PufferMan's 20 Long reef tank build

[PufferMan]

Well, having recently been introduced to the world of coral, after having been FOWLR for years, I have found it to be time to dedicate a tank to it. My main tank is a 75 gallon, with lots of live rock, and a porcupine puffer and lionfish. I have a few softies in there with them, and a couple small pieces of favia, but I would like to add a few more, and I'm afraid of pushing my luck with those fish in there along with the coral.

So, I am going to start with a small nano-ish tank. My plans so far include the following:

20 gallon long tank
4 bulb 24" T5 fixture
2 small hang on back filters (probably one with chaeto, and one with LR rubble in it)
about 20lbs LR
1.5" deep fine sand substrate

Progress so far:

Got this beat up old stand for free. Obviously it looks like crap, but I liked the shape of it, so I figured I could fix it up.

I thought the shape of the stand looked kind of monolithic, so I wanted to go for a concrete look. Found some nice textured spray paint at the store, and it turned out pretty nice.

With a little help from some fellow reefers on here, I managed to put together a little DIY hanging arm setup for my fixture to hang from. Here's where I'm at so far.

Hopefully should have some more progress by the weekend!

 

[WeePee]

looks sweet.
imo rip off that top frame for a cleaner look. people do DIY rimless tanks a lot.

 

[FishBeard]

I wouldn't trust a 20 long AGA without the top rim. The glass panels on them are VERY thin and bow WITH the trim in place...

People do rimless tanks a lot, with tanks that are designed to be rimless.

 

[PufferMan]

Wow. That definitely gets the gears in my head turning. I am so tempted to remove that rim. Found some pretty good info online about removing it. Also, a bunch of people who have specifically done this with a 20L with no problems. Most people say as long as its 20gal and below, and does not have a center brace it should be fine. I'm definitely going to consider this because it really would look way nicer.

Anyone else have experience with DIY rimless tanks?

 

[ThisIsFishy]

Do not remove the top rim on any standard tank. The rims are built for structure not for looks. I guarantee if you pull that top rim you will have noticeable bowing of the front and back glass. If you want a rimless, buy a rimless. The glass safety factor on a tank that size, assuming a 3/16" or 4.75 glass thickness is much too low for a rimless tank. The low threshold of what most builders consider safe is a safety factor of 4 which would require 5mm glass. I guess if you want to try it you can, I wouldn't want to risk anything less then a safety factor of 5 with my hardwood floors.

 

[DJE]

Looking good so far. How did you brace the pipe? I might need to borrow your idea for my 29gal tank

 

[Smitty]

Looks very good so far...great job.

 

[PufferMan]

Looking good so far. How did you brace the pipe? I might need to borrow your idea for my 29gal tank

I just used the brackets they sell that are used to mount the pipe to the wall in construction. Its just a U shaped bracket, you should be able to find it right near the conduit and a hardware store.

 

[PufferMan]

So, I spent a bunch of time working on the tank this week. I decided to not remove the rim of the tank, even though I really wanted to. Mainly because I'm using 2 HOB filters, and I figured those would not help the rimless situation. Maybe next time.

I put about 10lbs of live rock from my 75gal in there early this week, and then another 10lbs from Tropiquatics yesterday. I also finally got my light I ordered, and spent last night hanging it from my DIY arms. I am really happy with both the light and my hanging job. Looks really nice. Here are some pics:

Did a water test today, didn't expect much since its been a little under a week since I put the first 10lbs in, and I was correct, still reading zeros across the board. I'm debating trying the fresh shrimp method. Would that benefit my cycling at all? Or am I just as good with just the 20lbs or LR?

 

[WeePee]

you might not get much of a cycle using all live rock directly from other tanks, here isn't enough die off to get the spikes you are looking for.

 

[EyeReef]

love your aquascaping..definitely makes your tank look a lot bigger than a 20L

 

[scotty]

I love that setup, great work so far.

 

[scotty]

i would kill the biowheel though, they are known to trap detrius and other baddies, and because you are doing the good weight of rock, isn't necessary.

 

[lunacris]

+1 on biowheel. Id keep the filter just not the wheel.

 

[Scarlett778]

We've done the stinky shrimp method with our live rock. That seemed to work. If you'd like to stop on by, we can give ya a cup of our sand

 

[PufferMan]

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I'm really happy with the way this build is coming along.

i would kill the biowheel though, they are known to trap detrius and other baddies, and because you are doing the good weight of rock, isn't necessary.

I pulled that off already. That filter is actually filled up with LR rubble only now. No filter pads or anything.

We've done the stinky shrimp method with our live rock. That seemed to work. If you'd like to stop on by, we can give ya a cup of our sand

I'm trying the shrimp method also. Not seeing any spikes so far though, and its been almost a week already. I used all live rock, 10lbs from my other tank, and 10lbs of fully cycled LR from the LFS. I'm wondering if that is enough bacteria already to sustain the tank for right now. And that's why I'm not seeing any spikes so far. Thank you very much for the sand offer, but I already put some sand from my refugium on my other tank in there to get it started.

 

[Scarlett778]

Thats no prob Pufferman. I forgot but we also used "Purple Up" within our 150 gallon to also speed things up but made sure to stop using it once the parameters were set. That stuff is good to speed things up but can cause build up of specific nutrients that you may not need later on.

 

[PufferMan]

Well, haven't had a chance to post any pics, but the tank is fully cycled. About a week or so ago, I added 5 nassarius, 1 cerith, and 3 margarita snails. I also found out I have a few stomatella snails that hitch hiked on some LR!

This past weeked I took a shot at fragging a few of my zoas from my 75, and they turned out really nice. I wanted to keep them small, only a few polyps each, to watch them grow along with the tank, and also in case anything goes sideways. I also picked up a few really nice ricordeas from aquapros and put them in there too.

Unfortunately, I now have a hair algae outbreak. However, it seems to be primarily on the sandbed, only like 1/8 inch tall, and not much on the rocks. I tested the params, and everything was good except for my phosphates were like .5. I threw a 1/4 cup of phosban in a nylon and put it in one of the filters, and cut the lighting down to 2 bulbs instead of 4. I plan on doing a 2 gallon water change tonight, and hopefully I can get ahead of this and choke it out.

Wish me luck, I hate hair algae, it is such a pain to deal with.

 

[PufferMan]

Update:

It's been a while, but here are some updated pics of the tank. Lots of new stuff.

FTS

Zoa garden, neon green finger leather, trumpet coral, and tiny patch of GSP

Ricordea garden plus tiny neon orange mushroom, and neon green favia

Bicolor hammer or torch (help? not sure which one), and frogspawn

Kenya tree, green hammer, and neon green finger leather again

I also just got some new lightbulbs that I ordered today, so I'll post a before and after shot with the new bulbs too. Currently I'm running 2 generic actinic 460s (came with my fixture), 1 zoo med 10000k, and 1 zoo med actinic 420. The new bulbs I'm upgrading to are 1 wavepoint superblue 460, 1 wavepoint coral wave, 1 wavepoint sun wave, and 1 wavepoint reef wave. I'll post some pics once I get them all setup.

 

[PufferMan]

So I have been meaning to do a light bulb change since I still had a couple of old generic bulbs in it that came with the fixture when I bought it. I also wanted to make it a little less blue, and show off some more of the reds, oranges, and purples.

Before:

---> generic actinic 460 <---
---> zoo med 10000k <---
--->zoo med actinic 420 <---
---> generic actinin 460 <---

FTS

Closeup

After:

---> Wavepoint Reef Wave <---
---> Wavepoint Sun Wave <---
---> Wavepoint Superblue <---
---> Wavepoint Coral Wave <---

FTS

Closeup

Overall, I'm happy with the new color tones. The coral fluorescence is still bright, and the reds, oranges, and purples are much more pronounced. Theoretically, these bulbs should also promote increased coral growth, so we'll have to see how that goes.