My custom 180

timkenagy · Jan 15, 2016

Made quite a bit of headway on the ATS today. Have it hung and slotted.. Have to pick up some new tubing and a couple 45* elbows since my bag just disappeared. (Watch the people you let in your home

) but it should be ready to turn on by tomorrow night.. But still have to plumb the 180 refugium first.. I hear the glass is ready so I may be picking that up tomorrow as well.. So tons to do :/ my back is killing me

timkenagy · Jan 16, 2016

Ok, al little progress is better than no progress right? Well actually I did get more done than it looks today as the actual tank it plumbed and ready to go. The only thing really left is to hook the pumps up to the actual scrubber, mount the lights and get the water flowing. Before I had been using the same bulb that @melev had on his fuge for years to grow cheato.

But after chatting with him he has me curious on a different bulb with the same specs.. I picked up 2 60w and 2 75w and they are much smaller but man are they bright with the big reflectors! I'm going to start off with 2 75 on 1 screen and the 2 60 on the other screen. See if there is any difference between the 2. The 60 was only about $6 and the 75 was about $13.. But if you were were to hover them over a fuge the 75 might be a better choice because it's sealed and the 60 has slots on top of the bulb so if be concerned about splash getting to the LED chips.

timkenagy · Jan 17, 2016

Big day! My skimmer pump is giving me fits and coralvue said it was a bad impeller so they sent out a replacement. It arrived today and didn't fix the issue. So it's looking like it may be a while before I get it back up and running.. So I kicked it into high gear to get this ATS flowing again. If there's one thing in this hobby I don't like it's plumbing. Hardware stores always out of the one piece you need so you end up running everywhere then when you finally do get home you realize you forgot an $.80 elbow. Well today was no exception.. But it was gonna get done!! Don't have a lot of patience left in me to type much so I'll let the pictures do most of the speaking. But I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out.

Here it is all plumbed and flowing. The 180 is going to serve as my refugium so no super fancy lighting will be needed. The ATS I wanted to elevate above the tank this time so I custom built the boxes to prevent any water from splashing.

The lights I made a simple holder that just sits on top of the boxes.

I still have to light up the other side but I need to pick up some be reflectors. I was going to use the old one but they were so badly corroded it's better to pitch and get new ones. Especially when the harware store uptown has them on sale for $5.. I also designed the boxes to swing all the way around that way if I ever needed to service/clean the slot I'll have easy access to it.

That's all tonight friends.. I'll update the final competed picture tomorrow night. Monday the glass is supposed to be ready so that will be the start of the frag tank phase

timkenagy · Jan 18, 2016

It's all done! Light are hung! And this build just became epic! (I never toot my own horn but I'm proud of this one!) so the fuge is running and the ATS is running.. Less than 24 hours and already a noticeable amount on the screens. The glass company promised me glass in the morning so tomorrow night I'll either have an update on the new frag tank or an angry reefer!

Anyway here's the completed refugium/ATS

revhtree · Jan 18, 2016

Cool! I'm debating adding a scrubber as well!

timkenagy · Jan 19, 2016

Made a couple acrylic boxes to look down with.. So now I'll hopefully be able to get some better pictures! Haven't had a lot of time to play with it. I snapped a quick pic.. But more focused on the frag tank build.

timkenagy · Jan 19, 2016

revhtree said:
Cool! I'm debating adding a scrubber as well!

You really should Rev! Totally eliminated my hair algae and cyno issues. Last time I was at @Reefwise they had huge ones on there system and replaced their skimmers. They would be good advisers for you.

ws6kid · Jan 19, 2016

That is a serious amount of turf scrubbing. You feed a lot I assume?

Looks awesome. Love the suspended dual ATS look.

timkenagy · Jan 19, 2016

ws6kid said:
That is a serious amount of turf scrubbing. You feed a lot I assume? Looks awesome. Love the suspended dual ATS look.

