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Weazl's 50g mixed, uhh, something


madweazl

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28 Dec 2018

 

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Equipment list:

 

Marineland 75g (03 Mar 2015) Source: Quantum Reef

Marineland stand/canopy (21 Feb 2015) Source: Craigslist (used)
ModularMarine 1200gph low profile overflow (03 Mar 2015) Source: Ebay
Kessil (2) A360WE Tuna Blue (9 Oct 2016) Source: Various (used)

Kessil H160 and H80 (23 Jun 2018) Source: BRS

AquaticLife 48" 2xBlue+, 1xABS, 1xP+ (23 Jun 2018) Source: BRS
Eshopps R-200 2nd Gen (21 Jan 2014) Source: Amazon
Deltec SC1350N skimmer (26 Oct 2016) Source: R2R member (used)
BRS carbon reactor (9 Jun 2016) Source: BRS
BRS dosing pumps (14 Jul 2017) Source: BRS
Waveline DC6000 return pump (Mar 2015) Source: DCReefer 
Vortech MP40WES w/QD wets x2 (26 Jun 2017) Source: R2R member (used)
Visi-therm 150w x2 (7 Dec 2016) Source: PetSmart
Reef Angel + w/relay expansion (2 Jun 2016) Source: linkfalcon (used)

Fish:

Coral beauty angel (25 Jun 2016) Source: Incredible Corals
Yellow tang (26 Sep 2016) Source: BRK
Randall's goby (17 Dec 2017)
Kaudern's cardinal (15 Sep 2016)
Tail spot blenny (19 Jun 2017) Source: BRK

Foxface Lo (14 Feb 2019) Source: BRK

Sixline wrasse (14 Feb 2019) Source: BRK

 

Inverts:

Tiger pistol shrimp (8 May 2019) Source: BRK
Tiger sand conch (19 Jun 2017)

Reefcleaners CUC for 75g (continually updated)

Corals:

Meteor shower (26 Sep 2016) Source: BRK
Monti cap (26 Sep 2016) Source: BRK
Copp's rainbow undata (28 Jun 2017) Source: Epleeds
Purple scroll (Jan 2017) Source: Tiki Corals
Jason Fox Jack-O-Lantern (6 Oct 2016) Souce: Epleeds


Acroporas:
- Cali tort (28 Jun 2017) Source: Epleeds

- Strawberry shortcake (17 Jun 2017) Source: BRK
- ReefRaft Wolverine (25 Jun 2017) Source: CustomRide0105
- Wild 1 Pink with green growth (15 Oct 2016) Source: CustomRide0105
- Wild 3 Purple (25 Jun 2017) Source: CustomRide0105
- Wild 4 Tan w/purple tips and pink? Polyps (25 Jun 2017) Source: CustomRide0105
- Wild 5 Tan w/bright green polyps (25 Jun 2017) Source: CustomRide0105

- Wild 6 Blue bansai with green polyps (25 Jun 2017) Source: CustomRide0105
- Wild 7 Aqua (25 Jun 2017) Source: CustomRide0105
- Wild 8 Bright green (25 Jun 2017) Source: CustomRide0105

- Wild 9 Green smooth skin (28 Jun 2017) Source: Epleeds
- Wild 10 Tan w/green polyps and blue growth (28 Jun 2017) Source: Epleeds

Wild 11 blues with yellow tips (2 Jan 2018) Source: Darkseeker

Vivid's rainbow delight (2 Jan 2018) Source: Darkseeker

SC Orange Passion (1 Jun 2018) Source: Darkseeker

Tyree's Pink Lemonaide (1 Jun 2018) Source: Darkseeker

ORA Hawkin's echinata (30 Sep 2018) Source: Tiki Corals

WWC Suicide Squad (1 Jun 2018) Source: Darkseeker

Walt Disney (14 Aug 2019) Source: epleeds

 

Green mushroom (2 Jun 2016) Source: Pets Plus
Green pipe organ (23 Sep 2016) Source: Joshifer

 

Revenue generated by selling corals/frags:

 

$140 as of 29 Dec 2017

 

Rock/substrate:

5-6lbs Fiji live rock (2 Jun 2016) Source: Pets Plus
55lbs BRS reef saver dry rock (19 Feb 2015) Source: BRS
100lbs Black Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Reef Sand (19 Feb 2015) Source: DrF&S

 

Useful Notes:

 

1ml muriatic acid reduces dKH of 5g Reef Crystals by 1.9 dKH (3ml mixes at 8.0 with 5g fresh Reef Crystals or 7.1 with Instant Ocean). 

