20G Long - First Reef Build (Update 12/27/15 - FTS and Picture Dump)

[BayStYat]

I have the original one linked below (24-36" one). The Pro is nice but for the price, you can get much better lights. The good thing about this one is that it covers a long tank such as a 20 long and I got mine for $110

 

http://www.amazon.com/Current-USA-Marine-Aquarium-60-Inch/dp/B00GFTSV24

Thats been the problem is finding a light for a 20L. What are you going to go with ?

[VW_TDI_02]

Currently I have a two bulb T5HO Aquatic Life Marquis fixture and the Current Orbit Marine fixture both running on top of my tank. I don't have access to a PAR meter so I'm not really sure about my lighting situation. I did have to move an acan down a couple of inches and now it's doing much better. The candy cane coral is still towards the very top and is doing quite well. It's actually in the process of splitting one of the heads.

 

I think a nice 4 bulb T5HO fixture would be great for a 20 long. For LEDs, I would look at getting a NanoBox Duo, 2 AI Primes, 2 Kessil A150/A160s, or 2 Kessil A360s. Some people have run single A360s on 30" tanks but I just don't like the amount of shadows it puts out. It also really depends on your rockwork. If you have your rocks towards the middle and not near the glass, you might be able to get away with something like a Radion XR30 with the wide angle lenses.

[moklevat]

Thank you for posting your build. It has been very helpful for me as I planned my 20L.

 

I see you are in CH. I am too! Any recommendations for local sources for equipment and live stock?

[VW_TDI_02]

Thank you for posting your build. It has been very helpful for me as I planned my 20L.

 

I see you are in CH. I am too! Any recommendations for local sources for equipment and live stock?

For equipment, just get stuff online. It's just not worth it to get anything in person. Amazon is usually a good place but there is also BRS which is awesome. I have been to a couple of places for live stock. The fish room is AWFUL. They are just not good at all. The Reef Farm is the place to go when it comes to livestock. They are very affordable and have an awesome staff that's very helpful. Those are pretty much the only places there are around here.

 

I think the big issue with my build is my light choice. For LPS the current orbit marine is great but not so much for SPS. I probably should have gone with a Nano Box Duo or maybe two AI Primes.

[moklevat]

For equipment, just get stuff online. It's just not worth it to get anything in person. Amazon is usually a good place but there is also BRS which is awesome. I have been to a couple of places for live stock. The fish room is AWFUL. They are just not good at all. The Reef Farm is the place to go when it comes to livestock. They are very affordable and have an awesome staff that's very helpful. Those are pretty much the only places there are around here.

 

I think the big issue with my build is my light choice. For LPS the current orbit marine is great but not so much for SPS. I probably should have gone with a Nano Box Duo or maybe two AI Primes.

 

 

Thanks for the recommendations! How about a source for live rock? Does Reef Farm have it? I've been going back and forth on orfering Gulf Live Rock. I like the idea of cool hitchhikers, but am nervous about uncool hitchhikers. I think I would prefer to have rock that I can see and select.

 

I went with the Current Orbit Marine, based largely on its popularity for other 20L builds here. I love the form factor and controller. I may need to upgrade or double up down the road. I looked at the 165w dimmable LED box from China, but it didn't fit with what I am aiming to do. The one I tested out had a flickering issue at lower power.

[VW_TDI_02]

 

 

Thanks for the recommendations! How about a source for live rock? Does Reef Farm have it? I've been going back and forth on orfering Gulf Live Rock. I like the idea of cool hitchhikers, but am nervous about uncool hitchhikers. I think I would prefer to have rock that I can see and select.

 

I went with the Current Orbit Marine, based largely on its popularity for other 20L builds here. I love the form factor and controller. I may need to upgrade or double up down the road. I looked at the 165w dimmable LED box from China, but it didn't fit with what I am aiming to do. The one I tested out had a flickering issue at lower power.

Yea, the Current Orbit Marine is great but only if you're doing LPS. You can get away with some SPS within a few inches of the light but that's about it. I'm not sure about live rock for sale there but they might. I bought dry rock the last time I was in Florida and just used that. I did buy some live rock from the Fish Room (before I knew about the Reef Farm) but it's only one small piece. You'll still get some hitchhikers from buying corals and stuff like that anyways. I also used Brightwell Aquatics Mircobacter7 which sped up my cycle to about two weeks.

[moklevat]

Yea, the Current Orbit Marine is great but only if you're doing LPS. You can get away with some SPS within a few inches of the light but that's about it. I'm not sure about live rock for sale there but they might. I bought dry rock the last time I was in Florida and just used that. I did buy some live rock from the Fish Room (before I knew about the Reef Farm) but it's only one small piece. You'll still get some hitchhikers from buying corals and stuff like that anyways. I also used Brightwell Aquatics Mircobacter7 which sped up my cycle to about two weeks.

