My Lucious Tanks SPS Heavy & New LPS Growout

[LE0]

I figured its time to do a build thread. I had a lot of friends that I made throughout the years working at the LFS asking that I need to make one of my new upcoming build. I knew what I wanted in this build Simple and Clean. The knowledge I gained working in Reef stores since I was 16 doing part -time after school up until now fast forwarding 7yrs later working in 3 different stores. Furthermore, Lets move forward to why i'm doing this build. I had my 75 gallon tank in the guest room, at first It was awesome having my own room with jus the tank and couch to enjoy after a long day at the shop. Eventually it became the biggest pain since my parents always had friends stay for gatherings or family parties. I knew I had to get this tank re located and The rents agreed, but the catch was If i'm going to move this tank it will be a new tank in the second living room .

Heres my old 75 gallong Tank (now a qt tank in the garage for all new fish arrivals)




Now Lets get started on this new bad boy. I knew I had to everything myself the plumbing, The woodwork to the stand, painting, and planing what equipment I was going to pick. I felt that heres my chance to show what I can do. It's difficult being young at a LFS and costumers not wanting your help because they don't think your knowledgeable. I manage to make many friends throughout the year because I was honest with them on everything.



The skimmer that will power this bad boy is a Reef Octopus 220-INT Cone skimmer
Footprint: 16.5″ x 12.2″ | Reaction Chamber: 9″ | Height: 24.8″

 

[LE0]

The start of something great my stand it took me a while to get this done about two weeks of work. I knew what kind of design I wanted, but also having plenty of room and a Lot of access. I decided i was going to have 4 doors (2 infront and 1 in each side).

 

[Chrisfish]

Really nice start and I love the stand. Willing be following this build thread and thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[Bradw18]

Following looks great!!! I'm setting up a 220 with over flows in the same spot as yours. Thought about your aqua scape yet?

 

[LE0]

Really nice start and I love the stand. Willing be following this build thread and thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks!! more pictures to come.

Following looks great!!! I'm setting up a 220 with over flows in the same spot as yours. Thought about your aqua scape yet?

Awesome I was going to go with the aqueon 210 (72 x 24 x30) but the 30inches was a killer for since my other 180 is 30" tall. The aquascape yes its going to be 2 inslands with open space and barebottom.

 

[LE0]

theirs something bout this side of my other tank that i love to look at all the time. Took the picture with iphone 6s+

 

[LE0]

I will be using Vertex one of the reactors for Cermedia MarinePure Spheres. The second reactor will passively run carbon or gfo if needed. I will be doing a manifold in this system. The tank will be powered by a waveline 10,000 II for now I had it laying around. I will be changing it for a Ecotech Vectra L1. I'm running this system almost identical as my other 180g system. For example, same pump "vectra L1", passively runing gfo or carbon when needed, T5 & LED Combo, barebottom, and tons of flow. The most important keeping my parameters close to one another.





The sump needed to be simple no fuge but with plenty of space to house a big skimmer and most importantly keeping it simple. I contacted snynergy reef for a custom sump.The price was great, but the wait estimate was 6 months... Talk about learning more patience. I went with Elite Aquatics RS-40 sump ( 40"x 16" x 15"), the design was simple and clean.




I chose to go with 100lbs of marco rocks. I love the Island look and open. The rocks were soaked in bleach for 24hrs and then put into a acid bath, eventually put in a rubbermaid tub to soak in RODI water for a few weeks. The Dry rock leached alot of phosphate and did water changes until the Po4 eventually started to drop.




Here comes the fun part plumbing!!. My plan for the plumbing was to have one pump run the whole system for the two return and manifold. The overflow drains had to be quiet and that would be achieved with gate valves. A lot, of valves were used for the manifold to future proof myself for anything I would stumble upon with this tank.

 

[EW_Fish]

Nice plumbing!

 

[Tautog]

Following, great start

 

[Ariton]

Wow awesome!! I like the stand, great job

 

[fragit]

Great looking build so far, very clean. Following along for sure.

 

[james983]

Awesome build going, love the stand. Obviously you are a perfectionist with attention to detail. Keep the thread going.

 

[Chris Adams]

Looks great. Beautiful fish, corals, and you did 1 heck of a job on putting things together.

 

[G8trBait16]

following, looks like a great build, can't wait for more!

 

[Mushroomhead]

Does your drain spill over into the filter socks? I thought Elite drained directly into the socks.

 

[justingraham]

Nice build so far

 

[LE0]

Nice plumbing!

Thank You! put alot of time into doing it.

Following, great start

Thanks! enjoy

Wow awesome!! I like the stand, great job

Thanks! its deff one of my fav stands ive done. Heres the other stand that was made for my 75g which is now my qt.

 

[LE0]

Great looking build so far, very clean. Following along for sure.

Thank you! more to come

Awesome build going, love the stand. Obviously you are a perfectionist with attention to detail. Keep the thread going.

Thank you! hope you enjoy whats to come. The perfectionist with attention to detail would get me in disagreements with my boss lol (he thinks adding emergency drain is dumb).

Looks great. Beautiful fish, corals, and you did 1 heck of a job on putting things together.

Thank You! i really appreciate it.

following, looks like a great build, can't wait for more!

Does your drain spill over into the filter socks? I thought Elite drained directly into the socks.

This sump model was the older model before they brought out their new styles of sump.

Nice build so far

Thanks!

 

[LE0]

I have old eye candy from the shop. A huge aussie bowerbanki (12"x8") and guess who got dibs on a frag of it. It was unavoidable since i do all the fraging lol.

 

[LE0]

This tank will be another SPS dominant tank so I went with the ATI Sunpower Fixture. It's 60'' 8bulb @80watts each bulb, I will supplement the T5's with Reef Brite's Led blues. I'm still on the fence on whether I want the XHO or Tech Blues. Any suggestions?