65G Reef Tank Build

samba_dad · Nov 9, 2014

I started my tank build back in June 2014. I am hoping to have equipment purchased and ready for livestock by Jan 2015. One of my design goals is to build an automated/controlled system to minimize maintenance that leverages high quality equipment to help maximize chances of success. I entered the marine aquarium hobby back in 1980 with fish only tanks. I tried my first reef tank in 1996 but struggled to keep algae in control and never able to keep anemones successfully. However, I was successful at keeping several corals (mushrooms, torch and bubble) for ~2 years. After I had a large tank wipeout after an exterminator sprayed our house, I switched back to freshwater. I am eager to get back into the reef hobby and been spending lots of time reading and studying and not rushing into purchasing the first livestock.

My tank is a 65G Aqueon reef ready tank that I purchased at my LFS along with my stand.

After convincing the finance committee (aka wife) that I could use the closet in the basement as a fish room, I started to build the stand to hold the sump and a fish QT and coral QT.

In addition to the fish room, I decided to build a mixing station out in the garage. The garage has 3 Brute containers that hold a) fresh RO/DI, b) fresh salt water, c) waste water from water changes.

Of course, I didn't want to carry the water by bucket into the fish room for all the water changes. So, I plumbed through the garage to the fish room to the rec room which housed my DT. First, I ran the pluming from the garage to the fish room.

Next, I setup containers in the fish room to hold the water. The reason I designed it this way is to help ensure I have air gaps between all of the containers so I would not have any siphoning to occur. The plan is to get the Apex controller to pump water into the fish room containers once per week.

For the plumbing to/from the DT, I used the Herbie method. Primarily because I only had 2 holes drilled in the bottom of the tank. I have the system running now with just tap water for now. It is nearly completely silent and a huge improvement in my old reef tank which literally was "gurgling" literally louder than the TV most of the time.

I have purchased my Reef Octopus protein skimmer and have it positioned in the sump as well as completed my manifold design for additional filtration.

So far, I have installed 6 float switches with 3 in the DT sump and 3 in the fish room containers. I have 6 more already delivered and waiting on my Apex PM2 to arrive tomorrow to complete automation of the water changes and ATO for all 3 tanks.

I have been researching as much as I can to ensure this tank is successful. I appreciate all the helpful advice on R2R and the NARC! I am very anxious to get the system going!! :bigsmile:

H@rry · Nov 10, 2014

Looks great. You're certainly off to a good start and all the advance planning is apparent. The only thing I would add to your list is a calcium reactor. With a pH probe in the calcium reactor your Apex will control the CO2 solenoid to keep your parms spot-on and you can eliminate the dosing.

revhtree · Nov 10, 2014

Wow great build so far!

samba_dad · Nov 10, 2014

Thanks Harry! I was planning on getting some dosing pumps (possibly the new DOSR pumps from Neptune Systems) for calcium and alkalinity. Do you think those would be as effective as a calcium reactor? I guess one is more closed loop while checking on CO2 and the other is just dosing determined amounts without any controller monitoring. Anything else I am missing?

samba_dad · Nov 10, 2014

Thanks revhtree. I have been fighting the urge to go ahead and starting livestock for 6 months to make sure I have as solid a start as possible. I am like a kid on Christmas morning - lol.

H@rry · Nov 10, 2014

samba_dad said:
Thanks Harry! I was planning on getting some dosing pumps (possibly the new DOSR pumps from Neptune Systems) for calcium and alkalinity. Do you think those would be as effective as a calcium reactor? I guess one is more closed loop while checking on CO2 and the other is just dosing determined amounts without any controller monitoring. Anything else I am missing?

I would think that if you could monitor your Alk and Ca levels and use this to control your dosing pumps that would be fine. I monitor the pH level in my Calcium Reactors via the controller and use that to regulate the CO2 solenoid to maintain a constant pH. After testing Alk 2 or 3 times and adjusting the pH levels accordingly, the Alk stays pretty constant. I hardly ever test Ca any more as I find that if my Alk is OK the Ca and Mag usually are as well. Sometimes I have to add a little Mag supplement. I test my Alk weekly and adjust the pH setting if necessary.

