Rishu's Really Ridiculous Reef: a 96x20x20 penny tank build
 

Once upon a time, a guy fell in love with a certain marine creature called the Peacock Mantis Shrimp. It drove him to buy a used 30g tank to house the big girl. She (yes it was a gal) gave us months and months of joy, anxiety (during the molt), excitement, and sadness (RIP Matsuri the mantis shrimp, who only passed away last week :cry:).

What she also brought, though, was a deep unending interest in the marine world, first to me, and then to my wife (she opines reluctantly). Every time we observe these creatures we are amazed at God's awesome creations. We even bought annual passes to the Vancouver Aquarium..! As we got into the game of corals, we stepped up to a 75g tank from an ex-reefer. We added some livestock along the way, lost some due to jumping, not eating, but others continued to thrive. But it could not truly satisfy me.

We were even ready to plan our spring break vacation to Hawaii to swim with the actual fish, but we realized this hobby had taken a toll on us, mentally and financially. We then arrived at a difficult crossroad: spend the money on the vacation of a few days, or upgrade to something that we can start from the beginning and nurture it to a cornucopia of joy and excellence that we can enjoy for years to come. Since this thread is being made, you ought to come to the conclusion that we have chosen the latter.

It isn't a decision made without sacrifices. To cover the expenses, we are putting up my wife's car (anyone want a '08 Yaris? :wink:) for sale, and I'm selling one of my most prized possessions, a custom hunting rifle that has been my pride and joy for many years. But I believe the sacrifices will be worth it.

Okay, enough talk, onto the good stuff.

The tank itself will be a 96"x20"x20" peninsula tank, approximately 165 gallons, minus the overflow. Yes, I have heard many suggest that 20" depth will be too narrow but our flat itself is small enough as it is, and the boss (wife) says it'll be the maximum depth we can afford to have without the place being too cramped. Denny at Concept will be the chosen one to build this tank from the ground up. Anthony, seahorse_fanatic, will have the honour of building the stand. Both guys have been extremely helpful during the initial planning stages of the build and Anthony has offered up so much help, don't know what to do without the guy! :biggrin:

It will be a mixed reef, with an assortment of LPS, SPS, softies, mushrooms, my big sebae anemone (and hopefully more), clams, and many a fish (tangs, wrasses, anthias, clowns, etc.). My dream fish, the Achilles tang, will finally be making an appearance here.

Tank details:

herbie overflow
eurobraced
float glass 12mm
single return line on the overflow wall

Equipment are still in the process of being procured at the moment, but a rough idea as follows (nothing is confirmed at the moment)

2x RW-20 for flow
Enough Reefbreeder/OceanRevive/ReefRadiance/etc. (haven't decided yet) to cover the whole tank
Jebao DC12000 (enough? overkill?)
Tunze Osmolator ATO
SRO XP2000 skimmer (this may be underpowered, will probably upgrade in the future)
2x Eheim Jager 250W
Some kind of reactor for RowaPhos (currently running a TLF in the 75g)
Jebao dosing pump for Calc, Alk, Mg

*will carry over from 75g tank: Vertex biopellet reactor, modded with bigger pump for better flow

If budget allows, a Neptune Apex or Profilux would do wonders to keep everything in order.

I'll be looking at a 1" sandbed, with at least enough rocks to achieve a 1lb to 1g ratio (excluding sump volume, yet to be determined). Just picked up 20lb of Tonga branches from WarDog (thanks Warren!), plus some other live rocks I'll be migrating from the 75g and some other reefers. There will be a refugium in the sump. RO/DI water is supplied from the Aquasafe 7-stage filtration system.

Please feel free to critique my build/equipment choices, or if you have anything you like to sell me let me know :lol:

The order is being put in today for the tank, so assuming a month's turnover rate, I hope to have the tank here in early March. That had been the plan all along, since as a school teacher, I'll have a two-week spring break from March 7 to 22 to put everything together. When I have the exact day, I will offer up beer/pizza for help moving the tank/stand :biggrin::biggrin:, no reefers excluded, provisions first come first served lol (don't need 100 people moving a tank :mrgreen:).

