New custom build

[ameerun]

Hello fellow reefers! I have a Red Sea 130C reef tank for 4 years now. We're now ready for a new custom build tank to exactly fit the space in the living room we would like to have it. I am planning to document the progress from the very beginning, the ordering proces!

I found a super-specialised custom tank builder, Aqualife, a two hour drive from where I live, but they make beautiful tanks. In about two weeks we will go over and discuss the setup. Any tips you have are most welcome of course. It will be a 70-ish gallon rimless tank (including sump). Any specific requirements for the sump, stuff you just won't do without?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Good luck and have fun.

I just built a 90g rimless the exact size I wanted (36x 30x 20). I really wanted the extra 6" of front to back space.

I consider a refugium a requirement on any future tanks.

 

[ameerun]

Thanks Ron. Can you explain why you think a refugium is a requirement, even for a mid-size tank (70 g)...?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Sure. Increased water volume for your system. Easy and routine removal of nitrate and phosphate. Also a great place to keep critters that become an issue in the DT. Or an easy place to put a frag rack for spare corals. Or to season new live rock.

I have a 90g DT and a 30g sump/refugium. The fuge is about 2/3rds of the tank. I keep several different algae, a coral banded shrimp, some astraea snails, some hermit crabs and any non reef safe critters I might collect.

 

[ameerun]

Thanks Ron, sounds solid. I am going to look into this, I don't have that much experience (in fact, none whatsoever) with refugiums ...

 

[Ron Reefman]

You can look over my build thread (there is a link in my signature below).

If you have questions, I'm happy to try and help. You can even PM me if you want.

Back when I had a 180g and a 75g hexagon DTs, I tied them both into a 180g sump/refugium/DSB. It wasn't a standard 180g tank used as a sump. It was an old LFS frag tank. It was 10'x2'x18". I had it set up as (from left to right): a refugium with filter socks, a DSB (Deep Sand Bed), the return pump, and a second drain section with no filter socks but full of live rock and a nitrate reactor. It worked really well. I wish I had room to have a big refugium again. But my current 20g fuge does work. BTW, my coral banded shrimp has lived down there for over 8 months now.

 

[ameerun]

Because the new tank is not arriving before the end of September, I thought to share some pictures of corals I have in my old tank and am planning to migrate to the new one.

This is my Duncan(opsammia Axifuga). I have it for 2 months now and it already has increased in size.

My Orange Dendro(phillia), very small but doing well. In fact it is becoming active at night and during the day the tentacles are withdrawn. Is this normal behaviour?

And finally my Zoanthus. Anybody out there knowing the full name of this beauty?

 

[ameerun]

Last month the new tank arrived and in the meantime I finished the plumbing and equipment installation. More about that in a next update. What I want to show today is the finished aquascape, created by my wife. Attached is a one-minute clip featuring the aquascape created with Real Reef Rock gen 4.