Before I started with Calcium Reactors I used two part dosing and I never could seem to get it stabilized. The two parms would see-saw up and down. Plus it was a pain to have to remember to dose every day (not to mention being away for several days at a time).

samba_dad · Nov 10, 2014

Where do you get your CO2 and media for the calcium reactor? I will investigate this option further. Thanks for the advice!

H@rry · Nov 10, 2014

samba_dad said:
Where do you get your CO2 and media for the calcium reactor? I will investigate this option further. Thanks for the advice!

CO2 from welding supply store; NexAir, Sexton, etc. Media from BulkReefSupply, Premium Aquatics, Amazon vendors, etc.

fishroomlady · Nov 12, 2014

great, well thought out system you have there! looking forward to seeing your progress and eventually livestock

samba_dad · Jan 19, 2015

I have not posted on my build in awhile, but continue to make progress. Over Christmas I added 2 Ecotech Radion XR15W Pro lights into my canopy. Saving up for those lights slowed me down a bit. However, yesterday I finished my initial attempt at my rock aquascape. I used the BRS reef saver rock - primarily because the pukani was out of stock. I ordered 100 lbs, and unfortunately that was about 40 lbs more than I needed. I am mostly happy with the aquascape except on the lower left side. So, I might tweak it a bit more before I put some putty in place. Since my last post, I finalized my fish quarantine tank setup. So, my plans for now are to start the main tank cycling by adding a shrimp and some Bio-Spira. I will also be adding a carbon reactor just to try to keep the smell down a bit. Once the main tank is cycled, then I will take some filter pad media from my DT sump and add it to my fish QT filter and get my first fish. Woohoo!! Finally!! :bigsmile: Hard to believe it took me almost 8 months. Nevertheless, I think the planning and preparation will pay off down the road.

samba_dad · Feb 1, 2015

I had a real bummer today. I was putting some miracle mud in my sumps refugium and I found a pair of scissors sitting in the bottom of my sump underneath my filter socks. I think they were there for almost a week and had started to rust on the screw that holds the blades together. I am still in the middle of my build and do not have any livestock in the tank. However, now I am concerned I have contaminated the water and rock in the DT with some heavy metal. Has anyone ever had something like this happen to them before? How bad is this for my almost finished setup? Now I know what a surgeon must feel like when they leave a sponge or other instrument in a patient. Argh. Thanks in advance for any suggestions on how to recover from this problem.

samba_dad · Feb 8, 2015

Just added my first fish to my QT! I purchased a pair of oscellaris clowns and a royal gramma. I acclimated and gave all of them a formalin bath (20 drops/gallon). The royal gramma seemed stressed at 15 minutes, so I pulled him out and placed him in the FQT. The oscellaris did fine with the full 30 minutes. I will leave them sitting mostly in the dark for the next 24 hrs and then try to feed them some mysis shrimp with garlic extract. I have only a small light on in the fish room underneath the tank. The tank is setup for an automatic water change of 2 gallons at 6am and 2 gallons at 6pm. The tank is cycled, but I don't trust the bacteria once I start throwing the copper in there. So, I have decided on a significant water change schedule. Thankfully the Apex automates this process for me. Here are my plans for the fish QT process (thanks to lots of great posts on R2R)...

1) After 24 hrs, treat with PraziPro and start feeding
2) Continue PraziPro treatment for 2 weeks
3) Conduct 50% water change & run activated carbon
4) Begin 4 week Cupramine treatment in the following manner
4a) Day 1: add 10 drops of Cupramine per 10 gal of water
4b) Day 2: add 10 drops of Cupramine per 10 gal of water
4c) Day 3: Test for copper to ensure achieving 0.5mq/l - add up to 10 drops of Cupramine per 10 gal of water until 0.5 mq/l achieved - will have to continually check and monitor since doing water changes daily
5) Ensure copper level at 0.5mq/l for 3 weeks and then add CupriSorb
6) Follow 1 week (7days) of 50% water changes to bring copper down to 0
7) Leave fish in QT for 2 more weeks to ensure no signs of disease
8) Give fish bath in water from main tank and transfer to the DT

