Alright lets get down to business… checking the information on my photos it looks like my journey began on June 1 of 2017, its now January 15th and as of last night the tank finally got its first fish. I thought I was time for me to get around to creating my build thread. I documented the process all along the way so hopefully this helps anyone who has the same problems I ran into or has any questions about my equipment. Here is the tank as it stands today and I’m writing this:
This tank was to be a gift for my then girlfriend (now fiancé, more on that later) but grew into an obsession for myself. In high school she had the opportunity to do an independent study on a reef ecosystem which boiled down to maintaining and growing a 160 gallon tank. While this would have been a fun undertaking I did not have the funds or space to house such a behemoth. After picking the perfect spot and doing some research I chose the marineland 93 gallon cube aquarium. Little did I know what I was getting into…
Here is the onboxing of the equipment and I quickly realized I was in over my head. I broke the news to her and we began the process piecing together our joint hobby. Here is a breakdown of our equipment:
Now not only did my partner in crime have her independent study in high school she went on to become a veterinarian and picked up a degree in marine biology along the way… all this considered means… we had to have a proper quarantine system.
I had just as much fun setting these guys up as I did our main display the breakdown is as follows:
Another fun project I undertook in my waiting to get the aquarium up and running is playing with light diffuser… need a frag rack? Light diffusor. Protein Skimmer not sitting up high enough? Light diffusor. Elevating the PMUP to not run a concentrated Kalkwasser solution? Light diffusor. Here are my DIY racks.
Alright and for the initial inhabitant, ladies and gents meet Alpha, the firefish. For QT we’re running two treatments of PraziPro and 4 weeks at the proper copper concentration. While we waiting for Alpha to due his time in QT (and our stand build to be modified) I took a trip down south. Visited World Wide Corals and hung out with Casper for a couple hours. This place is amazing and I can not wait to purchase some of their amazing product.
Once I returned home, Cincinnati area, it was time to buckle down and get the tank went… but first we had to assemble some lighting and work on the aquascape. (this was one of many iterations and not the final product.) Also Alpha graduated QT and while awaiting future inhabitants moved into the coral QT which had some more enjoyable cover for him and more accurate lighting for what would eventually be the display.
Progress was made! And the sump made its way into the stand. I worked on laying out the footprint under the tank, and tried to figure out my return manifold. This set up was a big advantageous and would eventually be trimmed down. As you can see here I have dry fitted with some regular PVC before finishing up with the always popular Schedule 80 fitting with blue PVC.
We ran into our first product quality issue, unfortunately it was my Neptune ATK. I want to give a shout out here though to the amazing customer service they offer. After just two emails I as sent out a replacement optical censor and we’re back on our way with the build.
Sump filled, lights wired, we’re about to get wet people. A couple shots of the check and double check of being level and having our lights up and running.
Tragedy struck… to this point I had not made any errors that were irreversible. While assembling the last piece of plumbing, literally the last pvc cementing to be done I accidently use the wrong slip fitting for a valve and had to cut it out and reorder… $17 in replacement parts and shipping later we’re wet!
Time to work on my birdsnest of wires and make this look a little more presentable since its in my living room. Some progress shots on the wiring. I was quite please with myself. It was about this time, second week of December I took part of the Reddit Secret Santa gift exchange. My secret santa wanted to provide me with something to benefit my hobby, it was an auto feeder. Not going to be used but it was an awesome gesture.
As I said, at the start the girlfriend transition to fiancé, on New Years eve I proposed and she said yes.. we’re starting the process of planning our wedding and man… I thought aquariums were expensive.
If you saw in the product photo initially we’re using the Red Sea Reef mature program, so on Day 13 (January 13) we added our clean up crew. It was such an amazing feeling to see life in the tank we had spent 7 months imagining and building. So far we have a couple emerald crabs and trochus snails.
My first frag show! Cincy Reef hosted their 14th annual frag swap and I picked up my first pieces. I felt comfortable the Coral QT had been up and running long enough and seeded with enough biospira for months and having Alpha in there for awhile got everything ready for these guys. It was a bit overwhelming and fun to experience. I picked up a torch coral, couple of zoanthids, favia, a piece of GSP, and I have to admit a piece of LPS I’m not sure of what it is. I had written down everything I acquired but misplaced my cheat sheet. One of the zoanthis is armor of god but I can not recall the other, the mystery LPS had a name resembling “sub zero” and I thought mortal combat but I do not believe that was the actual name.
That got us from June 1st through January 13th this is where we stand today. On Day 14 of the Red Sea program we introduced Gamma (starry blenny) and Delta (tailspot blenny) into the system. I also used the ARC coraline algae in a bottle since I used all dry rock. As of Friday we had our first color of coraline, green. This is how the tank stands today. I’ve found a great hobby, and awesome community with R2R and look forward to updating as we go.
