29 Gallon Custom

[matt_longview]

This is my tank thread. I'll keep track of my progress through some pics and such. Doing a lot DIY. I just love projects and working on things myself. Doesn't look as perfect, but it's MINE! Haha.

So the first thing I did was start out with a normal 29g. Then I took the rim off. Controversial topic for some. Some believe it will not be strong enough to hold the water correctly. The tank manufacturer said it would be fine but would void the warrenty... so... I took it off. :-)

Rim Off

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[matt_longview]

Next I built an in-tank refugium. I had some help coming up with the design and it was a FANTASTIC design. Here it is.

Thanks Donnie!

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After lots of cutting, drilling ect here's a basic picture of that project.

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I have a Rio +1100 pumping 380gph through a Hydor rotating deflector into the main tank. A Rio 90 pumping 85gph through the chemipure reactor (which I'm planning to build tomorrow night), and a Koralia Nano 240 powerhead on the opposite side of the tank for more flow that I can actually control and send towards high flow corals. This should leave me with a high flow area below the deflector at 380gph, a medium flow in the middle where the koralia is pointing and a low under the koralia on the opposite side (wish me luck on this! lol).

[matt_longview]

For lighting I have the Evolution LED 14k light that will be suspended over the tank. This light is beautiful and modern looking with a black finish. I'm going to LOVE it hanging over my rimless tank.

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The Evolution LED is a 119w light with 60 blue LEDs and 59 white LEDs. This thing looks B-E-A-Utiful. Brings colors out in corals that I've never seen before. Has two power cords to control the blues and whites independently and an on/off switch on the top that will turn off JUST the whites. I really like that because if you're showing someone your tank you just HAVE to turn off the whites and let those blues light things up like a black light. The lights are not dimmable (only downside!). Others have said that the first generation of these lights were loud. The one I have isn't!

[matt_longview]

I don't quite have everything up and running (should by next week), but a buddy of mine who lives just a few minutes from my house is selling some things and I just had to have them (it was all EXACTLY what I was looking for!). So here's my first live purchase for my tank. A pair of clowns that are hosting in green hairy mushrooms. I grabbed the clowns and approx 40lbs of live rock with corals on them. I was hoping to set up a shelf rock and have the clowns host in the top middle, well the green hairy mushrooms were all over a shelf rock so I bought that shelf rock and enough to stack it up and maybe another around it for now. I'll likely add more rock later, but here's my green hairy mushrooms and one of my clowns (who just happened to dart across the mushrooms while I was taking their picture) taken under the 14k LED light (I took it to his house to check it out).

The pic is overexposed so it doesn't look exactly right (never does right!), but it still looks like heaven to me.

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[coralreefer]

Nice looking project. I would have been terrified to take the rim off!

Got any shots of the full tank with the LED lamp?

[matt_longview]

Not yet. I purchased the rock and fish but they're still in my friend's tank. It's giving me a little more motivation to get everything completed! I'll have it up and everyone in by next week. I'm only moving them 5 minutes down the road, so I won't have a cycle. I'll just move everyone right in and hope they're all happy!

[matt_longview]

Put my reactor together today. Using it for Chemi-pure Elite 6.5oz. It's a 10" gravel vac with a 1/2 input. Snagged the plumbing parts at lowes. Drilled a hole through it all and put a pin through to hold it all together. Drilled holes above where the chemipure will be for the water to escape up top. An $18 reactor that only took 15 minutes to put together seems fantastic to me! :-)

[matt_longview]

New pics of everyone. They're all in my tank now. This was day 1, so I still had some sand that needed to settle in the pics and all. I also get my purigen and chemi-pure in today, so those will clear things up very quickly.

[matt_longview]

The sand has settled and the water is crystal clear now so MUCH better pictures including a full tank shot. Got lucky on the snail shot. Was taking a pic of him hanging upside down and then he started to slip so I just snapped away! :-)

[kleankord]

amazing.

