Brenton's Mr. Aqua 12 gallon long reef build

Thank you, I can't wait to see how the colors develop under my lighting, but for now it looks great!

I'm so happy that for now I no longer have to run two tanks in the apartment, nice thing is the two of them only increased the electric bill by $15! well maybe I'll have two again in the future, but hopefully not for a while.

 

I have really failed to keep this up and I apologize to anyone who was watching my build. Over the next couple of days I will be updating this thread with everything that has happened to date and then I'll do my best to keep it up from here on out. Thank you for all the help that each and every person on this forum has given, there is such an amazing wealth of information for a new guy here. Enjoy the updates!

 

To start with the first post, I will go over some equipment changes that have taken place since my last post.

The first and biggest change that has taken place is that the bulky 4 bulb t5 fixture has been raced with the much better looking and more controllable 27" 16k razor fixture!!!! It has been excellent so far.

The next change is that the aquaticlife 115 protein skimmer that I had was replaced by the skimmate skimmer by inovative marine. Also my media reactor that I had from BRS is being replaced by the new nano one from innovative marine. They have some amazing new products for nano aquariums!

Pictures to come next week after the media reactor change.

 

Please definitely update with pictures!

 

The equipment is a mess right now but I will put up some pictures once I am done changing everything out which should be this weekend I hope!

 

sounds great! Sounds like you've been busy!

 

Alright. On my day off I finally got to do some much needed maintenance and rearranging of equipment in my tank.

The largest change was changing how the return pump was done. Originally I had it hard lined to the sump and then split to go into a full size media reactor. This was just extremely crammed and the media reactor was way to much overkill for this aquarium. It was unnecessary. Thus it has been removed and been replaced by innovative marine's aqua gadget minimax media reactor, which fits nicely into the sump.
before: sorry I did not think to take a picture before I started so here is an old one.

After: The media reactor can be seen in the sump on the right


And here is a picture of the media reactor


and the newly organized sump, complete with aqua gadget minimax media reactor and aqua gadget desktop protein skimmer. There is a little wad of chaeto in the sump as well, it is just hiding behind the rocks.


I am also loving the growth that I am getting from all the corals in my aquarium. Most of them that I have had for at least a month have over doubled in size and the maximini carpet looks like he is about to split!! (Sorry about the reflections off the tank glass.)


and of course my latest and favorite addition, my first acro!!! a ORA red planet that I got at a fourth of July sale for $10! The color is a deeper red in person and it has already grown a little bit and sprouted two arms!


I hope I didn't forget anything. If I did just let me know.

 

Looking really, really nice!

 

Thank you! I'm trying.

 

Your little 12 gallon looks awesome!! Hey did you make that sump yourself? I read in another post you bought the acrylic from Tapp plastics?