120 gallon set up

thatmanMIKEson

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I am setting up this new 120 gallon I've had some of my rock for close to 20 years and I have had multiple tanks and many moves, all with my rock, never anything to difficult as far as coral goes, and my oldest fish was a flame angel for 10yrs that was an amazing experience. The past 3 years I have had about 120lbs of live rock In two 40g breeders with hob's and black box lights kinda waiting for this time, now I am in a place where the tank could run for maybe 10+years, so I am going all in on this one its not so much of a build thread because I hate pressure and deadlines, but I'd love to share anything I can, maybe it helps someone I know r2r helps me.

So I built the stand tall and over built. The aquascape is not finished just started right side doing it underwater is tricky and im slowly moving my rock over from the 40's...im going at a turbo snails pace but it will be a reef this year!
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SteveMM62Reef

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Can you tell us how you built your stand? It looks like what I want to build. Is it all plywood? Years ago I was injured at work when a Set of Stairs were reinforced with 2 by’s one of them snapped at a knot, and the whole stairs came crashing down, trapping me in the rubble, with a Chiller that could fall and kill me at anytime. So I have a great distrust in 2 by’s. Glued and doweled plywood is super strong, plus the manufacturers don’t use 2 by’s. BTW I love your white cabinet interior, and I did my cabinet interior with White Spare Paint. Also I used 50% Shellac / 50% Alcohol followed by 75% / 25% Alcohol for the wood water proofing.
 
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thatmanMIKEson

thatmanMIKEson

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Thankyou! I can't stand bending over to look into the aquarium, and they always have the center braces that get in the way and the low hight makes everything a pain to work on. And i have basically 3 1/2" "drip pan" built into the bottom just in case to catch water. I would have went taller but i was afraid of it wobbling but now i see i could have went a few more inches no wobbles here. It is 2x4 wrapped in 3/4 plywood then caulk and acrylic paint ill take some close ups of the bracing strength you can't see them but I used 1/4" stainless lags in the corners theres probably 8 vertical 2x4 in each corner. Thank you for the interest
 

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thatmanMIKEson

thatmanMIKEson

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I have the rock work close to done, and the Aquatic life t5 fixture hung. Its getting there i need to finish securing the rock work with epoxy im just spacing that out to not put allot of curing epoxy in the water. most of the rock is extremely balanced I could get away without epoxy, but I've had topple overs before, so I won't go that route. Waiting on the skimmer and mp40. checking out some leds for the Aquatic life leaning towards 2 kessil 360x tuna blues, not sure yet. Thanks for looking! The reef is coming
 

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thatmanMIKEson

thatmanMIKEson

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So I got the mp40 in, im messing around with where I want it before I put on the sticky backs for the wire. I can't believe how much water the mp40 moves on 100% its awsome paid full price 399$ ouch hope its worth it, still gotta mess with the wifi, I will see, so far its sweet!
I also moved the heater and probes into the sump hoping to have no wires going over the brace it looks allot better that way. Waiting on putting the skimmer in still not sure if its to bookoo for my system I might wait a few days and just throw it in......anyway more stuff soon might be fishing it in soon 2
 

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thatmanMIKEson

thatmanMIKEson

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Just a little scrub, scrub, clean, clean. 30 gallon water change, trying to get rid of this tropic marine syn-biotic salt, it was ok, I guess for set up. And my L.R keeps dropping stuff I keep sucking it out. This is not my first bare bottom, but it is my first full abs bottom, and I black aquarium siliconed it down and every edge of it is sealed to the glass. This is making it so much easier then bare glass, credit to BRS thanks for all thier videos!

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sp1187

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I have the rock work close to done, and the Aquatic life t5 fixture hung. Its getting there i need to finish securing the rock work with epoxy im just spacing that out to not put allot of curing epoxy in the water. most of the rock is extremely balanced I could get away without epoxy, but I've had topple overs before, so I won't go that route. Waiting on the skimmer and mp40. checking out some leds for the Aquatic life leaning towards 2 kessil 360x tuna blues, not sure yet. Thanks for looking! The reef is coming
sweet looking rock. nicely set up. :cool:
 
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thatmanMIKEson

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I added a few fish, a couple snails and an emerald crab to get the ball rolling on fish, I can't believe the prices of stuff right now!
 

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thatmanMIKEson

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A couple of shrooms that survived storage, super hardy! They are really popping out now..anyone know what they are?
 

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thatmanMIKEson

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Wow thats quick coraline algae growth, I guess its something to do with the texture on the abs, its the only area its growing the fastest the rest is old growth then the white rocks were just buried from light. It is growing very fast on the abs and not as noticeable on the white rocks which are a little pink now but its all trying to grow green algae but the snails keep the abs green algae free really easily so maybe the c.a grown better, im not sure but it seems quick, awesome!
 

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thatmanMIKEson

thatmanMIKEson

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Nothing is permanent in this set up right now, none of the wringing or plumbing the room, nothing until I work all the bugs out so don't worry about the mess. it will all tie in one day like a cleaned up construction site, but anyway I'm messing with heating and cooling and reducing fluctuations where I can

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thatmanMIKEson

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This came early thanks brs but the box was ripped my 10$ off coupon must have fell out :)

Im going to set these up this weekend and have a little while to mess with it, im not familiar with anything but t5's and power compacts. I have 2 true actinic and 2 blue plus im going to try with them first but I have a few combinations of t5 lamps I can swap around. I'll see how she goes!
 

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X-37B

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A couple of shrooms that survived storage, super hardy! They are really popping out now..anyone know what they are?
They are green disco's. I just removed another 8 or so from my 120.
They are true coral weeds and will kill anything they touch.
They release and float around looking for a new place. I have pulled many out of my 4 powerheads.
Check my build thread if you want to see what damage they do.
They multiply very fast.
I would remove asap!

On a lighter note very nice system.
Live rock is they key to a healthy vibrant system.
I will be following your thread.
 
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