The WB's 70g Custom Acrylic Supersized AIO

[JoJosReef]

Made a lot of progress over the weekend and today getting the Apex moved over to the new tank. I hooked up both of the Neptune Skys and I gotta say I’m loving the blanket line coverage that two of them are providing. I’ve only got them maxing out at 7% right now. No corals except the Gorgonian but no shadowing at all.

Awesome lighting. You've got some great space for low light and NPS corals, too under ledges. Can't wait to see this fill up!

 

[TheWB]

Awesome lighting. You've got some great space for low light and NPS corals, too under ledges. Can't wait to see this fill up!

Thank you. Those lights are turned way low and are also a good 17.5 inches above the water line. Low light corals should work out just fine. I don't know about NPS though, that's never been my thing. I do have a local friend with some Dendros though, so you never know, maybe someday.

 

[tharbin]

Made a lot of progress over the weekend and today getting the Apex moved over to the new tank. I hooked up both of the Neptune Skys and I gotta say I’m loving the blanket like coverage that two of them are providing. I’ve only got them maxing out at 7% right now. No corals except the Gorgonian but no shadowing at all.

This looks really good. You're also reminding me how much I like tanks with Gorgonians and macro algae. I may need to recenter myself...

 

[TheWB]

This looks really good. You're also reminding me how much I like tanks with Gorgonians and macro algae. I may need to recenter myself...

Thanks. I’m pretty happy with it despite the recent fish setbacks. I like the look of Gorgs too and I think a couple more will need to be obtained. There’s a website for a company in TX that has lots of them and lots of different macros. I think it’s called golf coast ecosystems. I’ve always wanted to do a tank like that gorgonian/ricordia dominant one I showed you and Woodyman back in the Tenecor thread. I’d love to do that either in a 33 long or maybe even a standard 55. Might be the only good use for a standard 55 saltwater tank because of the height for the Gorgs. I have lots of fun ideas for tanks that I have no place to put, lol.


Speaking of Gorgs, @tharbin, I have one in the clown tank that’s got a hair algae problem. Do you know if Gorgs can be dipped in H2O2? Need to figure that out.

That’s after I scrubbed it pretty good with a toothbrush. Anyone with any thoughts on this please chime in.

edit...this was my 2500th post on the forum. Who knew I could yammer on this much for this long. Never would have thought it when I joined.

 

[tharbin]

Thanks. I’m pretty happy with it despite the recent fish setbacks. I like the look of Gorgs too and I think a couple more will need to be obtained. There’s a website for a company in TX that has lots of them and lots of different macros. I think it’s called golf coast ecosystems. I’ve always wanted to do a tank like that gorgonian/ricordia dominant one I showed you and Woodyman back in the Tenecor thread. Id love to do that either in a 33 long or maybe even a standard 55. Might be the only good use for a standard 55 saltwater tank because of the height for the Gorgs. I have lots of fun ideas for tanks that I have no place to put, lol.


Speaking of Gorgs, @tharbin, I have one in the clown tank that’s got a hair algae problem. Do you know if Gorgs can be dipped in H2O2? Need to figure that out.

That’s after I scrubbed it pretty good with a toothbrush. Anyone with any thoughts on this please chime in.

I've never tried dipping one so no idea but I doubt it would fair well. I usually ended up clipping off arms with algae as they had usually also lost their 'skin'.

Thanks for reminding me about the height issue. I always ended up regretting have a short tank when I kept Gorgs.

 

[TheWB]

I've never tried dipping one so no idea but I doubt it would fair well. I usually ended up clipping off arms with algae as they had usually also lost their 'skin'.

Thanks for reminding me about the height issue. I always ended up regretting have a short tank when I kept Gorgs.

Yeah, I might end up having to just frag it into smaller pieces that don't have any algae on them. If that's even possible anymore, there's kind of a lot on there. I never really had an algae problem in the Lagoon 50 in the last 2-3 years except for on that one Gorgonian. Weird.

