Fishy's Regency 220 "The Impulse Reef"

[Fishy 1]

Ok so here we are again.......didn't think I'd be getting a decent reef setup quite this soon but sometimes things are meant to be hahahaha.

The Fishy Backstory
I've been interested in fish and aquatic life for as long as I can remember and have been fishing since I could hold a rod, so ever since then I've been mesmerized by the world beneath the water.
So as soon as my dear mother thought I was responsible enough to take care of my own fish tank, she bought me one and we then stocked it with the usual bread and butter tropical fish.
I'm originally South African but my family and I have now move to Australia so that my sister and I could have a safe place to grow up.
So the first tank stayed setup for a number of years and did quite well until the time to move came and we had to sell the fish, I pleaded that we keep the fish tank and set it up when we moved over and that is what we did.
So fast forward a few years and a few tanks later the inevitable urge to move onto newer and more exciting things happened. That's when my interest shifted to marine tanks.
So I started researching all I could about the and started buying equipment for it. I was earning the massive sum of $50 a week from working on the weekend and as you can imagine it too a bit of saving to get the basic gear like heaters and powerheads. I got everything I needed to setup a 30G FOWLR tank and bought a single clownfish to start with and then I got a second one so they could be a pair, I still have both of them to this day .
So I then progressed to a bigger 65G tank that I kept my first coral in, a green hammer which I also still have. Build thread for that tank if you're interested: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2407090
I then setup a 42G shallow tank that did alright but it was nothing special. I took that tank down and replaced it with a 90G tropical tank and down graded the reef to a 40G breeder to house all the corals and fish. Build thread for the 42G if you're interested: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2424966
I then setup a 10G nano that did pretty well for the last year but the corals were never 100% happy because I couldn't keep things as stable as I would have liked.
That brings us to the setup at hand!! My AquaOne Regency 220. I work at a pet supply shop and manage all the fish we have there which is cool as I get to look at fish all day hahaha. So we got in four of these Regency's (two white and two black) and they sat there for a good few months so they were reduced by a substantial amount to try and sell them and it was very tempting to buy one but I really didn't need a bigger tank so I put that idea off.
We sold three of them and there was one left in white and at this stage I was really starting to miss not having a bigger reef tank to play with so I checked how much the tank was with my staff discount and when the figure came up I bought it then and there!! I had just impulse buyed my first brand new big setup, I was so excited with this fine purchase .


Ok so now that the boring back story is over and done with we can get onto the good stuff!!


Equipment
Tank: AquaOne Regency 220

Stand: Regency Stand

Skimmer: Still to Be Decided

Heater: AquaOne 300 Watt Thermosafe

Sump: Included 17G Sump

Return Pump: AquaOne Moray 3600 (Will probably upgrade it to something quieter!!)

Lighting: Undecided at this point but I have to options at hand LED and T5 HO. The LED I have is a Aquasun 36x3w with CREE LEDs and the T5 units are two 3x39w HOs, I may end up doing a test with both of those options but I'm leaning towards the T5's at this stage (need to get new globes for them).

Let The Build Begin!!

So once I got the tank home I began customizing it to suit the purpose of being a reef tank.
With the help of my housemate we made a bracket and bolted it to the back of the tank so that we could mount the light stands to hang the lights. We used a bit of timber and drilled for holes through it and the stand and bolted it to the back using stainless bolts, we used saddle clamps to hold the stands. The stands were then painted matt black.





I used a bit of silicon to seal around the top of the tank so that dust and salt don't get between the glass and the trim.
We then siliconed the return and the outlet pipes in place to guarantee there were no leaks, all was well until we cracked one of the fittings from over tightening it so off to the hardware store we went to get a replacement.
We let it dry over night and did a leak test, it passed with flying colours. So the tank was drained of the tapwater and left it overnight till we could fill it the next day with RO water. We mounted the light stands and then filled the tank, we let it run and heat up and it was time to add the salt.











The plan for this tank will be to have a thriving slice of reef, I would like for it to be SPS dominant eventually.

I need to get some live rock and that will probably be happening later this week. I'm dosing SeaChem Stability to get the system rocking in the right direction. I need to work out what skimmer I want to run on this tank as well.

Well that is everything that has happened so far with this build and congratulations if you made it this far

[Fishy 1]

Made a couple of changes to the sump today as a few of the design quirks were annoying me. Added a level between the top and bottom shelves to make the incoming water quieter and added a baffle just before the last one so that microbubbles are reduced in the display. Now I just have to let the silicone cure.



As for skimmers I'm liking the look of the Bubble Magus Curve 5's. They seem to be a pretty nice skimmer for the price, any thoughts on that skimmer or any other ones I should look at?

[martinphillip03]

Signed on! FYI, whatever Andrew says, I agree with.

Marty

[Fishy 1]

Originally Posted by martinphillip03

Signed on! FYI, whatever Andrew says, I agree with.

Marty

Awesome!! Good to have you on board the 3rd Fishy build, lets hope that three times the charm . Hahaha I agree but sometimes he's just silly


So the tank has cleared up a bit overnight, getting excited about getting some livestock into it. Should be getting some live rock off a mate very soon too. The honey tea is to help sooth my poor throat, hate getting sick



The new sump design is much better, its a lot quieter!! Put my little Bubble Magus skimmer onto it to help pull some of the cloudiness out of the water.

