135g reef tank build

[Kellyh14]

hello everyone! just bought a 135g reef ready 72x18x24 a couple days ago and would love some help and opinions. I plan on keeping a mixed reef, sps dominant, and I cant wait for this tank to be up and running and to tear down and sell my 36g reef



center overflow with
1.5 inch overflow
2x 1 inch returns
55g sump (no plans for a refugium) opnions? should i modify



equiptment choices ( help please)

3x ecotech radions gen 3s
130 pounds dry rock from reefcleaners ( should i get more?)
seeded with dr tims one and only
100 pounds dry caribsea reef sand
2x mp40s (enough flow?)
should i get a tunze wavebox?
2x 200 micron filter socks
SRO 3000 skimmer
BRS dual media reactor
tunze auto top off

and im having a hard time with return pump selection, ive read much about needing the return pump that matches the skimmer so would a tunze silence 1073.04 (792gph) be perfect with the SRO3000? or am I way off and need way more flow?

any suggestions appreciated!

[Kellyh14]

here is my issue for my radions -_- my canopy is so shallow that if I mount my radions inside they're only 5 inches above the water line. So the only idea I can think of is to do what Mr Saltwater tank did.




any other ideas? thank you

[james30ct]

I think the equipment sounds good. I also think that will be enough rock and I would mount the lights on top of the canopy. Tank looks nice. congrats on the new build.

[Shawn O]

Sounds good, everything looks good. Beautiful tank. Everything in that first pics looks good.

[monster2183]

Great equipment choices your definatly on the right track. As far as rock 130 pds should generally be about right. It depends alot on the kind of rock you can have two rocks the same weight and one kind might be alot bigger than the other it just depends. My biggest advice is to not cheap out on rock make sure you get the rock you love. Im actually pulling over 80% of my rock out of my display and all my sand in the next week because i cant stand looking at it anymore. I went cheap and regretted it as soon as it was in there and i was trying to scape with it so now i have twice as much money invested in it for trying to save a few bucks

[Kellyh14]

Originally Posted by monster2183

Great equipment choices your definatly on the right track. As far as rock 130 pds should generally be about right. It depends alot on the kind of rock you can have two rocks the same weight and one kind might be alot bigger than the other it just depends. My biggest advice is to not cheap out on rock make sure you get the rock you love. Im actually pulling over 80% of my rock out of my display and all my sand in the next week because i cant stand looking at it anymore. I went cheap and regretted it as soon as it was in there and i was trying to scape with it so now i have twice as much money invested in it for trying to save a few bucks

See I made that mistake with my first tank I bought all live rock at 8$ a pound and I hate it.... All the hitchhikers, I want to start my new tank with a clean slate pest free. I really like the reefcleaners rock it's supposed to be really clean and the BRS reef saver rocks. BRS pukani is amazing but I've read so much about how dirty it is and it will leach phosphates so that worries me.... Decisions decisions...

I'm also really undecided about my return pump I love the company tunze and all their products but I'm not sure if I'm way off flow wise. I see people posted they use a mag 12 or 18 and that just seems like so much flow.... My tunze pump on my tank now is so quiet and I have it dialed all the way down and a ball valve halfway closed... Lol my sump was way too noisey before when I had the ball valve wide open, with crashing water. I don't want the new tank when I plumb it to sound like a toilet. But I do want quite a bit of SPS

[Kellyh14]

Ohh and thanks for the replys everyone!

[ClownsRCoo]

For your return pump you dont need to try to match it to your skimmer pump ratings. I have a similar spec'd return pump on my 90 and used 3/4" loc line when i should have went down to 1/2". The flow is pretty weak but you are not really wanting a ton of flow coming from your return pump. That is fine for now and if you dont like it in the future then upgrade. Mine is pretty much used for surface aggitaion to promote gas exchange. Its not adding any flow to the tank really at all.

[Kellyh14]

Originally Posted by ClownsRCoo

For your return pump you dont need to try to match it to your skimmer pump ratings. I have a similar spec'd return pump on my 90 and used 3/4" loc line when i should have went down to 1/2". The flow is pretty weak but you are not really wanting a ton of flow coming from your return pump. That is fine for now and if you dont like it in the future then upgrade. Mine is pretty much used for surface aggitaion to promote gas exchange. Its not adding any flow to the tank really at all.

Your right I love tunze so I'll try it out, I can always swap out pumps and then just use the tunze for something else. I'm hoping 2 mp40s will be enough I might have to add an mp10. I don't understand how oceans motions wave makers work lol I'll have to research more, that's why I was looking at a tunze wavebox and see if that helps for more flow. This hobby is expensive haha. My 2 return lines are 1" is that going to decrease flow as well? should I add an adapter to 3/4"? Thanks for your input

[aqua1dude]

My Radion is only 5 inches above the water in my canopy. Ecotech recommended at least 8 inches with the wide angle lens for my 65g. The light distribution seems fine to me. I know some people that run Radions in their Red Sea Max 250 canopies which are closer to the water than 5 inches. I thought about cutting my canopy like mr saltwater did but I'll just keep my light as it is for now.

[Kellyh14]

Originally Posted by aqua1dude

My Radion is only 5 inches above the water in my canopy. Ecotech recommended at least 8 inches with the wide angle lens for my 65g. The light distribution seems fine to me. I know some people that run Radions in their Red Sea Max 250 canopies which are closer to the water than 5 inches. I thought about cutting my canopy like mr saltwater did but I'll just keep my light as it is for now.

