Ksfulk's 180 Penninsula

[ksfulk]

Hi all -

Been lurking a long time on r2r and been a part of several of the vendor events as well. Im just now starting to get comfortable enough with my reefing knowledge to try and become a more active member of this site and perhaps share some of my own experiences. A brief background - Ive been in the aquarium hobby for the better part of twenty years, nearly all of it devoted to freshwater fish (primarily rainbowfish and killifishes). I had the opportunity in college to collect some wild killifish from Africa and was part of a breeding program to see if they could be sustained in the trade. About five years ago, I finally attempted my first saltwater tank, a 10 gallon tank I had sitting around empty, which turned out to be moderately successful. I recieved a 29gallon biocube that I had setup for three years supporting mostly soft corals and a few fish before I ventured into my first "large" tank (70 gallon bowfront). Ive had the 70 gallon running for two years now, and Ive begun keeping sps and seeing them grow and thrive. Last spring I had the opportunity to score a 180 gallon tank from a local reefer who was getting out of the hobby for a steal (though I had to beg my wife to get it and Im still paying for that!) and it has been sitting in my garage ever since.

Well, the boss has laid down the law, stating that I could only have two tanks in the house, so I sold the biocube and began collecting equipment for the big tank. Realistically I knew that I wanted to take this slow and really get all the right pieces from the start, so I wasnt swapping and upgrading constantly. I figured this was a three year process and would be patient through out the process.

Fast forward nine months and I've had the opportunity to collect nearly all of the equipment I want, done some 'remodeling' of the basement and find myself with enough progress to finally put together a build thread. As of right now, the tank is sitting in the basement with sand in it, awaiting someone (*cough cough*) to get off his lazy butt and finish the plumbing. :xd:

Here's the specs on the tank/equipment:

180 gallon penninsula style acrylic tank (3/4" acrylic): 60" x 22" x 36"
Drains: 2" main, 1" emergency
Return: 1.5" return "T-ed" to twin 1" penductors

Sump:
150 gallon stock tank with a 40 gallon (breeder) tank tied into the system for use as a frag tank / macro algae refugium (not sure which yet)

Equipment (as of 10-Nov-2015) :
Avast C3 Skimmer w/ swabbie neck cleaner and skimmate locker
Avast K2 Kalkwasser Stirrer
Jebao DP-4 Dosing pump for use with Triton Base Elementz system
Avast Calcium Reactor with second effluent chamber*
Avast Auto Top Off System with Peristalic Pump and heavy duty solenoid
NextReef M1 XL Media Reaction (GFO)
Vertex 3.5L BioPellet Reactor (if I decide to run biopellets)
Finnex Deluxe 800w titanium heater
Apex - 2 EB8s, ALD, Icecap Gyre Module, Breakout Box
Maxspect Gyre 150
Tunze 6055 pump
Reeflo Gold Snapper/Dart Hybrid
Custom built T5 lighting 4x 54w 48" fixture (Old Odyssea case, workhorse ballast, Miro reflectors and ATI bulbs)
Upgraded Odyssea 48" T5 (4x54w) and 250w MH (DE) combo, with icecap 660 T5 ballast and LuXcore MH ballasts - running Phoenix 14K 250w DE MH bulbs and ATI Blue + (2), Coral + (1) and Actnic (1) T5 bulbs.
* For Future Use - not currently in use

The overall plan was to run kalk & calcium reactor to keep up with calc and alkalinity demand, while running biopellets and/or a macro fuge to take care of excess nutrients. However, the longer I plan out this build, the more I get wishy-washy about moving to dosing 2-4 part, as I really like what Im seeing out of some of the Triton method run tanks. Considering the tanks not up and running yet, I'm going to push forward assuming that Im not going to be using any dosing for now - I can always trade/sell some of the equipment for a quality dosing pump if need be.

