Nick G's 27 Gallon reef tank

I am currently in the works of setting up a 27 gallon reef tank, and will be making the change from my 6 to the 27 once it has completed cycling. I will be posting the start of the build thread over the next few days.

YAY!!!! New aquarium under construction!

I love me some build threads!! Now lets get this thing going!

So far I will cover the setup of the tank up to current date.

To start with the DIY LEDs. They include 21 leds in total with two fans on an aluminium heatsink, the fans and leds are on individual drivers. I did not make these myself, I bought them from ramon (he also gave me his canopy!)








The tank with the leds on





The stand in the building




The new top. Sadly the stand measured 18.5 by 23 and my tank is 20x18, so I got a 24x24 inch piece of wood and painted it black









The tank is setup with a SeaClone Skimmer rated for up to a 100gallon tank, a koralia 750, a penguin biowheel 350, and the nano cube 28 gallon stand from drsfosterandsmith.com.


Skimmer day it came in, couldn't run it because I was waiting on the sand to settle



I tried to show the super cool twister it makes! I'll upload a video and a review of it later on.




I used live sand that we had, and got 40 pounds of live rock from forum member freakonaleash from reefcentral, along with a nice favia which is currently in my 6 gallon




Sadly the favia got too much light in his tank, but its recovering and will look great in my new tank!


Tank now that its cleared up



Supposedly the story with this perfect cave is that it was created by a cannon ball. I cannot remember what store he said he got it from, but he said they still have the cannon ball.

Looking gooooood

how's that seaclone working for you? I never could figure out how to make it work without getting micro-bubbles into the tank..

Thanks Eric!

I was worried about the micro-bubbles after reading reviews on it, but it is working incredibly well, and I haven't had a single issue with the skimmer! So far its working perfectly, and hopefully it will stay that way!

Love it! Keep us posted!!

I am soooo happy your upgrading from the dreaded Fluval edge lol =] It looks awesome. I cant wait to get mine up and going, I think I may DIY my lights/ Canopy =P. These build threads are getting me excited for mine and I only have the tank to stair at lol.

-Ill be sure to Samantha!

-Yes I am glad to be moving to a bigger tank to that wont be quite so challenging for my hand to work on lol.
The Leds honestly look better to me than the T5s in our other tanks, and I'm glad to hear that your excited about your new tank, get a move on it!

=]

Ammonia!



Nitrites!



Nitrates!



These were the results yesterday! Good to go!

Got my cleanup crew today the total in the tank is:

Snails:
8 tonga nassarius, 3 Mexican turbo, 3 astreas, 12 Nerites, 1 abalone

Shrimp:
2 peppermint shrimp

Crabs:
12 blue legs, 5 red legs, 2 scarlets, a halloween hermit, and 2 emerald crabs (one ruby)

Grizzley found himself a nice spot, and my coco worm is open in the background




The ruby going to work!



Unfortunatly I got a picture of my new tankmate, but the SD card was in my computer and the cable is currently...hidden? lol So Maybe tomorrow when the lights are on I'll get some tankshots and some pictures of him!

mangoman wrote:

I love me some build threads!! Now lets get this thing going!

So Eric... I just realized that you don't have a showcase for EITHER of your tanks ... lol GET ON IT!

Looks great, Nicholas! I want to see a FTS, though

Green ORA leather from the St. Pier aquarium auction



UFO Favia


Mycidium



More Favias!!!



Meteor shower and a Favia from freakonaleash from RC


Lightning favia from MW the other day



Now the FTS's



Now for the new tank mate! My possum wrasse!

Everything looks great! Love the new wrasse; you need better pics of it, though. The FTS with the knife is strange...

Didn't you get the Meteor Shower from SRC??

Sorry about the knife lmao. I tried to clear it up by putting a favia from him. But hey you can't win them all, and I doubt anyone else remembers it was from SRC.

Nicholas41 wrote:

I tried to clear it up by putting a favia from him. But hey you can't win them all, and I doubt anyone else remembers it was from SRC.

I get it now. I read it wrong.

It happens. It was a tricky caption to post!

I may have to steal your lightning favia.. looks incredible!!!

Lol thanks Eric. I was torn between it and another one at MW, but bought this one even though it was WHOLE FIVE DOLLARS MORE! Lol Overall it was far different from the other favias I have so I snatched it up.

I am there quite often myself most of the time I don't have any cash on me whenever I see something I like :-p I have gotten some great deals from them in the past.

BTW What are the specs on your HOB filter? Just curious

My possum wrasse now has a name, he is Jim/jimbo!


and... My new Helfrichi dartfish!






The dynamic duo!

Micro bubbles galore from the skimmer... looks like eric was right