Thanks for the response, I don't want to ruin the resale value of my canopy, wasn't sure if that was too shallow

Anyone recommend a return pump for this sized system?

Is it better to run 2 separate BRS reactors for carbon and gfo or does the pump for the dual one have enough power to do both?

[Kellyh14]

update, I finally ordered all the equiptment and I am waiting for my rock to come in the mail. Just finished the plumbing (first time plumbing anything ever!) lol and now have 3 green chromis in qt for my first additions. Still deciding if I want to raise my skimmer with a stand or just run my sump water level really low at 7". the baffle is 11" but if i raise my skimmer too high I'll never get the collection cup off XD

[echopiece]

Nice plumbing job I had the same issue with my skimmer after I designed my sump. I ended up putting my skimmer on a stand and it does make access to the collection cup a little tight. If you go this route, just make sure you have enough volume in your sump for drain back.

[Kellyh14]

Originally Posted by echopiece

Nice plumbing job I had the same issue with my skimmer after I designed my sump. I ended up putting my skimmer on a stand and it does make access to the collection cup a little tight. If you go this route, just make sure you have enough volume in your sump for drain back.

Thanks for reply! I'm thinking about just running my water level at 7", I'm hoping it's not too noisy,(with a waterfall after the 11" baffle) and sense I don't have a baffle to keeps water level constant I'm hoping my ATO will keep the level constant so the skimmer doesn't go crazy :/. It seems like if it's not one thing it's another! As soon as you fix one problem, another just pops up in it's place! Example being when I glued the plumbing the first time, and then realized I could not screw my union on with an elbow in the way. Oops! Lol

[Reefer PT]

you will love the reef cleaner rock. I ordered about 1.5 lbs per gallon and found it was too much because how porous this stuff is. Open aquascape is more important then achieving an arbitrary pound/gallon ratio. Only problem with dry rock is it will take forever to get purple.

[echopiece]

Originally Posted by Kellyh14

Thanks for reply! I'm thinking about just running my water level at 7", I'm hoping it's not too noisy,(with a waterfall after the 11" baffle) and sense I don't have a baffle to keeps water level constant I'm hoping my ATO will keep the level constant so the skimmer doesn't go crazy :/. It seems like if it's not one thing it's another! As soon as you fix one problem, another just pops up in it's place! Example being when I glued the plumbing the first time, and then realized I could not screw my union on with an elbow in the way. Oops! Lol

What kind of ATO are you going to use? If you are worried about the noise issue you can always make a plexiglass "ramp" cut to length and put it on an angle. That's what I did and it's silent. Also, things might quiet down some after the tank cycles and the slime coat is formed. Here's what I did:

[Kellyh14]

Originally Posted by echopiece

What kind of ATO are you going to use? If you are worried about the noise issue you can always make a plexiglass "ramp" cut to length and put it on an angle. That's what I did and it's silent. Also, things might quiet down some after the tank cycles and the slime coat is formed. Here's what I did:

great idea! I prefer lower flow sumps so ill see how everything goes, maybe I wont need it. I'll be using tunze osmolator 3155 for ATO. Im setting up everything this weekend!

[Kellyh14]

Originally Posted by Reefer PT

you will love the reef cleaner rock. I ordered about 1.5 lbs per gallon and found it was too much because how porous this stuff is. Open aquascape is more important then achieving an arbitrary pound/gallon ratio. Only problem with dry rock is it will take forever to get purple.

The rock will be arriving sometime today! I'll post pictures :] Going to acuascape this weekend and hopefully start filling the tank. I have a spectrapure maxcap 90 rodi so it might take awhile. Ill be moving over my corals from my nano to seed coraline, I'm just worried about this damn caulpera getting in my new system My nano used to be a seahorse setup and out of nowhere any macro algae that used to be in there years ago has decided to flourish nowdays and i have to rip it out constantly. Part of the reason I'm excited to break that tank down and decided not use any of the live rock. I can never rip out the deep roots of the grape & razor caulpera out of my old rock.

[Kellyh14]

Well I started filling the tank, rinsed the sand and rock with the garden hose then dunked the rocks in a bucket of rodi water and started aquascaping. I think this is my final result


Was going for the 2 island look with a zoa garden in the middle, I ordered 150 pounds but I ended up not using it all and still have 6 huge rocks left over, very happy with the reef cleaners rock

[PRSPLYR]

I like the look but maybe change the right one a bit? They both look kind of symmetrical, but could just be my preference - I really like the cave on the left, and the island between the two peaks.
Lou

[Kellyh14]

Thanks I agree with you, I redid it over and over and finally this one I was satisfied, I might mess with it more. I was going for more negative space for open swimming area but it's hard with the narrowness of the 135g dimensions. I need a bigger tank haha. I have the rock against the overflow box but then it curves out so it's not touching the back glass

[TangingOut]

I think the cave and inland on the left is perfect, but personally I would remove the whole right side to drill and use rods/epoxy to create a couple pillars. One medium and one large to put on the right side in either order.

[Kellyh14]

finally have everything up and running! Tank is 2 weeks old, 2 chromis, red firefish and against all advise my rbta from my nano. The skimmer is still breaking in though, started running it on friday due to the dr tims bacteria. Tested yesterday and nitrates are at 1.0 ppm, never saw ammonia or nitrites on my salifert test kits. now trying to have patience to slowly add fish, really want to add my watchman goby from my nano so i can break it down already. Also have a starry and midas blenny in qt that are doing great

[Ariel110G]

nice setup!!!