decided it's time to start on another tank... Currently we're using a standard 55 Gallon tank with a HOB skimmer, Canister Filter with Live Rock Rubble, Chinese Dimmable LEDs and small powerheads. The tank has some Live Rock in the center and about a 1" sandbed. Besides the filtration and water movement being less than ideal, we also don't like how tall and narrow the tank is. Also might get full pretty fast... Decided to go with a glass tank since the tank won't see as much attention as the display, and I don't want to deal with scratches and getting coralline algae off of the tank if I don't clean for a while. After looking around we decided to go with A.G.E. (Acrylic and Glass Exhibits - http://www.acrylicandglassexhibits.com/) in Dallas. We really liked the look of the tanks, don't see many horror stories about them and we can just go pickup the tank when done. After looking where we wanted the tank to go in the house and also what we were going to end up keeping, we decided on a 60x36x16" footprint. Specs: - 3/4" Glass front, back and sides. - PVC bottom - External overflow with three 1.5" drains (Bean Animal) and two 1" returns. - Stainless steel rims. Here is the mockup from A.G.E. Not really sure on any of the equipment yet, would be open to any suggestions. I was thinking of using either Kessil A160WEs or A360WEs with their controller, since we run A360WEs on the display tank and should help with acclimation. For water movement was thinking either 2 Jebao Powerheads or a Gyre pump. For the returns I was going to use a Jebao DC pump, maybe two smaller ones. Not sure. We were going to try to build the sump, not sure how that would go. What would you suggest sump size? No idea on Skimmers, Reactors, etc... What would you guys run reactor or dosing wise? Going to be mainly SPS, LPS and polyps. I've been running a fishless frag system so far, but feel the corals would just get more benefit out of having a fish in there with their added "fish food". We've been worried about fish diseases sneaking in on coral and then getting into the display, but using an ich magnet like an Achilles Tang in the frag tank should alert us to anything. Would then treat the fish in QT and leave the frag tank fishless for 3 months. Also probably a wrasse or pipefish for coral pests. Really excited about the tank, should be being built soon. All paperwork and deposits have been sent in to A.G.E. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Ok so here are some questions I have. I have been through my critical though process on my build here and I will try and explain why I did what I did. http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/33124-dual-personality-frag-tank/ First the placement of this tank is going to be key. I hope this is going to be a peninsula tank because if its flat up against a wall 36" is quite a stretch to get to the back center. Unless you stand is short which limits your space in the sump and for equipment. I run a kessil on my show tank. I like the light ok. What is the purpose of this frag tank? Is it to store frags in to be put into the big system or are you going to keep it up and running as a grow out tank? At any rate. Its really hard to argue with the growth and color of a MH/T5or12 combo. There is a reason a lot of your bigger coral growers have gone from MH to Leds and then back to MH. For softies Leds are fine. But if you can deal with the increased heat, electric bill and bulb replacement costs the MH still edge out the Leds for SPS. The gap is closing but the leds just aren't at 100% of what MH can do yet. If your just acclimating for your big tank I would go kessils. If you are going to leave it up and running and can stomach the aforementioned costs I would do MH. I am. I want a gyre as well. I have read and heard not great things and very good things about them. I may end up going with several jebao wp10, wp25 until the second generation of the gyre comes out so they can work out the kinks. Call me old school but I have not been happy with the flow charts vs reported actual flow of the jebao return pumps. They just don't seem to flow as much as advertised with the head pressure on them. I would do valved or bypass ehiem 1262 or sicce 5.0. I went with a single sicce 5.0. I would also strongly consider what your doing with your sump. Its arguable but it does no good to race 5000gph past your skimmer and macro. 3-5 times your tank volume max is what I have been taught and what I have seen that works well. The rest is in tank circulation. I wouldn't build a sump to be honest with you. Unless you have experience working with acrylic or glass. I think of my sump the same as my display. If your sump springs a leak due to bad craftsmanship the end result is still a broken system. That's why anything that is going to hold water in my home I go ahead and have it build professionally. Equipment wise I went with what I did on my build thread because I either bought it cheap like my vertex 130 skimmer for $200 during a black Friday sale or it was the best piece of equipment available like my Geo 612 CR or the Sicce pumps. Some of this is opinion but I tried to stay away from what was commonly referered to as junk equipment. There are times going cheaper is ok. There are times going cheaper is going to cause you a lot of heartache and headaches. It looks like its going to be a pimping system. Cant wait to see it running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 Hey thanks for the reply The tank will be peninsula style, with a few feet between the wall and the tank on the closest side. Stand isn't going to be super high, nothing like the monster I had built for the