110T Tank

[Nick C]

Hello!
I've wanted a saltwater tank for a long time, Recently I just decided to bite the bullet and go for it. After hours of searching and researching I ended up selecting a ReefReady 110T tank. 48x18x30.

I would rather have gone for a 120 or a 150, but i found a pretty decent setup used for ~1200!

-Stand
-Canopy
-Tank
-R-200 Sump
-2 xr30's
-ReefLink
-Skimz DC Skimmer
-2 Gyre 250
-Carbon/GFO Reactor Deluxe
-1 Eheim 125W heater
--1 Eheim 150W heater
-Tunze 3155 Osomolator (ATO)

I also purchased a 4 stage RO/DI from BRS
100 lb's Dry Rock and 60 lb's of Live sand from my LFS.

My Wife is only part way on-board with the tank, she likes it but thinks i should have waited So to get her more excited i let her paint it and help me set up the Aquascape. Check out some pictures below and let me know what you think! Also i am open to and thoughts or suggestions to better my tank and first time experience!

Updates:
January FTS

December FTS

October FTS

Before

After

 

[Nick C]

Here is some AquaScape!

 

[Nick C]

Left-left front-Front

 

[Nick C]

Right Side

 

[norfolkgarden]

Welcome to R2R!

Looks great! Beautiful set up.

Smart man! Definitely get her enjoying it as well. Buy In is everything.
[emoji4]

I love the look of a tall tank.

Scape looks great! But way to close to the glass.
Lol make sure you can safely reach the bottom of the glass with a long handles scraper to clean it.
You want at least 3 or 4 inches free space to work inside the tank. Especially with a tank that tall.
I wiffed on this one horribly.
[emoji17]
Definitely learn from my mistake.
[emoji4]

You can let the very bottom row get a little closer to the glass but at least leave room for the thickness of the scraper at an angle.
Get on your 4' or 6' stepladder and stick your hand in the tank while it's still dry and practice cleaning motions before you get too far with the build.
Don't tumble the rock scape and break the glass!


I use a clean (never used otherwise) plastic (mostly) 4" wide razor scraper from Lowes (maybe Home Depot?) We have a lot of coralline.

You will want to get some long handled grabbers and tools (and get proficient with them) soon.
18" stainless steel tweezers, tongs are a must have. $17 on Amazon.
I get a lot of use out of them cause I can't fit my fingers in between the rocks and the glass.
[emoji849]

As part of setting yourself up for success, you may want to predrill a bunch of 1/2" or 5/8" holes for frag plug bases into your rock now, while it's still dry.

The tall tanks look absolutely beautiful! But they are more work to work inside. Good news is you will keep your hands out of the tank more.
Never a bad thing.
[emoji4]
You will spend a lot less time saying "oh, I'll just move this over a few inches."

I like everything on live rock rubble for a more natural look but we have plenty of frag plugs in our tank.
I use tile nippers to rough up the edges of most of the frag plugs to help them blend in a little better.


A half dozen (max) small trochus snails, no hermit crabs, will keep fewer frags from falling.
[emoji4]



Not trying to scare you but something to consider.
Tall thin tank on top of tall thin stand. And it's salt water besides.

We have a tall 37 gallon similar to yours.

I took 2 long metal framing straps, bent them in a U shape and screwed the back side of the stand into the wall stud about 4 inches from the wall.
It's not foolproof, but it gives me a lot of piece of mind.
Our house is on crawlspace and the tall tank only jiggles a little bit with heavy foot traffic or rough housing nearby.

Nope, I lied. The 75 stand has the metal straps.
The tall 37 just has two 1.5" hooks screwed into the wall studs and thin velcro straps double wrapped around the top of the back 2 legs of the 4 leg stand.
Hardy foolproof, but 1/8" movement beats "timber".

Ok, sorry if this is scary. We have never had any issues! I just felt better taking precautions.

The set up looks beautiful.
You got it at a great price.
Your wife is into it.
You are taking your time and moving slowly and it should be a fantastic build!
[emoji4]
Congrats!

