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My humble SPS journey - Shallow 80g


joshky

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Little back history on myself, I'm 24 and I've been in SW since around 2012, I've had multiple tanks over the years but my last one was a 20 long LPS/softie reef.
Last FTS of the 20 long:
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80g aquarium specs:
Tank: 48x24x16 Deep Blue Professional rimless
Sump: Trigger Systems Tideline 36
Skimmer: AquaMaxx ConeS CO-2 Protein Skimmer
Return pump: EcoTech Vectra M1
Light: 8x54w ATI SunPower
Bulbs: 4 B+, 3 C+, 1 P+
Doser: Kamoer 3 Channel Dosing Pump
ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155
Flow: 2x MP40wQD
Controller: Apex
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Fish I currently have:
• Magnificent Foxface
• Female Genicanthus Caudovittatus (possibly in early transition to male)
• Melanurus Wrasse
• Yellow Coris Wrasse
• Whitetail Bristletooth Tang
• Pink Spotted Watchman Goby w/ Yellow Pistol Shrimp
Inverts:
• Pair of Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
• Blue Squamosa (small)
• Various snails and crabs
SPS frags:
• Pink Lemonade
• Red Planet
• Strawberry Shortcake
• 12 different wild/maircultured frags I saved from my brothers setup
Misc. corals:
• Candy Apple Red mini colony
• Devils Armor mini colony
• 70+ head Duncan colony (pink tentacles with an aqua center)
Here's a few pictures of what I saved and some of the SPS pieces I'll be starting with.
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Not all of my frags are on the frag rack, but a good portion of them are. They all need a little bit more love, but I'm sure the colors will be better when I get my tank up.
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Picture of stand before I finished painting it, only primer coat applied. Doors will be stained grey, which I still haven't done yet.

 

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Picture of the tank setup in my bedroom as it sits currently

 

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Sorry for the cellphone picture, but the inside plywood was painted a teal color to two tone it for a more interesting look. I will take a better picture once the cabinetry lighting is finished etc.. :)

 

If all goes as planned the 80g should be wet this week.

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Here are some photos of my favorite colonies that I got to frag from, these photos were taken by me and are 100% true to what they look like in person. Though I can't say the same for all of my frags right now. ;) Most of these were Australian wilds.

 

 

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This photo truly didn't do this guy justice, and to be perfectly honest with you I think it hadn't hit its full potential so we will see how things turn out.
and a mini colony of red planet I was able to take a frag from
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I plan on only using frags in my tank, specifically buying from Adam at Battle Corals.
Here are some more that I was able to frag from that needed more time to color up
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Again, just to reiterate, I only have frags from these. Thanks for reading guys, hope you enjoy and tag along with me in this journey of colorful sticks.
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That looks incredible. Can't wait to see this all put together. That sump looks sweet too. Looks like a hell of a dream build to me at least.

 

Thanks man, appreciate it.

 

Shout out to Fragtastic Reef for selling and shipping that sump to me, really happy with the packing and it came in perfect. The Tideline series is meant for brick and mortar shops, not online retail stores, so there are very few options to get this sump unless a LFS carries Trigger System sumps near you.

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Looks like youve got one hell of a build going on here....following along.

 

Thanks for the kind words, glad to have you following along. I should have more to update tomorrow or Tuesday! :)

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What's the name of the coral in the fourth picture from the top? The tan one with the nice blue tips? That thing looks fantastic. Are all of these frags currently under the same ATI fixture as well?

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What's the name of the coral in the fourth picture from the top? The tan one with the nice blue tips? That thing looks fantastic. Are all of these frags currently under the same ATI fixture as well?

 

Most of the SPS were wild colonies my brother got in around January of this year, he is taking a break so when he started selling his colonies off I fragged a piece of each. Right now everything is under his lighting, which are black box LEDs, my tank isn't wet quite yet. I should be filling it up this week so we'll get to see how things change under T5. :)

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Most of the SPS were wild colonies my brother got in around January of this year, he is taking a break so when he started selling his colonies off I fragged a piece of each. Right now everything is under his lighting, which are black box LEDs, my tank isn't wet quite yet. I should be filling it up this week so we'll get to see how things change under T5. :)

A black box like those MarsAqua panels?? Would you mind taking some pictures of the set up and about the intensity of the panels? I have a sump area where all of my SPS frags are and it's currently lit with a 10K Kessil A150 and a ~18K PAR38 bulb. I originally had it under two PAR38 bulbs before replacing one with the Kessil and I'm hoping that the Kessil will help their color a bit. If one of those cheap black boxes can produce color that great then I may sell my Kessil and PAR bulbs and buy one of those.