This tank was to be a gift for my then girlfriend (now fiancé, more on that later) but grew into an obsession for myself. In high school she had the opportunity to do an independent study on a reef ecosystem which boiled down to maintaining and growing a 160 gallon tank. While this would have been a fun undertaking I did not have the funds or space to house such a behemoth. After picking the perfect spot and doing some research I chose the marineland 93 gallon cube aquarium. Little did I know what I was getting into…
Here is the onboxing of the equipment and I quickly realized I was in over my head. I broke the news to her and we began the process piecing together our joint hobby. Here is a breakdown of our equipment:
- Display tank: Marine Land 93 Gallon cube w/ overflow 30x30x24
- Glass or Acrylic: Glass
- Stand: Customized ventura stand
- Sump: Trigger Sapphire Cube 20
- Protein skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 152-S 6" Internal Protein Skimmer
- Carbon/phosphate filtration: BRS Reactor
- Return pump: Sicce 4.0
- Water circulation: Vortech MP40 x2
- Lighting (display): Kessil A360W-E x2
- Lighting (refugium): Kessil A80
- Auto top-off: Neptune ATK
- Heating: Eheim Jager 150w and FInnex Titanium 500W
- System control: Apex Jr, Inkbird Heater controller, WXM, VDM, FMM
Now not only did my partner in crime have her independent study in high school she went on to become a veterinarian and picked up a degree in marine biology along the way… all this considered means… we had to have a proper quarantine system.
I had just as much fun setting these guys up as I did our main display the breakdown is as follows:
- Quarantine tanks: Aqueon 20G tall (fish) Aqueon 20G long (coral)
- Glass or Acrylic: Glass
- Stand: ikea coffee table and end table (lack)
- FIltration: Aquaclear 30 (fish) Quietflow 30 (Coral – modified)
- Carbon/phosphate filtration: BRS Reactor Mini Reactor (Coral only)
- Water circulation: Tunze Nanostream 6015
- Lighting: Stock LED in aqueon hood (fish) Kessil A80 Tuna blue (Coral)
- Auto top-off: DIY drippers
- Heating: Cobal Neo-Therms 75W
- System control: Rocketfish surge protector and timers (lights)
Another fun project I undertook in my waiting to get the aquarium up and running is playing with light diffuser… need a frag rack? Light diffusor. Protein Skimmer not sitting up high enough? Light diffusor. Elevating the PMUP to not run a concentrated Kalkwasser solution? Light diffusor. Here are my DIY racks.
Alright and for the initial inhabitant, ladies and gents meet Alpha, the firefish. For QT we’re running two treatments of PraziPro and 4 weeks at the proper copper concentration. While we waiting for Alpha to due his time in QT (and our stand build to be modified) I took a trip down south. Visited World Wide Corals and hung out with Casper for a couple hours. This place is amazing and I can not wait to purchase some of their amazing product.
Once I returned home, Cincinnati area, it was time to buckle down and get the tank went… but first we had to assemble some lighting and work on the aquascape. (this was one of many iterations and not the final product.) Also Alpha graduated QT and while awaiting future inhabitants moved into the coral QT which had some more enjoyable cover for him and more accurate lighting for what would eventually be the display.
Progress was made! And the sump made its way into the stand. I worked on laying out the footprint under the tank, and tried to figure out my return manifold. This set up was a big advantageous and would eventually be trimmed down. As you can see here I have dry fitted with some regular PVC before finishing up with the always popular Schedule 80 fitting with blue PVC.
We ran into our first product quality issue, unfortunately it was my Neptune ATK. I want to give a shout out here though to the amazing customer service they offer. After just two emails I as sent out a replacement optical censor and we’re back on our way with the build.
Sump filled, lights wired, we’re about to get wet people. A couple shots of the check and double check of being level and having our lights up and running.
Tragedy struck… to this point I had not made any errors that were irreversible. While assembling the last piece of plumbing, literally the last pvc cementing to be done I accidently use the wrong slip fitting for a valve and had to cut it out and reorder… $17 in replacement parts and shipping later we’re wet!
Time to work on my birdsnest of wires and make this look a little more presentable since its in my living room. Some progress shots on the wiring. I was quite please with myself. It was about this time, second week of December I took part of the Reddit Secret Santa gift exchange. My secret santa wanted to provide me with something to benefit my hobby, it was an auto feeder. Not going to be used but it was an awesome gesture.
As I said, at the start the girlfriend transition to fiancé, on New Years eve I proposed and she said yes.. we’re starting the process of planning our wedding and man… I thought aquariums were expensive.
If you saw in the product photo initially we’re using the Red Sea Reef mature program, so on Day 13 (January 13) we added our clean up crew. It was such an amazing feeling to see life in the tank we had spent 7 months imagining and building. So far we have a couple emerald crabs and trochus snails.
My first frag show! Cincy Reef hosted their 14th annual frag swap and I picked up my first pieces. I felt comfortable the Coral QT had been up and running long enough and seeded with enough biospira for months and having Alpha in there for awhile got everything ready for these guys. It was a bit overwhelming and fun to experience. I picked up a torch coral, couple of zoanthids, favia, a piece of GSP, and I have to admit a piece of LPS I’m not sure of what it is. I had written down everything I acquired but misplaced my cheat sheet. One of the zoanthis is armor of god but I can not recall the other, the mystery LPS had a name resembling “sub zero” and I thought mortal combat but I do not believe that was the actual name.
That got us from June 1st through January 13th this is where we stand today. On Day 14 of the Red Sea program we introduced Gamma (starry blenny) and Delta (tailspot blenny) into the system. I also used the ARC coraline algae in a bottle since I used all dry rock. As of Friday we had our first color of coraline, green. This is how the tank stands today. I’ve found a great hobby, and awesome community with R2R and look forward to updating as we go.
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