Edward's Aquariums

[Edward]

Hello everyone!

I'm starting this thread for all the saltwater aquariums being set up in my new house right now. For those of you who have known me since I was a teenager learning the saltwater aspect of this hobby in 2010, back when I was an overly ambitious college student, I thank you for all the knowledge and help you've provided me over the years. Especially those of you who told me to cool my jets with my ideas without having practical experience.

For those of you who have known me the last 4-5 years you'll know I've been accumulating equipment and planning the start of my dream reef tank once I moved into a house. Well…that time has come for a build thread with my first "baby" step towards my dream SPS garden and various other saltwater organism displays.


There will be a total of 4 separate systems with one, the frag system, coming several months to a year from now.

I'm currently building 2 systems for my home office:

-A two tank system with a 12"x12"x12" (~5 gallon) rimless cube and a 36"x18"x18" (57 gallon)

-A UNS 60S (23 3/8"x 14 1/4" x 7 1/4") shallow lagoon

And the crown jewel of my systems will be a Waterbox 105.4 (72.3 gallon display/ 103 gallon total volume) for my living room.


I have had a 44 gallon brute Rubbermaid nearly full of live rock for all of these tanks for 20 months cycling. It is pest free, loaded with pods and has been constantly monitored and maintained that entire time. The cycle has been dark so coraline algae will take time to grow in all the systems.

I’m using a 7 Stage RODI system with a booster pump currently, I’m going to be building my water storage brute’s into a proper mixing station very soon. The only reason I haven’t yet is because one of the three I’ll be using is holding all the live rock for all of the tanks.

Everything going into these tanks will be treated and quarantined prior to going into any of the displays for as long as needed. I’ll have a 40 gallon breeder set up for fish quarantine when needed and a 20 gallon long for corals.



Office Builds:

The two tank system will consist of a rock flower anemone garden in the cube and bubble tip and haddoni carpet anemones in the 57 gallon along with various choice LPS.

For the cube I’m building a PVC tunnel to bury in the sand under the live rock for a pair of Yasha gobies and a paired pistol shrimp. The only livestock I plan on keeping are inverts and a couple pairs of different species clownfish, most likely percula and pink skunks, in the 57. All of the anemones in both tanks are compatible so with any luck I’ll have the rock anemones spawning and find some in the larger display eventually.

I’ll be lighting these tanks with AI Prime 16 HD LEDs (2 on the 57 and one on the cube) and they will share a sump(~20 gallons) that will be fairly basic to start. I’ll add a skimmer when needed and have an ATO with dissolved kalk. The 57 is drilled but the cube will have a HOB overflow and each tank will have its own return pump, both Sicce synctras (5.5 and 0.5 respectively). I have a spare versa pump or two I can use in the future if I feel I need to dose anything I can’t manually dose regularly.

For flow I’ll be using just the return pump’s flow to start in the cube and will have the return pump and a Jebao sine powerhead in the 57. 2x 150W titanium heaters will be heating this system, each controlled by an inkbird.



The UNS 60S lagoon tank will be primarily zoanthids, gonipora and chalice. I plan on keeping a dwarf angler fish in this tank and because of this, the only inverts I’ll have won’t be ones this bugger will try and eat (aka snails).

This tank will also have an AI Prime 16HD LED fixture lighting it and will have a 10 gallon sump with a Sicce synctra 0.5 return pump and if needed, I’ll add one of the numerous small powerheads I’ve collected over the years.



Waterbox 105.4:

Equipment List:

-2x Radion G6 XR30 Pro LED Fixtures

-2x VorTech MP40 mQD Powerheads

-ProfiLux4 GHL Controller

-Profilux Leak Sensor

-Aquamaxx cTech T-1 Calcium Reactor

-Tunze Osmolator ATO

-4x Versa Pumps

-Alktronic

-2x 400W Titanium Heaters (1 on an Inkbird, one on the controller)

-Vectra S2 Return Pump

-Axium EShopps X-120 Skimmer

-120lbs Sand

-Battery Backup for Pumps

-24 Month Cured Live Rock (As much as it takes to get the aquascape I want, the rest will be rubble in the sump)



I may omit the controller for a while and the skimmer, the skimmer itself may end up going into the sump of my anemone setup and I may upgrade it significantly if I do go with the full stock list I’ll share in a moment.



