~TJ'S 125g ~ Building of the Reef~

joekool · Jan 22, 2015

Heath he only runs the reef radiance over the frag tank. The rest of the led array over the display he built from scratch. Sorry Todd answered for you lol.

Todd glad to here everything went good with SA and the rep thing. Nice frags you picked up too. If you really didnt want to buy you would not have taken the cooler. Haha.

Anyways did a video of my tank yesterday and now I'm going to try the wife's Nikon coolpix and see if I can get some better pictures of my corals.
Talk to you soon. Just sitting around the house give me a shoot if your not busy.

TJ's Reef · Jan 22, 2015

Thanks Jackie, Devin and Andy, getting pretty jazzed about the redo now. Will be ordering up the materials today and finally settled for 60x24x30 or 187 gallons outside dims with 3/4" sides and 1/2" top/bottom.

Heath, for my Frag Tank I'm running the RR DM-155e at approx 65% Blue's and 25% White/Color to match my DIY as close as possible. Plan to swap out 3-4 RB's for 480nm Blue, replace one Red for another Violet and replace 3-4 Whites with the RB's taken out of Blue channel. This should bring it very close to my own designed layout.

Played around with my UV Flashlight on the Frag Tank and the three new Corals from GB look AMAZING with the added Violet range. Completely washed out my Cell Phone pics though so you'll will have to take my word for it or come and see for yourselves.... lol The little Deepwater Acro frags I made from the Unique Corals combo colony also really POPPED, so they will need to be placed under a Violet emitter if at all possible as well.

Cheers, Todd

heathd.hd · Jan 22, 2015

Ugh you guys and your opening things and messing around now I'm thinking about it! I was thinking about losing some white for the 480s

prsnlty · Feb 4, 2015

Hey Todd, just stopped by to see if you got your supplies in for the build yet. Hoping you'll be taking some pics along the way

Will you be starting a new thread for the new tank? (I'm assuming so... )

TJ's Reef · Feb 4, 2015

Hey Jackie, thanks for stopping by. Not much going on yet as have been busy re-fencing our yard, prepping for a road trip or three with new Rep job with Sustainable Aquatics and writing some Trade Articles as well. On a very posistive note my Corals have all mostly recovered and nearly back to their former glorious selves. All new additions look very nice and will make for some hard decisions as to which ones will make the cut and go into the new tank.

I did however go and pick up all my new acrylic material for the build and have started drawing up some plans for plumbing it.

What $700+ in acrylic looks like and my lil helper on any project she feels like assisting with... lol

Cheers, Todd

prsnlty · Feb 4, 2015

Aweeeeee what a cutie!!! Lol.

Wow, $700! Ouch! Years ago when I lived in S.A., Texas, there was a Regal Plastics right down the road from me. I used to go there all the time for one thing or another. Once I got it into my head (because I had toddlers) to replace the glass top to my table with a .75"thick 42"x72" piece of clear plexiglass. Cost me just under $60.... Those were the days....

Great news about your corals! You're going to have lots of room in the new tank for them

Right now it may not seem like it but wait until you can look at the 125 and the new one at the same time - it's a HUGE difference in size and space.

Pepcrylic · Feb 4, 2015

How do the edges look on your pre-cut material? Will you need to clean them up? Or are they ready to weld? Never seen the white paper on the Plexi-g before. Will you be using an external overflow box?

joekool · Feb 5, 2015

That was a good price. Imagine if you had a shop build it for you. Wowser

TJ's Reef · Feb 5, 2015

Dave, the edges look better than I 'd hoped for but..... I had them all cut 1/4" oversize to finish cut with router and since my Stand and Canopy will only accept exactly a 60" x 24" footprint will have to take this final step. The white is a plastic film but still the 'G' class cell-cast, forgot the details that Eric stated to it. I also have the 1/2" acrylic 48" overflow you made for Zach that I plan to modify to a 4-sided 'Ghost' style interior box with.

