DBR_Reef
Active Member
120 Gallon reef tank build
I thought I would document my new tank build, partly so others can offer solutions when things inevitably go wrong, partly because I always like seeing a build thread, and partly so I can see the progress of my own tank. This tank is an upgrade from a 90 gallon tank I never really liked that much- I didn’t like the stand and it didn’t have a canopy- and I hate light leakage. The goal of this tank was to automate as much as possible, as I have found that when my tank gets a bare minimum of husbandry automatically, when life gets in the way (which it does a lot) my tank doesn’t suffer as a result. It also leaves more time for testing… I’m also a stickler for noise, so the loudest piece of equipment on this tank are the two ultra-quite pc fans that cool my light. Oh yeah- I also wanted to keep my total expenditure on the build under $1000- that includes every little part, tester, bulb, and salt grain, but no livestock- you'd be surprised how fast it adds up (I kept a complete record). This budget held right up until the moment I purchased an apex
I travel up to 2 months at a time so I decide that being able to remotely monitor my tank was worth it. As always, comments and criticism appreciated!
Main Display: 120 gallon Oceanic with glass center brace and dual back overflows. This will be the biggest tank I own for the foreseeable future as it is on the second floor of my house, and 160 gallons total is just a lot of weight. Getting a Herbie overflow to work between 2 separate overflows was a PITA, as you have to deal with 2 different water levels, but surprisingly it worked eventually.
Stand: Oceanic- no center brace which is awesome for working in the sump. Lit by LED strip lighting- which is a great $15 option that provides an ambient light source. No fuge so nothing more needed.
Sump: 40 gallon breeder
Filtration: DIY Automatic mechanical filter in place of socks- which I love, haven’t changed a sock in 3 months- similar to the Theiling Rollermat, but in my opinion better and only cost me $30 to make.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2552341
Lighting: 6 bulb t5. ATI bulbs, replaced fans with low decibel pc fans, with all the protective metal grating cut away and thermostats running them only as fast as necessary to keep bulbs/ballasts cool. I need to find a way to install a small battery backup into the built in light controller so that it doesn’t erase my programming every time I unplug it. Anyone done this before?
Skimmer: JNS cones CO-1 skimmer (hopefully I’ll be upgrading to the CO-2 soon). Skimmer drains to a DIY waste reservoir
Return Pump: Tunze 1073.040
Water Circulation: Hydor wave maker 2
Dosing: Jeboa DP-4, dosing 2ml vodka per day and Randy’s recipe
Electronics: Battery backup done by an old UPS I hooked up to a deep cycle marine battery. This has the added benefit of keeping my trolling motor battery charged for my very infrequent fishing trips
The wave maker is the only thing that runs off my battery backup. Everything else goes through the Apex. The apex acts as a backup temp controller for the heaters and as a timer for the filter. Other than that it just monitors the system- I had the entire system up and running for months before I got the apex so I don’t rely on it a lot.
Other Equipment: BRS dual chamber running GFO and Carbon
ATO System: A float valve connected to my RODI, with a ball valve set so only ~4 gallons of water can drip in per day- this way if the float valve sticks, as unlikely as that is, I have lots of time to catch the problem. With the added conductivity probe this would be caught rather quickly anyway. I’ve always been confused by why people run ATO’s, when if you have access to a RODI line a much cheaper and more reliable option exists. Maybe someone can enlighten me. I don’t think running Kalk is a great argument for it either- since I would much rather run Kalk at a constant rate with a dosing pump somewhere below minimum evaporation rate and make the rest up with RODI. Sorry for my rant
Heating: Two aqueon pro 250W heaters with backup temp controller
Water changes: A holding barrel fills with RODI water that I then mix salt into (I’m currently using Red Sea Pro) and then pump to the FSW reservoir. Water changes are done automatically with shurflo diaphragm pump in the basement pumping water up 2 floors. It pumps about 3 gpm, which is a great gradual water change. The rising water in the sump trips a float switch that powers a small pump that pumps water to the quarantine tank in the basement. Siphon is broken by a simple tee in the line with a bit of hosing tied in a knot. The programmed water changes have really helped me with getting on a consistent dosing level. When I was doing water changes every week or two, the variation in how much I changed and how often didn’t allow my tank to settle.
Quarantine tank: 30 gallon with water changes done automatically from the DT. Filtration is a reefoctopus HOB bh-1000 skimmer. ATO is managed by an upside down bottle filled with RO. Excess water drains from overflow to the basement drain.
Feeding: 2 times per day via autofeeder- currently Omega One small pellets, but am considering switching pellets- any suggestions? Cube of frozen food/ nori ~every other day. Fed into DIY feeding ring/ cube melter- just a tube zip tied to a magnet, but it keeps food out of my overflows. I have plenty of clear acrylic tubing available if anyone wants to make one of these.
Fish etc: Hippo tang I inherited with the tank, yellow tang, flame angel, pair of clowns, Klein’s Butterfly (I’ll probably switch to a copperband sometime soon), orchid dottyback, 3 anthias, blue damsel, coral banded shrimp, anemone, and various snails and hermits.
Corals: We’re getting there- taking it slow, trying for the mixed reef holy grail thing. Currently a goniopora, a few monti, favia, some hammers, a few duncans, a torch, an acro, etc.
