Teton Reef - 175-Gallon Build Thread

thewalkingdad · Sep 7, 2020

My two clownfish graduated from QT and are you comfortable resting in an OT. They'll remain there for two weeks or until I get my actually DT up and running, which could be another six weeks for all I know. I definitely underestimated how much effort the Hybrid TTM would take, but it seemed to have worked out. Despite blowing through saltwater and taking a lot of planning and time, I still liked the process. I will likely look to QT larger batches of fish at a single time though.

I've still been busy trying to make progress on lots of little things.

I haven't finished with the final touches on the rockscape. I ran out of both mortar and super glue. I've determined that using superglue to cover the sand on the joints is 10x better and easier than trying to use mortar the way BRS recommended it. So I have another order of super glue coming that I hope to finish off the rockscape with.

I finished my control board. It was a project that I was dreading for a long time. I'm not good with making sure things are level, straight, and equidistant. That level of detail always make s me mad and I never good a good job. So, I measure a few things and then just eye-balled the rest. I think it turned out OK. I'm not in love with it like I am my rockscape, but it should do for now. I will eventually be installing some soft-close cabinet joints so I can swing the control board out from the wall to get access to everything behind it.

thewalkingdad · Sep 11, 2020

I just made my first purchase off of @LiveAquaria. I've seen both good and bad reviews. I'm hoping for a positive experience.

I ordered a Neon Goby, Royal Gramma, and Zebra Barred Dartfish.

Finger's crossed all goes well!

thewalkingdad · Sep 13, 2020

The clowns seem to be doing well overall. They are eating pellet food and gut-loaded baby brine shrimp really well. It's fun tossing in a ton of baby brine shrimp and watching the clowns go crazy chasing them around and eating them. I enjoy watching feeding time. I will say though, I noticed some odd behavior today. They've been in their OT for almost a week now but I decided to put in some of my extra reef saver rock. I rinsed it all off really well and put it in the tank. Now the clowns won't even go near them. The stay near the top of the water at the back of the tank. They used to swim around the entire tank.

I decided that a few of my remaining outlets were making me too nervous. They weren't super close to water, but I decided to install bubble covers over them anyway.

Lastly, with the help of my wonderful wife, I finished my control board. We used soft-close cabinet hinges on it. We also used more than prescribed because more cabinet doors don't have a ton of equipment hanging on them. I got all of the grommets and braces from Harry's Aquatics and I highly recommend working with him.

The only problem that I've fun into thus far is that my Tunze ATO and Tunze Water Controller can't reach the spot I have o

n the control board for them. So I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about that. I'll likely just need to mount them closer to where they need to be and leave that part of the control board empty. It won't look as nice, but I need functional before I need nice looking.

thewalkingdad · Sep 19, 2020

The two clownfish will technically graduate from OT in about 3 days, which is exciting. They are still very active and eating like crazy. They show no signs of any disease and issue. The only issue I have is that I don't have a DT for them to go to yet. So they will continue to live in the OT for a while longer.

The zebra-barred dartfish seems to be doing fairly well. The first couple of days it was incredibly shy; to the point it wouldn't move at all and sometimes I thought it might be dead. I dumped in a bunch of baby brine shrimp and it seemed to eat those. It would lunge out and eat one and slink back into hiding and keep doing this for hours. I've also seen regular poop from him. He survived his first dose of GC, first H2O2 bath, and first tank transfer. Unfortunately, my neon goby didn't make it to the first tank transfer. The royal gramma also was DOA. I know LiveAquaria does its best to provide quality livestock, but for what they charge for boxes and shipping, a 2/3 death rate within the first few days is a tough pill to swallow. I think I will do my absolute most to shop local and special order through our (semi) local coral store.

As for the tank build-out, it is still progress. I've finally started to map out what equipment needs to be plugged in where. I've also tried to balance out my power consumption across my 15 amp and 20 amp circuits and 2 EB832s. I think I have it all balanced well. The most I should be drawing off of either of the circuits should be about 1000 watts (perhaps a little more). I won't know for sure until I can get some robust power monitoring with the Apex, but I should be well under the 1500 watts limit that I've placed on myself for the 15 amp circuit.

In the process of setting up all of the equipment, I've created a pretty substantial octopus of cords and cables. It is probably a considerable fire risk at the moment. Thankfully, nothing is actually plugged in or drawing power. But I do plan on getting the cords in order and more organized before anything has an electrical current running through it. I've done my best to keep ensure cords are above potential water sources, away from splashes, have drip loops, and are covered. I'm sure there are some things I can do better, but I'm ultimately trying to minimize risk. But so far, it looks like a jumbled mess.

I'm waiting on a few more extension cables before I'm going to start bundling and wrapping cords together and cleaning up my veritable cord octopus.

One of my big highlights was successfully running an aquabus cable from the room where my DT will be down through the smurf tube into the fish room and over to the Apex. It was kind of a pain that involved me bundling up some twine and duct tape and then using a vacuum to suck the little bundle down through a few 90* turns in the smurf tube to come out at the bottom. Then I tied the end of the aquabus cable to the twine and pulled it through.

thewalkingdad · Sep 30, 2020

The zebra-barred dartfish graduated QT and is comfortably enjoying the larger OT with the two clownfish. He is finally eating frozen food and I might've spotted him eating some pellets, but I'm not sure. He stays inside of his little cave 95% of the time and the only time he comes out is to eat. Pretty boring fish. I probably would've passed on him if I knew he was going to be this shy. Oh well, he's part of the fish family now.

I've been working to clean up the wires of my control board to make things safer and make them look better. It's come quite a ways, but I still don't love the cord octopus behind the control board. All of the cords are labeled, but many of the extension cords just have so much extra slack that I have to bundle up and stash somewhere. It makes me a bit nervous, but not sure what the right answer is. I also got some orange wire conduit to wrap many of the cords.

And the sad face picture

Neuratox · Oct 12, 2020

This is truly awesome! It's obvious that a lot of planning went into this. I can't wait until the day that my sump, plumbing, and electrical aren't located in the stand below the tank. You've got something special. I like the NSA you did. I recently started a new tank and took the same approach. I think you'll be super happy with how much this improves the flow and lighting!