Our New Living Room Mixed Reef

[tpallas]

So we’ve recently moved into our own condo and wanted a nicer aquarium. I have my old 11.4 Mr. Aqua reef that has been running for the better part of 10 years. Plus, our jellyfish tank, a 20g planted freshwater tank, and a little betta planted tank. Here’s some shots of each:
 


 

 

 
Although for full disclosure the reef is looking a little rough after our move this summer!
 
Anyways we ordered a tank and stand from Midwest Custom Aquariums. The footprint is 36x22, by 20 inches high. I wanted something that had a sense of depth, but not a cube. Also we wanted it to match our kitchen cabinetry as it will be right next to the kitchen. So we ordered the tank and it took about 3 weeks to arrive. I’ll post the arrival pictures next.
 
 
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[tpallas]

So the tank came this Thursday via FedEx Freight. Of course they’re not doing in-unit deliveries so we had to disassemble in the loading dock and carry it up in components.



Must be Italian



Here it is set up in a temporary spot. The tank will go next to the kitchen where the small reef is now.



The hood was built with the 2x Radion XR30 G5 pros installed with a cooling recess on top.





With the lights fired up:







Shot towards the kitchen where the tank will sit next to:



I had them build a door on the left side of the tank. The purpose of this door is so I can install a controller board facing out so I can access the controller equipment segregated from the sump.






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[tpallas]

The plan is for the tank to be SPS dominated. Here's my equipment thoughts so far:

 

Lights - as shown above, 2x Radion XR30 G5 Pro

Sump - custom build from Lifereef. Jeff does a great job engineering a great custom sump. Hopefully I can fi in a refugium.

Controller - Neptune Apex. Accessories include Trident, feeder, ATO, water flow monitoring, leak detection, dosing pumps, and LCD display

Return pump - Neptune COR-15

Skimmer - Bubble King Mini 160

Flow - 2x MP40 QD, 2x MP10 QD

Heaters - 2 x Eheim

 

 

[epleeds]

That is beautiful. How thick is the glass?  Will the MP10’s hold?  
 

Also, reach out to the cabinet builder and have him send you additional hinges. Eventually they rust and then you can never find the same ones they used. Ask me how I know. 
 

what is the rock work going to be. Negative Aquascape?  Or something different. 

[tpallas]

17 minutes ago, epleeds said:

That is beautiful. How thick is the glass?  Will the MP10’s hold?  
 

Also, reach out to the cabinet builder and have him send you additional hinges. Eventually they rust and then you can never find the same ones they used. Ask me how I know. 
 

what is the rock work going to be. Negative Aquascape?  Or something different. 

 

Good question, it's 1/4" acrylic....wanted glass but Midwest doesn't do that. I pinged Planet Aquarium multiple times but they never gave me a quote - oh well. Goign to have to test out the MP10s.

 

I hear you on the hinges....my 11.4 gallon has the same and I've replaced them at least twice. I've got to remind myself to grease them up!

 

I am thinking negative aquascape. I ordered 2x Caribsea reef tree kits. I'll see if we like it just that way, or with a third, or with rock connecting the structures.

[tpallas]

That is beautiful. How thick is the glass?  Will the MP10’s hold?  
 
Also, reach out to the cabinet builder and have him send you additional hinges. Eventually they rust and then you can never find the same ones they used. Ask me how I know. 
 
what is the rock work going to be. Negative Aquascape?  Or something different. 

darn is you got me thinking about this! I ordered two of these Caribsea kits:



But I’m thinking whether I should do those, or build something out of Marco rocks like they demo’d on their YouTube video. The only thing with this is there are two smaller openings in the eurobrace so I’d have to build it in 2 or 3 pieces.



What do you guys think?


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[tpallas]

Ok, so I'm going the BRS NSA route. Got the Marco rocks in this week and put them in a bleach bath. Got 50 pounds of rock and 3 of the bases that are cut flat (2 medium, 1 small). I'm not sure that will be enough for the scape so I'm ordering another large base and some shelf to build in as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

[DCReefer1964]

Great build tagging along. I think that the NSA scape is the best route. Remember people forget to grow a reef and not build one.

Happy reefing!!!!

[YHSublime]

Congrats on the new place, it looks gorgeous. Also, congrats on the new tank! Following along. 

[ImGoingCoastal]

Nice! Congrats!

I just ordered a 36x20x18 waterbox tank! I'll definitely be following along for inspiration! Bare bottom I assume?

