Albertan22's 120g Reef

[Albertan22]

This project has been underway for about 7-8 months now. It's been a slow process of accumulating equipment and a failed stand build so I didn't want to start a build thread and tease everyone. My wife has convinced me that it's finally time to get one going though, so here we go

Here's my equipment list so far:

Marineland 120g reef ready tank with 1 corner overflow
40g breeder as a sump
Aqueon Cherry Mission stand and cannopy
Sunlight Supply Tek 8 bulb T5 light fixture
SWC Xtreme 200 protein skimmer
Quiet One 3000 return pump
2 Koralia 4s for added circulation
TLF reactor w phosban
autotopoff.com rig attached to a maxijet 400 for ATO
29g QT tank
1 Koralia 1 for the QT
Sponge filter for the QT

The project started with me attempting to build my own stand.



I had planned on skinning this stand in maple then applying a red stain. The build seemed successful at first, but then I left it for a month and found that a lot of the wood had shrunk, leaving gaps and warping the top box frame that the tank would sit on. Rather than trying to fix it, I decided that I'd feel safer with a store bought stand.

My wife is a math teacher so I got her to help me out with the plumbing design



The final product:



Thanks Vana:



Let there be light



Sump is up and running!



And some rock:



I still need to pick up more rock, maybe later this weekend.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Looking good sofar.

Ken

[Albertan22]

One issue the I've had since I've had the circulation going is some flushing of my Durso (came stock with the tank). I checked the Durso site and it says that there is a common misconception that the air hole on the standpipe is improperly sized, when really it's a backpressure issue from people putting their plumbing to deep underwater.

Sure enough, my outlet pipes are submerged about 3.5 inches below the operating level of the sump. So now I'm going to have to figure out a way of cutting them off without tearing everything appart, since naturally there wasn't enough room in my plumbing design to install the union I had bought to put in there. Fun fun fun...

Another issue that we're having right now is the smell comming off the tank while the rock curres. It's permeatted the main floor of our house with an ocean smell. I don't notice it until I've left the house for awhile then come back, but it's starting to bug my wife (who's been very supportive so far). Yesterday I put some carbon in a bag and dropped it in the sump, but it didn't seem to work. Should I be running it in my reactor instead?

[Skimmerking]

if your rock is uncured then its going to smell for a while. until mostly everything dies and then comes back to life in basic terms.

the noise that you are hearing is the air getting sucked in from the pump . that is a easy fix.
you can take you stand pipe out and enlarge the hole. that will work what type of return pump are you running on your tank?

the average they say is
3/4" 500 gph
1" hole 750 gph
1.5 1500
2" 2000 gph
but on my tank i have 1.5 " hole and I'm running a mag 12 on there you dont really need a huge pump to circulate your water. the key is contact time for your skimmer to clean your water and the heaters to heat it. IMO/IME
you avoid bubbles that way going to your return, you get more time for skimming ,and heating of the water, and alot of times people will add devices to move the water around like vortechs, tunze's closed loop.

hth.

[Albertan22]

Well, I fixed the flushing noise by drilling the air hole in my Durso one size larger. It seems that I'm running lower flow through it than it was designed for, but that's ok, I wanted a slow flowing sump.

On to more exciting things... I picked up some more rock and finished the aquascaping



And the tank with the canopy in place:



We had the lights on last night so we could enjoy our handiwork, but they'll stay off for the majority of the cycle in an effort to keep the algae down (probably a futile gesture).

[Albertan22]

We've noticed a few hitchhikers in our tank, I'm sure there's more to come.

So far we've observed a featherduster worm, and a few snails.

While I was doing the rockwork I noticed a large crab (about the size of a toonie) way up in a deep crevice of one of my rocks. He was brown with red eyes, didn't look hairy at all. He was to deep in the rock to get out, so I let him be, I hope this doesn't turn out to be a mistake. I seem to recall reading on the forums somewhere that hairy crab=bad crab, and non-hairy crab=good crab. I'm hoping this is the case with this guy, who knows if he'll survive the cycle though.

We also found this guy:



MANTIS!!! My wife thought it was cool that she could see "yellow eyes" watching her from inside a rock, I didn't think it was so cool. The rock was at the bottom of the rockwork, but luckily was not load bearing and easily removed.



I wish I had a place to put him, or some fish to feed him to, but alas his fate was simply to end up in the garbage Couldn't have him in my tank though. I hope there aren't any more in there.

I also found a small crab (about the size of a dime) climbing around on the rock that the mantis came out of. I decided to be safe and threw him in the refugium.

[mark]

nice layout and rockwork.

Mantis can go into the sump.

[Leah]

I think you will want to get rid of the crab...not good. Tank looks great!

[Albertan22]

Well, there's definately another mantis haunting my tank I can hear him excavating away in the rock and managed to catch a glimpse of him a couple days ago. He was in a rock that isn't easily moved, but I haven't seen him since. I think I'm going to try a DIY bottle trap this weekend and see if I can't get him out.

Another bit of good news, adding the second batch of rock (which was fully curred) did wonders to reducing the smell in the house. We don't even notice it anymore unless the cabinet doors to the sump are open. I've also noticed a lot of condensation in my canopy. The back is open, but the condensation problem seems to be up near the front. I'm hoping that the canopy is designed for the humidity and well sealed. Maybe it will be better once the lights are on and there's more heat in there?

[fishytime]

Looks like your off to a good start....if your handy you could mount/cut a couple fans into the canopy....this will also help keep the tank cool..