Matt's 29g Custom

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 06:55 PM

Condensed version of my tank build.

So... I started off with a typical 29g tank and took off the top. Ended up looking like this:

Next I modded the tank to include a filtering area, fuge and overflow from the main section of the tank similar to a JBJ. Donnie helped me with the design here:

And here's what it looked like after all of the cutting, drilling siliconing ect.

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 06:59 PM

I used a Rio +1100 380gph pump for the return (UPGRADED TO EHEIM COMPACT) and a Rio 90 85gph pump for the reactor (UPGRADED TO NEXT REEF SHORTY). Also placed a hydor rotating deflector on the return into the tank.

I'm using filter floss on the top shelf, chaeto in the middle (soon to be lit by a JBJ Nano-Glo), and 100ml of purigen on the bottom shelf. Using 6.5oz of Chemi-Pure Elite in the reactor (UPDATE: I now use the 12oz Chemi-pure).

For lighting I went with an Evolution LED 14k unit (COMING UPGRADE: RapidLED.com CREE DIY FIXTURE). Here's a spec sheet on the 20k unit. My unit has 60 blue LEDs and 59 white LEDs. The unit is 119w and each LED is a 1w LED. The unit is not dimmable but blues and whites each have their own power cord and their is a power button on the top of the light that turns off the whites for those times when you want to show the tank off with just the blues on. Here's the specs:

And here's an example of these lights hanging over a 240g. Not mine!

So I grabbed two clowns hosting in green hairy mushrooms from Jason and approx 22lbs of live rock. I also have 5lbs of live rock in my live rock rubble section in my fuge... if you were curious of my total. I will add more live rock later though.

Here are some pics of my tank fully set up on January 3rd 2011. Day 1 :-)

From this point I'll only post my major updates between now (Nov 1, 2011) and then.

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 07:03 PM

Update from April 9th, 2011

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 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

Updated Stock List:
Fish - Two Clown Fish, Mandarin Dragonet (eating frozen, not typically a good choice for a nano!), Green Goby
Clean Up Crew - Coral Banded 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 · 11/01/2011, 07:06 PM

A few videos of the tank taken April 21st, 2011.

14k Video Linkidy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsZjQqM7DBg

Blue LEDs only Linkidy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH89C0iDBiM

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 07:07 PM

May 20th Update:

Did a lot of work to the tank last night and this morning. Last night I did a really thorough cleaning where I blew off all of the rocks and stirred the sand around as I did my water change. Cleaned off all the glass this morning and such as well. Because of the cleaning I've got some diatoms this evening. They weren't there yesterday... and I doubt they'll be there tomorrow. At least I hope they're gone! ;-) I've got some new corals since the last time I took pics too. I've got two blue acros, one the more traditional blue and another that's a very light blue, looks almost white. I also got some procilipora (pink and green), a green birdsnest, orange digitata and a greyish-green with purple tips montipora. Also... added some rock and moved some things around. :-) Anywho... on with the show!

No blue LED pics yet... those will be on after 8, so I may update tonight with Blue LED pics.

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 07:09 PM

May 20th Blue LED pics:

Blue LED pics... :-)

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 07:11 PM

June 3rd Update: Macro shots of the dendro (removed it shortly after... didn't like feeding it every single day!)

Put together a few images of the Dendro. I've got a new head starting to grow on it finally!

The duncan is growing REALLY FAST. What was three heads with 1 baby head is now 4 heads with 6 baby heads.

Close up

Under Blue LEDs

Under the 14k's

More macro shots and a June full tank shot. It's also 6 months for my tank! :-)

Enjoy!

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 07:13 PM

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 07:17 PM

June 27th Update:

Finally took some pics with the whites on as well. I'm going with less light during the day while I fight off the GHA (which I'm beating, it's in retreat), so my whites are only on for 4 hours. That means they're off by 5pm, so they're usually off by my free time after supper in the evenings.

Got everything that I picked up from Jason placed in the tank. Everything is looking great. Only a few more things will go into the tank period. One is a purple monti-cap and another zoa of some kind but I'm going to wait until the SPS in that area grows so it has a head start... may just end up putting my candy apple reds up there though. :-) It's in the middle of those SPS in the upper right.

