gilman
Active Member
I bought my own place back at the end of May and set up a 120 gallon display in my basement piped through to a unfinished room where all the support equipment and a 50 gallon grow out reside .
I purchased the tank and stand from a local guy that built the stand and added a glass overflow spanning the back top of the tank . The sump is a zero edge 42 I also purchased used locally . It has a dual 7” sock chamber I run mesh filter socks in . The water then flows into the skimmer chamber , over a Brightwell xport brick and then my Aqua Maxx FC280 pulls all the nasty out . In the return I have a Cor 20 as my return back to the display and a Varios 2 feeding my manifold that feeds my grow out tank , Geo 618 calcium reactor , GHL measurement cell , and UV sterilizer .
The display has 60lbs of Tropic Eden live sand , 40 lbs of bare reef rock , and 30 lbs of reef rock with corals that came out of two tanks I had running at my previous home . Its lit with two Orphek Atlantik V4 compacts , a OR 120 Blue Sky and OR 120 UV bars . Two Maxspect Gyre 250s provide flow .
I closed on my house on June 3rd . That evening I had the tank in place , the rock , sand , saltwater , and a bottle and one half of bio spira in the tank with the gyres and a 300w heater running on an ink bird controller . I then started the build the following day .
I started by piping the three drains through the small room under my basement stairs into the equipment room . The drains are a bean animal style 1 1/2” . Ball valves just on the other side of the wall from the tank on the drains . I then built the stand for the sump . I installed the sump and plumbed the drains into it . Then I put in the Cor 20 and piped back to the returns . Check valves on the returns just before the bulkheads . Next came the manifold .
I installed it before moving the 40 breeder to the house . Put in the measurement cell and all the fittings needed to hook up the equipment and grow out . Wednesday I built the growout tank stand , drilled the Zoo Med 50 lowboy and installed the overflow and plumbed it back into the skimmer section in the sump . When I made the stand I made a small 6” work shelf on the front of it along with an electronics board under that to mount all my Apex gear .
The following day I built the stand and wall for my water change station . Installed electric for the tank and ran my supply and drain lines for the RO/DI . Filled the sump , drains , and return with fresh saltwater and added another half of bio spira to the tank and turned the pump on . Moved the 300w heater to the sump and added a 500w heater .
I cycled the tank until June 14th when I moved my 40 breeder and 20g to the new tank . The move went easy since I had pre planned everything . My buddy and I started early moved everything to the house and then went back and broke down the tanks that afternoon and moved everything else to the house . Next day I broke down my old electronics board and then started installing it on the new one . Hung my RO/DI and started making water .Everything went smooth and everything looked great .
Couple days later I started loosing Acropora colonies . Bleaching out but polpys remaining for weeks then eventually dying . Ive lost most of my Acropora since with frags still bleaching . When I moved my RO/DI I didnt realize that the water in the new house was really dirty and because I have some color blindness I didnt see that my DI resins had expired quickly and was feeding my ATO with bad water . I even did water changes for a couple weeks with high TDS water from it . Finally I got that under control and have been turning things around . I would say I did pretty well since I only lost 25% of my corals but not happy it was all Acropora .
The tank is a 120g 48x24x24
Zero edge 42 sump
Zoo Med low boy 50g
Cor 20 return with Skimz leopard as a back incase of failure .
Varios 2 for manifold feed
Aqua Maxx FC280 skimmer with CO2 scrubber
GHL measurement cell
Coralife turbo twist UV
Geo 618 calcium reactor with dual chamber
Aqua maxx regulator
Pair of Maxspect gyre 250s
Tunze 6055
Ecotech MP10
Finnex titanium heaters 500w , 300w
Orphek Atlantik V4 compacts x2
Or120 bars x2
Or90 bars x3
7 stage RO/DI with 200gpd water saver /8800 booster pump
35g water containers for WC station x2
Mag drive 9.5
Eshopps 2.5g ATO reservoir
Apex equipment:
Classic brain
Eb8 x3
FFM modules x2
2” flow meter
1/2” flow meter
1/4” flow meter
ALD module with 4 leak detectors
PMK
ATK
Break out box
I purchased the tank and stand from a local guy that built the stand and added a glass overflow spanning the back top of the tank . The sump is a zero edge 42 I also purchased used locally . It has a dual 7” sock chamber I run mesh filter socks in . The water then flows into the skimmer chamber , over a Brightwell xport brick and then my Aqua Maxx FC280 pulls all the nasty out . In the return I have a Cor 20 as my return back to the display and a Varios 2 feeding my manifold that feeds my grow out tank , Geo 618 calcium reactor , GHL measurement cell , and UV sterilizer .