display tank. Want to be able to easily reach into it, and my wife will need to get into it as well. The tank will hold corals until they are large enough to go into the display. I don't want a bunch of little frags in the bigger tank. Also some coral I get in will already be large, so it'll also serve as a quarantine tank for the large tank. Mainly worried about fish diseases, will be dipping as well, so hopefully I can catch any coral pests before they're introduced to the big tank as well. Yeah I've read a lot of shift back to LEDs, but I'd put up with a little less growth to be similar lighting conditions to the display. I've read a few complaints about he gyres, might be worth just holding off. I've have a ton of WPs running on the big tank. 2 - WP60s, 4 - WP40s, 3 - WP25s, never had a problem. Might as well just do two WP40s (Or their newer versions). I'm running two Jebao DC9000s on the big tank. They do a very good job. Very little heat and no noise. I'm not sure if it's just the water volume, or the pumps, but they do tend to need to be tweaked every now and then. I don't use the controllers that come with the pumps to control them, but put a dc slider inline, where I can adjust the pumps by tiny amounts, not just 1 - 6. Pretty happy over all... I was thinking using a premade tank, maybe 40 breeder to make the sump out of. Just basically doing the layout ourselves. Sounds fun... might have to get one made if it doesn't work out haha I got our large Reef Octopus DC skimmer on sale around last Christmas, guess I just need to keep my eyes open Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 No problem on the replies.Peninsula style is the way to go on something that big. I'm very tall and its even to the tip of my wingspan to reach 36" deep at 48" tall.If its primarily quarantine and storage for the display I would 100% go with Kessils. With the spectral controller you have even have different light profiles on the tank and one light set to acclimate when you get new stuff. you can read my review here http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/33066-anyone-tried-kessil-spectral-controller/ I was going to go the same route with putting the baffles in a 40B myself but after getting equipment and getting the correct poundage of rock I wanted I realized it was undersized so I needed to have something built. I wouldn't have any reservations putting baffles in a sump. I wouldn't build one from scratch out of acrylic though. I would be too scared it would eventually leak. Are you placing the frag tank where it could eventually be plumbed into the big tank eventually. That sounds like a good idea so when your done stocking the big tank and ready to make frags you can just put them in the frag tank and the water parameters and lights are the same. That way you don't have frag racks populating the walls of your big tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 I hear you... I'm 6'2 and wanted to walk up to the display and see in mid level. So the stand ended up being well over 40" if I remember right. My wife is only 5'2, so the stand will probably end up being ~ 30". Didn't know you could run different profiles on the Kessil controller. Wish the Apex could do something like that easily... I get pretty good prices on Kessils, so I'll probably just go with them. Not sure if I'm going to go with 160s or 360s, maybe a mix. I guess I'll need to get the tank first and play around with it. Maybe I'll get something bigger than a 40 for the sump, not sure yet. What are you going to be doing for dosing or reactors? Keeping the big tank separate to everything. It's plumbed into a 50 gallon storage tank for ATO from the RODI unit. Will be adding another 50 gallon storage tank for automatic water changes. Held off on doing that after I read about the Neptune DOS. Seems like a better alternative to using Stenner pumps. Just want to see real world reviews for water changes first. Spoke with Neptune, seems like a very well built pump and should run forever... Really not planning on moving anything super small over to the display, so no need for racks. Here are some pictures of our current "frag" tank on our instagram account: http://instagram.com/coralimports All rock duties will be handled by MarinePure blocks in the sump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Yea Im actually 6'7" which is why I was saying I could reach the back of a 36" tank but its still a stretch. The spectral controller has 2 ports at the bottom and a usb for power. The device can be hooked up via usb to your computer for firmware updates. As you know with kessils you can daisy chain god knows how many lights. So you can have one port running one profile with 3 lights daisy chained together and the second port running just a single light on the end for acclimation purposes. The spectral controller has an automatic acclimation profile too that will auto ramp up your light X% over X days. X=your setting to your liking. Im going to be running a Geo CR612 calcium reactor to start with. I am also going to set up dosing via Digital Aquatics new archon system. They also have dosing pumps coming out that are very similar to the DOs system for the Apex. I wasn't talking about moving frags into your display I was talking about your display producing frags and wanting to move them out. As you know its ideal to give the frags some heal time in the source water and lights before moving them. Once your display is populated with coral I'm sure it will be able to produce lots of frags at an astonishing rate. And after your display is populated you wouldn't really need the frag tank for acclimation. Unless your like everyone