dpoltsdsu Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Anyone who is involved in the reef hobby has a "dream tank", the tank that is the epitome and end goal of one's journey in aquarium keeping. For me, this was a large, rimless reef aquarium. As a graduation present to myself, I have decided to go ahead and set up my "dream reef". The Goal- My goal for this aquarium is to have a clean and sleek looking part of a natural reef. I want to see what I would see if I was diving on a wild reef. In order to create this effect, I want to minimize any equipment in or around the tank that can be seen. I also want to use an aquascape that incorporates negative space that utilizes a variety of different corals and colors to make the reef seem as natural as possible. The Tank- After a lot of internal deliberation, I have decided to purchase the Cadlights SAIO (Shallow-all-in one) 75 gallon system. The system has a large area in the back chambers of the tank which acts like a sump. The room that this tank is in does not have a ton of room so I needed the area in the stand to be utilized as space for all my wiring and a large ATO reservoir. The tank also has some nice dimensions. It measures 36x24x20 which gives me the space to create a nice looking aquascape as well as the ability to utilize my current equipment. Equipment- Cadlights 75 Gallon SAIO Series with Starfire Glass (36x24x20) Cadlights 36” hard plywood cabinet stand with white oil-based painted piano finish. Overall height of 56" Cadlights PLS-100 Pipeless Skimmer Reefbreeders Photon 24 LED System Ecotech Vortech MP10 Reefkeeper Lite Aquarium Controller Tunze Osmolator Auto Top Off System Livestock- -Fish- Royal Gramma False Percula Clownfish Tailspot Blenny Yellow Watchman Goby Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse Tomini Tang Pajama Cardinal -Coral- Garf Bonsai Acropora Multiple variations of Zoanthids Green Palythoa Montipora Setosa Duncan Clove Polyps Montipora Digitata Green Fuzzy Mushroom Purple Stylophora Pom Pom Xenia Neon Green Birdsnest Branching Green Star Polyps Purple Bidsnest Acanthastrea Montipora Capricornis Kenya Tree -Inverts- Skunk Cleaner Shrimp Blue Legged Hermit Crabs Tiger Conch Turbo Snails Asteria Snails Nassarius Snails Hawaiian Feather Duster FTS 10-14-16 7 Quote Link to comment
Kellie in CA Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Following. Can't wait to see what you do with it! 2 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 Here is what the tank is going to look like! It should come in this week. I think I'm going to make a DIY container for my LED light that will look similar to how the stand looks. I want this reef to look uniform and clean and I think the LED hanging kit I have now may distract from that goal! 2 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted August 16, 2016 Author Share Posted August 16, 2016 The aquarium is getting here this Wednesday. It looks like tommorow will be the last day with my current reef. I'm a bit nostalgic since I've had my 34 gallon for almost 4 years, but I am extremely excited to set up the new tank. I'm planning on setting up the new tank the day I get it since I already have all the equipment for it! Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted August 23, 2016 Author Share Posted August 23, 2016 I picked up the tank from Cadlights earlier this week! The aquarium looks incredible. Everything looks to be of fantastic quality. I can't wait to move all the livestock over to their new home. I am going to move all the livestock over to a spare 40 gallon tank while I move the new tank in place. Hopefully all the livestock survives the tank transfer. They will probably only be in there for about 4 hours so I think I should be OK. Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted September 2, 2016 Author Share Posted September 2, 2016 Work has been busy so I have not been able to update much. However, the tank transfer went very well. I did not lose anything as far as I can tell which is a huge relief. I still have a lot to do with the aquascape and electrical equipment, but my main focus of getting everything in as fast as possible went smoothly. Picture of the new tank in place before the transfer. Back chambers One problem I did have was a light mount. My old one is still on the Red Sea Max 130 because the screws to get it in place in the back of the stand were completely stripped. Fortunately, I was able to find a stud in the wall that was aligned with the aquarium. Once I found the stud, I ran to home depot to get a bracket, a white piece of wood, and some chains to hold the light. I was concerned whether or not this would look aesthetic, however, once I set it up, I was very pleased with the result. I think the white wood matches the stand well and blends the two together while giving the whole look a modern feel. Here is the final result of the light mount (disregard the aquascape for now). All I need to do now is cover the cord and cut the light wires to give the look a cleaner feel! 1 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted September 16, 2016 Author Share Posted September 16, 2016 Well it seems like everything has started to settle down nicely! I rearranged the aquascape and I like how it turned out. I plan on adding more SPS to help fill it out a bit better. I also think I'm going to add a Frogspawn or Torch to the top right of the reef. Here are a couple of pictures! 5 Quote Link to comment
