Ryan D's 55g Reef - Video update 5/06/13

Ryan D's 55g Reef Summary Page

Hey guys I am going to use this first page as a summary for my 55g Reef Tank. The tank was started in June 2012 and so has now been running for approximately 7 months.

The Fish:
- Bristletooth Tang
- Flame Angelfish
- Firefish
- Oscellaris Clown Pair
- Redline Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
- Peppermint Shrimp x 2
- Linkia Starfish
- Asterina Starfish

The Coral
- Black Sun Coral
- Yellow Sun Coral
- Gorgonians
- Gonipora
- Elegance
- Favia
- Zooanthids x3
- Torches x2
- Frogspawn
- Hammer x2
- Alveopora
- Cup Coral
- Kenya Tree (one pink and one green)
- Toadstool
- Clams

The Anemones
- Very small Green Bubble Tip
- Small White with Pink Tips Bubble Tip
- True Tan Carpet Anemone

The Hardware:

- The tank:
55g Tank with 5-6" DSB
CPR Overflow box

- Flow:
1 x MP10
1 x Hydor Sicce Voyager
1 x Hydor Nano

-Lighting:
150W 3W Cree LED from Marintech. Completely customizable.

- Sump:
25g custom sump with Calurpa macroalgae refugium
Eheim 3000 Return

- Filtration:
Hydor Performer Skimmer 450
Filtersock with Carbon bag

- Reactors:
GFO in a Two Little Fishies Phosban 150
NPX Biopellets in a Two Little Fishies Phosban 150

- Chiller:
Aquaone Artic 1/6 Chiller with Eheim 3000 pump.

Most Up-To-Date Video:

Please give me suggestions to improving the tank, even little things .

A great thanks goes out to:
- Biocube
- Coralline
- Seano Hermano
- Camkha1234
- 2in10
- Steve Wright

 

Y have a heater and chiller?

 

The idea behind the heater and the chiller is:

The room where it will be in is a paradise room/extension of the house (what ever you want to call it) and whilst it has its own air conditioning it can either get extremely cold or extremely hot.

In summer when the chiller is running to maintain a 25 degree celcius water temp, if the chiller goes to overboard, the heaters will be there to maintain the water temp consistently.

Yes it will cost abit more in power to run two counteracting things at one time, but overall it will provide for a more constant water temperature for this fish

Thanks for the question .

 

Oh ok i got yah that makes sense

 

Hello, Ryan and welcome to 3reef.

I see you have done some research and you have made some changes to your equipment plans for your aquarium. All looks great with your plans for the build thus far. I am just wondering if you would rather do a DIY sump made from glass. You can buy a used tank (preferably a shallower, longer tank, such as a 30 gallon long) and order glass panels to be cut to size for you. Silicone them in place and then buy the return pump / skimmer separately. This can be done easily and at a much lower cost than a prefab acrylic sump.

Nice display tank. I love the rimless look!

 

Thanks for the advice (and on all my other threads at the moment ;D).

I have thought about it, and I do have another 2ft tank that I could use as a sump, but I was planning on using that as a quarantine tank and then after I have the fish I want, a place to grow coral frags and perhaps house a mandarin goby.

The only reason I looked at that pre-built sump is purely for convenience. I'm definately not a DIY savvy as most other guys on here and having pre-drilled holes, preinstalled baffles and a light that was designed to fit is pretty appealing.

However, if most people seem to have good success with DIY sumps, I might look at getting a custom one made?, I.e. Precut glass side/bottom and a baffles and ill silicone them together myself. What is the usual rule of thumb with sumps? If I made a custom one I could make it substantially longer, nearly as long as my tank above, that might make the sump to big? Is a there a rule of thumb on sump size if I was to do it myself?

 

A sump's primary purpose for reef (or FOWLR) tanks is not only for extra water volume (giving you a more stable water parameters if you make a mistake in dosing, or if salinity goes out of wack or if you see an increase in nitrates...etc). The larger water volume dilutes what would have otherwise been a bigger problem (more concentrated i a smaller volume).

It is a great place to hold our filtration equipment like protein skimmers, reactors (eg., activated carbon and/or GFO if you choose so - these help in reducing nitrate and phosphate levels as well as keeping cleaner, clearer water) as well as refugiums. Of course you do not have to have all of these, but you can, or even a combination of a few. If you are thinking about a mandarin down the road when the tank is mature, getting a refugium/ live rock setup in the sump will certainly help out in culturing copepods (you can also buy pods in containers at the fish store - use this to 'seed' the display and refugium, not constantly feed it. It can become expensive).