[ERIKATHORNBURG]

Very nice!

[matt_longview]

Here's a video. Make sure you watch it in HD!

[Joncelone]

Great tank! I have some mushrooms like that and my clown hosts in them all lol. You should look into getting some torch coral or hammer coral.

[matt_longview]

Got a few new frags from a co-op in my area. Here are a few pics... Please ignore the blue background in the full tank shot. After I looked at these pictures I slapped myself and changed it to black. There won't be terrible bubbles in my background next set of pictures. lol.

Green Sinularia


Velvet Hand Montipora Digitata


Frogspawn


Full Tank Shot

[matt_longview]

New pics of some frags that I picked up as a part of my local aquarium keepers club's coop program.





And another (better) pic of my velvet finger montipora digitata. I'm finally getting the manual settings on this Canon 30D figured out!

[matt_longview]

A few pics of my new maxima. These pics were taken through a yellow filter on my camera. Once you custom white balance through the yellow filter it makes everything look natural... almost like a 6500k or something. Not my favorite view or colors but it's different. Still just more proof of me playing around with the manual settings on my camera.

I'm still trying to find the perfect setting on my camera for white balance. I think that's the biggest deal. It takes good quick sharp pictures no problem, the colors are the only thing I'm still fiddling with.

Had my first "perfect" water quality test results this week also. 0 Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates and Phosphates. Sadly... I'd like to have a few nitrates for my small clam... so I'm going to stop being so darn particular for a few days and see if I can get them up to and keep them around 5.







My manual white balance is night and day better than the automatic white balance though... check this out... ewwww.


And here's a pic of my pink birdsnest frag. I already see growth on my SPS. A good 1/4 inch on my red monti cap in a few weeks.

[mtraylor]

That is the tiniest frog spawn I have ever seen. Very Nice!

[matt_longview]

He's already bigger than he was when I got him! lol. He was free! A friend of mine's frogspawn is dropping babies off every few weeks. Everybody in my entire town is going to have one of his frogspawns before long!

Tank is looking Great ! The trimless makes me nervous, but it looks awsome. Manufacturer told you it would be ok because if it gives out they know you will have to buy another due to the voided warranty. They can be sneaky that way

[matt_longview]

Haha. I put this thing through the gauntlet after taking that rim off. I was making sure it held! Then with the additions I made it only made it stronger. I'm not worried about it. Believe me... if that little black 1/16 inch piece of plastic is between my tank holding or failing... EVERYONE needs to be concerned! lol

[matt_longview]

Got some new coral frags yesterday. Just some small stuff. A small purple tipped acro frag, a 3 head green acan (hasn't opened up for pictures yet) and a tri-color green mouth, orange and blue ricordia (in the process of splitting... maybe into 3). The ricordia looks good in this picture, but looks AMAZING under just my blue LEDs, seriously glows bright orange. Sadly... I cannot get a picture to look right at all! Perhaps I'll try to get the acan to open with some brine tonight and get some pics of the ricordia under the blue LEDs.

Update on SPS... everything is doing well. Sour Apple Birdsnest and Pink Birdsnest are both living up to their reputation of growing very quickly. Red Monti Caps are growing very quickly as well. Other SPS are showing signs of growth for sure.... but nothing noticeable after only a week and a half.

[matt_longview]

Ordering several frags. They'll be here on Wednesday.

Frags from these zoa colonies.
Mellow Yellows


LE Goblin Fire


Ya Mon Reverse Rastas


Ked Reds


The rest of these are WYSIWYG.
Candy Apple Zoas


Aussie Reverse Prism Favia


Dendro


War Coral


Duncans


Favia


Meteor Shower

[BrianG]

I expect pictures by Thursday!!