Keep you guys updated every step of the way. My wife has put together a small scale model of the aquascape of which I will post pictures later. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you guys at the frag swap soon! :biggrin:

Sounds good.

If I may add a suggestion? Skip the Rowaphos and reactor and just add Foz Down into the ATO reservoir. You will find the Rowaphos and reactor is a more expensive and time consuming method of controlling the Phosphate in the long run.

Cheers,
Tim

Nice to meet you guys, I'm happy you will be able to put the branch to good use! LMK when you need help moving the tank, I'm down!

Sounds great, neat choice on the dimensions! Sorry if I missed it but whatcha planning on for lighting?

Ur gonna need more then 2 rw 20s. Ive got two rw 20s plus a gyre. All three running at 100% constant on my 6ft 300 gal.

I have almost the exact same tank w/2 gyres at 40% and 1 rw 15 at 50% and my softies are holding on for life around the outside.. i have a rw20 that im not even using..

Since it's only 165g, 2 x RW20s should be plenty of flow for the tank. I haven't used the Gyre but that looks like a very interesting option as well. Being a peninsula tank, placement of wavemakers will be very limited.

I would skip the Tunze Osmolator. They are expensive and unreliable. I've had a simple setup from attotopoff.com that I've used for years without problem.

First I've heard of being unreliable. Especially when compared to cheap float switches. I've had both, and had far more issues with the ATO.com kit. Required more maintenance too, always taking them apart to clean them, tube snails suck!

My osmolator is still chugging along years later , original pump and still doesn't miss a beat ......looks like crap as I've super glued it , siliconed it and taped it into different places lol but still works fine for me I have a couple running on different tanks between here and work and they all have worked fine:) like anything electronic though stuff happens.

Nice build btw!! :pp

Following
 

Being that Rishu lives 5 minutes from my house, i am very interested in your tank build!
Amazing dedication Rishu!
Excited for you!

I would pass on the mushrooms. I would gladly give you all of mine if I could do it without smashing my live rock to smithereens! :sad:

Hmmm, must have had a bad osmolator because the one I used was nothing but trouble. The pump wouldn't trigger on, the controller just showed an error. But could trigger it manually. but I'm pretty sure I've read about others having issues. On the flip side, my ATO.com unit has been flawless. So YMMV. :)

Let's try to reply to everyone! :biggrin:

Tim: I have not heard of the Foz Down product. If indeed it does what it advertises, then I'm all in for it! I guess I can always try a bottle and see. I agree that I do not enjoy changing out the RowaPhos stuff all the time.

Warren: Thanks for the branches, they are lovely! I'll let you know of the delivery date, we definitely need all hands on deck for this one!

Delphinus: Yeah it's a bit narrow, but we'll work with it. For lighting, I am still scouring/researching the mid-tier LEDs such as Reefbreeders, Reef Radiance, etc. My current Hydra 52s would work wonders but I cannot afford another $1500 for another two fixtures, so I'm selling my Hydras to fund these ones.

Skimmin: Considering my tank will only have just half of your DT size in terms of gallonage, I think I will be okay for now with 2 RW-20s. Time will tell.

Roskoreef: I saw yours and it looks very similar to mine! It looks awesome and makes me so excited about mine too!

Anthony: Hopefully the RW-20s will be well-situated and enough flow.

Ron/Mikellini/Denny: Perhaps Ron you got a lemon? I have had my Tunze Nano ATO for a while now and it's been extremely reliable, and most people's experience from what I've read online has been very positive. ATO = makes jobs easier. :)

Patrick: Haha one day you'll need to visit again when the tank is up! I should come visit you too with your new RSM!

Treebeard: I have heard of instances where mushrooms grow out of control, but both the wife and I enjoy these corals so I think they'll have their place.

