Cook's 105 Planet Aquariums Crystaline Reef

[Cook]

I have been out of the saltwater hobby for about 15 years. Since the week after Christmas until now, I have bought and sold 3 tanks before I even filled one with water. I have learned a lot from this forum and the staff at Pure Reef in a short period of time. Suffice it to say I wasn't going to be happy until this build was the way I wanted it once I started getting back into it. I started with 74 gallon cubes and ultimately bought a Planet Aquariums 85 (105 total volume) gallon tank, stand, Trigger Systems 36 sump, and a Vertex Omega 130 protein skimmer off Craigslist. The tank had some water damage issues I was unaware of at the time, but was still a good deal and worth putting in the extra work to make it right. I added the shower pan liner tip to the sump from Trizzino's post, so thanks for that too.

Two of my tank buys included 130+ lbs of live rock, a snowflake eel, two clowns, and a blue Chromis, so it's not a from scratch startup. I have converted the overflow from two Durso's to the Herbie method and hard plumbed the two 4" drains. I decided against hard plumbing the return line as I may change the pump out later. I finally filled the system with water last weekend and transferred everything I had into it from a temporary tank. I have been dealing with some minor leaks, really just drips, due to my desire to make the hard plumbing easy to disassemble. They seem to be gone as of this morning, so progress continues.

 

[Cook]

Begin with the end in mind. I originally wanted to mount my lights from the ceiling, but decided against that at the last minute. That meant spending 8 hours Friday night determining how to install the Aquatic life brackets on the back of a stand that has only a 5" gap between it and the wall. My solution: I made templates from the mounting brackets, drilled holes though the stand, and used stainless bolts to mount the hardware instead of the included wood screws. This also involved disconnecting and draining the sump to drill the right side holes. Probably a 30 minute task before the tank was filled with water. I will be assembling the lights next.

 

[Cook]

Lighting: I went with the Aquatic life T5 Hybrid fixture and a Kessil AP700. Currently, the fixture is mounted 10 inches above the tank. It will need to go higher to gain full coverage of the 48" length of the tank. Unless I make a skirt for the fixture, I will probably leave as is, the T5's will be visible otherwise when seated on the couch. My phosphates are high right now, so a water change and addition of chemical media are on the list for today.

 

[Cook]

I should also say that I had some issues with the ATI Coral Plus bulbs, I couldn't get two of them to light in this fixture. Aquatic Life was quick to respond to my email over the weekend even though it was outside of their business hours so kudo's to them, very nice people. Apparently, there are issues with T5 bulbs being good out of the box, neither worked in either position or on the other side of the fixture. These ballasts have safety switches to shut the power off when a lamp goes bad, I can attest to the fact that the element was lighting, it just wasn't igniting the gas inside the bulbs. I tried two Coral Plus bulbs, one from Marine Depot, and one from an LFS, neither worked. However, a combination of Blue Plus and Purple Plus bulbs were fine. I swapped the Coral Plus out for a Blue Plus for now, but I'm going to have to do something as the tank would be right at home in a smurf village it's so blue when they are on. The tank has been dark for a month, so slowly turning these lamps up over the next two weeks.

 

[Trizzino]

Looking really good! I like the rock scape. Lots of room for coral. Keep us updated.

 

[Cook]

Today I installed my first ARC purchase from a couple of months ago, a Reef Octopus Regal 150 SSS. I am waiting to see if a break in period is required since although used, it was well cleaned when I got it. I also built a skimmer stand for it, which I think turned out pretty well for being egg crate and zip ties. I'm keeping the refugium section of the sump open for now, I'm not sure if I really need one.

I have enjoyed following other members tank posts also, some of them are really awe inspiring.

 

[Cook]

I set up my refugium after the coral swap event, just getting around to posting. I bought copepods and Chaeto from Heisenberg Aquaculture while there. Added some Marine pure balls as well. So far so good.

 

[Mom2Many]

I like it! What bulb is that?

 

[Cook]

I am not exactly sure, I bought it used from Trizzino. It looks similar to the Coral Compulsion refugium bulb from a quick search.

 

[Cook]

I Installed a 7.5 gallon auto top off system using the Tunze Osmolator after I got tired of adding water daily and also needing the tank to be more self sufficient for when I travel for work. I searched around online for the most reasonable acrylic option and bought one off ebay from luckreef. The quality is great, no complaints and most importantly, no leaks. I am coming to a point where I will have to spend some time on cord management in the near future. 3M Command strips have been my friend for temporary controller placements. Not sure how long the controller stuck to the wall is going to fly.

 

[Cook]

So this is the next to the last tech update. The refugium light I bought on the cheap wasn't working out. I lost all my refugium copepods and the chaeto didn't really respond to it very well either. Plenty of copepods in the main tank still, so who knows. I removed the light and went with the AI Prime Fuge HD a few weeks ago. Huge difference and it was super easy to setup. My Chaeto has doubled in size already.

 

[Cook]

All fancy stuff and no results, so far. This is a shot of my tank as of two weeks ago. It is interesting to see the progress and even the eel came out for the occasion. The candy cane coral I got from Mom2Many is already splitting. Pretty amazing to watch. I have a 40 gallon quarantine tank also that I am running for a couple fish at a time once a month. Since this pic, I have added a lawnmower blenny and a pigmy perchlet. In quarantine: 2 firefish and a Valentini puffer. No more fish after that. The eel is a homewrecker, but he's pretty fun and my son loves him. I'll do a post on coral soon.

 

[willwoo]

Looks great so far!

 

[butch]

Looks good.

 

[Mom2Many]

I could sit and look at this tank all day! VERY peaceful looking with such a wonderful balance to it all. Love it!

 

[Cook]

I have been dealing with some minor algae issues, mostly bryopsis which keeps popping up in my sump. I can see the benefit of starting from scratch to try to control what one starts with. Scrubbing a couple of rocks with hydrogen peroxide took care of some hair algae I was having trouble with around my leather coral.

I have to say that I am not a fan of this low iron glass. I bought this tank used and there were already some scratches on the glass, but it seems there are a few more now, no matter how careful I try to be. It's also possible I am just now noticing all the ones that were already there. I am using a flipper, the regular one, and removing and rinsing after each use.

 

[Cook]

Here are some coral pics. The leather I got with the tank, it was just a stalk that had been cut in half. Pretty amazing how it has recovered.

 

[ichthyoid]

Beautiful tank, thanks for posting this!

Nice to see how your Aquatic Life hybrid fixture with LED’s on the hangers looks. I’m using them also, so am curious. Thx!


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[Cook]

The end caps make for a cleaner look if you have them. @ichthyoid, you bought that fixture from @liverock27 right? I got his Red Sea Reefer 170.

 

[ichthyoid]

Yes I did and will be using it over an IM 50 Nuvo EXT with a pair of AI Prime HD’s.

I’ll be buying another one to go over the IM 25 Nuvo EXT frag tank with LED tbd.

Yours looks great! Mine will be done in black.


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