 

I made it out to the Reef Farm today and picked up some live rock. Very nice folks with a cool operation. I look forward to going back to get live stock from them. The cycle begins.

[VW_TDI_02]

 

I made it out to the Reef Farm today and picked up some live rock. Very nice folks with a cool operation. I look forward to going back to get live stock from them. The cycle begins.

That's awesome! Yea, that's definitely one of my favorite places to go. I've gotten to the point that I've gotten pretty much one of each of the cheaper SPS corals from them:/

[VW_TDI_02]

Update - 9/6/15: New Toys and FTS!!

So I had a bit of an issue with my old RW-4 and it wasn't spinning. I took it apart and gave it a vinegar bath over night and nothing changed and ended up ordering two more RW-4s. I ended up making a thread about it and someone showed me that the impeller was supposed to be able to spin freely around the shaft and I did not know that. I soaked the impeller for another few hours and eventually was able to remove the shaft from the impeller and then I let it soak for a few more hours to make sure everything was clean. I put it back together and it has been working flawlessly since. Today my new RW-4s showed up and I installed them into my tank as well. I'm running two in my display and one in my sump. The two in the display are set up as master/slave but the other one is on its own.

 

Can you guess which controller is the one for the frag rack where all the SPS are??

[VW_TDI_02]

[update - 9/19/15]

So nothing really new other than I fragged my Pavona colony. Managed to get around 4 out of the colony but probably could have gotten a few more out of it. This is my first SPS fragging session. Next up will be the pink birdsnest which is going to need a trimming soon enough. I did get a new pair of frags. They're both ponape birdsnest and originally they were the same frag but the original owner accidentally broke it. Still a good sized frag. Only had it for maybe a week so not much growth just yet. Here is just a dump of pictures that I happen to have on my phone and hadn't uploaded yet.

 

BIG NEWS:

I have a surprise coming for my frag tank!!! Just have to wait for it to arrive and get it all set up.

Display Tank FTS:

Frag Rack FTS:

The monti cap below actually does have a bit of a purple rim. It hasn't grown much but it definitely has a nice purple rim coming out in some places

[VW_TDI_02]

Update - 12/27/2015

It has been a while since I updated this and figured it was time. So far not too much has changed. I removed the T5HO fixture and I'm just running the Current Orbit Marine for the display tank. It is more than enough for my LPS and softie display tank. The corals in the display tank are doing well. The candy cane coral is splitting like no tomorrow. Looking back at some of the older pictures it has nearly doubled in heads and continues to do so. The branching hammer coral is almost done splitting one of the heads so it has just about 3 now. The acan lords are all doing well and staying incredibly puffy and happy. For the sump I am also pretty happy. I'm getting really good growth and the SPS are encrusting very well. The small blue acro had actually started to encrust onto the frag rack and I had to break it off of the rack. I ended up just cutting off the stem of the original frag plug and gluing the whole thing on top of a chunk of rock. The ponape birdsnest is doing fantastic as well. The tan monti cap with the purple rim has really taken off as well. If you can see in the picture of the inside of the stand, I got rid of the two PAR38 bulbs and am now using a single Kessil A150 Sky Blue. It is simply fantastic and the coloration on the corals has been looking great. I did move the big pink monti cap that was on the display down to the sump as well. I think I'm going to frag that up some time soon but I'm a bit tight on space in there. I would like to get rid of the Pavona frags that are in there. Since fragging the original colony, the frags have encrusted really well onto the plugs. The mother colony is also doing really well and I already have at least one place that I know I can frag.

 

For Christmas I did get a LiveAquaria gift card and will end up buying more livestock for the tank. Since the sump is pretty much full, I'm going to try and populate the display tank some more. I'm going to be ordering as many LPS as I can and I am also going to be adding a Diamond Watchman Goby. That order should be placed around early January.

 

Yesterday I placed an order from Amazon. For the Goby I know I will need more of a sand bed since the current bed barely covers the egg crate. I ordered the sand, more salt, and some Red Sea refill kits for Alk and Ca since I'm running pretty low.

 

For Christmas I also got a Jebao DP-4 which I'm super excited about. The only thing I do not like is that it does not come with instructions which was strange. I did find them easily online and it was incredibly easy to calibrate and program. This morning I calibrated all 4 heads and set my first program. I have been vinegar dosing the tank and have it set up to dose 35 ml every day in 7 different doses. Every week I have to raise the dose by 5 ml so I'm just going to keep adding doses until I've reached the right level. I may end up switching away from vinegar dosing and use vodka instead but that's still up in the air. I'm not getting as much skimmate as I would like but I also think it has to do with the relatively light bioload in my tank and the frankly excessive filtration.

