New Year, new 100G setup build.

[dmsc2fs]

After over a decade away it's time to get back into the hobby. A few days ago I set out on a journey to find a good deal on a drilled tank in the 75-120G range. I was open to used or new as well. I had a fallback plan of a 75g and drilling it myself. I knew I would run a sump and a refugium in this build but I had not narrowed down specifically what size sump, protein skimmer, etc. I checked around my area and nothing really worked. I had a few options that would be great setups but they did not speak to me. On New Years eve I had decided to drive to Columbia, SC after a quick phone call informed me of a place that had 6-7 drilled options within my size requirements. My wife decided to go with me on this trip and that is where it all went sideways. I had planned to build my own stand and sump. She had different ideas. In this instance she upsold me. This is what I brought home.

This is a Red Sea Reefer XL 525. Up until the last minute this was not even an option. Before this trip I was informed sternly that we would be having a canopy on the tank and that no lights would be looked at. i.e. no open top. At the last minute after seeing a open top setup with two Red Sea lights mounted on a display tank she came around. I am not kidding about last minute either. I had to grab the 3 shop employees that had taken down a drilled 90g tall and had already secured a canopy to a stand and had been wheeling it out to my trailer to inform them that I had made a decision to switch choices. Yes, I rented a 4x9 U-Haul and bought a 4x8 piece of foam just in case I was going to bring something home. I was pretty confident something was coming back with me.

This also resolved my tank and sump choices since this was a package deal. Tank, Stand, Sump and ATO.

This is going to be a slow startup. I am planning first fish to be out of QT and into this setup in April. I might make it quicker, but I am not in a hurry. I would rather slowly establish the setup vice hurry and fight with issues I could have prevented.

I have also started shopping for other supplies and equipment. Part of my timeline is due to planning to select items that are discounted, or on sale. Case in point, I found both QT tanks for $20 discount at a Petsmart sale yesterday and decided to resolve that part of my list. My QT setup is mostly complete for $100. I will have a 10G for copper treatment and after that into a 20G for another few weeks of isolation and any other treatments needed. This location is behind a french door in my exercise room so it was dead space or my "toss stuff there to worry about later" space. The back and sides of both tanks will be blacked out and the window has mirror tint and the blinds never open so I am not concerned about this placement.

 

[majesticbigmac]

Red Sea is a perfect company, very reliable. Good plans, Make sure you use enough rock and cycling should only take you to feb if you fill the tank (+rock and sand if you'd like) today. You many prolong cycling to ensure no problems, but 2 months is more than enough.

 

[dmsc2fs]

Red Sea is a perfect company, very reliable. Good plans, Make sure you use enough rock and cycling should only take you to feb if you fill the tank (+rock and sand if you'd like) today. You many prolong cycling to ensure no problems, but 2 months is more than enough.

My schedule of first fish in the tank has more to do with equipment and personal schedule. I have a lot of equipment I still need to buy, deploy and let settle into operation. This is combined with a possible trip OCONUS in early April. I would rather have my son maintaining a stable 20G QT with 1-2 fish instead of a fresh new main system that is still getting its feet under it. Thank you for your feedback!

 

[majesticbigmac]

No worries. gl

 

[dmsc2fs]

I found a local reef club and exactly 12 minutes before I was approved to join their forum a member posted an ad selling 300lbs of rock that he pulled from a tank breakdown a few weeks prior. I contacted him to buy it all and he had just sold most of it. I picked up all that was left and it was 75lbs. Along the way I decided i would get the rock back in water as soon as I could.

My theory is that the interior of the rock was still moist and I may be able to get some life back out of it. It was a 2 hour drive from my house so I also decided to swing buy a LFS in the same city as the rock. From that store I picked up 17lbs of live rock with the thought being that both stashes of rock would go into a brute and the new live rock would help bring the old rock around. I am a bit disappointed in the live rock I picked up. The LFS was dark and everything was illuminated with tank lights and black lights only. Because of this I didn't get a good look at the pieces I picked out. 2 of them are "built" with epoxy and although I like the pieces I don't think I would of paid what I did. Nothing I can do about it but move on.

