120 Gallon Rimless Mixed Reef

blfuller123 · Dec 17, 2019

Hi everyone. I have had aquariums on and off for 20+ years. I took down my last tank in 2011 (old tank ) when we moved from the Dallas area to the Houston area. We bought our current house in April of last year and this past summer I decided I wanted to set up another tank. This tank is in our living room and my goals with it were for it to be a mixed reef, must be quiet and I wanted it to be as automated as possible to keep the parameters as stable as possible.

Being out of the hobby for several years, I had to do some research on the current equipment available ( and I can say that I did not do near enough). The tank we decided on was a Planet Aquarium 120 rimless on a 30 inch stand. I found an eshops sump that fit and had a configuration that I liked. I was trying to keep all of the equipment in the stand so I started looking for an internal skimmer and found a reef octopus. When I had my last tank, I used Apex to control everything, I think this is called Apex classic now, so I decided to use everything Apex after seeing the Trident they offer. The Trident has not been available since I got this tank but I did get the DOS pump to use as an auto water change, the Apex powerheads and COR 20 return pump.

Since I wanted to do automatic daily water changes, I started looking at how I could setup a mixing station. I found a local guy selling his and it actually fit in my laundry room. I ran tubing from my laundry room through the wall and attic to where the tank was going to be setup.

MERKEY · Dec 17, 2019

Looking good!

blfuller123 · Dec 17, 2019

In late August I ordered the tank, stand and all of the equipment. After talking with a Iocal guy, I decided on 3 Kessil 360 for lights. I had the water barrels so I had started making saltwater and I bought some live rock and had it in a big trash can until it was ready to fill. The first of my stuff started arriving and I got the tank up pretty quick.

blfuller123 · Dec 17, 2019

I got the tank up and running and decided I wanted to add t5 lights to the Kessils and I found a dimmable hybrid fixture that has 4 bulbs in it.

blfuller123 · Dec 17, 2019

I have always had ozone running in my tanks, have had very good luck with it. After the skimmer was up and running I discovered that the reef octopus did not recommend using it with ozone so I started looking at skimmers that were specifically made to use ozone. I found a Vertex skimmer that fit in the same place as the reef octopus. I got it and the reef octopus neck cleaner even fit it.

blfuller123 · Dec 17, 2019

I also started using a kalk stirrer and I would dose alkalinity and calcium as needed.

The first couple of problems I had with the tank was the Apex DOS was not able to consistently perform the water changes. I don’t know if it was due to the lines being run through the attic, but I ended up getting a double head Stenner pump. It has no problem performing the water changes but it is loud so I only run it at night. I have it changing 1 gallon per day. I started using the DOS pumps to dose alkalinity and calcium.

blfuller123 · Dec 17, 2019

My ph was also dropping down at night so I decided to try and use a co2 scrubber. I found a large filter housing. Once I put it on, within a few hours, my ph started climbing. I took it off when the ph hit 8.37. I found a 3 way electric valve that I set up in the Apex to open and close depending on the ph and it seems to work very well.

blfuller123 · Dec 17, 2019

I decided I wanted to add a mesh top so I made this one up.

blfuller123 · Dec 17, 2019

I wanted to get the Apex trident but there were never any available an there was never any update of when they will be available so I started looking at other ways to monitor alkalinity. My buddy set up a KH Guardian on his tank and he started having very stable alkalinity. I considered getting one but it only monitors and controls alkalinity. I started looking at other alkalinity monitoring pieces and found the GHL KH Director. It looked promising but it would not communicate with the Apex so I would have to have two different apps to see everything going on in the tank. I kept reading about the GHL equipment and found out about the Ion Director that is about to be released and decided to change completely from Apex to GHL.

I ordered a P4 kit and a KH Director. This is where I am currently. I have just swapped my Apex COR 20 return pump, and WAV power heads for MP40s and an M2 return pump. I am currently waiting on another powerbar from GHL but all of the Apex gear has been removed. So far I am really liking the P4 system and the KHD. It is monitoring and controlling my alkalinity. I have also removed the kalk stirrer.

I have the touch screen mounted next to the tank and I built a cabinet next to the tank for the GHL equipment. While I was changing the return pump, I added a couple of brackets in the sump for the dosing tubes.

blfuller123 · Dec 17, 2019

As far as current livestock, I have some bigger LPS pieces on the sand bed and I have probably about 15 different frags in the rockwork. I have a XL pair of clowns, a tomini tang, a clown tang, some anthias and a starry blenny.

blfuller123 · Dec 24, 2019

I am still waiting on another power bar from GHL. I found someone locally selling an older one and got that put in and most of the wiring cleaned up.

blfuller123 · Dec 24, 2019

I have 8 anthias. One is definitely changing to make and I have a second that looks like it may be. Not sure how this will play out. Here is the best picture I could get of it.