I like the ability to feed a lot

. Plus that will care for my 180 display, my 50 frag and the fuge may eventually turn into a grow out tank, or maybe a predator tank.. I haven't completely decided yet. But in circumstances like right now where my pump on my skimmer is down I can be a little more at ease knowing garbage isn't just building up completely.

timkenagy · Jan 20, 2016

One of my Rainbow anemones that had spilt around 6 months ago had finally hopped over to a different rock. So I was able to pull that rock out of the display. Posted it on my local reef page and a buyer came within an hour. They never last long once I get those babies out!

But after taking one out the other was in an awkward spot on an odd shaped rock.. So it took a while to get it in an upright position.. And all the clowns were about 5 inches away patiently waiting.. Except momma!! She was hammering my fingers. She was not pleased that I A: took one of the nems away and B: was messing around with the other.. To make it worse she may have had some eggs laid so she may be flipping that pectoral fin at me for a few days. But here's a short video of them trying to convince the anemone to come back out.

hybridazn · Jan 20, 2016

Very nice! Keep up the good work. I know what bulbs to use now on my new sump/fuge I am building for my system

timkenagy · Jan 21, 2016

Quick preview of the new frag tank I'm building

probably going to fill test it tomorrow.

timkenagy · Jan 22, 2016

So relieved.. With the exception of a little adjustments (and a ton of cleaning) the sump room upgrade is finally finished!! It is a huge difference! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Before

After

timkenagy · Jan 22, 2016

As mentioned before the new frag tank I built myself out of an old 90gal tank. The build thread is here.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/50-gallon-rimless-frag-tank.228484/#post-2653541

timkenagy · Jan 23, 2016

I sold one of the splits of my Rainbow BTA the other day. Today I go in for a little cleaning and I fill up a syringe with AptasiaX to hit thes majonos that have popped up over on the left side of the reef. As I'm doing so one of my clowns starts nailing my fingers. It was odd because it's usually momma (one of the snowflakes) that is protective and not this little guy. So I take a step back to figure out what's going on. The little booger is actually hosting a pest anemone and was pleading with me not to kill it. I know it will make a lot more work down the road for me.. But what I'll do to make these guys happy

timkenagy · Jan 24, 2016

Red planet that was a tiny frag I glued on the overflow when I set the glass tank up.. It's starting to take off pretty well!

reefwiser · Jan 24, 2016

Wanted to check out your build thread after your posting to see what all the fuss was about. Love the fish room. Wish I had a basement again.

We moved into a patio home with no basement so have to live with small tanks in the future. Looks like a nice big area that you have there. gives you room to expand and enjoy projects.

timkenagy · Jan 24, 2016

reefwiser said:
Wanted to check out your build thread after your posting to see what all the fuss was about. Love the fish room. Wish I had a basement again. We moved into a patio home with no basement so have to live with small tanks in the future. Looks like a nice big area that you have there. gives you room to expand and enjoy projects.

lol.. Wasn't meant to be a big fuss but I guess it turned into one. :mad: I'm by no stretch a pro. I just see horrible advice constantly (not on R2R, Facebook mostly) that if followed would cost the person seeking advice tons of money.. And on the flip side I see people that really do give good advice but don't show it.. I was just trying to encourage members to show off there stuff.. I guess a few took offense to that.

Yes the basement is awesome! My old house (which was in the exact same place) I had a crawl space and was frustrated by the lack of options I had from the space under the stand. So after the fire when we rebuilt I guess you could say I paid the extra 30k for a basement just for my fish tank hobby

It has other benefits of course but that was my thoughts behind it!

reefwiser · Jan 24, 2016

I always base my answers on my own experience and what members of my club have experienced over the years. I have helped countless hobbyist since I started my local club in 1987. My hobby turned into running a club and helping hobbyist. I had hospital systems in the basement and kept fish for hobbyist that where having personal problems. I would get call's from people that where referred to me from local LFS whose love one's had died or became ill and need the tank taken down. Just had one of those two weeks ago. My tank currently is coming along and is my wife's tank. She has very specific wants and I try to meet her demands.