Pew's Little Molasses Reef - Updated 6/4

[pewpewkittah]

Current FTS 12/14/2016

Previous FTS

 

6/4/2016

3/10/16

2/11/16

1/25/16 (Startup)

 

 

After a good 10 month run on my Mr. Aqua 12g Long, I've decided to upgrade to a bigger tank.
I'd like to keep a couple more fish and of course have more room for corals . I didn't do a good job at all with documenting my progress with my 12g and after acquiring so much inspiration and advice from dozens of tanks of this wonderful forum, I'd like to document my journey much better this time.

I am pairing this drilled tank with a 20H sump. First time drilling a tank and building a sump with all the piping. Here's hoping I don't screw anything up.

Equipment

• Display: Aqueon 40B
• Sump: Aqueon 20H
• Lighting: ATI 36" 6 bulb Sunpower Dimmable
• Skimmer: SC Aquariums SCA-301
• Return: Jebao DCT6000
• Circulation: 2x Jebao RW4+PP4
• Rocks: 30lbs of Reef Cleaners + 10lbs of Live rock
• Sand: 30lbs Caribsea Aragonite

Livestock

• Pair of Ocellaris Clowns
• Yellow Tang
• Sixline Wrasse
• Pair of Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

To Do List...

• Finish the stand Complete build here.
• Drill tank and attach plumbing
• Build sump
• Put together DIY ATO
• Purchase skimmer
• Complete system controller

[pewpewkittah]

Stand and drilling was completed this weekend!

 

 

Details of the build can be seen here.

 

Shortly after drilling.

 

Tank on top of the *almost* completed stand

 

 

The overflow box was siliconed in. Still need to clean up the tank

 

Some of the plumbing installed. I will be replacing the ball valve with a gate valve.

 

That's all for now. I'll be getting glass cut for the sump tomorrow and hopefully getting that put together tomorrow. Also will be painting the outside PVC with black Krylon Fusion and the inside pieces with red Krylon Fusion, letting them cure for several days.

 

Plan is to get the tank wet by the end of this weekend. Tank transfer the following weekend.

[olemanwinter]

Nice stand. Looking forward to the rest of the build.

[pewpewkittah]

Nice stand. Looking forward to the rest of the build.

 

Thank you! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I am gonna have to end up putting an egg shell or flat finish on it. My daughter keeps touching the stand and leaving little finger prints on it that I can't wipe off.

[pewpewkittah]

More stuff done!! Holes were drilled into the back for the plumbing and return lines were made for the inside portion. They will be connecting with the hard PVC at the hole drilled. All insides pieces of plumbing will be painted tonight with red Krylon Fusion, with connectors in black. All PVC on the back portion of the stand has be painted with black Krylon Fusion.

 

Inside details of the sump area. As you can see there is a small 2" space behind the shelf to allow cords to pass through so I didn't have to drill through the bottom of the shelf. The sump layout is also outlined. The glass will be cut and installed today.

 

More pictures to come later tonight!

[Frankie Marble]

Everything is looking good. I love 40b footprint. Can't wait to see your aquascape

[pewpewkittah]

Well its official, the tank is WET!

 

Things are still very cloudy. Corals are acclimating and will be glued in their spots next week. After filling the tank yesterday we couldn't really see anything, so the rocks were kind of just placed in. I'll be rearranging them soon to match my original scape idea below.

 

Progress Pictures

 

Last summer I went snorkeling multiple times at the beautiful Molasses Reef in Key Largo. I immediately fell in love with this patch reef. It's long unique rock structures separated by soft sand water channels inspired me to do this aquascape. Allows for lots of cool spots for corals as well as interesting swimming room for the fish.

 

 

Plumbing all cemented and in position, also threw in 30lbs of sand.

 

Plumbing detailed shot. PVC was sprayed with Krylon Fusion red/black and let to cure for 72hrs.

 

Moved into place, screen top added and threw on the LED's for good measure

 

Rocks in. This took a little while to get them positioned as they were before...

 

Almost there!

 

Filled up with all the livestock in. I drip acclimated everything for an hour, making sure temperature and salinity were matched between tanks. Just to be safe I also added a bottle of Bio-Spira to *hopefully* prevent a cycle.

 

 

12 hours later. Things are starting to clear up and I organized the corals a bit. After a lot of trial and error and two tiny leaks, the sump is up and running with the Herbie Overflow. It's completely silent. Please excuse all the cables in the front, those are only temporary.