My biggest challenge in this build was dealing with the basement, as the drop ceiling presented a height restriction that basically caused me to get rid of the stand that came with the tank - this was actually a blessing in disguise. Once I got into the innards of the stand, I found that it was built using 1"x4"s and the majority of the structural integrity was coming from the plywood casing! Im surprised it didnt come crashing down well before now! So, I did a bit of research on what makes a good sturdy stand and how I could make it myself. Armed with a few Google Sketch drawings, I took over my Dad's garage for a weekend and turned my sketches into a really sturdy stand. Its just a box, but its likely the first time Ive ever made something that looks the same in the drawing as it does in reality. Really proud of that box! LOL

Then came the fun part, after skinning the stand and painting it (and cutting some holes in the drywall!), I was able to finally move the tank out of the garage and into the house!!! My wife still makes fun of me, because I moved it in all by myself because I refused to wait for some people to get out of work to help me. (Note: Do not move a tank by yourself - its idiotic and leaves you with some nasty scrapes, bruises and scars!)

Once in place, I started working on the sump/fish room. I placed the stock tank at a perpendicular to the shared wall and built a stand/table/shelf unit over the top of it to set up the 40gallon tank as well as the reactors and other equipment. I ran a pair of new dedicated 20amp circuit/outlets to the wall, complete with waterproof housings for the outlets. Now Im working on dry fitting all of my plumbing, which is going slow because of work, but Im in the final stages (mainly because shoving a 2" pipe through a 2" uniseal is stupidly difficult) and should be solvent welding the pipes in place this weekend.

I'll add more pictures as I find them (scattered about on computers and phones) but here is a smattering of all the "fun" I've had with this tank so far - which is significant, considering it doesnt have water in it yet!

 

[ksfulk]

 

[ksfulk]

Some shots of my older and current tank(s):
Current Tank (April 2013?)


Current Tank (November/Decemberish)



Biocube:

 

[kacrocorals581]

wow beautiful tanks!

 

[TUSI]

Beauty full tanks and third on the way. Keep the pictures coming

 

[ksfulk]

wow beautiful tanks!

Thanks! I dont believe I know what Im doing yet, but I think Im faking it well enough.

Some more gratuitous coral pics:

























And a random picture of my son and his friend when I first got the tank and put it in the garage:

 

[ksfulk]

Im having some second thoughts on my lighting choices. I was speaking with a local reefer and he is wanting to part with a 60" 250w MH/ t5 (4x54w) fixture for a very reasonable price. However, I have an issue, as the tank is 60", so the light would be rather tight once its in the canopy (1.5" clearance on each end). Would that be enough clearance to support the air movement around the end of the fixture? I like this fixture as it has 3 - 250 MH, rather than 2 that come on most standard 48" fixtures. I plan on using aluminum exhaust fans for ventilation in the canopy, but I dont have any experience with MH to know if thats going to be enough. The basement typically stays around 66-68F in the summer and winter, so I dont think there is too much of an issue in the way of heat transfer to the water, but I dont want to pose a risk to the fixture, my tank or my home either. Thoughts?

 

[revhtree]

Looks great man!

 

[ksfulk]

Its got rocks!!!

LOL - I finally got all of my out of country travelling finished (for now) for work, so I was able to put together the rock structures for this bad jackson. I taped up the silhouette and started stacking. I did find that once I got the shapes I liked, they werent going to be conducive to cleaning the tank or messing around with livestock, as it had a large cavern that would not get any flow or light. So, upon moving everything into the tank, I went with a lower, more open arch with plenty of room for grabbers, hands or what have you. Its nothing astounding, by any means, but it'll be a great base to have to work off of. The rock is really porous, so Im enjoying that aspect of it as well. When its all said and done, there's a lot of negative space to be filled with all kinds of sps. Plumbing is all but done... I have all the hardlines run, I just need to wait until tomorrow to borrow a neighbors heat gun, so I can get the flexible piping to sit where I want it to. Hopefully I can get that last joint glued tomorrow and then I can water test the plumbing this weekend! If everything goes to plan (which it wont, but a guy can dream), this guy will be wet next week and just after July 4th, we'll be ready to start stocking! WOOHOO!!!

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I love the rock work!

 

[ksfulk]

I love the rock work!

Thanks! Hopefully it stays put. I was going to mortar everything in place, but the rock is so porous that the rocks locked into one another and several of them I was unable to get apart when transporting them downstairs! Hopefully it will all stay where its at - but only time will tell!