[matt_longview]

I'll be disappointed with myself if they're not up Wednesday afternoon. :-D lol

[matt_longview]

The zoas and meteor shower shipment had to wait. Reefkoi was out of town when the guy I'm getting the zoas from was going to try to pick up the Meteor Shower, so I'm waiting till Friday for those. Also... it looks like I'm going to grab a plate coral instead of the other reverse prism favia. Just too much green in my tank right now. The plate coral is a great bright pink. I'm pretty excited about that one. :-)

Here are the reefpets.com auction frags in my tank. They've only been in for about 20 minutes when this pic was taken. I put some brine on them and the duncans opened up about 20 minutes later. The war coral and favia were showing their tentacles. Everything looks very healthy.

These pictures were taken with no tank lights on. Just room lighting. I'm leaving my tank lights off for the acclimation.

Dendro


Duncan - It's fully extended now... but wasn't at the time of the picture obviously.


Favia


War Coral

[BrianG]

[matt_longview]

Tears of joy I hope. Lol.

Now I have a difficult decision between some very sick acan frags. I don't know which to get!!!!

[BrianG]

Tears that you out bid me first, and then for the zoas being delayed. I did'nt get to see these pics at work for some reason. Look good!

[matt_longview]

Here's the picture roll. All taken tonight. You can really see some serious growth on a few of the SPS. The montipora digitata is growing like a maniac. The birdsnests have new branches coming out all over and the green one I can see is encrusted almost all the way to the rock. Green slimer seems to only be getting wider, but looks healthy. The zoas, the acan and the meteor shower just came in today. So they are not all the way opened up and will still be getting used to the new lighting and all for a bit.

Maxima Clam. He's usually not opened up like this. I moved him today (he still does not seem interested in attaching).


Yellow Zoas with Red Skirts - This was a freebie that Mike threw in.


Pink Birdsnest


Green Slimer


Meteor Shower


Montipora Digitata


Sour Apple Birdsnest


War Coral


LE Goblin Fire Zoas (Not opened all the way, they will have another ring of light purple inside of the skirts when they're open)


Candy Apples - Not open all the way and not colored up all the way


Duncan


Toxic Favia


Ya' Mon' Reverse Rastas - Not opened fully but still look amazing! Camera can't pick it up.


Keds Reds Zoas - Look RIDICULOUS under blues but camera can't catch the color.


Freebie Zoas under Blue LEDs


Green Slimer under Blues


Duncan under Blues


War Coral under Blues


Full Tank Shot under Blues


Full Tank Shot


Saving the best for last...
This SICK Acan

[BrianG]

Ok, I bought a 2.5 gallon last night to put some sexy shrimp in and before doing so your tank came to mind so I decided to de-rim the top of the tank, fail. I got to the last 3 inches of trim and cracked the glass. Very sad going to buy another one tonight and just leave the darn thing alone, lol. Any tips, or tricks to get the trim off?

Great tank, fantastic livestock and great pictures.
I'm going to be following this thread for sure.

[matt_longview]

Ok, I bought a 2.5 gallon last night to put some sexy shrimp in and before doing so your tank came to mind so I decided to de-rim the top of the tank, fail. I got to the last 3 inches of trim and cracked the glass. Very sad going to buy another one tonight and just leave the darn thing alone, lol. Any tips, or tricks to get the trim off?

I took a razorblade around the edge under the trim (on both sides, inside and outside of the tank) to disconnect it from the glass on the sides first. Then I literally cut through the plastic with a saw on each side of each corner (the corners are where the plastic is connected best). Then just pull slowly basically. I actually pulled up on the plastic with a pair of pliers and broke off small pieces. :-)

[matt_longview]

Great tank, fantastic livestock and great pictures.
I'm going to be following this thread for sure.

Thanks. :-) I'll be updating often.

I've got all the frags placed throughout my tank. I've moved two since placing them. My reverse rastas where getting poked all the time by my bristle star so I moved them, will have to remount them again soon. I've also got my duncan waiting on the sand bed until I get a new bottle of superglue gel. All of my frags that are on my rocks are off of frag plugs and mounted to the rock. Looks great without all the plugs! :-) I have the plugs that are on the sand bed hidden in the sand as well.

agreed, getting rid of the plugs makes a huge difference. It all looks great.