TheKleinReef Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 How do you like the PLS-100? I've looked into getting a larger AIO, but the lack of skimmer options scares me. And how exactly is the rear chamber organized? 1 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted September 16, 2016 Author Share Posted September 16, 2016 How do you like the PLS-100? I've looked into getting a larger AIO, but the lack of skimmer options scares me. And how exactly is the rear chamber organized? While I have only had the skimmer hooked up for about 2 weeks, I have mixed feelings. I have heard it runs quietly, however mine runs quite loud. It has started to produce some decent skimmate though. In terms of the back chambers, water runs through an overflow where it is then sucked down two filter socks. After the water flows through the socks, it goes through a baffle where there is a section where I put a filter bag and the heater. The water then goes over another baffle which leads it to a shallow skimmer chamber. After that chamber, water is pushed through one last baffle to the return pump section which houses two pumps to push the water back in to the tank. Overall, the back chambers offer much, much more space than other aio's, for example, I can easily put my hand in the back chambers to clear detritus which is nice. I cannot hear the water running at all and the pumps included are also very quiet. However, it is still too small to house other skimmers which is a bit frustrating. I think I'm just going to turn the back into a large refugium. I got this tank because I didn't have the room for an ATO container and I think a well designed AIO is easy to maintain. For my purposes and preferences, it has worked well. 2 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 One of my goals for this aquarium was to make it as natural as possible. On a natural reef, there are a ton of unique and interesting inverts and I want to mimic that with this setup. Here is one of my newest additions, the Porclein Crab. It is actually a filter feeder and it loves to sit on my Montipora Digitata and catch particles in the water as they float past it. I've had the crab for about a month and it seems to be doing very well! I am getting a new camera soon so I will have better pictures in the future... 6 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 Sunday Update- October 9th, 2016 Coral- All of the coral is doing very, very well. In fact, this is the fastest I have ever seen my coral grow. I plan on adding some more Acropora in the next couple of weeks to help the top of the tank fill out more. Fish- Well.. after purchasing a group of Chromis from someone who claimed to never have seen Ich in his tank, my Royal Gramma showed some white spots about a week after adding the Chromis. Soon after, I saw it on the Possum Wrasse, Blenny, and Cardinal. Fortunately, I keep a quarantine tank and some cupramine on hand for these type of situations. I fired up the qt, and added some cupramine copper. I was able to capture all of the fish except the Royal Gramma who passed away a couple of days ago. Thankfully, all of the other fish are not showing any sign of ich after being in the quarantine tank for about a week and a half. I plan on keeping the display tank fallow for 6 weeks to permanently eradicate the ich from the system. Inverts- Alll of the inverts are doing very well. All of the shrimp and crabs are showing great colors and are all very active. I have been spot-feeding the Porclein Crab to ensure that it is able to obtain an adequate amount of food. Equipment- All of the equipment is working properly and I am pleased with how the tank is running. Because of the fact that there are currently no fish in the display tank, I have taken my skimmer offline for the time being. For now, the reef's main system of nutrient export will be a large ball of Cheato in the back chamber of the aquarium. Here is a current picture of the reef! 4 Quote Link to comment
TheKleinReef Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Looking good man! Sorry about the fishy troubles. 1 Quote Link to comment
Cencalfishguy56 Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Sunday Update- October 9th, 2016 Coral- All of the coral is doing very, very well. In fact, this is the fastest I have ever seen my coral grow. I plan on adding some more Acropora in the next couple of weeks to help the top of the tank fill out more. Fish- Well.. after purchasing a group of Chromis from someone who claimed to never have seen Ich in his tank, my Royal Gramma showed some white spots about a week after adding the Chromis. Soon after, I saw it on the Possum Wrasse, Blenny, and Cardinal. Fortunately, I keep a quarantine tank and some cupramine on hand for these type of situations. I fired up the qt, added some cupramine copper. I was able to capture all of the fish except the Royal Gramma who passed away a couple of days ago. Thankfully, all of the other fish are not showing any sign of ich after being in the quarantine tank for about a week and a half. I plan on keeping the display tank fallow for 6 weeks to permanently eradicate the ich from