Macawmagic's ~110 tank

macawmagic · Feb 7, 2011

Well this is going to be my first tank thread even though this is like my 5th tank. Figured I'd take pictures of everything for this one.

Start off with a little bio about myself. I'm a college student getting my masters in architecture at Florida International Univ. I also have a part time job working for a watch company. On top of all that, I run my own little company. I grew up in chicago. At once I had approx 8 fish tanks setup in my basement along with a 3,000 gal pond in the backyard. My uncle used to breed pirahna's and my parents used to breed angelfish (freshwater). After moving to fort lauderdale in 2005 I caught the reef bug.

Game plan:
Tank: 36 x 26 x 27 (it was a custom made tank that I picked up for free)
Need to pickup a gl*******s overflow box.
Planning on using dry rock/sand.
Return pump will be a mag 18 through 2x 1" sea swirls.
2x Vortech mp40's unless I trade them for tunze 6105's.
2x LED fixtures. 120 watt's from china. exactly the same as the Evolutions except generic chinese fixtures.
sump will be a 40 breeder partitioned for 2x filter socks, skimmer, and fuge.
all topoff water will be kalkwasser. I do have a geo 618 if needed.

I plan to house ALL types of corals mostly including sps, acans, chalices, and zoas.
As for fish, I want to get some nice ones like a mystery wrasse, bluespot jawfish, chevron tang, etc.

My 75 gal tank had a little leak in the drain so it was leaking water and ended up ruining the carpet in my room. My parents and I decided we were going to redo everything in my room at once so the tank came down. We started repainting, took the popcorn off the ceiling, tiled the floor, and are going to put up crown molding.

Here's pictures of the tilework. Started off where my dad was laying the tiles and I was cutting, but then his knees started bothering him so I ended up finishing.

that was all one day. Superbowl sunday we had to finish the rest of the tiling so we woke up early to get the job done.

Borrowed this bad boy some a friend of my parents. Without it we would've paid a lot to rent one!

macawmagic · Feb 7, 2011

Of course when I finish I get stuck with the 2 hardest pieces.

Floor ready for grout.

picked up some tanks from a friend. not all of these are mine, but mine is in there somewhere.

My new tank. Need a water test and a good cleaning, but it'll get there sooner than later.

Our other project thats happening at the same time. My parents bathroom. It was bulk pickup for garbage so we needed to get rid of everything all at once.

Our house in shambles while all this is happening. My bedroom is scattered throughout the whole house!

secretreefer · Feb 7, 2011

nice! keep em coming!

macawmagic · Feb 7, 2011

thanks...this is all I have for now, but in between school and work we're going to be getting work done. I'll keep updating this thread as stuff gets done!

skinz78 · Feb 8, 2011

Looking great so far! I think I noticed some plumbing coming out of the wall, was it from your old 75g?

macawmagic · Feb 8, 2011

nice eyes. No that plumbing is from the 29 gal anemone tank out in my dining room. As soon as everything is setup and cycled in my room that will be getting connected again. But I think i'm going to redo that tank for a little bit bigger of a tank also!

skinz78 · Feb 8, 2011

Sweet, do you have any pic's of the 29 or has it been taken down as well?

macawmagic · Jun 28, 2012

Well I've been a little busy in the past year, but I finally have a tank again! WOOHOOOOO

After redoing my whole room, which included tile, paint, floor boards, crown molding, took the popcorn off the ceiling, I finally got around to getting a tank. I ended up not going with the tank from above. I picked up a brand new 120. 4x2x2. Ended up having some troubles because the back of the tank was tempered. well we tried to drill it anyway. ehyyy wrong! it shattered. I had to cut out all the broken glass and silicon and get a new piece of glass. After repairing the tank I drilled it for a dart closed loop and a 1500 gph overflow box. Ended up being 7 holes. LOL I was praying that the 7th one didnt shatter the glass!

Ended up welding a steel stand out of 1.5" square tube. Made it 40" tall and I LOVE it! I somehow don't have any pictures of my stand. :(
At the same time as I was setting this up, I was building a 425 for my neighbor across the street. Here we are starting his stand. The tank is 130x30x25.

Here is his old tank. It's a 180 fully over grown with sps.

This is where the new 425 will be going. size comparison the tank that's there is 6'.

So now I've got my tank on a stand. I ended up picking up this canopy at a fragswap for $50. It's all solid maple. I will eventually build a skin around my steel stand to match the canopy.

Ended up picking up a 40 breeder and adding some baffles into it. There are 2x 7" filter socks. Then an 18x18 fuge. and then the return section.

I finally got the sump under the stand. Also did some plumbing for the closed loop. It's a dart closed loop going through 4x 1" openings down to 3/4" locline with flares. The flow is amazing!!! Skimmer is a reef octopus that I picked up super cheap at my local fragswap. It was brand new!

So at this time I was also busy with the 425. Here is the tank on the stand. Picked up the sump on craigslist. it was a fish holding tank with a baffle down the middle. It measures 8'x18x24 I believe. I ended up gluing in enough acrylic to add a dual 7" filter sock area, 3' frag area, 3' fuge, and then the return area. Return pump is a Reeflo Hammerhead. Perfect amount of flow and later we will be transfering over some maxijet mods until he can later afford tunze's!

macawmagic · Jun 28, 2012

back to my system... Heres an outdoor box we put outside my room to house the chiller and a battery backup system.

Put some rock in for the first time.

Moved around the rock because we all know the first time is never correct!

This is how it sits today. Went through the cycle. after that I bought 5 chromis. Started transfering over some of my frags from my frag system.

this picture also has my new LED lights on it. I LOVEEEEEE them!

We just broke down the 180 to start dipping all the corals. That tank had flatworms, redbugs, and asterina starfish in it. All the corals are in a 90 corner and a 60 frag tank so that we can do a 3 week process to get rid of all the bad stuff before transfering everything to the 425.

425 is going to hold majority of sps colonies. My 120 is being nicknamed the "coneited" tank because I'm not putting anything in it that isn't at least $10/polyp or $20/inch. LOL

m and m · Jun 28, 2012

Everything is looking real nice and coming together.

macawmagic · Jun 28, 2012

thanks. The one thing I've learned in these past 2 years without having a nice display tank is that patience is key! LOL I've tried to think out everything on this system to make it as easy as possible.

water changes are done via opening a drain valve in the sump and then hitting the switch to turn on the pump from my garage. the water pumps into the tank and then for every gallon I add a gallon drains out.
my maintenance is going to be cleaning the filter socks weekly, skimmer weekly, and feeding the fish/corals daily.

I've got my calcium reactor sitting next to the stand ready to hookup as soon as I need it. Only piece of equipment I still want for this is a kalk reactor, but it's not needed quite yet.