Protodad’s First “Big” Tank

Protodad · Jan 28, 2023

Hey all, Protodad here. This is probably a long time coming so I‘ll have a lot of back to back posts to catch everything up

First up, here is a quick before and after:

Jan 1, 2021

Jan 21, 2023

Ok, build thread officially started. Time to dig through all my photos.

Protodad · Jan 28, 2023

Ok, two years in the making but the story starts long before that. While I would love to say I’ve been a reef fan all my life, its really more like the last half. My girlfriends (now wifes) dad had a reef tank when I met her right in the entry way. I spent probably more time than she would like staring at this awesome tank. It wouldnt be anything special today, but it was the first time I had seen a reef tank up close outside of an aquarium, and I was hooked. Thankfully my wife likes the hobby as well and she taught me most of what I knew back then.

Started with a bio cube, and did the usual biocube things. I probably went through 3 of them off and on over the course of a decade with varying success, selling them after a crash or when I moved.

2014

Different tank 2015

Did a couple before these ones as well. Switched to fresh for a while as I am a sucker for Bettas and ended up doing a walstad tank for a while as well.

Finally a friend moved out of state and I bought a modified Biocube with a blackbox light. Finally back to reefing in a house we owned so I figured I could spend more time on it.

As you can see, I was basically repeating mistakes of the past, still trying to reef like it was 2005.

At this point I started diving into the how to really learn modern techniques instead of relying on past knowledge. I really wanted to have a “big” tank and started working on the plan. Most of it involved research and I really have to give a big shout out to BRS and its reefing series. It really opened my eyes to a lot of information that what I was doing either didn’t help or was hurting. I started putting together a product list and got to work.

Protodad · Jan 28, 2023

So I probably should preface this by saying that while I’m not cheap, I really have a hard time putting out cash for brand new, expensive hobby things, vs scouring the internet (and sales sites) for deals. I starting buying parts for a tank I planned to have long before I actually bought the tank. In 2021 I had picked up a pair of Kessil A360w, a return pump, a sump, Vertex protein skimmer, dry rock, and a pair of old and well used MP10s. All bought for a song from either old projects (I bought, rebuilt, and resold multiple tanks that didn’t quite hit the mark (bow front, UNS, too small, etc. ).

In fact, I found a full Red Sea reefer 250 near me with the small problem that the bottom glass was cracked. The guy had gotten his warrantied and I walked off with most of a tank for free dollars. I bought a piece of glass local and drilled a new overflow. Had the whole thing ready to put together.

One slip of the hand and it was all over. As this was already a little sketchy, I kind of gave up on this project.

Finally our LFS was having a sale on tanks at the end of 2020. Convinced my wife to buy a new tank and ended up with a 120g (4x2x2) pre-drilled tank.

With the tank and many of the accessories in hand, it was time to find a stand. We had a nice niche in the dining room that wasn’t doing much so I asked the father in law to work his magic on a pile of wood.

At this point I took care of a few other things, leak testing the tank, fitting a grate at the bottom to keep the rock off the glass.

Protodad · Jan 28, 2023

Nem in the old tank was looking weird. Turns out it was splitting. Almost got a photo of it.

Still pretty cool. I had bought this RBTA from a local guy as a tiny thing and I while I have had lots of nems over the years, I had never had one split.

Protodad · Jan 28, 2023

More used parts testing and tank setup. I bought a different (again, used) dc protein skimmer but the pump was damaged so I got my money back

Already had an outlet in place behind where the stand was going but I wanted to protect the outlet as the sump was going right in front of it. Ended up getting this interesting waterproof, expandable cover to fit a full plug in it, while remaining waterproof. I had an ADJ power strip and didn’t realize how much trouble it would be to mount later on

Finally getting ready to start the tank instal And plumbing. You can see the mock up of the plumbing in the back.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

Plumbing!

I’m halfway decent at pvc having dealt with a million broken sprinklers and putting in a few sprinkler systems in the past. That said, I didn’t bother with cool colors or schedule 80 as its pretty overkill for a system that shouldn’t see any real pressure, movement, or water hammers. I spent forever looking for the proper bulkheads and gate valves as the local big box hardware store doesnt carry them and Amazon is way overpriced on this stuff. Turns out my local feed store had a back room with everything a fish tank nerd could want. Make sure you check locally owned hardware stores (do it best, ace, true value, etc).

