Stemick's 120

[Stemick]

I have had a 52g cube for a couple years now. But I have bought a new house with more space. What does more space mean? More room for bigger tank so I picked up a 120g (48"x24"x24") with a descent stand and hood. I striped and sanded then stand and seal them. The tank was used and had sat for a while so I resealed it. I did not get pic before I striped & sanded it, but I did get pic's of it before it got stained and sealed. I also used prime on the inside of tank and hood. Here is the start of the pics more pics and info to come.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Haha! Definitely one of the bigger perks of having a big house!
Really nice! Can't wait to see the finished product!

-Sal

 

[thehammer1985]

Gonna be tagging along on this one . Looks like this is gonna be a good one

 

[Stemick]

I found a nice 40g breeder at a yard sale for $10. So I went to a couple glass stores and ask if they had any glass they wasn't going to use. I was able to get some piece just a little bigger then what I need to cut down to use as baffle in the 40g and turn it into a sump. I'm going to use the 40g as a temporary sump because I have a larger tank I'm working on to that I'm going to eventually plum out to the garage.

 

[jason g]

I go the same route with all my sumps. I have an uncle who buys acrylic sheets then customizes the sumps to my needs. Saves money.

 

[Stemick]

Went shopping today for some plumbing nothing like a cart of PVC fitting.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Love that size tank! What kind of lights you planning?

 

[Stemick]

Zero nitrates I have a Gen 2 Radion from my 52 and I'm taken over my brother in laws tank and using his rock and light to. It has a 32" reef star( which is like an ever grow). I plan on running the reef star and Radion for a little bit till I can get a bigger ever grow that will cover the whole tank.

 

[Stemick]

I finish staining and sealing the stand and hood. Let it cure for a couple of days. I broke down my brother in laws tank. Took all the coral off the rock and temporally put it in my 52g which is still set up at my old house. My parents are renting it so they're baby sitting it till I get everything moved. They love it.

Now everything is out of the garage and set up in the house. Put down 40 lbs of sand and 40lbs of aragonite. I have not stacked any rock yet just kinda laid it in. I'm just letting it cycle out. Hopefully it won't cycle to much.

The rock that's in it now is rock from my brother in laws tank and rock that I have been cycling out for a couple month in a separate 20g tank. I used almost all the water from both tank. I did a 10g water change on my 52 g and add it to the tank. So about 70g of established salt water and topped off with new salt water.

I hung the 32" reef star over it to give it some light cycle. Once it seem cycled and safe I will broke down my 52g and add the rock and coral to the tank and bring over the rest of the equipment. That's everything up to now. I will Try to post as I make progress.

 

[Stemick]

Made a bunch of 4" filter socks.

 

[HowUDoin]

Made a bunch of 4" filter socks.

slick

 

[Stemick]

I tested the nitrates and ammonia and both tested zero. So I picked up a Powder Grey tang (that's what the store had it listed as but I think it also known as powder brown) and a yellow tang. They are both doing very well and eating as soon as they where put in the tank. They both hang out together.

 

[Stemick]

I finally broke down my 52g and added the rock and coral to the 120g. I used about 20g from the 52g to do a water change on the 120g. Everything seems to be taking the transition very well. It took me about 2 hrs to Aqua scape. It turned out better then I thought it would. I will get the DSLR out and get some better pics once everything settles in.

 

[mochaclownlover]

Looks very good, did you quarantine the tangs or just put them in the tank?

 

[Stemick]

I just put them in the tank. I was thinking about it I probably should have. I have always had pretty good luck with the store I bought them from. I also added a mandarin goby and clown from my 52g. I just hope there is enough pods that survived the move he is pretty fat. I will have to watch the mandarin and make sure he is staying healthy. I'm going to seed this tank a couple times with pods to makes sure he has enough pods.

 

[Stemick]

I have had a bubble blaster HY1000 pump for my skimmer (reef octopus nwb110) and have had it on it before but it was to finicky with it. So I put the smaller pump back on it it worked good on my 52g but now I need more efficiency out of it. Coral view sales a 3"neck extension so I thought I would try to make one with an extra reef octopus nwb 110 that had a broken body. The top where the cup seal into the body broke off so I cut and sanded it smooth and cut the cup off the neck off the cup. A 2" female to female pvc adaptor slipped right onto the neck. I put a 2" to 1 1/2" inside adaptor on the other side of the female to female adaptor. The inside adaptor had a little bit of a shoulder to stop it from slipping all the way into the other adaptor, the shoulder was a perfect fit for the part that the cup base seals to. Got 6 1/2" of extension hoping it would give me more control and better efficiency with the BB HY-1000 and neck extension. After 3 days it has done better then it ever has.

 

[Stemick]

Here is a couple more pic of it broke down.

 

[Stemick]

I add two 48" T10 Super Actinic Fluorescent Bulbs To help supplement my 32" ReefStar led. When I transferred my corals over from the old tank to the new tank I noticed they where faded and really did not have a lot of color. I had a radion gen 2 over them on my old tank. I most not of had it set right. They started to get color within days of putting them in the new tank and under the Reefstar which is just a basic led light with white and blues and built in timer. I put the 48" Fluorescent in to just help the Reefstar supplement at the edge of the tank. They was laying around and had no bulbs so I figure I would put them in till I figure what route I'm going to go with on lighting. I debating on getting more radions (seen some selling on here for decent price) or sell the radion and go with a couple decent evergrow lights or go full DIY. options, options, options; I'm working on getting the apex set up and everything programed into it. I just did a firmware update on it. Having fusion kind of spoiled me to access it. I had to relearn to access the apex locally with my computer. I won't have Wifi to access it with fusion till later this month. I'm also going to add a little cabinet to the end of the stand to match it. So I can house all my electronics and plugs out of the inside of the stand so it not expose to as much moisture. I took some pic with the DSLR might add some this weekend. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

 

[Stemick]

I didn't want all my electrical under the stand with as humid as it is under there. So I built a electrical box to mount to the side to match the stand. I made it so the top open so I can slide the Plexiglas out so I can mount, route and adjust controls and plugs. Since I control most everything through the apex and remotely I don't need to have access to it and with the plexiglass I can have a quick glance at everything.

 

[Stemick]

Picked theses guys up this weekend. I'm doing the Tank Transfer Method with these guys 48 hrs into the first stage now. My powder grey tang seems to not be very aggressive so I'm hoping he will adapt to these guys and after I'm done QT'ing the yellow tang and the Tomini tang add them both to the display at the same time that it will intimidate him and he won't be aggressive.