[specore]

Looks like a great start

[Weetabix7]

Nice, this is exciting!!!

[pewpewkittah]

Looks like a great start

 

Nice, this is exciting!!!

 

Thanks guys!!

 

It is very exciting. All the corals are doing amazing and most of the fish as well... but, the six line wrasse has disappeared. I hope he's just hiding from the stress of the move. On the bright side the clowns and anemone seem to be happier with more room to roam around.

 

I'll update with good pictures on the real camera tomorrow.

[Felicia]

Looks great! I really like the scape. It does a good job of taking advantage of the depth of the 40B. Very clean set-up!

[pewpewkittah]

Looks great! I really like the scape. It does a good job of taking advantage of the depth of the 40B. Very clean set-up!

 

Thanks so much! It means a lot coming from you .

I've cleaned it up a lot since adding everything, trying to keep the sand clean. Except the few clams I plan to add later.

 

That's so funny. I was just admiring your beautiful tank last night. I've been following for a while, its quite inspirational .

[Felicia]

 

Thanks so much! It means a lot coming from you .

I've cleaned it up a lot since adding everything, trying to keep the sand clean. Except the few clams I plan to add later.

 

That's so funny. I was just admiring your beautiful tank last night. I've been following for a while, its quite inspirational .

I love checking out other 40 breeder tanks! My original goal was to keep a bunch of my middle sand bed open to create a cove like scape, but then I ended up getting that giant clam and now I just have stuff crammed in everywhere Having some negative space really does look great! I need a bigger tank so I can manage to have a bit more!

 

Thank you for following my tank as well! You're definitely in the more fun part of a build. I love my tank, but its running on autopilot. I love the build part of a new tank. So much fun!

[pewpewkittah]

After hours of having my hands in the tank getting rocks and corals just the way I want them, the Aquascape is finalized! My six line wrasse has yet to show up. I'm really hoping hes in the rock-work camping out.... I really liked that little guy. The corals are still kind of pissed off, but mostly happy none the less .

 

Anyways, onto the pictures! They aren't the highest resolution. Photobucket wouldn't let me upload the best ones.

 

 

 

Female Ocellaris Clown

 

Green Birdsnest

 

Euphyllia. Two dragon souls and one bi-colored hammer. The dragon soul colony in the middle is actually a bright orange/yellow and baby blue tips. Unfortunately it doesn't photograph well.

Here's what it actually looks like.

 

Neon Green Frogspawn

 

Gold Hammer

 

 

Thanks for looking!

[Felicia]

That scape is so perfect! I love the big group of euphyllia!

[cruiZe]

Welcome to the "drilled 40b with reef cleaners rock club" - if that's not a thing, now it is!! Looks great.

[Droy008]

I like it!

Sub'd for they exciting ride.

[pewpewkittah]

That scape is so perfect! I love the big group of euphyllia!

Thanks so much! I love my Euphyllia . I want to start collecting some more higher priced pieces and colonies. After seeing your lovely tank, I've also been thinking about a Dwarf Lion fish.. I need to start doing lots of research to see if I have appropriate housing for them. We'll see.

 

Welcome to the "drilled 40b with reef cleaners rock club" - if that's not a thing, now it is!! Looks great.

Haha, it's definitely a thing! I can see why they are so popular now. Amazing dimensions and not too big or small.

 

Also, thank you!

 

I like it!

Sub'd for they exciting ride.

 

Thanks so much! It's been an exciting start so far. I can't wait to get some new fish. I have to keep telling myself to wait a few more weeks...

 

How are the corals doing? I checked out your tank thread and everything is looking great!! My SO and I had a good laugh of the picture of the tank FILLED with coral baggies! LOL

[Felicia]

Thanks so much! I love my Euphyllia . I want to start collecting some more higher priced pieces and colonies. After seeing your lovely tank, I've also been thinking about a Dwarf Lion fish.. I need to start doing lots of research to see if I have appropriate housing for them. We'll see.

Your set-up would be just fine for housing a dwarf lionfish or even several. They really don't need too much special in terms of the system. However, the consideration of course is that you wouldn't be able to have any shrimp or small fish since they'll eat them. They can eat anything up to about 3/4 of their size. Really my clowns are small enough to be food, but they stay in their anemones which keeps them safe. Also, I feed my lions well so that they don't go hunting the clowns. However, I did have an incident with my largest lionfish eating a wrasse.

