Duckhams' 75G Reef Build - Eurobraced/BeanAnimal
 

I actually started this build over a year ago, and will be doing lots of modifications and updates to it in the next few months. Including new plumbing!
But here is a quick overview of the journey so far:

Display: 75 gallon 48"x20"x20", Eurobraced Low-iron glass, External Beananimal overflow. (all by Miracles Aquariums).
Sump: 30x14x18 Rimless, 3 compartments. Drain (media-reactor), skimmer, return.
Stand: 48x20x40 for optimal viewing and inside tank reach. (I can touch all areas inside the tank without a step-stool).
Rockscape: 2 main structures based on high arches and off-centred caves for a 3-dimensional feel.

Current Equipment:
Lighting: 2 x Kessil A360WE LED pendants, 4 x T5 LET-MIRO retrofits with ATI Actinics and Blue Plus bulbs.
Return Pump: Eheim 1262
Skimmer: Originally a Reef Octopus NWB-150. Just upgraded to a Vertex Omega 130.

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Can you tell me how much just the tank and stand cost?

Next I had to cut a space out of the back panel of the stand for the drain lines. The first 2 lines on the BeanAnimal overflow are hard-plumbed with ball valves, the third line, the emergency drain, is an open line run with flex-pvc (honestly just because I had it, there was no specific reason to use the flex line). Once the plumbing was all set, I sprayed it matte black. Its not a great finish, and a lot of it has worn off now, but it looked good to start with!

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Got the new rock soaking. As this was a brand new setup, I let the rock cure in the tank (for 2 months or so) before adding any livestock.
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Then finally, sprayed the inside of the tank white and sealed the bottom panel with caulk, just in case there were any spills in the future. This has been a life saver!
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Once that all dried, we moved it into the office and levelled the complete unit, front to back and side to side with plastic (composite) flooring shims from Lowes. Each one was labelled and cut to length before being tapped into place.
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PM'd.

We did a full test run of the whole system before setting up in the office. All worked well, silent overflow, quiet pump, it worked like a charm!
With tank level and in place, it was time for water, rocks & sand! The rockscape changed quiet a bit before I was happy with it. This is my favourite part of the setup, playing with the rockscape! So much potential! The 'high-hat' rockscape was a bit weird, but led to something better later on.

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Sweet build thread. Following along, love the removable overflow area and the rounded arch rock scape.

I'd cut holes into the sump and run that pump external.

As the system is running in my office, I ran the return pump in-sump to reduce the chances of water reaching my floor. It's an extremely quiet pump, so it's perfect as an in-sump return.
That being said, I've run several external pumps on other systems and never had an issue, but better safe than sorry.

Very nice!

Thanks! Your 300DD is beautiful, well deserving of TOTM.

Added a nice big bag of mysis to get the cycle going.
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The rocks started to get a nice green colour to them. (watched this carefully increase hair algae was about to take over, thankfully it didnt).
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Then gradually, after about 2 months when the nitrates were down (ammonia and nitrite at zero) I started to add a few pieces I saved from the old setup.
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Then added 3 Lyretail Anthias and 2 Clownfish. The rockwork got a bit of a readjustment and added another 150w halide for a total of 300w of 14k Phoenix halides.
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Looks very nice and sleek, can't wait until its filled with corals.

What brand/model is that light fixture? I love it!

A few more creatures! These yellow sponges really take over with the right care, they do an amazing job of natural filtration. And the Scarlet Skunk Cleaner shrimp is a must have in every reef tank, they are great 'Parasite Guards' for your fish. This is a great article documenting their effectiveness:
http://www.reef2rainforest.com/2015/...20Videocontent

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This Electric Blue Hermit got a little destructive with the snails in my last tank, but he's just so beautiful I couldn't bring myself to give him away. He's quite the character. I really love these little guys! I have found that the Scarlet Hermits are much less destructive on my snails and stay a bit smaller, its always a gamble with these tiny little scavengers though!
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Thanks! It's a JBJ K2 Viper Halide Lamp. They're not the easiest to find these days, but they're great lights for smaller tanks. I actually swapped them out for 2 x Kessil A360WE LED pendants, and I have to say, while I love the JBJ 150's for a smaller tank, the Kessil A360WE are incredible on this system. I love being able to control the colour intensity and the dusk/dawn effect gives great shimmer, just like a halide but much more blue!