 

[TheWB]

The process of taking down the Lagoon 50 continues and boy is it filthy and full of nasty stuff due to lack of maintenance on the rear chambers for pretty much 2 years. Kept thinking I was upgrading soon so I put off the deep clean of that whole area and next thing you know it’s two years later.

I did not know that a Vermetid could just attach to the glass, I thought they had to bore into something solid like a coral skeleton or a snail shell. Judging by the next two pictures I was incorrect. I had no idea there was this much of a problem.

This is below the In-Tank filter floss basket in one of the overflows. Kinda disgusting. Vermetids out of control.

I went bare bottom when I moved in June 2022 and I wasn’t able to clean under the scape as well as I thought I would be able to do. Then the maintenance started getting ignored as the new tank started. This is the remains after all the water was drained so nowhere close to what was actually accumulating on the bottom, a lot was stirred up and drained out with the old tank water.

I am very happy that the new tank has much larger dims in the filtration area so I can see in there more easily and clean it out much more easily if it starts building up detritus. This level of gunk can never happen again.

 

[TheWB]

Things that happened today.

Caught and removed a juvenile gorilla crab. Still one more in there that I’m aware of.

I moved the ATO over to the new tank.
I did a little basic Apex programming to reassign some of the outlets to control my under cabinet lighting and the saltwater mixing pump and heater in my mixing bin. Also added the 200w BRS titanium heater to the back chambers as a backup to the 300w that was already running.

Everything is labeled on the EB832 side of the control panel.

Control Panel complete for now, pending any new equipment arrivals.

The rats nest of wires is intentional. The minute you get everything all tidy and neat you end up tearing half of it apart to get at one wire. I’m not gonna play that game cause I’ll just get irritated. With the front panel of the cabinet on none of this is visible so other than coiling up loose wire with twist ties I’m not managing this section any further.

Next to the controller board I’m re-using the same IM 5 gallon ato container as before. Love the drawer for filling. I’d like the larger version but it’s not worth the money. Next to that is a plastic tote I’m using to mix up salt for water changes. I marked it out for 4.5, 9 and 13.5 gallons because each baggie of TLF AccuraSea1 mixes perfectly to 35ppt in 4.5 gallons of water. I just add the right number of baggies to the right amount of water and I’m ready to go. I left the power cords of the pump and heater loose so I have enough slack to easily lift the container up to dump in the last little bit of new water that the pump can’t do.

Finally after several months I’ve got the old tank out and the new one fully operational.

 

[tharbin]

Things that happened today.

Caught and removed a juvenile gorilla crab. Still one more in there that I’m aware of.

I moved the ATO over to the new tank.
I did a little basic Apex programming to reassign some of the outlets to control my under cabinet lighting and the saltwater mixing pump and heater in my mixing bin. Also added the 200w BRS titanium heater to the back chambers as a backup to the 300w that was already running.

Everything is labeled on the EB832 side of the control panel.

Control Panel complete for now, pending any new equipment arrivals.

The rats nest of wires is intentional. The minute you get everything all tidy and neat you end up tearing half of it apart to get at one wire. I’m not gonna play that game cause I’ll just get irritated. With the front panel of the cabinet on none of this is visible so other than coiling up loose wire with twist ties I’m not managing this section any further.

Next to the controller board I’m re-using the same IM 5 gallon ato container as before. Love the drawer for filling. I’d like the larger version but it’s not worth the money. Next to that is a plastic tote I’m using to mix up salt for water changes. I marked it out for 4.5, 9 and 13.5 gallons because each baggie of TLF AccuraSea1 mixes perfectly to 35ppt in 4.5 gallons of water. I just add the right number of baggies to the right amount of water and I’m ready to go. I left the power cords of the pump and heater loose so I have enough slack to easily lift the container up to dump in the last little bit of new water that the pump can’t do.

Finally after several months I’ve got the old tank out and the new one fully operational.

The tank is really coming together. Looks good. I think the aquascape is really looking super and seeing two Yellow Wrasses swimming in front of a gorgonian is magical. Really nice.

 

[TheWB]

The tank is really coming together. Looks good. I think the aquascape is really looking super and seeing two Yellow Wrasses swimming in front of a gorgonian is magical. Really nice.

Thanks, I’m pretty happy with everything so far despite the extended timeframe and the recent issues with fish losses. I think the yellow wrasses are the best thing I’ve done in a long time. They are so interesting to watch swimming together and interacting. I really like having pairs. At some point I’ll probably get a second blue damsel and I also want to get another pair of zebra barred dartfish, I really enjoyed them when I had them before. Green banded gobies are another possibility and I know they can be done in small groups, really like the look of them. My biggest disappointment recently was that the pairing of the Royal Grammas never got off the ground as they both died pretty quickly. In hindsight that big credit I got for trading in the anemones turned out to be very detrimental. Most of those fish I got didn’t make it and I kinda went out of character with too many changes too quickly. I’m reining it all back in now, no new livestock additions for a while as I let everything settle in.

 

[TheWB]

Now that the Lagoon 50 is out of the room I have rearranged things and moved my desk. Gotta get rid of that janky looking cardboard shade I made for the lights. It doesn’t work anymore anyway because it’s up too high compared to where it was before.

Here is my new view while I’m working. I’ve angled the computer I use for work so my clients can see this as well from a slightly different angle. All 5 fish in the shot. They’re hanging out because they think I’m going to feed them. They are wrong, not for a couple of hours anyway.

 

[TheWB]

Let me start this post by saying that I have owned acrylic tanks before, they have been scratched up pretty good by my kids using the algae scraper, etc…. I know better. I was really impressed with the Tunze Strong magnet cleaner I bought. It was very smooth over the acrylic panels. It is usually my practice to check the cleaning blades thoroughly before I use it. I did that two days ago before I started removing just a very light film off the side viewing panel next to my desk. I got the thing from the far back corner, all the way around the front panel to the desk side panel. So far, so good. Then I must have picked up something on the blade that I couldn’t/didnt see. At this point I thought I was good so I kept moving the scraper around. Suffice it to say that I have very badly scratched the desk side and front acrylic panels. At the right angles it looks horrendous. I’m not even going to post pictures. I’m so mad at myself. I know the risks. You cannot possibly be too careful. I was not too careful. Now I gotta live with it. The silver lining, if you can call it that, is with the lights on and at normal viewing locations you cannot really see the scratches. This is a miracle because the scratches are big. I apparently am not responsible enough to have nice things.

 

[icedgxe]

Let me start this post by saying that I have owned acrylic tanks before, they have been scratched up pretty good by my kids using the algae scraper, etc…. I know better. I was really impressed with the Tunze Strong magnet cleaner I bought. It was very smooth over the acrylic panels. It is usually my practice to check the cleaning blades thoroughly before I use it. I did that two days ago before I started removing just a very light film off the side viewing panel next to my desk. I got the thing from the far back corner, all the way around the front panel to the desk side panel. So far, so good. Then I must have picked up something on the blade that I couldn’t/didnt see. At this point I thought I was good so I kept moving the scraper around. Suffice it to say that I have very badly scratched the desk side and front acrylic panels. At the right angles it looks horrendous. I’m not even going to post pictures. I’m so mad at myself. I know the risks. You cannot possibly be too careful. I was not too careful. Now I gotta live with it. The silver lining, if you can call it that, is with the lights on and at normal viewing locations you cannot really see the scratches. This is a miracle because the scratches are big. I apparently am not responsible enough to have nice things.

That sucks! I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself. Accidents happen and you look at acrylic the wrong way and it scratches. Luckily it seems like you can’t see them all the time.

 

[TheWB]

That sucks! I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself. Accidents happen and you look at acrylic the wrong way and it scratches. Luckily it seems like you can’t see them all the time.

