Well first off let me introduce myself, My name is Ron and I have been in the hobby 3 years. My first saltwater tank was a 125 AGE with custom stand and a 55gal sump. SpS mainly with some Lps on the sand bed. I have since tore that tank down and moved all my sticks to a 40B (grow out tank) that way I can make room for the new build. My goal for this tank is to do all SPS and have more of a look down tank. So.... Enough of the boring stuff and lets get to the good stuff!
Tank: Miracles Rimless 60x30x18
External overflow setup for Bean animal drains
Sump: Custom Design by Myself and Built by Ken Lane
Stand: Metal Stand by Chillicothe Metal Co.
Return Pump: Reef Octopus RODC 5500
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Elite 200Int
Reactor: Vertex RX-Z 1.5L Zeovit Reactor
Dosing Pump: GHL Doser 2
ATO: Avast Marine Peristaltic pump
Controller: Apex Gold with WXM, IO Breakout box and ALD with sensors
Internal Flow: 3-4 Vortech MP40 QD's w/ 1 Battery backup
Lighting: Pacific Sun Diuna 10x54W T5
Heating: 2 Eheim Jager 250W True Temp
Water Storage: Ace Roto Mold 55 gal vertical tank
I have been slowly gathering items over time so the sticker shock won't be too bad. LoL! But I am still waiting on a few things. I wanted to get this going and start sharing and documenting where I'm at and where I'm going with things.
So lets start with the sump, Like I said it is custom made to my specifications. The sump has my RO Reservoir and 3 dosing containers integrated into it. I decided to go with black back and bottom to hide anything exiting the stand behind the sump. The top is translucent red and the front is translucent bronze.
I will be replacing all the JG Bulkheads with Black bulkheads. Those and the black JG street elbows were delivered today!! So this weekend I get to change them out add all the rigid tubing to the dosing containers and reservoir. Pictures to follow when thats done!
For the stand I have to give credit to @mixer911 as I stole his idea on the stand. Shhhh, don't tell anyone. The stand is metal with an extension on the back to hide all the plumbing, I am going to mount all my controllers gadgets on the back wall out of sight so that is why I mounted the wood the way I did.
The stand was completed July 9th so I went and picked it up!!
So one thing that I really wanted to do on this build that I wish I would of done a long time ago was have a storage container with RODI water ready and waiting in case I needed and making access to water for water changes very easy. So I splurged and bought an Ace Roto Mold 55 gal vertical container from US Plastic. I am kinda limited on space so I went the largest I could, plus 55 gal was the largest I could get without having to pay freight fees of $150. Booo!
Delivery of the tank took about 2-3 days from Ohio!
I decided to see how it all fit in the space, I know the stand needs painted!
Well everything is painted and rocking so I decided to go ahead and install the plumbing and float switch to the storage tank: In case anyone was wondering why the "Y", the right breakout with shutoff will go to the storage tank and the left breakout will go to the sump!! The shutoffs are so I can shutoff water to the sump and turn on water to the storage tank, when it's full shut it off and then turn back on the valve to the sump. The rodi unit will be controlled by my apex once I get that far but for now, it's all manual!
So on June 27th I decided to take the plunge and order my light, the Pacific Sun Diuna 10x54W T5 unit. This thing is one bad mama jama! 4 Channels, wireless controlled via bluetooth, integrated moonlight. I love it! The light was delivered on July 9th. The light came with free T5 bulbs and hanging kit. A very nice bonus, I have heard mixed reviews of the bulbs but I will be documenting on a monthly basis par readings and intensity dropping through out the life of the bulbs to see where they actually do stand.
Here is the bulb layout I went with from front to back:
- Ultra Wide UV
- Pigment INT
- Crystal UV
- Shallow Water
- Crystal Blue
- Crystal Blue
- Spectra +
- Crystal UV
- Pigment INT
- Ultra Wide UV
I made an image on power point documenting the channel layout, at first I put the bulbs in there how I thought the channels were and was wrong so I switched them around so the 4 bulbs on Ch3 were my daylight bulbs.
I went and picked up the light from Fedex since I had to sign for them.
This weekend I should be getting this thing hung up so I will post some more pictures as that process unfolds!
During the 4th of July break, Aqua Cave had a 10% sale on Coral Vue, so guess what happened. I took the plunge and bought my return pump and skimmer, one bummer though..... The skimmer is on back order till August . Of well, I won't be ready for it by then anyways. But on July 9th the return pump showed up!!!
That's it for now folks, I will keep this updated as the project progresses. I apologize now as this may take a couple months to wrap up! If anyone has any questions about anything please feel free to ask. I will be more than happy to share with you why I did something the way I did or what drove me to that decision.
Well I got home today and my bulkheads from USPlastic was waiting for me . So I decided why not get to work and switch them out. Here are a few pics of the process. I think they look so much better than the white ones!
Sweet setup. It is nice to thoroughly plan before starting. You look like you've done plenty of research, and everything looks of top quality. Following along.
I'll be more than happy to let you know what I think of the equipment I am using. This would be a good place to do a review of all my components!! Thanks
Sweet setup. It is nice to thoroughly plan before starting. You look like you've done plenty of research, and everything looks of top quality. Following along.
. Of well, I won't be ready for it by then anyways. But on July 9th the return pump showed up!!!
. So I decided why not get to work and switch them out. Here are a few pics of the process. I think they look so much better than the white ones!