It has been under water for 2 days and I tested 1.5PPM of nitrates today. I'll test again in a week I suppose. I'm not OCD about how my rock is coming along in a brute, but I should see movement in the nitrates telling me that I did bring something home with me on at least one piece of the rock.

 

[dmsc2fs]

Over the next few weeks items should be arriving as I buy local or online. I am doing a bit of both. My heaters arrived and I placed them in the sump. I will be running 2 500W Hygger HG-802. Now that I am looking it over I might have under powered my heater choice. I think I will resolve this by adding three outlets to my temp controller when I wire it. This should give me the option to add a 3rd 500w or switch to 2 larger heaters. For now I will monitor the temp and see how well my 2 500w can maintain the temp.

I need to do research on when/why I would need a cooler. Since all my previous tanks had been setup in a basement in Minnesota I never had a cooling issue.

Update: After doing a bit of searching on this forum I believe I have more than enough heater capacity. If I am reading suggestions correctly I believe that the heater manufacturer recommendations may be quite liberal in the wattage needed for tank sizes. This makes sense to me since I am a confident I did some research on how much heater was needed when I made my first selection.

 

[dmsc2fs]

Lights are installed. They are not set in a permanent location since I still need to finish the lid and they will come out once the rock is ready to go in. I am happy with the light choice but I do have one thing that is both a pro and a con. The lights can be run in a master/slave configuration and I had them setup that way first. The problem is they have a blue blinking light on the front. It can be turned off in the settings by turning off the pilot light.

The problem is that this will only turn off the light on the master. The slaves have no configuration options when set as slaves. I switched to 3 masters so that I could disable the lights and the timing and light intensities need to be setup on all three sperate.

The benefit to doing this is a bit more light management. For example with my lights set to 0% on all channels except one blue and the blue set at 1% I felt the moonlight was too powerful. I decided to set the center light to 0% on all channels disabling the light at night. In addition to this I staggered the center light to have a later sunrise and sooner sunset by 1 hour. I decided to do this due to the new tank and it will need much less light than when it is fully established. I have all 3 lights turned very dim for daylight mode. I believe it was 15% white, 10% on both blues and 2% on the other channels. Once I start adding livestock I will creep the lights up but on my startup they will only serve to grow algae where I don't want it to grow.

 

[dmsc2fs]

Small update, I wired up a heater controller and attached it inside the stand. I had planned to use the cables from a dead Inkbird controller. After I opened up the Inkbird I noticed why it was showing an "ERR" I think. I also decided I did not wish to recycle the cables due to the wire I noted. I decided to recycle a powerstrip and an old extension cord I had on the shelf.

 

[dmsc2fs]

Had a step forward and a step backwards so I guess I'm back where I started. I finally obtained some parts to rehab and put back into service a protein skimmer. step forward!

Doing some configurations on the sump and I forgot about my heaters. I have them in my tank overflow return chamber and that is the best place I believe since water will always drain back into the sump and that should be the highest water chamber.

That is unless you are running your sump in a closed loop because your tank isn't ready yet. It appears when I turned the pump off that is in the sump return chamber the silicon tube siphoned back into it from the tank return chamber bringing the water down. The heaters started melting the rubber suction cups, that is how I noticed. Smoke pouring out from under my tank. I unplugged the heaters to inspect and see if I could reuse them. The silicone on the top of each heater melted and separated from the power cord. No good! I am thinking about moving them under the skimmer. I have it on a platform 2-3" off the bottom to keep the sump water higher. I have lots of room under that and the overflow from that chamber to the return pump chamber is 6-7" If the sump has any water in it that chamber will have the most. The difference is the new spot will have the heaters on the bottom horizontal. The previous spot had them vertical. Thus why the top 1/2 of the heater was above the water line.

 

[dmsc2fs]

I continue to get little things in place and this time it is the auto feeder configuration. I need to solve this riddle before I start working on the lid. From testing it appears this configuration should work quite well. We all know how test vice production works however.

 

[A Young Reefer]

Tank is looking good, following along!

