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

[rishu_pepper]

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[.bubbles]

*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


( I'm rishu's wife )

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Hi .bubbles

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

[rishu_pepper]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

LOL ---> Love the labels! ♥♥♥

LOL thanks for the love

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

Hi .bubbles

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

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?

[.bubbles]

@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 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.


@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

[Myka]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

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.

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