 

PAR measurements (Apogee MQ500 with full spectrum sensor)

 

Notes:
1) Location 3 is centered under one light right to left but not front to back (even with top of rocks on the back side of these two corals).
2) Locations 6 is very close to the center of the tank left to right (a couple inches closer to the front glass front to back).
3) The Kessils are centered over the tank front to back and 18.5" apart (9.25" left and right of center).
4) The fixture is mounted 6" above the water line.
5) There is a bit of light spillage on all viewing sides of the aquarium so the lights could be mounted closer to the water to increase PAR values without losing coverage.
6) PAR values were measured on our local clubs Apogee MQ-500 with full spectrum sensor using an immersion correction factor of 1.32.
7) Standard 75g Marineland aquarium 48"x18"x21" (LxWxH).
8) Two Kessil A360WE (60% color) with four 54w T5s in a 48" Aquatic Life Hybrid fixture (2 Blue+, 1 AquaBlue Special, and 1 Purple+)
9) 16" side rails mounted on the Aquatic Life to narrow the unit 2" from how it ships.
10) MP40s set to feed mode while measurements were taken.
11) Return from sump remained on but has fairly low flow and doesn't agitate water surface much.
12) Hybrid column represents the Aquatic Life fixture with only the T5 on.
13) LET column represents past results of the LET T5 retrofit kit for comparison.
14) The LET retrofit had two 54w T5s (1 Blue+ and 1 Coral+ at the time).

 

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Original post begins here:

 

First, a boring little back story. We recently moved back to the states from Okinawa Japan after retiring from the Marine Corps last year. While there, we had a 36x16x20 rimless glass tank that was going to be a mixed reef. It hadnt even been up a year before I decided to drop retirement papers and sold or gave away all the livestock.

 

We made it out to VA not quite three weeks ago right on que, I got the itch. The ultimate plan is to have a 72x20x20 built but in the meantime, I'm setting up the 50g.

 

Current equipment:

 

Aquarium: Rimless glass (roughly 46g) w/cheap black stand

 

Overflow: Drilling and installing a 6x4x5 four side overflow provided the tank isnt tempered (have Eshopps hang-on overflow from previous install if not)

 

Lighting: Reef Breeders Photon24

 

Refugium: Eshopps R200

 

Return: Rio 2100+

 

Circulation: Jabeo WP25

 

Rock: 50lbs BRS dry reef rock

 

Sand: Nature's Ocean Black Beach live sand

 

Going forward:

 

- Reef Angel controller

- DC return pumps (dual for redundancy and prep for the 120g)

- Vortech Quite Drives (provided they're actually quiet, if not I'll stick to the Jabeos)

- Aforementioned 72x20x20 aquarium and stand

- Possibly moving to a trio of Kessil 360xx

 

This will be dominated by fish with a few corals. I'm a huge fan of butterflies even though I've never had one in the roughly 20 years I've been in the hobby; this is going to change.

 

Wish list attached.

Wish List.xlsx

Edited by madweazl
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Poor man Legos! Going to start working out the aquascaping while I wait for things to arrive using 1/2" CPVC (1/2" outside diameter). I've decided to go with a standard 75g instead of using the current 50g.

 

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Edited by madweazl
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Playing around with some virtual aquascapes. Think I'm pretty happy with this one; maintains a lot of negative space with just enough design ques to keep it interesting. Tough to tell with the PVC but the split running between the rockwork will be concave (pushed out 2" at the top of the left structure with the PVC). I pulled this over to the front of the right structure for about a thrid of the tank as well (really hoping a goby sets up shop in both locations). The highest step is an attempt to help brake up the location of the overflow box. It was actually a lot of fun messing around with the PVC. There is a minimum of 3" between the virtual rockwork and glass all the way around.

 

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Edited by madweazl
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Your really trying to keep busy! I think I can see where your going with it. Looks pretty good. So no more 50 and its now a 75?

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I really like the way you have laid it out with the PVC in 3D!  very cool idea. I was going to outline my tank with blue tape, then outline the max area for the rock with 5"+/- between rock and the glass, then build the actual structures on the floor (cardboard) sot I can then transfer them to the tank. Love the PVC idea! :clap:

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Pretty sure I'll go with the 75g. I loved our original 50g (36x18x18) but the replacement sucks at 36x16x20. You wouldnt think 2" would make such a big difference but I hated it. Once I started thinking about it the 75g tanks were cheap enough to just make the switch and opened up a lot of possibilities for the rockwork. I've made an inquiry into a rimless 75g (nothing fancy, just rimless) too.

 

I'm not so good at visualizing my ideas without laying them down physically. Hopefully the rock shows up this week and I can really check it out.

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Did a little more thinking and decided to move the upper most portion on the right island about two inches to the left. Something I completely forgot about was the sand and there just wont be enough showing like this. If I remove a four inch area of rock in the lower right of the tank, that should help out along with under cutting the over hang at the front right structure another two inches or so. May provide some cool contrast with the shaded sand down there providing a little more depth of field. I'd like to get the visible sand to occupy about 1/3 of the tank. 