 

[A Young Reefer]

After over a decade away it's time to get back into the hobby. A few days ago I set out on a journey to find a good deal on a drilled tank in the 75-120G range. I was open to used or new as well. I had a fallback plan of a 75g and drilling it myself. I knew I would run a sump and a refugium in this build but I had not narrowed down specifically what size sump, protein skimmer, etc. I checked around my area and nothing really worked. I had a few options that would be great setups but they did not speak to me. On New Years eve I had decided to drive to Columbia, SC after a quick phone call informed me of a place that had 6-7 drilled options within my size requirements. My wife decided to go with me on this trip and that is where it all went sideways. I had planned to build my own stand and sump. She had different ideas. In this instance she upsold me. This is what I brought home.

This is a Red Sea Reefer XL 525. Up until the last minute this was not even an option. Before this trip I was informed sternly that we would be having a canopy on the tank and that no lights would be looked at. i.e. no open top. At the last minute after seeing a open top setup with two Red Sea lights mounted on a display tank she came around. I am not kidding about last minute either. I had to grab the 3 shop employees that had taken down a drilled 90g tall and had already secured a canopy to a stand and had been wheeling it out to my trailer to inform them that I had made a decision to switch choices. Yes, I rented a 4x9 U-Haul and bought a 4x8 piece of foam just in case I was going to bring something home. I was pretty confident something was coming back with me.

This also resolved my tank and sump choices since this was a package deal. Tank, Stand, Sump and ATO.

This is going to be a slow startup. I am planning first fish to be out of QT and into this setup in April. I might make it quicker, but I am not in a hurry. I would rather slowly establish the setup vice hurry and fight with issues I could have prevented.

I have also started shopping for other supplies and equipment. Part of my timeline is due to planning to select items that are discounted, or on sale. Case in point, I found both QT tanks for $20 discount at a Petsmart sale yesterday and decided to resolve that part of my list. My QT setup is mostly complete for $100. I will have a 10G for copper treatment and after that into a 20G for another few weeks of isolation and any other treatments needed. This location is behind a french door in my exercise room so it was dead space or my "toss stuff there to worry about later" space. The back and sides of both tanks will be blacked out and the window has mirror tint and the blinds never open so I am not concerned about this placement.

Glad you went with the red sea

 

[dmsc2fs]

When I decided to get back into things the very first purchase I made was a refugium light. I didn't mention this but one of the things I am very fond of is watching the critters. Especially at night when they come out in droves. Because of this I want an active and well stocked refugium that would supply my DT. My plan was, and still is, to seed both my sump and DT with worms, micro stars, crabs, snails, etc. to have a living sand bed. With my previous tanks I kept them well stocked from seeding a number of orders from IPSF. I plan to do the same this time around but it appears many other options besides IPSF are now available. Good news!

The light I ordered for the refugium was delayed in shipping for weeks. I finally canceled it and ordered another one. That one was delayed before shipping and I canceled that one as well. I gave up and went in another direction. Instead of striking out a third time on a fuge light I ordered an LED grow light. I plan to give it a test and see how it fairs knowing I might have to upgrade in the future.

Until that light arrives and I figure out how to use it I have to solve the fuge light problem. I have an order that is now 1 day delayed, but expected to arrive today from IPSF. In that order is two different types of Algae. It will need some sort of light. I have a fuge light to use temporarily but not permanent. This one has rusting screws in it and I just don't care for it. It will work for now though. I didn't want to spend a whole lot of time and $ on a mount that is temporary. It only needs to be in place long enough for the proper light to show up so I used what I had available.

BTW, I have a charge on my credit card for the new light but no receipt, now purchase statement, no email showing I purchased it nothing. It just went into a black hole. I might actually strike out a third time!

I did notice my LFS has a fuge light stuck behind the counter at a price I would pay so if I end up being on strike 4 I am buying that one.

Pics for my short term setup.

 

[Soren]

Your build is progressing nicely! Too bad about heater and controller issues as well as the issues with ordering lights...

I'm looking forward to more to come!

