Geebs19’s 100G Mixed Reef Half Round Tank

[Geebs19]

FTS 01/14/2019





Hello Friends!

First I would like to say how awesome this site has been and how helpful everyone is.

Now to get to my tank build.

So I finally convinced the wife that it was time for me to get back into the hobby after a 10 year break from FOWLR tanks. The wife has never had a salt tank and gave me the go ahead.

I started my search on Craigslist and Facbook market place as I had no budget for a brand new tank with a 9 month old baby. After about 2 months and a few tanks falling through I finally found a great tank to get back into it with.
-100 gallon half round tank
-Stand
- sump, not sure what size
- older reef octopus skimmer that still works pretty good
-Rio 2100 pump rates at 692 gph
-Eheim heater
-Ranco ETC
- 2 powerheads, 1 mover and 1 hydro, one of them sounds terrible
- battery operated air pump
ALL FOR THE WOPPING TOTAL OF $150!!! I’m pretty sure that might constitute as stealing.

Here are the pics from pick up. THIS IS NOT MY HOUSE AND THIS IS NOT MY THERMOSTAT.

Brought it home and started scrubbing it down

Tested for leaks and she was all good. I didn’t like how the previous owner setup his tank so I scraped it all and restarted. Decided on the Herbie.

Next task was this morning I filled it up testing the pipes for any leaking and running everything to see how well it all worked. Everything seems good but I will eventually replace the pump for one with more output.

Last night I found another score while looking on Facebook and someone was selling a few tanks but didn’t mention anything about selling the rock below the tanks. I reached out and asked if he would sell any. He said he had 150#s and said he would sell for $1.25/#. Pretty good price but I got him down to $1 per pound and he threw in 4 buckets of sand, 2 buckets of fine and 2 buckets of a more heavier substrate.

Next step will be getting the rocks in a bleach bath and letting them sit for awhile, some are pretty coated in silt and salt.

TO DO LIST
- Cure rocks
- Buy RODI unit once one goes on sale
- Paint stand
- Get tank and stand setup in office
- Get salt, test kits, etc

Some input help
- looking at doing 2 Hydra Twenty six, will start with one and once I get the second will start with corals. Also looking at doing 2 kessils, any advice would be great
- Was looking at getting a few of the Red Sea test kits and a refractomiter. Will eventually get a few of the Hanna products.

Later on dreams
- Fish List
- 2 clowns
- goby/shrimp pair
- Kole tang
- ruby red head wrasse
- 4-6 pj or bangaii cardinal
- foxface (maybe)
- any other fish you think would be a great addition would be awesome!
- Coral
- Obsessed with zoas as of lately so I want to have a few rocks in my sand for those. If I put them in my main structure will it completely take the space over?
- some lps not sure what yet
- potentially sps but later on down the road.

Thanks for looking!! This build is going to be a slow and steady process.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Off to a great start! Following along

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Following! It's going to be cool!

 

[Geebs19]

Might be a silly question. The heater I have is really long and so I set it vertical with only half of it in the water. Started to smell heat and went to grab it and burned my hand. Should it be fully submerged?

Edited: NVM Found the min submerge line. May need to find a smaller heater and do 2.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Might be a silly question. The heater I have is really long and so I set it vertical with only half of it in the water. Started to smell heat and went to grab it and burned my hand. Should it be fully submerged?

Edited: NVM Found the min submerge line. May need to find a smaller heater and do 2.

Mine was to and had to stick it in the DT.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Might be a silly question. The heater I have is really long and so I set it vertical with only half of it in the water. Started to smell heat and went to grab it and burned my hand. Should it be fully submerged?

Edited: NVM Found the min submerge line. May need to find a smaller heater and do 2.

Yes fully submerged

 

[hdsoftail1065]

You do have a fully submersible heater right? If it's real long it sounds like a eheim heater.

 

[Geebs19]

You do have a fully submersible heater right? If it's real long it sounds like a eheim heater.

Yes its an ehiem, I tried to menuever it around but there is no way it would fit. Sounds like I need to get 2 of another kind, I only have 11 1/2 inches to work with

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Yes its an ehiem, I tried to menuever it around but there is no way it would fit. Sounds like I need to get 2 of another kind, I only have 11 1/2 inches to work with

I tossed around sending mine back and getting 2 smaller ones as well but decided to roll with it because everyone talks so highly of the brand. I hooked it up to a inkbird and plan to do a small on in the sump in my fish room as a backup on a separate inkbird.

 

[Geebs19]

So I did an emergency check by shutting off all power and we were good. Came to about an inch from the top. I think my returns may be back siphoning a bit so would I need to drill larger holes before it goes into the loc-line?

Also will the water come back up to were it was in the overflow? Right now it’s only come up about halfway?

 

[Geebs19]

Rocks are in a bleach bath and have been since the weekend, will pull this Saturday and sunday and give them a good blast.

Just ordered the BRS 6 Stage Delux Plus RODI 150 gallon per day. I was going to go with the 100 gallon but I like that the 150 is a water saver and wont waste as much. Cant wait to get my hands on it.

 

[Geebs19]

Got the stand painted and setup in the office. Took the rocks out of the bleach bath and going to let them dry and then sit in Rodi water for a few days water hangers to get all the bleach out.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Got the stand painted and setup in the office. Took the rocks out of the bleach bath and going to let them dry and then sit in Rodi water for a few days water hangers to get all the bleach out.

Looking good. Adding some dechlorinator would help the bleached rocks too.

 

[Geebs19]

Got the rock work in the tank today. Need to wash the sand and get that in tomorrow and then will fill with salt water and get everything fired up. Also was able to find a cheap cabinet light on amazon for my sump area.

Not sure if that will be the final rock work but with an odd shaped tank I tried a few different things and landed on this.

Thanks for looking!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Got the rock work in the tank today. Need to wash the sand and get that in tomorrow and then will fill with salt water and get everything fired up. Also was able to find a cheap cabinet light on amazon for my sump area.

Not sure if that will be the final rock work but with an odd shaped tank I tried a few different things and landed on this.

Thanks for looking!

Nice. I would suggest, do not feel you have to use all of the rock. Unless you are going for a rock wall look. The bowfront will make the tank look bigger than it is and some negative space may add depth. Just my opinion of course.

 

[Geebs19]

The tank is coming along nicely. Redid my scape and I really like the odd caves here and there and the different looks you get from the 3 angles of the tank. Started with FritzZyme and will start dosing ammonia when I get some Friday.

Just ordered the Current eflux wave pump 2100 kit and my maverick sounds so bad and I can’t stand the sound.

 

[Adam G]

I like new scape much better than your first attempt. Has more depth to it and the tank looks bigger. Looking forward to seeing it full of corals!

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Much better scape, good job! Its going to look really nice!

 

[Geebs19]

Had the qt cycling for a few days and the local lfs had a beautiful flame angel and has gotten into designer clowns. As much as I wanted the black storm clowns, I couldn’t justify spending $200 a piece for a brand new tank. I decided to grab the flame angel and 2 Darwin black misbars. I put them in the qt last night and one of the clowns seemed to be bullying the other, I’m sure just figuring out dominance. Woke up this morning and all were doing well. Thawed a cube of frozen food and everyone ate at least 1 Shrimp, the flame ate a bit more.

Can’t get a great pic of the flame yet as it is still a bit skiddish.

 

[Geebs19]

Here are a couple more lit up pictures with the sun coming in the room. The clowns seem to be loving life. The flame is still a bit shy but tending to swim around more.