210G BANG 4 UR BUCK Planet Aquariums - Mixed Reef

[Fish_Sticks]

So I just got an update that the shipping label for the 75g sump kit was created, and it looks like it will get here fast by friday... I've jumped the gun, thrown in my dry sand, and started messing around with the aquas cape, will post some pictures later and try to get as much as I can off the ground. I can't fill it up yet as one of the stand braces has to be removed to put the sump in/out. Once the sump kit arrives, its going to take 2/3 days to silicone all the baffles in place and workout the proportions of each section.

I re-screwed in all my plumbing, and wont have to modify it to fit the new exotic marine overflow, so thats a huge plus, and a huge quality upgrade. That tideline overflow from planet aquariums sucked really bad and I'm glad its gone. Still getting the runaround from the LFS on a refund for it, even though its a garbage product.

 

[mrjoev]

So I just got an update that the shipping label for the 75g sump kit was created, and it looks like it will get here fast by friday... I've jumped the gun, thrown in my dry sand, and started messing around with the aquas cape, will post some pictures later and try to get as much as I can off the ground. I can't fill it up yet as one of the stand braces has to be removed to put the sump in/out. Once the sump kit arrives, its going to take 2/3 days to silicone all the baffles in place and workout the proportions of each section.

I re-screwed in all my plumbing, and wont have to modify it to fit the new exotic marine overflow, so thats a huge plus, and a huge quality upgrade. That tideline overflow from planet aquariums sucked really bad and I'm glad its gone. Still getting the runaround from the LFS on a refund for it, even though its a garbage product.

Update on your 210? how is everything going. i just installed a 36" overflow for Exotic Marines and love the look!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Update on your 210? how is everything going. i just installed a 36" overflow for Exotic Marines and love the look!

+1

 

[Fish_Sticks]

Update coming soon I've been really hands off on the tank letting it run since March.

 

[Fish_Sticks]

Will be posting an update later today on the past year of running, changes to how I operate quarantine, etc.

 

[Fish_Sticks]

So it looks like the last time I posted, the tank build was almost ready to be completed... but I didn't get to posting the actual fill, setup and turnkey operation.

Whoops.

Lucky for me... I have the full scoop documented. I'll do a series of posts leading up to where I am today... so buckle up.
Starting with where I left off, the overflow box, and the 75g sump kit. As a bonus, we'll jump straight in to the fill-up!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Overflow Box

It wasn't easy to find an overflow that hit all the checks in 2019. Obviously the planet aquariums stock overflow was complete garbage... and stumbling upon Exotic Marine's felt too good to be true. Lucky it wasn't - and it's been cycling itself over and over again nicely since setup march 2019.

I reached out to TaylorPilot, the maker of Exotic Marine's stuff, and we managed to coordinate the exact dimensions for the existing holes that were drilled by Planet Aquariums, and we also got the weir height just right so the waterline stays slightly above the trim. HAH - that would have never happened with the stock overflow, it was at least an inch lower.... Even with the Jabeo wavemakers slapping water everywhere, there is no water and little salt creep around the tanks glass lids.

The only issue I ran into with the EM overflow is that small fish still manage to swim through the weir box and down into the sump. The solution was to rig some white plastic lighting grid to the inside (seen above - new photo). It solved the problem for the most part, but shark nose gobies and other tiny fish - even chromis, manage to get through over the months to follow - mostly sometime at night when they are half dazed trying to sleep.

Overall, no leaks and a tight double seal on both the inside of the tank, and the outside of this guy. Very safe, very very quiet when dialed in, and custom built to get the waterline just where you want it. Nothing more to ask for really.

Sump Kit

When I saw how nice the overflow was performing, I immediately reached out to see if TaylorPilot could turn out one of the diy 75g sump kits they advertised on their site. They had been sold out at the time, and I'd been looking for an alternative, but found none better. Luckily he offered to have one made and shipped out for the custom painted 75g sump I documented earlier in the thread. Here's the sump before the sump kit installation. AND YES, I had to take out the support to get it out.

The 75g sump kit ran as so; right to left: a tall room for the water to drain into contained two eheim heaters, water drained up and over into three massive filter socks and down to a refugium. From there it went on to the skimmer area and up through another maze of bevels to the return pump. These bevels aimed to provide zero bubbles at the return pump area, and high oxygenation / water mixing through the water falling up and over this wicked system of cliffs and hills.

Here is the dry test layout once I finally got the kit. The refugium area was missed in the enlarged photos...

After double checking the spacing on the dry run, the installation began. It was very easy to get everything siliconed into place, but took a few sessions to allow some of the components to dry.

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Once finally cured - a few days, the sump was ready to go.


Sand + Rock + Water ( via 5gallon buckets )


I wasted no time getting it in there and, while it was drying, got to work loading the tank with the sand and a couple hundred lbs of live rock.

