So I jumped in headfirst.....125 build

[dugthefish]

Gonna need to figure out something different for the heaters. In the old setup, I craftily hid them in the corner overflows (ONLY thing I actually liked about them lol). Not liking horizontal mount in the sump. Gonna have to scour the diy forum for a solution.

Dumped the sand in while I was at it. I know I'm supposed to put the rock in first, but I don't care lol. Never liked the idea of hard rock sitting right on the glass, but I'll sink the rock down into it when the time comes.

 

[count krunk]

your heaters will not fit in the sump? is that the issue?

The reason it is said to add rocks before sand is so tunneling creatures don't bring down your rock formation by shifting the sand. if you dig it down like you said, should not be a problem

 

[dugthefish]

your heaters will not fit in the sump? is that the issue?

The reason it is said to add rocks before sand is so tunneling creatures don't bring down your rock formation by shifting the sand. if you dig it down like you said, should not be a problem

Heaters only fit horizontally in the sump, so the suction holders don't work well at all.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks great !!

 

[dugthefish]

Heater problem solved.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Heater problem solved.

VERY ingenious. The ultimate answer

 

[dugthefish]

Salt added last night and fired it up. Rock went in today, everything appears to be humming along nicely. Rock was taking 2pp ammonia down to nitrates in 24 hours a few days ago in the tub. Dosed the DT tonight to 1ppm, we will see how it handles that.

Going out of town for Thanksgiving, planning on getting QT set up tomorrow morning and letting it cycle for a few days. First fish are being held in copper QT at LFS for me to pick up next week!

 

[anthamm93]

Awesome build so far! I was really wanting a 125 but recently happened upon a 90 for a good price and it fits the space better anyways. I'll definitely be following along though to keep my dream alive.

 

[dugthefish]

Spent several hours last night, and a few more this morning trying to get the scape right. Really liked how it looked in the old tank, but with cured wet rock, I just dont have as much control to get any really cool overhangs. Done playing with it for now, not great but grudgingly acceptable.

Got my QT up and running. Had filter media in the rock tub for 3 weeks, so there should be a nice bacteria culture on it. Ammonia dosing tonight, will have to see what it looks like when I get back from Omaha on Sunday.

DT only processed ammonia down to .5ppm, so I refused back up to 1ppm. Odd that nitrites were at zero, but it's got an entire month to get sorted out before the first fish hit so I'm not too worried.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[dugthefish]

Splurged on some new wavemakers for black Friday, got them installed last night. Picked up an Icecap 3k, and two Jeabo OW40s. Went back and forth between the OW25 and 40, ultimately went with the larger ones cuz I figured at lower speed they'd be quieter. Lemme tell ya, they're all dead silent at 20%!

Have the 2 Jaebos on the end of the tank with the return line, and the gyre on the other end. Plan was for the water to leave the return, catch the jaebos, run down and along the front of the tank, be drawn up to the gyre, and be sent back across the top to the overflow. A nice, circular gyre flow through the tank.

Works amazing. Problem is, even running 20-30%, the sand keeps making it's way to the sides of the tank, leaving me to believe I'm going to end up with a bare spot in the middle.

Thinking I'm just going to run them at bare minimum speeds, and hope having a great natural flow through the tank will be enough for some of the higher flow corals.

Big live sale on coral tomorrow, thinking I might participate and get something more colorful in here. Was supposed to go pick up first fish tomorrow but looks like a blizzard all weekend!

 

[dugthefish]

And we have life!

 

[Auto-pilot]

Cool build! Looks like you know what you are doing! I like your stand. Im going to finish my basement and move down there as my house is a community house and I want my own space. When I do that I was going to make a stand and put a tank on it. I have a 90 gallon but I would.like a little bigger one. I also have vipraspectra lights and they are working for me so far. I have 2 units over my tank

 

[dugthefish]

Cool build! Looks like you know what you are doing! I like your stand. Im going to finish my basement and move down there as my house is a community house and I want my own space. When I do that I was going to make a stand and put a tank on it. I have a 90 gallon but I would.like a little bigger one. I also have vipraspectra lights and they are working for me so far. I have 2 units over my tank

Thanks man! I've got just enough knowledge and experience to get me into trouble, it sometimes seems! Stand was pretty easy the second time around, hmu if you ever want some detailed pics.

 

[Auto-pilot]

Thanks man! I've got just enough knowledge and experience to get me into trouble, it sometimes seems! Stand was pretty easy the second time around, hmu if you ever want some detailed pics.

Definitely! It's not in the plans untill summer. What kind of live stock are you planning on adding???

 

[Evan28395950]

Following, nice!

 

[dugthefish]

Definitely! It's not in the plans untill summer. What kind of live stock are you planning on adding???

Mixed reef: zoas, lps, hardier sps. Plenty of peaceful community fish.

 

[Auto-pilot]

Let me know when you are planning on adding livestock. Might be able to help you out

 

[dugthefish]

Been a busy month, not a ton of time to spend updating this log but here it goes.....

Picked up my first fish on 2 Dec, three Azure Damsels. Due to stupidity on my part, I killed one of them during acclimation. Other two are doing well in QT, and scheduled for release this Saturday. Have the next batch of fish ordered and waiting at LFS in QT, a Magnificent Foxface and a Purple Firefish. Fox will be going directly into the DT because he's too big for my 20g QT, hes been at the LFS for 2 months, and hes been sitting in copper since last week.

Algae bloom is currently in full effect, diatoms being replaced by green film that grows back on the glass hours after cleaning. Water column is full of it and cloudy by the end of the day, but clears up overnight when the lights are off. Phosphate and Nitrates are borderline zeros (.05/5), so I'm assuming this is just the new tank uglies I'm wading through. Seem to be getting a lot of microbubbles in the water column, despite only running the skimmer part time.

Stopped at a different LFS while shopping in the big city. Needed more CUC, got some snails and picked up my first corals as well. 3 frags for $60, got a Duncan, a Leptoseris, and some sort of Acro I think (gal called it a "green slimer"). All seem to be doing pretty well this week.

View attachment 20181227_171604.jpg

View attachment 20181227_171546.jpg

 

[dugthefish]

Picked up some more snails Saturday, along with my magnificent rabbitfish and purple firefish. Unfortunately, rabbitfish did not survive acclimation and was dead within a couple of hours

I consoled myself by loading up on corals during Cherry Corals live sale. 11 frags for $160 shipped.

 

[dugthefish]

If I can't color it up with fish, I'll color it up with coral