spfahnestock's 144 Half Circle Build

[spfahnestock]

This morning I laid out how the equipment is going to lay in the sump.

I also noticed a flaw in the way I designed the stand. There is no good place to put my dual stage reactor. Funny thing is when I designed the stand I was thinking I would have tons of room. Turns out I do but a lot of it will be wasted space.

I plan on placing hangers under the stand to route all my cords up to run across the top of the sump area.

As you can see chamber one will just be filter socks. Chamber two will house the heater, skimmer, rector pump, and my ATO return. Chamber 3 will house dual Vectra S2 return pumps.

The last piece to figure out is where I will mount the future UV Sterilizer. I also wanted to place am Algae Scrubber in the future but I am not sure that will happen now.

This is still a work in progress and I am open to any feedback.

 

[spfahnestock]

Added the first coat of paint to the stand today. I am thinking by Saturday the tank will be sitting on the stand. I cant wait.

 

[spfahnestock]

Made some serious progress on the tank today.

Tank is now on the stand and rough plumbed. I will be gluing all the plumbing tomorrow and setting up all the equipment.

The only piece of plumbing I am not completely happy with is the check valve that might have to live in the sump. In an effort to keep the top of the tank from being to tall I made the stand a little shorter than I probably should have.

 

[spfahnestock]

Today I will be working on the following:

Gluing all the plumbing
Placing equipment into its final location and performing wire management
Adding sand and starting to fill with water (this will be a 3 or 4 day process)

 

[spfahnestock]

Plumbing - done leak check will have to wait until tank is full
Wire Management - done but not perfect
Sand in the tank - done
Radions added to my reef link - done
Adding water as it is ready - so far 40 gallons in.

 

[spfahnestock]

So it seems that I have under estimated how much 80lbs of rock truly is. I have placed the rock I ordered 3 month ago that has been curing into the tank this morning and it is slightly underwhelming. I will be planning a trip to my local(ish) LFSs to find a couple key pieces to round it out. I also forgot that when you use the stack method it is very difficult to recreate the scape exactly as you had it when standing on the stand and placing it in.

On positive note with this build is I am keeping track of the exact water volume that I am putting in the tank so if and when I need to dose I have the exact volume.

Tank currently has 80 gallons of water in it and still making more. I should have enough water to test the plumbing tomorrow sometime.

 

[spfahnestock]

So the tank has been up and running for three months. I am well into the "ugly stage".

I initially transferred some of the fish from my 60 cube over, and added some other friends.

Since transferring tanks my trigger has become one mean individual to any new inhabitants added. In the 60 he coexisted with the clean up crew just fine. In his new home not so much. I added a cleaner package to help clean up the ugly phase and well they became his snack.

I have also decided that i need to change the flow in the tank and have ordered an additional MP40 assist. I will try running two for a while and then if needed purchase a third.

*** Please ignore the filter socks in the picture it is cleaning day ***

 

[Mkeller088]

Looking good!

 

[spfahnestock]

So it had been a long minute since I have updated this. This wonderful box of water and rock is 30 days into a 90 day fallow period. One of the fish i received came with some disease and wiped out everything in the tank. Whatever it is jumped from fish to fish and systematically took them all out. After this first happened I waited 30 days and thought I was good. That was not the case and I had a repeat of the same issue.

So I will wait out the next 60 days before adding more inhabitants.

*** Yes I know about quarantine and how it could of prevented this. However I do not have the space to set up a proper quarantine system and my wife would not allow a 3rd tank.***

 

[hdsoftail1065]

So it had been a long minute since I have updated this. This wonderful box of water and rock is 30 days into a 90 day fallow period. One of the fish i received came with some disease and wiped out everything in the tank. Whatever it is jumped from fish to fish and systematically took them all out. After this first happened I waited 30 days and thought I was good. That was not the case and I had a repeat of the same issue.

So I will wait out the next 60 days before adding more inhabitants.

*** Yes I know about quarantine and how it could of prevented this. However I do not have the space to set up a proper quarantine system and my wife would not allow a 3rd tank.***

Sorry to hear about the wipe out. I have been there before and it does bite. Keep moving forward! Your tank is looking great!

 

[spfahnestock]

I think this tank has been the roughest journey and has provided its share of disappointment along the way.

After the wipeout that occurred I initially was going to leave it fallow for 90 days well that was extended. August would have marked the 90 day fallow point, but due to the pace of summer activities and wanting to be overcautious I let it sit empty until last night.

I am hoping that the tank is now ready to give me the enjoyment that I am hoping for. I think the hardest thing with this build has been ever since I first saw a 144 half circle I knew that was the tank i had to have and yet it seems to want to give me more troubles than any other build in the past.