The display has 60lbs of Tropic Eden live sand , 40 lbs of bare reef rock , and 30 lbs of reef rock with corals that came out of two tanks I had running at my previous home . Its lit with two Orphek Atlantik V4 compacts , a OR 120 Blue Sky and OR 120 UV bars . Two Maxspect Gyre 250s provide flow .
I closed on my house on June 3rd . That evening I had the tank in place , the rock , sand , saltwater , and a bottle and one half of bio spira in the tank with the gyres and a 300w heater running on an ink bird controller . I then started the build the following day .
I started by piping the three drains through the small room under my basement stairs into the equipment room . The drains are a bean animal style 1 1/2” . Ball valves just on the other side of the wall from the tank on the drains . I then built the stand for the sump . I installed the sump and plumbed the drains into it . Then I put in the Cor 20 and piped back to the returns . Check valves on the returns just before the bulkheads . Next came the manifold .
I installed it before moving the 40 breeder to the house . Put in the measurement cell and all the fittings needed to hook up the equipment and grow out . Wednesday I built the growout tank stand , drilled the Zoo Med 50 lowboy and installed the overflow and plumbed it back into the skimmer section in the sump . When I made the stand I made a small 6” work shelf on the front of it along with an electronics board under that to mount all my Apex gear .
The following day I built the stand and wall for my water change station . Installed electric for the tank and ran my supply and drain lines for the RO/DI . Filled the sump , drains , and return with fresh saltwater and added another half of bio spira to the tank and turned the pump on . Moved the 300w heater to the sump and added a 500w heater .
I cycled the tank until June 14th when I moved my 40 breeder and 20g to the new tank . The move went easy since I had pre planned everything . My buddy and I started early moved everything to the house and then went back and broke down the tanks that afternoon and moved everything else to the house . Next day I broke down my old electronics board and then started installing it on the new one . Hung my RO/DI and started making water .Everything went smooth and everything looked great .
Couple days later I started loosing Acropora colonies . Bleaching out but polpys remaining for weeks then eventually dying . Ive lost most of my Acropora since with frags still bleaching . When I moved my RO/DI I didnt realize that the water in the new house was really dirty and because I have some color blindness I didnt see that my DI resins had expired quickly and was feeding my ATO with bad water . I even did water changes for a couple weeks with high TDS water from it . Finally I got that under control and have been turning things around . I would say I did pretty well since I only lost 25% of my corals but not happy it was all Acropora .
The tank is a 120g 48x24x24
Zero edge 42 sump
Zoo Med low boy 50g
Cor 20 return with Skimz leopard as a back incase of failure .
Varios 2 for manifold feed
Aqua Maxx FC280 skimmer with CO2 scrubber
GHL measurement cell
Coralife turbo twist UV
Geo 618 calcium reactor with dual chamber
Aqua maxx regulator
Pair of Maxspect gyre 250s
Tunze 6055
Ecotech MP10
Finnex titanium heaters 500w , 300w
Orphek Atlantik V4 compacts x2
Or120 bars x2
Or90 bars x3
7 stage RO/DI with 200gpd water saver /8800 booster pump
35g water containers for WC station x2
Mag drive 9.5
Eshopps 2.5g ATO reservoir
Apex equipment:
Classic brain
Eb8 x3
FFM modules x2
2” flow meter
1/2” flow meter
1/4” flow meter
ALD module with 4 leak detectors
PMK
ATK
Break out box
