PoonTang's 120G Build
 

Well my tank crash last summer afforded me the oppurtunity to upgrade and to do things a little bit differently.
I started off by selling off my old 90G with stand and sump and in return I purchaced a used 120G Seastar with Euro Bracing, Dual Overflows, Oceanic #3 sump, Reeflow Dart return and stand.
While I was waiting to get the new tank i had an Electrician friend come and help me put in 2 dedicated circuits for the tank. I will be running 4 separate GFI's. I learned my lesson the hard way about running too many things off a single GFI :sad:
I started by giving everything a good clean and replaced the bulkheads in both of the overflows.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020448.jpg

I decided that the Silicone in the front corners looked a little ratty so i re did them in their original black.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020449.jpg

The Stand was a little rough in places and especially on the inside of the cabinet so I refinished the stand with 3 coats of 2 part marine epoxy. Next job was to get it all in place and start to hook everything up.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020452.jpg

looking good so far.
Is that a 4x2x2?

Yep standard 4x2x2. I would have liked to go bigger but I dont think the floor would handle it there. My joists are running parallel to the tank and its on the second floor.

Made some modifications to the sump. Added baffles and built a Bubble box and Filter Bag Holder out of Acrylic. The skimmer will be going in the first compartment so I deliberately made the first baffle an "Under." The reason being is that I found that in my previous sump the baffles have a tendency to skim off the top. Seems kind of silly to me that we skim off our tanks to remove the junk then skim off the sump and send it all back up top again. Now anything that gets skimmed off the tank will hopefully stay in the skimmer chamber. I will be building a standpipe for my skimmer pump that will draw the water off of the chamber hopefully making everything more efficient.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020476.jpg

Solved another problem ! Stainless steel cabinet hinges. No more rusty hinges having to be changed out every 6 months.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020477.jpg

Wow... all these new tank builds... Exciting!

LOL yeah I thought so too, you'll get a year to 18 months out of those, unless you baby them.

Can't wait to see this tank up and running, looking great so far :biggrin:

Hahaha no doubt. Hopefully it's not indicative of what kind of winter we're in for if all the Canreefers are all out upgrading their reef tanks !!! :lol:

Looking good so far PoonTang, can't wait to see more. :cool:

Heres the skimmer intake mod that I am going to try out. It should surface skim the sump chamber hopefully making the whole process a little more efficient.http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020497.jpg

Ooh I like that idea!!:biggrin:

Looks like you've got a good start. Nice work.

Hooked up the plumbing and did the mandatory leak test. Just a couple of minor issues that a little teflon tape will fix. The biggest problem that i have is that the overflow boxes dont seal 100% from the tank.Where the overflows thread into the bulkheads they are leaking past the threads I think because there is a constant dripping into the sump from the drain line. I need to get that fixed or when the power goes out I will eventually flood the sump.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020500.jpg
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020499.jpg

Nice, another build thread.

Very nice work, very clean. The refinishing of the stand looks marvelous.

I want more pics, keep us posted.

Well I started the aquascaping. Man is that frustrating, like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Well I have it basically finalized, lots of depth and nice coral mounting shelves, caves etc. I will still need to add a few pieces of LR to seed it once I get the water in but I wanted to basically get it all placed while its still dry. Actually the picture doesnt really do it justice, it is much more 3 dimentional than the picture shows.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020518.jpg

I like it! Especially that triangular piece on top with the hole in the middle of it.

Is that chair really small or is the tank really huge???? I am jealous nice set-up! Can't wait to see this up and running...I like your aquascaping can you come do mine! :biggrin:

LOL ya its a leftover from when my kids were still little. It gives me just enough boost to easily reach the bottom of the tank.
I picked up 6 pounds of LR today to seed my tank with (just a few small shelf pieces). The tank is currently filling with water, man the RODI sure takes a long time to put out 120+ gallons. Sometime tomorrow it should be full. Add the rock and sit and wait.

All filled up and running now for 10 days. Sure wish it would hurry up, I miss my fish and corals.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020520.jpg
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020522.jpg

Wow that looks awesome!!! I missed out on what you were running for lights?

The Canopy has a single 250 Mogul and 2 VHO actinics. I wont be leaving the canopy on once i get livestock/coral in the tank. Too many heat issues and I have a very nice 2 x 250w aqualite pro with brand new phoenix 14k bulbs that came off of my old tank.

Added a fish and small cleanup crew to deal with the rapidly developing hair algae problem.
Juvi Kole Tang
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020549.jpg
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020552.jpg

Awwww...hes still got his baby spots....very good "worker" fish...

Looking good Darren. You'll fing that Kole Tang a great little cleaner-upper.

er......find not fing.

:) a recent field trip to powell river convinced me that a Kole would be on my stocking list. My last trip to the LFS I found all 3 tangs that I was wanting but I resisted and only bought 1.

Found a good deal on a purple tang which just happened to be on my stocking list. And well it was time to add another fish anyways. He seems to be adjusting to his new home just fine.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020685.jpg

I built some covers for my overflows out of smoked acrylic. I hate the little splashes that dry everywhere from them. Will stop me from having to clean the lights so often as well as keeping the snails out and cutting down on any algae growth in there.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020673.jpg

Just wondering how the two tangs get along?
Love"n" the little Kole, and fattens up! ha ha!

nice looking setup man well done.

They seem to get along just fine. The Kole is a hyper little bugger always trying to get little bits of algae off the glass. The Purple seems to be very quiet and peaceful, just mosyin around, a nibble here and a nibble there.

Yeah, the Koles remind me of a mouse or something. They don't stop moving from lights-on to lights-off!

My tank is currently going through the " I have to clean the green dust off the glass everyday" stage. Looks really funny because by the end of the day its just covered in little kiss marks from him.

Yup, they are hard-working little buggers.

Little??? Koles have got some big arse lips....IMO:lol:

Lol not when their only 1 1/2" long they dont. I wonder if when I grows up if I should name it Mick or Pamela :twised:

Tank is slowly starting to take shape. Cant wait for all of the frags to grow. Here is the latest FTS :biggrin:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...erboy/fts1.jpg



And here is my new toy. This is gonna be fun once I get it all hooked up and programmed.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P1020830.jpg

Tank is coming along nicely Darren. Starting to get some coralline on the back glass.
Where did you get that nifty nori feeder from? :mrgreen:

Funny you should ask, I just happen to know the manufacturer very closely, so he gave me a super deal. :wink:

Annnnnnnnnnnnd????????


FTS looks great man! love that horseshoe cove look.....

He is the manufacturer! :mrgreen: