Tankenstein: The Build

ErehwoN · Jul 18, 2020

Disclaimer: Prior to March 2020, I had ZERO experience with a marine tank. I have made sooooo many mistakes along the way so I'm going to include those in this thread as well. Maybe someone else can learn from my trial and error. Recalling and documenting the last 4 months is going to require multiple posts so if one ends abruptly know that I'll continue within a day or so.

Hello All,

Short mandatory bio: Had 10g freshwater as a teen, always admired marine tanks. Now, some 40 years later, I finally started the journey.

My employer moved to a new building last summer. The prior tenant left an Aqueon 54 Gallon "Aquarium Ensemble", probably from Petco, which was in pretty sad shape. Here's what it looked like when I first set eyes upon it:

Needless to say.... EWWWWW!!!!

Where others saw a mess, I saw potential. I asked the boss if I could have it and he told me it was mine if I hauled it away. So I did. That was August of 2019. My wife and me were in the process of moving so I emptied the aquarium and moved it to our storage unit. We didn't move until February of 2020 so the tank sat doing nothing during that time.

When it came time to set it up, I found it had the following:

54G tank with stand
Glass hood
LED lighting
CPR Backpak II protein skimmer
Heater
Wave pump
Live Rock
Substrat
Other miscellaneous odds and ends

Total value of it all, if it were new, maybe $450-$500.

We were busy getting situated after the move so I didn't even get to look at the tank until March. My first project was selecting a location, setting it up and seeing if it leaked. No sense going any further if it didn't survive the move. So, I set it up with tap water and checked it out.

MISTAKE #1
There is not enough room behind the tank on the left side. Even cleaning the glass is a royal pain because I tried to get the tank as close to the wall as possible. This was not realized until way too late, so I'm going to have to live with it for now.

Ok, the water was cloudy, but the tank held water with zero leaks and the protein skimmer seemed to work, even though it was really loud. Much Googling later, I found myself questioning our water which comes from a well on our property. I ordered a RODI filter and a refractometer so I could make my own. I got a BRUTE trash can with wheels so I could move it around. A trip to the local Petco for a bucket of salt and I had a good start. Got the RODI filter and cranked it up only to find that there was insufficient pressure to drive it properly so another order for a pump. That finally arrived so I could now make my own water. The tank had a API reef master test kit which was in good condition so I was able to test as I went along.

Here's the tank on April 6, 2020, with actual salt water in it:

it was pleasing to the eye, if a bit barren.

Cycling:
There is a lot of information on cycling a tank on the internet. I mean a LOT. What I should have done is signed up on Reef2Reef AT THAT TIME and asked all my noob questions rather than trusting the internet. But, I'm stubborn and thought I had it down.

I got some Dr. Tim's Nitrifying Bacteria and ammonia to start the fishless cycle process. I watched the spikes in the ammonia and nitrites, followed by the rise in nitrates. Things were good, right?

MISTAKE #2
Continuing to add ammonia was a grave mistake. The nitrates were WAY out of control, maxing out the test at 160ppm. Ok, now what? Let's just say I got really good at water changes up to 60%.

MISTAKE #2A
I should have started over with all new water. The tank had no livestock, so starting over would have saved a LOT of time. But my stubborn self kept making and changing water trying to control the nitrates. I ordered a new pump for the protein skimmer thinking that might help. It did knock down the noise but didn't help so much with the nitrates. But at long last, I was able to get the nitrates down enough to maintain fish.

After all, my goal was a FOWLR tank.

To be continued....

ErehwoN · Jul 18, 2020

Tankenstein: The Build Part II

I spent a lot of time over the next few weeks tweaking the water. Again, I should have restarted from the beginning but I did not. During the six weeks or so that I was tweaking the tank, I grew a bumper crop of unwanted algae. You can see the algae all over the live rock.

But the day finally came where there was stability enough to add some hardy fish. The limited tests (pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and SG) all passed. I ordered the food first (mysis shrimp) and as soon as it arrived I placed the order for the fish. This order was what I term a POC for Proof of Concept. If I can keep hardy fish alive, then we're ready to move forward. I ordered two Ocellaris Clownfish (predictable, I know) and a Royal Gramma Basslet. They quickly arrived and I was in business. I followed the instructions for acclimating the fish and introduced them to their new home on May 30, 2020.

