Ryan's Reef - 112-gallon SPS Tank

[Ryans Reef]

Hi all! Time to get this party started. I'm currently building out an SPS dominant Innovative Marine 112 EXT Lagoon.

I won't bore you all with a description of how I got into the hobby and spin ye a yarn of my journey... instead I'll do my best to show as many pics and videos as I can of the process. Hopefully years later everything will still be running and we can all go back and learn more from the experience.

Feel free to pick apart my planning. Be harsh, be honest, let me know what I'm doing wrong so I can make this tank awesome.

My current tank is this IM Lagoon 25. We moved a lot for work and had to downgrade, but the itch for acros never died:

My first tank was a 75 gallon tank way back in 2009. I got it the entire set-up: lights, skimmer, sump, stand, rock etc. (minus coral and fish) for $500 off Craigslist. The guy had only intended to sell the lights for $500, but his wife had listed the entire tank and he cut me a MAJOR break and let me have it for the $500.

 

[Ryans Reef]

With the current IM Lagoon 25, I feel I learned quite a bit that I hope will translate to the larger system, namely:

1. Acros love T5's
2. Kalkwasser is awesome
3. Lots of fish = good growth

So I plan to keep those as guidelines for this tank.

The new tank was ordered from Innovative Marine about 6 weeks ago and is due to arrive in the middle of January 2023. In the meantime, I've been building out the tank and plumbing in Autodesk Maya, a program I use for work.

My intention is to use a Fiji Cube 30 for my sump. Instead of having it flush against the back wall of the stand like most tanks, I want to have it perpendicular. To me this seems like a better use of the 35.4" x 35.4" space. It'll be easier to access at least.

I plan to use a piece of black PVC board to split the space under the stand. This will allow for a clean install of a DIY controller board (not necessary but it looks nice), and hopefully help keep wires/plugs more tidy. It'll also help make a distinct area for reactors and storage on the opposite side of the sump.

Here's a mock up of the overall system design so far. Everything is as close to scale as I've been able to achieve. Please let me know what you think!

 

[Ryans Reef]

A couple close ups of the plumbing design:

 

[blaxsun]

That would be super cool if in the first image that wasn't a reflection!

 

[Ryans Reef]

That would be super cool if in the first image that wasn't a reflection!

Yep! Would be cool to have a circular rock lit on all sides. A fireworks acro lol

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hi all! Time to get this party started. I'm currently building out an SPS dominant Innovative Marine 112 EXT Lagoon.

I won't bore you all with a description of how I got into the hobby and spin ye a yarn of my journey... instead I'll do my best to show as many pics and videos as I can of the process. Hopefully years later everything will still be running and we can all go back and learn more from the experience.

Feel free to pick apart my planning. Be harsh, be honest, let me know what I'm doing wrong so I can make this tank awesome.

My current tank is this IM Lagoon 25. We moved a lot for work and had to downgrade, but the itch for acros never died:

My first tank was a 75 gallon tank way back in 2009. I got it the entire set-up: lights, skimmer, sump, stand, rock etc. (minus coral and fish) for $500 off Craigslist. The guy had only intended to sell the lights for $500, but his wife had listed the entire tank and he cut me a MAJOR break and let me have it for the $500.

Love the way your tank looks!!

 

[rynosreef]

Love the way your tank looks!!

Thanks!

 

[StickyThwomp]

Following! Excited to see what happens with this build (and what I can shamelessly copy!)

 

[Ryans Reef]

Update time! The tank has arrived! And the stand has been built!

 

[Ryans Reef]

A few pics of the inside of the stand that might be useful to those doing Innovative Marine builds in the future:

 

[Ryans Reef]

First pieces of the filtration/plumbing:
Fiji Cube 30 sump
Maxpect Aeraqua Duo Skimmer
Ecotech Vectra M2 return pump

 

[Ryans Reef]

 

[Dave1993]

haha how fast does your alk + calcium drain with all them colonys

 

[The Roaming Reefer]

I'm working on the same tank. Can't wait to see what you do with it. Couldn't have asked for better dimensions.

 

[Ryans Reef]

One issue with the sump:

The Vectra M2 output is 1" but the Fiji Cube return output hole only accepts a 3/4" bulkhead. I'm not about to lose that much head pressure right out of the gate so... dremeling time! I'm going to widen the hole to accept a 1" bulkhead.

 

[Ryans Reef]

haha how fast does your alk + calcium drain with all them colonys

haha pretty fast! Based off how potent I calculated my dose to be, my tank consumes between 2 - 2.5 dkH a day. It gets close to 3 dKH a day when the weather's nice and the windows are open (due to higher pH). I continuously dose kalkwasser from a still reservoir and have Brightwell's Alkalin8.3 to make up what the kalk can't maintain.

 

[Ryans Reef]

I'm working on the same tank. Can't wait to see what you do with it. Couldn't have asked for better dimensions.

Yep! I love the dimensions of this tank! Can't wait to get it up and running! Do you have a build thread going?

 

[Ryans Reef]

Following! Excited to see what happens with this build (and what I can shamelessly copy!)

haha believe me I'm borrowing a lot of ideas I've seen around the forums too!

 

[Glenner’sreef]

That would be super cool if in the first image that wasn't a reflection!

Those stalactite corals are so hard to light!

 

[Glenner’sreef]

In all seriousness, square tanks are awesome. Depth and dimension. Unmatched. Congrats!