Tony's Innovative Marine 200EXT Build

[QuickrdenU]

control panel looks great

Thanks dude. Tank in yet?

 

[tritonpower]

Thanks dude. Tank in yet?

Arrived yesterday. Lots of work to do now

 

[QuickrdenU]

IT’S ALIVE!!!

It’s been a very busy weekend! Discovered one tiny seeping leak. In the body of the UV. A small section that didn’t have any cement oozing out. I slapped a bunch on it. We’ll see if it holds tomorrow.

Also discovered that the blues on each of my reefbreeders are apparently different LED’s altogether(one is much more green) though luckily, you can only really tell when the moon lights are on.

I’m very happy with how things turned out. Except for them only including 1 clarifying packet in 6 bags of sand… I don’t know what that’s all about.

Plumbing is complete, wiring is 95% done(most painful part for sure!), and I learned just enough about the Apex to rename some stuff and turn on some outlets.

Still a ton to do but glad to have it cycling. Can’t wait to break down a couple of these small tanks and clean up the house a little. Shoe molding goes on tomorrow! Also gonna try and find something to put under the pumps. They are connected with tubing but still hum a little louder than I would like. CHEERS!

 

[SPS2020]

Looks great! Glad you were able to so much accomplished.

 

[QuickrdenU]

I already had a brand new Finnex controller go bad… Just ordered an IM Helio set of heaters and controller. I’ll save that other crap as backup. I’m not messing around.

 

[QuickrdenU]

Ahhh YEAH! More fun stuff!

Anybody considering a new heater should look into IM! This stuff is nice! Looks great, long cords, great mounts. And packaged better than any product I’ve ever received.

 

[QuickrdenU]

What a chunk!

 

[SPS2020]

What a chunk!

Did he eat a snail?! lol

 

[SPS2020]

With the livestock additions, this may be moot but I'd suggest getting a bandsaw for frags to hopefully prevent the introduction of Vermetid snails and other baddies. Disregard if you are going to have LPS.

 

[QuickrdenU]

With the livestock additions, this may be moot but I'd suggest getting a bandsaw for frags to hopefully prevent the introduction of Vermetid snails and other baddies. Disregard if you are going to have LPS.

Yeah. I already have them in one of my pico tanks. There is something to be said for an sps only tank…

 

[Brandon Lucus]

Awesome Build!

 

[QuickrdenU]

Awesome Build!

Thanks!

 

[jp_75]

How is the tank doing?

 

[QuickrdenU]

How is the tank doing?

Good I hope! I set it up and had to get out of town for a week. I tested the water a few times before we left and it looked like soaking the rocks for so long had definitely jump started the ammonia cycle. If ammonia and nitrite levels are zerod out when we get home, I’ll throw in some pods and all the little fish we have scattered among 3 little tanks. I’ll take some new pics then and I’ll have to locate a bunch of fish…

Also, I initially had the reef mat hooked up but decided to take it off while we were out of town. There was much more fine tuning that needed to be done and I didn’t want to have any issues while we were gone. With the primary and secondary drains dropping straight down into the sump, I got it working well after turning the pumps on and off many times. I hope to get to the same point with the reef mat hooked up. I also have to fine tune the Neptune ATK. I think I have water spilling out of it somehow and onto the top sensor screwing up the automatic water fills. So for now I have it set to just fill for 4 minutes, somewhat bypassing the high sensor.

I attached some Govee RGBIC strip lights under the sump, around the control panel, and behind the tank. A pretty cool cheap little addition and the kids love all of the cool things those lights can do.

I’m excited to get home and see some fish in it. Though I’m sure they’ll all disappear!

These are the fish that will be going in initially.

Clownfish pair
Diamond goby
2x zebra barred dartfish
Lawnmower blenny
Wheeler goby and his pistol shrimp

 

[SPS2020]

Wondered if you were back yet.

 

[QuickrdenU]

Ammonia and Nitrate were zero this morning!

I got the fish and a couple corals in, the roller mat hooked up. I just had to turn the bottom part so the opening faced to the side, allowing the bubbles to easily escape. We’ll see how it does as it gets dirty. I don’t currently have the secondary drain hooked up to it. I also moved the heaters into that compartment and then tested out the fish feeder. It works great!

I’m still fine tuning the wiring so I haven’t covered it all up quite yet.

I gotta find some more fish!!

 

[SPS2020]

Let me know if you want a piece of purple stylo...I have plenty. Canary in the coal mine.

 

[QuickrdenU]

Let me know if you want a piece of purple stylo...I have plenty. Canary in the coal mine.

Foshizzle!

 

[QuickrdenU]

So I have some zoas sequestered to this small rock island and I just ordered 4 kind of high end zoas from Tidal Gardens. I’m trying to decide if I should let them cover one of the 3 large islands or make another rock island for them… i totally dig the colors and variation they offer. Any ideas? I originally didn’t want them taking over the entire tank but maybe one large island down low wouldn’t be so bad. I can still put LPS and SPS further up the rock right? Pic posted for an idea of my aquascape.

 

[tritonpower]

I went back and forth on this quite a bit. My concern was I had a zoa rock in my 90 gallon. Some zoas detached and floated onto another rock and started taking over that rock. For that reason I am not placing them in the 200 gallon. Now I have to make the same decision about my mushrooms that I love but they tend to do the same thing.