Nicks 120 tank build/fish room upgrade (diy)
 

To start i guess i will say my name is nick and i have been in the hobby for about 6 years and have had this tank for about 3 years. Long story short i bought an existing set up and some contents from a fellow reefer and didnt know enough to keep everything alive/bought a bblue face angel that ate all coral.

After letting the tank turn green and getting rid of the blue face/learning how to properly take care of a salt tank i tried an alge turf scrubber (which helped clean it up alot but was a pita to maintain). Here is a look at how it was...


http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...l/IMG00084.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...l/IMG00082.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...l/IMG00086.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...l/IMG00028.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...l/IMG00081.jpg

here is a fts at that time

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...l/IMG00091.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...l/IMG00067.jpg

fast forwarding to april of this year here is what was going on. (i finally mustered up the courage to add a toadstool after a very long period of being coral free).

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...4-29132804.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...4-29132757.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...4-28190637.jpg

this is about the time that i decided i wanted a fuge and a little more room to work on things (and noticed i had a storage room on the other side of the wall that the tank is against).

Here is the sump as it was under the tank

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-16191100.jpg

and the other side, with the acrylic great little box that formerly housed the ATS and also inspired some of the handy work that is to come in this thread.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-16191051.jpg

a pic of the (very messy) soon to be fish room

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-21170039.jpg

That Vlamingi displaces more water than all your live rock.

yes, that fish was quite something... i got it as a baby and had it for a good 4-5 years. He was about 15" when he stopped eating and was floating the next day... not sure what got him and was very surprised as it was a very resilient fish especially early on when i was not properly caring for then environment he was in. The wife took it pretty hard... but it is known to happen in the hobby... not much can be done to stop it.

since i am kinda cheap and i have used one of these boxes before with success i decided to make my sump/fuge/skimmer compartment out of them

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-16191031.jpg

just take off the handles and drill a couple holes and here is the new sump

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-19165221.jpg

and a new fuge

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-16191016.jpg

and a dry fit and cut to size to see how my intakes were going to look and if i needed to change plans.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-19151836.jpg

here is what i was planning initially.. to have the sump under and the other parts draining straight down into it.. but i decided not to do so due to the fact that i would like easy access to vac out sump and do pump maintenance.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-16200750.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-16192139.jpg

You might want to make sure those plastic boxes are food safe. I was using a back plastic garbage can for an ATO resevoir. It held only fresh water with a clear hose that ran to my sump. After 3 years I noticed the inside of the hose turning black. Which makes me believe that it started to break down and leach in to the water.

here is the room all cleaned out. i fastened the plywood to the walls so that i would have something to screw into when mounting electrical ect. Without having to hammer drill everything.

as you can see, the stands are facing out so that the sump will be in front of them and the fuge/skimmer tanks will be sitting above and draining right into it.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-21191719.jpg

here is where i am mounting a couple 15amp plugs each on separate breakers. Also am running the 1/4" water line for the ATO

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-23191204.jpg

i have had a clear one running alongside my sump for a couple years and have nots had any issues yet... the only one that i am relatively new with is the black one... but as far as i can tell they are just acrylic.... it has been running a few months now and i have not had any issues so far(knock on wood).

then arrived my long awaited order of filter socks/sediment pre filters/a couple empty cartriges for my rowaphos

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-18163658.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-18163707.jpg

here are the nice new cartriges flushed and ready to go in (sediment pre filers are changed every 10 days on average but can go up to a month before clogging).

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-18165210.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-18165333.jpg

here is a pic of tanks and plumbing in place

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-22175344.jpg

here is a view of the sump from above

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-27154937.jpg

here is some electrical and the phos reactor

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-27155029.jpg

the fuge

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-27155006.jpg

and the whole darn thing up and running

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-27155122.jpg

and then under the tank looked like this

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-27154838.jpg

once everything was up and running i decided to make a change to the in-tank layout. i started out byt taking all rock out and placing in bins/all over the floor.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-07132025.jpg

Then piled it up somewhat how i wanted it to look and busted out the epoxy and tried to get it all to fit back together how i had previously had it (didn't get it the same, but very close).

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-07131736.jpg


it ended up coming out like this:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-09110720.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...5-09183427.jpg

the tanks stayed in this layout for a few months... and in that time i had noticed little polyps popping themselves out of the rocks where they had previously been(years ago). They must have been hiding in there waiting for me to become qualified to give them a nice clean tank/good water parameters.