 

[Nick C]

Haha like you said! It's peace of mind Yeah on the rock part, I got 102 lb's of rock. I wanted to use it all because i always read 1:1 ration gallon to pound. After talking to the aquascape guys on the forum they said that is a very old rule of thumb and they would recommend taking as much as half of it out! Basically just setting it up how i want to, and if there is anything left over throw it in the sump or just save it for the next build. So i'm going to work on that when i get home. I feel like making more room will make it easier to do everything, feed, view, clean. I bought a magnetic cleaner from my LFS and it has a scraper attachment on it, it's not a sharp as a razor blade but i used it when i was cleaning the tank and it worked pretty well. So i think i'm good there!

As for frags, so how exactly does it work? I see all of the smaller ones at the LFS on round rock, but it's attached to that rock some how, i thought you just kind of took it off that rock and put it on your rock. You put the hole rock in holes your drill in your own rock? How does it secure rock to rock?

 

[norfolkgarden]

The 1 to 1 ratio is still legitimate. We are fortunate to have more filtration systems than just relying on live rock and the skimmer now.
Since many people want something 'new' the older box of rocks look from the 80s and 90s has given way to a more 'minimalist' look.

But I'm not a fan.
Fish are not a fan either.
[emoji53]

Except for rays and sand sharks and garden eels, all fish live in or near the rocks. Or burrows in the sand right up against the rocks.
A few of the minimalist tanks are stunning.
But as art work more than a happy home for your fish.
Most of them just look empty.

Lol, anyway, it is your tank.
Definitely set it up the way you enjoy. [emoji4]

If you use a lot of rock, make sure the back bottom is an empty corridor for cleaning and flow and start leaning the rock to the back glass above that.

Leave holes that you can stick the grabber into to retrieve fallen frags.
Lol, *don't* be like me and use the grabber as a lever to move your rocks accidentally.

So, not sure if you recognize flat top frag disks yet?

They are kind of ugly but do serve a purpose.
Most prefer a more natural look and mount corals straight to live rock rubble or their main live rock structure.

If a frag tank of amazing and beautiful acros *is* your display tank, this is less of a concern. [emoji6]

Anyway, pop the rubble with coral off of the frag disk and mount to the rock with superglue gel (meh, the snails are laughing at you.) or some type of reef safe epoxy (way more likely to be permanent).

In R2R search google "best epoxy" for frags and then for rock structure building. A few of the good ones. But not the thread I'm following now. Can't find it quickly.

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...&share_tid=185042&share_fid=1020&share_type=t

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...&share_tid=312864&share_fid=1020&share_type=t


You will have a huge tall display and things will not be easy to move around later

I would definitely consider a coral quarantine tank where you can avoid Monte nudibrancs, AEFW, zoa spiders, sundial snails, acro red bugs, etc,

Dip all corals (endless Ford vs Chevy discussion on which dip is better) and maybe even hydrogen peroxide for a few minutes depending on the type of coral, before placing in *any* tank.
No lie....

If you are not setting up a quarantine tank for fish and a separate quarantine tank for corals (you should do both with that size tank.)

Then completely skip the corals for now and stick with fish. You can treat in the display tank (poorly/badly) but better than nothing *NO COPPER IN YOUR DISPLAY TANK*. And certainly less hassle than removing fish from the display with a net or food baited fish trap.
You won't be able to use copper with your rocks in the display tank. Or, you won't want to waste money on corals afterwards would be a better way to describe it.
[emoji53]

Spend at least a few hours reading about quarantining.
If you skip it (I just do 5 minutes fresh water dip and hope I'm not trashing $400 worth of fish I had for years because of the 'last fish'.)
[emoji53]

Look into real quarantining.
Seriously.
Some things can't be fixed later without ripping the tank completely apart.

Monte nudibrancs, AEFW, zoa spiders, sundial snails, acro red bugs, etc,
There are no effective 'inside display tank with fish and corals' dips for some of this stuff.