Joe, this was/is a great price and was Employee cost +15% through a friend in the business. There was one other piece of the paper wrapped 1/2" I already unloaded prior to pic. I will most likely be going to fabricate up a 'Ghost' style overflow system for this as seems the cleanest and for when this tank needs to be eventually moved into the Beach House will be safer than welded in versions. The last and similar dimension'd tank quote I got was over $3K so at $00.10/hour for my own labor will be a STEAL... lol

Cheers, Todd

prsnlty · Feb 5, 2015

It sounds like you really got a great deal on the materials

Haha, it just surprised me as I haven't purchased plexiglass in sooooo many years. Also back then it wasn't so popular. I could only imagine what my stepdads 300g is worth today....

I love the ghost overflows! Your tank is undoubtedly going to be beautiful

TJ's Reef · Feb 6, 2015

I think that I scored a sweet box full of Tonga Branch with trade for some of my coral frags. This will hopefully allow me to create some interesting and different aquscape, something I have pictured in my head well but will have to see if all the pieces will work as intended. Also found a GOOD home for my Blochii Tang, will be a little sad to see him go but knowing he's in good hands in a much larger system and will be able to visit occasionally is pretty cool.

I was able to finish off the needed fence repair today as well in between rain showers and will start in on the tank fabrication next week barring any other priorities. So hopefully will be snowing acrylic in my shop sometime soon.

Cheers, Todd

prsnlty · Feb 6, 2015

All fabulous news Todd! I'm so glad that you found a home for your tang that you can visit

We do get so attached....

I can't wait to follow your tank build.... trying to be patient here lol! I'd love to see how it's made

Saltgator · Feb 6, 2015

Glad you found a home for the Blochii Todd. I'm sure your gonna have a sweet scape with the tonga branch.

joekool · Feb 8, 2015

Hey what's going on here. So in preparation for the new tank is the coral shop open for business hehe. I'm ready to buy. I'll just. Drive on over lol.

cmaxwell39 · Feb 8, 2015

Just read through the whole thread. You certainly have skills. Thank you for sharing your entire journey with us, both the good and bad, as all of us go through those "oops" moments in reefkeeping.

Can't wait to see what you do with the new build and congratulations on the new SA position. I will be following along from now on.

427HISS · Feb 9, 2015

"The last and similar dimension tank quote I got was over $3K so at $00.10/hour for my own labor will be a STEAL"
lol buddy ! :bigsmile:

Again, congrats on the new job !

TJ's Reef · Feb 19, 2015

Well...... not much to update on as have been super busy with home projects, now replacing the fence in its entirety plus the new rep job and possibly now a Regional Management position back in the Cabinet Industry... we will see what compensation is offered before jumping into this arena again. Acrylic material sits idle in shop but will be picking up some fabrication jigs from my friend Dave on Saturday and then barring no other side-lining "Honey Do's" or job outings will finish cut and ready for assembly all parts.

All Coral continue to recover well and mostly fully colored back up and encrusting over prior STN recession areas. Noticed a couple of new lil baby Banggai's in my overflow box a few days ago and certain there are more hiding within the refugium. Have hopes one day will find baby Tailspot Blennies in the fuge as they continue to spawn regularly. Need to catch back up on maintenance which I have slack off on a bit lately, though kind of like seeing the 'Smiley Faces' left on the front pane from the Blennies and Kole Tang.

A recent FTS picture just in case Josh joshporksandwic stops by to visit..... blah blah blah...blah blah *PICTURE* :bigsmile:

Cheers, Todd

427HISS · Feb 19, 2015

lol,....you're fricken NUTs buddy, blah, blah !

Too much work makes for a very boring,......TODD ! lol :tongue:

What is the huge SPS on the top right ?

TJ's Reef · Feb 19, 2015

Kevin it is my mixed Birdsnest colony about 18" in diameter, has Pink and Ponape Seriatopora hystrix, Blue/Green, Sour Apple and Bird of Paradise S. caliendrum as make up. Will be adding another Green and Sour Apple variation to it in the new redo.

Cheers, Todd