New Tank build out (2 Viewers)

[jdeveaux]

DRUM ROLL PLEASE......

I bet you never thought you would see these photos.

BTW Don't mind the cloudiness; it is a new tank.

I still need to do some aquascaping too.

Look at all of that skimmate.

 

[landfish]

Very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I love the barnicals. You should get some barnicle blenies. They are very cool fish

 

[AquaNerd]

yyyyeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh....it's about time john. just kidding. that skimmate looks nasty. is that a pm bullet 1 or 2 and what kind of pump do you have feeding it? i'm thinking about a little upgrade in the very near future and am needing skimmer ideas.

 

[cstewart79]

John give us a pull back shot of the whole stand and tank filled with water..

 

[jdeveaux]

Here are is the full configuration of my system.

120 Gallon Starphire (Actual true volume is closer to 111Gallons before sand an rock)
4" DSB 150-176lbs of LR
LT Corner overflow with 1.5" drain and 1" return
60 Gallon Sump built by Marc (melevsreef.com) Awesome Job?
Sump has 20 Gallon Fuge with 5" DSB
Closed Loop with 1.5" center drain and 4 1" returns powered by a Reef Flo Snapper.
Bullet 2 Skimmer powered by Iwasaki WMD40RLXT
Return pump is a Blue Line SD 1100 with a control valve to control return flow...approx 800 GPH
1/3 HP Seachill Chiller powered by Mag 7 pump (still need the pump)
2 4"x18" media chambers powered by a Mag 2
Fans to control air flow through the canopy and stand still need to be installed.
Lights
1x150w MH IceCap E-ballast 20k Aquamedic
2x250w MH IceCap E-Ballast 14k Phoenix
6x 5w Lunar White Moon lights on lunar cycle
6x 5w Blue Moon lights for night time viewing (on demand)
100gpd RO system with CA/CE/ and DI
35 Gallon Primary holding tank
50 Gallon Salt mixing tank/emergency RO tank
MAG 24 to move all that water from the garage to the tank
Top-off.com ATO system with 25Gallon holding tank in the stand using a aqualifter pump for top-off.
Hi – Low system from top-off.com for moving water to the Top-off tank from the garage.
The cabinet is 94" x 28" to contain all of the equipment

I will get a full tank/stand shot tonight after I move a bunch of construction carp out of the way. Keep in mind I still need to do the trim work on the stand 8O

 

[jdeveaux]

yyyyeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh....it's about time john. just kidding. that skimmate looks nasty. is that a pm bullet 1 or 2 and what kind of pump do you have feeding it? i'm thinking about a little upgrade in the very near future and am needing skimmer ideas.

The skimmate is really nasty from the sand. There is about 60lbs of live sand that was stirred when I moved it from the holding tank into it's new home so I had a small silt storm. I added a bit of Kent Marin pro-clear and the skimmer sucked all of that silt right out of the water.

The skimmer is a Bullet 2 - I know my bioload is going to be high so I decided to go with a slightly oversized skimmer.

I have a Bullet 1 that I will be putting up for sale in the members only section pretty soon.

That is if I don't decide to build out another tank :twisted:

 

[MarkieB]

Tadum!

You lucky man!

I am just 2 -3 months behind you!

 

[jdeveaux]

Finished Aquascaping today.... As if any of us really truly finish moving the rocks around

Requested Full tank shot... Need to get a better one tomorrow.

Added a mag 1.9 and 2 18" media chambers. One is empty right now the other is layered Essential Elements Charcoal and Poly to remove some of the silt still floating around. The poly will come out this weekend.

I also installed my air circulation fans in the canopy today. Just some old fans I retrofitted from an older PC. The things are near silent yet they move the air very well.

Still need to plumb the chiller in, but that isn't as big of a rush given our recent weather.

 

[AquaNerd]

holy *carp* that looks awesome...great work john.

 

[Guest]

Very nice!!!!

 

[jdeveaux]

Thank You...

Just finished adding the 1/3 hp chiller to the system. Man the electric company is going to love me

The chiller is from TECO and it is very nice. Probably one of the quietest I've ever heard.


Actually I just used and amp meter to test my circuits with everything turned on I'm only pulling a total draw of 9.8 amps Not bad considering I installed 2 independent 20amp circuits.

To think my wife thought I was installing too many switches; I just used the last one

 

[AquaNerd]

any updates john...how's the livestock coming along?

 

[jdeveaux]

Well right now there is a Porcupine puffer (3"), Snowflake Eel (21"approx.), 10" GBTA, 8" GBTA, 5" Haitian anemone all doing well in the tank. Unfortunately I'm in Maryland right now so I can't send pictures, but I have a very diligent neighbor sending me daily updates and I have a web cam pointed directly at my tank

I can't wait to get home to my tank but I'm going to visit these guys on Saturday and talk to them about becoming a sponsor...DR MAC's I really hope their facility is as impressive as it sounds.

I really wish I had an Aquacontroller right now. I never realized how much I would miss constantly checking on my tank :mrgreen:

 

[FISHSTICK]

Now thats a nice job!

 

[jdeveaux]

Well 10 days on the road with only a web cam and my neighbors to keep an eye on everything and all is well

I will post some full tank shots tomorrow but I wanted to post a few pictures of the critters I added before leaving.

This RBTA was all balled up and looking like it wasn't going to make it at the LFS, but now it is 10" across...

These Zoa's were just grey when I found them in a pile of rubble.

These mushrooms just came with the LR.

BTW - Yup I've been fighting the dreaded Aiptasia, but I can't add Pepermint shrip since I have a puffer in the tank Joe's juice has been working well to kill them.

I can apparently turn back the time on my Fuge light; my macro algae is trying to crawl out of the fuge tank...

I have a bit of Cyano on the sand bed but I think that is due to poor skimming since I wasn't here to tune the skimmer.

Zippy the Eel and Lenard the puffer are both doing well and eating like pigs.

Hope every body had a great holiday

 

[Guest]

CONGRATS, Tank looking great!

-Joseph Le

 

[jdeveaux]

Haven't posted any updates in a while so here we go.

The tank is looking fabulous and today we added 2 new additions.

Quickly named "Beaker" - Bird Wrasse about 4 inches

Unnamed - XMas Wrasse about 4 inches as well

I never realize how fast the macro alge can grow. I put a softball size clump of chaeto, a pinch of grape, and small portion of blade algae.

And now this:

I'll get a tank shot up tomorrow when all of the lights are on.

Regards,

 

[crvz]

Beautiful fish! Are they both reef safe? That bird wrasse looks suspicious, but I've never looked into them.

 

[cstewart79]

bird wrasses are not reef safe from my experience

 

[jdeveaux]

I've planned my tank based on a aggressive fringe reef design. I only plan to keep aggressive inverts like anemone, hammer, green galaxia, frogspawn, some sps, and my favorite Sun Corals. So far everything is working out. I have a RBTA, GBTA, and Haitian anemone. SPS I have a trial frag of ORA green Birds Nest and Ora Pink birds nest. I have 1 black sun coral that is getting regular feedings and has already started sprouting new heads.

I need to get with someone that has fluorescent green slimmer that they are ready to frag.

Currently all I have in the tank is a 22" Snowflake and a 3" Pourcupine Puffer. So now I have day shift and night shift critters.

I only have one fish left to acquire in my plan, a nice Maroon clown and that will max out my fish load until we move in 5 years and I upgrade to 2 monster tanks. This will be interesting designing a house around the aquarium

Oh and I do have a huge skimmer for this tank along with a huge sump for tons of water volume.

I'm also toying with the idea of plumbing my 34 gallon nano into the system to make it a display fuge...