Now 120G was 85G First Reef Tank!

[purple_jeep]

Gday All!

Name is Chris living in Tucson Arizona but originally from Melb Australia and this is my build thread for my First Reef Tank!

I grew up with a couple of freshwater tanks (discus mainly) but always wanted to do a saltwater tank so a month or so ago the GF and I decided to take the plunge and see what we could build. We looked at the house and decided on an area between two windows which will support a 4ft tank.

Tank and Stand:
A quick Facebook Marketplace search and we found a 85G 4ft long, 2ft high, 18" deep tank and stand for $100 (impulse buy as once I researched I probably would have gone for a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft tank).

Not the shiniest tank or stand out there but at the time I thought deal! Got it home, Tank in the backyard to be filled with water to test the seams and Stand in the Garage to clean and paint.

Tank was filled with water and I think has a small leak in the back right joint, looks like someone has replaced the silicon (badly) in the past, even putting some on the outside of the tank. Due to this and the unknown age of the tank I am going to remove all the existing silicon and reseal the tank. Tank is also a little scratched up so I will cover polishing that also in a later post.

I do have a question about the tank, is this a rimless or rimmed tank, it does have the trim at the top and bottom. At the bottom it sits on the trim unless there is also supposed to be a pad inside the trim. At the top the trim is just glued to the tank, and has seperated from each other at the corners.



Is this an Issue?
Anything special I should be doing with this trim(I will be sanding and painting?
Do I put a pad under the tank or is this designed to sit on the trim pieces?

The Stand we removed the doors (will replace with some flat doors as we like the modern look) sanded with 100 and then 200 grit sandpaper and painted with rustoleum epoxy paint.



Also put the tank on top of the stand and started setting up the gear to get an idea of how it would look




Equipment:
Some more facebook marketplace stalking and I ended up with the following gear from a guy 5 mins from my house:

Skimmer: Quantum Nyos 160 Link
ATO Controller: HydroFill™ Ti ATO Controller Link
ATO Pump:
Light: Aquatic Life G2 T5 HO Hybrid 4-Lamp Link
Flow Pump: Maxspect Gyre Pump XF350 (Two Pumps + Controller) Link

I then hit up Trigger Systems Blemished systems page for:
Sump: Trigger Systems Sapphire 26 Link
ATO Container: Sapphire 5 Gallon Link

Then it was time for some BRS, Coralvue and Amazon shopping to complete the equipment for now:
Circulating Pump: Hydor Seltz D DC Controllable 1000 GPH Link
Salt Mixing Flow Pump: Hydor Koralia Evolution Link
Heater: 300W Titanium Aquarium Heater System Link
RODI System: IceCap 100gpd RO/DI System Link

Aquascape:
From the local guy I also picked up 100+ lbs of old rock which I then bleached for 2 weeks.


Now in some RODI water with some Erase-CL and the koralia.

He also gave me some bags of CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink Sand so I picked up some more 20lb bags of the same so I would have enough for the tank.

Salt is Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt

Cycling:
My plan is to do a fishless cycle using the following products:
500mL MicroBacter Start XLM
Microbacter QuickCycl
then later on
MicroBacter CLEAN 500ml

That's it for now!

Any comments or questions welcome!!

Cheers

Chris

 

[blaxsun]

I think it's a rimless tank and that's just the trim for aesthetics (I can't see how it's providing any structural support).

 

[purple_jeep]

I think it's a rimless tank and that's just the trim for aesthetics (I can't see how it's providing any structural support).

Yeah that's what I was thinking, but does that mean I need a pad under the tank?

 

[blaxsun]

Yeah that's what I was thinking, but does that mean I need a pad under the tank?

You may want a self-levelling mat, yes.

 

[purple_jeep]

So a few things have changed but alot of progress has also been made!

I spent a while not this last weekend but the one before working on the 85G tank, taping the glass to paint the trim doing some more cleaning of the old silicon in preparation of replacing it and also got some Cerium Oxide to polish the glass...

Well let me tell you, polishing glass is a pain!! After giving it a go and looking at the small difference it made to my scratched up Craigslist tank I gave up and decided to look to see if I could find a better tank to use hoping I could use the stand I spent so much time painting!

I looked on Facebook marketplace and craigslist, no 4ft tanks, called a local shop they had nothing went to a LFS a little further away and after some digging in their used parts warehouse (almost grabbed a 48" x 30" x 20") I found a nice 48" x 24" x 24" Aqueon tank with dual Overflows!

Had to make an extension to my stand to account for the extra depth of 24" vs 18"

Cleaned the tank and painted the sections between the overflows black (rust oleum flat), also removed the liner someone had glued to the inside bottom of the tank.

Cut and Glued up all my plumbing including check valves on the returns throttle valves on all returns and drains, added two take of valves for either a chiller or some sort of reactor etc.

I currently have my drains as dual Durso's (I made them both 1" which might also be why they are loud instead of what I now know is the correct 1.5" diameter necked down to 1" at the bulkhead) but I think I am going to switch to a Herbie since I have two ports although they are tee'd together prior to the sump.

Then on this last weekend I filled the tank with tap water to check for leaks and built my aquascape (didn't take any progress pictures sorry)

Mixed up some salt water (3 times to fill the tank)

And put everything together!

I have a reef tank!!

Need to adjust the gyre's and plumb the ATO but otherwise it is working!! Started the cycle with MicrobacterSTART and the Quick Cycle.

Also found out I had the freshwater Ammonia Hanna Checker so had to run to the LFS to get a test kit. 2ppm for now but only just started so will see how it drops!

Cheers

Chris

 

[purple_jeep]

Ammonia was at 1ppm yesterday night and Nitrite at 15ppb

I am trying to decide if I need to get a quarantine tank setup even for my very first fish (a pair of clowns)

Looking at the Fluval 13.5 Gallon Evo XII Marine Aquarium Kit, Petco has a 20% discount on it right now plus another 10% off if you pick it up.

Link

I really should do it shouldn't I....

Expensive hobby lol

 

[HankstankXXL750]

Ammonia was at 1ppm yesterday night and Nitrite at 15ppb

I am trying to decide if I need to get a quarantine tank setup even for my very first fish (a pair of clowns)

Looking at the Fluval 13.5 Gallon Evo XII Marine Aquarium Kit, Petco has a 20% discount on it right now plus another 10% off if you pick it up.

Link

I really should do it shouldn't I....

Expensive hobby lol

Yes I would definitely go with a QT tank. Starting fresh try not to introduce any ich etc. also gets you in the habit, prevention better than cure.

 

[TheyGaveItToMe]

"I then hit up Trigger Systems Blemished systems page"

Thanks, I never even considered this for the build I'm planning out right now.