Xmoji 57 Gallon Reef Tank

xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
Hey everyone, so I have baeen a member for some time now but haven't really been too involved with posting about my tank. I wanted to take a look back at my tank and use this as a learning lesson for myself and other reefers who can possibly learn from both my success and failures.

The 57 is my second reef tank, previously I ran a Craigslist bought 29 gallon Reef and quickly outgrew it. I know I wanted a rimless tank so I shopped around and found a great deal at a Chicagoland area fish store. I started my 57 on December 29, 2015. I learned so much with my 29 gallon that I had a solid foundation and ideas for my 57. Today the tank is looking great and doing very well I have had very few losses of coral and have had my ups and downs with fish. Below is what the tank looked like when I started and how it looks today.

I will try and update this tank thread on a regular basis. I hope you guys enjoy and please feel free to ask my any questions. Thanks.

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xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
Kessil AP700. When my old tank was running I had LEDs and when trying to figure out what to use for this tank I wanted to stick with LEDs as I believe they are the future of lighting our reefs. I never used any other type of lighting so I can't talk about those. I feel the Kessils light up the tank really well, provide tons of light with minimal shading. I'm still trying to figure out at what height and light intensity is best. As you know it can take months for us to see any positive change in our corals so that is something I am still playing with.
 

xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
For my 57 I wanted a good looking clean looking sump. I had previously ran a Vertex Omega skimmer on my last system and wanted to stay with Vertex for their build quality, ease of use and obviously for its production. Since the Vertex was red and white I wanted to stick with those colors. So when shopping for a sump and the plumbing I went with red and purchased a Trigger System Ruby 30. I also went through Bulk Reef Supply and purchased all my fittings and pipe through them. I chose the red pipe to go with the sump and skimmer.

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xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
Of course while plumbing I measured and dry fitted everything but still managed to screw up. When gluing the fitting that connect the pvc pipe from the tank drain to the sump I did not keep pressure on that ONE last piece and it ended up popping out about quarter inch and throwing off the lines to the sump. So in order for me to correct the issue of the plumbing lines not matching up I need to drill the sump where the lines drop into.

I first drilled a piece of plywood with a hole saw to use as a guide, clamped it to the sump exactly where I needed to drill down so that I can make up for that quarter inch error. I took my time, drilled slowly with minimal pressure and allowed the drill bit to the the work. The cut came out extremely well and was very clean. When looking at everything at the end result you can hardly tell what the issue was.

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Following along. I recently bought a new 57 rimmless and and after much thought I'm thinking of removing the center overflow and using an external eshops eclipse overflow. How happy are you with the big overflow in the center?
 

xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
Following along. I recently bought a new 57 rimmless and and after much thought I'm thinking of removing the center overflow and using an external eshops eclipse overflow. How happy are you with the big overflow in the center?
It doesn't bother me much I feel like I have a lot of room to work with still. It is difficult to get real good depth perception because it does take up so much room. Not sure how ur 57 is drilled but mine is drill on the bottom so removing it on my manufacturers type tank would be impossible.
 
I have the same exact tank and have found a few threads of people removing it. Just ordered the guitar wire and razor blades from Amazon. Nice setup btw. Looks great.
 

xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
Interesting I'd like to check that out to,see how they're removing it. Where'd you see that at?
 

xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
I quickly skimmed through that thread and it seems like his original plan was to install bulkheads then cap them off. While drilling the tank shattered and DB sent him a new tank but sent him one that wasn't drilled on the bottom so he didn't have to deal with that. I would be very careful about capping off the bottom holes that originally come with the tank. Think about how much weight and pressure that would be put on this two caps. Obviously if one of those caps went after the tank is filled would be disastrous.

Do you have the tank already? I think DB has an option that is not Reef ready then you could drill.
 
The reason that DB sent a new tank was because it wasn't suppose to be tempered and it was their mistake. He just got lucky with a new tank. I already have the tank brand new and after seeing the overflow I decided to remove it. Just too big. I would honestly prefer to break the tank rather than living with the overflow taking 7" of precious real estate. I'm planning on just getting a piece of glass or acrylic and permanently covering the 2 holes. Can't see it being a huge deal. 57 gallons is not too big and the glass on this thing is thick.


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xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
That seems like a much better idea. I would think a properly siliconed piece of glass would be much safer. Let us know how it turns out!
 
Will do. I'll start a thread in the next few weeks. Didn't mean to hijack your thread and talk about my plan. Btw I'm very jealous of your sump. My tank is going on the kitchen counter and i may be stuck with the crystal trigger sump since it's 18"x18"


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beetlenut33

Premium member
Looks great! I have the same tank. I set it up about 5 months ago. I believe there are four of us on the forums with the DB 57 EDGE.

Only thing I hate about the tank is the overflow and number of drilled holes. I wish it had 3 holes drilled in the bottom instead of 2. I also wish I could get a small square overflow for it. Oh well, I guess I am thinking too much about the Red Sea Reefer Series.
 

xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
Looks great! I have the same tank. I set it up about 5 months ago. I believe there are four of us on the forums with the DB 57 EDGE.

Only thing I hate about the tank is the overflow and number of drilled holes. I wish it had 3 holes drilled in the bottom instead of 2. I also wish I could get a small square overflow for it. Oh well, I guess I am thinking too much about the Red Sea Reefer Series.
I hear you having a third hole for an emergency line would have provided some peace of mind.

- - - Updated - - -

Good afternoon everyone. I wanted to touch up on Kessil lighting. Not sure how many of you out there currently running the AP700 over their tanks but I'd like to know at what height and what intensity level you run it at?

As stated above mine is about 13 inches above the surface and max's out at 55%. At that level I have noticed some of the corals that reuire higher light levels and are currently on the side of the tank don't color up at well as those which are situated towards the middle.

I have also noticed that sps that are in the middle of the two LED pucks color up much better.
 
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