Alright guys! It's time to put all my skills together and make the ultimate reef tank for my house. I've had my system in my fish room from day 1, well it isn't working out anymore.
1) my 90g is having 55g syndrome in that it is turning into a wall of rock. I'm an artist and it drives me bonkers!
2) the room is terribly hard to keep stable temperatures in due to it being an external porch that was enclosed and never had hvac ran to it, electric is out the roof!
3) my friend moved and gave me a very reasonable deal on his tank which I picked out for him.
The combined reasons, amongst many others, created the opportunity to redo my reef from ground zero.
The plan in progress
The tank: 5x2x1 starfire glass...ALL PANELS EVEN THE BOTTOM! It weighs about as much as my house. The thing is insanely beefy. It is a shallow tank, originally built as a frag tank but my idea is to make an out of the box reef that shows off all I have learned through the years in both reefing and carpentry.
The stand: the stand that my buddy built was overkill to say the least. It was heavier than the uhaul trailer we tried to fit it inside.
It was too big! We got it in the back of a truck but i was definitely looking into reworking it more efficiently and to match the vibe of my antique, not to be confused with rustic, house. It must also have full access to SUMPZILLA, the sump I built specifically for this tank. You can see the build on REEF EDITION for more details on that monster.
The Equipment:
Lighting will be the Reef Breeder's Photon. The biggest one.
I have a mag 12 return pump and a Reef Octopus NWB 150 in the sump. Heat hasn't been tested yet...I may need a chiller in the house. I've had nanos with no climate control stay 78 for the entire year so maybe this will too. My house rarely gets hot or cold.
I like manually dosing my tank, but I have been considering a calcium reactor just because there is room for one lol. I am going to use Xenia in my refugium lit by a 36w full spectrum par38 on reverse schedule. ATO float valves are my top off choice, gravity fed from a reservoir. There will be one where my current tank is located along with a water mixing station...I have to make a closet to hide it all because we plan on using the porch like normal people again and not to support tropical creatures. I plan on putting a drain in the floor and tile so I can literally just throw buckets of anything in there and it go down the drain, along with a faucet to rinse. This is also a good place to move my RO unit. Essentially I am condensing but gaining real estate in both the aquarium, and the actual house for us people. Lol.
As for wave makers...I am going to experiment with various surge devices and see what I can make that won't blast the sand but will still make the corals dance. At the very least I can just use controllable powerheads. I would like to see the coast of my island have some splashing. Tides would really be awesome but the tank is already 12 inches deep and that is without even putting sand in it yet. Bare bottom would limit my choice for inhabitants but so do a lot of other things.
The Scape:
Oh this is gonna be cool! I am making an island that will contain a reservoir at its peak like a volcano lake. This will be deep enough for tiny creatures and some corals even but it will be about a foot or 2 maybe out of the water. My light will be about 4 feet above the Water. The rock will be carved to control the path of water flow and I am going to do my best to make some awesome waterfall action but still keep it as quiet as possible. Superglue may be involved.
Inhabitants are not on my mind at all yet. I cannot be distracted until this is up and running. Ok, time to stop typing and see what I can bring back to you guys soon! Pictures will be included!
1) my 90g is having 55g syndrome in that it is turning into a wall of rock. I'm an artist and it drives me bonkers!
2) the room is terribly hard to keep stable temperatures in due to it being an external porch that was enclosed and never had hvac ran to it, electric is out the roof!
3) my friend moved and gave me a very reasonable deal on his tank which I picked out for him.
The combined reasons, amongst many others, created the opportunity to redo my reef from ground zero.
The plan in progress
The tank: 5x2x1 starfire glass...ALL PANELS EVEN THE BOTTOM! It weighs about as much as my house. The thing is insanely beefy. It is a shallow tank, originally built as a frag tank but my idea is to make an out of the box reef that shows off all I have learned through the years in both reefing and carpentry.
The stand: the stand that my buddy built was overkill to say the least. It was heavier than the uhaul trailer we tried to fit it inside.
It was too big! We got it in the back of a truck but i was definitely looking into reworking it more efficiently and to match the vibe of my antique, not to be confused with rustic, house. It must also have full access to SUMPZILLA, the sump I built specifically for this tank. You can see the build on REEF EDITION for more details on that monster.
The Equipment:
Lighting will be the Reef Breeder's Photon. The biggest one.
I have a mag 12 return pump and a Reef Octopus NWB 150 in the sump. Heat hasn't been tested yet...I may need a chiller in the house. I've had nanos with no climate control stay 78 for the entire year so maybe this will too. My house rarely gets hot or cold.
I like manually dosing my tank, but I have been considering a calcium reactor just because there is room for one lol. I am going to use Xenia in my refugium lit by a 36w full spectrum par38 on reverse schedule. ATO float valves are my top off choice, gravity fed from a reservoir. There will be one where my current tank is located along with a water mixing station...I have to make a closet to hide it all because we plan on using the porch like normal people again and not to support tropical creatures. I plan on putting a drain in the floor and tile so I can literally just throw buckets of anything in there and it go down the drain, along with a faucet to rinse. This is also a good place to move my RO unit. Essentially I am condensing but gaining real estate in both the aquarium, and the actual house for us people. Lol.
As for wave makers...I am going to experiment with various surge devices and see what I can make that won't blast the sand but will still make the corals dance. At the very least I can just use controllable powerheads. I would like to see the coast of my island have some splashing. Tides would really be awesome but the tank is already 12 inches deep and that is without even putting sand in it yet. Bare bottom would limit my choice for inhabitants but so do a lot of other things.
The Scape:
Oh this is gonna be cool! I am making an island that will contain a reservoir at its peak like a volcano lake. This will be deep enough for tiny creatures and some corals even but it will be about a foot or 2 maybe out of the water. My light will be about 4 feet above the Water. The rock will be carved to control the path of water flow and I am going to do my best to make some awesome waterfall action but still keep it as quiet as possible. Superglue may be involved.
Inhabitants are not on my mind at all yet. I cannot be distracted until this is up and running. Ok, time to stop typing and see what I can bring back to you guys soon! Pictures will be included!
