Dbrewsky's 120 Gallon Build

dbrewsky · Mar 15, 2016

A few quick picks of the tank and rock work:

My Ocellaris clown fish pair is quite happy with their new home!

Lastly a preview of my dawn/dusk effect I am trying to create. I only have the right Kessil powered on and set to a very blue color temperature and intensity almost off:

gettaReef · Mar 15, 2016

Very nice, the canopy is awesome!

dbrewsky · Mar 15, 2016

Took a quick video of the aquarium with the new lighting!

dbrewsky · Mar 20, 2016

When your reef assistant discovers that her fishy charges have rather abruptly and mysteriously disappeared; only to magically reappear in the giant box of water that Dad has been fixated with for the last several months...

Wish I had a video of Lily's realization that the livestock has been fully moved over from the temporary holding tank into the display, it was rather comical to watch her figure it out. All fish, inverts, and corals were transferred without any issues and all seem to be very happy in their new, more permanent home. I hope to have some more livestock pictures here in the near future. I need to set up the DSLR to deal with the white balance issues as my Iphone struggles at best. While the sand and rock is still pretty white might not be a bad idea to set up a custom white balance and go from there.

Thanks for following along so far, I will continue to have updates relating to equipment installation and the design of my fish room to support the display as the tank progresses. As always there will be plenty of progression pics and livestock updates that will be posted on here and hope to have at least weekly updates moving forward. It is a super relief to have the system officially running and I have really enjoyed sitting back and watching the tank here and there rather than worrying about equipment configuration and apex programming!

Arron209 · Mar 20, 2016

Sweet build so far. You're aquarium is gonna look great! What are your plans for corals? That equipment cabinet is awesome! I'm gonna have to steal that idea.

dbrewsky · Mar 20, 2016

@Arron209 - thanks! Plans are for a SPS- dominant mixed reef tank. I plan to incorporate some LPS for movement, a few zoas islands for foreground interest and color, and a variety of SPS for contrasting color and growth patterns. I do really enjoy clams and hope to place a few choice specimens on the rock work in addition to my current Derasa on the sand.

dbrewsky · Mar 20, 2016

Also as far as the equipment panel, my recommendation is if you can get away with deeper dimension of the Ikea Besta cabinet, it will make routing cords,mounting power supplies, and cord management much easier. IT can however be done with the shallow one like I have if you like torture.....

Arron209 · Mar 20, 2016

dbrewsky said:
Also as far as the equipment panel, my recommendation is if you can get away with deeper dimension of the Ikea Besta cabinet, it will make routing cords,mounting power supplies, and cord management much easier. IT can however be done with the shallow one like I have if you like torture.....

Thanks which depth do you have on yours?

dbrewsky · Mar 20, 2016

The 7 7/8" depth for the Besta cabinet is the one I have. I mounted the power supplies to the back the cabinet and organized any cords I could to this as well. I then took 1x2" oak spacers that were mounted on the sides of the cabinet and butted up to the back panel of the cabinet to ensure there was enough space between the equipment mounting board and the cord area. I then mounted the 1/2" equipment mounting board to these oak spacers. There is also a small gap between the top of the cabinet and the mounting board to ensure adequate ventilation. I drilled the cable access holes on the bottom of the cabinet so that they would enter the cable section of the equipment panel and would not be visible once the panel was in place.

dbrewsky · Mar 22, 2016

First livestock picks of the build!!!

Just wanted to put a few quick pictures up that I took over the last couple days. I have been snapping a few pics during feeding time with the pumps on feed mode. Not professional by any means as I am not attempting to take these pics during peak lighting and I am hand holding the camera. Got a couple that I really liked so far and thought they would be a good first introduction to the build thread!

I have a nice sized colony of frogspawn that is doing very well so far in the new tank. In the back you can see my Sunburst Anthias checking things out.

My Bangai Cardinalfish was surprisingly cooperative today so he made the post as well! Pardon the bubbles and food as I did not turn the pumps off during these pics during feeding time.

