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Coral Vue Hydros

Tana's Dirty DB35g


tanacharison

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tanacharison

Time for another adventure!  I have tossed the idea of another reef tank in my home for some time and after visiting my LFS I managed to steal this Deep Blue Professional Cube and stand for a great price.  My main goal is to have a much more simple set up than my last few tanks.  I love to try new things... the addiction of buying new equipment is as bad for me as more coral.  Having a cube and small sump space helps me fight the urge.  My last 5 reef tanks all ran bio-pellets and carbon reactors along with a oversized skimmer and refugium.  This time no bio pellet or carbon reactors!  I'm also using less rock than in my past reef tanks, to make up for this I will be using a Brightwell aquatics Xport brick.  I have fallen in love with simple aquascapes.  The massive overflow section in the cube is a slight waste of space so I'm looking at using this area as a refugium but no exact plans yet.  During the process I plan to log the amount of money spent to set up the tank.  With the cost of the hobby so high I think this will give a good reference for future reef hobbyists.  A healthy stable reef tank is my goal so I won't be making only cost effective purchases.  With this the third fish tank in my home I already have a lot of the necessary equipment so if I forget anything please let me know.  The fish selection will be small as overstocking is always a downfall for smaller tanks.  Thanks for reading and following!

 

Tank: Deep Blue Professional 20x20x20 35g Rimless Cube with Stand $250 (40% Off)

Sump: Eshopps RS-75 $160 ($30 off)  Saltwateraquarium.com has a clearance section that you will find great prices on open box items!  Also this is an exact fit for the stand.

Return Pump: Syncra Silent 1.5 Pump 357gph $60 ($11 off) I already have a spare and its become a universal pump for me. Very quiet too!

Rock:  Real Reef Rock 25lbs $150. Price was high and you can get much better dry rock deals but I wanted to try this and liked the color. 

Sand:  20 lb. Special Grade CaribSea $34 (10% off)

Flow: Ecotech mp10 $150-235.  Lucky for me I had one currently collecting dust so I did not have to spend the money.  However you can find this often on a secondary market for a good deal.  I really loved reef crest mode and plan to purchase the battery backup once I have established costly livestock.

Lights:  No idea yet!  I already have extra Kessil A160 so its a free option.  I'm currently running a Nanobox unit on my other tank so if I like it its another choice.  Leaving this one open for now.

Skimmer:  Icecap K2-50 $110 

ATO:  Tunze Nano 3152 $100  Used this for years and never had a issue.

Salt Mix:  Red Sea Blue Bucket $65  This is what I have used the past two years on my other tank.  I could go with a less expensive option however using the same salt for both tanks will make water change days much easier.  

Controller:  Apex Jr Pre owned $100

Water:  BRS 4 Stage RODI Unit. $180  Clean water is a key to any successful reef tank.  I already have this RODI unit and if you do not have one make it a early purchase regardless of brand water at LFS is .40-.60 a gallon the start up cost to fill this tank/sump/ato is $50 of water.  They are worth it!  Even more when you need water for a emergency water change while everything is closed.   

 

My current investment: $1,328 Already owned expenses: $405

 

 

 

 

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tanacharison

Well the sand arrived today along with some stuff for my other tank. omgomgomg I went out to home dept and picked up a 44gal brute trash can to mix salt in.  Could have mixed it in all the 5 gal buckets that I use for water changes and but its much easier filling the brute up with water and mixing a big batch of salt.  I'm also planning on using the brute in the basement for a mixing station.  Next up rinsing 25 lbs of sand and making saltwater to get this thing wet.

 

Ready for all the hard work.

IMG_0511_zpszcxhet0c.jpg

 

The aquascape.

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Very cool!  Following along. Hope to learn a thing or two.

Is the Real Reef Rock artificially colored? I'm guessing not because of it's name. 

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tanacharison
1 minute ago, SeaFurn said:

Very cool!  Following along. Hope to learn a thing or two.

Is the Real Reef Rock artificially colored? I'm guessing not because of it's name. 

It is artificially colored and made.  This will be the first time ill be using it.. so far the shapes and shells in it helped make a cool scape. 

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tanacharison

WET!! Only issue is the plastic bracket for setting the water level sucks.  It's not really working but I can play with that later.  On a positive it makes zero noise.  Purchased a 125wt Jager Heater $28.  It actually does not fit in the sump really well :lol: so i'll need to look for other options.  Anyways time to celebrate new adventures with a s'mores beer.

IMG_0525_zps0ewhtkfb.jpg

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tanacharison
11 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Nice!  Looks good! And great that it makes no noise. Any decisions on the lighting yet?  

Well today I hear a tiny trickle of water, hahah.  Overall sump/overflow/pump combo makes very little noise.  Still unsure on lights but they will be LED's for sure.  I ordered the Icecap K2-50 skimmer from saltwateraquarium after using my $20 reward points it was $110 with a free towel.  :D   Can't argue over free stuff.  It's rated for 40-80 gallons so it should work good.  Now its cycling time.

