Show off your Tanks/Setups....DIY or not...let it rip!
- Thread starter nitrox36
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wrfreeman
Wade
I'll get this ball rolling with my 72g bow front built in
I've had this tank for about 10 years and have struggles with it the first 9. Lack of knowledge and trusting my LFS to educate me were my biggest problems. I found a really good forum out of Austin (ARC) about a year ago and have turned it around! It's in pretty good shape now. For the first time I'm adding coral and feel confident that I can not only keep them alive, but have them flourish! Education is a wonderful thing
Here's my specs:
72 gallon bow front DT
Eshopps Refugium R-100, 2nd Generation (20 gallon)
SWC Xtreme 160 Cone Protein Skimmer
Neptune Systems Apex Lite
Reefbreeders Photon 48
Tunze Comline Wavebox 6208
Vortech MP40W
2 x Cobalt Aquatics MJ-1200 for 2 x BRS single reactors (carbon, GFO)
Current 1/10hp chiller (below the floor directly under the DT)
Current Gamma UV 15 watt sterilizer
approximately 75 lbs of rock
I make my sw in the basement almost directly below the DT. The tank water is siphoned into a pipe going through the floor to a garden hose and outside then I use a pond pump to pump it back into the sump. Much easier than lugging water up stairs like I used to.
Here's some pictures of my set up. The biggest challenge for me now is dealing with basically having an aquarium in a closet. Replacing my MH fixture with the Photon has greatly helped with the heat. I'm now considering replacing my new Photon 48 with a couple of Kessill A360W fixtures. The Photon has the 90 degree optics, but the fixture is just 7.5" above the water so I don't know if the light arrays are being dispersed as they were intended.
I've had this tank for about 10 years and have struggles with it the first 9. Lack of knowledge and trusting my LFS to educate me were my biggest problems. I found a really good forum out of Austin (ARC) about a year ago and have turned it around! It's in pretty good shape now. For the first time I'm adding coral and feel confident that I can not only keep them alive, but have them flourish! Education is a wonderful thing
Here's my specs:72 gallon bow front DT
Eshopps Refugium R-100, 2nd Generation (20 gallon)
SWC Xtreme 160 Cone Protein Skimmer
Neptune Systems Apex Lite
Reefbreeders Photon 48
Tunze Comline Wavebox 6208
Vortech MP40W
2 x Cobalt Aquatics MJ-1200 for 2 x BRS single reactors (carbon, GFO)
Current 1/10hp chiller (below the floor directly under the DT)
Current Gamma UV 15 watt sterilizer
approximately 75 lbs of rock
I make my sw in the basement almost directly below the DT. The tank water is siphoned into a pipe going through the floor to a garden hose and outside then I use a pond pump to pump it back into the sump. Much easier than lugging water up stairs like I used to.
Here's some pictures of my set up. The biggest challenge for me now is dealing with basically having an aquarium in a closet. Replacing my MH fixture with the Photon has greatly helped with the heat. I'm now considering replacing my new Photon 48 with a couple of Kessill A360W fixtures. The Photon has the 90 degree optics, but the fixture is just 7.5" above the water so I don't know if the light arrays are being dispersed as they were intended.
