Ben & Em's First Tank Build - 36 Bow - Feedback is Appreciated

[Ben&Em]

I need to start by saying that this is our first dive into keeping fish. We've gotten a lot of fantastic advice along the way from local friends as well as some great guidance from the Washington area shops, and online forums. We also realize we still have a long road of learning ahead of us and would definitely appreciate any words of wisdom from the reefers out there.

 

Feeling up to the challenge, we dove straight into a fish only saltwater tank with plans to convert to a reef tank once we built some confidence down the road… which ended up happening pretty quick.

 

The Tank:

• 36 gallon bow front (liked the shape and nothing bigger would fit in the car)
• Black wood stand
• Came with a generic hood, light, and heater
• Charlie the Chihuahua not included

Photo Taken 20MAR10

The Sump:

• 5.5 gallon (yes it's a tiny but a 10 wouldn't fit in the stand)
• Added a 3 baffles system (over/under/over)
• Tunze Nano-Skimmer
• Cheap generic sump pump (replaced later)

Photos Taken ~1APR10

Initial Tank Prep & Loadout:

• Back of tank painted black
• 1" drilled sump drain
• ¾" Sump return (Later changed to a ½" black return line)
• About 25 lbs of live rock with plans to add more as we get farther down the road
• About 1" of crushed coral / live sand bed mix
• VorTech MP10 Powerhead

Photos taken ~18APR10

The Top-off Tank:

• Added a second 5.5 gallon top off tank under the sump
• Using a JBJ Auto Top Off controller with low/high level sensor and backup high level sensor in the sump
• Mini-jet 606 Pump

Photo taken late APR10

A Lighting Upgrade:

• After a few months we couldn't resist the itch to start playing with some corals so we needed a lighting upgrade
• Ditched the canopy and hood that came with the aquarium and installed an ATI Powermodule T5 4x24W (My thanks to Eric Sanchez's lighting tips at the summer WAMAS meeting)

Photon taken ~1SEP10

Aquascaping:

• Added some more live rock and after a bit of effort got it arranged to our liking
• Started with a couple test corals:
  • A xenia that to date is spreading so fast I may need to buy a weed wacker
  • An alveapora that died pretty quick (This reef newbie didn't realize these were hard to keep)

Photo taken ~21SEP10

Finishing the Sump:

• So we went on a bit of a quest to put our tiny 5 gal sump on steroids
• The below content was added slowly between APR and DEC of 2010:
  • 100 micron polypropylene Filter Sock
  • Tunze Nano-Skimmer
  • Refugium Section
    • Coralife Dual 9W Compact Florescent (2x 6700K bulbs)
    • Macro Algae

    [*]Replaced the generic sump pump with a Maxi-Jet MP400 (The cheaper pump was just too loud)[*]100W Rena Heater[*]9W UV Sterilizer "The Green Killing Machine"[*]ATO[*]Temperature and Ammonia monitoring[*]Some Live Rock

Photo taken 1JAN11

Inhabitants as of 17JAN11:

• Corals:
  • Kenya Tree (1 Pink, 1 Green)
  • Trumpet
  • Green Plating Montipora
  • Red Plating Montipora
  • Red Branching Montipora
  • Xenia
  • Aussie Hammer
  • Zoanthus
  • Orange Ricordea

  [*]Fish/Inverts:

  • 2 Ocellaris Clowns
  • 1 Tailspot Blenny
  • 1 ORA Green Target Mandarin
  • 1 Orange Stripe Prawn Goby w/ Banded Pistol Shrimp
  • 2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
  • 2 Peppermint Shrimp
  • 10 Astraea Snails
  • Green BTA

Photo taken ~7JAN11

Water/Chemistry:

• Filter Guys 5-Stage RO/DI Purifier
• Instant Ocean Reef Crystals
• Dosing B-Ionic two part alkalinity/calcium solution
• Temp: 79-80
• Salinity: 35 ppt
• pH: 8.3
• NH4: 0 ppm
• NO2: 0 ppm
• NO3: 0 ppm
• AK: 8.3

So far our dive into the reef keeping world has been a blast. Would love some feedback on our progress so far.

 

Thanks,

Ben & Em

Edited January 21, 2011 by Ben&Em

[rocko918]

Good job so far.

 

One thing i can see from the last pic is you should add more flow to the tank. Looks like some dead spots under the arch of the rocks.

 

Other than that i think you have done a great job. Keep an eye on the kenya tree and xenia, they can spread very quickly.

