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

[VW_TDI_02]

Time to put up a bit of an upload since it's been a while and a good bit has changed. I got the new tank in and it's all nice and plumbed. I had a few leaks at first but I got them fixed. Lowe's didn't have the slip unions so I went with threaded unions instead... Almost every one of those threads ended up leaking. I ended up putting a fat glob of silicone around each of the threads and now it's perfectly sealed. There was a tiny leak at the connection between the bulkhead and the PVC so I did the same there. All is good now with that. The only thing is that I need to get some sort of snail guard for the main siphon. I'm getting snails in there and it's messing up the valve and making it go slower resulting in a lot of extra noise since more water is going down the emergency drain. It's a quick fix and all I have to do is open up the gate valve and push out anything that's in there but it's still a hassle to deal with. The issue is that there is barely any space inside the overflow box. The 90 degree fitting that's in there had to be shaved down just to get it to fit. Still not sure what I'm going to do. I may simply put a mesh top across the top of the overflow (just under the teeth) in order to keep the snails out.

 

The corals are all doing great. I put the main xenia colony in my frag area and put a few frag plugs next to it. Hopefully I'll get it to jump to some other frags. My orange florida ricordea mushroom has finally developed a second mouth and is pretty much two whole mushrooms. I think there may be a small 1/4" piece of tissue that they are still sharing but it does have two separate mouths which is nice. My original acan lord has a lot of heads all around it and some are a little bigger than 1/2" so that's always good. I had to move the big hammer since it was stinging my monti cap. Right now it's sitting on the sand bed towards the back but still doing well. If you look at the edge of the monti cap you should be able to see a damaged part where it's down to just the skeleton but hopefully it makes a nice recovery. The LED is up to 100% and the monti cap is right underneath it so it should be getting plenty of light.

 

The zoas I have in the frag section appear to be well adapted to their new light. Originally the tower looking one was all closed up but they are back opening up again.

 

This Saturday I'm going to do another project and replace the current sump. I'm going to get some 1/2" or 1/4" acrylic and make some baffles and the old display tank is going to become the new sump. I'm going to make some changes. The first chamber is going to stay the same depth but I think I'm going to cut it in half. That way the skimmer and the filter sock holder are side by side against the wall. This would make the middle section about 4-6" wider. The area in the skimmer section is being wasted in the current set up so I might as well use it to hold some more frags. Not sure what I'll do about lighting it though. The bulb uses 60 degree lenses so it won't cover too much. I may try and remove the lenses from the bulb which would be more than enough to light the whole area.

 

[VW_TDI_02]

Update 6/11/15 (New Sump!!!)

So it's been a while and quite a bit has changed. After plumbing the new tank and having it running for a week, I ran into some problems but nothing major. The main thing is noise. I don't have a snail guard on my main siphon and I still need to figure that out. The trickle drain does it's job very well and between the two, there's no way that my tank can overflow with the pump I currently have. I did modify the exits of each drain. The main siphon has two 90 degree street elbows and a coupling on the end so that it's just below the water line inside the filter sock. For the trickle drain, I had an issue in that the original pipe ended about 2-3" above the water level which caused a lot of noise. I cut the end a little so that I could add a fitting over the baffle and then put in an extension. Works like a champ so far and is dead silent. The very bottom of the trickle pipe hits the surface of the water so there's no sound there.

 

The other huge change is the sump!! I finally put together the new sump. I used .222" acrylic for the baffles. If you can get someone else to cut this acrylic, do it... It was a complete pain in the ass using those stupid acrylic cutters. Especially if you have to cut off like an inch off the edge... I ended up using the dremel until my last cutting blade shattered. I'm just happy that I wasn't trying to build anything fancy or nice looking because those edges are awful. Thankfully, they work for baffles. I made two 9" baffles and one 8" baffle which is one baffle less than my original sump. The water has to go over the first baffle and under the second one (~1" gap under it) and then it's into the main frag area. Then, it goes over the 8" baffle and into the return pump area where my reactor pump is as well. Currently the water level is about an inch below the baffle and it's causing a few stray bubbles. I may adjust the float switch and bring it up so that the level in the return is only about 1/4" below the baffle. I also moved the baffles a bit. The skimmer section and the return section are both about 6". I was wasting a lot of room with the original sump in the skimmer section since the SCA 301 has such a small footprint which is awesome. The middle frag area is about 4-5" larger which is awesome. I'm thinking about making about a 3" refugium full of chaeto. I would use simple egg crate just to hold it in place. Might just make a second frag rack but I currently need more frags. I've been thinking about dipping into SPS corals and tossing a few acros or birdnest in the frag area since I have that PAR 38 in there.

