Tank build thoughts and suggestions

GucciReefsExploda · Mar 1, 2019

Hey guys, for the next couple months I’m trying to gear up and make a list of my next build. This is my first post on the forums but have used vital information from here previously. I recently moved so now I want to set up a 20 gallon water box, i’ll Be building a stand for it which I’m excited about. I’ve researched skimmers, heaters, atos and wave makers, I’m pretty set with what I want except lighting... I know it’s a loaded question but everyone’s opinions are welcome.. I want to build a mix reef, leaning towards sps dominant.. cost of course is a big leading factor. My thoughts were on an ai prime..
the dimensions of the tank are L 17.7" x W17.7" x H 15.8“ ..
I don’t know if one prime would be enough so I thought about making my own retrofit out of some thick illuminum scrap I have with two T5s and ai in the middle.. but most ATI bulbs are 2 ft and I think it might look ridiculous, 3 inches of the t5 fixtures sticking out on each side.
Your guys’ thoughts on this? I’d like to stay under $300 on lighting for a 20 gallon.

pelphrey · Mar 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R!!!

I think the Prime would be a good fit for that tank, I know there are limitations on posting in the for sale forums not sure if you can view them or not. I've seen the Prime HD lights on there for 160ish, so well under your budget if you don't mind a used light!

GucciReefsExploda · Mar 1, 2019

Thanks for the response and welcome pelphrey. Since it’s a future build maybe I will keep my eye out on a used one. I just don’t want to be limited in Acropora options due to Par range and shadowing affects of one puck, I like t5 lighting look with leds but since the smallest bulbs would stick out of a 20 cube maybe I opt for hydra 26 or buy another ai prime down the road. Still on the fence with it. I know towards the top of the tank depending on ai placement the Par would beadequate for top portion sps and bottom softies... but i do like acans and brain coral at the bottom so again I’m not too sure

pelphrey · Mar 1, 2019

You can't go wrong with the HD26 either!

Mind you he is running 3 of the AI primes but he has a heck of a tank!

pelphrey · Mar 1, 2019

#reefsquad

Time to welcome a new member who needs some suggestions!

Ranjib · Mar 1, 2019

Welcome to reef2reef. I'll recommend kessil A360 (very close to 300$), because I love it

. But all other recommendations (hydra/ai prime) here are good as well. On the cheaper side, you can mod blackboxes and get those working, just fine. Rockscape will be much more important, as that in conjunction with the light (most likely you'll end up using pendant style lights) will decide the shaded areas, which in turn will dictate your coral placements.
Cross check water box system, check for the glass quality, check for the sealing etc. Are you aiming for mixed reef or sps heavy setup?

Ron Reefman · Mar 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R.

You will be running a smallish tank at 17"x17". Mine is only 24"x24", so not much bigger. A couple of comments:

An led fixture with pucks car work just fine, but with just one fixture you might get a lot of shadowing. I looked and decided to go with a good fixture that is an array of 3&5 watt leds spread out so as to help reduce shadows and hot spots. It's not the be all and end all, but it's worth consideration.

You can certainly do a great small tank that is mostly or even entirely sps. But smaller tanks can be a bit more difficult to maintain and small errors with sps corals are far more damaging than soft corals or even lps corals. I had a 120g tank chucked full of sps (mostly acros) and a chiller failure to turn of killed every sps in the tank. However, lps corals, all my zoas and all my anemones survived just fine. In fact, they all now make up the corals that started my current 40g cube. Again, you can do sps, but it is harder to do and is higher risk.

You can see some of what I downsized from and how I put together my 40g cube in my build thread (listed in my signature below).

Good luck either way!

GucciReefsExploda · Mar 1, 2019

I have to say I have looked up Kessils and browsed other forums, and for a light you have to purchase a separate controller with no mobile app interphase Kessel has a big following.. a lot of people like kessils id have to see one in person or more videos of sps growth in a nano. Ranjib my goal was to get a im25 lagoon but i don’t know if they weren’t seemed right, I’ve come past a couple horror stories on forums about them but they stopped making them for what ever reason but the waterbox i.m.o is a trusted company (maybe newer) because there’s not a lot of reviews but it’s the closest simplistic tank next in line for me, it has starfire glass and for me I like the back glass ”refugium” if you will, because in the stand I want space dedicated to a ato, diy zeovit reactor that’s fed by a small pump and a 4 channel auto doser.

GucciReefsExploda · Mar 1, 2019

Ron Reefman said:
Welcome to R2R.

You will be running a smallish tank at 17"x17". Mine is only 24"x24", so not much bigger. A couple of comments:

An led fixture with pucks car work just fine, but with just one fixture you might get a lot of shadowing. I looked and decided to go with a good fixture that is an array of 3&5 watt leds spread out so as to help reduce shadows and hot spots. It's not the be all and end all, but it's worth consideration.

You can certainly do a great small tank that is mostly or even entirely sps. But smaller tanks can be a bit more difficult to maintain and small errors with sps corals are far more damaging than soft corals or even lps corals. I had a 120g tank chucked full of sps (mostly acros) and a chiller failure to turn of killed every sps in the tank. However, lps corals, all my zoas and all my anemones survived just fine. In fact, they all now make up the corals that started my current 40g cube. Again, you can do sps, but it is harder to do and is higher risk.

You can see some of what I downsized from and how I put together my 40g cube in my build thread (listed in my signature below).

Good luck either way!

Ya... tank crashes are no fun sorry for the losses.. and keeping sps are difficult.. but that’s why I have to try.. lol i think we all like a bit of difficulty to keep us intrueged. I plan on drilling in a probe chiller and having a controller for the heater and chiller, I live in the Midwest so summers are a hit or miss but it doesn’t get too hot here.. I’m just formulating my plans of the build to help combat failures because fish tanks are always on the verge of crashing hence why we do water changes and dosing unless your the guy featured on reef builders channel I think it was no water changes . I’d like to plan on a back up generator for the house that plan has to go through the wife though... but once I get the tank going I will be trying to sway in that direction lol