My first trip to the hardware store

Test fitting the sump

Overflow and return holes

Apparently its impossible to tighten the bulkheads once the tank is in place. Had to make custom “wrenches” to tighten them enough. These are made from 2” and 1.5” electrical pvc. I traced out the bulkhead nuts on top and hacked away until they fit.

And here’s why I needed them

Unions poking through

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

More sump fitting and plumbing. Sump is pretty old school.

Fitting returns

Got a Innovative Marine Light for a Fuge. It works pretty good but shoots light all over the place and has minimal mounting options.

Getting ready to fill the tank. My RODI system is mounted under my sink.

Last bit of plumbing. I ended up setting it up with a herbie style overflow And two returns. I added two valves to pipe off of in the future in case I need to run something inline or without a pump.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

Finally filling the tank. How do you like the aquascape?

Just kidding, this was just fresh water to test the plumbing. I had leaks, but nothing significant. I had to go around and tighten a few unions and threaded fittings that were weeping a tiny amount.

Getting started with rock work. First time trying to do something other than the classic “wall of rock” scape. Unfortunately I didn’t think I was ready to tackle a NSA but the idea of creating open space and depth was there. All the rock I got was live at some point (or at least in someone else’s tank). It was dried for quite a while and left in the sun. I planned to use rock from my old tank so I didn’t seed it prior to installing.

My wife is much better at this than I am so she helped create most of the features.

Not the best photo but you get the idea. Again, trying to leave room for future rock as well.

Adding sand, got a killer deal from Petco price matching their website on Aragonite special grade. Something like $20 for 50 lbs.

Kids “helping” fill the tank

Once it got high enough and the sand wouldn’t blow around, I filled the sump and let the pump do the work.

Fun with previously live rock. This thing came floating out of the rock after all that time.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

The tank I bought only had two holes drilled in the overflow, and I was hoping to have a bean animal style overflow. While I’m comfortable drilling the glass, I didn’t think I would have enough space between the holes. That said, I wasn’t ok with having a Durso style overflow and the return coming back through the overflow as was intended. The overflow had a hole in it for the return to the tank, so I siliconed a piece of acrylic I had laying around over it from the back.

Here is the inside of the overflow now.

Next I had to deal with my non adjustable sump and Vertex skimmer. Vertex needed something like 7-9 inches and the area it was going was closer to 13. So I busted out some PVC and acrylic and started building a stand.

Cut, drilled and glued it all together. Came out pretty decent. The holes in the legs are to avoid air getting trapped in them and cause the whole thing to float.

Threw some rocks in the sump to prep for another tank and to have some more bio filtration while I waited for anyone to have chaeto in stock.

Time for some cable management!

And a goofy overhead tank shot of both tanks.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

Ok, If you are wondering why it doesn’t look very cloudy, its because technically that’s all RODI water at this point. I only have a 75 gpd system and my only storage is a 55 gallon brute trash can. It makes for filling up a system thats about 150 gallons quite a pain.

So instead of waiting days to make 3 batches of 1.026 water, I ended up using mostly RODI to start and then added water mixed to a ratio that most people would never dream of.

I can’t remember my exact calculation but this is roughly 4x the standard salinity of water, so 35 gallons of this should make 140 gallons of 1.026 water.

Ok, salt water in, pumps on, heater on. Time to cycle. It took 8 days to go from tank on the stand to this point.

I’d never tried bottled biome before but I tried out Microbacter 7 for this tank. This was the result after about a week.

Breaking in the skimmer. It was going crazy so I just let it overflow.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

Ok, so I figured I would do the good with the bad on this build thread. I did typical cycle stuff. Let everything settle and added some fish. I ended up with a blue tang, purple tang, a starry blenny and a coral beauty as I had no Corals at the time. I still hadn’t moved things over from my old tank as I was feeling pretty hesitant about the new tank, combined with having no lights on the system still.

Anyway, disaster struck after about a month. I woke up to a couple fish dead and two more on the way out. I panicked and tried to move the fish to my old tank but wasn’t able to save any of them. Tested, did water changes and couldn’t figure out what the problem was. I was pretty bummed at this point and let things sit for a bit as I couldn’t pinpoint a specific issue.