You just stop attempting to grow those types of corals or rip the whole tank apart and start over to fix it.
There are random, sometimes very effective, natural predators. But most of those never read the books that describe them as effective.

Wow, way too much "don't do this". Sorry.
Some of this stuff is stuff you rather read about than have to ask about it the hard way later.
[emoji53]

Looking forward to the next installment!
[emoji4]

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looking good! Welcome to the forum!

 

[Nick C]

The 1 to 1 ratio is still legitimate. We are fortunate to have more filtration systems than just relying on live rock and the skimmer now.
Since many people want something 'new' the older box of rocks look from the 80s and 90s has given way to a more 'minimalist' look.

But I'm not a fan.
Fish are not a fan either.
[emoji53]

Except for rays and sand sharks and garden eels, all fish live in or near the rocks. Or burrows in the sand right up against the rocks.
A few of the minimalist tanks are stunning.
But as art work more than a happy home for your fish.
Most of them just look empty.

Lol, anyway, it is your tank.
Definitely set it up the way you enjoy. [emoji4]

If you use a lot of rock, make sure the back bottom is an empty corridor for cleaning and flow and start leaning the rock to the back glass above that.

Leave holes that you can stick the grabber into to retrieve fallen frags.
Lol, *don't* be like me and use the grabber as a lever to move your rocks accidentally.

So, not sure if you recognize flat top frag disks yet?

They are kind of ugly but do serve a purpose.
Most prefer a more natural look and mount corals straight to live rock rubble or their main live rock structure.

If a frag tank of amazing and beautiful acros *is* your display tank, this is less of a concern. [emoji6]

Anyway, pop the rubble with coral off of the frag disk and mount to the rock with superglue gel (meh, the snails are laughing at you.) or some type of reef safe epoxy (way more likely to be permanent).

In R2R search google "best epoxy" for frags and then for rock structure building. A few of the good ones. But not the thread I'm following now. Can't find it quickly.

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...&share_tid=185042&share_fid=1020&share_type=t

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...&share_tid=312864&share_fid=1020&share_type=t


You will have a huge tall display and things will not be easy to move around later

I would definitely consider a coral quarantine tank where you can avoid Monte nudibrancs, AEFW, zoa spiders, sundial snails, acro red bugs, etc,

Dip all corals (endless Ford vs Chevy discussion on which dip is better) and maybe even hydrogen peroxide for a few minutes depending on the type of coral, before placing in *any* tank.
No lie....

If you are not setting up a quarantine tank for fish and a separate quarantine tank for corals (you should do both with that size tank.)

Then completely skip the corals for now and stick with fish. You can treat in the display tank (poorly/badly) but better than nothing *NO COPPER IN YOUR DISPLAY TANK*. And certainly less hassle than removing fish from the display with a net or food baited fish trap.
You won't be able to use copper with your rocks in the display tank. Or, you won't want to waste money on corals afterwards would be a better way to describe it.
[emoji53]

Spend at least a few hours reading about quarantining.
If you skip it (I just do 5 minutes fresh water dip and hope I'm not trashing $400 worth of fish I had for years because of the 'last fish'.)
[emoji53]

Look into real quarantining.
Seriously.
Some things can't be fixed later without ripping the tank completely apart.

Monte nudibrancs, AEFW, zoa spiders, sundial snails, acro red bugs, etc,
There are no effective 'inside display tank with fish and corals' dips for some of this stuff.

You just stop attempting to grow those types of corals or rip the whole tank apart and start over to fix it.
There are random, sometimes very effective, natural predators. But most of those never read the books that describe them as effective.

Wow, way too much "don't do this". Sorry.
Some of this stuff is stuff you rather read about than have to ask about it the hard way later.
[emoji53]

Looking forward to the next installment!
[emoji4]

https://www.yourreef.com/image/cache/data/LPS Stock Images/LPS Collage-800x800.jpg

This is what i think of when you say coral frag. The stone on the bottom, but i assume i could pop the coral off of that and attach it directly to my rock in the tank? Can i not do that? as for Quarantining, i know it's important, I don't really have room for a separate tank, I kept the old Homemade sump that he had in the stand that is cracked, but there are different comparments so i figured if i used the first one, It's probably about 10 gallons and set it up in my garage i might be able to make it work.

