|
badAZZlars' 125 sps reef build (Updated FTS)
So i'm back in the hobby after a ten year absense and am really excited to get back into things. It's pretty cool to see how things have changed in the hobby with the new higher tech equipment you can buy and what seems to be easier access to high or ultra grade corals.
When I was in the hobby before I was living in Nanaimo BC but had to shut things down when I moved to Alberta to go to school. My tank was a 60 gallon softie/lps. I always loved the look of the sps tanks but there was little to no access to nice sps corals at that time on Vancouver island. Ten years later and now living in Calgary I can't believe how easy it is to find amazingly colorful corals whether it be from other hobbyists or from LFS or the internet. So after doing much research and reading many posts on canreef and reef central I started to piece together my plans to assemble a rimless 125g tank. Here's the details: Tank Starfire 60X24X20 high rimless Built by concept aquariums based on positive posts read here on canreef. Sump 48X20X20 Multi chamber with fuge and baffles Built by Concept Aquariums Stand 31" high tubular metal stand built by form member "The Grizz" I plan to get a wooden facade built to wrap around the metal stand Lighting Hamilton Cebu Sun 3X250W MH/4X96W Actinic/Moonlight LED's I plan to hang this fixture from the ceiling but am just going to start with the mounting legs. JL Aquatics Skimmer Bubble Magus 180CS Awesome deal from Concept Aquariums on this skimmer Power heads/Wave Maker 2X Vortech MP40W es Awesome deal from Concept Aquariums on these pumps Return Pump Magdrive 18 Base Rock I bought 150lbs of base rock from eco-reefer I'm really happy with this rock and how it stacks Live Rock I bought 50lbs of fiji live rock off of a canreef member after a tank shut down. This will be used to seed the base rock. Dosing/Top up I plan to do two part dosing, I bought the "large" package from BRS to get started with this. I plan to buy a 4 pump profilux dosing pump in the near future to automate dosing and top up Carbon/GFO I bought the double canister from BRS to house the carbon and GFO Sand 80 lbs Caribsea aragalive seeded with 40lbs of live sand. RO/DI Vertex 100gpd I should have some pictures up tonight as the tank has been delivered and I am just starting the build. |
Welcome back to the hobby! This will be a nice looking system.
Looking forward to see some pictures. |
^^^ditto^^^.....and welcome to canreef too......your right....there is a lot of sweet sps here in Cowtown.....
|
welcome to canreef
you seem to be on the right track for an awesome tank outcome. |
Thanks for the welcome remarks. I'm really excited to get things setup and get some life in the tank.
|
Pics
|
Got the sump delivered tonight. Need to wait a week before running in in the system as it was just completed yesterday and the silicon needs time to setup.
Should give me lots of time to get the plumbing setup. I'm going to try full pvc setup with no flexible tubing. This will be my first crack at it so hopefully it goes ok. |
Good luck with the plumbing.
Remember measure twice cut ounce.:wink: |
Aquascaping
This is an initial shot at getting the base aquascaping in. The end result is bound to look quite a bit different as I still have 50lbs of live rock to add to the system once its flowing.
Also I got the back of the tank painted black... http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5058/...256b5cf8_z.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5296/...77d0b165_z.jpg |
Looks Great thus far...
:popcorn: |
Looking good man!!:biggrin:
|
Very nice looking so far! Looks like a lot of rock in that badboy.
|
Quote:
Hay Mike you may want to spin the sump around before you do your pumping lol the filter socks on the outside will be way easier to take out and clean:mrgreen: |
Quote:
|
Quote:
Great point!!! It will make it alot easier to plumb the return lines as well. Thanks for the heads up. |
Quote:
Yeah it is alot of rock, I ordered too much. You get alot of bang for your buck when you buy dry rock. I didn't realize it would amount to so much. I have even left some out of the tank that I got in my order. Maybe it will end up in the sump. |
Make sure it's accessible. I have maybe 30 lbs in mine but I can't really get to it and stuff does accumulate there. More so now that I'm not running filter socks.
|
Plumbing is complete
Got the plumbing all done. Went pretty well for my first time. Haven't leak tested it yet but i'm pretty confident it should be fine.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5211/...138bbf8b40.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5176/...fcb83be757.jpg |
Tank is up and running!!!