Really!... They use cleaner shrimp in salmon aquaculture? Must go through a lot of cleaner shrimp...

No not shrimp. "cleaner fish species have been used in salmon aquaculture". :mrgreen: I dont think the shrimp would last long in fresh water!

I originally set this tank up with a Reef Octopus NWB-150 skimmer, and it did a great job, beast of a skimmer, but it barely fit the sump and was pretty loud so I swapped it out for a Vertex Omega 130, which I feel fits the bioload a bit better too. I love the Vertex, its incredibly quiet and very efficient! (you do need to adjust the volute to dial it in properly, but once you do its great!).

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This little hippo tang (about 2.5") had some nasty parasites buried in him. A fresh water dip brought them out wriggling, like thin little slices of a grain of rice, and it was quite traumatizing for him. But he recovered really well! and got really big! I attribute a lot of his recovery to good nutrition, garlic soaked nori is like penicillin for tangs.

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This is probably 5-6 months later. He made a complete recovery! These poor little guys sometimes come in terrible condition from some fish stores, but are well worth the effort of looking after.
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One of my favourite Gobies, we call this guy David Bowie because of the pink streaks on his face! He was pretty starved when he came from the LFS, he's a fat little sausage now.
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We actually still have most of these guys still in the tank after almost 18 months. We lost a couple of hammers to a prazipro dosing (euphyllia do not like praziquantel), it took the survivors months to bounce back.

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A few 'development' shots
 

As the tank has developed things most of the corals have done really well. Even with a change from 150w metal halides to Kessil A360WE LED's. There was an adjustment period where colours changed and growth slowed in most cases, but overall things acclimatized very well and got back to normal, if not better growth rates and colouration! I love halides, but im very impressed with the Kessil LED's.

Back to the Future!
 

A few 'back to the future' shots of the new rockscape after a big 'rock scrub' last week. The red/pink monti in the middle is starting to colour back up after an alk swing that left it almost completely white. The fluorescent pink is really coming back quickly now that things are back in check. Love those monti's!

Very nice. Has a very clean look that I like.

Thanks! :D

TROUBLE IN PARADISE:
It's been a few months since my last update. The tank has gone through a few 'events', a big alk swing caused by a dosing tube that popped off, which created a nice slick pool inside the tank stand, a bubble algae outbreak and a small aiptasia infestation. Due to the alk swing I lost most of my SPS and chalices (enter tears here), it's taken the tank a few months to recover but things are finally getting back to normal.
WORKING ON A SOLUTION:
After manually removing as much as I could with a sharpened screwdriver, I added 6 emerald crabs to tank and they've taken care of the bubble algae since. Small bubbles pop up from time to time but they soon disappear.
Unfortunately, one or more of the emerald crabs took a munching to my german blue digitata and made short work of it over a couple weeks, a trade off I guess. And im still battling the aiptasia, they're not a major problem, but long term they could be an issue.

TO RESCAPE, OR NOT TO RESCAPE? THAT IS THE QUESTION:
SO, im toying with the idea of rescaping the tank. The BIG REEF was setup before I setup Big Reef Depot, so im thinking it could be time for a reboot. A Big Reef needs some big rocks, so im cleaning up some Pukani to see how it would look. Still not sure if i'll do it, im going to get it curing in a rubbermaid first, so I have a month or two to decide.
THE NEW BEGINNING:
I gave the Pukani a 30 minute, 15:1 ratio muriatic acid bath to 'etch' off the top layer of calcium carbonate which should limit P04 leaching as it cures and remove a ton of organic material. Right now its in a 10:1 ratio chlorine bath until tomorrow to remove any other organic 'mulch' that might be left over. The acid bath produced a nice layer of floating sponges, other critter bits and scum, which should also shorten the cycle/cure time in the rubbermaid too.
The pics below are BEFORE the acid/chlorine bath. I'll post more pics tomorrow of the cleaned rock.

The rock came out of the acid bath and bleach soak REALLY clean, loads of sponges and other organic material came off, it was definitely worth it and will shorten the cycle considerably. I let it sit dry for 2 days to allow any remaining bleach to evaporate. Now its sitting in fresh saltwater with a powerhead and heater, ready to start curing.

