120 Project

[Drakonis]

This tank started in a 75 gallon tank in my old house. When i moved I had a lot of big plans for changes to my system during the move and some got started, end result I found a deal on craigslist and upgraded to a 4' 120 gallon RR with other goodies. I got a BRS 5 stage RO/DI (with flush valve, pressure gauge, and dual inline TDS meter), a 4' 8 bulb T5 fixture (even tho I already have two 24" MH/PC combo housings), two Mag 7 pumps, and a 32 gallon brute can full of water and some rather nice looking live rock. Promptly I ordered a filter kit from BRS as well as a dual DI upgrade, I ordered a reactor cartridge for the orphaned single DI housing will run carbon and GFO in it. A stand did not come with this tank so that was my first task (I made the stand rather tall on purpose). The aesthetics of the tank will come later I really wanted function first, here is a picture of the stand/tank/light all together...

Next I began plumbing through wall for sump and refugium tanks. Once I got as far as shutoff ball valves I let the RO unit loose on filling the tank...

next came the live rock and water (still needed to aqua scape) and the sump in operation. mad at myself for cracking the glass on the bulkhead side feeding the pump... was in a rush and tried to push the hose onto the pump output barb and crack GRRR. so i siliconed the crack and moved on guess i gave myself a sooner than planned reason to replace / redesign the sump layout. The refugium is the next thing i do as well as aqua scape and get substrate added...

and here is after substrate and aquascaping the tank...

updated pic of the sump progression. need to get some more hose for the pump but changed its hookups (being Iwaki i thought direct coupled to sump wouldnt be a noise issue... not so much). also added the carbon/gfo reactor. still working on the stand for the refugium at this point...

then came a trip to a LFS about a hour from where i live and well we all know what happens on a trip like that, new additions...

then came early stage operation of the refugium add on ...

and then more additions in the display...

all of this progress took place over about 6 months. in my next update to this thread i will get into current state, inhabitants and so on.

 

[dbl]

Off to a great start on the upgrade.

 

[don_chuwish]

Jealous you have a whole separate room for separate refugium and sump! Very nice.

 

[Drakonis]

thank you for the comments, so to bring things up to date here are some photos of current state...

thought i had a photo uploaded more recent and not as blinding from the light of the refugium but i put all my rock from the original 75 in the sump and the chaeto grows very well under a 10k MH. i have intents on a redesigned sump as the version i have will introduce bubbles into the display if i do not run a filter sock and i am thinking i want to get away from those.

intro amount of chaeto and two zoa frags i didnt think survived shipping in recovery. i have plans to house the rock and chaeto separate but have not got an addition 29 gallon tank yet or build another stand.

filtration, RODI storage, and mixing stuff. needs to be refined a bit but gets the job done.

and now the good stuff current state. on a business trip i picked up the dispar anthias and the hippo tang, guy gave me a good deal so i couldnt help myself. also you can see what was one RBTA is now three, somehow it finds its way to the sump to split not sure why it does that and its a pain to get them out of there but they have been stationary for several weeks and growing well. i target feed them two or three times a week they all readily accept them.

some of my small frags growing the two smaller zoa pieces are the two out of the refugium. i had them more spread out but this seems to be the one area my starry blenny stops knocking them down.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Nice job! Looking great!

 

[pelphrey]

Having the filtration in a separate room is a great bonus!

 

[pondman]

Very nice setup. I always like looking at new builds it makes me want to redo my tank or set up another.Good luck in your tank.

 

[Drakonis]

not alot new in terms of changes but at cer...tain points steady is exciting lol. anywho pics galore we all like pics right?...

i do have a question while we are at it, that rock center bottom of tank seems to grow algae thick all the time. my theory is that particular rock is leeching what that algae is consuming and i should remove it?

 

[Drakonis]

So been a while but just spent most of my weekend working on expanding the refugium, modifying the carbon gfo reactor, and light upgrades. These are all things ive been meaning to do but algae issues are becoming taxing so i decided to try and up my nitrate export. Before i had the additional 70 lb live rock and chaeto sharing a 29 gal tank but the combination made more than hair algae thrive and after a heavy clean our and scrubbing rock i terminated them sharing a tank. So first i built an additional stand for a 20 tall tank i had in my fish room and drilled the tank

Then after setting the stand and tank in place modified plumbing to get it in action and filled it. I have been using a old single DI canister for a reactor, i put the reactor cartridge in but being ot was a DI canister the plumbing was for 1/4 tubing. So i drilled the in and out ports to fit and flow 3/8 tubing. To add to increasing reactor flow i went from the supply off of main return pump line from the side outlet of a T to putting a T in place of the elbow from the mag 7 that feeds my now two refugium tanks so the feed goes strait up from the pump to a tee and the reactor feeds off the straight up part of the T and the refugiums are fed from the horizontal of the T. If i know my fluid dynamics like i think preasure should be greater on a feed with no change in direction used on a low back pressure system.

Note the cord jungle, just put the new lighting in and went function first so next the light...

