Lots of pics and lessons learned! It's a long prelude, but just posting the current setup wouldn't do this build justice. Only a community of dedicated reefers could appreciate a story like this. I'm excited to share the journey with y'all!
In order for this timeline to make sense you first need to know that I ship out for weeks sometimes a month at a time and my amazing fiancé takes care of feeding the fish and any other task such as emptying the skimmer cup etc. while I'm gone. Basically she's the best but she's really not into the hobby like myself. I spearhead everything else and take over the daily task once I'm back.
The journey begins with ordering the tank October 2020 and a whole bunch of equipment during black Friday 2020. I receive my 100gal ext from innovative marine in November. Open the crate day of and inspect it. At the time I thought I did a thorough inspection, which I would come to find out many months later that in fact I did a poor job inspecting it (enter suspense ;Wideyed)
I go on to build the stand, get most of the equipment labeled and mounted. I order my fish from marine collectors knowing it takes some time for sourcing, QT and shipping. So I'm humming along. Time line for setting up the tank, cycling and fish are looking good.
Finally, the day comes to move the tank onto the stand and start plumbing. This whole time its been wrapped up in a little bit of the packaging I hadn't removed during inspection. I didn't want it to get scratched while sitting in my garage so I left it that way. I go to remove everything and discover a deep crack in the bottom right corner where a bunch of seams met and ran through the bottom panel. NOT GOOD. This is months after I had received it, because I had already gone back and forth to work many times.
I call IM they give me a discount for a new tank (couldn't get a full refund because of timeline) They tell me it wont be ready till May (it's February at this point). I setup a temporary 40gal breeder because my fish are arriving soon and I have no home for them. Marine Collectors worked with me and held onto them for as long as they could which I'm grateful for. So I got my negative scape done and my 40gal up and running in anticipation of the fish arriving soon when IM calls me and says, "hey we can send you a tank tomorrow." This is like 2 months earlier then they had said which was great. The 100gal arrives the day before I ship out so I have no time to plumb it but the fish are still on their way. I cant shake the worry of tangs in a 40gal even temporarily. I break down the 40gal. I get the 100gal on the stand, put water in it, and throw a HOB filter, heater, powerheads, and ATO.
Fish arrive while I'm at work. Everyone's healthy and beautiful. Hats off to Marine Collectors. I come back and plumb the tank while it's on the stand with water and fish. Less than ideal, but with a little determination and some luck it worked out!
So here are my top three lessons learned.
Finally! On to the fun part ;Happy the build! Plan is mixed reef using the triton method. Sand bottom. Dry rock. Mostly hard plumbed with the exception of the return pump and chiller. Return pump-->chiller-->tank
Equipment
In order for this timeline to make sense you first need to know that I ship out for weeks sometimes a month at a time and my amazing fiancé takes care of feeding the fish and any other task such as emptying the skimmer cup etc. while I'm gone. Basically she's the best but she's really not into the hobby like myself. I spearhead everything else and take over the daily task once I'm back.
The journey begins with ordering the tank October 2020 and a whole bunch of equipment during black Friday 2020. I receive my 100gal ext from innovative marine in November. Open the crate day of and inspect it. At the time I thought I did a thorough inspection, which I would come to find out many months later that in fact I did a poor job inspecting it (enter suspense ;Wideyed)
I go on to build the stand, get most of the equipment labeled and mounted. I order my fish from marine collectors knowing it takes some time for sourcing, QT and shipping. So I'm humming along. Time line for setting up the tank, cycling and fish are looking good.
Finally, the day comes to move the tank onto the stand and start plumbing. This whole time its been wrapped up in a little bit of the packaging I hadn't removed during inspection. I didn't want it to get scratched while sitting in my garage so I left it that way. I go to remove everything and discover a deep crack in the bottom right corner where a bunch of seams met and ran through the bottom panel. NOT GOOD. This is months after I had received it, because I had already gone back and forth to work many times.
I call IM they give me a discount for a new tank (couldn't get a full refund because of timeline) They tell me it wont be ready till May (it's February at this point). I setup a temporary 40gal breeder because my fish are arriving soon and I have no home for them. Marine Collectors worked with me and held onto them for as long as they could which I'm grateful for. So I got my negative scape done and my 40gal up and running in anticipation of the fish arriving soon when IM calls me and says, "hey we can send you a tank tomorrow." This is like 2 months earlier then they had said which was great. The 100gal arrives the day before I ship out so I have no time to plumb it but the fish are still on their way. I cant shake the worry of tangs in a 40gal even temporarily. I break down the 40gal. I get the 100gal on the stand, put water in it, and throw a HOB filter, heater, powerheads, and ATO.
Fish arrive while I'm at work. Everyone's healthy and beautiful. Hats off to Marine Collectors. I come back and plumb the tank while it's on the stand with water and fish. Less than ideal, but with a little determination and some luck it worked out!
So here are my top three lessons learned.
- Don't give up! I wanted to quit this build so many times. I felt incredibly defeated, frustrated and upset with myself. But once it was all said and done I'm incredibly happy I didn't throw in the towel. Loving this build and I'm just now scratching the surface with it!
- Do a THOROUGH inspection of the tank that same day! A little packaging I didn't remove way down in the corner turned into a nightmare.
- Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Ordering the fish way beforehand that would have only worked with nothing going wrong and a perfect timeline is NOT a good approach. Looking back I was depending on a lot of things just working out perfectly and being shipped on time and most of them did except for the giant curveball that threw everything out of whack.
Finally! On to the fun part ;Happy the build! Plan is mixed reef using the triton method. Sand bottom. Dry rock. Mostly hard plumbed with the exception of the return pump and chiller. Return pump-->chiller-->tank
Equipment
- 36gal triton method sump from synergy reef
- reef octopus 150 int 6 protein skimmer
- reef octopus varios 8 return pump
- 2 eheim 150w heaters
- Running apex with 2 EB8 power strips, 2 DOS pumps, head unit, and typical probes
- JBJ 1/4hp chiller
- Tunze submersible refugium light
- 2 Kessil AP9X
- 2 Red Sea gyre 25
- filter socks (plan on changing to filter pad in baffle between protein skimmer and return and put in a media cup for carbon instead of filter socks)
- Pair Helfrichi Firefish
- Rhomboid Wrasse
- Pin Tail Fairy wrasse
- 3 Bimaculatus Anthias
- Bella Goby
- Yellow Tang
- Kole Tang
- Blue Hippo Tang
- Clowns
- Banggai Cardinal
- Currently housing pair of Lemonpeel angels that are going to be moved before introducing corals
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