 

[dmsc2fs]

Your build is progressing nicely! Too bad about heater and controller issues as well as the issues with ordering lights...

I'm looking forward to more to come!

The heaters where a dumb mistake on my part. Those like the logistical issues = learn and move on. I heard a rumor that somewhere in this forum is a thread about using milk to dose corals so I guess why cry over spilt milk, dump it in the tank!

 

[dmsc2fs]

Glad you went with the red sea

I am also. I am really fond of how it is working out so far!

 

[X-37B]

Had a step forward and a step backwards so I guess I'm back where I started. I finally obtained some parts to rehab and put back into service a protein skimmer. step forward!

Doing some configurations on the sump and I forgot about my heaters. I have them in my tank overflow return chamber and that is the best place I believe since water will always drain back into the sump and that should be the highest water chamber.

That is unless you are running your sump in a closed loop because your tank isn't ready yet. It appears when I turned the pump off that is in the sump return chamber the silicon tube siphoned back into it from the tank return chamber bringing the water down. The heaters started melting the rubber suction cups, that is how I noticed. Smoke pouring out from under my tank. I unplugged the heaters to inspect and see if I could reuse them. The silicone on the top of each heater melted and separated from the power cord. No good! I am thinking about moving them under the skimmer. I have it on a platform 2-3" off the bottom to keep the sump water higher. I have lots of room under that and the overflow from that chamber to the return pump chamber is 6-7" If the sump has any water in it that chamber will have the most. The difference is the new spot will have the heaters on the bottom horizontal. The previous spot had them vertical. Thus why the top 1/2 of the heater was above the water line.

First off nice system! I would rethink the heater wattage on your system as I think its way to much.
I run 1 150watt on my 120 which is 150g's total. 2 500's?
I would run 1 250 watt max.

 

[dmsc2fs]

First off nice system! I would rethink the heater wattage on your system as I think its way to much.
I run 1 150watt on my 120 which is 150g's total. 2 500's?
I would run 1 250 watt max.

Not going to lie about this. I have debated both did I have too much or not enough heater. It's something I have been struggling with trying to size appropriatly. I will do more searching for posts to find some other guidance.

 

[Soren]

The heaters where a dumb mistake on my part. Those like the logistical issues = learn and move on. I heard a rumor that somewhere in this forum is a thread about using milk to dose corals so I guess why cry over spilt milk, dump it in the tank!

If the heaters still work, you might be able to fix them with liquid electrical tape. This was recommended to me for a heater repair, though mine was due to my dog chewing off the cords, so I was just reconnecting and sealing the cord. I did solder new wires onto one cut right at the top of the heater and resealed with the rubber caps and liquid electrical tape. Mine were Finnex titanium heaters.
Of course, considering the relatively low cost of heaters in comparison to the cost of the tank and the risks of failed heaters in a system, it is probably best to just buy new heaters. I only use my repaired heaters on low-risk applications such as mixing bins or biomedia QT systems.

The milk-dosing thread is another R2R classic that demonstrates intriguing and humorous elements of the mindset of this community!

 

[Soren]

Not going to lie about this. I have debated both did I have too much or not enough heater. It's something I have been struggling with trying to size appropriatly. I will do more searching for posts to find some other guidance.

From my research, I'll add two points to your considerations here:
1. Lower-Watt heaters and more of them are a safer option in the event of failure as well as adding redundancy. If one fails off, the other one(s) may keep the temperature from dipping dangerously low too fast. If one fails on, its power is limited so as to have less effect on the overall temperature and should not raise the temperature dangerously high too fast.
2. Ranco controllers are considered very reliable in all of the threads/articles I've read about them. This may make it less of a concern to have more heating capability than necessary, since the heaters should not ever fail on (statistically speaking, of course, since no device can ever be completely fail-proof). In the seemingly extremely rare event that the Ranco fails, I think it is extremely unlikely that it fails with the heater(s) turned on, so the Wattage of the heaters is less relevant with this controller than with others that are cheaper and more "hobby-grade".

This does not make the decision for you, but may help with your considerations.