There were a couple of leaks but just on the threaded joints with teflon tape. Glued joints all seem good. I was quite surprised at the level of evaporation after the first full day of running the system. Almost 8 litres over 24hrs. The sump compartment that my return pump is in will go dry within 2 days at that rate so I will be needing to get an ATO working right away. I'd say that even after a day and a half the pump would start sucking air. Also I added the filter socks to the sump and even though they were cleaned first they made the skimmer go crazy. Gonna run them through another cycle in the washer before trying them again. |
Once you close in the stand Mike it will help some what with the amount of evap. not a lot but some and an ATO is always a good idea. My ATO consists of a 5 gal bucket, my kitchen sink and my 2 arms ATM :lol:
|
Quote:
Oh well just one more thing to buy.... I'm already $1500 over my budget for getting this tank running so whats another couple hundred. :biggrin: |
Quote:
Ya its only money right :lol: I mean really what else could you do this some extra cash now a days. |
Its looking good. Can't wait to see water in it,
|
Quote:
Thanks, it definitely looks better now with water in it. I'll try to put some photos up tonight. I just have to move some of the rock into the sump as I have added the 50lbs of live rock and now there is waaaayyyy too much in the main tank. |
Pic with water and the rock setup
Here is a picture with the water in and my first few fish. I started with 3 truncate anthias. They seem to like the tank and their colors have improved quite a bit compared to what they were at the fish store.
I'm getting the itch to start adding corals already but will be patient and wait a few more weeks. Water parameters are all looking great though other than a small bloom of cyano but it was small and already seems to be going away. http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5295/...798a68a2_z.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5297/...3142782a_z.jpg |
Change of return pump
Well i'm already changing out equipment. I found that the mag 18 I was using as my return pump was way too loud and I thought I maybe didn't need that much turn over in my sump.
I ended up buying a quiet one 4000. The flow is quite a bit less but I think should be sufficient and the bonus is that I can't even hear it running. Now the only part of my tank that I can hear is the lighting (fans, and ballast hum). Makes the wife a lot happier :biggrin: |
Missing fish
when I bought my group of Anthias to get the tank rolling I bought 4. Right away one of them looked sick and it clearly had nothing to do with water quality as the other 3 are thriving. This one has since disappeared and i'm sure is rotting in the tank somewhere polluting the water.
I'm getting Algae growing on my rocks and i'm sure this missing dead fish is to blame for the bloom. Looks like i'll being doing a few larger sized water changes over the coming weeks to clear things up again. |
New reservoir
I got a custom reservoir made for my tank. It's 16X12X24 high with a hole for a float switch. It's nice that my ro/di line will reach to the reservoir so I don't have to move water back and forth. I also got a Tunze Osmolator kit for doing ATO. It's works great.
With the size of the reservoir I should be able to get at least a week of top up before I need to refill it. Eventually everything will be covered with a wooden facade. I have someone building the facade for around the main tank right now and then I will have to figure out how I want to cover the reservoir and the MH ballast's that are on the other side of the tank. url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_larsen/5493037947/]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5218/...7d9b4289_z.jpg[/url] |
Glad things are going well for you. :biggrin:
|
Quote:
|
how is the coral coming along??
Have u made any changes to the tank recently?
|
Quote:
I'll post some new pictures tomorrow. I'm finally getting the wooden enclosure delivered tomorrow but will still need to stain it. And i'll take picture of all of the tank inhabitants. Lots of new coral frags since the last post and a few new fish. |
Tank Update (Lots of Pics)
Been awhile since i've posted an update.
