Building a 120g peninsula.

[Tro]

Yes, I'm not too thrilled about the single drain but it's all I have with all the house work. Hopefully it won't fail !!?!!

My only other option is to put sump under display and that just didn't seem appealing.

Thank you for input ! Live sand coming soon !!

 

[Tro]

My emergency is piped straight out of the house.

Is there a best way to set up the two drains I have ? Is there a way to tweak the Durso?
I do have an accessory 1/4 pex to basement I could use, but seems way small to use as a passive drain.

I'm not too literate on the drain setups. I covered the hole of the higher drain (durso) and this minimized gurgling.

I have to work with what I have.

 

[KyleC.]

I doubt it will "fail", anytime soon. Tying the full siphon into any other drain, essentially turns it into a standard durso. Full siphon drain is meant to contain no air, which is why people like it. It will limit, if not eliminate, the bubbles you see in your sump.

 

[KyleC.]

What is best?? Start fresh! Run all three into your basement/sump, separately. You tune the full siphon, with a gate valve. Allowing only a trickle to drain down the durso. The emergency is self explanatory, no valves. Google "Bean Animal" setup. There are a ton of videos. Personally, I don't see the need for three drains, I run two, full and emergency.

Piping the emergency outside may cause your pump to burn up, if your two drains ever clog up, your not home, etc, and the emergency is used. No water gets back into the sump...

 

[melypr1985]

Hi M!,

Your replies have been helpful and informative in past and I feel I'm at a critical juncture

So I have the rock in. Next sand. Live or not? What organisms can I add first ? When? What would you add? You seem to know your species. I'd like to have colorful zoas. And an angelfish. Add snails ? Clams? Shrimp ? My LFS isn't so local. And I'm. It sure they have the best 411.

Saw a post of your zoas elsewhere. They look goooaaaaarrrrrgeous. !

Thanks! I do love some pretty zoas. Live or not, it probably won't make a big difference to you in the long run. With live sand you are paying for the water weight as well as the sand. With the dry, it's a bit cheaper and will become live on it's own and probably a bit quicker than you think. I used all dry sand in my 180 and Didn't regret it a bit.

Once the cycle is done, I'd start with some CUC. simple hermits and snails... not many since there won't be much for them to eat at first. If those make it a week or two, then a small hardy fish or two would be in order. And so on and so on.

Zoas and other softies can be pretty hardy (though that doesn't mean to get a $50 per polyp frag and toss it in there right away) so they could go in the tank once you are fairly sure the cycle is complete and the first couple fish are doing well.

The angelfish should probably wait a couple months at least. Clams I would wait a while until the tank is very stable... 6 months minimum unless you have lots of experience with them already.

 

[Tro]

Thx Kyle.

Looks like my best option is also to run full siphon and emergency.

I'm not a plumber. Not even a fluid mechanics engineer. But I'm wondering if the advice of my plumber to put an air intake wasn't the best idea. Please see photo. That will negate any full siphon. Correct ? So I need to cap that intake on left right ? It all goes to same line

I only have 1 1.5 inch pvc leading to basement sump. It would be a project and a half to get another 1.5" pipe there.

Not ideal. But can't change the past.


M. I'm followIng that advice. Going for sand. Then the CUC. And I don't think you meant sea cucumber Clean up crew will be fun to add. When would you put chaeto in sump ?? When do you kick start the skimmer ? Seems I'd like the microbes to kick in first and sand to settle. Then start skimming

 

[Tro]

So, I need to put a cap in this ?

Thx

Thx Kyle.

Looks like my best option is also to run full siphon and emergency.

I'm not a plumber. Not even a fluid mechanics engineer. But I'm wondering if the advice of my plumber to put an air intake wasn't the best idea. Please see photo. That will negate any full siphon. Correct ? So I need to cap that intake on left right ? It all goes to same line

I only have 1 1.5 inch pvc leading to basement sump. It would be a project and a half to get another 1.5" pipe there.

Not ideal. But can't change the past.


M. I'm followIng that advice. Going for sand. Then the CUC. And I don't think you meant sea cucumber Clean up crew will be fun to add. When would you put chaeto in sump ?? When do you kick start the skimmer ? Seems I'd like the microbes to kick in first and sand to settle. Then start skimming

 

[KyleC.]

You have the ability to run all three, because you used a ghost overflow.

The air intake will absolutely break a full siphon. Idk what that circled pipe is even for... Looks like what we call a V-200, or Air Admittance Valve. At minimum, that should be 6" higher then the flood level rim, which is your aquarium... Where do you live!? It's tough for me to envision or explain the entire set-up, threw my phone. If it's currently working, I wouldn't cap anything, I would research the "Bean Animal" setup. Show the pictures and videos, to your plumber, and tellem that is what I want. If it's currently working, enjoy it, work on what looks like a ton of other projects. When you can, have someone who knows what plumbing an aquarium needs, make it right.

Your plumber didn't necessarily do it wrong, he just plumbed it like he would a couple sink, rather than an aquarium.

 

[Tro]

Finally added some fish!! Have had two clowns for a month and added a cardinal and a pulsating Xenia recently.

Any thoughts on how to make sure it pulses?

The lamp I have can dim to bright white or blue.

Can't wait to get the corals going !!!

Suggestions on corals or Invertebrates are welcome. LFS seemed intent on selling more than informing today....

