Aaronhome27
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2018
- Messages
- 187
- Reaction score
- 201
This build was a long thought out process. Even more so due to the many set backs that accumulated after I made the purchase.
I ordered the tank from my local LFS. I got a nice discount over the web price at SCA. I ordered the tank with an expected 7 to 10 day delivery. So at the time I had my LFS order my lights, pumps, sand, etc. I also hopped over to BRS to order all plumbing after I did a blueprint of what I was hoping to accomplish. That plumbing isn't cheap! I nearly backed out and ran to Lowe's to cheap out. But in the end I really wanted to do this right. So I placed the order. Then placed another, then placed another...... Well if youve built one you know exactly where this is going! Thankfully (not) the tank hit a delay in shipping so I got several more chances to order parts.
Now 2 weeks into waiting I'm told the tank is on its way, like I had been told well, 2 weeks ago. It finally arrived 3 weeks in. I contact my LFS and they tell me they didn't pull it off the truck. It was damaged. But I'm told another is on the way. We'll instead of go through this whole thing I'll make it short as I know my eyelids get heavy into these boring stories. In the end I got the tank 6 weeks later after delays then missing parts, sumps etc. Got the tank in and LFS hadn't ordered any of my items so in the end it took 8 weeks total to get everything I had ordered to even begin the build.
During that 8 weeks I had plenty of time to plan and redo ideas. Yeah I know the tank isn't a miraculous tank but I kept thinking of the little things as I went to avoid future issues. I plan to put the tank in a corner so I can have a separate electrical cabinet and my ato jug hide behind the tank. So I get started on a cabinet that will have slots and a built in wire tray to hide all the wires. This turned out to be great I have to say and highly recommend it. I begin the plumbing using cheap schedule 40 pipe. Everything is prefit using the cheap pipe before I cut into the upgraded schedule 80. I cut it close on the amount I needed so this was a huge help. Before installing the plumbing and leveling out the tank I took the tank into the garage and over the course of a few days I put 3 layers of some good enamel inside. I sealed it well so I wouldn't have any issues down the road. This was one of those moments you just want to be done so you can set it all up, like watching paint dry!
Finally get to set up day. After weeks and anxiety I'm ready to do this. Now meanwhile I've had a new rock structure soaking in a 29 gallon tank. I had laid it out and set it with jb water weld. I had tried the coral epoxy only to have it fail. Anyway it's moving day! This has been carefully planned. I fill the tank with rodi over the course of 2 days. Get it to temp and mix the salt in the tank. After a bit of time it's clear and Milwaukee says we are good to go. No leaks and everything is running, unbelievably I might add, as planned. I have a plan of attack on this tank. It's slightly risky but I have pretty much everything soaking in bacteria from aging in a tank to cycling rock. So I add sand on night 1 and add rock once it clears a bit. The rock was made in a way that it is easy to wiggle down through the sand for direct contact on bottom of tank.
Day 2 is the nervous anxiety. My attampt is to move everything in and hope for no cycle. I'm running an algae scrubber from day 1. I've got a good amount of experience with them so I feel it's no big deal. Rocks are moved carefully with all the coral attached. This is a simple move. New rocks all line up as planned.... Phew..... Fish go in and everyone is out and happy campers. Algae scrubber starts producing algae by day 4 when po4 hits 0.07. Two days later it's down to 0.04 with no3 sitting about 1. I'm feeding heavy to start this. No ammonia shows and hasn't since this was put together about a month ago. I went through a 4 day diatom event but it was very minor. And went away pretty quick. I only do one 10% waterchange and let this tank settle in on its own. With no excess nutrient and plans to only dose there really isn't a need other than to siphon dust out of the new sand. So far I've done a total of 10 gallon water change and numbers are rock solid so it did all balance out. Time will tell how well it holds though. At 2 weeks I have to start dosing. I'm using aquaforest 123 and by week 3 I'm using 38ml of each part to hold very consistent numbers of alk - 9.22, calcium - 430 ppm and magnesium - 1300. I'm good with that and it's solid test to test.
Currently at day 50 with solid numbers still. Algae scrubber is doing well. I've added new coral to the tank and have about 40 coral now. My plan is to go against the grain and get it fully stocked so I have no more shocks to the system. Im feeding 2 cubes a day and coral food every other day with a mix of many different kind I have. I've dosed po4 and no3 through a few stages as the algae scrubber settles in and I find it's balance. It's dropped to Po4 0.02 and no3 to 0.250. To low for what I want in the new tank so I dosed it for a bit to hold po4 @ 0.03 - 0.04 and no3 @ 2 to 3. The risk of cyano and dino right now would be a concern so I'd rather have higher numbers than fight unwanted things. But after dosing for a bit and adding a DC skimmer to run a bit lower it now holds solid at those numbers. NOW it's sit back and wait to see how it falls in.
Currently for filtration the tank is running :
* filter floss in a cup
* coral box DC 300+ skimmer set to 50% power
* homemade ats with acke 24w grow light
* and a little carbon for those days the coral want to duke it out.
* doser is coralbox wifi doser
* return pump is coralbox dca 6000 ramping from 30% to 40% twice daily through Apex for a tidal type clean out.
* lights are 2 ai primes on ab+ 8 hr peak with 2hr ramp up and down
* using 3 coralbox wave makers in various positions so I can grow my softies, LPS, sps, and nps corals in strategic locations
* back up power provided by 2 linked coralbox battery back up batterys
* lastly control is provided by the OG Neptune Apex Classic.
