And Here We Go!

[College_Reefer]

This is my first build thread since having discovered Reef2Reef! I currently have a Nuvo 20 that I have had for about 3 years and has transformed over from a few different tanks I have had throughout the years. I had up to 3 tanks in my college dorm room and always swore to myself whenever I made it into a permanent house with a good job, I'd jump into a bigger tank! Well today is the day.... I found my dream tank, an Innovative Marine 100 ext. and I decided having been in my house for 8 months and having the "big boy" job, as well as convincing the girlfriend that a big tank was not only cool but a necessity, I would take the plunge. I contacted the guy who luckily only lives 15 mins from my house and went to look at the tank and it's absolutely pristine. He's on Reef2Reef too so Mike, if you see this, thanks so much for your help in the transfer! I'll update this with pictures of the transfer and the final product but needless to say it's going to be one late night for me!

 

[Jim Gomoll]

Welcome to R2R & Good Luck with your build.

 

[kevgib67]

Welcome to R2R & Good Luck with your build.

I wish you were excited about your build ;) ! I look forward to following!

 

[College_Reefer]

Well it was a loooong night and a heck of a lot of work but the new tank is up! The only mishap we had was forgetting to take off that black plexiglass sheet that sits between the tank and stand before driving it home so a quick run to Home Depot for new plexiglass and it’s like it never happened! All the new fish and old fish seem to get along well so far. The tank is still clearing up but I may go get a filter sock to clear it up better than the floss I have in now. All in all it took 6 and a half hours from start to finish but it was totally worth it. Also don’t mind the mismatched lights, a new 32HD is in the works to match the other one.

 

[College_Reefer]

Two days in and everything is getting along well! Our dog Bandit is loving being able to look up and see fish easier. I thought about it and I'm not really sure which costs me more money... him or the tank! I figured I'd put together an equipment list since I finally have everything mostly together.

Tank:
-Innovative Marine 100 ext w/ white APS Stand

Sump:
-Luna Arc-4418

Lights:
-1 Hydra 26HD (temporary)
-1 Prime 16HD (temporary)

Skimmer:
-Curve 5 Elite

Heater:
-2 300w eheim jager heaters (one as backup)

Flow:
-2 jebao SCP-120s

Return:
-Jebao DC (I will upgrade this very soon as it's pretty loud but it moves water for the time being)

Controller:
-Neptune Apex A3

 

[College_Reefer]

Feels like it’s been forever but it’s really only been about three weeks. LOTS of updates for the tank so here we go!

I ordered a five light on Amazon that came recommended so to put it up I jerry rigged a Prime 16 light mount to hang it over the fuge and it worked super well

Then, a few days later I got a call from my girlfriend saying there was a “weird noise” coming from the tank… well it was alarms. So I rushed home, checked my ups and realized it had died. Now I know that they aren’t super useful for longer than a few minutes but I like having one incase of a hurricane because they will take the dirty generator electricity and clean it up. We also very rarely get outages due to buried power lines aside from the occasional flicker which it can more than handle. So I got a bigger one to replace it.

After this I continued testing my water and realized my alk was falling and I didn’t like that. I did some research and realized that All For Reef would be a good solution allowing me to not have to do as many water changes. I found a Dos being sold new in box, still shrink wrapped and decided to go for it. So I got a dosing container, mounted the Dos and the shelf for the container on the side of my controller cabinet. I started dosing and my alkalinity has slowly risen from 6.4 to 7.7 over the course of two ish weeks and my goal is 8.5 before I level it off to maintain that number.

Last major update was the cabinet I got to store all the stuff and supplies for the tank. I had stuff everywhere, in the fridge, garage, kitchen drawers, and pantry so I decided it was time to consolidate. I had about 13” to work with and I found an Ike’s cabinet that was a foot wide. Next was figuring out how I was supposed to keep an ATO reservoir since I was covering the space with a cabinet. So I drilled some holes and plumbed a hose into the bucket. Then ran the hose through to the bottom shelf so all I need to do is hook up a pump and it’ll pump water into the ATO reservoir. To monitor the water level I have an optical sensor to shut off the ATO if it gets critically low and a liquid level sensor to measure overall volume left.