This is a major milestone for me and I am quite happy to finally have made a fish purchase!! :rockon:

samba_dad · Mar 9, 2015

So today I received a rented PAR meter to measure the PAR readings of my XR15W Pro LED lights. I had always heard that you need to keep the lights turned down to around 60% or it will bleach your corals. Well, I discovered something very different this evening. My blue acro needs around 300-450 PAR, and I had to crank my lights to 80% intensity at 10K to get a PAR reading of 320 at the top point of my rock where my blue acro is located. So, I am slowly increasing my lights by 2% per day to get my PAR readings up to 80%-90% intensity. Below is my light schedule, and my PAR readings at 80 & 90% intensity at 10K. Anyone have a similar experience with their LEDs?

GreatWhiteTang · Mar 9, 2015

I wondered about this, I read that the xr15 just didn't put out enough par value for acros and other sps and that for these corals the xr30 should be used. But seeing them side by side the light did not seem that much less intense, I would like to see the same test with the 30's done!

samba_dad · Mar 9, 2015

Didn't mean to provide confusing information with the graphics. The background picture is the same for both pictures - just updated PAR values.

samba_dad · May 12, 2015

I have not provided an update in several months on the tank build. However, I have made some good progress. I have added my first fish 2x oscellaris clowns and a royal gramma on 23 March after successfully completing the quarantine process. The new fish are doing extremely well and are very healthy and eager eaters. The clowns will eat out of my hand, but the royal gramma likes to always stay within a short sprint to the cover of rock.

Shortly after adding the fish to the DT, I had a strange algae outbreak that I think was dinoflagellate related â€“ but I am not sure what it really was. So, I purchased a 55 Gal Deluxe Caribbean Reef Cleaner Package from LiveAquaria on 23 March. Those guys cleaned the tank thoroughly in about 2 days. Unfortunately, the largest peppermint shrimp ate a nice looking orange acan coral that I purchased on 14 Feb from Reef Life in Birmingham, AL.

samba_dad · May 12, 2015

I have also added about a half-dozen corals that, for the most part, seem to be doing fairly well. Most everything seems to be growing. The leather coral has doubled in size since 14 Feb. The Blue Acropora has good polyp extension and was added on 7 Mar. The Duncan coral has grown 4 new heads since 22 Feb. I also added a long-tentacle plate coral that seems to be doing okay but seems a bit moody. I am trying to dial in the correct flow for him, but it has been a bit challenging. I feed the corals 2x/week with LFS Reef Frenzy and Coral Frenzy after soaking in Red Sea Reef Energy. Not all of the news is good however. I appear to have over exposed an orange lepstarea that I am trying to nurse make to health by keeping in indirect light. In addition, my orange acan was mostly eaten by a large Peppermint Shrimp.

samba_dad · May 12, 2015

I have been focusing a great deal on stabilizing my water quality. My temperature (78 deg F), salinity (35 ppt), magnesium (1260 ppt), ammonia (0 ppm), nitrites (0 ppm), nitrates (<0.2 ppm) and phosphates (<0.03 ppm)are in good shape. I have struggled with both pH (8.0) and calcium (340 ppm). I have been dosing calcium, but not achieving my desired 430 ppm. I hope this is only a matter of dialing in the correct times on my doser. The calcium problem is particularly surprising to me because I have 2 water changes per day of 4 gallons each. I thought this much fresh saltwater would get the calcium levels where they needed to be. I have also been dosing alkalinity but apparently a little too much because my alkalinity reads at 10.5 and I would like to keep it between 8-9.5 ppm. So, I am planning to start dosing some kalkwasser along with my 2-part to get my pH up a little higher. Also, I am considering dosing vinegar to help ensure the nitrates and phosphates remain as low as possible.