You can really see the difference the acid bath / bleach soak made in the pictures below. As a quick reference as a few have asked why I did this:

Muriatic Acid Bath - Dissolves top layer of calcium carbonate off the rock, removing a lot of the 'locked up' P04 that would otherwise leach back in to the water column while curing.
It does a good job of dissolving organic material too, but this isn't the primary reason for doing it.

Bleach Soak - Loosens/dissolves/cleans the rock of dead organic material. A powerhead is required during this stage for it to be really effective.

The results are pretty clear.

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Breaking tank down -
 

Breaking the down this week and selling all the corals and live rock. Lots of frags for sale, rhodactis and some other rare mushrooms. Lots has been sold already so things are starting to clear out. I'll put the remaining livestock in the holding/frag tank while I redo the system with new rock and equipment. I hate this part, I try to get through it slowly and carefully so as not to lose anything but I just want to throw it all in the frag tank and setup the new system up asap.

Im hoping to get a deal on a Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM on black friday for future pics. The standard kit lens just isn't cutting it.

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Finally got the hardware in! Im hoping to get the lights installed this weekend while I transfer most of the frags to the frag/holding system and then start work on emptying the tank and swapping out the plumbing. The rock is cured and ready to go and phosphates are finally 0.04 ppm without raising after a few days, hopefully it stays that way. Im keeping an eye on it with the lanthanum chloride ready. :D

EcoTech Radion XR15wPRO's:
Im seriously impressed with the Radions. Their much heavier than I expected too, which I like. You instantly feel the quality of the equipment as you pick it up and unbox them. The colour control and functionality is impressive, with moonlight and storm modes (not that storm mode is important, but it was more fun than I expected! Plus if you initiate storm mode from the app, your phone plays thunderstorm/rain sounds! LOL! Which was cooler than I thought it'd be). The app is great fun when it comes to changing colour modes and intensity, I played with that for a good hour before I settled on a few presets to save that I really liked for the frag system. The colour options are endless! Which is a huge feature for me, because I find my tastes in lighting/colour change constantly.
Im going to install the 3 x Radion XR15wPRO's on a custom low profile t-track mount inside the canopy so that I can move them length ways across the tank as need with the rockscape/corals/light spread. Im dying to get them all hooked up and get the moon phase settings on. The Radion's are a serious piece of hardware, incredible quality and real PAR monsters! Im really excited to get them running on the display tank.

ReefLink
The ReefLink is very compact, only 5" or so across. I have it sat on desk under my screen so I can keep an eye on the indicator ring (which glows blue when all is good). EcoSmart Live is very much like APEX Fusion but for EcoTech Marine products and provides a lot of controllability for the Vortech's and Radion's, it works just as well as Fusion in my opinion, but the app was the kicker for me! I love controlling everything from the EcoSmart app! It's so easy to change settings, save your own presets, it's a lot of fun and really easy to use.
I've hooked up the reeflink already and put one of the XR15wPro's on the frag/holding system and im super impressed with how easily it all connected, though I did have to hit the refresh button to get the settings to save/load, the page just kind of froze on 'updating settings' and never completed.

Vectra M1 Return Pump
I haven't hooked up the Vectra yet. It's not as heavy as I expected, but man is it sold. Watt for watt it's the same size as my Eheim 1262, so hopefully heat won't be an issue. I won't be running it at full power, so im expecting it to be very quiet and have no effect on tank temp. The quality of the pump is impressive, the Eheim feels a little like a toy, but the Vectra feels like a serious workhorse. It will be interesting to see how hot the controller gets with the built in heat-sink and how the beananimal overflow reacts to the feed/surge modes etc. Not having the return pump shut off for feedings, gurgle the house down and then gurgle the siphon back up will be amazing! Im so sick of hearing that twice a day.


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Why the switch from Kessil to Radions?

A few reasons really. I wanted something more low profile that fit in my canopy better, I wanted to raise the Kessil's for better spread but didn't have room. I probably should have had 3 instead of 2. I never really got the colouration I wanted out of my SPS with the Kessil's (got close though) and the Radions give me a lot more control over colour, intensity and spectrum (including UV). The Kessil's also shut off below 14% but the Radions give me control down to 1% for moonlighting and adjustable colour in every direction (not just blue or white with the Kessil's). Don't get me wrong, I loved the Kessils, but found matching a decent combo of T5's to a colour setting I really liked kind of hard with just the blue and white. Plus the Radion's are PAR monsters! I also saw the XR15wPro's on a demo tank at MACNA and after seeing the Kessil's and Radion's side by side, it was a no brainer (given my goals with my new setup). The Kessil's are amazing LED's for LPS/frag tanks and really offer a set it 'n' forget it setup, I need more control and more SPS.