Everything in the tank is doing great. Algae problem is all gone and all tank parameters are pretty much bang on where I want them Salinity 1.026 pH 8.2ish Calcium 430-450 dKH 8.5 Mg 1300-1400 PO4 .03 NO3 almost undetectable Just had the wooden facade/skin for my metal stand dropped off today. It consists of 3 panels that are held on to the stand with strong magnets. I'll have to do a bit of shimming to get the panels to all line up nice but overall i'm pretty happy with it. Now I need to get it stained which I will hopefully get done next weekend. Next I will be getting a matching wooden enclosure for my metal light hood that will then be suspended from the ceiling. I will also be getting matching enclosures created to cover up the reservoir tank on the left side of the stand and the MH balasts on the right side of the stand. Got a 4 pump profilux doser as well now. Now my weekly upkeep will just include feeding daily and keeping the glass and skimmer cup clean. It will be great now that the dosing will be automated, I really like having the ATO that I setup awhile back as well. I don't mind doing tank maintenance, but having top up and dosing automated is nice because these are things that I wouldn't want to forget to do on a daily basis in my tank. I have also added a number of new tank inhabitants since the last post. My tank stock to date is the following: Livestock Yellow Tang Deep water coral beauty White Goby 2 X Percula Clowns 3 X Truncate Anthias Fire Shrimp Peppermint Shrimp Corals 25 sps frags. I only know the name of a few of them so won't try to name them 1 Acan Some nice new Growth on this one. Most of it is on the under side and the base that is attaching nicely http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4100/...4a88cc4e_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr Acans seem happy http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4105/...4c015961_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5029/...03735bc9_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5024/...899f44d4_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5108/...ed45405d_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5310/...571a0202_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5230/...38cb2aa4_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5308/...32371432_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5105/...a1a973b2_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5229/...6051b9fa_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5309/...1bc4913e_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr This one was completely brown when I got it a couple weeks ago and is coming back nicely http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5188/...923d2fd2_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr Have had this one almost 6 weeks and not noticing much change. I think the tips are starting to green up but no real growth http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5187/...a768653b_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr New frag I got today that I hadn't mounted yet http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5142/...18aaf081_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr Small Green Mili colony http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4093/...5439e57b_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5266/...d37a4e4e_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5222/...930b0ab9_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5026/...e1e7e3e1_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5229/...df4291c4_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr Unfortunately this one has lost some of the intense blue color it had when I got it from "extreme". I guess it misses the zeovit dosing :) http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5022/...a8c6e94c_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr Lots of growth on this one http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5103/...cdb33689_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5182/...39e59994_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5144/...3fa049d1_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5024/...271e919b_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5307/...e359817a_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5189/...3e53b953_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5189/...deb4a32e_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr |
A few more pics
New dosing pump
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5149/...8a033cf6_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr Left side of tank http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/...f85c4fd2_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr Right side of tank http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4094/...27aef197_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr Full tank http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5190/...d61a6ed4_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr Full shot with new stand in place. Doors are just taped on for now until I get it stained and the hinges mounted. It will be a very dark nearly black stain but I will keep it so that I can still see the wood grain. http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5142/...421815b5_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr |
Just read through your build, and I have to say IMHO, your tank looks really good. Lots of nice frags and the rock work looks quite pleasing to the eye.
|
Quote:
I think I'll add another 20-30 frags and then just watch it grow. I might actually put in an order with fragalot soon just to get the rest of the frags to fill things in. I know they get bad reviews but for $10 frags I'd be willing to accept some mistakes. |
Stand complete
I finally got the wooden facade stained and cleared and installed on the metal stand. Overall i'm really happy with the finished product.
Now I just need to get something similar made to cover the reservoir tank and to mount the light hood in as well. Yes I am using milk jugs for my dosing.... Sure its pretty Ghetto but it does the trick. They will be going in the cabinet shortly once I get the dosing pump mounted in the cabinet. On the weekend I also ordered 25 more frags from fragalot.ca. I know they get bad reviews on here but for the price I had to try as they were offering some pretty nice pieces. They are supposed to be delivered on Thursday. I'll take pictures and update once I receive them. http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5062/...f5b6db34_z.jpg Untitled by badAZZlars, on Flickr |
Fragalot
Got my order from fragalot today and overall I would say that everything went well. My order was shipped and delivered when agreed to, frags were packed well and i'm pretty sure I got what I ordered.
Out of the 27 frags that I ordered the only one that seems to be having any issues is the pink birds nest which has lost some tissue. Not that surprised as birdsnest apparently doesn't travel very well. Not sure if I just got lucky but i'd say my experience with fragalot was a good one especially for the price. I will post pictures once I get all frags mounted to the rock work and things have settled in. |
Tank looks very clean and well done i loved the tape on the doors in the earlier picture:lol:
|
| All times are GMT. The time now is 03:50 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.