Our 150 DD

Jdavison911 · Apr 19, 2017

Well everyone she said yes, again. This will be our 4 tank and a small step down from our last 220 gallon Marineland. This one is going to be a 150 Marineland Deep Demission. This tank will be in our sun room so we can enjoy a small piece of the outdoors and the ocean at the same time. Because I have no "sump room" available everything will be housed in a real nice armoire sitting next to it. Just so happens that this piece of furniture belonged to one of Ross Perot staff members! Pretty cool I thought. Anyways here is the list of equipment and once the project gets underway, this weekend, I will post pictures.
150 Marineland Deep Demission
Marineland stand and canopy
2 x 250 watt MH coralvue lights
2 Current USA led strip lights
Apex with breakout box and extra EB8
Reef Octopus 202-S
2 4"x 12" Bashsea Media Reactors
Mag 18 return pump
Maxspect Gyre XF230
20L sump
120 pounds of sand from BRS
120 pounds of rock from BRS. I will get another 60-80 local live stuff once we are ready for it.
and of course all the other stuff.
Hope everyone enjoys the build and I am very open to input on how to make things better. My last build was back 8 years ago.

Kammetal · Apr 19, 2017

Congrats on the build. Dont mean to worry you, but be careful with the DD tanks and marineland in general. i just picked up a 150 xt and im hesitant now to set it up. I just read many threads warning [emoji615]️ of leaks .

Jdavison911 · Apr 19, 2017

Thanks for the heads up. This will be my 3rd Marineland and hopefully it will be just like my last 2 and have no problems.

PPi · Apr 19, 2017

Welcome to the cube club. I have had this tank for 6 years and love it. I bought it used and it even had the seals reduced from over scrapping from the last user. Never had an issue. I think a lot of misconception in the tanks leaking is not from the seal, but rather the top bracing not being a one piece. I guess you could consider it a leak, the water pools in the corners and after a day it appears dripping down the glass. Nothing a little sealing of those and all is good. Once you have been used to having 36" depth it is hard to go back to anything less. The biggest challenge for me was getting flow right for my aquascape and have 3 sides if viewing, lol. I will be ordering the 300 dd in the near future. Good luck with your build and will be following with ya.

Jdavison911 · Apr 20, 2017

We have started work on the armoire that will be home to the apex system, make up water, dosing system and test equipment. We also started receiving some items today!

Jdavison911 · Apr 20, 2017

PPi said:
Welcome to the cube club. I have had this tank for 6 years and love it. I bought it used and it even had the seals reduced from over scrapping from the last user. Never had an issue. I think a lot of misconception in the tanks leaking is not from the seal, but rather the top bracing not being a one piece. I guess you could consider it a leak, the water pools in the corners and after a day it appears dripping down the glass. Nothing a little sealing of those and all is good. Once you have been used to having 36" depth it is hard to go back to anything less. The biggest challenge for me was getting flow right for my aquascape and have 3 sides if viewing, lol. I will be ordering the 300 dd in the near future. Good luck with your build and will be following with ya.

What kind of lighting are you running? Thanks

PPi · Apr 21, 2017

Running currently 2 reefbreeder 36 v2's. Really thinking of going with an 8 bulb ati with some reefbrite led suppliment. Just need someone to trade me, lol. I love led, but just not for sps.

Jdavison911 · Apr 23, 2017

Made good progress over the weekend plus 10 hours on the road to get the tank. Apex is communicating and basic testing done. Also have the ro/did unit set up and making water! Moving the tank in tomorrow then hook ups start.

Jdavison911 · Apr 26, 2017

Well we finally had nice weather and help to get the tank in and on its stand. Started playing around with the rock, I think I have it close to something, might move a couple pieces around. I'm really liking this 36" deep stuff.

Jdavison911 · May 3, 2017

Ok made some progress over the last couple days and we are ready for water. I have the last 50 gallons mixing up now. I guess I will find out if I glued everything! The control cabinet is coming along great and I will get some pictures up soon of it.

Daniel@R2R · May 3, 2017

Great start!

Jdavison911 · May 3, 2017

Thanks

Jdavison911 · May 3, 2017

Full of water, no leaks and everything running as it should. Now going to just sit and enjoy til bed time then the lights go off for a couple days. I will post more pictures once the water clears up and before the green stuff moves in.

Jdavison911 · May 7, 2017

Crystal clear now. Went and picked up 30 pounds of live rock to move things along. Had a small amount of ammonia this morning so maybe a little cycle has started.

Jdavison911 · May 14, 2017

Well 2 weeks into the new tank and things are looking good. Starting to get very small areas of hair algae and of course the ugly brown stuff is starting to move in as well. I did add a heater and programmed everything and so far 1 degree swings 78-79. I also went ahead and installed my PM kalk reactor to get a jump on my ph, yes I know it's early but I want all the bugs ironed out early. I'm thinking if things stay on track I will pick up a small cc and a pair of clowns next weekend and that's only if. I rushed my 220 and got in a little trouble and I'm not going to do that again! The apex once again has proven itself to be a major piece of equipment for my tank. I have all 16 outlets in use and 3 float switches! It also gives my wife a nice piece of mind knowing I can look at and guide her on taking care of stuff when I'm on the road.

Jdavison911 · May 14, 2017

jason g · May 15, 2017

Very nice tank.

Jdavison911 · May 25, 2017

Haven't updated in a couple days so here's a quick overview. The tank is doing great. All test are still showing normal new tank readings, algae is moving in as it should, temp is dialed in to maintain 1.5 degree swing, ph is getting better with a 7.9 to 8.2 24 hour swings. We have added 2 clowns to start introducing food and fish waste. We have also added some hermits and snails to start getting at the algae. Still playing with the skimmer but think I have it close and still moving the power heads around a little at a time. I have also been messing around with lighting schedules to get that where things will be happy. That's about it for now. I will get some pictures posted soon.