440 SPS Build (SPS Newb)

[duryeah]

Well I decided I wanted to finally dip my toes in the SPS world. My current 120 gallon LPS/ Softie tank is doing quite well. I decided to go as big as I could with the space I have available. So here is what I have ordered so far. Hoping to get some input from everyone. I am on jury duty now, so I will add more on my breaks.

Here is what I have purchased so far:

AGE (Acrylic and Glass Exhibits) Aquarium
3/4 inch, 114 x 35.5 x 24.75
Front Pane Starfire
Bottom Pain 1 Inch PVC
Stainless Steel Bracing along the top of the tank
Coast to Coast Internal Overflow with lid
Polished Edges
Steel Stand powder coated black, with a separated area for electronics.
The stand will be skinned with treated reclaimed wood
I elected to have the stand made to be 42" tall so I dont have to bend down to look into the front pane like I do with my current tank.

Synergy Reef SS-48 Sump.
89 Gallons
Smoke Grey Color
48x24x18
4 x 4" sock holders
3 x 1.5 inch drain bulkheads
2 x 1 inch return bulk heads
Lids for sock, refugium, and return areas
Adjustable baffle
Dosing Lines
Probe Holder
LED Lighting
Etched Measure Markings for skimmer

Matching 10 gallons ATO container 18X8X18

[sfsuphysics]

Good luck, doing well with lps&softies is a completely different game than sps

[uvijaya]

looking forward to it, congrats!

[NeverlosT]

well geez based on your tank/sump you are off to an awesome start! That is a combo that I would love to have. Good luck! I'd love to see pictures!

[Usernam Invalid]

Nice tank dimensions can't wait to see some pics

[bullitr]

very nice will

[duryeah]

Thanks guys! Those of you with SPS experience feel free to chime in. I have been pretty busy, but here is the first draft of the CAD drawing. Suggestions??

[ADVRESOURCE]

I'm doing a 240. New to sps too. Leaning a lot from Rc and a lot of extracurricular reading. My build is quite the experience. I too was into softies and lps before. I'll be following your build.

[FattyK21]

WOW this is gonna be a great one
Good luck

[duryeah]

Hey guys, long time no update. Lot has happened over the last few months. I ended up moving to Connecticut to be closer to my wife's family. We bought a new house, and are doing some work on it. Should be moving in by June. I have the tank, stand, sump, etc in a huge storage locker ready to go.

Right now I am working with a guy to build me a custom reef scape. Here are my thoughts:

I am not a good artist, but here is a quick idea of what I am thinking. The top one is the top view. Bottom is front view. And if you looked at it from the side of the tank, ideally you would see a circle. The ends of the "DNA" would have an upper and a lower end, with both uppers at the back pane, and both lowers at the front pane. I envision that they would branch out and create a bit more mass at the end points. Also there would be a few branches and caves and stuff all along the body as well. Also here is a picture of the DNA that inspired this (just ignore the lines in the middle.)

Feedback would be appreciated.

[duryeah]

So last night I attempted to mock up a skeleton of this myself. I bought some 1/2 inch PVC, and a bunch of 45 degree fittings. I tried doing it with 15 inch runs of PVC between the elbows, and with 7.5 inch runs between the elbows.

I was not able to really pull off a convincing circular look. Any one have any ideas?

I am still waiting for the rock manufacturer to get back to me as to whether or not he even wants to attempt making this. If not, and if I cannot figure it out, I might make one or two huge arches and call it a day...

[duryeah]

Finally got a closing date on a house. June 23rd. Tank is scheduled to be delivered on June 26th. Currently trying to wrangle people to help carry it into the house. I have T5 lighting for this thing. I have the T5 LED bulbs for it. Any one have experience with these? Should I supplement with LED lighting as well, and if so what type? Or should I just stick to the bulbs? going to be trying SPS for the first time.

Thanks, Will

[CrayolaViolence]

Lots of people have great growth with T5. Jason Fox of Jason Fox corals apparently only uses Actinic bulbs over his set up and very few at that.

[ClownNut]

Originally Posted by duryeah

Finally got a closing date on a house. June 23rd. Tank is scheduled to be delivered on June 26th. Currently trying to wrangle people to help carry it into the house. I have T5 lighting for this thing. I have the T5 LED bulbs for it. Any one have experience with these? Should I supplement with LED lighting as well, and if so what type? Or should I just stick to the bulbs? going to be trying SPS for the first time.

Thanks, Will

if you talking about E5, stay away.
i bought some when they first release, par is half of the T5. same energy use. all of them arrived bent, even thought the box was in perfect shape. some will not work, unless you turn the bulb slightly every time you want them to turn on. few completely burned out within 1 year of use with the redsea tank.

[Mishri]

Have any source for that info CrayolaViolence? I did some digging and the only info I can find is him saying he uses all types of lighting, MH, T5, and LED. From reflections of tank pictures it looks like he uses the standard 8 bulb per 2 ft of tank space on his 400 gallon cube.

So. yep.. T5 can work, 8 bulbs would be ideal for growth, 4 bulbs can work though. I'm planning on using 4 bulb T5 lighting on my 300g, use the mix of colors you like the look of(there are some Youtube videos that show different combinations). I think Jason Fox uses all actinic because he likes the neon pop... I don't like the unnatural lighting look.

I expect I'll need to keep my SPS, especially acro near the top of the tank, and birdsnest or some that are said not to require as much near the bottom. I'm also an SPS noob and plan on finally getting into (Although I've been planning on getting into SPS for about 10 years now, starting with my 24g 150MH lit cube.. and then kept moving/changing my mind/tank).. From the research i've done stronger lighting, flow, and stable parameters are all you really need vs sofites/LPS.. saying it sounds easy..

The lighting can impact the color of the SPS too though, many people report best coloring under Metal Halide, some say LED, some say 8x T5... The reason I'm going with 4xT5 is it wouldn't be too hard for me to add in 2 more 48" 4x T5 bulbs and go up to 8 if I want to, cost is lower than LED, some people have trouble with LED lights, and Metal halides run hot.. and I don't want to buy a chiller if I can avoid it.

[Mishri]

Oh yeah, ClownNut pointed out something I missed.. T5 LED? Do you have a link to what you have exactly?

I've read mostly poor reviews on those products, and first time going into SPS i'd use a tried and true light source, metal halide or standard T5 lights, so that if you run into problems you wont need to question the light.

[duryeah]

Originally Posted by ClownNut

if you talking about E5, stay away.
i bought some when they first release, par is half of the T5. same energy use. all of them arrived bent, even thought the box was in perfect shape. some will not work, unless you turn the bulb slightly every time you want them to turn on. few completely burned out within 1 year of use with the redsea tank.

Yes the E5 bulbs are the ones that I am talking about. They are from Euroquatics. And now I see that they are no longer for sale. I bought them about a year ago. I will still try to use them, at least in the beginning, will report my findings here. Hope that I have better luck, but if not, lesson learned: do not hop on the new product bandwagon :0

[duryeah]

Originally Posted by Mishri

Oh yeah, ClownNut pointed out something I missed.. T5 LED? Do you have a link to what you have exactly?

I've read mostly poor reviews on those products, and first time going into SPS i'd use a tried and true light source, metal halide or standard T5 lights, so that if you run into problems you wont need to question the light.

Sound reasoning there. Thank you for the input.

[duryeah]

Ok so this is taking a bit longer than hoped. We have been in the house for a month now. Could not get the tank stand through any doors. We have ordered a wide 42 inch door. Luckily my father in law is a carpenter so he will cut out the old 36 inch door and put in this new one, then I will finally be able to get the tank in. I have all equipment ready to go. Going to cook some rock in the next week or so from my last build as well. So I am off to search how to do that exactly

[BZOFIQ]

Is everybody seeing this photobucket nonsense or is it just me?

[duryeah]

weird. that was not there earlier today. I will look into it. Does anyone have a better way to upload pics onto RC? I was planning to start loading pics this week.

[duryeah]

ok, yeah that is not gonna work. They want to charge 400 a year to have your pics be able to work on here...

[kookie_guy]

Yup, photobucket decided to dig their grave by trying to charge obscene annual rates to let you share pics. You can still share your album where people will have to be redirected to photobucket to view your pics. I used to love photobucket, but it seems that over the years they've been taking a steep nose dive. This insane new fee structure was the nail in the coffin.

[JonCubb]

Originally Posted by kookie_guy

Yup, photobucket decided to dig their grave by trying to charge obscene annual rates to let you share pics. You can still share your album where people will have to be redirected to photobucket to view your pics. I used to love photobucket, but it seems that over the years they've been taking a steep nose dive. This insane new fee structure was the nail in the coffin.

I almost choked on my sammich when I saw their rates. They've lost their minds over there..

[WLachnit]

Very frustrating what photobucket has done. A lot of great threads have been severely impacted by this.