Thanks. It's really not that bad to view, ya gotta really try and look at it the wrong way in order to see the scratches even though they are pretty long. It won't impact my daily enjoyment of the tank but I'm not to the point where I'm over it yet so I'm still pretty salty. It was just such a stupid mistake. You have to watch every second of panel cleaning on an acrylic tank like a hawk. I know this and failed anyway.

 

[TheWB]

So I’m feeding the clownfish tonight in the garage tank. I find myself sitting here more and more just watching the clown, the peppermint shrimp and the hermits. This tank has a bit of a hair algae problem, especially on the gorgonian and on parts of the sand bed. I clean it out once in a while when doing water changes but I’m trying to let this tank just do its thing so I’m not offering a whole lot of resistance to it’s relatively minor problems. There’s this one spot on one of the Tampa Bay Saltwater live ocean rocks that are currently stashed in this tank that’s been bugging me though. It’s been steadily getting fuzzier and I’ve been meaning to give it a good scrub. Then in the last few days I’ve started to see some green fluorescing going on under the fuzziness. I’m usually focused on other things so this has just been peripheral until tonight. Tonight I decided to take a really good look at it and it turns out I’ve got quite a little lps coral colony of some type growing on that rock.

This is my usual view of the tank.

Hers a close up of what it looks like under blues.

Here it is under whites.

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what kind of coral this is?

 

[tharbin]

Let me start this post by saying that I have owned acrylic tanks before, they have been scratched up pretty good by my kids using the algae scraper, etc…. I know better. I was really impressed with the Tunze Strong magnet cleaner I bought. It was very smooth over the acrylic panels. It is usually my practice to check the cleaning blades thoroughly before I use it. I did that two days ago before I started removing just a very light film off the side viewing panel next to my desk. I got the thing from the far back corner, all the way around the front panel to the desk side panel. So far, so good. Then I must have picked up something on the blade that I couldn’t/didnt see. At this point I thought I was good so I kept moving the scraper around. Suffice it to say that I have very badly scratched the desk side and front acrylic panels. At the right angles it looks horrendous. I’m not even going to post pictures. I’m so mad at myself. I know the risks. You cannot possibly be too careful. I was not too careful. Now I gotta live with it. The silver lining, if you can call it that, is with the lights on and at normal viewing locations you cannot really see the scratches. This is a miracle because the scratches are big. I apparently am not responsible enough to have nice things.

I did the same thing to my Waterbox 15 Pen; not exactly the same price point but same self-anger. Low iron isn't really much more scratch resistant. The good news, you can remove most scratches in an acrylic tank someday--no way in a glass tank.

 

[TheWB]

Some new purchases have been made.

I got a Hydros Minnow and the Rope leak detector with an extension so 18’ total.

and another Maxspect Jump Gyre. This is the newest version, the MJ-GF316 with the upgraded controller.

I was going to just get an FMM module and a couple of floor sensors to add on to my Apex along with one of the new water level sensors for my top off water. But I’ve also been wanting to get some Hydros gear and start checking out that ecosystem. I’m excited about the Maven and this way I can get my foot in the door and see if I like it. The Minnow has the two dosing pumps and four sense ports so the plan it to use one sense port for the leak detector and the other three to monitor the levels in my top off reservoir and then in dosing containers for what will probably end up being Nopox and All For Reef eventually. The Hydros optical sensors were out of stock until today so I just ordered one to get started. I’ll get the other two when I’m ready. Now I feel like I can do whatever I want going forward. Add things to a Hydros collective if I want to or keep using my Apex for general control like I’ve been doing. It’s nice to be able to have both without one interfering with the other.