Leak testing happened over the weekend - and all the drains and returns are water tight. All of the bulkheads from the tank are water tight. BUT (and its a big butt!) the bulkhead from the livestock tote/sump going to the floor drain was leaking water like a sieve! I used about 50 gallons of water in my water test, and about 15 of them ended up on the floor! Luckily, I was able to open the valve on the drain and send most of the water where it was supposed to go, but it seems that I have a issue to contend with before starting up salt water production.

Anyone who has worked with this kind of tote before knows that the drain is located on one of the long sides of the tank, near the bottom, in a recessed area. On the smaller totes, the bulkhead has a bit more wiggle room, but on the 150 gallon, there isnt too much "extra" space. Knowing that many people had problems with the included bulkhead that comes with the tote leaking over time, I replaced the included one with a heavier duty bulkhead that I ordered online. Problem was that I only had a 1.5" bulkhead and the hole was for a 1". So, using the dremel, I routed out the larger hole needed and proceeded to hard plumb in my drain line.

Something that Im learning as I go - Anytime you think the phrase "Thats dumb, why would I ever need to replace/clean/remove this piece of plumbing/fixture/material" - stop what you are doing and immediately do whatever it is you thought was dumb. Case in point - I hardplumbed in the drain from the stock tank to the floor drain. Now I need to remove the bulkhead so I can figure out where it is leaking from. And I have about eight feet of PVC sticking off of the tank that runs under the stand and around the bottom of my furnace. And I thought, "Why would I need to add a union to this line? Its a drain, I dont need to take it off."

Here I am a month later, cursing myself for that thought.

So, I've cut the pvc so I can remove the bulkhead, only I've got the retainer nut so jammed into the recessed area of the stock tank, I cant get anything in there to grab ahold of it to loosen it up. :mad: So, tonight Im going to have to take all of the other lines off of the stock tank so I can pull it out from underneath the stand and tip it on its side so I can loosen the bulkhead in order to silcone the bejeesus out of it, in order to finally start filling this monster!

Remember kids, friends dont let friends skimp on unions

 

[ksfulk]

Mini update:

Silconed the ever living bejeezus out of the bulkheads for both the floor drain and the external pump intake. I had to do five seperate water tests in order to make sure that everything was watertight and wouldnt slow leak. Used about two tubes of silcone to get to all hammered out nicely. I found out that there was a big air pocket in the first line of silcone that I put down, as the tube didnt quite get all the way to the back of the bulkhead at the bottom of the container. I just squeezed a bunch of it in there, hoping it would ooze to where it needed to go. It didnt... and a week and a tube of silcone later, its a much cleaner application and a watertight seal.

Ive reconnected all of the lines to the stock tank and finished hard plumbing the pump output to the returns. That was a bit nerve wracking for a while there, since none of the lines are at right angles, so I measured the lines several times, marked up the pipes the best I could and then glued it all tight. Its been sitting since Saturday, because Ive been slammed at work, but I hope to water/leak test the pipes tonight/tomorrow and mark sure that nothing leaks. If it all goes to plan, I'll start the painfully slow process of making 300 gallons of salt water!

Funny story (not at the time, but its kinda funny now). I was water testing the stock tank for the 3rd or 4th time and put about 50 gallons of water in it (enough to cover the bulkheads completely). Since it looked good, I waited a few hours, checking every ten minutes or so, and decided it was good enough. I use a 12 gallon shop vac to remove the water from the stock tank, so I dropped the hose in the tank and cranked up the vaccuum. It filled to capacity quickly, to which I flipped the vac off and popped the top so I could dump the "bucket" out in the sink. Only I had forgotten that the vac hose was underwater! So it was still siphoning! My quick (idiotic) thinking said "Pull out the hose!" so I did... only from the vaccuum bucket, not from the stock tank. Water rushed out onto the floor - so I plugged the hose back into the vaccuum bucket and picked the whole thing up and dumped it back into the stock tank... instead of the sink. Needless to say I did just about everything wrong in that situation that you could, and got to clean about 10 gallons of water up off of the floor as punishment for my "quick thinking".