Planned Livestock:

-A Robust and Diverse CuC

-Picasso clown pair

-2x Mandarin

-1x TBD Wrasse

-2x TBD Firefish

-TBD Goby

-Yellow Tang

-Hippo Tang

-Maxima Clam


I’m going to add livestock slowly and methodically, with the clam not going in until this time next year. I’ll be starting to add simpler SPS to start while I dial in all the equipment to ensure a stable, healthy system set up for long term success.



I’ll be setting up the office aquariums next weekend and hopefully the waterbox will be delivered soon. Based on the estimates Waterbox is currently giving I could see the tank anywhere from 2-6 weeks from now. I ordered the tank through European Aquatics in Malden (shout out to Marty and his staff!) along with a bunch of the equipment I didn’t have already. I’ll definitely update this frequently and as things are coming together, I'll be sure to post lots of pictures.



I look forward to sharing the journey of these tanks with you all,

Eddie

 

[Edward]

Wanted to share a couple of updates with you all since my last post:

-The Waterbox will be here sometime next month

-Bought all new Hanna test kits

-The 57 gallon + cube office set up have been running for almost 6 weeks now and so far I've added 2x occelaris clowns, 3x bengaii cardinals to the 57 along with a cleaner shrimp and a pair of Yasha gobies with a tiger pistol shrimp to the cube tank. They actually started inhabiting the tunnel I made for them which is great because they're popping out of the rockwork front and center! (The tunnel is 3/4" PVC)

I've only done two 20% water changes in this setup so far because all of my parameters have been very consistent (no corals and minimal livestock to this point). I expect this to change but I'm very happy thus far with the progress. Gotta love 20 month old cycled live rock! I did add PNS ProBio when I started the tank, 8oz at the start and 8oz three weeks later, and I've got to say that I've NEVER had a tank not start looking ugly by this point in its life in all the years I've been keeping tanks. I highly recommend this product.

 

[Edward]

Been a while since the last update but here is what has been going on with me:

-Waterbox keeps delaying my main display's shipment BUT it should be here within 3 weeks. Apparently they are making their stands in house now and switching from pressed wood to aluminum. This ended up costing me less now that waterbox is saving on outsourcing their stands.

-My office tanks are plugging along great, I've added a couple of species of macro algae to each of them for the time being to help with nutrients.

-Added a UV skimmer to help combat a phyto outbreak I had

-Added Red people eater zoantids to the 57

-Added a RBTA and warp drive BTA to the 57

-Lost one of the female yasha gobies ~6 weeks ago and never found remains

-Lost one bengaii cardinal ~4 weeks ago, never found remains

-Had to remove the PVC tubing from the cube tank because the pistol shrimp decided to bury himself and the goby in there alive

-Added a 2.5" hippo tang to the 57 to start growing out for the larger display and the subsequent upgrade to that I'm already planning

-Added a Lime Green Tyree Toadstool to the 57

Everything has been really steady, I'm doing water changes every other week and am ready to start stocking with more softies, possibly some LPS and another couple of clowns species. I'm going to give the tank another couple of months before I add a carpet anemone but I am in the market for rock flower anemones now!

 

[Edward]

A couple of updates:

-The waterbox frag 105.4 finally made it to MA but the sales rep gave Marty at European Aquatics the option to not take it if I’d be more interested in the newest model they’re offering that is the same price and 20 gallons of total volume larger, the Waterbox Infinia Frag 125.4. Needless to say, I jumped at that opportunity. What’s one more month at this point?

-I decided to consolidate my tanks all into my basement which is becoming a fish room and my office. I’ll be building a larger sump for the two existing tanks and plumbing in a 40B frag tank with them as well. I’m leaving enough room in this area of the fish room to expand to runner tanks I plan on adding in a year or so. I’ll be hopefully doing this all next weekend or the following week.

-Today I started running the quarantine system for my display. I’m heading to Top Shelf Aquatics and World Wide Corals tomorrow down in Orlando. I’ll start filling this and the frag tank in preparation of the display finishing its mini cycle!

-Some of you know I keep a lot of freshwater shrimp and South American fish as well, the first of the tanks for that portion went in yesterday (a 90 gallon grow out tank) I’ll be making a separate thread for those tanks at some point when they’re all up and running.

I’m not one to electronically plan the blueprint of my fish room out but if I can get good pictures of the hand drawn blueprints I’ll definitely share for those who are interested.