 

Checked the tracking info and the rock should be here tomorrow. This shipment is only 50lbs but I'm hoping to get the "framework" constructed and epoxied; we'll see how far I can stretch it. 

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Hmm, time to edit doesnt last very long (guess my post count will go up). Anyways, did a little reworking and this would make 64% of the sand visible and should give a nice balance (was shooting for 2/3) while hopefully making the tank look bigger than it actually is with the additional diagonal line. 

 

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Edited by madweazl
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One thing to think about is how close the rock work will be to the glass. The closer it is, the less grow out space for the corals before you are banging into corals trying to clean the glass. Or worse would be you can't clean the glass because a coral is in the way. Look for the grow out.

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Absolutely. Plan is to have items like zoas, shrooms, and various polyps at the side/perimeter of the rock. Reason was two-fold, the space as you mentioned along with the lower light at the ends of the aquarium.

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Absolutely. Plan is to have items like zoas, shrooms, and various polyps at the side/perimeter of the rock. Reason was two-fold, the space as you mentioned along with the lower light at the ends of the aquarium.

 

Good planning. :clap:

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One thing to think about is how close the rock work will be to the glass. The closer it is, the less grow out space for the corals before you are banging into corals trying to clean the glass. Or worse would be you can't clean the glass because a coral is in the way. Look for the grow out.

+ 1 let that reef breath Bro !!!!

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Sand and rock arrived today but not without drama. One of the boxes was wet, had a big hole in it, and was missing a bag :( One of the bags split at the seam and puked it's guts out. Most of the sand stayed in the bag but all of the liquid seeped out and the box failed. Not sure why one of the bags was lost all together, you'd think UPS would have stuffed it back in there but I guess that would require way to much effort. The third box shipped in the box it came from the manufacturer and was repacked into another bigger box which arrived safe and sound. Dr Foster & Smith took care of it no questions asked and are shipping out two more bags (offered to return the one bag and told them I didnt particulary care that the sand was no longer "live" but they were happy to ship two new bags without the return of the damaged back). I'll certainly continue to use them in the future if I cant find what I'm looking for locally. 

 

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Very happy with the rock. Great looking rock with lots of open space and pretty porous. You get a lot of rock for the weight and the pieces they sent were quite nice. 2-3lbs of rubble at the bottom of the box which wasnt bad given the condition the sand arrived in. Probably need another 20-30lbs to finish up what I had planned out. I wouldnt hesitate to recommend this rock to others, great looking stuff. 

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Drove up to Maryland and picked up a 75g glass tank, stand, and canopy (along with a bunch of misc crap I didnt want that was in the tank like some Penguins, heater, decorations, etc). Tank would need new trim if I kept it but the stand and canopy were well worth what I paid. They're a light oak and everything we have is a dark cherry so I have some work to do. Wife doesnt want me to refinish it but I'm not a light finish kind of guy. The stand is a bit odd because the trim is recessed for the aquariums lower trim to slide into. Cool in theory but I have a feeling it is probably designed around one brand/type of trim. I'll get the exact measurements in the morning but I'll probably end up removing and replacing it with something that will work with any common 75g. It is also open on top so it wouldnt support an acrylic tank so I'm planning on installing a piece of plywood to accommodate that (love acrylic tanks but glass is so easy with sand). 

 

If nothing else, the tank will be good practice for drilling glass :lol:

 

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Edited by madweazl
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Very pleased with how well the stand and canopy cleaned up. 

 

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Sump fits well and will give me just enough room for maintenance without being a total pain the butt. It fits through the front doors with the stand about 4" off the wall (will be at least that far with the external overflow I'm planning on).

 

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The tank on the other hand was much worse than I had initially thought. Bottom must of broke at some point and whoever tried to replace it was a total hack. Unfortunate but it's good motivation to have a custom tank made. Hopefully I can get the ball rolling on that this week. 

 

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The stand is actually really clean with the sump setup after you went through. I am not crazy about that kind of stand with the sump, but I really like how that looks, I don't know. i agree, darker=better. But... happy wife... happy life.

 

Also... REALLY enjoying the lower rock 2nd solution... I think that is ideal. If you do more rock, put it in the sump or something, skip a fuge, and make it happen. JM2C

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Uh oh, opened the second box from Dr F&S and it had two bags of sand in it. I figured the big box had two bags and the small was just a single bag. Gotta call them up tomorrow and have them charge me for another bag of sand. 

 

As for the finish, she brought up a valid point (darn her!). We really dont have anywhere to sand it down to refinish since we're in an apartment and the weather sucks. Cant wait to buy a house!

Edited by madweazl
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