The fish survived the first night which I considered a huge win. When they survived for a few days I made another order consisting of:

1 Bicolor Blenny
1 Coral Beauty Angel
2 Kaudern's Cardinalfish
2 Blue/Green Black Axil Chromis

They arrived and were introduced on June 3. This picture was taken just 11 days later and you can see what a great job the Blenny and the Angel did cleaning up the algae:

It was starting to look much better and I got the hang of the chemistry. You might notice that the power head is missing in the above shot. I had to remove it because the blenny was taking refuge in it.

At this point I was looking online at reef tanks and started considering the possibilities. This is where things got truly serious.

MISTAKE #3
Not having a clear direction from the start. Had I thought about the end goal I would have done everything differently. The placement of the tank, the concept of a sump, etc would have changed how I built this thing. Instead, I was making changes to the design as I went. Not efficient at all.

Anyway, I researched and learned about lighting, flow, additional chemistry, refugiums and the necessity of a sump. I found my HOB protein skimmer was just not going to cut it. I started designing what was needed to make the transition from FOWLR to reef. The list was long and expensive but I was determined to do it.

The very first thing I ordered was a Red Sea Reef Foundation Test Kit and the matching Foundation Liquid Starter Kit. Testing the existing water surprised me as it passed everything. I guess the Instant Ocean salt I am using worked.

The first piece of hardware I shopped for was a sump. More research and a lot of measuring and I determined that the area under my tank was too small and the wrong shape to house even the smallest sump. In the spirit of economics, I started shopping Craigslist and found an Eshoppes R-100 in great shape for a decent price. It was small but had a built-in refugium and I had no doubts I could make it work for me. Even better, the room behind the wall on the right of the tank was usable as a sump room. All I had to do was put some holes in the wall. More on that in a bit.

The next thing I purchased as the lighting and a couple of wave pumps. I went with Current USA and got their smallest light and two pumps. I liked them because the price point was right and everything worked through a bluetooth controller with an app. These I ordered new from Amazon.

Next was the protein skimmer. Armed with the dimensions of the skimmer compartment I started shopping. Again, economy had me searching Craigslist and Ebay. I found what I was looking for, an unused Reef Octopus Classic 110-INT at a great discount that was returned damaged and repaired. I made the purchase only to find that it had been repaired incorrectly. Nothing a hack saw and epoxy couldn't fix.

Next: Sump and Other Hardware Installation.

Stuartmercer · Jul 18, 2020

looking good so far, keep up the good work!

ErehwoN · Jul 18, 2020

Tankenstein: The Build Part III

Amongst the other pieces needed was a way to get the water out of the tank and into the sump and then return. For the plumbing, your options are limited if you don't have holes in your tank specifically for it AND the tank is in operation. Namely, overflow box and over the rim return. I spent of lot of time on the design here. I wanted adequate flow but I was also looking forward to whatever the next tank (if there is one) might be. So I scaled it so I could grow if needed. For the overflow I found one with dual siphons and dual bulkheads that could push out 1000 GPH. On a 50-ish gallon tank that's 20 turns/hour. More than adequate. I then went with the matching Current USA eFlux Flow Control capable of 1900 GPH. Accounting for head pressure the math added up. (More on this in a bit).

Little by little the pieces and parts came together. Finally, everything was here and I was ready to rock and roll! Holes in the wall. Plumbing. Connections from the overflow to the sump. Connections from the return pump to the tank. Filter socks. Chaeto and pods on the way. Refugium light. All of it!

MISTAKE #4
Not measuring the return pump area and comparing it to the return pump footprint! The return pump was much larger than I was expecting. It fit in the sump but it was very tight. Cleaning it every 6 months is not going to be a fun project!

But everything fit together nicely. For a first time DIY through-the-wall install I feel pretty proud.

July 10, 2020, just prior to full sump install. Lights and wave pumps are in place.

HOB protein skimmer. New plumbing underneath.

Overflow box hooked up.

Top of overflow box:

Sump behind the wall:

Utilities are now HERE!

MISTAKE #5
Not fully understanding input and output flows!

If you're reading this and you have a sump that's working, you understand that the flow in must equal the flow out otherwise something is going to overflow. That much I understood. It was the tuning of it all that proved to be my learning curve. I had to learn how the height of the overflow box affected both the level in the tank and the sump. Thankfully the pump is easily adjustable so dialing in the flow in that direction was easy. The flow into the sump required a lot more tweaking to counter a lot of noise. But in the end I got it dialed in and it's working properly. The skimmer is skimming, the heater is heating, the sock is filtering, and the refugium is refugiuming.

Not gonna lie, this was the hardest day!! But it was also one of the most rewarding. No livestock died in the implementation of this sump!

