Bills Reborn 120 gal Mixed Reef Tank

Billldg · Oct 13, 2018

Not a great picture, but it is a picture. 4 month old tank, still a baby, take 3, lol!!!

!

Dmsick · Oct 13, 2018

Billldg said:
Not a great picture, but it is a picture. 4 month old tank, still a baby, take 3, lol!!!

!

Your tank looks great. You already have coralline growing! Did you start with all live rock? I started with one piece of live rock and the rest dry rock. So, I have nothing resembling coralline algae yet.

Billldg · Oct 13, 2018

Dmsick said:
Your tank looks great. You already have coralline growing! Did you start with all live rock? I started with one piece of live rock and the rest dry rock. So, I have nothing resembling coralline algae yet.

Thanks, I didn't use any live rock. I used carib sea rock and carib sea live sand. The coraline came from frags and I dose kalk which is said to promote the growth of coraline.

Billldg · Nov 8, 2018

I added 5 fish to the DT yesterday, it feels good to actually see some movement in the tank other than corals, LOL!!! I now have a total of 6 fish in the tank, 1 purple tang, 1 oynx clown fish, and 4 blue/green chromis. I just got my Aquatic life fixture in today along with the bulbs, I will be installing a t5/led fixture this weekend to include a 36 in Aquatic Life fixture with 2 blues plus, 1 coral plus, and 1 purple plus bulbs along with 2 Ecotech XR15 G4 pros. I will take pictures this weekend of the fish and installing the light fixture. Starting to get real, LOL!!!

Billldg · Nov 10, 2018

Today I started to build my t5/led hybrid fixture. This may be a little picture heavy as a lot of people r curious as to using a single plug on a Aquatic Life fixture.

My t5./led selection.

As most people know the Aquatic Life fixture has 2 plugs which is a pain, so I rewired it to use only one plug.

First thing you do is remove screws and remove side panels. You will have to cut plug off of one fixture, but don't cut the wire short as you will need it later. Once the side panels removed you slide the cover with the ballast in it off to gain access to wiring. The reason why you only cut the plug and not the chord is so you can run the wire in front of ballast, behind reflectors and let it come out the other side as in the next 2 pictures.

Now you can slide cover back and screw it back into place. This is where you will drill a couple of holes and ran that wire from 1 fixture the other. I used rubber grommets to fill the holes and not allow the wire to rub on metal.

The next picture kinda shows how its run from one to the other, just line up the holes.

Then, all that is needed is to wire it all together. I did replace extension cord and plug, ended up upgrading to a 16/3 wire.

And this is the finished light fixture

I would like to have installed it today, but when I turned it on I found 2 problems. First was the fact that Ecotech still hasn't fixed the timing problem, therefore my clocks on the fixtures are 5 hours and 25 minutes off. I will have to deal with their customer service dept, OH FUN!!! Second, one of the bulbs I ordered is bad and the ballast will not fire off if one of two bulbs is bad. I will be installed by next weekend hopefully.

NY_Caveman · Nov 10, 2018

Billldg said:
I added 5 fish to the DT yesterday, it feels good to actually see some movement in the tank other than corals, LOL!!! I now have a total of 6 fish in the tank, 1 purple tang, 1 oynx clown fish, and 4 blue/green chromis. I just got my Aquatic life fixture in today along with the bulbs, I will be installing a t5/led fixture this weekend to include a 36 in Aquatic Life fixture with 2 blues plus, 1 coral plus, and 1 purple plus bulbs along with 2 Ecotech XR15 G4 pros. I will take pictures this weekend of the fish and installing the light fixture. Starting to get real, LOL!!!

I have fallen in love with Purple Tangs! Just need a bigger tank (we always do

)

Billldg · Nov 10, 2018

NY_Caveman said:
I have fallen in love with Purple Tangs! Just need a bigger tank (we always do )

Its funny, I don't think it knows what to do with all that space. Eventually it will have some company in the form of 2 more tangs, but for now its the boss of 5 other fish. It most definitely is a beautiful fish.

Unthinkable · Dec 6, 2018

Looks awesome! I'm building a 120G with very similar gear. Question: why 36" instead of the 48" hybrid fixture?

Billldg · Dec 6, 2018

Unthinkable said:
Looks awesome! I'm building a 120G with very similar gear. Question: why 36" instead of the 48" hybrid fixture?

Thank you. I went with a 36 in fixture for several reason. First was that I have a canopy and I would have had to shoehorn a 48 fixture in the canopy, another reason was safety, I didn't want anything elec touching the canopy which is wood in a saltwater environment, plus I am in the process of changing the tank to a mixed reef and with that setup I went from a lower par setup to a very high par setup, and learned very quickly that I need a par meter as I started to bleach my corals quickly. I wanted lower par on the sides for my LPS.