 

[jordimex]

very nice build sorry for not being able to give you any advice since i am new on this hobby but definitely will want to see this tank mature!! very nice set up

 

[Tro]

Placed a pulsating Xenia in the tank from LFS. The adjacent rock bottom left has a bronze brown colored growth. Algae? Is this a concern ? Tank has been up 2 mos. ammonia reads zero by Red Sea test.

 

[iemsparticus]

Placed a pulsating Xenia in the tank from LFS. The adjacent rock bottom left has a bronze brown colored growth. Algae? Is this a concern ? Tank has been up 2 mos. ammonia reads zero by Red Sea test.

That looks like diatoms, which is normal, and will go away with time. It is an algae species that feeds on Silicates in your water... it is part of the tank startup.

Do you have just a single Kessil puck above your tank? Looked like an A360? That won't be enough for most corals... just some very low light species (like Xenia).

What do you plan to have in your tank? Zoanthids will definitely need more light than that.

 

[Tro]

Thank you for input. Totally appreciated.
Yes. I have a single a360. 2 should do ??

My current wish list is another a360. A wavemaker of some kind as I have a single low end powerhead in display.

And another light for refugium. I haven't added chaeto or anything to refuge. Haven't even hooked up the skimmer yet. Seems with only 3 fish and almost 200g, I need to let tank mature.

I do water changes about every 2 weeks. 10-15%.

 

[iemsparticus]

Thank you for input. Totally appreciated.
Yes. I have a single a360. 2 should do ??

My current wish list is another a360. A wavemaker of some kind as I have a single low end powerhead in display.

And another light for refugium. I haven't added chaeto or anything to refuge. Haven't even hooked up the skimmer yet. Seems with only 3 fish and almost 200g, I need to let tank mature.

I do water changes about every 2 weeks. 10-15%.

It depends on what kind of corals you wish to keep, and how close to the surface of the water your light is. Kessil recommends 1 light, 6-8" off the water surface, to cover an 18 square inch surface area. This works well for a mixed reef with a good variety of SPS and LPS. Using that metric, you would need three of them. Personally, I use two of them, and 4x T5s to supplement. With that setup, with my Kessils peaking at 80%, I get about 300 PAR 6" down, which moves to about 50 par at the lowest and most shaded areas of the tank. This gives my enough flexibility to have SPS at the middle/top, and LPS in the middle/bottom of the tank, depending on where I place them.

I would imagine that two Kessil A360s would do fine in your tank for a tank of LPS and softies.

 

[KyleC.]

Did you ever get the plumbing straightened out?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Looks like you are off to a good start! I love the room set-up.

Regarding lights, I'm not too familiar with kessils, but I have two older (G2) radions over my 120. I actually was able to get a PAR meter from my local club and was pleasantly surprised at the PAR levels all the way down to the sand bed with just those. Before that, we were seriously considering building a floating canopy and retrofitting T5s.

Might still do that at some point, but not as urgent as we originally thought [emoji4] might be worth renting or borrowing a meter at some point to see where you are.

 

[Tro]

Did you ever get the plumbing straightened out?

Yes Kyle! And thank you for your input. Very helpful. I am using a siphon into sump which is working well. I am
Now I'm in the diatom phase of tank cycle ... most I read says let it take its course. I clean the glass only.

I have 2 clowns. A pulsating Xenia. And a leather coral. Both those are on separate rocks as I hear they are "invasive".

Can't wait to add some coral and someday have a tank like the poster above !

Thank you Ngood for ideas in local clubs. Except , I haven't found a club that's local enough !

All I can say is, running the sump
Into the basement took some
Work but wow are the water changes fluid. Turn a couple valves and pump New water into sump. Thx Dan C I think it was for that big call.

Now I just need to figure out how when and where to get some sweet Zoas.

 

[Tro]

So I've added some cleaner shrimp to clear out some aptasia.

Today, I bought a bubble tip and it looks like the cleaner jumped right on it and was going to have a BTA sandwich for lunch.

Do I need to get rid of shrimp ??

He's lurking under rock in one photo then goes straight for the net guard in the next.

I was hoping the bta would host the 2 clowns I have.

 

[justingraham]

Ah I don't think cleaner shrimp eat aptasia

 

[iemsparticus]

Ah I don't think cleaner shrimp eat aptasia

That's a Peppermint Shrimp in the pictures... so yeah they will kill Aptasia.

So I've added some cleaner shrimp to clear out some aptasia.

Today, I bought a bubble tip and it looks like the cleaner jumped right on it and was going to have a BTA sandwich for lunch.

Do I need to get rid of shrimp ??

He's lurking under rock in one photo then goes straight for the net guard in the next.

I was hoping the bta would host the 2 clowns I have.

A couple things... did you get rid of the Aptasia? I wouldn't have added the BTA until you did.

I had two Peppermint Shrimp in my tank when I started, figuring that if I did ever get any Aptasia, they would take care of it. One of them is a model citizen, the other one killed and ate several Nessarius Snails, and attacked my Hammer Coral as soon as I put it in. It attacked it a few times before I was able to remove him. The Hammer Coral luckily got through it, and has grown quite large.

Point is, some Peppermint Shrimp just aren't reef safe, and some do just fine. It looks like yours is an assassin. I would remove it.