120 Gallon Frag Tank

Zero Nitrates · Dec 22, 2016

This is my 120 gallon frag tank. Soon to be a beautiful reef with overgrown colonies (hopefully).

I started this tank one year ago with the intention of going very slow and carefully adding coral over time. Well I needed to shut down my 75 gallon coral quarantine tank, 300 gallon sump, and 6 gallon frag tank. So everything went into the 120 gallon all at once. Right now I have a display tank full of frags.

The 300 gallon sump and 6 gallon frag tank were plumbed into the 120 gallon. I needed to shut down the 300 gallon sump and 6 gallon frag tank, so I rerouted the plumbing to a 30 gallon Trigger sump. Hopefully this hasn't caused too much stress.

Here's a trumpet frag I put in.

I haven't put up a build thread in a while, so feel free to comment.

Zero Nitrates · Dec 23, 2016

Woke up this morning and the t-5 lights were still on and the temp was 74.4.

The reef keeper controller must have had a glitch. I cut the power to the system then turned it back on and it's working fine now.

Some Sour Apple Zoanthids I've had for about a year. They are very slow growers. Started with 3 polyps and one year later 5 polyps.

Zero Nitrates · Dec 23, 2016

Orange Rainbow Crush Chalice

Zero Nitrates · Dec 24, 2016

This is the old filtration set up. A 300 gallon Rubbermaid sump with 100 pounds of live rock. Reef Octopus SRO 3000 Ext skimmer. Tunze ATO. Geo calcium reactor. Vectra return pump. The small frag tank was plumbed in with miracle mud, macro algae and mangroves.

This is the new filtration. Trigger 30 gallon sump. Miracle Mud and socks in the first chamber. ASM protein skimmer in the second chamber. Using Chemipure in the sump. D.C. Return pump. Geo calcium reactor. ATO. Reef keeper lite controller for the calcium reactor.

I made the switch because I might be moving in the next year and wanted to make the set up easier to move. The tank seems to be cleaner after the switch. Probably because I'm using carbon now with the Chemipure.

Blue Voodoo frag.

Zero Nitrates · Dec 25, 2016

Beach Bum Monti

Zero Nitrates · Dec 26, 2016

Tested the water today. Alk is a little higher than I like.

Looks like this powerhead needs a cleaning!

Rainbow chalice frag

Antics · Dec 26, 2016

I agree, that powerhead definitely needs a cleaning!

Corals look great, nice color for sure.

What were the dimensions of your 300 gallon Rubbermaid? I've always wanted to buy a large one and make an indoor Arowana pond.

Zero Nitrates · Dec 26, 2016

It's a little over 2 ft tall and about 5 ft across. It barely fit in the bed of a pickup.

Zero Nitrates · Dec 27, 2016

Utter Chaos

Zero Nitrates · Dec 28, 2016

Zero Nitrates · Dec 29, 2016

Greg Carrol Efflo frag

Zero Nitrates · Dec 30, 2016

Zero Nitrates · Dec 31, 2016

Really like how this acro is coloring up

Zero Nitrates · Jan 1, 2017

The lighting.

4 ft Hamilton Cebu Sun Metal Halide T5 fixture
Two metal halide bulbs are 250 watt 14,000k
The 4 T5 bulbs are actinic
Added a 4 ft reefbrite tech blue LED

Lighting schedule

12:00pm LEDs on
1:30pm T5 actinics on
3:00pm metal halides on
9:00pm metal halides off
10:30pm T5 actinics off
12:00am LEDs off

Zero Nitrates · Jan 4, 2017

Caught this little guy hanging out in the shade under a chalice.

Zero Nitrates · Jan 5, 2017

I'm thinking this acan will develop into something special. The last one I had like this developed purple strips.

Cary Meredith · Jan 5, 2017

Zero Nitrates · Jan 11, 2017

Did a water test the other day.

Alk. 8.0
Ca. 420
Mg. 1340
Nitrates. 0
Phosphates. 0.16

I'm really pleased with the Alk, Ca, and Mg. Just switched to a calcium reactor 3 months ago instead of dosing two part. Big thanks to @geo for helping me.

Nitrates at zero is no bueno. Need to feed more. Currently feeding Larrys once a week and nori every four days. Going to start Larrys twice a week and see if nitrates will come up.

Phosphates at 0.16 to high. I probably due to change out filters on RODI. We'll see if that brings it down.

Antics · Jan 11, 2017

Zero Nitrates said:
Did a water test the other day.

Alk. 8.0
Ca. 420
Mg. 1340
Nitrates. 0
Phosphates. 0.16

I'm really pleased with the Alk, Ca, and Mg. Just switched to a calcium reactor 3 months ago instead of dosing two part. Big thanks to @geo for helping me.

Nitrates at zero is no bueno. Need to feed more. Currently feeding Larrys once a week and nori every four days. Going to start Larrys twice a week and see if nitrates will come up.

Phosphates at 0.16 to high. I probably due to change out filters on RODI. We'll see if that brings it down.