 

[Edward]

Update:

Main display should be here as early as Friday! Stay tuned.

-Dug up a 29 gallon from my garage and made that my fish QT

-Added a pair of extreme grade A Picasso percula clowns to the QT two weeks ago to so and they are doing great. Eating frozen, pellets and flakes and are more active and friendly every day.

-started a frag QT in the 20L that initially was going to be the fish QT

-The 40B has been assembled as a frag tank and will be filled and start cycling this weekend. I’m no longer going to tie in my softie/anemone tank to this system but instead made room next to it for a potential 6-8’ runner frag tank to the side of it. I already set up a 50 gallon sump for the 40B in anticipation of a future expansion.

-Added a small eclectus jawbreaker discoma mushroom in a holding container to the 57 gallon softie tank along with a giant neon green hadoni carpet anemone (which is about to be cipro treated as it’s not looking too hot) and a candy hog fish who is awesome.

-I’ll be removing the hippo tang from the 57gallon and quarantining her as soon as the new tank is cycled and the clowns are out of the quarantine

I’ll be better about pictures with the display build and will post pictures once the room is in better order/all the overhead lights are fixed

 

[jazzsam]

Keep the pictures coming. Love watching it.

 

[Edward]

Keep the pictures coming. Love watching it.

I definitely will when I start assembling my display. The current state my in-the-works fish room is in is rather embarrassing hence the lack of pictures

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

I definitely will when I start assembling my display. The current state my in-the-works fish room is in is rather embarrassing hence the lack of pictures

C'mon guy, can't be any worse than the tornado that mine lives in

 

[Edward]

C'mon guy, can't be any worse than the tornado that mine lives in

I’m hoping to have it cleaned up in the next two weeks. Broken closet door, half the overhead lights have blown ballasts, broken toilet, pile of boxes from my move, ect. Getting the tanks going has been the priority

 

[Edward]

And we have delivery!

 

[Edward]

Stand was very easy to assemble, highly recommend the Infinia series of Waterbox tanks so far just in terms of user friendliness.

Fully assembled but I'm unfortunately traveling for work tomorrow through Monday night to Orlando (will be picking up some frags at WWC). Trying not to get too involved in setting everything up until I can see it through but we shall see what I can get done tonight!

Here are some picture updates for set ups I posted the other day:

Frag QT, simple yet effective.

40B frag tank. Ignore the TV mount behind it, I literally need to cut the bolts off the wall to get it down. Using a large heavy duty plastic tote (over 50 gallons) as the sump in case I expand my fragging efforts in the future as I described above. I'll get this seeing water probably before the waterbox.

 

[Edward]

Slowly have been putting the waterbox together, finally got the return pump, heaters, MP40's and lights running on 5/13/23. Seeded the tank with two different coralline algae species spores, Algaebarn phyto, PNS PRO BIO, PNS YELLO SNO and a bunch of different pod species.

The biggest downside to this tank is that there is next to no room under the tank for ANY equipment. I'm building cabinets for either side of the tank and will organize all of that hopefully be the beginning of June. The last minute upgrade to the infinia 125.4 really through off my planning for this system from an organizational standpoint but I'll make it work.

I'm not going to start the calcium reactor, versa dosing pumps, alkatronic or skimmer until after Memorial Day weekend, seems like overkill for an establishing tank at this point. Once all these are set up I'll hook everything to the GHL and we'll be off to the races.

I have been keeping an eye out for coral shop auctions, I've picked up a few little sticks in the last few weeks along with some cool mushrooms and zoanthids. My plan is to grow out the softies but keep them out of the main display. All of these are currently in my frag QT setup.

My 40B frag tank is also up and running now. Plenty of room for expansion if I find the right tank for the right price. I put about 50lbs of fresh Marco rock in with about 50lbs of the remaining live rock and rubble I didn't use for the waterbox display. Over doing it with the live rock to keep a healthy backup supply/spontaneous upgrade supply handy.

 

[DylanCameron]

Sweet! Scape looks great

 

[Edward]

Things have been absolutely crazy over here but the tank is chugging along!

Finally have the GHL set up and am slowly starting to program it. CaRx and alktronic have yet to be set up or dialed in but I haven't had any coral in the tank until recently. I currently only have a green montipora cap frag in the middle of the tank but plan on getting a lot more, very soon and dialing in my CaRx+Alktronic.

