Turtle's Sushi Dream

[SashimiTurtle]

Hi, I'm Turtle and I love sushi. I also love reef tanks, so what better to do than to combine the two and fill a reef tank full of sushi! I know what you're thinking, "If you fill your tank with sushi the fish won't be able to swim." Well, you're right and that would be a waste of good sushi, not to mention very expensive. I have this thought tho, that a sushi chef uses different colors and textures to create edible art, sushi is just as much visual as it is edible. Well I want to recreate that visual art in my reef... so, a reef tank full of sushi!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Some of you will know my last tank was also a sushi tank. Ok so I really love sushi. This tank is a dream, I pinch myself every time I come home and see it. So this will be the Sushi Dream.

Tank:
Red Sea Reefer 750xxl

Equipment:
Kessil AP700
Red Sea RSK600 Skimmer
Red Sea ReefMat 1200
Inkbird heater controller
BRS 300W titanium heater x2
Sicce SDC 7.0 return pump
Vortech MP40 wave pump x2
Some cheap ATO I can't remember the name of

Aquascape:
~120lbs Caribsea Life Rock in various shapes
120lbs Caribsea sand

 

[SashimiTurtle]

The build. The tank arrived January 31st. It was incredibly large and incredibly heavy. The shipping weight on the pallet was 1080lbs.

I was barely able to lift and slide the tank off of the stand so I could get it built.

(Ignore the mess. It was rearrange house to fit giant tank day.)

Moving the tank onto the stand was a monumental task that took 5 people, but with a lot of straining and a few hernias, it made it home.

 

[IKD]

Great build so far!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Great build so far!

Thank you! Glad to have you following.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Next came time for the aquascape. I knew I wanted to do two main islands with an arch going to a smaller island. So I gathered up all of the rock I had collected over my years of reef keeping.

Yeah, ummm... I'd say I have enough rock.

I had figured out the right side already. I bought one of the caribsea coral trees a few years ago. It ended up being way too tall for a 24" tank. I had a hammer and a chisel tho. It broke right about the middle, and one of the small ledges broke off as well. An idea formed almost instantly while I was pressure washing them. They fit together next to each other and I used the small broken piece to form a small arch. I placed one of the "rings" from the box of shapes in front of it, and it has a pretty neat looking over hang on the front of it.

Next came the task of stacking rocks up to create a large island on the other side of the tank that connected to a small island in the middle. I took the time to tape up the tank to give me some visual refrence points for using the 'rule of thirds.'

I wanted to keep my focal points as close to the intersections as I could while making a stable structure. Of course I had to stack three or four times until I finally got something I liked.

The center island is made from some old base rock I've had for years, and the large island is all shapes rock carefully stacked so they lock together. It's full of negative space and the fish swim in and out all the time.

Here the tank is with all the tape off and the scape finalized... (or is it?)

 

[FMF0331]

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Where was I... oh yeah, I just got the rock in. Next step was to add in the sand and fill it with water. Sand was easy enough. I had a 40lb bag of Caribsea Ocean Direct here, and I bought 80lbs of Caribsea Special Grade. It took all of it to get the depth I wanted.

The next step was adding the water. I decided to fill the tank with my RO unit, as the rock wasn't live anymore and I was waiting on new salt. I had a 200g bucket of Tropic Marin salt, but it's the stuff made in Turkey and with everything going on I decided to just go back to(and stick with) the salt that's always treated me well... Red Sea blue bucket.

I ran an RO line into the house, my unit is in the garage for overflow reasons, and started filling the tank. It only took 7 days to fill enough so I could start circulating water with the return pump.

Once I could run the return on minimum without cavitation, I started adding salt, and adding salt... and adding more salt. I added an entire bucket of salt and 24 hours later I was at 1.022sg. It took 10 more cups to raise my salinity to 1.025sg.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Now that the tank was running, I decided to check PAR readings with my Seneye. I have my lights at about a 20k setting. 80% blue, 50% white.