[matt_longview]

Here's the new fish... my Mandarin Goby. Before anyone gets upset that a mandarin is in a 29g let me say this. He is eating frozen. He actually seems to completely ignore my live pods, he's likely tank raised. He stayed at the store he was at for over a month. During that time he ate only frozen foods and he is still fat. Before I picked him up I worked out with a bud of mine who has a 220 that if he starts getting skinny he is getting a new mandarin! lol.




Another pic of the Purple Deaths


Yellow Zoas


My Clam... I'm beginning to wonder... Crocea or Maxima?


My Clowns, still no names. Might end up sticking that way...




Goblin Fire Zoas, finally fully opened and looking great.


Here they are under the blues. They look better in person. The orange skirts are amazing.


Dendro - I love this thing!


Kedd Redds - Not a great pic... but the best I've been able to get thus far.


My duncan has grown a TON since I picked it up. Still looking great. I still need to attach it to the rock.


Pink Birdsnest... not a good pic. Didn't get a good one. Only shown for growth.


Candy Apple Red Zoas - My favorite thing in the tank right now. I can see why people are paying $20 a polyp in some places!


My frogspawn. His tentacles are not out in this pic... he is much larger when they are. Has to be double the size he was when I got it from gabe. :-)

[matt_longview]

I remodeled a website (http://www.thecoralshop.com) and the guy is paying me in corals. So... here's the list! If anyone wants any stuff from him the shipping is already paid for and pickup would be in Longview TX.

I'm going to wait until things heal from fragging, so just a few weeks and they're headed my way!
Derasa Clam ~3.5in


Ultra Blue Maxima Clam


Single eye frag from this QuadraMelon Chalice Colony


Single eye frag from this Ultra Gold Chalice Colony


This Ultra Gold Torch Coral


EITHER

This Flame Thrower Maxi-Mini Anemone


Or - My wife asked me if I would get this pink one instead of the flamethrower...


Hmmm... any thoughts? I suppose that bright of a pink color would be pretty difficult to get into a tank elsewhere.

Whoo hoo! I'm really pumped about these corals. So... the plan now is to move my 29g into my 37g tall bowfront by June of this year. I'll definitely need the space and I need this light to be over a deeper tank because I've got too much par at the bottom of my 18" tank for some of these.

If you guys want anything from his site let me know. Shipping is covered. Pickup in Longview TX (2 hours East of Dallas)

[matt_longview]

Flamethrower it is. :-)

He said he had another Derasa that I could pick from. Man am I glad I checked into it. I've never seen a color pattern like this on a Derasa Clam. I'm getting this one instead of the one above. :-)

[matt_longview]

Ordered a cuc from http://www.reefcleaners.org and got it in today. The USPS site said two days for the default ground shipping, so I didn't worry about upgrading. It ended up taking three days so I was a little worried, but... turns out there was no reason to worry. Got all of the snails in and they all seem just fine. I might have 5% that didn't make it.

They are a great site with absolutely unbeatable prices. I got TONS more stuff than I ordered. In some cases more than double the amount of a particular snail type. Couldn't say enough about them. Will order from them again for sure!

Also changed up my orders a bit. Not getting the chalice frags (was concerned about my par being too high) or the blue maxima; instead getting an open brain coral, rainbow monti, garf bonsai acro, pink millepora, and lord of the rings zoas. :-) Half of those should be in Saturday, the rest likely Wednesday of next week.

[matt_longview]

The new stuff is in. Everyone is attached and in place. The pictures never can do these corals justice... but I try!

Mini-Maxi Anemone, Open Brain Coral, Reverse Sunset Montipora, Derasa Clam, Torch Coral are from http://www.thecoralshop.com

Pink Millepora, Garf Bonsai Acro and Lord of the Rings Zoas are from acro on dfwmas

Here comes the eye candy...