 

For now, I'm pretty happy with the tank. I still have a few upgrades in mind. I would like to add some more corals into the tank, upgrade the lights, and swap out the return pump. If I swap out the lights and start dipping into SPS in the display, I'm going to need to add a second Jebao RW4 I think. One won't cut it I don't think. Lights wise I would love to get a Nano Box Duo but I just found something that I really don't like. I don't believe the Blue Fish Mini will work if my wireless goes down. I saw someone else have this issue and it is a bit of a turn off. The other option is the ocean revive since it comes with a mounting bracket. The only issue is that the thing is pretty huge and aesthetically it's nowhere near as nice looking as a Nanobox Duo. A Kessil A360 would work but that's a bit pricey and if I'm spending that much, I'll get a Nanobox Duo. Two AI primes would also be nice but that's like $400. The other option would be to get a MarsAqua panel but I think I'm going to need to pop a few lenses off in order to get the good coverage. The other thing is making a stand for it since I don't have a canopy. For the return pump I'd like to get something quieter. I have heard good and bad things about the DC Jebao pumps so for now I'm going to hold off. If now I can always go with Sicce.

 

That's about it for my tank. Here are some pictures:

[SpencerShepard]

I don't believe the Blue Fish Mini will work if my wireless goes down.

Bluefish Mini continues to run normally when wifi goes down.

 

However, it needs a wifi connection to download it's firmware and settings after a power outage. If a connection isn't available, it will keep trying until it is. So if your controller and wireless access point both lose power at the same time, then your lights would be off for the minute or two until your wifi connection comes back up. To my knowledge, the only time this has been an issue for anyone is when a wireless router was permanently damaged in a power outage and needed to be replaced.

[VW_TDI_02]

Bluefish Mini continues to run normally when wifi goes down.

 

However, it needs a wifi connection to download it's firmware and settings after a power outage. If a connection isn't available, it will keep trying until it is. So if your controller and wireless access point both lose power at the same time, then your lights would be off for the minute or two until your wifi connection comes back up. To my knowledge, the only time this has been an issue for anyone is when a wireless router was permanently damaged in a power outage and needed to be replaced.

That's right. I should have looked back at the thread and gotten the information again. Thankfully I've yet to get any power outages in my area but my wireless goes down every now and then for a few hours but I guess that won't matter. Now if only you could solve the problem of being able to afford the Nano Box Duo then that would be amazing...

[VW_TDI_02]

Update 6/30/15

Well, I went to the Reef Farm and dropped $80 on some corals. Got some great deals on some easier SPS corals. I ended up getting three plating monti caps, one pink birdsnest, one red planet acro, and a candy cane. This is definitely one of my favorite places to go coral shopping. Great people and they are incredibly helpful.

[Nanofreak79]

That hammer sick! Nice tank, missed this one. Hard to keep up with everyone's tanks.

[VW_TDI_02]

That hammer sick! Nice tank, missed this one. Hard to keep up with everyone's tanks.

The green one or the purple one? When I move to the new drilled tank I couldn't get the tank just how I had it and I ended up not having enough space to put the purple one up top and it actually ended up doing some damage to the monti cap up there. Thankfully I have your light fixture on the way and I'll be able to make some more room. Pretty much everything on top of the left rock is going to be removed and moved further down towards the sandbed. I'd really like to get the birdsnest out of the sump and on top of the left rock but I'm not quite sure just yet. Will probably get the montis up out of the sump as well but I'm not exactly sure just yet. Will take a little while as I acclimate the corals to the new light.

 

For pretty much everyone else that doesn't know, I'm getting a second fixture. It's a two bulb Aquatic Life T5HO fixture that I will run along with the Current Orbit Marine. It comes with Blue+ and a Purple+ so I the LED will be running mostly whites in order to balance out the fixture. Not really sure just yet but I'll get to play with it Saturday if all goes well.

[VW_TDI_02]

Update - 7/14/2015

Well I got my new T5HO fixture. It's a Aquatic Life T5HO Marquis and so far so good. For now I'm running just the T5HO and then tomorrow I'm going to start ramping up the LED fixture. Since there is no white coming from the T5s, I'm going to change the look of the LEDs so that it's more blue. If I run the LED with both white and blue maxed then it just looks weird since the back of the tank is more blue and the front is more white. Thankfully, I actually prefer a more blue tint and I was only running both whites and blues at 100% because I wanted the extra light. I think I'm going to eventually be running the blues at 100% and the whites at 20%. With just the T5 the tank isn't as bright as I would like so the extra white helps there.

