Kemah's 120 build (1 Viewer)

[Kemah]

So I have finaly decided to put up another tank. I had my 180 for about a year before ike but it didnt do too well through the storm. After the storm I started it up again but had to many problems so I took it all down and sold it.

I bought a used 120 off of this forum about 3 weeks ago and I have sanded down and repainted the stand and I am working on the plumbing now. I have put the tank into one of my extra bedrooms that has a wall that goes into the garage so I turned my old 75 gal into a sump and put it outside. I am going to try to keep the stand empty and have everything but the show tank in the garage.

I hope to have the plumbing done by friday so I can get this tank filled up and put the live rock I have in the garage in the tank. I am also waiting for my lighting to come in the mail. I purchased two icecap 660 ballasts from Aquarium Specialty and as soon as they come in they are going into the hood and I should be good to go.

This will be my first BB tank so I will see how that goes. I plan on putting an RDSB out in the garage to help with nitrate. Also I am going to have to get a chiller within the next few months or I will be inviting everyone over for fish stew. I think I am going to try to find a 1/2 hp chiller. I think I could get away with a 1/3 or maybe 1/4 but I want to put a decent sized frag tank out in the garage also in a few months so I will probably be better of with the larger investment to start with.

At this moment I am going to run an old skimmer that I have sitting around but I plan on purchasing a reef octopus extreme 250 in a month or so. Anybody have any opinions on that? I like the idea of having two pumps on the skimmer so if one goes out there is still some skimming going on.

I will post some pics once I get the plumbing done so if anyone is interested they can see how I am doing it. I am going to try to keep good records on this tank to show the progress over time.

The thing that I am really excited about with this tank is that I am finally putting a tank in a place that I can have auto top off with out a ton of work. I am just doing it with a float valve and my RODI for now, but I plan on buying a nice controller in the future that will take care of that and many other things. The one I am currently interested in is the BioMatix Control unit. If you havent seen it you should check it out http://www.biomatixsystems.com/ It...sted soon and hopefully everything goes well.

 

[galvezsurfer33]

alright keep it going im tagging along

 

[hoffy02]

Im tagging as well.. i just got my first tank.. also a 120!! (but you know that)

 

[steved350]

Kemah,

I have the exact same set up that you are planning except that my display is a 110g. I used a glassholes.com overlows to take everything through the wall to the garage. I had a heck of a time this summer keeping the tank cool with the sump in the garage. I went from a 1/4 to a 1hp that I wound up putting under the stand in the house because the 100 deg. temps in the garage just made the chiller very ineffecient. If you need any help or advice let me know. Been there, done that.

 

[Kemah]

Thanks, I appreciate it. I didnt think about the efficiency of the chiller in the garage. What type of chiller did you buy, and how noisy is it? One of my main reasons for wanting to put everything in the garage was because I wanted to get rid of as much noise as possible.

 

[hank]

http://www.biomatixsystems.com/

FTFY

I have yet another emoticon with your name on it B:
:needpics: ...of you own.

BTW: I'm off on Friday if you want to knock some building on this out.

 

[Kemah]

Sounds good I will make sure that I have everything done so i can take friday off. Hopefully I will have the lights in by then. The lady at Aquarium Specialty is supposed to be calling me back with a tracking number. But I need to finish painting the hood so we can get those lights in.

Also I need to buy the stuff to make a RDSB. I think I am going to go ahead and do this right away instead of waiting till later.

 

[hank]

Sounds good I will make sure that I have everything done so i can take friday off. Hopefully I will have the lights in by then. The lady at Aquarium Specialty is supposed to be calling me back with a tracking number. But I need to finish painting the hood so we can get those lights in.

Also I need to buy the stuff to make a RDSB. I think I am going to go ahead and do this right away instead of waiting till later.

You have buckets, maybe need a scoach of 3/4 tubing, and some 1" Uniseals are probably good (which must be ordered online to my knowledge). ...oh and sand.

1" Uniseals

Other Uniseal sizes

 

[Kemah]

OK, I finally decided to get to work on the plumbing today. This isnt glued yet but after i figure out what to eat for dinner I am going to pull this appart piece by piece and glue it, then I get to start on the garage side of the plumbing. Let me know what you think of this so far.

 

[Kemah]

Ok, so I finished glueing all of the plumbing this morning and I hooked up the RO/DI and I am starting to fill the display. I still need to finish the plumbing in the garage so that I can fill up the sump. Then I can start my loop and add salt and LR.

I already have Lr out in the garage in a tub staying Live so I would like to get it inside soon so I can clean the garage up and pull my mustang in so it can just sit there for another 6 months.

 

[Kemah]

All plumbing is done, and LR is in tank. I have a little more to put in but I am waiting for the temp to raise a little bit because a few pieces have some softies on them. They would probably be fine to put in now but I am not in a big rush so will do it later tonight.

After I get all of the rock in I will take some pics to post. I think it is looking pretty good!

 

[reefling]

My wife had a 140g cichlid tank in the garage last summer. with 2 single bulb t8 strip lights her tank was hitting 90+ degrees. ....with halides it might boil... go for the 1hp chiller. I put it in the garage because it was too tall to go under her stand. we finally put it next to the stand. It is nice to have it out of the way tho. good luck with this project.

 

[Kemah]

This is a few days late, but here is the rockwork in the tank.

This picture makes it all look like a straight wall but there is actually a ton of ledges and that big rock in the middle has ledges that are like steps going up it. I will try to get some better pics later that show it better.

 

[Kemah]

Here is a better pic of the rockwork and an up to date pic that I just took.

The mushrooms on the left look really brown because I am using an old PC light that I had laying around and the blue bulb on that side isnt working. I am supposed to have the new Ice cap setups in tomorrow.

The big power head is some new cheap brand that I had to just try out. It is supposed to be 3000gph koralia style but I dont think it is, so it is going in the sump for some extra flow.

 

[hank]

pic w/ t5s?

 

[Kemah]

I recieved my new IC 660's today so hopefully I will have them installed and on the tank in the next 2-3 days. But for the moment here is a pic of the tank with the light I borrowed from hank on it. Also I need to get some pics of the sump out in the garage. I will get those soon, but it is still a mess out there.

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[Kemah]

It has been a while since I have updated this but here is a pic. It isnt really up to date, I need to take more tonight because a lot has been added but I have been having computer problems so we will see what I can get done.

 

[crvz]

looks good.

 

[Kemah]

Thanks, I'm trying. I just picked up a 1/2 hp chiller and I am hoping to get the new lights installed tomorrow. I have been really busy so I havent had a lot of time to do much more than basic maintenance (and buy fish and coral) so hopefully I can continue with the progress over the next few weeks.

 

[Rick]

Looks Great, I went bare bottom onmy tank too.
Easier to clean, I've got the DSB in the refugium.