[martinphillip03]

What are the dimensions of your aquarium?

Marty

[Fishy 1]

Originally Posted by martinphillip03

What are the dimensions of your aquarium?

Marty

Sorry I forgot to mention that.

It 36" wide, 18" deep and 19" from the bottom of the tank to the water level (all up its about 22" with trim)

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[Fishy 1]

Got the base rock today and played around with the scape. After about an hour of messing around I'm happy with how its turned out.

[Fishy 1]

Just ordered the skimmer for the tank, a Bubble Magus Curve 5. Should be here mid next week.

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[markalot]

Subscribed.

Nice to see you back around Rory, good luck with this build! I like the scape as well.

[Fishy 1]

Originally Posted by markalot

Subscribed.

Nice to see you back around Rory, good luck with this build! I like the scape as well.

Thanks Mark its good to be back here again!! I hope it goes well, I know sort of what I'm doing this time round spin:. Glad you like it, I did add another rock under the left hand island to give it a bit more height but other than that its the same.

[Fishy 1]

Added a bit of hight to the left hand island and moved it around abit. I need to get some more putty so that I can get the small ledge to sit a little lower than it currently is but other than that I'm happy with how it looks, just needs corals

[Cliving1]

Looking good. Keep us updated with many pics!

[martinphillip03]

When do you plan on adding the corals? Will you be going to Deer Park Aquarium for corals? I like your rock work.

Marty

Originally Posted by Fishy 1

Added a bit of hight to the left hand island and moved it around abit. I need to get some more putty so that I can get the small ledge to sit a little lower than it currently is but other than that I'm happy with how it looks, just needs corals

[Fishy 1]

Originally Posted by Cliving1

Looking good. Keep us updated with many pics!

Thanks mate! I assure you there will be lots of pics hahaha

[Fishy 1]

Originally Posted by martinphillip03

When do you plan on adding the corals? Will you be going to Deer Park Aquarium for corals? I like your rock work.

Marty

I plan on adding my corals from my nano on the weekend. Unfortunately I will not be as unlike lucky Andrew!! I live on the otherside of the country and its a 5hr drive to a good reef shop, my local LFS doesn't carry many good corals. Thanks Marty glad you like the scape!

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[Fishy 1]

Decided to transfer my fish and corals over to the new tank today. Everyone looks to have handled the move well.







Very happy with how the tank is going so far.

Also did some cable managment in the cabinet to tidy things up a bit.





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[d2mini]

Looking real good so far.

[Fishy 1]

Originally Posted by d2mini

Looking real good so far.

Thanks mate, can't wait to see it progress!!

[cFloor]

Love the aquascape! Glad the fish and corals have transferred over well. good job

[Fishy 1]

Originally Posted by cFloor

Love the aquascape! Glad the fish and corals have transferred over well. good job

Glad you like it mate!! As am I, everything is looking nice and happy this morning

[Fishy 1]

So a quick update on the tank. Did a waterchange on the tank today and apart from the salinity being a bit high everything is looking great. Picked up two chromies, a duncan and a wall hammer today. Not sure how the wall hammer will go but we'll see how it does. Really happy with how its progressing so far.



With all the holidays at the moment my skimmer is taking its sweet time to get here, hopefully it will get here this week.

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[martinphillip03]

Looking good!

Marty

[Fishy 1]

Originally Posted by martinphillip03

Looking good!

Marty

Thanks Marty

[Fishy 1]

So to let everyone know that I'm actually still alive!! I have such a bad habit of not posting for ages 😂

So the tank has changed a bit, the scape has been redone to allow for more coral real estate. The scape is still incredibly open and free flowing for water so there are no deadspots behind the rock work, with a lot of caves and holes for the fish and inverts to go through.
The tank went through a very rough patch 5 months ago with lots of algae and a massive salinity spike from me loosing interest in the tank and not doing any maintenance on it. I got my butt into gear and have been doing weekly waterchanges ever since to bring things back into line.

I've added two Sicce Voyager 4 powerheads to add much needed circulation to the tank. Adding them has made me realize just how important proper water flow is in a reef!!

As for livestock additions, I've gone through about five blue chromis and all of them have wasted away slowly no matter how much I fed them. So I have stayed away from them for now. I have added a bicolour blenny that is doing really well, is super fat and happy and always busy. The tank is definitely on the small side for a tang but I did add a small bristletooth and he has been doing great, he hangs out with the clowns for most of the day and is always going over the rock work picking at the algae. For now he is happy in the tank but I will watch his size, I'm contemplating upgrading to a bigger tank in the future so he will go into that. I've recently added a bangaii cardinal who is doing really well.

As for corals. I've added a green monti, a couple of hammers, Zoas, Duncan's and an Xenia that has its own separate rock. The coral selection in my part of oz isn't the best and its a 5hr drive to the nearest good shop, so adding good pieces has been slower than I would like but oh well.

The tank is at the stage were waterchanges are starting to fall behind on replacing the elements used by the corals so I will have to start dosing soon. I'm also looking at upgrading the lighting to a more powerful unit, I'm looking at the SB reef lights at the moment for that.

Well enough of the chit chat and onto the pics!!

[martinphillip03]

Rory, glad your back. Tank looks good. Since your tank is mature, what future plans do you have? Why do you want to upgrade the lighting? thinking of adding SPS?

Marty