Future: More corals! I would also like to try the gyre soon. At some point run an apex PM1 to the first floor to monitor my Discus tank and take over the job of the pH controller, a PM2 to the basement to control the diaphragm pump and monitor my FSW reservoir, and maybe another PM1 to monitor the quarantine tank. So just another 800 bucks of Apex junk
I thought I would document my new tank build, partly so others can offer solutions when things inevitably go wrong, partly because I always like seeing a build thread, and partly so I can see the progress of my own tank. This tank is an upgrade from a 90 gallon tank I never really liked that much- I didn’t like the stand and it didn’t have a canopy- and I hate light leakage. The goal of this tank was to automate as much as possible, as I have found that when my tank gets a bare minimum of husbandry automatically, when life gets in the way (which it does a lot) my tank doesn’t suffer as a result. It also leaves more time for testing… I’m also a stickler for noise, so the loudest piece of equipment on this tank are the two ultra-quite pc fans that cool my light. Oh yeah- I also wanted to keep my total expenditure on the build under $1000- that includes every little part, tester, bulb, and salt grain, but no livestock- you'd be surprised how fast it adds up (I kept a complete record). This budget held right up until the moment I purchased an apex
Main Display: 120 gallon Oceanic with glass center brace and dual back overflows. This will be the biggest tank I own for the foreseeable future as it is on the second floor of my house, and 160 gallons total is just a lot of weight. Getting a Herbie overflow to work between 2 separate overflows was a PITA, as you have to deal with 2 different water levels, but surprisingly it worked eventually.
Stand: Oceanic- no center brace which is awesome for working in the sump. Lit by LED strip lighting- which is a great $15 option that provides an ambient light source. No fuge so nothing more needed.
Sump: 40 gallon breeder
Filtration: DIY Automatic mechanical filter in place of socks- which I love, haven’t changed a sock in 3 months- similar to the Theiling Rollermat, but in my opinion better and only cost me $30 to make.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2552341
Lighting: 6 bulb t5. ATI bulbs, replaced fans with low decibel pc fans, with all the protective metal grating cut away and thermostats running them only as fast as necessary to keep bulbs/ballasts cool. I need to find a way to install a small battery backup into the built in light controller so that it doesn’t erase my programming every time I unplug it. Anyone done this before?
Skimmer: JNS cones CO-1 skimmer (hopefully I’ll be upgrading to the CO-2 soon). Skimmer drains to a DIY waste reservoir
Return Pump: Tunze 1073.040
Water Circulation: Hydor wave maker 2
Dosing: Jeboa DP-4, dosing 2ml vodka per day and Randy’s recipe
Electronics: Battery backup done by an old UPS I hooked up to a deep cycle marine battery. This has the added benefit of keeping my trolling motor battery charged for my very infrequent fishing trips
Other Equipment: BRS dual chamber running GFO and Carbon
ATO System: A float valve connected to my RODI, with a ball valve set so only ~4 gallons of water can drip in per day- this way if the float valve sticks, as unlikely as that is, I have lots of time to catch the problem. With the added conductivity probe this would be caught rather quickly anyway. I’ve always been confused by why people run ATO’s, when if you have access to a RODI line a much cheaper and more reliable option exists. Maybe someone can enlighten me. I don’t think running Kalk is a great argument for it either- since I would much rather run Kalk at a constant rate with a dosing pump somewhere below minimum evaporation rate and make the rest up with RODI. Sorry for my rant
Heating: Two aqueon pro 250W heaters with backup temp controller
Water changes: A holding barrel fills with RODI water that I then mix salt into (I’m currently using Red Sea Pro) and then pump to the FSW reservoir. Water changes are done automatically with shurflo diaphragm pump in the basement pumping water up 2 floors. It pumps about 3 gpm, which is a great gradual water change. The rising water in the sump trips a float switch that powers a small pump that pumps water to the quarantine tank in the basement. Siphon is broken by a simple tee in the line with a bit of hosing tied in a knot. The programmed water changes have really helped me with getting on a consistent dosing level. When I was doing water changes every week or two, the variation in how much I changed and how often didn’t allow my tank to settle.
Quarantine tank: 30 gallon with water changes done automatically from the DT. Filtration is a reefoctopus HOB bh-1000 skimmer. ATO is managed by an upside down bottle filled with RO. Excess water drains from overflow to the basement drain.
Feeding: 2 times per day via autofeeder- currently Omega One small pellets, but am considering switching pellets- any suggestions? Cube of frozen food/ nori ~every other day. Fed into DIY feeding ring/ cube melter- just a tube zip tied to a magnet, but it keeps food out of my overflows. I have plenty of clear acrylic tubing available if anyone wants to make one of these.
Fish etc: Hippo tang I inherited with the tank, yellow tang, flame angel, pair of clowns, Klein’s Butterfly (I’ll probably switch to a copperband sometime soon), orchid dottyback, 3 anthias, blue damsel, coral banded shrimp, anemone, and various snails and hermits.
Corals: We’re getting there- taking it slow, trying for the mixed reef holy grail thing. Currently a goniopora, a few monti, favia, some hammers, a few duncans, a torch, an acro, etc.
Future: More corals! I would also like to try the gyre soon. At some point run an apex PM1 to the first floor to monitor my Discus tank and take over the job of the pH controller, a PM2 to the basement to control the diaphragm pump and monitor my FSW reservoir, and maybe another PM1 to monitor the quarantine tank. So just another 800 bucks of Apex junk
