Austin's Build

[austinl]

Good morning everyone.

It's been quite some time since I last posted in this thread. Life always finds a way to keep me busy, so here's a little update.

After some serious thought we decided to move the tank to an entirely different part of the home, which would allow me to use the same stand I built but also utilize a separate room for all the equipment as well as dedicated sinks and if there was a catastrophic failure an emergency drain close to the tank.

So we moved the tank to the basement and started to plan out a fish room so to speak.

Once we figured that all out more distractions popped up which ate up lots of our time and now we get to the present.

The last few days have been spent rescaping the tank and working on the plumbing.

I took a few quick pics but will post more once I get things a little more tidy.

Look forward to talking about tanks again and will be looking for help on start up soon.

Cheers!!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Good morning everyone.

It's been quite some time since I last posted in this thread. Life always finds a way to keep me busy, so here's a little update.

After some serious thought we decided to move the tank to an entirely different part of the home, which would allow me to use the same stand I built but also utilize a separate room for all the equipment as well as dedicated sinks and if there was a catastrophic failure an emergency drain close to the tank.

So we moved the tank to the basement and started to plan out a fish room so to speak.

Once we figured that all out more distractions popped up which ate up lots of our time and now we get to the present.

The last few days have been spent rescaping the tank and working on the plumbing.

I took a few quick pics but will post more once I get things a little more tidy.

Look forward to talking about tanks again and will be looking for help on start up soon.

Cheers!!

Nice job!! Looks great!

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Looks really good love the white and red theme .. top notch

 

[austinl]

Hello again everyone, here's a quick update. I wasn't happy about some of the plumbing so I made a few changes in order to make things a little easier and more streamlined.

I have begun leak testing everything and so far so good. The tank is just about full so I can start testing all the drains and returns under pressure....fingers crossed.

Once that's done I can start mounting all the electrical systems and all that other fun stuff and clean up the wires that are everywhere right now.

For this keeping track there is one major change with the equipment...I had originally decided to use a single Hydra 52(non hd....hd wasn't out when I bought all my gear).

I have decided that this probably wouldn't give me the light spread for the aquascape so I had a friend who had some gen3 xr15pros kicking around so I snagged two of those for the tank and we will see how that goes instead. All the other gear is the same as before.

Now here is where I would line to get some help again.

I could really use help with a stocking list......here is a quick refresh on the tank dimensions 40x24x18 including my sump total water volume is around 100 gallons.

We have decided to go with a small bionload and quality pieces so to speak along with mixed corals.

These are the fish we absolutely want
2 designer type clowns
2 smaller tangs (maybe just 1) bristletooth/yellow eye/white tail
1 sandsifting goby

Beyond that would love to hear what you guys think would go well.


Ok so that's enough chatting here are a few quick shots....pardon the mess, I promise
To post much better pictures very soon.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

It's looks even better now ,[emoji106][emoji106][emoji12]good job amazing work keep it up

 

[austinl]

Time for the waiting game!!!

We have saltwater, now it's time to finish up the rock work (small tweaks) so as to ensure good flow with little to no sandstorms hopefully.

The fish room is almost done, just need to tweak a few things and play around with where stuff should go.

Thinking about hard plumbing a mixing station to make water changes even easier.

I would like to hear about your guys clean up crews and anyone that can lend a hand with my stocking list would be great to hear from you.

Enough chat time for the pictures.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Just fallin in love with all your equipment absolutely awesome job austinl [emoji1303][emoji1303][emoji12]

 

[Preme]

Beautiful setup

 

[austinl]

Just fallin in love with all your equipment absolutely awesome job austinl [emoji1303][emoji1303][emoji12]

Thanks Clayton

Have had that stuff sitting around and glad I'm getting to finally put it all together.

 

[austinl]

Beautiful setup

Thanks Rex

 

[austinl]

Just a few quick snaps, I promise to break out my real camera soon.

Day 5 of the cycle. Going to be picking up some seeded rock today from a friends tank to put in my sump.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Nice job!

 

[william24]

Very clean [emoji7][emoji106]

 

[austinl]

Nice job!

Thanks Rev, its been a long time coming...couple more tweaks here are there and then just wait until the cycles done

 

[austinl]

And the cycle continues.....

Trying to decide what and when to add livestock.

Tank has been wet for about two weeks....have ghost fed/dosed ammonia into the tank. Have also stolen some rock from a friends sump.

Haven't done any water changes yet but parameters are below

Ammon 1ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate TBT
Phos 0.00

Alk 8.2
Calcium 400
Mag 1250


What do you guys think? Start getting some stuff into quarantine? Start with fish or clean up crew?

 

[Roy 9121]

I see you said you have the hydra 52 with the apex controller. Which apex are you using? And are you Hydras the HD?

 

[austinl]

Hey Roy,

I should update that original parts list. I'm actually running two Radion XR15 gen4 pros.

When I started the build i had bought the original hydra 52. I'm getting a better spread on the two lights obviously over the one....although that hydra is pretty nice still.

 

[Roy 9121]

Hey Roy,

I should update that original parts list. I'm actually running two Radion XR15 gen4 pros.

When I started the build i had bought the original hydra 52. I'm getting a better spread on the two lights obviously over the one....although that hydra is pretty nice still.

I heard a lot of good things about the Radions, aren't they made by the same company that owns Aquailluminatons?
What controller were you using with your hydra 52?

 

[austinl]

I heard a lot of good things about the Radions, aren't they made by the same company that owns Aquailluminatons?
What controller were you using with your hydra 52?

I was using the AI controller, but the light was rarely used as my was on hold then I switched to radions when I restarted my build.

 

[Roy 9121]

I was using the AI controller, but the light was rarely used as my was on hold then I switched to radions when I restarted my build.

Which AI controller were you using? The Director?