Coming up next: More Tweaking and More Livestock!

ErehwoN · Jul 19, 2020

Tankenstein: The Build Part IV

At this point all of the hardware I had was in place. Getting the flow rates balanced was more difficult than I thought it would be. All part of the learning process.

Adjusting the skimmer properly was also a learning experience, although it was easy enough to dial in once I figured out that minor twists of the gate valve can make big changes--it just takes a while. So, tweak, wait 30 minutes, check, tweak, wait 30 minutes, etc.

Encountered during this tweaking was the storm of micro bubbles. Not detrimental, just annoying. More tweaking of flow heads, ensuring the skimmer was in the right depth of water, etc, and I was able to mitigate.

And it looked something like this:

Wow.... just wow. The lighting, the increased flow, the much better skimmer, and having the utilities out of the display tank made a HUGE difference! In this picture I hadn't yet dressed the cables but that has been done since.

Let's get some livestock going!!!!

MISTAKE #6
Getting corals without a way to secure them to the live rock.

I charged ahead by ordering a couple of frag packs with a total of 10 corals. They arrived on the July 15, 2020. AWESOME!!! But wait a sec.... how do these get planted/rooted/whatever?? Back to the internet! Turns out I need special epoxy which is now en route. However, I've got some sideways corals until it shows up.

MISTAKE #7
Not properly handling coral.

As best as I tried not to, I know I still manhandled a couple of the frags and one may be completely dead already. We'll see.

But, the tank is looking like a real tank, just in it's infancy.

As mentioned I dressed the cables and moved some things around and here it is today, as I write this:

I made a quick video on my YouTube channel of a tour of coral. No, I'm not a serious YouTuber! I just use it to post longer videos for friends and Facebook shares.

So, now I feel I've reached the end of the beginning. Here's what remains to do in the very short term and the status:

Properly "plant" the frags and epoxy where necessary
Finish implementation of RODI ATO in the sump. (90% done, will post probably later today)
Maintain stability, meet the needs of all the livestock
Watch everything grow ;-)

More later I'm sure!

Jim

ErehwoN · Jul 20, 2020

I spent yesterday afternoon working on my DIY ATO. This consists of a 6 gallon container with RODI water siphon feeding the float valve in the tank. Seemed easy at the time but...

I recall the previous owner of the sump saying he used a different ATO method and/or hardware. This was evident as the float valve didn't seem to be working correctly. I ended up removing the valve and at this point I have to reiterate that my sump is small. This is a big deal (no pun intended) because while removing the float valve is relatively easy, trying to get it back into place is very difficult because I can only use one hand in the return pump area. Trying to thread the nut while the valve is not holding steady and threatening to float away was no fun at all. I ended up using a piece of duct tape to hold the valve in place while I got the nut on. A 10 minute job turned into a half hour.

But I digress. Here's the jug I got for the RODI water:

I can already see a problem here because the level of the water cannot be seen from the outside of the jug. But the price was right and it's a whole lot better than what I had before which was nothing.

Back to the float valve: I cleaned off the scale as best I could but the valve would not close all the way, slowing to a drip every few seconds. Not knowing the evaporation rate of the tank, this might work and it might not. I'm not willing to chance flooding something so after trying a couple of times I decided to replace the part.

Now here's another area of frustration: item pricing. On the Eshopps site, the have the float valve for $34.99 which I think is robbery. I found the exact same item, generic, on Amazon for $6.99. If Eshopps listed it for $8-10 I would have considered it but the pricing discrepancy was just way to large to ignore so Amazon got the order. My supposition here is that Eshopps doesn't sell many parts so stocking them is expensive but still....

Anyway, the valve will be here tomorrow and I can finish this off!

Happy Reefing!

Jim

revhtree · Jul 20, 2020

Hey the tank is looking good Jim!

najer · Jul 20, 2020

Following, my hat is off to you sir, a great read so far;.

ErehwoN · Jul 21, 2020

Ok, my DIY ATO is done. I took a 6 gallon water jug and cut a hole in the cap. I epoxied some 1/4" tubing through the hole and filled the jug with RODI water. The jug sits about 2 feet off the ground on the long side:

My replacement float valve arrived today and after only a minor amount of swearing I was able to install it into sump.

Yes, that's the area for the return pump so you can see how narrow it is. Threading the nut onto the float assembly was even more difficult than Sunday but oh well. First world problem as my kids say.

Anyway, just some minor tweaking on the float valve and it's working! I'm monitoring to ensure it does not have a slow leak but I think we're good.