Your tank looks very well thought out!


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[tpallas]

On 11/9/2020 at 7:49 AM, DCReefer1964 said:

Great build tagging along. I think that the NSA scape is the best route. Remember people forget to grow a reef and not build one.

Happy reefing!!!!

 

I agree, I went back and forth a bit but I'm sold on the concept. I did order a one more large foundation marco rock. The corals should fill in great.

 

On 11/9/2020 at 1:22 PM, YHSublime said:

Congrats on the new place, it looks gorgeous. Also, congrats on the new tank! Following along. 

 

Hey hombre, thanks! We're only a couple of blocks down from our old apartment in Ballston. The dropoff tank just didnt go anywhere, and we wanted something cleaner and more enclosed that matched the kitchen. I pinged Planet Aquariums multiple times but they didnt respond. Midwest Custom was great to work with and ship time was fairly quick. We've got a spare bedroom if you need a place to crash in Arlington!

 

On 11/9/2020 at 8:52 PM, ImGoingCoastal said:

Nice! Congrats!

I just ordered a 36x20x18 waterbox tank! I'll definitely be following along for inspiration! Bare bottom I assume?

Your tank looks very well thought out!


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Cool! Thats nearly identical - the extra depth is really a huge differentiator on a 3 foot tank. I'm not a big fan of the aesthetics of bare bottoms although I 100% like the advantages. So, I'll go with some Bahamas oolite or the like, the look is hard to beat. 

 

[tpallas]

Wife got home early so I put her to work man-handling the tank into place. Got a washable rug from ruggables.com to place under it. Not that I expect to be washing it on any sort of recurring basis, but it's a nice pattern with a separate velco-on, rubber bottomed based that protects the hardwood from water and has some padding. 

 

 

 

Pulled out the Bubble King Mini 160 which I have been keeping in strategic reserve. Needs a solid vinegar bath but is in good shape. Placed inside the stand to gauge space prior to my discussion with Jeff at Lifereef, which will be my next post...

 

 

 

[DCReefer1964]

Love the look and placement. That rug matches well, but I would consider water proofing the bottom of the stand in case of small leaks or overflow. It will happen.

[tpallas]

6 minutes ago, DCReefer1964 said:

Love the look and placement. That rug matches well, but I would consider water proofing the bottom of the stand in case of small leaks or overflow. It will happen.

 

You read my mind. The inside is actually sprayed with a lacquer. As I live in a condo, and with the hardwood I'm trying to minimize leak risk. I am going to paint the interior with a waterproof white to match the exterior. I've thought about some sort of plastic liner on the bottom (water tray). I will have leak detection sensors to shut things down. I think if I set it up properly the only residual risk would be from seam failure in the tank, which judging by the thickness and seam quality seems highly unlikely.

[DCReefer1964]

33 minutes ago, tpallas said:

 

You read my mind. The inside is actually sprayed with a lacquer. As I live in a condo, and with the hardwood I'm trying to minimize leak risk. I am going to paint the interior with a waterproof white to match the exterior. I've thought about some sort of plastic liner on the bottom (water tray). I will have leak detection sensors to shut things down. I think if I set it up properly the only residual risk would be from seam failure in the tank, which judging by the thickness and seam quality seems highly unlikely.

Use 2 part marine paint. It will seal like a swimming pool.

[YHSublime]

15 hours ago, tpallas said:

Hey hombre, thanks! We're only a couple of blocks down from our old apartment in Ballston. The dropoff tank just didnt go anywhere, and we wanted something cleaner and more enclosed that matched the kitchen. I pinged Planet Aquariums multiple times but they didnt respond. Midwest Custom was great to work with and ship time was fairly quick. We've got a spare bedroom if you need a place to crash in Arlington!

 

 

Vice versa my dude, I appreciate the offer! 

 

Glad you got somebody that was interested in taking your money. I'd like to hear/see more about the rug, are you happy with ruggable? I get the advertisements all the time. 

[tpallas]

On 11/13/2020 at 12:20 PM, YHSublime said:

 

Vice versa my dude, I appreciate the offer! 

 

Glad you got somebody that was interested in taking your money. I'd like to hear/see more about the rug, are you happy with ruggable? I get the advertisements all the time. 

yeah ruggables are pretty nice. Obviously it’s not the quality of a nice rug but that’s the point. It looks good and we have dogs etc so easy to clean. Really good for this application.

[tpallas]

Went to work doing more prep for the NSA. I ordered an additional 10 pounds of marco shelf rock. This stuff is not shelf in the sense like you'd get from Tonga, but it more like thinner marco rocks and not giant boulders. If I had to order again I would just get a bunch of this stuff, it would work well for small to medium size tanks to build he entire structure. It's porous and interesting throughout, unlike the standard marco rocks - I got some giant boulders there and when you break them down, the core is just chalky calcium rock and not as interesting. Here's the shelf:

 

 

I've got this soaking in bleach until next weekend (last batch soaking, the other 2 are done). I picked up a hammer and heavy duty chisel and went to work breaking down the bigger pieces. That is a chore. Compare these pieces to the shelf rock and you can see what I mean.

 

 

Anyways lots of hammering to break down into smaller pieces:

 

 

 

Aside from needing some strength, it's not particularly difficult to do, just have to keep in mind making different size/oblong pieces, and not just smaller circular rocks. I have a smaller chisel set on standby to use on final construction for fine shaping. Before long had smashed up a good bit:

 

 

As I said, some of the rocks from the interior are uninteresting chunks of chalky rock:

 

 

However I think I have more than enough for a couple of interesting structures. Next step is to soak overnight in a RO/DI water and dechlorinator solution to get rid of the bleach. On the left is the clean smelling rock drying, and on the right a bleached batch prepping for an overnight soak.

 

 

Between these 2 pics are about 80% of the rocks - the complete set of boulders and original foundations I ordered, about 60 pounds total. 

 

Speaking of the foundations, one thing that is annoying are the sizes. In the below pic - small, medium, and large. The difference between S/M to L is comical. The small is fine for a very small foundation. Mediums were not much bigger, so I ordered a large. It's huge. I did break it down into 3 or 4 pieces which is also soaking in bleach along with the shelf. Just a heads up if you follow the BRS marco rocks NSA route.

 

 

Next steps, bleach the final batch until next weekend and dechlorinate them. Then we are ready for construction.

[WheresTheReef]

Nice to see this coming along. Out of curiosity, why you bleaching the rocks? It looks like they have already gone through an acid bath and don’t appear to have any organics on them. Doesn’t hurt, but is likely an unnecessary step slowing your progress.

[tpallas]

22 minutes ago, WheresTheReef said:

Nice to see this coming along. Out of curiosity, why you bleaching the rocks? It looks like they have already gone through an acid bath and don’t appear to have any organics on them. Doesn’t hurt, but is likely an unnecessary step slowing your progress.

Marco doesn’t acid bath them, it is recommended you cure them or cook them. 

[WheresTheReef]

52 minutes ago, tpallas said:

Marco doesn’t acid bath them, it is recommended you cure them or cook them. 

Not arguing here. They are supposed to be reef safe and free of organic matter from some cleaning process (http://www.marcorocks.com/frequently-asked-questions/ ). You wouldn’t be adding them to an established system so there is no worries of throwing one out of balance. Bleaching won’t hurt, but I still think it is not needed. Anyways, I’m looking forward to seeing this build. It will go nicely with your beautiful home. I like how closely the stand/canopy matches your living area.

 

One thing I’ve learned from my dry rock builds is that it takes a very long time to fully cycle. I would go slowly on adding corals in the future. Especially, more expensive acros.

 

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by WheresTheReef

[tpallas]

Done with rock smashing/cooking....now for day 1 of NSA build...only ordered one bottle of CA accelerator, which was a mistake. Ordered more from Amazon. The right hand foundation is built, to which we will add additional shelves/arches/branches for a fuller look. 

 

 

 

[tpallas]

A little update on the progress I've been able to make. Left side is just the beginning of the foundation. Hard to see the depth of it in the picture.

 

[therootcause]

Did you watch the BRS rock video earlier this week? They went over some NSA stuff at the end. I like the concept of building an NSA of hollow caves that from the front still looks like solid rock. They touched on it in regards to how the scape will look when the lights are on and the tank is stocked.


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[tpallas]

8 hours ago, therootcause said:

Did you watch the BRS rock video earlier this week? They went over some NSA stuff at the end. I like the concept of building an NSA of hollow caves that from the front still looks like solid rock. They touched on it in regards to how the scape will look when the lights are on and the tank is stocked.


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No, this was a new video release? I didn't see that in the tutorial. I'll go check it out, thanks!