The new gyre is in anticipation of eventually getting some beginner sticks. I will now have a 4K gph gyre at either end of the 4ft tank and a 2k gph gyre on the back wall aimed toward the front panel. The only bummer is that the new controller doesn’t work with the two older ones so no synchronized flow patterns. Not a big deal but of course if it’s available I want it, right. I guess I’ll upgrade eventually, these Jump gyres are working great so far and they’re relatively cheap compared to some of the other options. This latest one I got on sale for about $152ish. Should give me all the flow I’d ever need for a few sticks. I've been thinking about getting this at some point in the next couple of months.

 

[TheWB]

I did a little controller board rearranging over the weekend to make room for the additional Maxspect Jump pump controller and the Hydros Minnow.

The new Maxspect went on the right side panel which degrades my view from the desk but that’s where it’s gotta go so I just need to live with it.

Only one little problem with the controller board once I finished making room. The Hydros Minnow will stick out too far once the power supply is connected. When I designed this layout Hydros was not on my radar and I only measured to make sure the Apex head unit would fit with the door panel on. Oh well, it’s always something.
I’ll need to figure out a different place to put the minnow. Thinking about converting the top cubby in the ikea shelving unit next to the tank into the Hydros zone. The Minnow and the two dosing containers I’ll eventually need can live in there.

 

[TheWB]

I did a little rearranging yesterday.
I moved the long flat rock that was connecting the two big islands to the left island so now there is a true gap between the two islands.
I also moved the large gorgonian behind the right island so it’s not blocking the gap anymore or getting pounded with flow.
I moved the Jump 2k gyre to the middle of the back wall and set it to random mode between 10 and 50%.
The newer Jump 4K gyre is set to ramp up and down from 10 to 80% on the right side.
The older one on the left is set at a constant 70%.
Other than a small bare spot in the front middle the sand is pretty much staying put so I may turn down the 2k and maybe turn up the 4k’s by another 10% once I have corals.

I like the look a little better this way. The left side is now higher than the right and the gap in between gives a sense of more depth. The gorg in the background is also better.

There is now officially a coral in the tank. I grabbed a two polyp frag of Pink Zipper Zoas from the garage tank and put it in.

It’s not looking great at the moment but my experience is that most zoas adjust pretty well. It was under a Radion XR15 gen 4 in the garage, about 10 inches below the waterline with the light about 6-7” above the waterline set to ab+ at about 45%
Its new location is 12-13” below the waterline with two Neptune Sky’s about 17” above the waterline and peaking at 17%. I would expect them to be a little shocked for a while. Hopefully they start to grow new polyps. That will be my indication to start increasing the lighting intensity and maybe start to think about a green slimer or equivalent sps to test the waters further.

 

[tharbin]

I did a little rearranging yesterday.
I moved the long flat rock that was connecting the two big islands to the left island so now there is a true gap between the two islands.
I also moved the large gorgonian behind the right island so it’s not blocking the gap anymore or getting pounded with flow.
I moved the Jump 2k gyre to the middle of the back wall and set it to random mode between 10 and 50%.
The newer Jump 4K gyre is set to ramp up and down from 10 to 80% on the right side.
The older one on the left is set at a constant 70%.
Other than a small bare spot in the front middle the sand is pretty much staying put so I may turn down the 2k and maybe turn up the 4k’s by another 10% once I have corals.

I like the look a little better this way. The left side is now higher than the right and the gap in between gives a sense of more depth. The gorg in the background is also better.

There is now officially a coral in the tank. I grabbed a two polyp frag of Pink Zipper Zoas from the garage tank and put it in.

It’s not looking great at the moment but my experience is that most zoas adjust pretty well. It was under a Radion XR15 gen 4 in the garage, about 10 inches below the waterline with the light about 6-7” above the waterline set to ab+ at about 45%
Its new location is 12-13” below the waterline with two Neptune Sky’s about 17” above the waterline and peaking at 17%. I would expect them to be a little shocked for a while. Hopefully they start to grow new polyps. That will be my indication to start increasing the lighting intensity and maybe start to think about a green slimer or equivalent sps to test the waters further.

I like the new arrangement a lot.