I picked up a Canon 100mm f2.8 USM Macro lens today (non-L version) in the black friday sales and took a few shots with it, all with a tripod. Im pretty pleased with how they turned out. It does take a little practice to get used to, but I like it a lot. These are pics of a few frags im keeping to put in the new setup, lights installation is almost complete. More pics coming soon.

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Tank
 

Hi there. Beauty setup. I just was wondering the back of your tank is black. Is that black acrylic or paint? I like the removable overflow shade. If it's acrylic is it inside the tank or outside?
Keep the pics coming.
Dave

Thanks Dave! The back of the tank is covered in a cut sheet of black vinyl, that just peels off as needed. It's easier to apply than paint IMO. And the overflow grate is made from acrylic and inside the overflow box.

Things are coming together now. Im mounting the Radions on a low-profile 36" long T-Track (https://www.blackrocktools.com/samon...-ft-44162.html). This will allow me to move the Radion's from side to side as needed for coral placement, and to move them out of the way when I have my hands in the tank. A couple of M5x20 bolts slide nicely into the T-Track.

Also got most of the plumbing done and started on the wiring.

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Quick night time progress shots
 

A few quick evening shots! The rocks are in, Vectra is on and sand is slowly being washed and added. Im still working on the wiring but it's up and running!
The Vectra is insanely quiet, im super pleased with it, but more on that later. :D

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Vectra M1 Return Pump:
The Vectra is a really solid built pump. The controller is easy to use and makes adjusting the water flow very easy and allows for fine tuning your drains for absolute silence. Im running a beananimal drain with 1" pipe and I can run the Vectra M1 at full power and it handles it nicely. I close the ball valve on the first line slightly and run it at about 60% which gives me good flow through the sump and great surface agitation. The feed mode lowers the return flow to barely a trickle, and im not yet sure if this is going to create a lot of noise in the overflow box as the siphon will pull more than the pump is pushing, but we'll see. Im not overly worried about that feature as the pump has so many other benefits. The soft start and near silence being top among them.
EcoSmart Live allows you to set flow rates throughout the day, like you would with a Vortech, and set low flow feed modes, night time flow, high flow surge/nutrient transport times etc throughout the day. It's an incredible amount of control over a return pump and definitely adds a new dynamic to the systems return flow. Overall, I couldn't be happier with the it.

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NEW SYSTEM! FINALLY UP AND RUNNING!
 

Im really pleased with the new rockscape, the high left peak has added a really cool dimension for the fish to swim around and is going to be great for coral placement on both sides. I've still got lots of frags to get rid of if anyone is interested, let me know! The 3 x XR15wPro Radions provide great, even coverage for the tank with the TIR lenses and the corals seem to have reacted very quickly to the added PAR and spectrum. The colour's change throughout the day to make the corals pop in the morning and evenings and then bring out the colours in the fish during the day while im working (3ft from the tank at my desk) with a brighter 'daylight' setting. EcoSmart Live has made controlling and customizing them a lot easier.

A few pics of my new favourite Rasta's too!


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I like the rockscape! Why don't you slide a piece of black acrylic in the overflow so the pipes aren't so obvious?

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

Did you use rods for the rocks

I do have an overflow insert that came with the tank, im just leaving it out for now so that I can play around with the flow settings on the Vectra M1 and I need to be able to see the water level in the overflow box. :D It will go in soon enough, don't worry!

No I didn't, it's only 2 pieces. The one on the left is almost 22" long! I got a couple of big pieces of Pukani and chiselled them with a hammer and screw driver to create the shapes, caves, ledges, etc.

[quote=Elliott@BigReefDepot.com;973486]I do have an overflow insert that came with the tank, im just leaving it out for now so that I can play around with the flow settings on the Vectra M1 and I need to be able to see the water level in the overflow box. :D It will go in soon enough, don't worry!/quote]

Oh good! I was like, "Woah, fail." :lol:

That sump setup is looking pretty slick too. I saw you have the colored PVC pipe - I might have to order some. :D