Salt Creep
Active Member
Hello!
I'm going to be using this thread to document my tank as time goes by. I intended on this being a slow setup, but once I started I couldn't stop working on it the past week.
I recently became a first time homeowner so obviously the first thing I did was think of setting up my dream tank as I will finally have a spot I will be staying for quite a while
The plan is a 120 SPS dominant build with some LPS like hammers and torches for the bottom lower flow areas to add some movement to the tank. I will also have a bit of acans, favia, and other various LPS scattered around to fill in low light and flow areas.
Time to go shopping$
Marineland 120 gallon 4 x 2 x 2 tank with Majesty stand delivered
Time to drill! I taped off the top edge and had the water flowing that way to avoid getting little bits of glass stuck between the frame and the tank. Drilling two 65mm holes for the Shadow Overflow and 35mm holes for 3/4" returns.
The worst part is over...
Painted the back with a flat black latex paint and a roller with a sponge to get near the rims. Painted tank with the stand and sump
Getting the plumbing out of the way. The overflow box is a Shadow Overflow with a bean animal style drain. I'm leaving the return open to changes in the future with just a silicone hose for now. I might get a Cor20 and make a manifold, but for now I just have a cheap return pump I had laying around to get it started. the return nozzles are 2 of the random flow generators. After running the return I have it is clear I am going to need to push more flow through them to get the most out of it, but they are still doing a fairly good job at least circulating the water.
Focusing on the lighting and starting the water. RO/DI is essential! I took two 4 stage units I had and made it into a 7 stage 150GPD RO/DI system. Still haven't figured out what I'm going to do about a storage container so filling everything manually for now. From the tap I am getting 60psi and with the booster pump a good 90psi. For lighting I am going with the Aquaticlife T5/LED hybrid. I have 2 blue+, one coral+, and one actinic bulb in for now. I am going to be putting 2 AI primes in the middle to start with and have plans to add 2 more as the tank fills in for more even coverage and less shadowing. I hung these with some anchored hooks drilled into the ceiling that is rated for 70lbs.
While the tank was filling up I started working on my panel for the electrical components. I want to make sure everything has a drip loop and a pretty difficult time getting wet. I am just using a black board that is actually a chalkboard on wood. I am planning to add some framing (with a few spots for cord clusters to exit out the side) so I can permanently mount it on my wall with enough space away from the wall for cords to comfortably sit. I have a tablet I will be mounting to this as well for a display.
My sump is a 40 breeder DIY sump. The first section is going to be a fuge... possibly lit with a Kessil H80 with cheato and possibly other macro and some marinepure blocks to house pods. There was a little splashing because the water level is so high in this section so I had to run to the hardware store and get a piece of plexiglass and cut it to fit as good as I could. I did not want to be dealing with salt creep all over the place so I'm hoping this will hold up for a while. It's a little flimsy so I might glue on a brace to let it rest perpendicular to the first baffle to not block the flow, but still keep it from sagging too much. Open to ideas on any of this stuff!
The second section of my sump is dedicated strictly to the skimmer. Decided to go with the Reef Octopus 200INT. I have another one of these skimmers and I've been very happy with the skimming they do. Right now it is a little lopsided because I have it on an eggcrate stand that needs a little more support. I'll be fixing that soon, but for now it is good enough for the break-in period.
And here is the tank today. I used special grade dry sand and will be seeding it with BioSpira. Also had some Reef Saver rock laying around to throw in there to get it started, but will be adding about 70lbs of possibly Walt Smith Project Reef Rock, still undecided on that. My original plan was to use Pukani with Tonga Shelf and put together a bonsai style aquascape for maximum flow, but I'm starting to get a little impatient with waiting for that rock to come back to us with the recent ban. Might just go with a 2 large island setup with a couple smaller mounds here and there for coral I need to isolate. Either way I plan on having a lot of ins and outs for fish to swim through and not just a pile of rock. Guess I'll see how patient I can be with that. I will also be moving most the rock I have in the biocube shown in some of these pics over to the 120 when I am ready to transfer the fish.
And here is the setup so far. The 120 is going to be the main display and the 29 Biocube is going to be a QT tank. I am going to leave some rock in there as I am just going to use it as an observation tank for both new fish and new coral. I am going to be using the bottom shelf in the stand of the Biocube to put a cube tank that will fit in there with just a couple PVC fittings for hiding spots and a HOB filter for water movement and gas exchange and that is it. I plan on using this tank in the event I need to medicate a fish. Thinking it would be best to have them in a darker place to minimize stress. This will be my first time running a full QT/hospital tank setup so definitely open to suggestions on that.
Well, that's what I have so far. Started this a week ago and I'd say I'm a little more than half done with the build. The two black spots on the back wall of the tank are the Neptune Wav pumps I am running at an inverse pulse of 6 seconds each at 60%. The only thing I don't like about this is the pulse is a square wave and I wish it was more of a sine wave to ramp up and ramp down slower between the 6 seconds. I have them pointed toward the front glass and slightly upward, which seems like a good position for now, but hard to tell without having the aquascape ready. I put some frozen food in there yesterday to decompose and start the cycle and used that to quickly try to get an idea of the different flow patterns these offer. I definitely want to change it up during the day to provide some randomness, but still have some research to do on that. My end goal with all this is to have certain patterns override the auto programming when events like a storm comes in on the AI lights, or change intensity during certain moon cycles... if all that is possible.
Thanks for taking the time to read and if there are any comments/suggestions feel free to let me know
Happy reefing!