else and have a coral addiction. I'm still on the fence about the ceramic blocks because of their alleged ability to leach Aluminum into the water and end up with heavy metal toxicity. It hasn't been proven but I decided to go with Dry Pukani Rock for the known denitrifying performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 Haha ****, make me look like a midget That's awesome about the controller, going to need to pick one up for sure! Cool I'll check out those reactors Still have reactors just sitting around from the big tank that I thought I'd need, but never got around to setting up... I'm bad like that... I know I'll need them when I move some coral over, but couldn't be bothered doing it right now. Already spent all last weekend sanding the inside of the display... OH I see what you mean! Yeah I've always been more into fish, but am starting to turn the corner... especially with how stupid fish can be from time to time... I've been using the ceramic media in our QT tanks forever. Just added two big blocks to the display's sump about 2 months ago. Not too worried about the aluminum claims... well not yet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I'm not too worried about the aluminum claims either but my opinion was why risk it when I don't have to. I probably went overkill on putting 50 lbs of rock anyways but I know generally speaking the more rock the more stable the system. Corals can be just as finicky and irritating trust me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 After talking with A.G.E. a bit I've changed up the tank a bit.Changed the glass from 3/4" to 1/2". 3/4" might be overkill and make it a little harder to carry.Also made the front long panel starphire, as well as the side opposite the overflow.These will be the two most viewed panels, with the back long panel just being to walk around to reach and place corals.Also blacked out the side with the overflow.My new ghetto drawing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Looking forward to seeing pics of the tank when its ready, I've never seen an AGE tank in person ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Looking forward to seeing pics of the tank when its ready, I've never seen an AGE tank in person ... They started the tank Friday, so hopefully it won't be too long Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Man that's awesome. I'm waiting till may on my reef savvy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Just got some pictures from A.G.E. of the build Looks like it's coming along really nice! Can notice how much clearer the starphire looks versus the regular glass. A.G.E. has really been on top of their game so far! Can't wait for the finished product Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted February 2, 2015 Author Share Posted February 2, 2015 Just picked up a 75 gallon tank at Petsmart yesterday for the sump. Decided it would just work better than a 55 gallon. Price was pretty good, ended up being $2 a gallon. Something like $240 MSRP, was on sale of $199. Bought online and got 10% off and 20% off for picking up at the store. Ended up being $149. Should offer more options for the sump and help keep the system more stable with the increased water volume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Did you work directly with AGE on this tank or did you go through a LFS? I ask because I have been frustrated trying to get exactly what I want when going through a middleman in the past ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 Did you work directly with AGE on this tank or did you go through a LFS? I ask because I have been frustrated trying to get exactly what I want when going through a middleman in the past ... Directly through our business Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Well the tank is almost done A.G.E. just has some clean up work to finish up, should be picking it up on Friday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Lookin' good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted February 16, 2015 Author Share Posted February 16, 2015 Went up to Dallas on Friday and got the tank It barely fit in my wife's 4Runner... good thing I took the seats out... Then took 6 people to get the tank in the house... had to flip the tank on it's side to get through the door, so the extra hands really helped! Now we need to get the stand started and start buying equipment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Tank looks amazing! Maybe you and Reburn should get together, he has the stand and equipment and no tank... and you have the tank and still working on the other parts. [emoji12] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted February 16, 2015 Author Share Posted February 16, 2015 Tank looks amazing! Maybe you and Reburn should get together, he has the stand and equipment and no tank... and you have the tank and still working on the other parts. [emoji12] LOL!!! Not in a huge rush, so it's weird to just have the tank sitting here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 Stand will be done tomorrow Went with a 60x36x32" metal stand. Would have loved to use Offroaddodge again, but the timing didn't work out this time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Man you have a tank and a stand!!!! Your just burning up the build. I'm still waiting on my stand. It got pushed back another 2 weeks. For what I'm paying for the stand I can't complain though. Need pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 That sucks man Hopefully I get the stand today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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