 

I have cleaned out my ATO reservoir and I'm no longer running kalkwasser in there. I got all the water parameters exactly where I wanted them yesterday at 4:45 PM. Today at that time I'm going to test my water again and see what kind of consumption my tank does in 24 hours. Once I get those measurements I should be able to program the Ca and Alk as well. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the 4th head. I have never had to dose Mg into the tank itself and water changes have been more than enough. I may do something like acropower or trace elements but idk just yet. That's about it for now so here are a bunch of pictures.

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Update - 5/24/2016

So I haven't been on here in a while. Learned a few things, I suck at growing acros. I had a bit of a die out and killed off a few acros as you can see in the pictures. The birdsnest have done pretty well as well. The ponape has done really well. On the other hand, I'm crushing it with the LPS in the display. My acan lords are growing like crazy and the hammers are branching off. Even the torch that originally came with brown jelly disease has split into two.

 

[VW_TDI_02]

Well, it's been a while since I've been on here but I wanted to let everyone know that this tank has been broken down and sold. All the coral and livestock were sold locally in NC. The tank and stand ended up going in the dumpster. I moved from NC to Manassas, VA and housing up here is VERY expensive so I ended up in a very small studio apartment on the third floor. With the new job and smaller apartment I decided that this tank was just going to be a bit too much and definitely too big for the new place. I did keep all of the hardware and it is still boxed up and everything.

 

I am planning on starting a new tank after but it will most likely be a 10 gallon IM Nuvo AIO. I'm hoping that I'll be able to snag one used up here for a bit cheaper and maybe a nice media basket but for now I'm just waiting and planning. As of now I think I only really need to get a new pump for my ATO, neck for my kessil, tank, and media basket. Other than that I think I should be able to reuse a lot of equipment. I'm also going to severely limit the amount of equipment I'm using. If I use the reefkeeper it would be mostly for the lights and for the ATO. If I don't want to use the reefkeeper then that would mean having to buy a new ATO which I would rather not have to do.

 

In regards to what I'm going to be putting in the new tank, well I have no fixed idea as of yet. I'm thinking about going with a ton of branching hammer corals of different colors but it's still up in the air. Eventually I'll start a new build thread once I get closer and start actually building/buying the pieces. Going to be a nice weekend project. Unfortunately there are a few things that I need to buy first before I start blowing money on coral, fish, hardware, etc. On the bright side, this tank should be far less expensive and much simpler so less upkeep and less room for corals I don't actually need.

[asting]

Just read through your entire thread. Very interesting.

One comment I have, is it seems your equipment budget was a bit imbalanced. You spent much, much more on the other aspects of equipment than you did on lighting. I'd suggest going for something a bit more powerful (relatively) in that department on your next build. Looking forward to seeing it.

[VW_TDI_02]

Just read through your entire thread. Very interesting.

 

One comment I have, is it seems your equipment budget was a bit imbalanced. You spent much, much more on the other aspects of equipment than you did on lighting. I'd suggest going for something a bit more powerful (relatively) in that department on your next build. Looking forward to seeing it.

It really just depends on what you want to grow. I wanted to keep the display tank full of LPS and mushrooms while only messing around a bit with SPS in the sump. Yes, the Current Orbit Marine is inexpensive but for LPS in this shallow of a tank it was a fantastic light. I actually had it turned down quite a bit (less than 50% intensity I believe) because it was simply too much for my acans and hammers. This was because the corals were pretty much all within 6" of the light. I know a couple of others have had good luck with SPS using this light but you do have to crank it up higher than I had it and the corals still have to be within about 6" of the light. For a while I really did want to upgrade to the Nano Box Duo but it simply wasn't worth it for the corals I was trying to grow. I'm sure they would look even better with a nicer light with more wavelengths but I was a graduate student at the time and the budget simply wasn't there.

 

For the SPS in the last tank I was using a Kessil A150 Sky Blue and I've seen quite a few tanks have fantastic success with these. This was my first time ever trying SPS corals so I had mixed success as well as a few all out failures.

 

My upcoming tank will be using that same Kessil A150. I still need to find a nice long gooseneck along with the 90 degree adapter. I still have no idea what kind of coral I'll be putting in this tank but I have a feeling that it will be either a bunch of rock flower anemones or an euphylia tank (leaning towards this option).