Bronc · Mar 22, 2016

You are building an incredible tank! Great work!!

dbrewsky · Mar 22, 2016

@Bronc - thanks for the kind words, it's been a lot of work so far and will continue to be for awhile, however watching my fish and corals doing better than they ever have before is just amazing to behold! thanks for dropping by!

dbrewsky · Apr 5, 2016

Update 04/05/2016

This is the first official front tank shot of the build!!! Although its in the "ugly" diatom stage, the tank and its inhabitants are doing great and everything is looking happy and healthy. I went out of town for a bit last week so the tank has been mainly going through its paces as it starts to establish and stabilize. The typical diatoms and film algae are showing up as expected, but at an expected rate so I am ok with this.I have been monitoring nutrient levels and other parameters and have made a couple initial water changes. Corals are adjusting well to the new environment and lighting and I have never seen better overall appearances of health, polyp extension, and color on these corals previously. I still have quite a bit of work to do, but I have found myself really enjoying watching the tank recently and will have some more updates shortly as I have a chance to make them!

revhtree · Apr 6, 2016

Coming along!

dbrewsky · Apr 6, 2016

Thanks Rev for stopping by! You certainly stay busy on here lol

dbrewsky · Apr 7, 2016

Took a short video of my fish following feeding time last night:

dbrewsky · Apr 11, 2016

Fish Room Update 4/11/2016

So this is the first update on the fish room that will be supporting the 120 gallon display. This isn't the typical fish room that resides either directly behind or below the aquarium, it is actually located off the opposite corner of the den from the 120. Although not an ideal location, it does have some benefits as the furnace room is adjacent to this fish room; this provides easy access to water lines, drains, and an existing 20 amp circuit to feed my needs. The distance from the fish room to the display is minimal and plumbing/cord runs to the tank would be straightforward and easily concealed.

my goals for this fish room are:

-permanent quarantine systems for fish/coral/inverts
-RODI/NSW storage and mixing station configured for both maintenance water changes and automatic water changes
-Utility sink for maintenance
-multi-purpose work surface
- bulk 2-part solution system
- organized reef storage
-potential frag system

Friday was a pleasant, warm spring day here in Colorado, so I took full advantage of this weather to begin work on my permanent quarantine system. As part of my plan to reach my long term goals this is a high priority. I can tell from personal experience as well as observation that one of the biggest issues encountered, especially on mature systems, is the introduction of that one "last" fish or coral which introduces disease or parasites. Its heart breaking and difficult to watch your pet fish or favorite corals die because of taking a gamble after otherwise being very cautious in the beginning. Also the amount of work, time, and money to attempt to recover from something like this is extremely draining and can push even the most dedicated reefer to pull the plug. My system will remain up and running during the existence of this aquarium to ensure that I do not inadvertently introduce anything to my display. As my display tank progresses my stocking plan for fish will be to add an assortment of small, colorful, and interesting species rather than focusing on stocking just a few larger species.

Quarantine system includes from top to bottom-

10 gallon- special use QT that can be configured for specialized needs such as training mandarins and/or a pipe fish to eat, pairing a pistol shrimp/goby pair, long term observation of small sensitive fish, and a back-up fish hospital tank.
20 gallon- coral and invert quarantine tank basically set up as a mini reef tank focused on stability and easy observation. This system will have live rock, frag holding racks, and a quality light source.
20 gallon- fish qt and hospital tank prepared for easy observation and implementation of a variety of common fish treatments.

dbrewsky · May 9, 2016

UPDATE 5/9/2016

Hey all, its been a little quiet this month. Not a lot exciting happening with the build, mainly because its 90% complete and the remaining work to be done on the 120 itself is either cosmetic or I-want-the-shiny-toy related. I have been enjoying the corals and fish and am seeing great color and growth. I added some SPS to the build finally, which has been super exciting for me. Overall, all has been good so far except: Montipora Eating Nudibranchs!!! :mad:

I noticed the little buggers last night, and rather than try and hide the fact that I introduced a pest, for fear of finger-pointing and other reefers backing away slowly as if I had a contagious disease, I'm owning it and sharing this experience with others. So yes, I have been preaching that quarantine has been a part of my long-term goal, which is definitely is. However this time, I played Russian Roulette and lost. I only dipped in revive, examined, and scrubbed frag plugs this time because despite having a coral quarantine already online, I wasn't confident that it was stable enough for SPS at that time.... My lesson has been re-learned that patience and quarantine is the only option. Luckily for me, I got my reminder early on before removing many, large colonies would be difficult, if not impossible to treat. Luckily for me, this is a rather easy solution, and just reinforces the fact that dipping alone is not a long term solution.

Monti- Eating Nudibranch Treatment Plan
1. Remove all Montipora specimens and dip in Revive- blasting the buggers off and scraping any visible eggs.
2. Move all Montipora sp. corals to my dedicated coral quarantine tank
3. Repeat Revive dip every 48 hours for 2 weeks
4. Dip weekly for the following weeks and revert to #3 if nudis are found
5. Montipora colonies to remain in quarantine for at least 2 months following eradication of the little pests, allowing any remaining nudis in the display to starve out.

Anyways, I can't make an update without some pictures, even if they are CCPP (crappy cell phone pictures.) I have included updated pictures of the control panel as it is mostly complete at this time.