Anyhow, I didnt snap any pictures of my messes, but here's a (horrible cell phone) picture of two of my new sticks that came in the mail from CherryCorals the other day. The little guy there is a JollyRancher Table which looks amazing once it starts to grow up, and the other is a CC ***** Yella Tenius which Brett surprised me with. I was debating on buying this one or the CC Hellboy (not pictured) and I decided to go with the Hellboy, since I love the red/blue contrast. Lo and behold, I got both! The tenuis looks like it has green tips, but the nighttime lights were coming on, and all that blue really "green-ed" everything up.

 

[ksfulk]

The more I look at that photo, the more I want to take it down... it doesnt do those frags justice at all.

Anyhow... some updates from the weekend!

Plumbing is done!

Final water testing with everything all connected.... you guessed it... another leak. Looks like when I had to monkey the stock tank around to get it back under the stand and get the pump all attached, I must have broken the silicone free from the bulkhead, and I had a slow leak there. So... I got to use the floor drain thats plumbed to the stock tank and see how that all works out... Everything looks good... no leaks there! Hooray!

So, Im waiting for that to dry out once more. BUT - Im tired of waiting. I had 45 gallons of RO/DI water made up, so I started mixing up salt water and adding it to the tank. Funny how when you start something like this, it always starts getting "real" when those first buckets of water start to splash all over your rocks and sand. I added in around 50 gallons of water last night before I ran out of RO/DI water and had to call water making a night. I did hook up the light fixture and let that blaze over the tank for a while and just spent the better part of an hour looking at it. Amazing that something as simple as water, rock and sand can make you lose yourself for a while.

Anyhow, Ive got more water being made while Im at work today, so hopefully I can add another 30 -40 gallons tonight when I get home. Until the stock tank is ready to go, I can only fill the tank up to about 165 gallons. But thats more than enough to start the tank cycling. I found you that the tank is too thick for the RW-15 pumps that I was going to use to move the water until I got my 2nd x150 gyre, so I tossed a gyre pump in there and watched the sand slowly move around the tank while the water gently lapped against the rocks.

As a side note... holy smokes... MHs are SUPER bright... I was enjoying just having the T5s burning, but the kids wanted to see everything on. I plugged them all in and WOW.... definately going to need that canopy finished before too much longer!

Completed pump and plumbing (though still leaky!)

Remote sump /stand/plumbing/drains/etc

RO/DI station rocking out the water I need!

First 10 gallons of water in (Oye this is gonna take some time!)

This is where I left off for the night.

 

[ksfulk]

Update...

So, the tank is full! Woohooooooo....

I also found out that while Im on cloud nine about the whole thing, no one else cares at all. By the looks I was getting from my wife and her family, you'd think I was all giggly about finding the face of Jesus in a pancake or something. Anyhow, I'm pretty excited. The water is just to the top of the weir teeth, so its not draining into the sump (yet), but it means that Im about half way done filling this beast. 160+ gallons in the tank (after sand/rock displacement) and another 120+ gallons in the sump (yet to be made). I cant go whole hog on the sump yet, because Im out of town for the week and I dont want to leave freely finished, barely leak tested plumbing to sit for a week with no one around. But - I should be able to test out the drains and returns by next weekend or maybe into the following week. But for me it was important to get the tank filled, so it can start cycling, since I'll be waiting around for that anyhow, might as well start it early.

Im gonna toss in a shrimp or three this evening to start cycling. Im curious to try one of the "bacteria in a bottle" type additives as well, but Im not sure how well they work. Ive seen the Dr. Tims One and Only used quite often... so I might just try some of that.

Ive also debated on using a small scoop of sand from my 70gallon tank to seed the sandbed in this tank. However, the sand is different colors/textures/sizes, so I dont want to 'pollute' my reef crumb in this new tank. I thought about applying the 'old sand' into the sump, but Im pretty sure those sand organisms arent going to be migrating through all of the plumbing just to settle out in the new bed. I might just have to bite the bullet on this one. Maybe I can place the old sand behind the overflow, so you cant see it.

