My 4th tank build...

[Flexin5]

hi reef central I normally poke around the sps forum but I thought I would post my journey into my 4th and final reef tank. some backround:

1st tank, 10 gallon nano:



2nd tank, 120gal:





current tank 80ish gallon:



so this tank, I went as all out as I could. most of the coral and fish will be transferred from my current tank but here's the journey:

sketched out some blueprints, and made a trip to home depot. it actually fit in the car on the first trip lol



just paying some attention to detail while building this stand. previous ones came out....not so great lol



done, nice a level



one thing i never had on any of my tanks was a proper stand skin. i also didn't want to break the bank on a custom one so after a lot of planning i came up with this.

[Flexin5]

I also picked up a 8 bulb ATI power module and bought all new bulbs. figured I might aswell hang it over the current tank so I can get the sps to grow out as best as I can so I have some nice sized pieces for the new tank.



cut the door skins down to size. each one is removable.



picked up a apex jr, a step up from my reefkeeper.



One thing that always made me blow a gasket was wire management. It sucked on both of my last tanks. I had a bunch of left over cuts from the stand skin so I decided to do something about it. You can see what I'm attempting to do:



picked up two new MP40 quiet drives





Oh I also added some cabinet handles to make removing and replacing the doors easy.



a little bit of sump action. i went with the eshopps RS-200 based on it's quietness reviews, i've never had anything acrylic so this looks and seems like it's very well made, all I need now is more rectangle filter socks. also picked up and wired in both new MP40 quiet drives (unfortunally i have to run the wires for them outisde because they are a tad too short), apex temp sensor and return pump. plenty of room under the sump for the 5 gal top off jug, and there will be lots of room for my doser and dosing containers.

[Flexin5]

I took a drive to miracles where they are building my tank. I gave them all of the dimensions to go off of.



the tank awaiting the top eurobrace, I also asked them to remove the trim off of the tank.





I really liked how they notched out the over flow glass round and added the bottom eurobrace.



while waiting for delivery got the apex setup working wirelessly



and the day I've been waiting forever for! delivery guy shows up



took 4 of us to move it inside and down the stairs but it's finally in the house

[Flexin5]

I threw up the AI hydras, these will be used to cycle the tank and get it going but eventually the ATI power module with reef brites will be ontop.



the stats on the new tank are:

-5ft x 24" wide x 18" high
-top and bottom eurobraced
-external overflow drilled for bean animal
-made by miracles

I really missed the look of the peninsula style tank and both viewing sides, I also missed how the tangs would cruise back and forth. as you can see I'm putting a lot of emphasis on the tank being as quiet as possible as it acts as room divider for my man cave/home theater and i'll be putting a sofa on the one side of it and the tank will sit right above it.

been a little busy since the tank came yesterday preparing for a quick trip to new York but when I get back i'll be attacking the plumbing, adding sand, filling it and doing the rock work. anyways, i'll keep updating but thanks for following so far

[Chicagoreef2016]

Looks very nice, keep us updated!

[BigEZ77]

Very nice. Love your 120 as well!

[Greentree]

This thread needs an update BUMP!

[Flexin5]

LOL it does! ok here's what's been happening.

got all the plumbing done and the tank filled, rock work done too.





everything wired up



and some water



everything transferred over from the old tank



rockwork pretty much finished



sump and everything squared away and everything nice and silent.






things were going great until i woke up one morning to my ATI 8 bulb completely submerged in the tank and water all over the floor. whatever coral i had left had died, however my fish were all healthy. looked like the hanging kit let go, i'm not sure when it fell into the tank, but the apex probably shut it off right away.

i contemplated getting out of the hobby before i realized that custom tank i just designed and bought, so i called up ATI who was super helpful and they sent me all new parts for the light. i fully rebuilt it with all new ballasts, reflectors, wiring, bulb ends, bulbs, fans everything and added two reef brite strips.

[Flexin5]

had to move the tank a bit and got the newly rebuilt ATI light all hung (properly), things getting back on track. picked up about 10 sps frags and some lps, and some other things, however i added two fish, and someone brought fluke into the tank. dosed the tank with prazipro but it didn't seem to make a difference. i lost all of my fish within 4 days, save for 1 6 line wrasse. once i get him out, the tank will go fishless for two months.





happy to say that all the coral is doing well. orange passion doing well, colored up a frag of pink lemonade, other sps like millies doing well too, do have a bit of a hair algae outbreak every since i had to dose the prazipro and turn off the skimmer for two days. i'll snap some pics tonight after work

[Greentree]

Nice! That looks amazing, I'm so jealous! Sorry to hear about the fish :/

I really like the rock work

[Flexin5]

thanks! it only took 4 tries to get it right lol I can never get the rock work 100% to my liking so i might move things around just a tiny bit. here's some pics of my fishless fish tank haha

[Greentree]

Amazing. Within the next year I plan to upgrade to rimless - between 70-90g. This is quite the inspiration!

[JonezNReef]

You have went through some things with this tank but its looking awesome. Love the euphyllia garden looks cool too. I really like the orange torch!

[Flexin5]

Originally Posted by Greentree

Amazing. Within the next year I plan to upgrade to rimless - between 70-90g. This is quite the inspiration!

i love the look of rimless tanks, but my second rimless tank that didn't have a eurobrace was messy. i had a fox face that would squirt water out and over the top of it so i would have to clean up salt creep every day;but a 70-90 is a perfect size! i'm feeling it water change wise from the last tank.

Originally Posted by JonezNReef

You have went through some things with this tank but its looking awesome. Love the euphyllia garden looks cool too. I really like the orange torch!

thanks! i must say this tank has been the hardest but i refuse to give up on it; and that's one thing i always did in my tanks, have a bunch of torches except my last tank where a skunk cleaner shrimp ate ALL of them