Long story short, later found my temperature probe had come above the water line in the sump. Not sure it got tugged or what but it basically allowed my tank to heat up while the controlled still read a “low” temperature from the ambient air in the house. We keep the house in the 76-78 range so when looking for problems the temperature showed “correct” temp on the readout. Suffice it to say, I ended up getting a probe holder and don’t trust those suction cups anymore. Pretty bad (and expensive) lesson.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

I let my tank sit empty for close to a month until I actually figured out the problem. Once I realized the mistake, I jumped back in after making some changes.

First, my family had a habit of making fancy designs on the front of birthday cards. For a long time it was just fancy writing and stuff but my sister started taking it to a whole new level. I thought this one was cool enough to share.

I finally started moving stuff from my old tank and got lights up. I installed a couple Kessils on goosenecks, moved rock, coral and fish from my old tank and got a couple fish. I don’t have good photos at this point but it the stocking list was:

Starry Blenny
Orange Stripe Tang (wanted a bristletooth and the Hawaii ban had just gone into effect)
A huge rock of GSP
A bunch of inverts

Sorry for the lack of FTS

My lighting was pretty sloppy still. Four Kessils mounted to the tank. Two are wide and two are narrow.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

A couple things happened all at once.

First, we finally found our “L”FS. While there used to be a couple in town and quite a few about 20 minutes away, between people caring about reefing and CV, all of them dried up. We basically have a Petco and a hole in the wall pet store with your typical bad care of fish (they hired a new guy recently and its getting better, but still very expensive). LAX aquarium was the next closest and while I had no Issues with them, their focus on high end coral left us with a bad fish selection and a bunch of (awesome but) expensive things that I wasn’t prepared to shell out for. Vivid is within driving distance but make the other place look like a bargain.

My wife had someone mention a place called harrys. Turns out they were (are) a wholesaler who started opening to the public. Their prices are crazy low and the quality was high. An hour and a half isn’t close by any means but its become our go to place.

Anyway, I finally moved everything from the old system (its been nearly 3 months now). So that’s some good live rock, a black and white clown, two RBTAs and a couple hammers. Plus finally a FTS.

Old tank

Moving day

Moved to new tank

The angle is weird so its hard to see but there are overhangs on the left, middle and two on the right for fish to swim through.

I also finally got my aquamaxx reactor installed with GFO and carbon and you can see the skimmer doing its job.

That wood shelf is where my power strip should go. Unfortunately I’m tight on space And everything plugging in from the back is causing some constraints. I still have all my cables just hanging in space right now.

I also made some screen tops for the tank. Unfortunately they aren’t compatible with the gooseneck mounts so they sit pretty funky.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

Let’s see, its been over 4 months and something is still missing. Finally got some doors and drawers in (can’t rush a guy who’s doing you a favor and has a real business to run). Unfortunately the order was wrong and we got both incorrect doors and incorrect hardware. So only some of the parts got installed.

Feeding time. I’ve always used frozen so its mostly Hikari stuff.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

Man, life gets in the was sometimes.

Not fish, but these little ones came along

5 Month Update. Picked up a tiny frag of acan from a place in town.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

Ok, time to fix that mess of lighting. Between 4 lights, a controller and two MP10s making up the “upper” part of the system, I needed some serious cable management or a place to hide everthing. I went with the latter.

Starting the framing

That Acan had a hitchhiker. I pulled it out and remounted it.

BLenny getting a bath

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

6 Month Update. Started on cable management. Still no doors or drawer fronts. Not sure how long the uppers will go without them. It’s basically a piece of wood with a power strip and some cable tie holders for power bricks.

Picked up some more corals. Some Zoas and Mushrooms. Also finally got a yellow bellied blue and purple tang.

More cable organizing.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

Working out how to hang the lights. The upper cabinets need a bottom, but the hanging mount needs to be above that. Turns out Kessil is super awesome and sent over 4 of their swivel chain mounts for free when I asked about buying some. Added some black chain And some screw in chain clips and voila.

9 Months in and finally got lower doors and hardware

Well, most of it. They screwed up the order again.

Protodad · Jan 29, 2023

Woohoo. 10 months in and everything has doors on it. Time to paint, do some cable management and figure out how to finish the bottom of the upper cabinet.