I'm going to be using this thread to document my tank as time goes by. I intended on this being a slow setup, but once I started I couldn't stop working on it the past week.
I recently became a first time homeowner so obviously the first thing I did was think of setting up my dream tank as I will finally have a spot I will be staying for quite a while
The plan is a 120 SPS dominant build with some LPS like hammers and torches for the bottom lower flow areas to add some movement to the tank. I will also have a bit of acans, favia, and other various LPS scattered around to fill in low light and flow areas.Time to go shopping$
Marineland 120 gallon 4 x 2 x 2 tank with Majesty stand delivered
Time to drill! I taped off the top edge and had the water flowing that way to avoid getting little bits of glass stuck between the frame and the tank. Drilling two 65mm holes for the Shadow Overflow and 35mm holes for 3/4" returns.
The worst part is over...
Painted the back with a flat black latex paint and a roller with a sponge to get near the rims. Painted tank with the stand and sump
Getting the plumbing out of the way. The overflow box is a Shadow Overflow with a bean animal style drain. I'm leaving the return open to changes in the future with just a silicone hose for now. I might get a Cor20 and make a manifold, but for now I just have a cheap return pump I had laying around to get it started. the return nozzles are 2 of the random flow generators. After running the return I have it is clear I am going to need to push more flow through them to get the most out of it, but they are still doing a fairly good job at least circulating the water.
Focusing on the lighting and starting the water. RO/DI is essential! I took two 4 stage units I had and made it into a 7 stage 150GPD RO/DI system. Still haven't figured out what I'm going to do about a storage container so filling everything manually for now. From the tap I am getting 60psi and with the booster pump a good 90psi. For lighting I am going with the Aquaticlife T5/LED hybrid. I have 2 blue+, one coral+, and one actinic bulb in for now. I am going to be putting 2 AI primes in the middle to start with and have plans to add 2 more as the tank fills in for more even coverage and less shadowing. I hung these with some anchored hooks drilled into the ceiling that is rated for 70lbs.
While the tank was filling up I started working on my panel for the electrical components. I want to make sure everything has a drip loop and a pretty difficult time getting wet. I am just using a black board that is actually a chalkboard on wood. I am planning to add some framing (with a few spots for cord clusters to exit out the side) so I can permanently mount it on my wall with enough space away from the wall for cords to comfortably sit. I have a tablet I will be mounting to this as well for a display.
My sump is a 40 breeder DIY sump. The first section is going to be a fuge... possibly lit with a Kessil H80 with cheato and possibly other macro and some marinepure blocks to house pods. There was a little splashing because the water level is so high in this section so I had to run to the hardware store and get a piece of plexiglass and cut it to fit as good as I could. I did not want to be dealing with salt creep all over the place so I'm hoping this will hold up for a while. It's a little flimsy so I might glue on a brace to let it rest perpendicular to the first baffle to not block the flow, but still keep it from sagging too much. Open to ideas on any of this stuff!
The second section of my sump is dedicated strictly to the skimmer. Decided to go with the Reef Octopus 200INT. I have another one of these skimmers and I've been very happy with the skimming they do. Right now it is a little lopsided because I have it on an eggcrate stand that needs a little more support. I'll be fixing that soon, but for now it is good enough for the break-in period.
And here is the tank today. I used special grade dry sand and will be seeding it with BioSpira. Also had some Reef Saver rock laying around to throw in there to get it started, but will be adding about 70lbs of possibly Walt Smith Project Reef Rock, still undecided on that. My original plan was to use Pukani with Tonga Shelf and put together a bonsai style aquascape for maximum flow, but I'm starting to get a little impatient with waiting for that rock to come back to us with the recent ban. Might just go with a 2 large island setup with a couple smaller mounds here and there for coral I need to isolate. Either way I plan on having a lot of ins and outs for fish to swim through and not just a pile of rock. Guess I'll see how patient I can be with that. I will also be moving most the rock I have in the biocube shown in some of these pics over to the 120 when I am ready to transfer the fish.
And here is the setup so far. The 120 is going to be the main display and the 29 Biocube is going to be a QT tank. I am going to leave some rock in there as I am just going to use it as an observation tank for both new fish and new coral. I am going to be using the bottom shelf in the stand of the Biocube to put a cube tank that will fit in there with just a couple PVC fittings for hiding spots and a HOB filter for water movement and gas exchange and that is it. I plan on using this tank in the event I need to medicate a fish. Thinking it would be best to have them in a darker place to minimize stress. This will be my first time running a full QT/hospital tank setup so definitely open to suggestions on that.
Well, that's what I have so far. Started this a week ago and I'd say I'm a little more than half done with the build. The two black spots on the back wall of the tank are the Neptune Wav pumps I am running at an inverse pulse of 6 seconds each at 60%. The only thing I don't like about this is the pulse is a square wave and I wish it was more of a sine wave to ramp up and ramp down slower between the 6 seconds. I have them pointed toward the front glass and slightly upward, which seems like a good position for now, but hard to tell without having the aquascape ready. I put some frozen food in there yesterday to decompose and start the cycle and used that to quickly try to get an idea of the different flow patterns these offer. I definitely want to change it up during the day to provide some randomness, but still have some research to do on that. My end goal with all this is to have certain patterns override the auto programming when events like a storm comes in on the AI lights, or change intensity during certain moon cycles... if all that is possible.
Thanks for taking the time to read and if there are any comments/suggestions feel free to let me know
Happy reefing!
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