 

[Jim Gomoll]

Nice setup!
Separate control cabinet is cool to keep sump area allot cleaner, and side cabinet is a must. Setting up a new system myself and wife said she didn't want to see all my fish tank stuff so I had to hide it somewhere. Got a smaller matching cabinet to go along side the DT. Now might bookending with a tall cabinet like you did.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank is doing great!

 

[College_Reefer]

Nice setup!
Separate control cabinet is cool to keep sump area allot cleaner, and side cabinet is a must. Setting up a new system myself and wife said she didn't want to see all my fish tank stuff so I had to hide it somewhere. Got a smaller matching cabinet to go along side the DT. Now might bookending with a tall cabinet like you did.

Thanks! I didn't necessarily like how close it was to the glass, but the reality was I couldn't see anything out of that side anyways just due to it only being far enough from the wall for me to shimmy in to manage plumbing stuff if needed. To clean it I'm going to pick up a cheap razor scrapper and just use that whenever it gets bad enough. My controller cabinet doesn't match because I had the Nuvo 20 with black stand which it matched so my girlfriend has been bugging me to get a white one to match it so that's up next!

 

[College_Reefer]

Tank is doing great!

Thanks! Next step after I get all the equipment dialed in is loading it with coral

 

[College_Reefer]

Picked up some new stuff for the tank today! I really need to get better at pics but here they are!

Derasa clam with a bright blue rim around it (much like blue maxima coloring) ft. my Sailfin Tang

Long Polyp Toadstool

Pink Cadillac

Large Grafted Monti. This thing is SO bright. It has bright yellow polyps, predominantly green and all the under growth of the main shelf is red.

Super bad pic but it’s a Brain Freeze Monti

 

[College_Reefer]

Well, I picked up quite a few corals since the last update. I met a local guy who has seemingly every single type of torch and hammer and he has been amazing to buy from. Great prices and even healthier corals! I got this two head dragon soul torch, and the left one is one that I had never heard of and even called TSA to get more information on, but it's called the TSA Holy Moly Gold Torch. The colors on it are absolutely mind blowing in person. It has so much green and gold in it. All these pics were taken right after lights came on so they are all a bit closed up and some were just added last night so that's why they're looking shrunken, but I couldn't wait to share.

He sold me this super awesome Holy Grail Hammer too. I was having trouble grasping the difference between that and a normal gold hammer and well.... I'd say the pics speak for themselves. The left is the HG and the right is a normal gold hammer.

I also picked up this blue tipped hammer to round out the garden.

And lastly, a full shot of the hammer and torch section!

 

[College_Reefer]

Its been a while since I updated this. I have added a LOT of corals since the last update! My girlfriend also picked out a Helfrichi Firefish to add (hes peeking out in the corner of the pic). I warned her he would probably hide a lot due to their timid nature and all my fish being very active. To my surprise, he's been out constantly, every day!

 

[College_Reefer]

I'm going to sound like a broken record but a lot has changed yet again! Here is an updated tank shot and a close up of the euphyllia garden! Most notably is I moved the arch in the middle over to the side to create a wall feature and a bonus area for my Marine Betta (which he LOVES btw) and added a TON more corals... some call it an addiction I say it could be worse, it could be meth!

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Welcome to reef2reef. Do yourself a little favor before you purchase more corals. Hang tight for 3-6 weeks and observe what lives, what thrives and what dies. A brand new tank is often times a tougher environment for corals than an established tank. Looking good.

 

[College_Reefer]

Welcome to reef2reef. Do yourself a little favor before you purchase more corals. Hang tight for 3-6 weeks and observe what lives, what thrives and what dies. A brand new tank is often times a tougher environment for corals than an established tank. Looking good.