Edited January 21, 2011 by rocko918

[davelin315]

I would suggest lowering the amount of water in your sump. To me it looks like if you lose power to the pump the sump will flood as you only have about 1-2" before you hit the top of the tank. I'm also a big fan of being careful with the overflow - have you considered putting some mesh around it to prevent snails or fish from swimming into it? If a snail crawls into it and gets wedged in there, you could have a flood on your hands from the amount of water being pumped up to the tank from the sump. You don't want to go overboard and put too much stuff on there, but something that will keep the more sizable critters in your tank from getting into the overflow like gutter guard would work (let me know if you need some, I have a roll at my house).

 

Other than that, I like the tank and agree with Bob that you may want to add more turbulence inside the tank to churn your water up. I do have to admit it took me a minute or two to figure out that the submarine on the bottom was not a razor clam or similar.

[Coral Hind]

Welcome to the board! The plactic sub is something you don't see much in a reef tank. I like it!

 

 

[Ben&Em]

Good job so far.

 

One thing i can see from the last pic is you should add more flow to the tank. Looks like some dead spots under the arch of the rocks.

 

Other than that i think you have done a great job. Keep an eye on the kenya tree and xenia, they can spread very quickly.

 

Thanks rocko, I've cranked up the VorTech quite a bit and its got the tank moving a lot more. I may need to add another powerhead someday to hit the arch area.

 

 

I would suggest lowering the amount of water in your sump. To me it looks like if you lose power to the pump the sump will flood as you only have about 1-2" before you hit the top of the tank. I'm also a big fan of being careful with the overflow - have you considered putting some mesh around it to prevent snails or fish from swimming into it? If a snail crawls into it and gets wedged in there, you could have a flood on your hands from the amount of water being pumped up to the tank from the sump. You don't want to go overboard and put too much stuff on there, but something that will keep the more sizable critters in your tank from getting into the overflow like gutter guard would work (let me know if you need some, I have a roll at my house).

 

Other than that, I like the tank and agree with Bob that you may want to add more turbulence inside the tank to churn your water up. I do have to admit it took me a minute or two to figure out that the submarine on the bottom was not a razor clam or similar.

 

 

No knockin the plastic submarine. I'm a prior submariner...gotta represent.

 

Agreed on the sump level. One definite first tank lesson for me is that I should have given more consideration to available space for the sump size before picking the tank. Ended up needing every inch of the sump space to maintain the skimmer water level at the right level with enough room for rise on a power loss.... and during my tests it has come VERY close to overflowing on a power loss (normally around 1/2 inch). I keep the siphon break on the U-return to the display just above the normal water level so that it breaks really quick. Its pretty key that I keep that hole clear or I'd siphon ~2 inches of the display to the floor. So far I've kept the carpet dry. Not optimal but we're making it work.

 

Thanks for the offer on the gutter guard, but the crew at Blue Ribbon Koi hooked me up with some material for the overflow a while back and I copied their solution as I thought it looked pretty sharp. Pic below:

 

 

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the meeting tomorrow,

Ben (& Em)

[Chad]

No knockin the plastic submarine. I'm a prior submariner...gotta represent.

 

You and me both. Although I have to shamefully admit that I was always on boomers (even though I had tried to get stationed in Hawaii on a fast boat every time I transferred, finally had orders in hand when I came here). You still active?

[Ben&Em]

You and me both. Although I have to shamefully admit that I was always on boomers (even though I had tried to get stationed in Hawaii on a fast boat every time I transferred, finally had orders in hand when I came here). You still active?

 

No, not active anymore, got out in 2005. No shame in the boomer life, the fast attack guys are just jealous over getting crammed in those little tin cans of theirs.

[Ben&Em]

Tank Update 2OCT11:

 

It has been a while (8 months) since we updated this threadand we thought it was a good time to share our current tank status with you guys. We've made a lot of changes sinceour last post.

 

• Skimmer Upgrade (~MAR11)
  • Realized that the Tunze Nano Skimmer wasn't going to cut it for where we wanted to take this tank.
  • Moved the Tunze to skim a 10gal QT Tank.
  • Got a used ATB 840 with a Sicce 1000 pump for the DT
  • Note to anyone thinking about a 36gal bowfront: It is rediculously difficult to get a sump tank large enough to hold a decent skimmer inside an AGA 36 bow stand. After some serious trial and error we gave up and decided to plumb an extended 10 gal tank into the sump system.