You might notice the large rock on the right shifted. It was extremely shaded and almost the entire front side was below 150 PAR. I repositioned a few of the pieces at the top and I'm much happier with the scape now. The sand bed is a pretty even 140 except for a pretty big hot spot up front by the glass. Tilting the Seneye I could tell it was being caused by the white rock and the glass reflecting light down onto the sand. Hopefully as the rocks darken and coraline covers everything, that won't be as bright.

 

[fishguy242]

 

[najer]

Scape looks great.

 

[Eric R.]

Looks good! Love the tank location, almost as if that wall was built for exactly that tank to go there!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Party on Garth

Scape looks great.

Always nice to have your stamp of approval.

Looks good! Love the tank location, almost as if that wall was built for exactly that tank to go there!

So I'm pretty mechanical minded. I'm a mechanic by trade after all... I like plotting things out, having a visual idea of how something will look before I have it. My wife decided we needed new furniture to go with the new tank... so of course I had to plan everything out to find the best spot for everything to go. This was the layout of furniture my wife said she liked. Still waiting on that to get delivered.

There's about 9⅜" of wall on either side of the tank.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, last night I was going to start organizing my controller cabinet and type up the next part of the build so I can get all y'all caught up to the present day.

Just about the time I went to get started, my router decided I no longer needed wifi. It was still on, I could still plug my laptop into the back and get internet, it just said "no wifi for you!"

So, my whole night was spent doing factory resets on my Google Home, the Red Sea lights, and trying to connect back to my GHL. I got everything back functional for the most part on the main router back in the office. The one I used in the living room for everything was really just for stronger wifi signal. I'll look into a signal extender or booster, whatever they are called.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Back to the build. I had rock, sand water, salt and the GHL minus the KH Director and Doser running the return, skimmer and heaters. Next step was to get the tank ready for fish, and that happened quick, fast and in a hurry.

First up was the refugium. I ordered a new light to replace my Kessil H80. With the rectangular size of the refugium on this tank, I was going to need more spread than the Kessil could provide without spilling over into the skimmer. I got the Tunze 8821 refugium light. It lights a 14x8" area can be mounted from the end or the side and is water proof.(so you can eliminate 100% of light spill) Of course I had to see how bright it was when it came in, so I plugged it up while staring directly at it...

 

[najer]

Of course I had to see how bright it was when it came in, so I plugged it up while staring directly at it...

I did this about a month ago with the new display light, it fires all 6 channels at 100% over a few seconds as it first fires up, I saw sparkles for hours. ;|)
... defo not the first or last time!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I did this about a month ago with the new display light, it fires all 6 channels at 100% over a few seconds as it first fires up, I saw sparkles for hours. ;|)
... defo not the first or last time!

This light is just plugged into a brick that plugs into a wall outlet. There is no on off switch or a controller. It does, however, have a one or two second delay from when you plug it in to when it turns on. It's just long enough for my simple ape brain to turn the light around and wonder why it isn't on, only to be blinded by red and purple LEDs.

 

[Fudsey]

 

[SashimiTurtle]

At this point the tank had been wet a week. I checked ammonia levels and they were very minimal. Impatience got the best of me and I decided to do a bacteria + live rock + prime "power cycle" and move all my livestock over.

Most of my rock fit in the sump, along with the Brightwell bio brick. I think I may get one more of those in the future once I remove the rock in the sump. Chaeto and dragon's breath came over too. I've been doing some reading and for now one of my chaeto lights should be plenty but I'll likely need to get a second once I get more fish.

After my rock in the tank matures, I'll see about getting that RFA and the Ricordea off and in the display.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Alright so if you've been keeping track, the display has rock sand and water, the sump is full of extra good bacteria rocks, I've added a whole 30 pack of prodibio bacteria and a dose of prime to neutralize the small amount of ammonia I had. That means all my fish, corals and inverts are in the old tank with no rocks, just water and sand. I couldn't just leave them there, so into the Sushi Dream they went.