 

I haven't gotten any new corals but I'm thinking that I may have a gold torch. Under more actinic lights, the torch comes off as gold/yellow and so far has made a full recovery. This is the same branching torch that had brown jelly disease on another head and I had to remove that head but thankfully this head survived. All I have is my phone camera so the pictures aren't very good. On top of having a bad camera, I know the actinic lights mess up the colors as well since I don't have one of those orange filters.

 

To sum things up, I'm liking the new fixture and it was very easy to program. I can probably get another 10 months or so out of these bulbs and I hate to say it but around then I may end up getting rid of everything:( I'm starting my last year of my MA and have no idea where or even if I'll be hired. My lease runs through next August so hopefully I'll find something. Unless I happen to move somewhere extremely close, I think I'll probably end up cleaning house and selling my livestock and all of my tanks.

 

Enough with that, here are some pictures:

The above picture is with just T5. Below is with both. It looks almost the same with the camera but it's definitely a good bit brighter to the eye.

[Kyl]

New registration here, but I've been reading the forums the past couple of weeks. I'm still toying with the idea of getting a SW setup, but I just want to say thank you for keeping such an extensive build log of what you've been doing. It's definitely taken a bit of the sting out of getting a hang of what steps to take.

 

Keep up the nice work.

[VW_TDI_02]

New registration here, but I've been reading the forums the past couple of weeks. I'm still toying with the idea of getting a SW setup, but I just want to say thank you for keeping such an extensive build log of what you've been doing. It's definitely taken a bit of the sting out of getting a hang of what steps to take.

 

Keep up the nice work.

Thanks and I appreciate you going through my thread. I had freshwater tanks for about a year before I decided to go for a reef tank and I've definitely made some mistakes along the way but I feel a lot of them could have been avoided. The big thing is to plan stuff out and get organized. There is a ton of information out there from a ton of sources and frankly many of them are not true at all so take everything with a grain of salt. The other thing is that a reef tank will be as complicated as you want it to be. Personally, I'm a big fan of equipment and toys so mine has a bunch of extra equipment. You can have a tank with simply a powerhead and lights and do just fine.

 

The initial set up is still an investment. Refractometer, RODI unit (could also buy distilled/RODI from the store), ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/Ca/Mg/Alk/pH test kits, rock (surprisingly expensive), sand, lights, powerhead(s), tank, quality stand, salt mix, Ca/Alk supplements, filter, filter media, heater, and timers are all things you need before you can add your first coral.

 

While researching I would definitely take things one at a time. I would also recommend checking out the marketplace here. You can get pretty much everything for cheap. A few things you should just get off the internet simply because they're cheap enough and you're not going to find them much cheaper used: Refractometer ($20 on Amazon), test kits ($30 for API ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/ pH and $45 for Ca/Mg/Alk), rock and sand (you don't want them used), salt mix, and supplements. Used you can definitely find lights (everyone wants to get the newest), powerheads, heaters, and filters. If you decide to get a controller then it would also help you a lot and you can get that used.

[Kyl]

Unfortunately I'm not in the US, so most of the deals aren't an option. Still going through the check list, toying at what I could get locally, etc. I like the look of the fusion nano 20, and you're right rock seems pretty expensive.

 

Thanks again.

[VW_TDI_02]

Unfortunately I'm not in the US, so most of the deals aren't an option. Still going through the check list, toying at what I could get locally, etc. I like the look of the fusion nano 20, and you're right rock seems pretty expensive.

 

Thanks again.

For the rock, I would try to get it locally. I bought mine when i was on vacation in Florida and it cost me like $2 per pound for dry rock. It was a year ago but it was somewhere around that price. Buying in person is definitely the way to go IMO. You can see exactly what you're getting and get to move things around and actually see what your tank will look like. When buying online you'll end up having to buy extra rock and then picking and choosing what you think looks best while having a bunch left over.