As far as the actual sump tank itself, keep the extra one you have and use it for your QT or frag tank. Check out Craig's List, ebay (maybe), and Petco for cheap glass tanks. People often sell any old or extra tanks for cheap when they leave the hobby. Petco also has $1 per gallon tank sales every few months. You can get some oddly shaped tanks that will be great for your sump. the exact volume is not all that important, just be sure it appropriately fits your equipment, with some room to spare.

I had a 10g sump on my 29g ref (took it off last month because I am downgrading tanks), and while I only had one baffle in my sump, it was a good experience to know how to do it so I am confident in building a larger sump down the road if that time comes. I just got standard 1/4" plate glass and installed it into the sump tank. Allow 1/8" room for silicone when you order the glass (so take 1/8" off the size of the glass panels). Use GE Silicone 1 window and door 'clear'. Run tape around where you want to run the silicone in order to be sure you have nice edges. Take the tape off when the silicone is not quite dried (to prevent the tape from sticking to the tank). Stacks of CDs can be used under some of the baffles if you want the water to go beneath (i.e., bubble trap). Then just remove the CD cases when the silicone is dry.

 

Thanks for the advice Seano.

I think I will go a DIY sump now. I'll design it myself and get the local glass cutter to cut the glass I need for my design.

I will make it a four stage set up with baffles to to prevent micro bubbles. The first stage will be inlet and skimmer, second will be biological filter with miracle mud, the good algae and some live rock, the third will be an area for add ons such as my chiller and maybe a calcium reactor/ phosphate reactor and the fourth will be for the pump and return.

I would obviously need holes drilled in the sides for the return, and for the inlet I have seen only returns from the top? Is this another small peice of glass on the top that's drilled or can it be drilled into the side also? What size should the holes be? Say 1 and a half inch? I am thinking of making the sump about 3' and abit long and about 1' wide and about 1.5' high. Does this sound good?

 

No problem. Glad I can help.

I think 3' x 1' x 1' should be plenty. I think that is the size of a standard 30 gallon long (but the sump will only be about 3/4 full unless the return pump is off). You could make it 1/5' tall if you want, I just think it will be harder to get into (your hands and/or equipment) that way.

If it were me, I would suggest doing it this way (left to right)...protein skimmer (1 x 1 footprint) --> refugium (miracle mud or sand along with some macro algae and live rock) (1 x 2 footprint) --> return section (1 foot x 8" footprint). Then a bubble trap (glass panes 1" apart). reactors can be put inside, but can also hang on the side (or end) of the skimmer/return section of your sump. Having a dedicated sump section would just be unneeded space. The Two Little Fishies PhosBan 150 and Bulk Reef Supply reactors are relatively inexpensive and are easy to set up.

A chiller is an external piece of equipment and cannot be run submersed. Most do not include a pump and you will need to buy one in order to run it. Just have the pump in the water going to the inlet in the chiller, then the outlet chiller hose goes back to the sump...or you can divert part of your return line to operate the chiller.

The sump does not need to be drilled. The display does not need to be either; you can buy a HOB style overflow. Eshopps makes a great design overflow box and some other brands like CPR aquatics use the similar design. But if you do choose to drill the display, then you can do a DIY overflow box (built in the display made of glass) and most of the plumbing would be exterior to the display, keeping most of the space i the tank open for aquascaping. This type of overflow box would entail drilling several holes, using the Herbie style overflow in order to keep quite. It works well and has become quite popular over the past few years it's been around. Overflow lines to the sump would be 1" sch. 40 PVC. Return lines from the sump would be 1/2" sch. 40 PVC.

For my tank, I bought a super nano Glass-Holes overflow box from Glass-Holes.com dope aquarium stuff. It takes up very little space, is quiet in operation, and was easy to install (just one hole and the kit included the drill bit). For an even sleeker look, you can also buy a loc-line return kit from the same company and have the return line go through the back glass of your display.

 

If you haven't already bought it, I also recommend not to get live sand. It is expensive and oxygen is generally used up by the time it (arrives at the store and sits on the shelf before it) gets to you. Instead, get Carib-Sea (or other brand) dry aragonite substrate. You can purchase it in a wide variety of granular sizes, and it creates a great buffer for your aquarium, keeping pH levels stable.

Save money on live rock and get almost all dry rock. Purchase a few pounds of live rock in order to seed the rest and spread coralline growth. Some people get only dry rock and use a shrimp to cycle the tank. Though the shrimp is a good idea either way (or just a small amount of strait ammonia) in order to get the nitrogen cycle started.