I was supposed to relocated to Australia for work so I painfully sold off my tanks & coral. The Australian government was taking WAY too long to have my visa processed so after about 4 months of waiting I decided to pull my application. This meant I got to start a new tank! I found an AMAZING deal on craigslist where a guy bought the tank brand new and never had a chance to even get it wet so here is what I went with...
Tank: Deep Blue 80G Rimless Lagoon
Stand: Deep Blue Series 5
Sump: Eshopps ADV-100
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 150SSS
Return Pump: Jecod (Jebao) DCT-4000
Rock & Sand from MarcoRocks.com
Lights: Still up in the air. Will use a few AI Primes that I have for awhile until I decide which way I want to go. Kessil, Radion, or if my fiance looks at the bank to see what I have spend... SBox
Reactor: Either TLF or Vertex. Not sure which one I will put in.
Circulation: Vortech MP10 that I had + maaaaybe a maxspect Gyre. I have heard horror stories about people cleaning them and not being able to get them back right but figure I may give one a shot. If not another Vortech.
First thing I wanted to do was pain the back of the tank. Nothing worse than having light from a refugium light up the tank at night when all my scaly kids are trying to sleep. So grabbed some frog tape, paint, and a cheap foam roller and went to work.
On to sump shopping. I had a 40g Breeder that came with the tank but I could not get it out of the stand no matter which way I tried so I decided to go with an acrylic sump. This is the first time I have not done a DIY sump but had some extra money set aside for moving so decided to splurge. I was deciding between a Trigger and Eshopps R100. Called my favorite LFS down here and they said they had an R100 so I go to pick it up... only it was not the R100 it was the ADV100. I have not seen the ADV sumps in person but was impressed with it and really like the media rack. No more Chemipure just hanging out in the sump somewhere! So I came home with it. It didnt quite fit through the side door in the stand but if I ever had an emergency and I had to remove the sump I would only have to drimmel out about 1/4" and it would still be covered by the door anyway so works for me.
Skimmer and returns were an easy choice. Being that the skimmer compartment was limited, and I love RO, I went with the 150SSS. Let me say, great construction, beautiful skimmer, and the collection cup was bigger than I expected which means when I am traveling for business I dont have to worry about having the MRS empty it out if I forgot haha. I have always like DC returns and have used Jebao in the past so decided to give them another go. I meant to get the DCT6000 but got the 4000 on accident. Should still work for now. If not I will move it to my salt mixing station and get a 6000 for the tank.
I have never messed with doing "custom rockwork" before. I have always dont walls or other things where the rock didnt need any help staying besides maybe a touch of epoxy. I wanted to give it a go so I ordered 50#s of MarcoRock + 10#s of Prime Cut MarcoRock + 70#s of Sand + E Marco 400 Cement. First off I received a good deal more than 50#s of rock and closer to 80#s of sand. I got almost exactly 10#s of prime cuts with 1 or 2 pieces broken... but nothing that I would bother for an exchange. After some trial and error I got this:
I am going to take a wire brush to clean up some pieces that dripped and super glue some tiny pieces of broken rock over the cemented areas to hide them a bit but over time it will all be covered in coral and coraline so I am pleased with it.
So thats where we are today! Sand and rock will go in today, I am making RO water now and whatever I cant make by tomorrow I will have delivered by a LFS that already mixes Salinity. She will be wet this weekend! More pics to come!
Tank: Deep Blue 80G Rimless Lagoon
Stand: Deep Blue Series 5
Sump: Eshopps ADV-100
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 150SSS
Return Pump: Jecod (Jebao) DCT-4000
Rock & Sand from MarcoRocks.com
Lights: Still up in the air. Will use a few AI Primes that I have for awhile until I decide which way I want to go. Kessil, Radion, or if my fiance looks at the bank to see what I have spend... SBox
Reactor: Either TLF or Vertex. Not sure which one I will put in.
Circulation: Vortech MP10 that I had + maaaaybe a maxspect Gyre. I have heard horror stories about people cleaning them and not being able to get them back right but figure I may give one a shot. If not another Vortech.
First thing I wanted to do was pain the back of the tank. Nothing worse than having light from a refugium light up the tank at night when all my scaly kids are trying to sleep. So grabbed some frog tape, paint, and a cheap foam roller and went to work.
On to sump shopping. I had a 40g Breeder that came with the tank but I could not get it out of the stand no matter which way I tried so I decided to go with an acrylic sump. This is the first time I have not done a DIY sump but had some extra money set aside for moving so decided to splurge. I was deciding between a Trigger and Eshopps R100. Called my favorite LFS down here and they said they had an R100 so I go to pick it up... only it was not the R100 it was the ADV100. I have not seen the ADV sumps in person but was impressed with it and really like the media rack. No more Chemipure just hanging out in the sump somewhere! So I came home with it. It didnt quite fit through the side door in the stand but if I ever had an emergency and I had to remove the sump I would only have to drimmel out about 1/4" and it would still be covered by the door anyway so works for me.
Skimmer and returns were an easy choice. Being that the skimmer compartment was limited, and I love RO, I went with the 150SSS. Let me say, great construction, beautiful skimmer, and the collection cup was bigger than I expected which means when I am traveling for business I dont have to worry about having the MRS empty it out if I forgot haha. I have always like DC returns and have used Jebao in the past so decided to give them another go. I meant to get the DCT6000 but got the 4000 on accident. Should still work for now. If not I will move it to my salt mixing station and get a 6000 for the tank.
I have never messed with doing "custom rockwork" before. I have always dont walls or other things where the rock didnt need any help staying besides maybe a touch of epoxy. I wanted to give it a go so I ordered 50#s of MarcoRock + 10#s of Prime Cut MarcoRock + 70#s of Sand + E Marco 400 Cement. First off I received a good deal more than 50#s of rock and closer to 80#s of sand. I got almost exactly 10#s of prime cuts with 1 or 2 pieces broken... but nothing that I would bother for an exchange. After some trial and error I got this:
I am going to take a wire brush to clean up some pieces that dripped and super glue some tiny pieces of broken rock over the cemented areas to hide them a bit but over time it will all be covered in coral and coraline so I am pleased with it.
So thats where we are today! Sand and rock will go in today, I am making RO water now and whatever I cant make by tomorrow I will have delivered by a LFS that already mixes Salinity. She will be wet this weekend! More pics to come!