[Thatoneomahaguy]

Thanks so much! I love my Euphyllia . I want to start collecting some more higher priced pieces and colonies. After seeing your lovely tank, I've also been thinking about a Dwarf Lion fish.. I need to start doing lots of research to see if I have appropriate housing for them. We'll see.

 

Haha, it's definitely a thing! I can see why they are so popular now. Amazing dimensions and not too big or small.

 

Also, thank you!

 

Your set-up would be just fine for housing a dwarf lionfish or even several. They really don't need too much special in terms of the system. However, the consideration of course is that you wouldn't be able to have any shrimp or small fish since they'll eat them. They can eat anything up to about 3/4 of their size. Really my clowns are small enough to be food, but they stay in their anemones which keeps them safe. Also, I feed my lions well so that they don't go hunting the clowns. However, I did have an incident with my largest lionfish eating a wrasse.

 

Seriously?! After I saw her tank I seriously considered the lionfish too! Especially hearing that yours are doing fine with the clownfish and anemone I am really considering this! Any ideas how it would do with a larger pistol shrimp? Obviously most shrimp wouldnt do well but I didnt know if these are different since they better defense mechanisms.

[Felicia]

 

Seriously?! After I saw her tank I seriously considered the lionfish too! Especially hearing that yours are doing fine with the clownfish and anemone I am really considering this! Any ideas how it would do with a larger pistol shrimp? Obviously most shrimp wouldnt do well but I didnt know if these are different since they better defense mechanisms.

Keep in mind I have 8-9 BTA's all smushed together that my clowns live in, so they're very well protected and don't ever venture out except for food. At feeding time when they do come out, I'm actively feeding the lionfish so they don't even notice the clowns. I don't think it would work as well with just one small anemone or a small coral as the clown host since they wouldn't be as protected down in the anemone. Also, its still a bit of a risk and will ultimately depend on the individual lionfish in terms of whether they hunt the fish. Having really large clowns would definitely help, but I already had mine and mine aren't very big.

 

Shrimp are really just a bad idea with dwarf lionfish since that's predominately what they eat in the wild. Most of the dwarf lionfish eat mostly crustaceans and shrimp, and only occasionally small fish. Also, most lionfish have to be weaned onto frozen food and in the meantime, the best thing to feed them is live ghost shrimp, so you are basically encouraging that shrimp are food. A pistol shrimp since it has a burrow and some defense may last longer, but being as they can't see, I feel like eventually it would get snatched up and eaten.

[Thatoneomahaguy]

Keep in mind I have 8-9 BTA's all smushed together that my clowns live in, so they're very well protected and don't ever venture out except for food. At feeding time when they do come out, I'm actively feeding the lionfish so they don't even notice the clowns. I don't think it would work as well with just one small anemone or a small coral as the clown host since they wouldn't be as protected down in the anemone. Also, its still a bit of a risk and will ultimately depend on the individual lionfish in terms of whether they hunt the fish. Having really large clowns would definitely help, but I already had mine and mine aren't very big.

 

Shrimp are really just a bad idea with dwarf lionfish since that's predominately what they eat in the wild. Most of the dwarf lionfish eat mostly crustaceans and shrimp, and only occasionally small fish. Also, most lionfish have to be weaned onto frozen food and in the meantime, the best thing to feed them is live ghost shrimp, so you are basically encouraging that shrimp are food. A pistol shrimp since it has a burrow and some defense may last longer, but being as they can't see, I feel like eventually it would get snatched up and eaten.

 

I appreciate the advice. All very good points!

[vlangel]

I really love your scape. That is so cool that it was inspired from your snorkling trip, and now I understand your thread title! I will definitely be following this as I am liking your coral selection too.

[pewpewkittah]

 

I appreciate the advice. All very good points!

Indeed!! Great advice. I think I'll have to shy away from a Dwarf Lion-fish though.. I am kind of set on my stocking plans . And my male clown doesn't stick near the anemones.

 

I really love your scape. That is so cool that it was inspired from your snorkling trip, and now I understand your thread title! I will definitely be following this as I am liking your coral selection too.

 

Thanks for the kind words! I'm picking up a Cyan Bubble Tip anemone tomorrow. After that I am gonna start building up a variety of SPS.

[Felicia]

Indeed!! Great advice. I think I'll have to shy away from a Dwarf Lion-fish though.. I am kind of set on my stocking plans . And my male clown doesn't stick near the anemones.

Yeah I think lionfish are amazing, but they do require some considerations/sacrifices on the stocking front. I was never ok with given up shrimp and small fish, but after 4 years of trying different things, I was ready for something really unique and different.