Sand:
80lbs Carib Sea Ocean Direct
40lbs Carib Sea Crushed Coral
40lbs Carib Sea Special Grade Reef
10lbs Natures Ocean 1mm-2.5mm
8lbs Natures Ocean Live Sand .1mm-.5mm

This is where I can look back and say without a doubt that the quality and variety of sand was and still is phenomenal. Using so many different bags and sizes gave the sand bed so much texture and diversity - especially due to the thicker pieces, which find their way to the top every now and then.

I spent little time on the aquascape, as I knew I'd get to moving it around a few hundred more times no matter what I think will work at the beginning, so it starts out a bit cringy; however, I did try to create some contrast by packing the left, dividing down the middle, and leaving the right side a bit more open.

This didn't really work in the long run, as when I began adding grazing fish they demanded a more uniform territory - we'll come back to that another time...

And yes, it took 3 or 4 days to fill this 215 tank and 75g sump up with ro-di water via 5 gallon buckets.

and even the sump started filling up!

After filling the tank up, I let it sit for about a week. Feeding a little food to the empty tank to keep the rock going, as this rock had been taken from an active aquarium. I was already rocking all filtration and wave makers at max speed, and these jabeo return pumps and wavemakers do some serious water movement. It was pretty fun using an actual wavemaker for once - with all the different settings and what not. The random flow pattern on the wavemakers is what I've been running for the past year now, at max speed, and the corals are always happy with it.

Return:
Jebao DCP Sine Wave DCP-8000

Circulation:
2x Jebao OW-50 449-5283 GPH
2x Unbranded 800 GPH Powerheads

I ended up running the return at 80% speed in 2019, at first, but found myself dialing it down to 65% in 2020 to save some electricity and probably extend the pump life. It still pumps out way more than I'd need, and, nowadays the soft and lps corals react poorly to any attempts to increase it.


I may throw in a few edits to this post, but next time we're diving straight in to the stocking and transfer of the existing 75 gallon I had just around the corner.

 

[Fish_Sticks]

Still catching up to where I am today. The following took place during March/April 2019 when I transferred the existing 75G to the new 210. And purchased some new Tangs!

After a day or two of waiting for things to settle down, I began the transferring process of our existing 75G livestock+rock into the new 210. Since the 75G's rock was already full of bacteria and microlife, this would basically override the 210's cycling process and allow things to be swapped over with stability. The 100lbs of dry rock, already in the 210, had been soaked before hand in buckets for close to a month; leaching most of the excess nutrients away. In addition, the small pouches of live sand were already mixed and seeded in the 210's sand bed and waiting to be fed.

With both tank's temperatures, PH's, and salinities matched, it was a breeze (for both me and the fish) simply taking things out of our 75 and placing them, just a few steps away, into the massive 210. The 60lbs of live rock went first, to ensure that things were stable and no fish would be crushed... Fish followed second, with corals at the end. In less than an hour everything was done. Not too much time was spent worrying about the placement of things, for I knew I would just end up moving things bit by bit later once the fish had time to adjust from the swap (and I had gotten a better idea for the rock layout).

Another week or two of waiting passed, and it was apparent which areas had been claimed by who. The idea I had was to let the fish suggest where rockwork was needed, by observing their aggression and relocating rock where aggression seemed most concentrated. This eventually led to a more uniform rockscape that deviated from the original vision of having a third of the aquarium be mostly open, with a few tall rocks standing tall like pillars or columns among the sand.

This became exponentially more apparent when I picked up the pre-ordered tangs from our LFS. I was in need of some grazers, as there were none from the 75G. GHA and diatoms were blooming, as is typical for the 'ugly stage' in setting up a new aquarium. The two tangs, one a very golden-yellow Tang, we named Lemon, and a deep-chocolate brown Scopus, named Apollo (who's scales and snout shimmered with specks of green and white), much like a poor man's Gem Tang. They are very similar in shape and appearance, despite their color, so I anticipated a bit of aggression at the start.

After a month in separate quarantines, they were transferred over to the 210. And these guys wouldn't give each other a break - consistent chasing and aggression. Another attempt at relocating rockwork to be more evenly distributed didn't seem to have an affect this time. So the aggressive Scopus was relocated back to the temporary quarantine tank from which he came.

In only a week's time, Lemon, the yellow tang, was already back in the full swing of things and eating as much as I could deliver. I decided to continue this for another month as both fish were growing to a very healthy size with their stress levels declining. Believe it or not, this technique of isolation (or separation) was very, very effective. It gave both fish additional time to forget one another, as well as the benefits of a second quarantine, to gain back strength and put on some extra weight. For when time came for reintroduction, you would think they were complete strangers. It didn't take long before they grew to the best of friends. All it took was a little extra time to lower stress, and probably for more algea to grow. Just look at all the food...