I ordered the tank from my local LFS. I got a nice discount over the web price at SCA. I ordered the tank with an expected 7 to 10 day delivery. So at the time I had my LFS order my lights, pumps, sand, etc. I also hopped over to BRS to order all plumbing after I did a blueprint of what I was hoping to accomplish. That plumbing isn't cheap! I nearly backed out and ran to Lowe's to cheap out. But in the end I really wanted to do this right. So I placed the order. Then placed another, then placed another...... Well if youve built one you know exactly where this is going! Thankfully (not) the tank hit a delay in shipping so I got several more chances to order parts.
Now 2 weeks into waiting I'm told the tank is on its way, like I had been told well, 2 weeks ago. It finally arrived 3 weeks in. I contact my LFS and they tell me they didn't pull it off the truck. It was damaged. But I'm told another is on the way. We'll instead of go through this whole thing I'll make it short as I know my eyelids get heavy into these boring stories. In the end I got the tank 6 weeks later after delays then missing parts, sumps etc. Got the tank in and LFS hadn't ordered any of my items so in the end it took 8 weeks total to get everything I had ordered to even begin the build.
During that 8 weeks I had plenty of time to plan and redo ideas. Yeah I know the tank isn't a miraculous tank but I kept thinking of the little things as I went to avoid future issues. I plan to put the tank in a corner so I can have a separate electrical cabinet and my ato jug hide behind the tank. So I get started on a cabinet that will have slots and a built in wire tray to hide all the wires. This turned out to be great I have to say and highly recommend it. I begin the plumbing using cheap schedule 40 pipe. Everything is prefit using the cheap pipe before I cut into the upgraded schedule 80. I cut it close on the amount I needed so this was a huge help. Before installing the plumbing and leveling out the tank I took the tank into the garage and over the course of a few days I put 3 layers of some good enamel inside. I sealed it well so I wouldn't have any issues down the road. This was one of those moments you just want to be done so you can set it all up, like watching paint dry!
Finally get to set up day. After weeks and anxiety I'm ready to do this. Now meanwhile I've had a new rock structure soaking in a 29 gallon tank. I had laid it out and set it with jb water weld. I had tried the coral epoxy only to have it fail. Anyway it's moving day! This has been carefully planned. I fill the tank with rodi over the course of 2 days. Get it to temp and mix the salt in the tank. After a bit of time it's clear and Milwaukee says we are good to go. No leaks and everything is running, unbelievably I might add, as planned. I have a plan of attack on this tank. It's slightly risky but I have pretty much everything soaking in bacteria from aging in a tank to cycling rock. So I add sand on night 1 and add rock once it clears a bit. The rock was made in a way that it is easy to wiggle down through the sand for direct contact on bottom of tank.
Day 2 is the nervous anxiety. My attampt is to move everything in and hope for no cycle. I'm running an algae scrubber from day 1. I've got a good amount of experience with them so I feel it's no big deal. Rocks are moved carefully with all the coral attached. This is a simple move. New rocks all line up as planned.... Phew..... Fish go in and everyone is out and happy campers. Algae scrubber starts producing algae by day 4 when po4 hits 0.07. Two days later it's down to 0.04 with no3 sitting about 1. I'm feeding heavy to start this. No ammonia shows and hasn't since this was put together about a month ago. I went through a 4 day diatom event but it was very minor. And went away pretty quick. I only do one 10% waterchange and let this tank settle in on its own. With no excess nutrient and plans to only dose there really isn't a need other than to siphon dust out of the new sand. So far I've done a total of 10 gallon water change and numbers are rock solid so it did all balance out. Time will tell how well it holds though. At 2 weeks I have to start dosing. I'm using aquaforest 123 and by week 3 I'm using 38ml of each part to hold very consistent numbers of alk - 9.22, calcium - 430 ppm and magnesium - 1300. I'm good with that and it's solid test to test.
Currently at day 50 with solid numbers still. Algae scrubber is doing well. I've added new coral to the tank and have about 40 coral now. My plan is to go against the grain and get it fully stocked so I have no more shocks to the system. Im feeding 2 cubes a day and coral food every other day with a mix of many different kind I have. I've dosed po4 and no3 through a few stages as the algae scrubber settles in and I find it's balance. It's dropped to Po4 0.02 and no3 to 0.250. To low for what I want in the new tank so I dosed it for a bit to hold po4 @ 0.03 - 0.04 and no3 @ 2 to 3. The risk of cyano and dino right now would be a concern so I'd rather have higher numbers than fight unwanted things. But after dosing for a bit and adding a DC skimmer to run a bit lower it now holds solid at those numbers. NOW it's sit back and wait to see how it falls in.
Currently for filtration the tank is running :
* filter floss in a cup
* coral box DC 300+ skimmer set to 50% power
* homemade ats with acke 24w grow light
* and a little carbon for those days the coral want to duke it out.
* doser is coralbox wifi doser
* return pump is coralbox dca 6000 ramping from 30% to 40% twice daily through Apex for a tidal type clean out.
* lights are 2 ai primes on ab+ 8 hr peak with 2hr ramp up and down
* using 3 coralbox wave makers in various positions so I can grow my softies, LPS, sps, and nps corals in strategic locations
* back up power provided by 2 linked coralbox battery back up batterys
* lastly control is provided by the OG Neptune Apex Classic.
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