Here's the 3D model the wife constructed, with some coral placements. None of these are permanent decisions, rather just having fun with what it could look like:

Side view, dining room
http://i.imgur.com/IAfe34xl.jpg

Side view, living room
http://i.imgur.com/lJzDAb7l.jpg

Front view
http://i.imgur.com/dq4pHkMl.jpg

Top view, dining room side
http://i.imgur.com/rDarry3l.jpg

Top view, living room side
http://i.imgur.com/b43eJ6vl.jpg

Bird's eye view
http://i.imgur.com/p4X7dKcl.jpg

LOL ---> Love the labels! ♥♥♥

-

*side note: green stickies represent stuff we already have, pink is to be purchased. The only exception is the 'clams', that one should be pink

Off topic on the tank build, but since the husband has started blogging about our reefing adventures I want to add that I am so blown away by everyone we've met so far and their generosity, kindness and passion! As beginners, it has been invaluable to have the forum advice and encouragement. And every time we meet other reefers, it is pretty cool to be able to instantly connect and share about our respective experience and tanks.

Anyway, looking forward to meeting more fellow reef nerds, and thanks for all the help we've received and will continue to need :smile:


( I'm rishu's wife :wave: )

Hi .bubbles:biggrin:

You should rethink the "suncoral" and eventually get another dendro or maybe some photosynthetic gorgonians. Suncorals are notoriously hard to keep alive long term compared to Dendros because each head needs to be individually fed. Suncorals also tend to open up at night or when detecting food. My dendros are open 80+% of the time, in contrast.

Acans also tend to be lower light corals, so placement high up on the rockwork may not be ideal.

Since this is a LPS-heavy system, 2 of the RW20s should be plenty of flow. My main display (165g) only has a WP60 and a WP25. Not enough for an SPS tank but just right for an LPS system.

Love the 3-D models. I never really go that far. I usually aquascape free style and go from there.

Glad to see you are both so into this addiction. My wife would probably divorce me before giving up her car to fund my next tank. Seriously.

Cheers,

Anthony

LOL thanks for the love :lol:

Thank you for the note on sun corals. If it's too hard to keep, we'll find some alternatives probably. The reasoning behind choosing sun corals was we wanted the bright attention grabbing colours at the entrance/tip of the penny so it makes a nice impression. What other red/yellow/orange corals are out there?

The acans can definitely move. Should have a bunch of room on the mid-arch/low-arch to place them.

I find that the 3D modelling, even with just a bunch of scrap paper glued together, gave us a good understanding of the rockwork/coral placement/lighting/etc., it's been a good starting point.

Selling a car, or a big awesome tank? :wink:

+1

Love the plan!!

Following along for the ride !

If your looking for something similar dendros look pretty much identical. The only real difference that i notice is the base where sun corals are more of a solid base with little arms that is all living and dendros being more like a torch or hammer coral.
I hope you understand what i mean.

Yup I do have dendros and understand what you mean, saw some sun corals at JL before.

Don't think I can afford a dozen heads of dendros easily though lol...

What's red/yellow and flow-y?

lol great idea for the rough layout! i suspect someone's into crafting over there :lol:

it's now going to drive you partially nuts hunting for specific rocks to full-fill your paper dreams.

regarding the osmolator... i'd never hesitate to recommend one. i've owned 4 different units and three were bought used. they've never failed on me once and one i even dropped the controller unit into water and dried it out (was ro/di mind you). I try to topoff onto the sensor so it sorta keeps it clean(ish) automatically.

@Anthony: That's too bad about the sun corals....We love our dendros, they're so interesting to watch and ours have been having tremendous growth. But they're supposedly pricey hence why we were thinking of doing sun corals, especially since they come in some pretty bright colours.

I also just free styled the aquascaping..up until now. It'll likely end up looking different from the model, but I wanted to go in with more of a plan this time because of the size of the tank. In the past I've upset the corals (and thus Brian as well) by constantly moving stuff about. I'm hoping having a plan to go from will help me get it right the first time and refrain from fiddling too much with the aquascape after. Plus it is my little way of contributing to the build since I know nothing about the technical/chemical stuff.

Lol I'm totally fine with selling the car because I'll have a chauffeur instead :wink: Though I'm not entirely convinced that it is a good thing that we're both into the hobby. One of us ought to be sensible. :lol:


@Sharkbait-huhaha: +1 for your username!

