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I've been spending the last 6 months looking at some of the gorgeous tank builds here and now that my own tank build is taking off, I will introduce myself. I go by Variant on forums and I love good coffee, hiking, and my miniature schnauzer Mona. I travel frequently for work but will try my best to document my reef tank journey. I'm hoping to build a mixed but SPS dominated tank for my living room. Nothings set in stone so we'll see how things change over time. Equipment List Tank: 30" x 25" x 12" (760mm x 635mm x 300mm) Crystal Dynamic Aquarium Sump: 24" GEO Auto Filter Roll ("AFR") Light: 8x24 ATI Powermodule Wifi Flow: x2 Vortech MP10QD Skimmer: Deltec 600i Controller: GHL Profilux 4 Doser: GHL Doser 2.1 Quick pictures of the setup after picking up the tank today. Will be traveling in a bit so updates might be a tad slow!

Howdy all I've been out of the reef hobby for about 10 years (high tech planted tanks have kept me busy and in touch with newer tech, I run Kessil tuna suns and vortechs). My fiancé saw a frag tank while we were getting Plants for one of my tanks and said we need one of those. Long story short after looking for a tank she liked we stumbled on the ADA 60f which she thought was perfect. I ended up ordering the ALA version which has the same dimensions. My last reef was a 14g biocube with power compacts, I kept monti's, acro frags and zoas in it but had to tear it down due to a job that had me on the road a month at a time. Any suggestions for this build are appreciated as I'm sure techniques have changed some in the last 10 years and since this is going to be my fiancés tank I would like to make it successful and fairly user friendly so she will be supportive of me getting a larger tank in the future current specs Tank: ALA 60s (same as a ADA 60f) 23.5" x 11.5" x 7.1" tall - 8.6 gal Overflow/Return: drilled glass holes nano overflow and drilled return Return Pump: need suggestions (I'd prefer low flow through the sump) Sump: 10g aquarium with a refugium baffle system installed (got it off eBay) it also has a holder for a 4" sock. Water movement: mp10 Lighting: SB reef 16" wifi Refugium lighting: need suggestions (considering a Kessil h80 but am open to cheaper options) Controller: Reefkeeper lite with temp probe and 2 power strips (will add ph eventually and the net module) Tank plans bare bottom live rock islands Zoas and LPS to start then SPS after the tank matures (want to start everything as frags to let them grow into the tank since it is small) minimal fish (1-2) must not be known for jumping lol clean up crew refugium with sand, live rock and cheato let me know if I'm missing anything or should go a different route, the tank is arriving today and I will be drilling and setting up the sump this weekend. Thanks in advance Len