Introduction.....

[gcrawford]

Hello all!

Just a quick introduction here for me, my wife and son who have been in the aquarium hobby for quite some time and are about to begin adding corals to our tank that we began putting together in September. We are all originally from Huntsville and are excited about our progress so far. Here's a link to our photo website, which shows the progress of our tank from start to present. We are considering coming to the meeting on Sunday if that's ok and would be glad to bring any kind of refreshments that anyone would like.

-Greg

https://picasaweb.google.com/renewedthroughyou7/120ReefTankProject#

 

[JSB]

Welcome Greg. Hope to see you at the meeting, but it is Saturday, not Sunday. Lots of great people around here, so don't be afraid to jump in.

Scott

 

[gcrawford]

Thanks Scott, would help for me to look at the calendar!

-Greg

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Welcome to R2R!

We appreciate your membership!

Thanks for joining and please make sure to post often!

 

[joejoe1055]

welcome to r2r always glad to meet new folks, hope to see you sat

 

[joejoe1055]

good looking tank and thats one sleepy cat

 

[H@rry]

Greg;

Welcome to R2R and reefkeeping. I looked at your album and it is apparent that you and Jacob have put a great deal of thought and hard work into your project. I'm sure you will both get a great deal of pleasure from your reef. I would not like to be on the end of moving a 120 gallon tank.

If you don't mind my commenting, I see two potential problems in your plumbing. The first in the check valve. The experience of several reef keepers is that they are not very reliable in a reef tank environment. Over time detritus, sponge, and "crud" will build up and prevent it from shutting off in the event of a power failure resulting in a flooded sump. It would be far better to drill a small hole in your return line(s) at the water line in your tank to allow air to break the siphon. The other problem is the brass gate valve. It will probably leach copper into your system. The copper will kill your inverts (snails, hermits, starfish, corals, etc.). I would replace that ASAP if it were me.

Good luck and hope to see you and Jacob Saturday.

 

[revsgirl]

Hi there!! Welcome to R2R!!

 

[gcrawford]

Greg;

Welcome to R2R and reefkeeping. I looked at your album and it is apparent that you and Jacob have put a great deal of thought and hard work into your project. I'm sure you will both get a great deal of pleasure from your reef. I would not like to be on the end of moving a 120 gallon tank.

If you don't mind my commenting, I see two potential problems in your plumbing. The first in the check valve. The experience of several reef keepers is that they are not very reliable in a reef tank environment. Over time detritus, sponge, and "crud" will build up and prevent it from shutting off in the event of a power failure resulting in a flooded sump. It would be far better to drill a small hole in your return line(s) at the water line in your tank to allow air to break the siphon. The other problem is the brass gate valve. It will probably leach copper into your system. The copper will kill your inverts (snails, hermits, starfish, corals, etc.). I would replace that ASAP if it were me.

Good luck and hope to see you and Jacob Saturday.

Harry,

Thanks for the kind words and advice - comments are always welcomed and appreciated. Yes, the check valve was an early thought that I went with. I do have the returns drilled at the 90 as well, so really, the check valve doesn't do much. When I cut the power to the return pump the water level goes down only to the bottom of the overflow slots, resulting in a rise in the sump, but no flood.

The brass valve is only for water exiting the system during a water change. I connect a hose and run it out the window. (Septic system, so I don't put salt water down the drain) I have a PVC ball valve in front of the brass spigot, so water that touches the brass never enters the system. Do you think that is enough protection, or should I still remove it? I suppose there is a PVC spigot at the home improvement store that could easily replace it.

Thanks again for the guidance! I met you once, years ago when I was in the hobby. I bought a bag of sand from you - some type of play sand that was reef safe and you showed me your tanks. I think it was in 2003 or 2004. Life changes caused me to get out of the hobby. Glad to be back!

-g

 

[H@rry]

As long as you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that the water that in now "super-saturated" with copper from having been in contact with brass for a week or so can NEVER "accidentally" get burped back into the system, you'll be fine. If it was mine, I'd be taking it off right now. I've had copper in a reef tank before. I wondered why I couldn't keep a snail alive. Wound up throwing away all of the rock.

Good luck.

 

[gcrawford]

As long as you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that the water that in now "super-saturated" with copper from having been in contact with brass for a week or so can NEVER "accidentally" get burped back into the system, you'll be fine. If it was mine, I'd be taking it off right now. I've had copper in a reef tank before. I wondered why I couldn't keep a snail alive. Wound up throwing away all of the rock.

Good luck.

Sounds like it's not worth the risk... To the store I go at lunch break!

 

[H@rry]

If you've already got a ball valve behind the spigot, all you need is a fitting to screw the garden hose to. 3/4 MPT X 3/4 MALE GARDEN HOSE THREAD

 

[mkerr]

Hey Greg!! Jacob mentioned you guys were working on a new tank...looks really awesome. My 70 gallon (that replaced the 58g that used to house my cichlids you might remember) has been sitting empty in our family room for several years. Susan bought me a skimmer, sump and LED's for christmas so I've (finally) been slowly getting back into things. Hope to have everything plumbed and set up for buying rock in the next few weeks. We need to get together and compare notes

 

[beaslbob]

2003 or 2004?