For sure! I couldn't agree more with that sentiment. This was a full transfer so in total between my old tank and the take down of this one it's been established with the rock, sand and fish for roughly 4 years! Patience is definitely important in the hobby which I definitely learned when gettig into it years ago and I've only made the decisions I have after lots of observation, parameter testing (which I do twice a week with Salifert/Hanna and log religiously) and dialing in dosing. Having seen stellar polyp extension and growth on the test sps frags I have, I felt it safe to continue purchasing and getting into some larger colonies and more expensive sps.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

For sure! I couldn't agree more with that sentiment. This was a full transfer so in total between my old tank and the take down of this one it's been established with the rock, sand and fish for roughly 4 years! Patience is definitely important in the hobby which I definitely learned when gettig into it years ago and I've only made the decisions I have after lots of observation, parameter testing (which I do twice a week with Salifert/Hanna and log religiously) and dialing in dosing. Having seen stellar polyp extension and growth on the test sps frags I have, I felt it safe to continue purchasing and getting into some larger colonies and more expensive sps.

Very cool. Sounds like you’re on it.

 

[College_Reefer]

Well I had a rather unfortunate journey to get here but I added a new addition to the tank! I originally purchased a small foxface from a shop I (used) to trust. Well when I got home to inspect the fish, I found they sold me a very emaciated and sick foxface. It died after about 36 hours. However, after this I went to my main shop who actually had one that was big, fat, and most importantly decimated bubble algae. So I picked him up and he fit right in! After a little run in with my Sailfin (who found out real quick that Foxfaces have sharp spines) there is peace once again in the tank. Of course, after I added him my other tangs decided they all of a sudden loved bubble algae too

 

[College_Reefer]

Whewwww where has time gone?! Here is an updated pic of the tank after a year and a half and most of the lighting removed so it isn't as bright as it normally is...

Now for the fun part, my wife and I are moving to Maryland! I move tomorrow with the fish. I thought I would revive the thread to document the set up of the temporary stock tank/holding tank in the new house, how I transport fish/coral long distances and what will eventually morph into my new 200EXT in the new house. I will make separate posts highlighting the steps I have already taken and then will update as I go.

 

[College_Reefer]

So, we closed on the house two weeks ago. During that weekend before we flew back to FL for the rest of our stuff, I set up a temp reef in the unfinished half of the basement. This area will now be the fish room (and laundry room but that's no fun). I ordered all the equipment and shipped it to my parents house before we arrived. Thankfully I had them go through everything. I will explain that fiasco in a second. For now here is the equipment list:

Tank: Rubbermaid 150 stock tank (NOT the new foam one)
Lights (from the 100): AquaticLife T-50 LED hybrid, AI 26HD, x2 AI 16HD
Gyres: Maxspect Gyre xf350 cloud set
RODI production: BRS 6 stage RODI unit 100GPD
Temp control: Inkbird with x2 BRS 300w heater elements
Filtration: Aquaclear 110 HOB filter
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 7 Elite (with PVC stand)
ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3
120 lbs live rock

When I had my parents cross reference the lists, we discovered they never sent the gyres, heating elements (the Inkbird made it), the filter was crushed by the 120lbs of rock and they only sent half of my RODI unit even though it all showed delivered to the correct address. Sooo I had to call BRS. To their credit, they sent everything again no questions asked and it was seamless. It definitely would've been a disaster had I trusted them to send what they were supposed to.

I used 10 cinderblocks to raise it so it was easier to work on. Once all the equipment was set up and the RODI unit was hooked up, I started water production. Its a 100gpd unit so I was planning to let it run Friday morning into Saturday night and with displacement and such, I would be able to mix salt around 6pm Saturday. Come to find out, with how I had to run the water, I was only getting about 26psi to the unit. I woke up Saturday to almost no water production. I realized quickly if this was going to be done in time I needed RODI water and a LOT of it. I went to Home Depot and bought 20 buckets with lids (apparently setting the store record, lol) and called all the fish stores around. CTE Aquatics outside Baltimore hooked me up with all I needed (shoutout those guys for all the help) and I drove to the new place and got it all hooked up and the salt mixed by 10 pm Saturday night. I have since ordered a booster pump to attach to the unit so I will have that hooked up this weekend.