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A black box like those MarsAqua panels?? Would you mind taking some pictures of the set up and about the intensity of the panels? I have a sump area where all of my SPS frags are and it's currently lit with a 10K Kessil A150 and a ~18K PAR38 bulb. I originally had it under two PAR38 bulbs before replacing one with the Kessil and I'm hoping that the Kessil will help their color a bit. If one of those cheap black boxes can produce color that great then I may sell my Kessil and PAR bulbs and buy one of those.

 

Similar to the MarsAqua I'm sure, these were purchased from the eBay seller "topledseller", he now has them named SunSpect, I guess they are the same as what he's been using. They are like $80 a piece. He has two of them over a 42x24x18 tank at 100% intensity, however overall he was never happy with them and would have gone T5 if he wasn't taking a break from reefing. I used one of my 20 long as well, they are okay but I wouldn't call them an amazing light fixture. I think flow, parameter stability, and lighting are all equally important and you have to have all of them synced for things to grow and color up well. I would keep what you have and see if you can get things coloring up before jumping on a new light, sometimes it just takes a bit of patience.

Nice! Looks really cool under the hood too.

 

Thank you! :)

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Similar to the MarsAqua I'm sure, these were purchased from the eBay seller "topledseller", he now has them named SunSpect, I guess they are the same as what he's been using. They are like $80 a piece. He has two of them over a 42x24x18 tank at 100% intensity, however overall he was never happy with them and would have gone T5 if he wasn't taking a break from reefing. I used one of my 20 long as well, they are okay but I wouldn't call them an amazing light fixture. I think flow, parameter stability, and lighting are all equally important and you have to have all of them synced for things to grow and color up well. I would keep what you have and see if you can get things coloring up before jumping on a new light, sometimes it just takes a bit of patience.

 

Thank you! :)

Thanks. I added the Kessil about a week ago and so far things are going well. I do have one acro that's starting to get a nice blue rim on it. I bought a cheap batch of SPS frags that were heavily discounted but weren't in the best condition. The guy had recently replaced his 400 watt halide bulbs and as a result bleached a bit of the corals. So far I think two of them won't survive but I figured I would give them a shot. There are others that are doing really well and I fragged a green pavona a little while ago that I got in the same batch. It's already beginning to grow over the parts where I cut and everything which is great. I am getting some new color out of a couple of the corals so I guess I just need to wait a bit more like you said. Switching would net me about $50 in my pocket though. haha

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Oh man... What happens when water dribbles out the tank and into the void in between the stand and tank? Can that area be cleaned?

 

Nice equipment, following along.

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Thanks. I added the Kessil about a week ago and so far things are going well. I do have one acro that's starting to get a nice blue rim on it. I bought a cheap batch of SPS frags that were heavily discounted but weren't in the best condition. The guy had recently replaced his 400 watt halide bulbs and as a result bleached a bit of the corals. So far I think two of them won't survive but I figured I would give them a shot. There are others that are doing really well and I fragged a green pavona a little while ago that I got in the same batch. It's already beginning to grow over the parts where I cut and everything which is great. I am getting some new color out of a couple of the corals so I guess I just need to wait a bit more like you said. Switching would net me about $50 in my pocket though. haha

 

Yeah I can see the desire to switch, but who knows, maybe the Kessil will do better for you in the long run.

 

I would get a picture for you but it's not a very pretty sight right now. Let's just say I've been doing the bare minimum to keep things running in the interim while I get my tank up and running. ;) He would've already had the tank broken down but I have most of my livestock in there. :P

 

 

Oh man... What happens when water dribbles out the tank and into the void in between the stand and tank? Can that area be cleaned?

 

Nice equipment, following along.