And the gyre's working nicely, as you can see from the bare spot at the lower left of the tank. I think most of this was from when the tank was only half full, as there were some big dunes built up from only having a 10" depth of water. It seems to be much calmer now, though I suppose when I get home I'll know for sure, since I smoothed the sand out before going to bed last night.

Also looks like I need to start work on the canopy. I neglected to take into account the water depth from the weir teeth, so I need to have trim that hangs down about 2" to cover up the "air space" at the top of the tank. Also might have an issue with the canopy doors. I cant use a piano hinge, since the drop ceiling is right above the canopy, and I cant make a slide up cabinet door since the light fixture will be hanging in there. Maybe something with magnets? Its going to be hard enough just getting into the tank without having to screw with canopy doors as well.

Thats it for now. Time to start making some more water and thinking about hooking up some more of the equipment!

-Kris

 

[ksfulk]

Time for some relaxing video... I was cycling the lights, though you cant really tell in the video, since it was filmed with a phone. But its pleasant to watch.



Also... there's a shrimp in the tank.

Actually there's a pair of prawns and some pantyhose in the tank... but close enough. I've got these bad jacksons in the tank and I added some Microbe-lift special blend (~ 200ml) to the tank to kick start the cycle. This stuff smells like the devil's gym socks, but if it gets things cooking, then Im a happy camper. Im still debating on whether or not to add some seed rock and sand from my 70 gallon tank, as I dont want to introduce any pests, but I would like to keep some of the goodies that are in the tank already (mostly critters in the sand). I think I might wait until the cycle is underway. Hate to put critters in the tank without any real food source for them yet. Do people still ghost feed during a shrimp cycle? I'll test for ammonia on Friday and see where Im at from there.

 

[A_CoupleClowns]

Awesome!

Keep the updates coming!

 

[Breakthecycle2]

If I were you, I would take that sand out and replace it as soon as you can. Google "tropic Eden, brown sand" and you'll see. I had it for a year in a previous tank and the sand always was brown, algae, diatoms, whatever. It seems to be related to the sand.

 

[ksfulk]

Awesome! Keep the updates coming!

Thanks! Unfortunately now comes the waiting game... one which I feel like no one is actually good at... except maybe my dog.

If I were you, I would take that sand out and replace it as soon as you can. Google "tropic Eden, brown sand" and you'll see. I had it for a year in a previous tank and the sand always was brown, algae, diatoms, whatever. It seems to be related to the sand.

Interesting - I've never heard anything like that, though I can say that Ive never really looked into it either. I'll do some research tonight! Thanks for your concern. Honestly havent heard many people using the reef crumbs either. If its a poor product, that'll be quite a bummer, as I really really like the sand itself.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Thanks! Unfortunately now comes the waiting game... one which I feel like no one is actually good at... except maybe my dog.



Interesting - I've never heard anything like that, though I can say that Ive never really looked into it either. I'll do some research tonight! Thanks for your concern. Honestly havent heard many people using the reef crumbs either. If its a poor product, that'll be quite a bummer, as I really really like the sand itself.

Yeah, I would hate to see someone else go through what I did. For about 8 months I couldn't figure it out. I finally was moving and too the opportunity to upgrade to a much larger tank. I decided to research a little bit and came to find out, it seemed that the sand was actually the issue. I liked the flakes a lot, but after reading some things, I went a different way.

 

[ksfulk]

After a bit of searching, I could only find issues thhat some people had using reef flakes, and those were due to the size of the sand grain. I'm not using the flakes, I'm using the size smaller and I could find anything specific to that. I've also been in contact with the vendor hoping to get some more information from there.

On another, happier note, I filled the stock tote with salt water and fired up the main pump! There's another small leak in the pipe leading to the tank, but nothing too major, I'll have that fixed this afternoon. The drain is super loud, but I'm not worried about it yet, likely just needs to have a minor tweak. The worst part is the surging from the tank into the overflow. Hopefully I'll be able to tweak that as well. I'll post up some videos later. Gonna test for ammonia later today, as I'm not sure how the addition of 120 gallons of salt water will dilute what was in tank already. Regardless, I'm super geeked.