Kooma
New Member
Hey, thanks for checking out my thread.
I started in the reef keeping hobby sometime in 2012 and quickly scaled from a Biocube 16 to a 36x24x18 rimless from Miracles. I loved that tank and enjoyed good LPS and SPS growth, I think in part to the Radion I had on the tank. When we moved and started renovating our old place, I had zero time to support a tank and after two years empty sold that rimless and stand off. For the years that followed, I kept two clowns and some rock in a 10 gal with a HOB, then found a used 32 biocube I have had running for about 6 years now. Fast forward to now, I recently picked up a RBTA, come coral frags, crabs, and my son is old enough to want to help. Its time to setup something less wobbly and more permanent.
The big ticket item, is that I showed the idea to my wife and her first response was about improving on the idea, so I think I'm going for it!
Here's my initial idea and I would love your input to help me build this right. Tank and stand inspiration came from a YouTube video by Dimitry Tumanov:
I have a corner in our basement landing that is about 4ft wide, 24" deep, and concrete/vinyl floor, the perfect spot. My idea is a corner tank, about 38" long, 20-22" deep, and 16-20" tall. This would give me 60-70 gallons of main system, and I would try for 30-40 gallons of sump below. I want to include the ledge around the tank as well, I love that look and will sacrifice tank size to ensure I have it. I want to have a dedicated side panel for electrical that is sealed from the sump area, and well managed cables, lines, and equipment. I so far am planning this in my head and need to start building a design, but I would like to stick with a XR30, 1 or 2 MP10s, and possibly a Vectra. In my last tank I had to throttle the return with a valve, which did give me head pressure to run reactors, but I think I will go about it differently this round. Big things for me are smooth light cycles, realistic water movement and a clean aesthetic. I expect my scape will be a two island approach, and I am hoping to experiment with back glass treatments that may give the perception of more depth than it actually has. The area i have picked is a left corner (24": front to back, 48" left to right, and I am thinking of a internal overflow on the left side with two dry boxes built in for the MP10 power side. All flow and water movement would come from the left, and the power and water lines would run through the bottom glass of the overflow into the stand and to the sump.
I would like to keep this simple, easy to run, and focus for maintenance to be mainly water changes and glass cleaning. I expect to run a phos reactor of some kind, carbon dosing might be required also, which is new to me. I want to run a fuge in the sump for macro unless I hear I shouldn't. I am planning to build the stand myself, woodworking has been another hobby of mine for many years.
I will be in contact with Miracles again for this tank, they are a bit over an hour from me and were great the last time. I expect this will be a long thread as I set aside some funds and build it out. Between being a dad and work time is short, but this hobby has always brought me so much joy.
Looking forward to your thoughts, and glad to be back building something again.
Kooma
I started in the reef keeping hobby sometime in 2012 and quickly scaled from a Biocube 16 to a 36x24x18 rimless from Miracles. I loved that tank and enjoyed good LPS and SPS growth, I think in part to the Radion I had on the tank. When we moved and started renovating our old place, I had zero time to support a tank and after two years empty sold that rimless and stand off. For the years that followed, I kept two clowns and some rock in a 10 gal with a HOB, then found a used 32 biocube I have had running for about 6 years now. Fast forward to now, I recently picked up a RBTA, come coral frags, crabs, and my son is old enough to want to help. Its time to setup something less wobbly and more permanent.
The big ticket item, is that I showed the idea to my wife and her first response was about improving on the idea, so I think I'm going for it!
Here's my initial idea and I would love your input to help me build this right. Tank and stand inspiration came from a YouTube video by Dimitry Tumanov:
I have a corner in our basement landing that is about 4ft wide, 24" deep, and concrete/vinyl floor, the perfect spot. My idea is a corner tank, about 38" long, 20-22" deep, and 16-20" tall. This would give me 60-70 gallons of main system, and I would try for 30-40 gallons of sump below. I want to include the ledge around the tank as well, I love that look and will sacrifice tank size to ensure I have it. I want to have a dedicated side panel for electrical that is sealed from the sump area, and well managed cables, lines, and equipment. I so far am planning this in my head and need to start building a design, but I would like to stick with a XR30, 1 or 2 MP10s, and possibly a Vectra. In my last tank I had to throttle the return with a valve, which did give me head pressure to run reactors, but I think I will go about it differently this round. Big things for me are smooth light cycles, realistic water movement and a clean aesthetic. I expect my scape will be a two island approach, and I am hoping to experiment with back glass treatments that may give the perception of more depth than it actually has. The area i have picked is a left corner (24": front to back, 48" left to right, and I am thinking of a internal overflow on the left side with two dry boxes built in for the MP10 power side. All flow and water movement would come from the left, and the power and water lines would run through the bottom glass of the overflow into the stand and to the sump.
I would like to keep this simple, easy to run, and focus for maintenance to be mainly water changes and glass cleaning. I expect to run a phos reactor of some kind, carbon dosing might be required also, which is new to me. I want to run a fuge in the sump for macro unless I hear I shouldn't. I am planning to build the stand myself, woodworking has been another hobby of mine for many years.
I will be in contact with Miracles again for this tank, they are a bit over an hour from me and were great the last time. I expect this will be a long thread as I set aside some funds and build it out. Between being a dad and work time is short, but this hobby has always brought me so much joy.
Looking forward to your thoughts, and glad to be back building something again.
Kooma