 

 

• Coral Additions: We started to dive farther into SPS this year. Special thanks to copps and gws3 for some gorgeous specimens.
  • Tyree Rainbow Monti
  • Tyree Sunset Monti
  • Tubs Montipora Stellata
  • Tricolor Acro
  • ORA Ice Tort
  • Metallic Blue Mille
  • Blue Tort
  • Blue Polyp Pink Stylo
  • Pink Acro
  • Bam Bam Polyps
  • Kaliedascope Polyps
  • Assortment of Ricordea Mushrooms

  [*]Livestock Additions:

  • Flame Angel
  • Rusty Angel
  • Juvenile Purple Tang
  • 2 RBTAs
  • Maxima Clam
  • 4 Resplendent Anthias (currently in QT and will be added to the DT soon)

 

• Other Equipment:
  • Had some close calls with extended power losses last winter and made some investments in power continuity to ensure the tank stays up at all times.
  • Aded an RS1500 APC UPS with extended battery pack and hooked it up to the VorTech in the display tank.
  • Also got an EU2000i generator for longer outages
  • Got tired of hauling buckets for water changes and built a mixing station in the bathroom. 2x16gal tall tanks on a dual 10gal stand provide a constant source of di and salt water. Using a mag 7 and tubing to pump out to the display and QTs when needed

 

 

• Definitely had a few ups and downs over the last 8 months but we are learning from our mistakes. We are about 1.5 years in on the tank and overall it seems to be veryhealthy.

 

 

Photos Taken 1AUG11

 

 

 

• As always comments are welcome. Would love some feedback on the tank.

[Coral Hind]

The tank looks great!

 

Where did the submarine go?

[CaptainRon]

Your tank is looking great. I've never seen that Rusty Angel before - neat looking fish. Do the two angels get along well? I'd imagine you'ld have to get the tang into a larger tank before too long.

 

 

Where'd the sub go??

[surf&turf]

Your system looks great!!

[scott711]

Great looking tank!

[Chad]

No knockin the plastic submarine. I'm a prior submariner...gotta represent.

 

 

[Ben&Em]

Your tank is looking great. I've never seen that Rusty Angel before - neat looking fish. Do the two angels get along well? I'd imagine you'ld have to get the tang into a larger tank before too long.

 

 

Where'd the sub go??

 

 

Tanks capt. The angels have been in the tank together for about six months and get along great. Had a long discussion with copps before trying to pair them and the advice i recieved worked great. I had one in QT for several weeks before aquiring second (the second came from a clean system and i wasnt too worried about QT duration on him). I completed their QT in a 10 gal with a divider between them. I then added them to the display tank simultaneously just before lights out time on the tank. Initially the rusty got aggressive with the flame so i cut the lights early for the night and it was quickly sleepy time for all of the fish. From that point forward everything was fine. While the rusty was initially dominate the flame soon became the boss. They are clearly courting but i haven't witnessed any spawning yet. Fingers crossed.

 

Will transition the tang as he gets larger, buts he's still a pretty small guy at the moment... And at the rate that I'm going im sure ill be into a much larger system well ahead of his growth curve .

 

The sub got covered in algea a while back while i was fighting a bloom (ended up dissapearing after a bulb replacement which i thought odd as the T5 bulbs were only 10 months old). Its about time the sub makes a reappearance.

[Cliff Puckstable]

I really like your setup. The aquascape looks great. I enjoy how creative people get.

[AcePuck35]

Your tank looks great! How do you know the angels are

[Cliff Puckstable]

How did you install the drain on the collecting cup on the skimmer?

[collegeman]

Wow! nice tank. you did a great job with such a small tank. You will be upgrading withing a few months.

[Ben&Em]

Thanks all and sorry for the delayed responses.

 

Your tank looks great! How do you know the angels are “courting”? (Just curious) Also do they leave your corals alone? I keep reading they will nip at the corals, I would like to add some to my tank but am hesitant because I don’t want them to kill the corals.

 

I'd call the angel behavior courting due to their interest in each other over the other fish in the tank. Over the past couple months the male has begun chasing the female a bit right after the lights go out. She will seem a little stressed but doesnt get hurt. I'm guessing the male wants to start spawning but I'm not sure that the female has figured it out yet. Will keep watching. Pretty happy to have paired a set of angels.

 

As for coral nipping, both are doing ok. They will both swim around nipping things throughout the day but they are just as likely likely to nip/graze at the rocks or glass than at the coral. Coral polyps stay closed more, but i'm still getting good growth and color. Corals i've found to be noncompatible so far have been xenia and "waving hand" polyps. Something about the pulsing says come eat me. Only current issue is that the flame angel has decided he likes the taste of clams. Have to keep them covered or they will stay closed all day. Probably going to have to sell two clams here soon.

 

How did you install the drain on the collecting cup on the skimmer?

 

Drain valve came installed on the skimmer. Not sure if all ATB skimmers are like that or not.

 

-Ben

Edited December 17, 2011 by Ben&Em

[roni]

Really clean setup...I really like the diversity of corals in the tank...definitely looks bigger then 36 gallons!

[zygote2k]

That's a lot of corals packed into a small tank. Better think about getting rid of at least 1 RBTA before it goes on a killing spree.

Other than that, you're doing pretty good for only being in it 1.5 years.