 

Going with an AIO tank is a great idea for starting out. I would recommend ordering a media basket such as the one linked below. These are far more efficient in terms of using space and allow you to run filter floss, carbon, gfo, etc. in an easy to use fashion.

http://shop.mediabaskets.com/Innovative-Marine-Nuvo-4-10-16-20-Media-Basket-IM16MR.htm

 

Be careful when getting stuff locally because most local stores will dramatically mark up their goods. This isn't because they are greedy or anything but simply because they aren't a warehouse and shelf space is costly. So on top of buying the item, they have to pay the rent, electricity, etc. in order for that item to just sit on the shelf. Unless there is some major sale, it's typically not worth it but it is convenient. The only thing I would consider getting locally would be a tank. Shipping tanks is very expensive. If you happen to find a local retailer for Innovative Marine, see if they can get a tank shipped to the store along with their regular order. Might save you a chunk of change on shipping.

 

While the deals aren't going to be exactly the same, Amazon.ca definitely has many of the same products and you can get them for cheap. I just looked up some refractometers and they can be had for right around $22 CAD.

[VW_TDI_02]

Update - 7/23/15

So far everything is doing great with the new lights. No new equipment or anything like that but I do have some new pictures. Turns out I have a small asterina starfish in my sump. I'm assuming it came in with the montiporas, acropora, and birdsnest. There is a good bit of algae down there and it has actually put a pretty good dent in it. I did see that some of them can eat acros but I think since there is so much algae it should be fine.

 

For the display tank, overall nothing really has changed. I did remove one of the mushrooms that was up there. The kenya tree has gotten pretty big and was shading the mushroom. The mushroom has not grown at all and is pretty tiny. I have since moved into into the sump. I left it at the very edge of the frag rack for a day and then moved it to the outer area of where the zoas are on the frag tank. I'm hoping that it bounces back and survives. It's the one that was both orange and green. It still has a bit of color to it but I'm not really sure if it will survive.

 

The hammer coral is starting to become two separate branches which is great. Nothing really else of note. I have finished acclimating the tank to the new lights. The Current Orbit Marine is running at 100% blues and 30% whites which matches the color of the T5HO bulbs.

 

For the frags, I'm excited to say that I'm getting growth out of the Red Planet Acropora!! So far it's been about two or three weeks and it has started to encrust onto the frag and grow some new polyps down there. The new coral is actually white with a hint of lime green. I'm assuming that once it gets a bit more growth on it then it will turn back towards the normal pinkish red. The PAR38 bulb has some pretty awful color to it since it has a 2:1 ratio of whites to blues but it is definitely doing the trick. Two of the montiporas are getting a really nice white ring around them which I believe should be the new growth so i'm excited about that. Not too much out of the purple montipora though. Below I'm going to try and do some growth shots.

 

The first picture of each comparison will be the same pictures from 3 weeks ago. The second one will be the ones from today.

 

6/30/15

7/23/15

Below you can see the nice ring of growth that has started to encrust over the plug

 

6/30/15

7/23/15

 

The other two montiporas haven't really shown much growth so I'm not going to bother adding comparison pictures. This one below has started to get the nice white ring around the edge. It's difficult to see on the side closest to the light but you can see it on the other side.

 

And finally the birdsnest. It's tough to see but I feel like the branches have gotten a bit longer on this one.

6/30/15

7/23/15

[VW_TDI_02]

Update - 8/1/15

I went to the Reef Farm in Raleigh and ended up buying three more SPS corals. The little guy at the bottom left is an orange digi, the top right blue one (just past the red planet) is another random blue acro with amazing color, and the one in the back left I'm pretty sure is a blue digi. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. The only one I'm 100% sure about is the orange digi and I'm 90% sure about the blue acro. So far the blue digi is looking like my favorite. When I first put it into the tank after dipping it, all I could see was the brownish skeleton but I came back 45 minutes later and this is what I got. Simply amazing. The top down shots don't really look all that great in the picture but the ones from the side look really great.

 

 

Orange Digi

 

Blue Digi

 

Blue Acro

[tibbsy07]

I've not bought any SPS from the Reef Farm but their frags always look good.

[VW_TDI_02]

Definitely should!! The digis were $15 and the acros were $20 a frag. Very helpful but I think I've already picked up one of each of their cheaper frags. They have a ton of pink birdsnest if you're interested in those. They also have a ton of candy cane corals. I saw a couple beautiful bubble tip anemones but I don't have the space for them:/

[VW_TDI_02]

Update - 8/14/15

So it's been about two weeks since I last took pictures and looking at the pictures from when I got the new digis and acros I can already see a ton of growth.

 

Acros:

The blue acro looks maybe a little taller but where you can really see the growth is on the frag plug itself and how much more the acro has encrusted over it.