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djoutkast22
Active Member
That's amazing
wrfreeman
Wade
Well, I'm doing everything different to be honest. Long story short (well as short as I can get it): Wife buys me tank for anniversary. Yay! Talk to LFS on how to set up tank. Fill up tank using tap water. Tank cycles and we add fish a colt leather. Colt dies soon enough. Algae takes over tank. Timely water changes using tap water. No change in algae. Seek advice from LFS (because they're the experts). Buy some Phoszorb to decrease phosphate. No change in algae. Seek advice from LFS. "Do more water changes". etc. etc. etc. Soon become very discouraged with very expensive hobby and ugly green rock. Still get same advice from LFS - Phoszorb and water changes, blah blah blah. Wife continues to buy me surprise coral that die within a week. How many have you have ever said, "Honey, please stop buying me stuff for the tank"? Zero. Move tank to new house and now it's a built in. OOOOO, AHHHHH! Troubles travel with us. Wife says "Tank looks like $#!+. either do it right or get rid of it!" So I start doing a bunch of research on this thing called the internet. Wonderful thing. I find this forum in Austin (used to live there way way back). Austin Reef Club. Great group of people with unfathomable knowledge about this hobby. I told them my woes and they chewed may butt pretty good for being a neglectful chump and then helped me fix it. Turns out all you need to do find people that know what the heck they're doing and ignore your local "experts" at the LFS. I started with some massive water changes using my new RO/DI system. I should have replaced all my rock, but didn't. I know it's probably got so much PO4 in it that it will leach out for another 10 years, but I missed my window on that I think and am not willing to start over with a new cycle. I could buy some pre-cycled rock I suppose. I'll have to think on that. Anyway, I also figured out that in addition to knowing what to do you also need money to but good equipment. Buy it good the first time is my advice to anyone reading this. Save and buy it once. You buy cheap, you get cheap, and you'll be buying again. So I scrap the pitiful sump and ridiculous protein skimmer that came with the tank and buy a new sump and skimmer. I buy a reef controller. I buy some dosing pumps for an ATO, Ca, and alkalinity. I plumb in a chiller to bring my water down from the 85 degrees it was running (MH light + closet = HOT!). I eventually replace the MH fixture with some cool running LEDs. I added carbon and GFO reactors. I bought a good test kit (invaluable) and test weekly and keep a log book. *(yes this is the short version)*
So now I have a good sump/refugium (with filter socks) and good protein skimmer. I do 10 day - 2 week water changes of 10-12%. I don't dose anything but Ca and alkalinity via 2-part. I only feed once a day (about half a cube or some New Life Spectrum pellets). I also feed some Coral Frenzy once a week. I'm pretty much at my tank everyday when I get home checking to make sure all is well. Just a few minutes a day is all it really takes.
Oh, my parameters are typically:
PO4: 0.00 (Hanna checker)
NO3: 0.00 (API)
Ca: now dosing up to 430 (checked using Red Sea Reef Foundation kit)
dKH: now dosing to 9 - 10 range (API)
Mg: ~1400 (Red Sea kit)
pH: 8.4 - 8.6 (especially now with gas logs running (can't convince the wife not to run them)). It was running a steady 8.4 during the summer.
salinity: 1.025
temp: 77 - 78
So now I have a good sump/refugium (with filter socks) and good protein skimmer. I do 10 day - 2 week water changes of 10-12%. I don't dose anything but Ca and alkalinity via 2-part. I only feed once a day (about half a cube or some New Life Spectrum pellets). I also feed some Coral Frenzy once a week. I'm pretty much at my tank everyday when I get home checking to make sure all is well. Just a few minutes a day is all it really takes.
Oh, my parameters are typically:
PO4: 0.00 (Hanna checker)
NO3: 0.00 (API)
Ca: now dosing up to 430 (checked using Red Sea Reef Foundation kit)
dKH: now dosing to 9 - 10 range (API)
Mg: ~1400 (Red Sea kit)
pH: 8.4 - 8.6 (especially now with gas logs running (can't convince the wife not to run them)). It was running a steady 8.4 during the summer.
salinity: 1.025
temp: 77 - 78
Just got my 140 up and running this weekend. Bought the tank,sump(40b),and return pump off Craigslist. Tank is acrylic and I had to do some major buffing. And lastly had to build the stand. The tank is meant to be a peninsula tank but I don't have anywhere in my house to put it that way so that's why I designed the stand this way.
YodaHart
Active Member
Here's my new tank. I'm still in the build process. It's been running with water for about 2 months.
Here's the sump:
The entire build thread can be found here: NCMAS ? View topic - YodaHart's 120 Build
Here's the sump:
The entire build thread can be found here: NCMAS ? View topic - YodaHart's 120 Build
Thanks I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Wow. Nice tanks! Still building my first. Water tested. Skinning the stand now. Have not picked a place form my VRJ sticker yet. LOL
