# JD's 85 Gallon Build



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

After 18 months with a 46 Gallon, I was finally able to convince my accountant (a.k.a wife) to let me upgrade to a 85 Gallon.

Bought it off someone from AP. It is a shallow tank, front side is starphire. Dimensions are 48" by 24" by 18" high.

This is the equipment I have so far:

30 G Sump + 15 G Fuge
Eheim 1262 return pump
SRO 3000 Skimmer
2x Vortech MP40's
Tunze ATOS

2 BRS Reactors for GFO and Carbon, currently empty but Tee'ed off the return line.
1 Nextreef SMR-1 for Bio Pellets, currently empty

I just finished filling up the tank with RO water on Saturday, and tank is currently cycling. I used Dr Tim's Live Nitrifying Bacteria to kick start the cycle. And every 2-3 days, I will take about 1/2 Gallon of water from the existing tank.

Picture of tank right after its filled with RO water.









A couple minutes after turning on the return pump.









I forgot to take a picture of my aquascape before starting the return pump, I will post one when the water clears


----------



## RR37 (Nov 6, 2012)

Beautiful Dimensions, Interesting corner bracing what is the glass thickness ?

Looks like a great setup !


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Brace is 3/8" thick... Dont remember the sides 

I see everything fits under there now 

Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

RR37 said:


> Beautiful Dimensions, Interesting corner bracing what is the glass thickness ?
> 
> Looks like a great setup !


I will check tonight, but I think the glass was 1/2".


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

J_T said:


> Brace is 3/8" thick... Dont remember the sides
> 
> I see everything fits under there now
> 
> Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


Yes, everything fits perfectly under the stand.

Thanks to the custom Fuge and Top-Off tank for J_T Acrylics


----------



## thmh (Mar 17, 2011)

Good start!! Keep up with the progression shots! The only thing I would change is since your in the basement I would have gotten a bigger sump.


----------



## Shoryureppa (Jul 1, 2011)

Thats a sweet tank, love the depth! keep the pictures coming!


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

*Lights*

So the 8x T5 Fixture that I got as part of the set is not working properly, seems like a loose connection somewhere some the bulbs don't always turn on 

Since I was planning to switch to LED's sooner or later, now I don't feel bad about throwing away that T5 fixture 

I was originally thinking of doing a DIY LED system to cut costs, but after adding up all the parts it looks like a DIY system will cost about the same as two AI SOL's or AI Vegas.

So now I am having trouble deciding between DIY LED or AI Vegas or SOL's. I want to primarily have SPS in my tank.

These are the parts that I had for the DIY LED from modularled.ca:

Each LED module has 2 LED bulbs.

20 Cool White XP-E LED modules 
20 Royal Blue XP-E LED modules
4 Red/Green XP-E LED modules
4 Royal Blue XP-E LED modules (for moonlight)
4 Inventronics 75 W Drivers
+ Cables, Lenses

Total = 88 LED's (excluding moonlight)
Cost is about $900 (incl shipping + tax).

From rapidled (I prefer the black heatsinks from rapid led)
2 6"x20" Black heatsinks + Hanging kits = about $100 (incl shipping + tax)

From goreef.com:

2 AI Vegas + Hanging kit = $1167 (incl shipping + tax)
2 AI SOL + Hanging kit = $1011 (incl shipping + tax)

These are the pros and cons that I came up with:

DIY LED:
+ More PAR (i am assuming having that much more LED's should bring in more PAR, someone please correct me if I am wrong)
+ Better spread (because LED's are more evenly distributed)
+ Can use Neptune Controller VDM to control dimming (already have neptune controller)
- Not as sleek as AI's

AI Vega:
+ Looks a lot better than DIY LED kits!!!! 
+ User friendly to configure adjust colors/tones
+ Seems like I would need a dedicated wireless controller from AI.

AI SOL:
+ Looks a lot better than DIY LED kits!!!! 
+ User friendly to configure adjust colors/tones
+ Can be controlled by Neptune controller
- Not as sleek as the Vega 

I would be grateful to hear feedbacks from anyone who has experience with LED's. I don't mind the time involved in building the DIY kit


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

*Some pics*

Water is almost clear now, and ammonia and nitrite levels are going down.

Ammonia:0.25 ppm
Nitrites:0.25 ppm
Nitrates:5 ppm

So I added 2 small chromis and the mp40's, but I only have lights for half of the tank.


----------



## duckhams (Oct 13, 2009)

I'll be following along to see how this build goes! Great looking setup jd81! 
Do you have any recent pics with the fish in? - pics pics pics -


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

Will try to post some updates tonight


----------



## duckhams (Oct 13, 2009)

Sweet! I will wait with eager anticipation!


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Gotta say I love that rock scape. Killin me lol. I am going to have to chizzle my rock to have nice over hangs like that. Looking forward to your updates.


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Tropicana said:


> Gotta say I love that rock scape. Killin me lol. I am going to have to chizzle my rock to have nice over hangs like that. Looking forward to your updates.


Those are cemented/epoxied  I was there the other night. This tank has a lot of potential!

Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


----------



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

J_T said:


> Those are cemented/epoxied  I was there the other night. This tank has a lot of potential!
> 
> Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


Oh yeah definitely, love it lol. My rock is fairly large and could use some shaping is all . the chunks that are left could be epoxied back to make a branching effect perhaps.


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

Tropicana said:


> Oh yeah definitely, love it lol. My rock is fairly large and could use some shaping is all . the chunks that are left could be epoxied back to make a branching effect perhaps.


Ty 

Sorry got home too late, didn't have time to take pictures.

I used epoxy + acrylic rod for the bigger joints.


----------



## duckhams (Oct 13, 2009)

If no piccys, im curious as to what fish you have in there so far?


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

duckhams said:


> If no piccys, im curious as to what fish you have in there so far?


I know 

Chromis, couple anthias, kole tang, and I think thats it.

Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

J_T said:


> I know
> 
> Chromis, couple anthias, kole tang, and I think thats it.
> 
> Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


 That's correct

I dropped by SUM this evening and I could not resist. I bought a couple more , so this is current list:

5x Chromis
2x Dispar Anthias
2x Tuka Anthias
1x Kole Tang
1x Powder Brown Tang
1x Blue Tang
2x McCoskers Wrasse

This is the only half-descent picture I got, and for some reason the color is off, the lights looks purple, but this is under royal blue led's. And some of the fish are still hiding when I come close


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

And:
2x Blood Shrimp
1x Cleaner Shrimp
1x Conch


----------



## duckhams (Oct 13, 2009)

Thats a fair amount of fish. What filtration are you running? sump size, gph through overflow etc ? I really like your setup.


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

duckhams said:


> Thats a fair amount of fish. What filtration are you running? sump size, gph through overflow etc ? I really like your setup.


Thanks.

My sump is 30 gallons, but i'd say there is about 20 gallons of water in there since it is only 2/3 filled.

Fuge is about 15 gallons.

Return flow should be around 700 gph.


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Awesome build thread and I've always been a fan of that size tank. Although with your head height it should be closer to 800gph.


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

altcharacter said:


> Awesome build thread and I've always been a fan of that size tank. Although with your head height it should be closer to 800gph.


Thanks.

Yes, the pump pushes around 800 gph, but the return line is Tee'ed off and connected to my GFO, carbon, and bio-pellet reactors.

I originally wanted all of the 800 gph to return for the display tank, but my 1.5" drains could barely handle it (probably because I have a couple elbows in there), so I decided to go a bit safer and split the return. Saves a bit on the electricity bill as well, since I only need to run 1 pump for the whole system


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

Finished moving most of the corals from my 46G.

Almost completed my DIY LED Fixture


----------



## ReefABCs (Nov 10, 2012)

That powder brown is really nice when he gets to big I will take him


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

Experimenting with 60 mm macro lens, now I want a 100 mm macro


----------



## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

tank looks amazing in person!


----------



## TypeZERO (Jul 20, 2007)

Very nice fish macro shots!


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

Flexin5 said:


> tank looks amazing in person!


Thanks Jason, how's the RBTA doing?



TypeZERO said:


> Very nice fish macro shots!


Thank you


----------



## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

It's doing great! Didn't move around much, and has been in the same place for a couple of days now so I think it's happy. Lol I had the bag with water in one hand and the bta in the other and it started to stick to my hand, then water started spilling from the bag lololol it was an ordeal

I think I have the dumbest clown fish because they won't go near it


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

Yes, I was never able to get my clowns to host my anemone either... it looks like they prefer to rub against the brain coral...


----------



## fesso clown (Nov 15, 2011)

Any updates? FTS? Love the specs on this tank!


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

fesso clown said:


> Any updates? FTS? Love the specs on this tank!


I've been busy lately, so I have not taken any pictures in the past couple months.

Tank is doing ok. I still have a bit of green hair algae, but frags are growing, so I am happy. I will try to take some pictures during the week.


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

Just a quick update.
Tried to rush a couple pics this morning, but it looks like my lenses were dirty, so most of the pictures were bad


----------



## rburns24 (Jan 31, 2011)

Tank is looking excellent. Really like that FTS.


----------



## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

rburns24 said:


> Tank is looking excellent. Really like that FTS.


Thank you


----------



## Letigrama (Jul 6, 2008)

gorgeous!!!!


----------



## Bar0n (Nov 26, 2012)

oh wow very nice! lots of corals!


----------