On with the eye candy...

Full Tank Shot

The new Hammer

I *LOVE* the growth pattern on this montipora digitata. I can only hope my orange one does this as well... (it took a little help from me, breaking a few pieces off and re attaching them around the main piece).

A rare pic of my green goby. I love this fish. He and my lawnmower blenny are battling for the Matt's Favorite Fish title.

Good shot of the war coral. It has grown down it's skeleton, over the frag plug, and has nearly covered up the epoxy and started growing on the rock.

Moved my Duncan a half inch over and tipped it a touch down so the babies along the bottom are now along the side. :-)

Lord of the Rings... BLUE! ;-)

Goblin Fire under Blues

The new location on my hammer completely changed the side view of my tank from eh... to Ohhhhhhhhh........

Don't tell my wife.... but he's the boss.

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 07:18 PM

August 27th Update:

The new chalice I won from the meeting is in and looking good. I wanted it up front, so I had to move a few things around to get it where I wanted it. Moved the duncan and the frogspawn over to the right. I had to move the duncan, the open brain and derasa were kicking it out! Here comes the eye candy...

New Chalice

Under Blue LEDs

Derasa & Open Brain

Great growth on this pink birdsnest

Snowflake Polyps - Already growing over the epoxy.

Clownfish Pair

Blasto Frag - It's lived this long... I think it's going to make it just fine! Looks absolutely beautiful. Can't wait until this is a nice colony of red & purple!

Candy Apple Red Zoas

Green & Purple Branching Hammer - When I got it (June 7th, my birthday... thanks Jason!) it had two heads... one has already split. It's got three heads now.

matt_longview · 11/01/2011, 07:20 PM

Finally, my last "past" update from Oct 4th, 2011:

Finally took some pics!

Full Tank Shot

Sour Apple Birdsnest

Pink Birdsnest

Check out the Derasa Clam! :-)

Lord of the Rings Zoas

Goblin Fire Zoas

War Coral

11/01/2011, 06:55 PM	#1
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	Matt's 29g Custom Condensed version of my tank build. So... I started off with a typical 29g tank and took off the top. Ended up looking like this: Next I modded the tank to include a filtering area, fuge and overflow from the main section of the tank similar to a JBJ. Donnie helped me with the design here: And here's what it looked like after all of the cutting, drilling siliconing ect.

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11/01/2011, 06:59 PM	#2
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	I used a Rio +1100 380gph pump for the return (UPGRADED TO EHEIM COMPACT) and a Rio 90 85gph pump for the reactor (UPGRADED TO NEXT REEF SHORTY). Also placed a hydor rotating deflector on the return into the tank. I'm using filter floss on the top shelf, chaeto in the middle (soon to be lit by a JBJ Nano-Glo), and 100ml of purigen on the bottom shelf. Using 6.5oz of Chemi-Pure Elite in the reactor (UPDATE: I now use the 12oz Chemi-pure). For lighting I went with an Evolution LED 14k unit (COMING UPGRADE: RapidLED.com CREE DIY FIXTURE). Here's a spec sheet on the 20k unit. My unit has 60 blue LEDs and 59 white LEDs. The unit is 119w and each LED is a 1w LED. The unit is not dimmable but blues and whites each have their own power cord and their is a power button on the top of the light that turns off the whites for those times when you want to show the tank off with just the blues on. Here's the specs: And here's an example of these lights hanging over a 240g. Not mine! So I grabbed two clowns hosting in green hairy mushrooms from Jason and approx 22lbs of live rock. I also have 5lbs of live rock in my live rock rubble section in my fuge... if you were curious of my total. I will add more live rock later though. Here are some pics of my tank fully set up on January 3rd 2011. Day 1 :-) From this point I'll only post my major updates between now (Nov 1, 2011) and then.