H@arry Should I remember them?


Anyrate welcome.

 

[gcrawford]

Harry,

Thanks again. I got what I needed today at HD and will remove the brass spigot. You may very well have saved my future reef.

Beaslbob,

You probably wouldn't remember me - I wasn't totally invested or in the club at that time. Although I've seen your posts over the years. Thanks for the welcome!

Mike,

Small world! Over the years, how many times have we talked about actually going down the "Reef Tank" path? Well, the stars have aligned and we're taking the plunge, although taking it sloooooow. (trying to anyway) Would love to compare notes once I get going. Right now we've got a few fish that are advertised as reef safe and I'll probably start with softies. I don't want to be over-run with Zoas though that tend to spread everywhere and am researching, researching and researching.

Congrats on the new tank! I'd love to see pics - feel free to email me or PM here.

-g

 

[Dave3112]

Welcome!! The tank looks great! Ditto with what H@rry has said about the brass. But it looks as if you have already solved that problem. I can't wait to see what you create with the corals!

 

[beaslbob]

...

Beaslbob,

Although I've seen your posts over the years.

...

Oh you poor thing. :cry:

 

[mkerr]

Questions, questions...i have questions

Where did you get your live rock? Was it local bought? Also, your pump manifold looks nice. However, I was told/or read that you shouldn't throttle the pump output like that but rather control the return flow through a valve/tee that diverts some water back into the sump if necessary. I don't have any first hand knowledge, just from research.

I also like the way you went outside the stand to utilize that space between the stand and the wall (since underneath gets cramped in a hurry). Clever.

On the lighting, are the halides staying cool enough in the hood (it all looks very sleek BTW)? And what sort of top are you going with? glass? mesh? open? also, what type of light are you using for the 'fuge?

also, with the separate controllers for the hydors, temp and top off as well as the light timers did you consider getting a full up controller like the Apex or Reef Angel?

You guys obviously put a lot of work into this thing and it all looks great...I know you've been planning on this thing forever so its really cool to see it all come together.

 

[gcrawford]

Mike,

Dry rock was purchased from Bulkreefsupply.com - 50lb boxes are a great deal. The rock for seeding was obtained with the used tank and stand from a lady north of Montgomery. Jacob and I rented a U-Haul trailer and picked it all up on a cold rainy Sunday in September. Yeah, the plumbing was quite an invention. I think I layed awake at night thinking about it until I came up with a final plan. Many drawings and surprisingly I did not have to re-do any glue joints. Union connections afford lots of adjustments. I actually planned on using the gate valves to adjust the flow to each return, but have not had to. I keep them wide open all the time unless I'm performing a water change. This was more of an "in case I want to adjust flow" decision to add these. I probably could have uses ball valves for this, but I wanted the option. Everything I've read and heard states that you can throttle the output but never the input of a pump and it makes sense to me. I may decide to throttle the outputs in the future to slow the flow through the refugium - not sure. This way if I do, I can do so with the turn of a knob. Also, having the returns ouside of the stand was a necessity if I was going to use PVC. It was my goal not to use flexible tubing - I just don't like the way it looks. I realize that there is more head pressure and less flow with all the 90s, but the pump I bought can handle it. Plus I don't want the majority of the aquarium flow to come from the returns, but rather the Hydors. I'd love to have added a closed loop, but I didn't have much room really and the plumbing was already complex enough.

Lighting and heat.....The nice lady I bought the system from recommended going to LEDs. I've read that some love these and some don't. I decided to go MH and T-5 actinic for now, mainly due to price and the fact that I've always wanted MH. Yes, they do heat the water and I experience a 3 degree increase in temp throughout the photo period. Currently they are on for 8 hours a day. I'm not sure if the hood fans do any good or not. I do feel heat coming out, so I guess that's good, but really if you put your hand between the light and the water it feels like french fry heat lamps at Mikkey D's. No top currently, just open. That may be a gamble, not sure. The lights for the fuge are CPR AquaFuge Medium lights (power compacts) and fit the 40 breeder perfectly. You can get these on Amazon.

Controllers..... Actually this choice was due to posts I've read on reefcentral. So many people have these complete controller units up for sale due to having one or more of the outputs not working correctly any more for one reason or another. I don't know, they might be better than what I have, but I figured that if I ever want to go that route, I can sell what I have online and make the change. My decision was based on not having all eggs in one basket in case of a failure and I definitely wanted the Tunze auto top off. Not having a flood is of premium concern as we got new carpet in the house last year. If/when I get a calcium reactor I may research the controllers on the market and make a decision to upgrade - we'll see.

Thanks for the comments and compliments! I still consider myself a noob at this and try to learn something every day.

-g

 

[mkerr]

what sets this hobby separate from most is that you get to do so many different things...plumber...carpenter...chemist...photographer...electronics.

beats collecting stamps!