Jestersix

Casper's Land's End Tank

This thread was originally on the NCNRS forum. I'd like to share it here you nice people.

- Bryan




Something I've been working on for the past few months. I was originally tried to sell this tank to fund my overseas vacation, but am glad no one bought it. I plan to replicate the coastal area where the ocean meets the land. My idea is to have a very deep sand bed, mangroves, and a seagrass bed in the refugium. I will pack the right portion of the display and refugium w/ add 2-3" of reef mud mixed with aragonite sand.

I finished sanding down the stand, adding a stain, and resanding. Currently modifying the sump, resealing joints, and checking for leaks. The bigges pain is to finish sanding down the display tank and buffing out the scratches. I have about 100 lbs of sand in storage tubs I am keeping alive.


Stats:

Tank: 62 gallon Truvu acrylic tank 36"x18x20
Light: 4 bulb T5's 36" fixture with 5 blue LED on DIY hanging kit
no skimmer
Sump 20 , three chamber gallon sump (seagrass bed)
Sump Light: 24" Coralife single 10,000K bulb
Return Pump: Ehiem 1250
Powerheads: 2x Koralia 2's (will replace with Vortech)
Plumbing: Durso-style quiet overflow 1" piping, Loc-line kit for return flow 1/2" > 3/4" > 1/2" piping
Super deep sand bed (8-20" sloping)
Heater: Rena 300w
estimated 50 lbs live rock
280-300 lbs sand: Samoan fine grained w/ pink specks, crush coral from Florida, Fiji Mud, unkown small particle crushed coral
Reef Keeper 2 controller
Topoff System: JBJ Auto Top Off with Aquamedic Dosing pump
Dosing: DIY kalkwasser doser in a 1.5 gallon water jug hooked up to an air pump on a timer
Eggcate support
Pot for planting mangrove
Cooling: Azoo 2 fan fan, nano chiller and open top display + sump, open stand


Current tank: Casper's mushrooom house 29 gal

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Work in progress:

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Waiting on my bucket of mud from Robert at Neptune's and plumbing from Marine Depot





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The tank is half way buffed out and all the plumbing has came home.^^ Now to find another 30-40 lbs of live sand, make the hanging kit for my lights, and wait for the pvc glue to cure. It won't be long now.

Some new goodies:

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Reefkeeper 2



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plumbing setup


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New anemone. Cool little guy. Burrows under the sand.^^


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Shrooms!





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Wow, local pods living in your tank, Marc? That's insane. I wouldn't use the sand here with all the boats and stuff leaking oils and chemicals in the water. Oyster shell is an interesting idea.


arod2051 said:
I like the thought put into the tank.

Would you consider a reverse light cycle for the fuge? I have to do some more reading about Walt Smith's Fiji Mud. Is it not varying in grain size. I read an article in Coral magazine that puts sand bed health with variation of grain size. It alllows the microfauna to turn the sand bed appropriately.

I'll watch this thread closely so I can learn from you work you are putting in.


Thanks, Alfred.^^

I was thinking a reverse lighting cycle that was on a bit longer. For the mud, I am mixing in some sand to make the texture more varying.




Some new shots:


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Pipe insulation, a 10" 3/4" dia meter electrical pipe, some cable hplders, and a hanging kit.




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Sump setup w/ Ehiem 1250 return pump, 24" coralife fixture (single 10,000K bulb 69w), Azoo fan (2 fans), small chiller, and 1/2" Loc-line flow kit.



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Home made overflow box.


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Almost done!^^


- Bryan






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So everything is ready to go. I'm waiting on the rest of the sand to cycle before the big move, so maybe one more week.


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Most scratches gone.


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Leak test 1.


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DIY hanging light kit.


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Gluing on overflow box.

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Mangrove pot.


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Nice and snug.


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Goby condo via Will from LGF.


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Ta-da!





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Hiya folks. The tank got it's first big algae bloom last week. I tossed a bad blue legged hermit (ate one of my new super Tongan nassarius snails) from my 29 gal into the sump. He mowed through the diatoms pretty well, lol.

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I did a water test and everything looks good.


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I went to Neptune and picked up three trochus, a large limpet, and two Stomatella snails. i like the pic of the trochus. It looks a bit comical, like "oh noez, I pooped on myself."

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A pic of the "mouse head" in my sand bed.

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A nice two toned Rhodactis cf. mussoides from Aquatic gallery.

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So messy...



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The eggcrate showing.



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Still messy...



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Mounting the equipment.


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Version 1.0



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My precious.^^



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Left side



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Shrooms chilling on the sand bed.



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Two mini carpets waiting to be fragged.



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Version 1.1



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Leftover rock.



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Best seat in the house.
 
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