I know a lot of people have success with Fresh water dips. Which is what i mainly planned to do. I also don't really plan on buying mature big coral, I'd rather buy smaller frags and watch it grow over time. I would feel more accomplished ya know!

I've never heard of someone dipping into Hydrogen Peroxide. I'll have to look into that, I assume that is just to kill any unwanted bacteria?

 

[Nick C]

I adjusted the Scape a bit. I cut out about 20Lb's of rock, brought it in a lot closer from the edge, and tried to free up some more space for sand beds and my future clam and Mandarin!

 

[Nick C]

The top view looks like it's close to the glass but it shouldn't be. The tape lines 1) Aren't straight. and 2) smaller than the actual tank. So i should be fine with this! What do you think?

 

[norfolkgarden]

I like it a lot!

Looks pretty steady.
The shape is great. The fish will like the many holes to sleep in.

It uses a lot of space but there is still plenty of free space and lots of room for corals on the sand and on the rock.
Nice work!

 

[KJAG]

Nice start!

 

[Nick C]

I like it a lot!

Looks pretty steady.
The shape is great. The fish will like the many holes to sleep in.

It uses a lot of space but there is still plenty of free space and lots of room for corals on the sand and on the rock.
Nice work!

Nice start!

Thanks! I'm hoping to bond the rock tonight and put it in the tank and get some sand in. As well as fix the plumbing. It was leaking a little bit (used a cup to test the return and overflow) out of the part at the bottom of the PVC. It's old and came with the tank, I'm just going to go buy some new seals after work and test it a little more. Then hopefully fill it up and start the cycle this weekend! We will see! I've learned that plans change!

 

[Nick C]

So it was a long night i was able to do a small water test, it seemed to run fine, but i am going to put a few extra precautions into place. I added Rock, Sand, and i am putting the finishing touches on the Pump, I need to go get some velcro to help with cables and mounting things, also get some salt from LFS. But i'm hoping to be able to start the cycle tonight!!

 

[Nick C]

Can anyone tell me what the device is that in the same compartment as the rock in the sump? I don't have the slightest Idea as to what it could be. It has a hook, so i assume it's meant to be in the water, My only idea is that it has something to do with the auto doser that come with the set up?

 

[norfolkgarden]

So it was a long night i was able to do a small water test, it seemed to run fine, but i am going to put a few extra precautions into place. I added Rock, Sand, and i am putting the finishing touches on the Pump, I need to go get some velcro to help with cables and mounting things, also get some salt from LFS. But i'm hoping to be able to start the cycle tonight!!

Tank looks great!
What did you use to bond the rock?

The free space behind the rocks looks great.

 

[Nick C]

Tank looks great!
What did you use to bond the rock?

The free space behind the rocks looks great.

Thanks! I like the space and the Rock going on. Tons of space for fish and a lot of open space for corals.

I used Aquastick to bond the Rock.

Turns out I wasn't able to start cycling tonight (surprise surprise) I decided I don't have 40 hours to fill my tank with the RO system and completely ruin my cartridges haha ... Going to go buy water from LFS tomorrow.

 

[Nick C]

Been a few days and some progress has been made! Everything is up and running, I haven't started the cycle yet, I won't get my that kits until Wednesday so ill probably start it tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon! I'd like to test before dosing. I have FritzZyme9. Salt water is mixed, water is at temp, it should be good! Kicked on the xr30's for a quick picture. Still kind of cloudy but it's exciting!

 

[Nick C]

This was a few hours later, never posted it. It is all clear now. I dumped in all of my Fritz Zyme this morning, my test kit will be here this afternoon to check water levels. ( I should have probably waited to get a baseline, but I think it should be fine)