150 gallon mixed reef with 55 gallon sump - Rebuild

QueenbeeChelsee

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On April 27th, 2021, I embarked on a journey to purchase my dream tank which happened to be on a whim after finding exactly what I wanted on FB market place. It has taken months to rebuild the plumbing, clean, and aquascape all by myself. The only thing I did not do was lift the glass tank into my living room.

As of two weeks ago, my fish were transferred from my 36 gallon to my 150. Pics of steps in the thread. Thanks for looking!

Chelsee
 
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QueenbeeChelsee

QueenbeeChelsee

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Tank before I brought it home!!!!
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QueenbeeChelsee

QueenbeeChelsee

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Cleaning!!! Ugh!!!
 

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QueenbeeChelsee

QueenbeeChelsee

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Finished plumbing pics!!!
 

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QueenbeeChelsee

QueenbeeChelsee

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Aquascaping!!! Had such a hard time doing this but it turned out great and I have room for growth!!! Used Jurassic gel from BRS, I broke my entire aquascape after using NYOS cement.
 

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Foggy Pirate

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That looks really awesome! I just received a 150 gallon and need to drill and plumb it. Iv only had AIO system, however im familiar with plumbing but would love to have someone go over some options with me. Would you want to help me design a system? Iv never drilled or done an overflow before.
 

danieyella

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I’ve been away from my tank for a week and I can’t help but worry. Maybe someday I will get a Neptune/Apex system to monitor, for now, I am checking in with my Wyze camera.
Just did a quick skim of your stuff. Love it! Great job so far.

I hate leaving my tank so I feel you. Can't wait to see updated stuff once you return.
 
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QueenbeeChelsee

QueenbeeChelsee

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That looks really awesome! I just received a 150 gallon and need to drill and plumb it. Iv only had AIO system, however im familiar with plumbing but would love to have someone go over some options with me. Would you want to help me design a system? Iv never drilled or done an overflow before.
While I would say I would love to help.. this part of the build took me weeks to do and I honestly consider it luck that it is so quiet and works flawlessly LOL. My tank was already pre-drilled.

My advice would be to do what I did and take all your measurements and draw it out. I cannot tell you the amount of times I went to Home Depot and Lowes to get more material and return stuff I did not use.

Putting this together stressed me out so much but I am telling you that you can do it! :)
 
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QueenbeeChelsee

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Just did a quick skim of your stuff. Love it! Great job so far.

I hate leaving my tank so I feel you. Can't wait to see updated stuff once you return.
I got home and it was a mess LOL. Took me hours to clean and scrape algae off the glass. Next time I leave, I will be having the tank sitter do more than check ATO and feed. :|
 
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QueenbeeChelsee

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It has been awhile since I have posted here. I work full time, and last summer I started college to get my nursing degree and I am doing that part time. All of that on top of maintaining two reef tanks that seem to have a multitude of issues that I am muddling through but are common for lots of people, I am taking one day at a time. I also have a special needs dog that requires lots of care. To say I am busy is the understatement of the century but I love being busy and I have found my balance!

Anyways... I got a new UV sterilizer for Christmas and I have been sitting on it for weeks to trying to figure out what to do with it. I do not have an APEX and I want to be able to regulate the flow based on the needs of the tank at any given moment. The sterilizer is the Coralife Turbo Twist, not the best one, but it will do for now until I can buy a more expensive model.

I am thinking that I just need to control the UV with a separate pump and plumb it individually from itself back to the display but I do not want to do anymore PVC plumbing. If anyone has some insight or wants to tell me what they did and show with pictures or a video, that would be great. I am likely making this harder then it is.
 
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QueenbeeChelsee

QueenbeeChelsee

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So in the midst of me waiting to put on my UV, I got dinos. I knew this was bound to happen because my nutrients were low for what seemed like months. I was scared to dose nitrate and phosphate which I now regret. I am currently battling ostreopsis (verified with microscope and Mack's dinos FB page). I am checking nitrate an phosphate daily and dosing as needed. Adding pods, dosing live phyto, and I temp setup a large 55 watt Jebao UV on the top of my canopy with a Sicce pump directly in the display. I took out my macro algae as well because I think it was using up all available nutrient I had and i take my skimmer down for about 4 hours a day when phyto is dosed. I am feeding 3 times a day to keep nutrients up and I have 6 more fish in QT waiting to go in about the beginning of March to hopefully increase the bio load.

After about a week and a half, i am not seeing any improvement. I knew it took time to get here but I am happy to say I had only moved two of my corals over before this happened. Two frags of zoas. They seem to be doing fine but I want my tank back so I can put all my beautiful coral in there. I am hoping to have better news in the coming weeks but I learned many lessons here.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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