Old build thread

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CreamCityCorals

CreamCityCorals

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Hey guys and gals!

Things in life have changed a bit and I have decided to downsize and keep everything to one smaller, more manageable system.

This has given me the opportunity to put together a build with all the little things that I have wanted to do for awhile as well as hopefully help people learn how to do some of the DIY things that are not often talked about

Plan is 120 Eurobraced tank with custom stand built by me, and plywood sump also built by me.

This tank will have predominately torches and SPS but I suppose you could call it mixed. As many of you have seen my torches I post, I have compiled a fairly large collection that I want to finally display.

I travel a ton for work so making this as close to automated as possible is going to be a key here...As well as build this thinking of failure points that become a lot more challenging if I am not home

Anyway....This should be fun. I will be documenting progress here, on Instagram @creamcitycorals and likely youtube as well.
 
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Deltec
Welcome! Good bunch here and loads of knowledge. Looking good. Not sure about the plastic wrap? Why do you want to retain humidity. Personally speaking you should vent your fish room and extract humidity or you likely to find you start getting black mould and mildew which is hazardous to health if you breath in the spores. Personally i would remove it and introduce an extractor. Happy reefing.
 
Got the stand started last week and made some nice progress today. You will see that I have a indented section on the right for the apex and wiring components. Wanted to keep the apex stuff away from any potential water.

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WWC
gotta love it,go big or go home
 
nice work
 
Tidal Gardens
Keep it going - coming together nicely !!
 
I got the tank running shortly there after....ran for about 3 months. Changed out the 40 gallon and 50 gallon for the 50 gallon rubbermaid tote.
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Started with dry sand and very old live rock from an established system, fully cured and established for 15+ years. However...phosphate levels were out of control. I tried everything, large water changes even started controlled dosing with pure lanthanum chloride... BUT everytime phosphates would drop, within 2-3 days they would go right back up, even without feeding.

The sudden swings were ticking off my lps and a couple test sps frags I put into the system. I was eliminating everything....but couldn't figure it out. Knew it wasn't the rock, or food as I stopped feeding to see if the phosphates would go up. I was running a 100 gallon rubbermaid sump with two containers for a skimmer and a refugium. additionally a 50g rubbermaid tote for a frag tank. After talking to multiple local reefers, I came to the conclusion my rubbermaids and the containers were leaching into the water.

Additionally, the amount of tanks and complicated setup was bothering me. It was impossible to get behind the tanks to the plumbing better yet the pump. Sooooo, I decided to dump the rubbermaid sumps and the containers and build a plywood sump....I know a lot of work and massive change to make while the tank is so young. However, I was determined to get to the bottom of the cause.

decided simplicity was what I was after. Decided to make a 150 gallon plywood sump and a table to straddle the sump. I used pond shield and then siliconed any and all seams.
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Here is a short video of it running to give you the idea of what I was thinking when doing this. 3 return lines down into the sump. 4 filter socks, then through a chamber for skimmer and heaters etc, then bubble trap back to the return pump which is now finally accessible!! Everything is accessible! Which is great! Loving the new set up!

Sump is 48x30x24

 

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Jagg said:
Welcome! Good bunch here and loads of knowledge. Looking good. Not sure about the plastic wrap? Why do you want to retain humidity. Personally speaking you should vent your fish room and extract humidity or you likely to find you start getting black mould and mildew which is hazardous to health if you breath in the spores. Personally i would remove it and introduce an extractor. Happy reefing.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I used plastic wrap to keep the humidity in so I could flush it out of the room with a fan ducted outside! I then run a dehumidifier to take care of the rest if needed! :)
 
Also got an oldie but a goodie from a buddie of mine....old reeflo orca 200 skimmer. Awesome external skimmer and I was able to pull the skimmer out of the sump, so I can cover the sump now. Additionally, I have a lot more room in the future in terms of skimmer load. I ran the skimmer intake line outside through the window to try and get the ph up a bit. Didn't work as much as I had hoped! HA may look into making a co2 scrubber. Next to the air intake for the skimmer is the vent for the fan that is ducted outside. Also set up a refugium with a Kessil h380 I had laying around. Worked out well, now I can dial in nutrient control with adjusting the photoperiod.

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some tank shots to come!
 
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AS
Nutramar Foods
Haha right!! Love how clean the set up is and everything has a purpose. Seems very thought out. I've always been a throw it together guy but doing a build myself and like the amount of control with water flow, top offs, skimmers, the way it's all ran. Just awesome to see this thought out
 
Arthacker87 said:
Haha right!! Love how clean the set up is and everything has a purpose. Seems very thought out. I've always been a throw it together guy but doing a build myself and like the amount of control with water flow, top offs, skimmers, the way it's all ran. Just awesome to see this thought out
Click to expand...

Thanks! Really appreciate that! The first run around wasn't the best! Learned from that! It's finally starting together!
 
Nutramar Foods
Well here are a couple of shots of the tank, as well as a few pics of corals that I just added.

Started out with mainly LPS and some easier SPS like purple style, digis, and birdsnest. Have now started to get going with some SPS and looking forward to this stuff taking off!

QT tank is lit by a 250w metal halide. Have toyed with bulbs but go between 14 and 20K. Amazing how good halides are at coloring SPS up.

Main Display is lit by 3 hydra 26s and 2 ATI t5 hybrid fixtures





QT tank


 
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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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