New 120g the semi dream build!

Saberfal

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So I ended up giving into the addiction and found I couldn't get by with a 45g aio.


So far it's just the tank and stand for the most part.

Trying to get the right style canopy for the lights I'm using.

Equipment so far:
2x jebao slw-30
1x mp40
25g ato reservoir
34 ish gallon sump
2x sicce return pumps
Carbon/gfo/bio pellet reactors
Reef octopus essence s-130 skimmer
2x ai hydra 32hd
Tunze osmulator ato
Apex system


I almost wish I got the non reef ready and drilled my own overflow, but I'm okay with having them.

Instead of running a bean animal, I'll run two herbie style overflows. The returns will be ran over the top of the tank.

Ordered a ton of sch80 pvc for plumbing to match the sump which I haven't done before.

I also want to add a shelf inside in the stand. I can cleanly mount all the electronics and hide the spaghetti of wires that way.

So I'll post some pics as I get it put together. This build I'm going to take my time doing, but want it wet sometime in april!

20210320_112744.jpg
 

TexanCanuck

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Congrats on the new tank! Looks awesome!

Here are a few bits of food for thought:

1) for mechanical filtration, think about a fleece roller instead of filter socks. Once I made the switch I was so glad I did! Now I don't have to worry about my mechanical filtration for about 30 days at a time

2) When you look for a sump, give some serious thought to one that gives you a refugium - adding even a small amount of macroalgae to your sump (along with a light, of course) will go a long way to helping you with water quality! NOTE: If you do go this route, you should also ditch the idea of also having GFO and/or bio pellet reactors - makes your tank simpler!

3) Since you are going to drive this tank with an APEX, give some serious through about using their COR-20 return pumps (in place of the Sicce) and their WAV power heads (in place of the MP40) ... the amount of additional data you will have available to you in the APEX is amazingly helpful

4) Similarly, as long as you already have an APEX, think about using their matching ATK (in place of the Tunze osmolator) ... again, it opens up a ton of really useful data for you and gives the added bonus of freeing up 1 outlet on the EB832 (since the ATK uses Neptune's 24VDC pump that plugs into a Link1 port on the EB832 directly)

Either way, you've made some great choices!
 
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Saberfal

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Congrats on the new tank! Looks awesome!

Here are a few bits of food for thought:

1) for mechanical filtration, think about a fleece roller instead of filter socks. Once I made the switch I was so glad I did! Now I don't have to worry about my mechanical filtration for about 30 days at a time

2) When you look for a sump, give some serious thought to one that gives you a refugium - adding even a small amount of macroalgae to your sump (along with a light, of course) will go a long way to helping you with water quality! NOTE: If you do go this route, you should also ditch the idea of also having GFO and/or bio pellet reactors - makes your tank simpler!

3) Since you are going to drive this tank with an APEX, give some serious through about using their COR-20 return pumps (in place of the Sicce) and their WAV power heads (in place of the MP40) ... the amount of additional data you will have available to you in the APEX is amazingly helpful

4) Similarly, as long as you already have an APEX, think about using their matching ATK (in place of the Tunze osmolator) ... again, it opens up a ton of really useful data for you and gives the added bonus of freeing up 1 outlet on the EB832 (since the ATK uses Neptune's 24VDC pump that plugs into a Link1 port on the EB832 directly)

Either way, you've made some great choices!
I totally agree. This is my first time using an apex so have a lot to learn there and will no doubt incorporate more Neptune equipment.

The sump does have a refugium, I just got the reactors more so in case things get out of hand. Kinda went with the if I might need it I'm getting it now approach.

I couldn't find a sump in stock that came with a roller mat. I really wanted one. And some of the drop in units didn't make much sense to me if I'm going to have 4 drains.
 

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grew up 12 & hoover.
let me know when you get water and cycled.
I can hook you up with some local sellers, depending on what you are looking for.
 
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Saberfal

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grew up 12 & hoover.
let me know when you get water and cycled.
I can hook you up with some local sellers, depending on what you are looking for.
I will definitely take you up on that! Haven't really been impressed by any of the local shops.