 

 

Great question, there is a slight gap that'll leave me some room to clean things up should spills occur. Ultimately I designed it that way to hide the trim, but didn't think of the water issue so hopefully it doesn't become a nuisance... otherwise I'll have to modify it. Thanks for following. :)

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Yeah I can see the desire to switch, but who knows, maybe the Kessil will do better for you in the long run.

 

I would get a picture for you but it's not a very pretty sight right now. Let's just say I've been doing the bare minimum to keep things running in the interim while I get my tank up and running. ;) He would've already had the tank broken down but I have most of my livestock in there. :P

 

 

 

 

Great question, there is a slight gap that'll leave me some room to clean things up should spills occur. Ultimately I designed it that way to hide the trim, but didn't think of the water issue so hopefully it doesn't become a nuisance... otherwise I'll have to modify it. Thanks for following. :)

 

No worries, I get the basic idea of how his set up is. I just got home and looked at the frags for a while and they look to be doing pretty well with both the Kessil and the PAR38 (the blue one) and I'm getting a bit more color out of some of the frags. The only thing I have to figure out next is how high to set them. For now they are both side by side at about 14-16" above the water level and the frags are in 7" of water. I'm going to leave them there for a while and if I start to see any of the corals begin to brown out then I'll drop them down an inch or so at a time.

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Following along. Just got our trigger sump but it broke in shipping. New one is coming and free of charge YAY

That sucks that it was broken but that's awesome that you're getting a new one. Are they making you ship the broken one back? If so, they're paying for it right?? Oh, and where did you buy it from?

 

OP, where did you happen to snag one of those Tide Line sumps? I just looked all over the Trigger site along with all of the online retailers listed on their site and none of them appear to have that line.

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Following along. Just got our trigger sump but it broke in shipping. New one is coming and free of charge YAY

That was my worst fear, but it sounds like they are making it right for you. Good luck on getting your sump in safely!

That sucks that it was broken but that's awesome that you're getting a new one. Are they making you ship the broken one back? If so, they're paying for it right?? Oh, and where did you buy it from?

 

OP, where did you happen to snag one of those Tide Line sumps? I just looked all over the Trigger site along with all of the online retailers listed on their site and none of them appear to have that line.

 

Fragtasticreef.com is where I bought mine. This sump is not meant for online retailers, it's meant for brick and mortar fish stores to give them something to offer that purely online stores cannot. Luckily there is at least one place to purchase it online. :)

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That was my worst fear, but it sounds like they are making it right for you. Good luck on getting your sump in safely!

 

Fragtasticreef.com is where I bought mine. This sump is not meant for online retailers, it's meant for brick and mortar fish stores to give them something to offer that purely online stores cannot. Luckily there is at least one place to purchase it online. :)

 

Thanks. Unfortunately a bit out of my price range but that sump is awesome looking. It isn't overly complicated like a lot of custom sumps can be and looks really easy to work with. Can't wait to see that thing all plumbed up.

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That sucks that it was broken but that's awesome that you're getting a new one. Are they making you ship the broken one back? If so, they're paying for it right?? Oh, and where did you buy it from?

 

OP, where did you happen to snag one of those Tide Line sumps? I just looked all over the Trigger site along with all of the online retailers listed on their site and none of them appear to have that line.

We bought it from marine depot and they are giving us a new sump for free and free shipping.
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beautiful tank. love the dimensions.

 

Thanks buddy. :)

 

Thanks. Unfortunately a bit out of my price range but that sump is awesome looking. It isn't overly complicated like a lot of custom sumps can be and looks really easy to work with. Can't wait to see that thing all plumbed up.

 

For what it is, it's a great price, but it was definitely more than I actually intended on spending.

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This is going to be a top notch build !!! Someone list of equipment and coral. All the sps look like everything on BattleCorals website lol. Awesome stuff,definitely tagging along.

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This is going to be a top notch build !!! Someone list of equipment and coral. All the sps look like everything on BattleCorals website lol. Awesome stuff,definitely tagging along.

 

Haha I thought the same thing when they started coloring up. :) Thanks man!

 

 

 

Been working on drilling the tank today, just put a frosted glass window film on the background, and have some of the plumbing done. Pictures to come later. :)

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