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  • 2 weeks later...
tanacharison

Well the progress continues.  Thanks @dee171for the great deal on a Apex Jr!  I have it up and running already... just need to calibrate temp probe.  Ordered a pair of HMA-S 150W Heaters - Finnex for the sump.  They are small enough to fit horizontal in the skimmer section and will be controlled via Apex.  Ordered and installed Kessil mounting arm kit, its expensive but works and looks great.  

 

 

 

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tanacharison

Progress on the DB Cube is going well.  I finished wiring up and organizing all the electrical, always better to do before you get the tank wet!  The apex is controlling both heaters my skimmer and return pump.

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I saved money purchasing this tank but a word of advice single drain overflows should be avoided.  The plumbing on this set up could be clogged with ease so if you can't drill an emergency (Not enough room in this overflow) you need to purchase something to shut off your return pump if the return becomes clogged.  Unless you like water on the floor.  :lol:  A leak detection system such as the one apex sells would work well.

  Image result for apex leak detector

Personally I will hold out until the Apex ATK so I can upgrade on ATO with additional fail safes and only need to purchase a few leak detection probes as well.  The only downside with this the tank will spill water on the floor to trigger the detection probe.  You can add a float switch in the overflow as a backup to shut off your return.  However that's more module's I would need to purchase.  Seeing as I will already be using a ATK I can just add a optical level sensor (OS1) above the water line in my overflow to shut off my return if the level rises.  The only other issue is my return line that came with the sump is a bit long, I really need to purchase a new one and shorten up the distance.  This might also reduce noise because I have air trapped inside the line. 

Image result for neptune os1

 

The RS75 Sump is an exact fit inside the stand.  After adding the apex and powerbar bar I lost any room for a ATO inside.  I'm currently using a 5 gallon bucket behind the tank.:D  If I ever decide on dosing I do have room for the containers but would need to mount the bracket above the sump.  Eventually I will purchase a better looking ATO but not a priority.  I went with Finnex HMA-150w heaters mainly because of their size at under 8 inches.  They mounted well horizontally in the skimmer section of the sump and the mounting cages created a strong grip the the wall.  Both heaters were off by almost 4 degrees as bulk reef supply warned about in their heater video.  I programmed the temp range with the apex and set the heaters at 83 and 85. 

IMG_0582_zps0upwcwgr.jpg

Cycling is about done! I'm going to ghost feed today and see how fast the nitrates change.  Gave the LFS a copy of my stocking list.  Everything seems easy to get except the red stripe gobys.  I'm thinking about replacing with clown gobys.  Picked up a small frag of elegance coral and dayglow favia that are holding in my main tank.

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
tanacharison

So I picked up a third Red Stripe Goby last week but I've only seen one the past few days.  Tonight I found one hanging out in my overflow :unsure:  After some well placed work I managed to pull him out!  The blenny is doing well and is really fun to watch eat.  Hopefully my third goby shows up... I searched the sump and overflow good.  I have some algae growth slowly covering everything so I added a bunch of snails.  No new corals... kinda just letting everything settle out and waiting for the next fish to arrive. 

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tanacharison

Minor update.   Tank is doing really well.. like personal best start ever.  No real nuisance algae growing and very little growth on glass.  The snails do a good job of keeping it under control and the sand bed grows tiny brown patches that I stir up weekly.  The first coral I added was a nice favia that I got during the legendary corals live sale and its starting to finally encrust.  I'm hoping the gonaporia also do really well.. they are a good assortment of baby blue, hot pink and a white/brown.  No change in any equipment just weekly 5g water changes and switching out the filter sock every three days.

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MockandRoll

Tank is looking good. Good luck with the goniporas. I had a nice large green colony for 6 months. I gave it away yesterday to someone that runs their tank dirtier. My water was just to clean and it finally started to bleach on top. With that many fish, you might not have that problem. 

 

Also did you leave the eggcrate in the tank? If so that may become a detritus trap. 

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tanacharison

Thank you!  I had to leave the eggcrate in to support the arching rock work.  It's the first time I tried it.  When I first decided on doing it I was a little reluctant because of detritus but I went ahead anyways.  lol  I guess with me only stocking very small fish and minimal inverts I don't feed very heavy and inside I feel like only 2% becomes waste that is not pulled into the sump.  Only time will tell if all the sand critters can keep up with the waste at that rate. 

8 hours ago, MockandRoll said:

Tank is looking good. Good luck with the goniporas. I had a nice large green colony for 6 months. I gave it away yesterday to someone that runs their tank dirtier. My water was just to clean and it finally started to bleach on top. With that many fish, you might not have that problem. 

 

Also did you leave the eggcrate in the tank? If so that may become a detritus trap. 

 

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