I currently have a hippo tang and hogfish (from the 57), a pair of picasso clowns and a pair of Bella gobies with a Japanese pistol shrimp. Added an all snail CuC a few weeks ago too.

I'll start posting updates more frequently when there are some corals to show.

Some other updates:

-The wife is pregnant and because of the new addition coming to our family the 57 gallon and cube had to be shut down due to me moving my office out of the spare room and into our fish room. The fish and coral went into the frag tank, everyone is doing well.

-My previously posted SPS frags in QT all died when I was away for the weekend, the power went out and my basement got HOT.

 

[Edward]

Updates:

-The green monti cap bleached out almost entirely, I clearly acclimated it to the lighting too fast. Its starting to turn pale green again and the polyps are very visible displaying a vibrant fluorescent orange color that I did not see when purchased.

-I added a Bill Murray, Pearlberry, RR Man in the Yellow Hat, Copps' Calacali, Miyagi Tort and a Small Homewrecker, all have been coloring up nicely. The Miyagi Tort lost its green when first added and became almost a purple/white but the colors are slowly returning. Polyp extension, especially at night, has been unreal.

-Have a larger order of high end SPS coming in this week from various sources, they'll be going into QT and should be in the display by Thanksgiving if they all look healthy.

-Started dosing nitrate and phosphate regularly with the added frags and naturally a cyano outbreak happened. Thankfully the flow has managed to keep it off of the few frags I have and the parameters seem to have leveled out and been steady the last month or so.

-The male picasso clown went missing the day I made my last post but about a week ago I found him swimming around in the "fuge" section of my sump.

-Currently have a biota yellow tang in quarantine that will be being added to the display probably this upcoming Friday or Saturday. This guy is maybe 2.5-3" but has been eating flakes and shrimp since the day I got him!

In retrospect, I should have started dosing the nitrates and phosphates sooner and ramped things up before the frags were added so that the bacteria and algae had time to balance out but so be it. I'll deal with some ugly rocks and sand for a few weeks as long as everything is stable and healthy!

I'm going to do a water change tomorrow and will take a FTS with everything clean and settled.

 

[Edward]

Its been a while since I've updated, wife gave birth to our first child in January and we had some issues in our attic/the baby's room so things have been very busy here.

The tank is pretty healthy but recently the nitrate, phosphate and ALK all have been climbing with no changes being made. I've lowered the dosing of each slowly over the past few weeks and am hoping to have everything back into a range I'm happy with in the next two weeks. My Nitrate and Phosphate are in ratio with each other albeit high, some of the corals are turning a little brown from the nutrients. I've noticed a little cyano in places but its nothing I'm concerned about, I always seem to get a little in the spring. I did have hair and bubble algae a few weeks back but I scrubbed the rocks and had two large pincushion urchins who took care of the hair algae in two weeks. They were just rehomed yesterday because they did such a good job.

Corals are all encrusting, polyp extension is phenomenal and the fish are all healthy. I currently have the hippo tang and candynose hogfish, the female picasso clown from my pair (male went missing when I was on vacation along with the yellow tang), a diamond spot goby and a pair of helfrichi firefish.

Due to the work going on at my house and a very fortunate circumstance, we'll be upgrading this tank in the next month or two. I won the R2R supporter's raffle this year and the prize was a CADE 1200 peninsula tank. I have no need for this but they're letting me pay the difference for a larger tank so for that cost plus a few more powerheads and lights, we'll have a roughly 7' tank being set up soon. The current setup can no longer be where it is due to the new HVAC system and the unfortunate constraints of this house.

We're starting to quarantine a bunch of fish for this upgrade and couldn't be happier. I'm a huge fan of tangs and can't wait to finally give them the running space they need.

Here are some orange lensed filtered pictures from the past few days; I promise the next purchase I make will be for a camera and to practice my photography:

 

[NeverlosT]

Wow, thats a serious upgrade you have planned! Glad you had all that rock! Any idea when it will arrive?

Congrats on the little one as well!

 

[Edward]

Wow, thats a serious upgrade you have planned! Glad you had all that rock! Any idea when it will arrive?

Congrats on the little one as well!

Thank you!

I’m still working with the company for a delivery date. As long as it’s within the next two months I’ll be happy