Here is a shot of them with my mystery coral right beside them (some kind of cabbage?)

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-24191236.jpg

it was around this time that i lost my vlamingi tang... it was soon after that when i decided to do a little more rearranging on the left side of the rock work (as i was pretty content with what was happening on the right).


Right side:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-22191150.jpg

Left side:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-22191121.jpg

sorry for the crappy pics, but they are from my phone

fts:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-22191104.jpg

here are a few up to date pics. not to much changed from my last set of pics.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-30171441.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-30171449.jpg

left side:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-30171456.jpg

right side:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-30171506.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-30171511.jpg

my new friend in his acclimation box

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...0-30171517.jpg

made a few changes to the livestock... hippo tang has moved to a better home as did the flame (he was getting tag teamed by the other 2 angels and i didnt wanna let him get too beat up).

just added these nice little fellas.. been in for a few days and havent seen any nipping... they are still getting chased a bit by the coral beauty but seems like all will be well.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...1-05164525.jpg

well, had to get rid of the Heniochus shortly after they were added (thanks to my friend the coral beauty). But i did just add a small six line wrasse that has been getting on quite nicely for a bit over a week now(thank god).

also just got a 48" Blue Reefbrite XHO to try out... here are a few pics

let me know what ya think

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...oreefbrite.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...sFrogspawn.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...spawnNight.jpg

Night time fts:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...h/IMG_0079.jpg

I love the new lights..kinda partial to the blue myself.

here is a daytime shot... and a shot of the duncan i got from you Leah :smile:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...h/IMG_0101.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...h/IMG_0088.jpg

here is a picture of my new friend..

I have been spot feeding every other day. It has been in my tank for about a week and seems to be doing well. It would close up at night time for the first couple days it was in the tank, but now it has stayed open for the last 4-5days/nights.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...2-22175133.jpg

i made a video if my new buddy a bit ago....

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...deomarch11.jpg

and here are my non hosting clowns and the anemone they won't go near.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...2-22174423.jpg

today i picked up a couple new additions:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-18142820.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-18143242.jpg

with how nicely the hammer was seperated into 2 areas i decided to chop off the smaller one

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-18142919.jpg

and then there were 2

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-18143221.jpg

couple hours later, everyone seems happy and well adjusted.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-18181928.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-18181946.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-18182020.jpg

figured i would address a long overdue issue with my pump today:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26143648.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26143638.jpg

gote the new part:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26143717.jpg

did some cleaning and had a bath in vinegar:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26144731.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26144707.jpg

Broke my new piece with my super-human strength:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26160054.jpg

Bought it again and tightened it slightly less and it is slightly less cracked:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26170921.jpg

no more leak and better flow.. i should probably clean the pump more then every 8 months i guess...

looks good now man where did the tangs go? and that orange carnation is that what that is. love that man,. need to get some of that for my tank.

do you honestly not know why your tang died?

did you maybe think it died from being a tank thats too small for it?

i have no idea why...i had it for years and it survived power outages and bad water early in its life but later on it had more open room and better water quality then it ever did and went from healthy one day to not eating and dead the next...

there is not really a disease fish get from not enough swimming room... it had clean water and as much as another couple feet woulda been nice it is definitely not a reason for it to die.

It was obviously stressed from not having enough room. A stressed fish easily gets sick

thanks for the diagnosis... i have really been hoping for someone to come along and guess why my fish suddenly died almost a year after it happened.

no problem, glad i could help you not make the same mistake again

update:

my orange friend is looking happier by the day..

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-27184919.jpg

as is this little guy:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...22101336-1.jpg

and my life is improving with all this great advise from my new bff markod

Looks like Marko's out flashing the badge.

Hey nick I will be your bff for. Afrag of that orange coral:mr

Don't do it Nick!! You don't want him for a BFF, he's a big pain in the arse jarhead :twised:

haha, i will take whatever i can get these days... as for the coral, free frag if you make the trip to pick it up Skimmer King.

new fts after pickin up some new frags at the local swap last weekend:

warning.. all pics in this thread are with my camera phone so prepare yourself for clarity!!

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-27185032.jpg

And some down shots of the new and old:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26193034.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26193019.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26192823.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26192916.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26192906.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26192811.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26192928.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26192800.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...3-26192709.jpg

That is one sweet looking anchor hammer.