Merc + Brad's new 50g

[braddo]

Well Mercedes' roommate just moved out and its been a year since we setup our 15g nano tank so we decided to turn the room into an office and setup a new tank in there.

We planned on setting up a 40 breeder but when we went to buy the tank a 50 was sitting right next to it. The 50 has the same foot print as the 40 breeder but gives an additional 2" of Height.

We decided to copy the ADA freshwater aquarium stands, we were both a fan of the simple modern look. Unfortunately I couldn't afford the rimless tank to go along with it.

Specs
Tank: 50g Aqueon, DIY center overflow, 1" Durso drain, 3/4" return.
Ligthing: Current-USA Outer Orbit 2x150w MH, 4x54w T5, 9 white LED, 9 Blue LED.
Sump: Took an old 29g SeaClear added some baffles and built in a small refugium area fed by mini-jet.
Flow: Return - Bought a Mag 7 after I was unsuccessful at tracking down an Ehem 1260 for what I considered a reasonable price.
Additional - I would like to get a Vortech MP40 but I am having a hard time justifying the cost, we may have to settle for Koralias.
Skimmer: Currently using an old unknown skimmer that will hopefully get my by in the short term. It is powered by a Sedra 5000, the body is 6x20 and the neck is 1.5 x 4.
Aquascape: 40lbs Fiji rock from Marco Rocks. 3 bags of CaribSea Tahitian moon black sand on its way.
Controller I will be ordering a ReefKeeper Light system 3 on Monday.

Here are a few pics of the current progress.

Egg Crate installed as a base:

The light fixture was used and came with the stock 10k bulb and a phoenix 14k bulb. I just bought 2 Reeflux 12 bulbs hoping to find a color in between the two in this pic. I read reviews of the bulb after buying it and reports are that the 12k reflux is at least as blue as the Phoenix.

Here is the stand with the doors off and the sump underneath. I doubt I will keep the lights mounted directly to the tank. I will either build a bar that attaches to the stand like the ADA stand or just mount them to the ceiling.

40lbs of Marco Rocks, good variety of sizes from small to over 15"

The rock is very light and porous but may turn out to be difficult to mount frags to.

Shot of my overflow and plumbing.

 

[gotfish]

Lookin good. I like your 15g with the black sand. I have to agree with you about the marco rocks being tough to put frags on.

Another option instead of the mp40 might be the mp10 @ $195. Same controls, just half the flow, but 1500gph along with a k2 should be plenty. They should be out pretty soon and if you preorder, you'll get it once it comes out in the next couple weeks.

 

[mercedes]

yay can't wait to stock the tank!

 

[jag3534]

Gotta love the breeder tank!...Keep up the great pics!

 

[mercedes]

got our rocks setup!

 

[gotfish]

You said it's a diy overflow, are the 50b's tempered or did you go through the back?

 

[braddo]

According to Aqueon's website the bottom of the 50 is tempred. I used an LCD screen and polarized glasses to look at all the glass on the tank and none of it including the bottom looked tempered but I drilled the back just to be safe.

I used this method to look at the glass. http://www.salt-city.org/showthread.php?t=9542 It works really well, you can clearly see black and white banding on tempred glass.

 

[braddo]

Well we filled the tank with water a few days ago, just waiting for it to finish cycling.

Also I hope our new ReefKeeper temperature sensor isn't calibrated correctly.

The tank with the lights and heater off is sitting at 81.5f with the MH lights on it is at 83.5. I am hoping to borrow a lab grade temp and ph probe this weekend to get everything calibrated precisely.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

looks fantastic, looks like you get a lot of rock for 40lbs.. very light i guess...

 

[braddo]

I've decided dry rock is the way to go, we have more in the tank than we need plus some in the sump and a bag full of rubble. With dry rock you get more rock since you aren't paying for something saturated with water and you also don't have to worry about hitchhikers.

With this tank we are going to try to be more careful about what goes into it. I don't want to worry any more about some mystery creature that hitched a ride into our tank from a new coral or piece of live rock.

 

[mercedes]

how long before we can add inverts + copepods? i was planning on ordering critters at around the 4 week mark. thinking about 150 dwarf ceriths + 50 nerites from reefcleaners.org or reeftopia.com. is that too many for a tank w/out any coral or livestock?

 

[Myteemouse]

tthats alot of snails
from what I've learned if there is not enough food for the snails they will die,

 

[gotfish]

how long before we can add inverts + copepods? i was planning on ordering critters at around the 4 week mark. thinking about 150 dwarf ceriths + 50 nerites from reefcleaners.org or reeftopia.com. is that too many for a tank w/out any coral or livestock?

I would say so. The main problem with having dead rock like that is there is no micro algae that would normally be on LR. I'd say run over to BR and get yourself one of the 20 for $20 clean up crews. Get 10 astraea and 10 nerites and you'll be fine. In my 125g I've only got about 40 snails total and they do a pretty good job along with the 2 blennies of keeping the glass cleaned.

Like Mytee posted, if you have too many snails and not enough food, you're gonna start finding a lot of shells.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

tthats alot of snails
from what I've learned if there is not enough food for the snails they will die,

Very true, and if just one snail dies it can polute the system within 8-10 hours, they decay SUPER fast. From there it's then a chain reaction of dying snails and before you know it you are doing a 99% waterchange! Yeah i've had it happen lol.

 

[mercedes]

ok holding off on the snails until we establish the tank and get a better idea of our clean up crew needs. btw guess what brad brought home the other day?

not sure why the photo isn't showing up. here you go: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KenlB-OS6RA/SjlVSQXyY9I/AAAAAAAAKl4/JzYcPXuMRk0/s400-h/vortech_mp40w.jpg

so now we're running a single half-a-beer-can-sized powerhead that does the fancy pulsing wave action. this is quite a difference from our little tank, which is running 3 bulky, real-estate-hogging koralia nanos.

 

[gotfish]

The mp40 will work great on that tank.

 

[OCDreefer]

black sand.... tempting!

 

[jag3534]

Hey Mercedes, Reef Hot Spot has blue spot jawfish on sale for 69.99...... Just so you know.... lol... sorry Brad

 

[Chichas01]

Did you guys build that stand? Nice work.

 

[braddo]

Thanks, I did build it myself. I was pretty happy with how it came out considering I had to use a circular saw for most of the cuts. Some day when I own a house I hope to have a table saw and better selection of tools.