 

[Drakonis]

So as for the light firstly I wish I had taken more pictures as this was a lot more work than I feel the images show. Anyway previously as shown in photos I have been running a basic 8 bulb T5 fixture that I got with the 120 gal tank when purchased. So my original 75 gal tank I had at my old house before the evolution that is this thread I had two 22" fixtures that each had two moonlight LEDs, two PC actinics, and one 250w MH. So I've been wanting to combine T5 and MH so after the refugium stuff was done I took on this task. Several times I've looked at this and pondered how to accomplish it. Originally I thought id make a full hood and incorporate it all in there but for some reason this time I looked at it in a "new light" ... ha pun intended. Moving on by my rough measurements I would be able to fit everything into the 8 bulb T5 housing. After hours of tinkering pondering and disassembling I had all the guts from all three light fixtures and started to develop the finer points of how to get it all in there and functioning.

so no photos until I got this far, this next photo was taken to show the wiring before I took it apart to paint the wood dividers I crafted to hold the lenses over the 3 areas as originally it was one plexi piece over all 8 T5

now here is painted and wired

so everything besides one ballast and half of the original T5 holders was modified or added to this housing. The original T5 reflectors were two pieces designed for 4 bulbs each so I cut one in half (carefully) and aside from the plexi being cut into two strips for the T5s on either side and filler pieces to go between the glass over the MH everything was custom install.

and all back together with lenses in, besides putting the leg back on its ready to go. So here it is on the tank lit up

everyone is in hiding not so sure about this light, and they haven't had a light that did any more than dim glow since yesterday around noon

and lunar LEDs again

So thats the big update for now. On a related side note ive been dosing vodka to see if that helps with controlling my algae issues not sure if anyone has input here but advice and comments welcome.

 

[Drakonis]

So now that the lights are done i added a couple new corals first up a purple plasma acro...

and next blasto

So heres to my first SPS and LPS both at once lol

 

[bknapp]

Nice job on that fixture looks great.

 

[Drakonis]

So the mystery coral is making a comeback but not exactly sure what i think it is...

 

[Drakonis]

So to begin the update the tank has been stable overall. fish are doing very well, corals are doing ok but not what id like to see for growth etc. i have incorperated the Cerebra with redox and PH probes. i have been fighting to keep tank chemistry in line largely PH doesnt want to come above 8 for nothing and if i get it there its not by much and goes back down, its doing well to stay over 7.85. so i am going to try a outside air line to skimmer see if that gets a turn around. second issue is neomeris annulta is kicking my tail...

 

[Drakonis]

So i have reached the point of nuking the tank as how im looking to cope with neo ann. preparations have brought some positives like the 75 i upgraded from not only still in my garage but in bringing it in wife green lighted my original in wall plan prior to the 120. so i have ordered all the glass to do the coast to coast with glass external overflow box and bean animal drain system. the plan is the 75 will get the modifications started a year ago finished and run on its original stand indipendant for the first phase of the project and be my lifeboat for fish and corals while 120 system gets the tactical nuke.

 

[Drakonis]

Still working out in my head how to do the nuking and open to input. so far it will begin with transfering fish and corals to 75, removing rock to accomplish this, removing substrate, returning the display rock and aside from heater and cerebra begin the nuking with all pumps and fish room tanks in operation as neo ann has turned up in my fuge and that got there via spores as i know nothing physically was introduced by me. once that far drain everything spray tanks down individually with bleach and get all of them spotless. next all PVC pipe will get replaced one because i dont want to risk reintroduction over the cost of some PVC and two i have some changes in mind while im at it.

 

[Drakonis]

The glass is here! Now to make my 75 into the c2c bean animal i started a year ago and start to proceed, in a week after silicone is cured....

 

[Drakonis]

So to start out this 75 was what my tank started in at my old house. at the time i had dual home made self starting syphons which work but they are ugly and had it run to a single 29 gal sump in the basement. when the move to our current home came up (it was the in laws so i had a big plan ready before signing lol) i planned an in wall location in the living room and started by drilling the 75 for a coast to coast with external overflow plumbed with a bean animal drain. so the move started my critters were housed in a 29 gal and a 20 tall as i plotted the details. i had been half watching for a 120gal 4 ft tank and wouldnt you know i find one on a steal of a price with lots of goodies which got me more than a tank upgrade. one item i got was a 32 gal brute can full of the rock in my 120 currently, it was while algae free and looked perfectly ready with numerous large pieces one bigger than a basketball. but must be a too good to be true as im pretty sure it is where my neomeris annulta came from hence the move to lifeboat.

 

[Drakonis]

So after the move the 75 sat in my garage while i focused on a tank with a dirty secret. recently when getting the garage straitened up for winter i took the opertunity to bring the 75 inside and downstairs to be the lifeboat as i have reached the dreaded nuke and reboot resolve for this evil neo ann. that night the wife (who previously wanted rid of the 75 and said the no more tanks bit) suggested i do the in wall i talked about before and have two tanks. i wasted no time accepting that offer, tried to hide haste but im sure i didnt, so i ordered the glass to finish what i started. right now the plan is to run it on the factory stand while its a lifeboat, once the 120 is rebooted the in wall plan will advance. tonight i picked up the glass pieces and have mostly got the internal coast to coast wier in place, tomorrow i will stand the tank up again and run the silicone on the seams inside the wier box. some pics of progress...

 

[Drakonis]

So wier box set and is as straight as can be so im happy with that. last night was drilling night here is the rig i came up with to drill in the tub as it was -8 without wind chill...

Two done took a break and pic...