And with this entry, that's all the hardware! When my epoxy gets here I'll move the corals around but until then, I'm done.... knowing that I'll never be really done

;Woot

Jim

Tahoe61 · Jul 21, 2020

You have done really nice work. Looks great, you are a natural!

ErehwoN · Jul 21, 2020

Tahoe61 said:
You have done really nice work. Looks great, you are a natural!

Thanks!!

Reefer of Oz · Jul 22, 2020

Watching!
Great thread, excellent writing. The self awareness as you have going through the process is brilliant. A realistic attitude and goals will take you far. Great progress so far. Be patient and I am sure your tank will thrive!

ErehwoN · Jul 22, 2020

Before I went to bed last night I checked the water level in the sump and it was over specification. I pulled the jug down so it would not continue to overflow. Obviously I have a leak in the float valve assembly. However, I have to travel on business the next couple of days so I won't be able to investigate until Sunday. I have some theories but they will have to wait.

The tank is the hands of my wife who should only have to feed the fish while I'm gone. All the chemistry is spot on and I changed the filter sock and emptied the protein skimmer so the sump should be fine.

Jim

ErehwoN · Jul 27, 2020

Today's post is to fulfill the contest entry for 7/27/2020.

I haven't done much to the build since I got back from travel late Saturday. However, I was able to dress the cables in the sump area.

Here's a shot of the overall sump area:

A slightly tighter view:

Of note: The sump is on the floor of our pantry, thus all the dry goods on the shelves to the left. The blue jug on the shelf is my RODI reservoir that feeds the ATO in the sump. The white pipes on the right are for the radiant floor heating in the house so are totally unrelated. The light fixture is my refugium light that I have programmed to be on from 1:00 AM - 4:00 AM.

Since my last update: I mounted the power strip above the sump to avoid any water/power combinations. I tied up the power cables so they aren't hanging into the sump. The ATO float valve is still leaking and I need to address that as I'd really like to automate that process as much as possible.

Next up: I had some livestock from LiveAquaria not make it during the last shipment so I they gave me credit which I used to order a frag of Purple Stylophora which will hopefully be here tomorrow. Since I'm going to be in the display tank acclimating and placing the new frag, I'm going to epoxy the existing frags where appropriate. Look for more tomorrow or Wednesday.

Thanks for reading,

Jim

Reefer of Oz · Jul 27, 2020

I see a corner of a Hippeas pokin out, HA! Love those snacks!

ErehwoN · Jul 27, 2020

Reefer of Oz said:
I see a corner of a Hippeas pokin out, HA! Love those snacks!

Of all the details I thought someone might pick out, (i.e. "Hey, your chaeto needs..." or maybe "Why is the refugium light where it is?") I never thought anyone would identify a mostly concealed snack food and comment on that!

;Woot

JIm

ErehwoN · Jul 31, 2020

On Tuesday I received a Purple Stylophora. I had two fish pass from a previous order with LiveAquaria so I used the store credit to get the coral. We'll see how it does.

I spent Tuesday aclimating the Stylophora then used epoxy to bond 7 of the frags to the rock. Afterward my skimmer went ballistic which was totally expected. However, when it didn't clear up by this morning, some 3 days later, I did a large water change and that finally calmed it down.

Anyway, here's where I'm at.

At this point I feel I'm done with the initial construction. Now we feed and maintain and, hopefully and with some luck, we'll start seeing growth.

Jim

ErehwoN · Aug 5, 2020

Saturday was August 1st and I proclaimed that the "end of the beginning" for Tankenstein and thus the beginning of the next chapter. Here's what I've done since then:

Changed the filter sock
Emptied the skimmer and made very minor adjustments to the bubble level
Increased the lighting time of my refugium to encourage the Chaeto to grow

And that's it. I have some SPS that is either struggling or dead (see other thread here). However, I've been making so many tweaks over the last 4 months that I do not have a reliable baseline. I'm testing the water every few days at this point making sure things aren't spiking or dropping off, but I've added nothing other than some RODI water to top off. My goal at this point is to try and be patient for at least a few weeks to see where the tank is heading. I'll make minor adjustments and do 10% water changes on a weekly basis but until I can understand where the tank is I can't understand what it really needs. That's my theory anyway.

What I can say is my softies are thriving--as are my fish. Or they appear to be, at least.

Until next time.

Jim

ErehwoN · Aug 6, 2020

They say success breeds confidence and confidence breeds success. If that's true, I've got a bit more confidence today because I can actually see growth on my Vargas Despitularia (everything in the foreground of the red circle is new):