A New Reef Is Born! Matthew & Amanda's 3-sided "see-through" 2-room reef

Well, we got some sad news today that our tank still has not yet arrived at our LFS...backordered with Perfecto. But in the interim, here are some pictures of the "war zone" (a.k.a. our breakfast nook/dining room) and the equipment as it has been coming in...to get things going...

Happy reefing to all!
Amanda & Matthew

 

That stand looks mint!

What size tank is this going to be? Looking forward to more pics and progress!

 

nice, 55 gallon tank?

 

lol. my perfecto tank was back-ordered too. Took 3 weeks to get it and I was itching to set it up. But, at least it gave my rock more time to cycle before adding it to the tank.

 

The display tank will be 60g. We're also anxiously awaiting our sump...the first two arrived (in many, many pieces)...so with a new carrier and better packaging we really hope the third time will be the charm!

 

Is that the marineland fixture? I had it over my 55 and it worked great but those little fans were really loud to my ears.

 

Yes, marineland fixtures. We did look at several different lighting options and fixtures. T5's seemed to be the best choice for our setup. We looked at several offerings from Current- the Nova Extreme canopy looked nice but was not designed for a wooden canopy to reside on top of it and their SLR's looked alright but seemed to have a few build quality/reliability issues being reported (as well as noise). Ultimately, several other components in our system are Marineland, and we have mostly been pleased with their quality in the past. But yes, the cooling fans in this unit do seem to be a little too loud for our liking as well. Seems to be a common complaint about many T5 fixtures. Our plan is to give it a go if they work well for us in all other respects, perhaps a customized cooling solution might be in the works down the line- replacing/disabling these fans and using icecap variables top-mounted to the canopy. We have been reading a lot and doing our homework on proper captive reef care, but the equipment selection part is tricky business- since it depends on each system's needs, and always seems to have some personal preference. We have very little practical experience with different lighting manufacturers/fixtures...as most aquarists likely do...unless you run/work at a LFS.

 

Yesterday was a pretty productive day- the Lifereef Slimline overflow/pre-filter arrived and the wooden canopy for the top is almost complete. The LFS also called with an update on the tank- the ETA is 7 days which is a little while to wait but could have been worse.

Meanwhile...our LFS has some beautiful live rock from Bali they are curing for us. It is more lightweight and porous than others we have looked at, plus it has spectacular coloration.

Does anyone have experience using this live rock? Any thoughts on how much we would need? We would like enough to provide sufficient biological filtration but we would prefer our tank appear somewhat spacious with ample swimming room and not appear cluttered with rock. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

cool, cant wait to follow along

 

every one says to use 1 pound per gallon of water... and it does sound like a lot, but if you actually weigh your rock out, the rock is moderately heavy for the usual sizes of rock's, so it might be less rock than you think. if its a tank preferred to be looked through, i would buy enough rock to be placed from one side to the other in the center, maybe only 2 rock high, you can glue then to a piece of acrylic the length of the structure you want, so the base is stable, and then glue the second layer of rock to assure it stays put. and then after you add your sand it will cover the acrylic at the bottom.