The red planet has also done really well since my last batch of pictures. It too has grown a bit in height and has continued to encrust over the plug itself.

 

Digis:

I'm honestly shocked by the blue digi and how much growth I've gotten out of it. The top branches are splitting and I can see new branches growing and more length.

The orange digi hasn't had as explosive of growth as the other one but has grown about 1/4" in height.

 

Birdsnest:

This thing has taken off. In the pictures you can easily see how much it has grown all over. I haven't moved the rock that's next to it so that it's easy to see how much it is growing and I'm at the point where I'm going to have to move it soon or else the birdsnest is going to start bumping into it.

 

Monti Caps:

These aren't as exciting. They're still alive and growing slowly but surely.

 

I'm not going to do comparison shots since you can just scroll up and see the difference. You can always just put the pictures side by side in order to see them better. Please disregard the weird lighting. I only have my phone and I was just pushing the hanging par bulb off to the side, lol

 

 

[VW_TDI_02]

Update - 8/22/15

So there has been quite a bit of change. First, I bought a LEDTric and it came with the cable and socket to hang it. I originally wasn't a huge fan of the color of my original bulb so I bought a new one. Then I found a some corals for sale and realized that I don't have enough space on my original frag rack so I decided that I am going to run both of the bulbs in order to get a bigger footprint. Turns out the blend of the two actually turned out really well. So right now I'm acclimating the frag rack to the two lights so the bulbs are about 20" from the top of the tank. I'm going to slowly drop the bulbs to about 10" above the water column. So the new corals are a bit of a mix batch. They were pretty cheap but they aren't int eh best of health unfortunately.

 

This the freebie.

I think this is the Valida? Not completely sure. Part of this is bleached but other parts look great. Haven't had any tissue recession. It's mostly purple with a hint of green sheen.

This is the green antler pavona. 99% sure about that one.

This is the purple acro I think. This one has fantastic polyp extension and is doing pretty well.

That's the crazy branching acro I think.

I'm not really sure about this one. There isn't much tissue on the left branch. I think it's the Tubbs Mystic Blue. The bottom encrustation looks very healthy and is a greenish color.

This is one of the tricolor acros. purple with yellowish polyps.

This is the other tricolor acro but the encrusting one. It actually looks really nice.

 

[dribblet]

Loving the frag rack, I can't wait to see those babies grow in your display! 20gallon longs have so much potential. Good luck, can't wait to see it grow.

[VW_TDI_02]

Thanks. I'm a little worried about my newer frags. They're not in the greatest shape for the most part. Even the bleached sections appear to have tissue still on most of it but it's just white which I can only imagine is a good thing. Everything else is looking healthy. The older red planet is messing with my head a little bit. It's growing very well and the polyps have great color but the skeleton appears to be white as if it were bleached. I think it is somewhere on the edge of it having been bleached but not quite all the way. That's why it is still growing and has great polyp extension but the skeleton hasn't colored up much. It could also be due to the bulb I was using before and how white it is. It's not sitting under the more predominantly blue bulb so maybe I'll see a difference. I'm also going to hang the bulbs a bit higher as well. The branching tricolor doesn't have much polyp extension but hopefully that will get better. I may move the encrusting tricolor into the display tank. I have a 2 bulb T5HO fixture and the spot I have picked out for it is about 4" below it. That would give it a lot more space to encrust.

 

Oh, and tomorrow or the next day, I'm going to post a full sump shot so that you can see the entire frag rack as well as how the bulbs are set up.

[BayStYat]

How does the Orbit marine light work for you? I am building a 20 long also

[VW_TDI_02]

How does the Orbit marine light work for you? I am building a 20 long also

It does well but I wish I would have gone with something more powerful not that I'm getting more into SPS. I really like the timer and if you're going for a LPS dominated thank then it would work really well for a 20 long. You can get away with some SPS such as monti caps that don't require as much light as acros but that's probably about it. Maybe some digis too.

[VW_TDI_02]

[update - 8/26/15]

Nothing really has changed but I figured I would post some pictures of my sump/frag rack set up.

[BayStYat]

It does well but I wish I would have gone with something more powerful not that I'm getting more into SPS. I really like the timer and if you're going for a LPS dominated thank then it would work really well for a 20 long. You can get away with some SPS such as monti caps that don't require as much light as acros but that's probably about it. Maybe some digis too.

thank you for that info. Did you have the new Pro or the old one with the pro controller?

[VW_TDI_02]

thank you for that info. Did you have the new Pro or the old one with the pro controller?

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