I'm pretty much a stick head. I do want to get more LPS in this tank though.
 
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Saberfal

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grew up 12 & hoover.
let me know when you get water and cycled.
I can hook you up with some local sellers, depending on what you are looking for.
Oh by the way I plan on buying all live rock for this, but can't make enough water for this system.

Do you any companies in our area that would deliver sea water?
 

TexanCanuck

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For your sump, think about Trigger Systems Platinum line - it has a built-in fleece roller.

I have the Platinum 39 on my 130g DT ... took me a while to figure out how to tune it properly, but now that I've worked out the kinks I'll never go back to socks

 
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Saberfal

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For your sump, think about Trigger Systems Platinum line - it has a built-in fleece roller.

I have the Platinum 39 on my 130g DT ... took me a while to figure out how to tune it properly, but now that I've worked out the kinks I'll never go back to socks

I was looking at that one but they've been out of stock. Was thinking the 39 was a bit big but they were sold out on the 34 as well!
 

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Saberfal

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So I decided the fleece roller just isn't going to work with my plumbing design.

I'm away from home several days at a time and just feel more comfortable running a double herbie system.

Same reason for running the 2 returns. The apex cor would be nice, but simply can't fit two of them.

I did take advantage of the recent apex discounts and get the atk v2 ato.

Still want to get the leak detection, lunar sim, and gro modules.

Hopefully today I can get the tall canopy ordered as they only had a 7in low profile canopy when I got the tank.

Will be getting some custom cut vinyl for the back of the tank Friday, and may start on the plumbing as well.
 
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Saberfal

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Well pretty much everything came in today for the build!

I got the sump, ato, and skimmer set so far.

Have a bunch of red pvc to match the sump and will hopefully get everything dry fit tomorrow.

Ato container is 25g that I got from usplastics.
I'm away from home a few days at a time due to work. I needed to be sure I wouldn't run out of rodi.

I still have to figure out a bit of a shelf to put in there to clean up all the wiring.

One of the control boards you can buy are too large. Does anyone mount their's to the back of the tank? Maybe with hinges or something to slide out of the way?

I just know for sure I want the cable management to, you know... look managed!
20210325_213956.jpg
 
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Saberfal

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Well water is finally going in the tank!

Took some to try and make a decent scape with Marcos reef mortar. 10/10 would just buy the shelf rock for using this. You would be able to get to build a much more interesting rockscape.

Grabbed another mp40 and neptune gro light for the fuge.

Just have pumps and heater going as I get all the electronics ran and hooked up on my controller board.

Still more work to do, but at least it has water in it!
 

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Saberfal

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Well it's been about a month now.

I finally got the canopy in and installed the lights.

I'm going to have redo my controller board and reroute all the wires.

I'm just glad to have it setup and running right.
 

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Saberfal

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So not even 2 months in on and this tank and had my first equipment failure.

I'm using 2 sicce multi 2500 for my returns and one of the pumps died.

Magnet is just about split in two.

This also dropped the water in my sump. Enough so, that my skimmer was practically running dry.

I really lucked out in that the skimmer pump seems to be working fine.



I also did a dumb thing and bought a nice cucumber a while ago. Well it didn't do so well in the new tank and nuked my fish.

The few corals I have seemed to be unaffected at all by this.

Foxface was the first to go. After I figured out what happened and moved my other 2 fish I to the hospital tank, it was too late.

My blue eyed kole tang passed right as I left for work.

My melanarus wrasse though was looking really bad but managed to pull through!

Really liked the melanarus, but mine loved to eat snails even with heavy feeding. So it'll be going back to a local lfs.
 

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Saberfal

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So far everything is going great.

Main issues are hazy water that I cannot get to clear up.
I've used uv/socks/clarifier/carbon/skimmer and nothing seems to make a dent in it.

I've also had some type of brown film algae that also won't go away.
N03 is 3ppm and p04 is 0.012 (slowly bringing p04 back up to around 0.02+)

Otherwise corals are happy and my new fish from tsm aquatics are doing great.

I can never seem to get good pics of the tank. Anyone know to using the clamp on filters for the phone?
 

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