Flamethrower Mini-Maxi Anemone


Pink Millepora


Reverse Sunset Montipora - Looks so much better in person


Garf Bonsai Acro


Derasa Clam


Open Brain Coral - I've got him under the rock right now, will slowly acclimate him to the lighting.


Lord of the Rings Zoas - So much better in person...


Purple and Gold Torch Coral - In person this thing is so much more colorful, LA Lakers jersey colors yellow and purple. At the time this had only been in the tank for 20 or 30 minutes and was not fully open. It's looking amazing now! :-)


Full Tank Shot


Mini-Maxi Under Blue LEDs


Lord of the Rings Zoas Under Blue LEDs



Updated Stock List:
Fish - Two Clown Fish, Mandarin Dragonet (eating frozen, not typically a good choice for a nano!), Green Goby
Clean Up Crew - banded coral shrimp, Strawberry Crab, 10 Florida Cerith Snails, 10 Nerite Snails, 7 Nassarius Vibex Snails, 2 Astrea Snails, approx 50 Dwarf Cerith Snails and 10 Mixed Hermits (Scarlet Reef, Blue Legged, and Red Legged)
Soft Corals - Devils Hand, Cabbage Leather and Green Sinularia.
Mushrooms - Rhodactis (Green Striped), Superman Mushrooms, Tri-Color Ricordia & Green Hairy Mushrooms (Just for your info... if someone had a "kills all mushrooms and nothing else bomb, I'd use it!)
LPS - Gold Torch Coral, Frogspawn, Green Duncan, Tri-Color (Red, Yellow, Green) Open Brain Coral, Meteor Shower and a Prism Favia
SPS - Red Monti Cap, Sour Apple Birdsnest, GARF Bonsai Acro, Velvet Finger Montipora Digitata, Unknown (Light brown w/ purple polyps), Pink Millepora, Green Slimer, Reverse Sunset Montipora and Pink Birdsnest
Clams - Gold Maxima and Gold (but darker than most, almost a burnt orange) Derasa
Zoa/Paly - Candy Apple Reds, Keds Reds, LE Goblin Fire, Purple Deaths, Lord of the Rings, Unnamed Yellow w/ Orange Skirt Zoa and Ya' Mon Reverse Rastas
Other - Flamethrower Mini-Maxi Anemone and Dendro

[matt_longview]

Alrighty... so tonight everyone was in for good, the mini-maxi was fully spread out, the torch was extended so I setup the tripod and took the pictures for real. Sorry for such similar pics, I just need to be more patient and not take pics the day of free hand. Just wait and do it right the first time next time. lol. Here they come...

Mini-Maxi Anemone


Derasa Clam - I really need to get a top-down camera rig for these clams...


Open Brain - Still can't wait for this guy to be up front when he's acclimated!


Group Shot - Mini Maxi, Tri-Color Ricordia, Derasa Clam and others


Duncan


Torch Coral - I need to get a shot of this guy at feeding time for you guys. I think it would extend more in lower flow, but it's in the lowest flow area of my tank that I've got. Got any ideas for lowering the flow right under the primary return that causes my gyre?


Group Shot - Focus on Maxima Clam


Group Shot - Focus on Lord of the Rings Zoas


Group Shot - Focus on Sour Apple Birdsnest


Group Shot - Focus on GARF Bonsai Acro


Macro Shot - Green Slimer


Macro Shot - Pink Birdsnest


Under Blue LEDs - Mini-Maxi Anemone


Under Blue LEDs - Derasa Clam


Under Blue LEDs - Open Brain Coral


Under Blue LEDs - Duncan


Under Blue LEDs - LE Goblin Fire Zoas


Under Blue LEDs - Candy Apple Red Zoas


Under Blue LEDs - Torch Coral


Under Blue LEDs - Lord of the Rings Zoas