Andy's 50 Gallon Mixed reef

[Ocelaris]

Got the rocks today. I like using the single side cuts and double side cuts. Makes for easy stacking especially in a small tank.

I think this is gona be the final scape. Left side is lps and zoas. Right will be mostly sps.

I need a rock for the right middle side of the right island to fill in that gap.

The top rock of the left side is "floating" on some ruble. I think it looks pretty good and less stacked.

This is only about 25 pounds of rock. I am definitely going with less is more. Plus I'm pretty sure my skimmer is rated for 100+ gallons so I'm sure I'm good filtration wise.

I like the horizontal spacing, that's my regret, mine is too vertical, so I don't have much room for LPS.

That's some impressive heats ink, how are you attaching the leds?

 

[andymcl82]

I like the horizontal spacing, that's my regret, mine is too vertical, so I don't have much room for LPS.

That's some impressive heats ink, how are you attaching the leds?

I know. I'm almost upset that they will be hidden in the fixture.

Thermal adhesive stickers. Plus the led chips are soderless so it should be real easy to set up. No drilling other than holes to mount the heat sinks. I bought 80 degree lenses for the leds also.

I'm filling the tank right now. Not fully to the top because the sump baffles arrive tomorrow. Just enough to start getting the water to temp and add salt

 

[andymcl82]

Sump is siliconed. Very simple two baffle two 4 inch filter sock setup. I'll probably put a foam block or something in the baffle to help with bubbles and splashing noise

 

[andymcl82]

Forgot the picture.

 

[Ocelaris]

Looks good, have you considered a double or triple weir to do your bubble capture? Not sure if you can see them in this picture, but that does a good job of keeping bubbles out.

 

[andymcl82]

I would have preferred a double or triple, but due to size constraints and the fact that I was trying to keep this build pretty cheap and simple I went with the one. Plus as of right now there's no bubbles. I haven't turned the skimmer on yet though.

The tank is now cycling. I'm using ammonia and a seed bacteria. I'll probably throw in a couple rocks from my other system in the sump also.

The overflow box is still kinda loud from putting the glass in there. Hopefully it quiets down after a while.

The tonga pink reef flake is really nice sized. Had the gyre mid way and at full blast and it really only shifted the sand over a bit.

I'm gona get put another level I guess you could call it of rock on the right side.

 

[andymcl82]

The final scape, until I change my mind and switch stuff around of course.

Sump with wires hanging everywhere because I haven't made a board to mount everything yet

 

[Ocelaris]

How did you make the hard plumbed drain for your return sit on top of the tank which drains into the filter socks? Mine is kind of just hanging there and thought you had to have a pre made sump to get that multi sock overflow thing?

 

[andymcl82]

How did you make the hard plumbed drain for your return sit on top of the tank which drains into the filter socks? Mine is kind of just hanging there and thought you had to have a pre made sump to get that multi sock overflow thing?

I ended up buying a kit from an online vendor. They sell them for various standard sized tanks. I also chose not to silicone it in and put pvc pipe on the other side so the water exits below the water level. It's very quiet. So I can basically lift that whole piece off to change the socks

 

[andymcl82]

Tank is cycling PAINFULLY slowly. I just redistributed the sand but I should have gotten a before pic. There was a bit of a crater in front of the left island from when the gyre goes in reverse so I put another rock there to hopefully break up the flow. Will be nice when I get a decent size zoa garden going there.

Scraper for size reference

 

[andymcl82]

Wrong picture

 

[andymcl82]

Got an Avast Marine Porthole today as a gift so I took some just random shots playing around. It will be really fun to play around with when I get some corals in the tank.

 

[andymcl82]

Heatsinks are installed

 

[andymcl82]

Finished product

 

[Leaellynasaura]

That looks really nice on the LED retrofit.

 

[andymcl82]

That looks really nice on the LED retrofit.

Thanks! I actually didn't even need to drill the ati fixture. I used the holes for mounting the reflectors. Leds are stuck on the heat sink with thermal adhesive and controlled by my apex. Super simple to do.

 

[andymcl82]

It's been a while since I've updated. I struggled with super low nutrients originally and all of my corals bleached out. I switched Skimmer's to a smaller, nicer model from SR Aquaristik. I really like it so far. Skimmate is the color of muddy water.

Unfortunately, I lost all of my fish to a severe velvet outbreak. I was caught totally off guard and unprepared. Something that I simply won't let happen again.

I'm in kind of a unique position compared to most reefers. Having only recently graduated college and being 22, my tank is at my parents house where I currently live. Friday I am moving into an apartment that's 15 minutes away from my parents and right next to my work. My apartment wouldn't let me have a bigger tank so it will stay at my parents house. My mom and sister are able to drop in frozen cubes each day and the auto feeder and dosing + all the apex controlled stuff should mean very little daily maintenance. I will probably come back a couple times a week for tank check up and to grab some of my moms home cooking haha.

I think I'm going to use this as an opportunity to set up a rigorous quarantine that I can set up in my apartment. Think of a display QT. There are some cool looking and pretty cheap small AOI tanks. Fluval has some I think. I should be good with having that in my apartment. That way I can still QT new fish and give them the daily treatment that they need.

Misc. pics to keep it interesting....