@Lastlight: you suspect correctly, I'm a designer by day. Also, I am working towards acceptance of the fact that our tank will be unlikely to resemble the model. But one can dream :T

i've often thought it'd be cool if my wife was into the hobby. reading your post about moving corals around has filled me with a calming sense of satisfaction regarding my current life situation! cool that you guys have found a way to enjoy it together though. My wife would have her own tank lol!

To be honest, my wife would have me fill the tank with a single type of coral and just have her porcupine puffer as the only fish. Either that or she would make me get rid of all the big fish and fill with only one species of small fish in a big school. Yes, its would look cool, but I would be so bored with a single species tank very quickly. Collecting is my favourite OCD activity:redface::biggrin:

Yeah yeah! Dendros are the bomb in comparison to Sun Corals.

IN FOR UPDATES!

Update:

On Tuesday we picked up a RSM 130 from a fellow reefer in Coquitlam. It didn't fit into our car (oops!) and he ended up delivering it over to us. (Yay for kind reefers!) We had originally planned to use it as a temporary home to our current livestock but after setting it up and seeing how nice it was, we've decided to keep it as a secondary tank to house 'aggro' fish that would not be safe to keep in the main tank. (Possible candidates atm: small eel, puffer, baby box fish, another mantis...any suggestions?)

On Wednesday we tore down our current tank and moved everyone over to the RSM. It went relatively smooth but still took the two of us about 5 hours to get it done. There were a few moments when I was accessing the state of our living room: endless buckets of water, equipment strewn all over the floor, a pungent smell of wetdog - I questioned whether it was really worth all this trouble. It is :)

Currently everyone seems to be adjusting to th RSM well...it is a little bit of a tight fit but only for a month, then they'll move into a much more spacious penny tank :D Curiously I've developed a rash on the back of my hands..I think it is from handling our 10" sebae anem...she was stinging me like mad when I was coaxing her out. Anyone experienced this before?

Procured some equipment, a Tunze Osmolator ATO and three Radion G2s. I'm thinking we will need another one but may roll with just the three for the beginning.

Someone has offered me a Reef Keeper Elite package with all the goodies that could possibly be included, at the price of a new set of Apex. Should I go with the RKE? I know everyone raves about the Apex (with good reason) but I haven't heard much from users of the RKE. Anybody with experience that can chime in?

Buy the Apex. The ability to monitor and control your tank's components via your mobile device is something you will never be able to do with RKE. Most new electronics products coming out have or will have Apex connectivity, not so with RKE. The reason you don't see many RKE peeps chiming in is because there isn't one reason to buy an RKE over an Apex besides price. I speak from experience. I have an RK and I want to switch over to an Apex. I chose to go the cheaper route and have regretted it since. HTH.

Ha, the guy sold it anyway, so I guess I don't have to make the decision anymore :lol:

Saving up for an Apex then.

A bit of a set back with the fish. Diagnosed the hippo tang with ich (rapid breathing, white dots on and off), which means the whole RSM 130 is infected.

What I plan to do is to move all the LR and corals from the RSM to the big tank once it's up and leave it fallow for 72 days. At the same time, I will do TTM with the fish to eradicate the ich, then once they are healed, they will stay in the QT and enter the system after 72 days.

It's a little frustrating, especially I wanted the fish to enjoy the big tank soon, but the silver lining is, we can get rid of this problem now rather than killing all fish, new and old, one day in the future. This will also give tons of time for the tank to cycle and stabilize for them.

What do you think of this strategy?

You forgot to mention another perk: I can now aquascape to my heart's content for 72 days without having to worry about squishing any fish :biggrin:

There's a chance that if you move the corals and rock over it may contaminate the new tank with ich, not 100% sure on that tho

Yes but going fallow will fix that :)


Ps ....a little birdie told me your tank may be built ;pppp

Can't wait, thanks little birdie! :biggrin:

That gives me an idea actually. Is it possible to do TTM FOR the rocks and corals?

Er...I don't think it's a good idea to TTM rocks & coral...corals will be SUPER stressed and I'm not moving 200lbs of live rock with you every 3 days x 3 :faint2:

Never mind, just found out on RC that TTM won't kill ich on rocks. 72 days fallow it is.

At least we get to look at our shrimps and snails :lol: