Dan's 92 Corner Bow Front Build

[DanSReef]

So I have started a new tank build that I would share with everyone here, it is a 92 gal acrylic corner bow front made by Clarity Plus. I bought it from a local reefer who was upgrading his tank. The tank has 36" long sides and is 30" deep. It started pretty rough. I needed to spend a lot of time and elbow grease to clean the tank and buff out the majority of the scratches from the previous owner.

Just after pickup

After LOTS of work....

The tank is for my home office where I spend 90% of my time when I am not traveling. It is meant to be an item to keep me sane on the 100’s of lengthy conference calls that I am on. It is also a place where I can take my passion for aquariums to a new level. I have been doing SW and Reefs for 20 plus years. I had initially thought of building a 120 or 180 gal in wall tank….but the costs were out of this world to have the tank built and installed…not to mention the mess and mayhem an interior construction project would have done.

 

[DanSReef]

After the tank was cleaned up we squeezed the tank in through a window as the interior doors would not allow us to move the tank in… note to all… Measure…2x, 3x, 4x’s to make sure what you purchase can even get into the room.

After Placement

With water filled - single tube t-8 light

 

[DanSReef]

With the tank in place… it was time to look for equipment like skimmer, pumps, lighting…etc. I decided to purchase an AquaC EV-180 skimmer, Vortech MP40, Apex Controller and LED lighting. I am waiting for the MP40 to come in and for the tank to cycle before I install the EV-180. I did a lot of research and decided to purchase an ApolloReef SolarBlast 15k dimable LED Light.

Sump

ApolloReef SolarBlast 15k Dimable

 

[DanSReef]

As for the light choice, the depth of 30” is a big factor. I also liked the price point…$399. I needed a VDM module to work with my Apex controller which added another $100. The light uses the same drivers as AI so the setup was supposedly plug and play. It wasn’t… I spent an evening and a few hours the next day setting up the initial programming. Here are the first couple of pictures of the set up.

Moons Only

Actinic Only

Whites Only

All On at 60%

 

[David Shaw]

Well done, you have done a fantastic job at bringing it back to life

 

[DanSReef]

Thanks Dave. I have a lot of adjusting to do.

I am kind of letting things settle now until I get further along with the cycle. I am 1 1/2 weeks in and am using a couple of raw cocktail shrimp to kickstart things. The Amonia level is at about 1 ppm today and there is a distinctly funky aroma coming from the tank... You may also note.... I am going to go bare bottom with this tank. I am going for a lot of flow...and did not want to kick up alot of sand. I am also waiting for my MP40 to come in. I hate those Koralias... As for rock, I purchased 100 lbs of dry base rock from Steve at ReefRocks. I really liked the rock and the price. It stacks really nice. I have some tweaking there to do as well...to get things just right! I may add more....but am leaning towards less rock and more area for SPS to grow into.

I also added about 5 lbs of live rock from a LFS. The rock looked pretty nice... and should have a good culture of bacteria on it to seed the rest of the rock. I guess now I just need to wait for the Nitrates to start showing... still nothing yet on the test kits.....

I have also ordered GFO and Carbon reactors from BRS....as well as a pellet reactor. These will get installed later when cycle is further along.

More to come!

 

[PIMPALA]

Looks great!!!

 

[PSU4ME]

Looks fantastic......nice job on the clean up!

Love the rock work as well. What is your stocking plan? Fish and corals?

 

[mcentire1123]

Nice tank!

 

[BLADEYAMAHA]

Very Nice Tank!

 

[DanSReef]

What is your stocking plan? Fish and corals?

Right now my plan is to put a lot of SPS in the tank. I have the light, I will have the flow... and hopefully I will have the right environment for an SPS dominant tank. As for fish, I am not sure. I have a 72 bow front mixed reef in my living room. I am thinking of making this tank more of a big nano tank. Finding a lot of cool nano like fish... or other real docile schooling fish like cardinals. I know that I want a bunch of the small like neon and clown gobies. I also have seen some pretty cool sunset anthias as well. My fish stocking plan has time to develop. I am certainly open to ideas.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Thanks for starting a tank thread & sharing your tank with us - very nice work, rock & rockscape looks great !

Look forward to seeing it progress !

 

[Bearjohnson]

Very nice job indeed!

Congrats

 

[jjmoneyman]

You did a great job on the clean up and the rock work looks great for a SPS tank! Well done!

 

[Stretch]

Awesome job on the clean up! Love the look of this tank!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[dmatt88]

Dude that's great. I any a bow corner tank too.

So we got an Apollo Guinea pig! I love it. That's what I'm leaning towards. How's Ur experience so far ie build quality n noise n color etc?

Woohoo Matt has tapatalk back

 

[DanSReef]

So today I took out the camera equipment and took a couple of good pictures with a proper camera. The iPhone I had been using picks up and over amplifies the blue in the lights and the back two sides of the tank. Here is a picture with my Canon Powershot SX10is. This is with the same light set up as the "All On" picture previous to this....at the same 60% intensity.

You will notice I tweaked the rockscape and added a couple of live rocks from a LFS that I bought to help "seed" the system. The Ammonia level has leveled off at 1.0 ppm and the nitrites are still non existent. I suspect this weekend I should see the Nitrites jump and Ammonia drop off. Atleast the two large cocktail shrimp are no longer stinking the office up. I am sure they are still feeding the system with Ammonia... I will pull them as soon as I see the Nitrite jump. I am leaving the lights off until the Nitrites drop off and the Nitrates rise. I am looking forward to getting things moving.... but am happy we are going slow and deliberate.

The UPS man just delivered some equipment....reactors... for the tank. I am waiting on an MP40 which will replace the Koralias in the tank now. I am staying bare bottom for the time being. I really like the flow in there now...and once the MP40 is in there.... there will be nothing that accumulates on the bottom of the tank to polute it. Even with the Koralias the water is stirred up nicely keeping stuff in the water column to be filtered out.

So far so good. More to come!

 

[DanSReef]

So we got an Apollo Guinea pig! I love it. That's what I'm leaning towards. How's Ur experience so far ie build quality n noise n color etc?

Matt - So far so good! I really like the Apollo LED. I was not too happy that I had to buy a VDM Module for my Apex Controller...to run them. This is their new Dimable light....they do not have their own controller...yet. The drivers are the same as AI's so the VDM Module and Apex will run them. One note.... there is no Thuderstorm Feature which is more gimick than anything so I dont miss it. Also, the moon lights are really bright. I doubt I will use them...as they are not dimable. I need to spend more time learing the programming and setting up profiles. I will do that when I can find enough time to really devote to the activity. So, from a controller and a programming standpoint....they are not as good as say a Radion which has a really cool computer GUI.

Joe at Apollo is a good guy. Has been very willing to answer my many questions and has been really responsive. The color of the light is great without any red and green LEDs. I know there is a lot of people saying add them in....and a growing number of folks now saying dont as they just promoted algae. This fixture, their SolarBlast 15k has "6500k and 14000k mix of whites with the 453 and 403nm are very wide spectrum whites " They also added four UV (purples) LEDs to the light. So...the color looks great and much more natural than say AI Sol Blues...at least to me. See the picture I just posted. Of course...time will tell. When I get a little more situated I will have par readings done. For right now, there is more than enough light for me....and the coverage is outstanding. I also think the true test will be as I add in various SPS corals with the wide variety of color that I am planning on.

Thanks for your comments. I am happy to be the "Apollo Guinea Pig". I think the lights are well made, quiet and have great penetration and color...all for $399 (plus another $100 to buy a VDM controller). I will share more as I learn along the way!

 

[dmatt88]

Thanks for the feedback brother. Tanks looking hot. It appears that u would purchase again. For 60% power it's bright. I'm still unsure of the controller I'm buying. Neptune or profilux. Sure beats the $750 per unit I'd need for radions. Thanks for the info and the update. Tank looks really nice. Matt

Woohoo Matt has tapatalk back

 

[Tru2nr]

looking good can't wait to see the progress...i hate waiting for the cycle to be over...im currently going through my cycle right now.