Unthinkable · Dec 7, 2018

Billldg said:
Thank you. I went with a 36 in fixture for several reason. First was that I have a canopy and I would have had to shoehorn a 48 fixture in the canopy, another reason was safety, I didn't want anything elec touching the canopy which is wood in a saltwater environment, plus I am in the process of changing the tank to a mixed reef and with that setup I went from a lower par setup to a very high par setup, and learned very quickly that I need a par meter as I started to bleach my corals quickly. I wanted lower par on the sides for my LPS.

Ah! I didn't think about fitting the 48" version inside a canopy. I can't wait to see the result!

Billldg · Dec 7, 2018

Unthinkable said:
Ah! I didn't think about fitting the 48" version inside a canopy. I can't wait to see the result!

Their will probably be a big update on the build this weekend, installing an Apex with DOS, t5/led is already installed, but as a result I am dealing with other major issues now due to my very low nutrient/phosphate levels, high par and low levels equals big problems.

SPR1968 · Dec 7, 2018

Billldg said:
Not a great picture, but it is a picture. 4 month old tank, still a baby, take 3, lol!!!

!

That’s a great looking tank and I really like the aquascaping, very nice indeed!

Billldg · Dec 7, 2018

SPR1968 said:
That’s a great looking tank and I really like the aquascaping, very nice indeed!

Thanks, but now that I installed the t5/led hybrid I created a bigger issue, think I have dinos now. Been struggling with 0 phosphates, tested this past weekend and found that by nitrates are also at 0, high par was all it needed to explode.

SPR1968 · Dec 7, 2018

If your at zero nutrient levels your risking all sorts of potential issues and it’s relatively easy to increase them, just add more fish and feed them. Then you will be in the constant cycle of trying to keep them down like me! Lol

Maybe post some pictures of the dino’s if you think you have them so we can have a look?

Billldg · Dec 7, 2018

SPR1968 said:
If your at zero nutrient levels your risking all sorts of potential issues and it’s relatively easy to increase them, just add more fish and feed them. Then you will be in the constant cycle of trying to keep them down like me! Lol

Maybe post some pictures of the dino’s if you think you have them so we can have a look?

I will when I get home, been trying to get my phosphates up for the past month, according to my Hanna phosphate checker even when I dose it stays at 0, that's when I checked my nitrates and found them at 0 also, I currently have 6 fish, including a purple tang, so I have some load, started overfeeding the tank to get it a little dirty and hopefully help some other algae grow. I have been dosing neophos at a high rate with no success, I just got some neonitro to help raise my nitrates further if needed.

SPR1968 · Dec 8, 2018

Billldg said:
I will when I get home, been trying to get my phosphates up for the past month, according to my Hanna phosphate checker even when I dose it stays at 0, that's when I checked my nitrates and found them at 0 also, I currently have 6 fish, including a purple tang, so I have some load, started overfeeding the tank to get it a little dirty and hopefully help some other algae grow. I have been dosing neophos at a high rate with no success, I just got some neonitro to help raise my nitrates further if needed.

Just remember the Hanna ULR checker has a margin of error of +/- 0.04ppm and myself I am more than happy if it reads 0 because I know it won’t be 0 as I have lots of fish and waste. It means it’s well under control

Just add a few more fish and then you’ll be asking ‘how do I get my nitrates down’! Lol

ReeferReefer · Dec 8, 2018

Following along. Hopefully the tang doesn't get territorial with new additions.

Billldg · Dec 8, 2018

ReeferReefer said:
Following along. Hopefully the tang doesn't get territorial with new additions.

Odds r it will, but if necessary, I will remove it for a week or so and then put it back in. I have 2 more tangs in QT right now.

Billldg · Dec 8, 2018

This weekend I started to build and install my Apex and reefing command center. I purchase a small book case with glass doors and will convert it to in close my tank electronics/Apex. So far I put together the book case, planned where I want to put the electronics and drilled holes in the back wall to route the cords and fasten them. I also installed the Apex DOS unit and will hook it up also this weekend.

Billldg · Dec 8, 2018

I didn't get as far as I hoped due to having fun trying to get the Apex on my network with an Android, but eventually I was able to, tomorrow I will hook up the DOS and WXM module, then the fun begins with programming. Haven't tied all the wires back yet inside the case, but this is how it will look. I am pleased how it turned out, a lot cleaner than before.