the system. Inverts- Alll of the inverts are doing very well. All of the shrimp and crabs are showing great colors and are all very active. I have been spot-feeding the Porclein Crab to ensure that it is able to obtain an adequate amount of food. Equipment- All of the equipment is working properly and I am pleased with how the tank is running. Because of the fact there are currently no fish in the display tank, I have taken my skimmer offline for the time being. For the time being, the reef's main system of nutrient export is a large ball of Cheato in the back chamber of the aquarium. Here is a current picture of the reef! lol are you sure you upgraded? Looks packed to me so far haha but sorry to hear about the fish man! 1 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted October 11, 2016 Author Share Posted October 11, 2016 lol are you sure you upgraded? Looks packed to me so far haha but sorry to hear about the fish man! Right? The colonies are prettybig so it makes the tank look smaller than what it really is... haha. And thanks, I'm just glad I was able to save a great majority of the fish. 1 Quote Link to comment
Cencalfishguy56 Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Right? The colonies are prettybig so it makes the tank look smaller than what it really is... haha. And thanks, I'm just glad I was able to save a great majority of the fish. Can't wait to see this tank lively with fish everywhere! 1 Quote Link to comment
TenGallonReef Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 congrats on graduating and on your new tank! great looking reef! keep it up man. 1 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 congrats on graduating and on your new tank! great looking reef! keep it up man. Thank you! I appreciate the kind words! Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 The fish are all doing well in quarantine! I haven't seen any signs of disease for over 2 weeks. I went to a random fish store on my way back from work a couple days ago and saw a Copperband Butterfly for 20 dollars. Now I have been looking for a "centerpiece" fish for the reef for quite a while now and this fish fits the bill. It is a decent size, is not super common on reef setups, has some interesting coloration, and a very unique shape. I asked an employee to feed the fish and to my surprise, the Copperband ate ravenously. After some deliberation, I bought the fish and put it in the quarantine tank. It has now been two days and the fish has eaten Brine Shrimp, clams, Mysis Shrimp, and a bunch of Rod's food. I think I may have gotten pretty lucky. I will see how the fish does for the next couple of weeks but it's a great sign that the fish is already eating! Quote Link to comment
Cencalfishguy56 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 The fish are all doing well in quarantine! I haven't seen any signs of disease for over 2 weeks. I went to a random fish store on my way back from work a couple days ago and saw a Copperband Butterfly for 20 dollars. Now I have been looking for a "centerpiece" fish for the reef for quite a while now and this fish fits the bill. It is a decent size, is not super common on reef setups, has some interesting coloration, and a very unique shape. I asked an employee to feed the fish and to my surprise, the Copperband ate ravenously. After some deliberation, I bought the fish and put it in the quarantine tank. It has now been two days and the fish has eaten Brine Shrimp, clams, Mysis Shrimp, and a bunch of Rod's food. I think I may have gotten pretty lucky. I will see how the fish does for the next couple of weeks but it's a great sign that the fish is already eating! wow super stoked for you dude! Ninjamyst copper and is absolutely gorgeous! Glad you got one that's not a finicky eater 1 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 I was able to get my hands on a nice camera for a change! Here is a FTS that is of better quality in comparison to my other pictures! 7 Quote Link to comment
Cencalfishguy56 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 I was able to get my hands on a nice camera for a change! Here is a FTS that is of better quality in comparison to my other pictures! looks just like the edge of a reef man absolutely stunning! 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Very nice, beautiful reef! 1 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted October 15, 2016 Author Share Posted October 15, 2016 looks just like the edge of a reef man absolutely stunning! Thank you! That's one of the looks I'm trying to go for so I'm happy that it's starting to look like that! Very nice, beautiful reef! Thank you! I appreciate it Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted October 16, 2016 Author Share Posted October 16, 2016 My little Acropora colony with a bunch of Clove Polyps at its base. 3 Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted October 16, 2016 Author Share Posted October 16, 2016 It's so nice to actually have a nice camera for a change! No more potato pictures on this thread..(hopefully).. Here's a macro of my Clove Polyps. I still have to get used to taking macro shots, but I will get better the more I do it. The color on this coral is incredible. 4 Quote Link to comment
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