11/01/2011, 07:03 PM	#3
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	Update from April 9th, 2011 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 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 Updated Stock List: Fish - Two Clown Fish, Mandarin Dragonet (eating frozen, not typically a good choice for a nano!), Green Goby Clean Up Crew - Coral Banded 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

11/01/2011, 07:06 PM	#4
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	A few videos of the tank taken April 21st, 2011. 14k Video Linkidy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsZjQqM7DBg Blue LEDs only Linkidy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH89C0iDBiM

11/01/2011, 07:07 PM	#5
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	May 20th Update: Did a lot of work to the tank last night and this morning. Last night I did a really thorough cleaning where I blew off all of the rocks and stirred the sand around as I did my water change. Cleaned off all the glass this morning and such as well. Because of the cleaning I've got some diatoms this evening. They weren't there yesterday... and I doubt they'll be there tomorrow. At least I hope they're gone! ;-) I've got some new corals since the last time I took pics too. I've got two blue acros, one the more traditional blue and another that's a very light blue, looks almost white. I also got some procilipora (pink and green), a green birdsnest, orange digitata and a greyish-green with purple tips montipora. Also... added some rock and moved some things around. :-) Anywho... on with the show! No blue LED pics yet... those will be on after 8, so I may update tonight with Blue LED pics.

11/01/2011, 07:09 PM	#6
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	May 20th Blue LED pics: Blue LED pics... :-)

11/01/2011, 07:11 PM	#7
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	June 3rd Update: Macro shots of the dendro (removed it shortly after... didn't like feeding it every single day!) Put together a few images of the Dendro. I've got a new head starting to grow on it finally! The duncan is growing REALLY FAST. What was three heads with 1 baby head is now 4 heads with 6 baby heads. Close up Under Blue LEDs Under the 14k's More macro shots and a June full tank shot. It's also 6 months for my tank! :-) Enjoy!

11/01/2011, 07:13 PM	#8
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70

11/01/2011, 07:17 PM	#9
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	June 27th Update: Finally took some pics with the whites on as well. I'm going with less light during the day while I fight off the GHA (which I'm beating, it's in retreat), so my whites are only on for 4 hours. That means they're off by 5pm, so they're usually off by my free time after supper in the evenings. Got everything that I picked up from Jason placed in the tank. Everything is looking great. Only a few more things will go into the tank period. One is a purple monti-cap and another zoa of some kind but I'm going to wait until the SPS in that area grows so it has a head start... may just end up putting my candy apple reds up there though. :-) It's in the middle of those SPS in the upper right. On with the eye candy... Full Tank Shot The new Hammer I LOVE the growth pattern on this montipora digitata. I can only hope my orange one does this as well... (it took a little help from me, breaking a few pieces off and re attaching them around the main piece). A rare pic of my green goby. I love this fish. He and my lawnmower blenny are battling for the Matt's Favorite Fish title. Good shot of the war coral. It has grown down it's skeleton, over the frag plug, and has nearly covered up the epoxy and started growing on the rock. Moved my Duncan a half inch over and tipped it a touch down so the babies along the bottom are now along the side. :-) Lord of the Rings... BLUE! ;-) Goblin Fire under Blues The new location on my hammer completely changed the side view of my tank from eh... to Ohhhhhhhhh........ Don't tell my wife.... but he's the boss.

11/01/2011, 07:18 PM	#10
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	August 27th Update: The new chalice I won from the meeting is in and looking good. I wanted it up front, so I had to move a few things around to get it where I wanted it. Moved the duncan and the frogspawn over to the right. I had to move the duncan, the open brain and derasa were kicking it out! Here comes the eye candy... New Chalice Under Blue LEDs Derasa & Open Brain Great growth on this pink birdsnest Snowflake Polyps - Already growing over the epoxy. Clownfish Pair Blasto Frag - It's lived this long... I think it's going to make it just fine! Looks absolutely beautiful. Can't wait until this is a nice colony of red & purple! Candy Apple Red Zoas Green & Purple Branching Hammer - When I got it (June 7th, my birthday... thanks Jason!) it had two heads... one has already split. It's got three heads now.

11/01/2011, 07:20 PM	#11
matt_longview Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Longview, TX Posts: 70	Finally, my last "past" update from Oct 4th, 2011: Finally took some pics! Full Tank Shot Sour Apple Birdsnest Pink Birdsnest Check out the Derasa Clam! :-) Lord of the Rings Zoas Goblin Fire Zoas War Coral