Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board - Rishu's Really Ridiculous Reef: a 96x20x20 penny tank build

Once upon a time, a guy fell in love with a certain marine creature called the Peacock Mantis Shrimp. It drove him to buy a used 30g tank to house the big girl. She (yes it was a gal) gave us months and months of joy, anxiety (during the molt), excitement, and sadness (RIP Matsuri the mantis shrimp, who only passed away last week :cry:).

What she also brought, though, was a deep unending interest in the marine world, first to me, and then to my wife (she opines reluctantly). Every time we observe these creatures we are amazed at God's awesome creations. We even bought annual passes to the Vancouver Aquarium..! As we got into the game of corals, we stepped up to a 75g tank from an ex-reefer. We added some livestock along the way, lost some due to jumping, not eating, but others continued to thrive. But it could not truly satisfy me.

We were even ready to plan our spring break vacation to Hawaii to swim with the actual fish, but we realized this hobby had taken a toll on us, mentally and financially. We then arrived at a difficult crossroad: spend the money on the vacation of a few days, or upgrade to something that we can start from the beginning and nurture it to a cornucopia of joy and excellence that we can enjoy for years to come. Since this thread is being made, you ought to come to the conclusion that we have chosen the latter.

It isn't a decision made without sacrifices. To cover the expenses, we are putting up my wife's car (anyone want a '08 Yaris? :wink:) for sale, and I'm selling one of my most prized possessions, a custom hunting rifle that has been my pride and joy for many years. But I believe the sacrifices will be worth it.

Okay, enough talk, onto the good stuff.

The tank itself will be a 96"x20"x20" peninsula tank, approximately 165 gallons, minus the overflow. Yes, I have heard many suggest that 20" depth will be too narrow but our flat itself is small enough as it is, and the boss (wife) says it'll be the maximum depth we can afford to have without the place being too cramped. Denny at Concept will be the chosen one to build this tank from the ground up. Anthony, seahorse_fanatic, will have the honour of building the stand. Both guys have been extremely helpful during the initial planning stages of the build and Anthony has offered up so much help, don't know what to do without the guy! :biggrin:

It will be a mixed reef, with an assortment of LPS, SPS, softies, mushrooms, my big sebae anemone (and hopefully more), clams, and many a fish (tangs, wrasses, anthias, clowns, etc.). My dream fish, the Achilles tang, will finally be making an appearance here.

Tank details:

herbie overflow
eurobraced
float glass 12mm
single return line on the overflow wall

Equipment are still in the process of being procured at the moment, but a rough idea as follows (nothing is confirmed at the moment)

2x RW-20 for flow
Enough Reefbreeder/OceanRevive/ReefRadiance/etc. (haven't decided yet) to cover the whole tank
Jebao DC12000 (enough? overkill?)
Tunze Osmolator ATO
SRO XP2000 skimmer (this may be underpowered, will probably upgrade in the future)
2x Eheim Jager 250W
Some kind of reactor for RowaPhos (currently running a TLF in the 75g)
Jebao dosing pump for Calc, Alk, Mg

*will carry over from 75g tank: Vertex biopellet reactor, modded with bigger pump for better flow

If budget allows, a Neptune Apex or Profilux would do wonders to keep everything in order.

I'll be looking at a 1" sandbed, with at least enough rocks to achieve a 1lb to 1g ratio (excluding sump volume, yet to be determined). Just picked up 20lb of Tonga branches from WarDog (thanks Warren!), plus some other live rocks I'll be migrating from the 75g and some other reefers. There will be a refugium in the sump. RO/DI water is supplied from the Aquasafe 7-stage filtration system.

Please feel free to critique my build/equipment choices, or if you have anything you like to sell me let me know :lol:

The order is being put in today for the tank, so assuming a month's turnover rate, I hope to have the tank here in early March. That had been the plan all along, since as a school teacher, I'll have a two-week spring break from March 7 to 22 to put everything together. When I have the exact day, I will offer up beer/pizza for help moving the tank/stand :biggrin::biggrin:, no reefers excluded, provisions first come first served lol (don't need 100 people moving a tank :mrgreen:).

Keep you guys updated every step of the way. My wife has put together a small scale model of the aquascape of which I will post pictures later. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you guys at the frag swap soon! :biggrin: