Critique my tank, scape and sump

[Mycoolhamm]

This is my first tank. Nothing alive in it yet.
It’s had Water for one week exactly. Added 4 ppm if ammonia. It’s down to roughly 0.5 ppm. Which I guess is a good sign.

My sump has been pretty annoying. Where the incoming water flows into sump and into skimmer sock it creates a lot of bubbles which pop and splash water out. I made a lid of fiberglass and it’s helping I think.
Sump has skimmer sock and heater in first chamber, some kind of filter on top and marine pure balls and carbon in second chamber, and return pump and coral life 65 skimmer in third chamber.
Looking for any critiques and advice on my setup from experienced folks.

 

[Oscaror]

This is my first tank. Nothing alive in it yet.
It’s had Water for one week exactly. Added 4 ppm if ammonia. It’s down to roughly 0.5 ppm. Which I guess is a good sign.

My sump has been pretty annoying. Where the incoming water flows into sump and into skimmer sock it creates a lot of bubbles which pop and splash water out. I made a lid of fiberglass and it’s helping I think.
Sump has skimmer sock and heater in first chamber, some kind of filter on top and marine pure balls and carbon in second chamber, and return pump and coral life 65 skimmer in third chamber.
Looking for any critiques and advice on my setup from experienced folks.

I already said it in another thread but #welcome to R2R! Your scape on the left is pretty good but the right arch is quite a bit higher than it needs to be IMO. Also the large brain doesn't work very well as live rock because the surface is very flat and it's harder to place corals.

 

[Mycoolhamm]

Why do you say the arch is too high? Just from an aesthetic point of view or some other reason? My tank lid also covers about 3 inches of tank so it’s not that close to the surface. I’m going to attempt to cover the brain entirely in some sort of bright colored fast growing coral. Would that work?

 

[Oscaror]

Why do you say the arch is too high? Just from an aesthetic point of view or some other reason? My tank lid also covers about 3 inches of tank so it’s not that close to the surface. I’m going to attempt to cover the brain entirely in some sort of bright colored fast growing coral. Would that work?

Well if you'd like to keep the brain the first thing I thought of to make use of it would be planting zoanthids on it. You coudl create something like this picture, or let one red zoa cover it all. Would be a cool center piece!

From an aesthetic standpoint the arch is too high and thin, although if covered in SPS corals (or any coral that can fill out a lot of space off the rock) then it makes up for the height by adding thickness. Since your tank is taller than it looks the lighting there should not be an issue for stronger light corals such as SPS, although that is something that should only be dabbled in when a tank is ready for it.

 

[Mycoolhamm]

That is a beautiful rock, yours? That would be one heck of a centerpiece.

This is a 75 gallon tank. The small arches on the left are much thinner. One minute and I’ll post a pic

 

[Mycoolhamm]

Here are some more rock pics

 

[Oscaror]

That is a beautiful rock, yours? That would be one heck of a centerpiece.

This is a 75 gallon tank. The small arches on the left are much thinner. One minute and I’ll post a pic

Yes I can see that the arches are thinner but since they're so close together it gives a very aesthetic and interesting look to them, but by all means post more pics . Also unfortunately that zoa garden isn't mine, but I can point you to the build thread of the user who ti does belong to! His name is @jourdy I'm sure you'll get a lot of inspiration browsing his build thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/jourdys-90-gallon-mixed-reef.149662/ I plan on creating my own zoa garden to rival it! ;Smuggrin But I'm not completely ready for that yet

 

[azbigjohn]

I love scapes with arches and swim throughs. I think what the previous poster was mentioning about the arch being to high is that most corals grow as much or more upwards as they do outwards, and will rapidly reach the top of the water if you are mounting towards the top of that arch. If you are adding coral accordingly, and not using branching-type corals on the arch, it would work fine.

A rule of thumb I was given was never put rockwork higher than 2/3 the height of the tank; 1/2 is better. But your mileage may vary.

 

[azbigjohn]

I am not entirely sure about your sump. It looks like an old-school wet-dry sump, but most of those did not have the front chamber you have; instead, the downflow emptied into the top of the wide filter tray, and dripped down across the media balls, then flowed into the return chamber. I have never seen one using the drip tray and filter socks.. How does the water go from the filter sock chamber to get into the filter tray?

 

[Mycoolhamm]

I am not entirely sure about your sump. It looks like an old-school wet-dry sump, but most of those did not have the front chamber you have; instead, the downflow emptied into the top of the wide filter tray, and dripped down across the media balls, then flowed into the return chamber. I have never seen one using the drip tray and filter socks.. How does the water go from the filter sock chamber to get into the filter tray?

It fills the first chamber and there is a little door that you can raise and lower to determine the height of the spill into the filter tray

 

[Oscaror]

rule of thumb I was given was never put rockwork higher than 2/3 the height of the tank; 1/2 is better. But your mileage may vary.

I actually had this more in mind lol, but I still do think the arch is quite thin, although when I visualize it grown out with SPS it looks quite good in my head. Problem is growing out SPS in a first time tank, although not everyone needs to go through multiple tanks before they gain the experience for that and it's perfectly doable if you want. If OP doesn't want SPS then I just believe personally that the arch should either be lowered or made thicker in some way. I'm envisioning something along these lines, IMO this slight change in proportion makes the scape much more aesthetic

 

[Mycoolhamm]

How would I go about changing it now that there’s water?

 

[Oscaror]

How would I go about changing it now that there’s water?

If you want to then #reefsquad can surely help, I spent a lot more time imagining aquascapes than actually building them so I don't have the most experience

 

[hdsoftail1065]

I am not an aquascape kinda guy, I lack the vision and creativity. If you look at my build Im sure you would agree. I do like the thicker looking arch that is posted above. It looks balanced and Im not drawn to the thinner looking one. I personally think zoanthids would look great in the middle. Is that all your thinking about fixing? Your early into your cycle you could pull it out and rebuild it or build it in the tank using super glue gel and surround the pieces with a little epoxy.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I would recommend different heights for the right and left structure. Lowering the arch would accomplish this. Right now it is too symmetrical at the same height, hence it does not look as natural. 2/3 height of the tank is good for the left structure and then I would aim for the right being 2/3 of the left. Of course, that is just my opinion.

I think the brain could work with zoas as mentioned or encrusting corals. I would move it slightly off from dead center though.

 

[SPR1968]

Also if your unsure, what I did was research ‘modern reef aquascaping’ and you will get loads of ideas and pictures to find what you like.

I like the natural look of a reef sloping away, but that’s me and this is your tank so enjoy the design of it

 

[Mycoolhamm]

Also if your unsure, what I did was research ‘modern reef aquascaping’ and you will get loads of ideas and pictures to find what you like.

I like the natural look of a reef sloping away, but that’s me and this is your tank so enjoy the design of it

What do you know of these sumps?

 

[jdpeters]

My rock scape on my 42 was terribly planned and I regret it. I've just dealt with it. Aesthetically it looks pleasant to me but it is not functional. I went too tall more than anything. Don't be afraid to get your hands back in there. Flow for me is the biggest issue of the tall scape.

 

[SPR1968]

What do you know of these sumps?

Nothing as such about the specific sump, but if you are getting the bubbles bursting and splashing, the cover you have installed should solve that for you. It may also reduce evaporation.

 

[Super Fly]

wow, that's pretty impressive for a 1st tank!