Zonly1's 210 Gallon Playground

[Mini Coop]

Thank you, I was pretty impressed. When I first looked at the box it was punctured and I thought, oh no, but it came out fine! I hear you on rock time, lol. All of my other rock is still packed up...guess it's time to pull it out and see what I've got!

Get at it.

 

[Zonly1]

Okay, time for an update! Got the bracing done and the electrical. Wow, I've never been so slow with a build, but slow and steady wins the race I guess. I have decided to plug the original 1" reef ready holes on the bottom of the tank, remove the overflows and then drill new holes in the back of the tank and utilize a quasi C2C. Right now I have purchased 1.25" spaflex and all of the fittings. I think I'll be fine with 1.25" with a ReeFlow Dart/Snapper with 11' of head pressure, but I'm open for constructive criticism.

Here are my preliminary plans:

Thanks for looking!

 

[Radman73]

Smart move on plugging the built-in overflows IMO. I plugged mine and don’t regret it one bit.

Won’t lie though, very stressful drilling those holes in the back [emoji3].

 

[Zonly1]

Thank you...Same for sure! I'll have less nails that what i have now...and probably hair as well!

 

[Zonly1]

So, I know it has been awhile, so time for an update.

I ended up going with the synergy 16" overflow, so it saved me a hole. Drilled 4 holes, 2 1.5" drains and 2 1" returns. Thank you to my nephew for sharing the stress of drilling glass...never attempted this before.

Who needs a truck?!

Mixing station (not plumed yet)

Only way to go.

Dry fitting the plumbing

So, I decided to cap all of the original bottom drains except for 1 for tank draining. Made it so that it could be undone if needed

Here is one installed

Wet test passed. Here it shows that I have two pipes uncapped, decided only to do one. This is plumbed directly to the house plumbing. I can drain the entire tank in about 10 mins. Love it

Here is tying into my existing plumbing:

All plumbed

Drilling holes for the plumbing coming down from the main DT

Holy mess! This is Medusa

So, here is the sump hooked up, but then I found an epic failure! The bad-done pump I bought was not so bad-done. I mis-calculated and it maxed out at 12' of head pressure. I have about 11'. So frustrating when you know it is your fault. So, ordered another pump; Reeflo Suntail.

While waiting for the new pump, a buddy of mine offered to let me use his Barracuda. What a monster!

Decided to change this up a bit. Bought a shelving unit from Costco, this is going to work better! I also drilled and bulkheaded the bottom of the sump in case I need to drain it. I've already changed my mind on the 40 gal on top. I'm going to go with an acrylic 55 and use the 40 gal for a acclimation tank.

Needed to enlarge for my drains. I went with 1.5 for the main, 1.25 for the secondary and the emergency.

All leveled up!

Fill 'er up

So, got the SunTail installed and everything was going great other than the awful toilet flushing noise coming from the Shadow Box, which was expected. What was not expected was that when I started trying to dial it in, I discovered a leak coming from the main drain! Long story short, the shadow box was cracked. I contacted Synergy Reef and they were kind enough to send me a replacement. Even though it is leaking, I got it pretty much dialed in, but will be messing with it again when the new box comes. Pretty happy at this point.

I'll be posting some more later, but thanks for watching!

Tank info so far:
21o Gallon tank, custom drilled
Basement Sump
Synergy Reef 16" overflow
Apex Fusion
2 VorTech MP40 QD
AquaMaxx ConeS Q-3

 

[Zonly1]

Forgot to add this. This is not aquascaped yet.

 

[Zonly1]

So I decided to go with the fishless cycle using Fritz 900. I'm using Ace Janitorial Ammonia as my ammonia source. Playing with my 20 Gallon QT tank, I found that 1ml per 10 gallons would get me to my target of 3-4 ppm of ammonia.

View attachment 20180920_185420.jpg

So, after dosing the ammonia, shook up the Fritz and away we went! (I actually dosed a little more ammonia after this picture was taken.)

Reading the bottle states that the tank will be cloudy and have an "earthy smell". Umm, earthy? No, smelled like poo. At least their cloudy description was accurate. Oh, just in case you wanna try this...turn off your skimmer, ozone, UV, and remove your filter socks! Also, raise your temp to at least 80 degrees.

After 24 hours, I tested the Ammonia and Nitrites. Prior to dosing, they were both 0. Now my ammonia is ~3 ppm and my nitrites are ~2 ppm. It's working! Not worried about nitrates yet. I'll keep y'all posted, but very excited at this point.

 

[Zonly1]

Things are still progressing. Day 3, ammonia is now at .25 and nitrites are now at 1.0! No dosing tonight, but happy for all of the activity of my biological filtration getting set up. Hoping for 0/0 tomorrow so I can do another ammonia dose. Fish addition is coming soon! Woot!

 

[Zonly1]

Day 4, ammonia 0 and nitrites .25. Dosed ammonia and hoping for 0/0 tomorrow night!

 

[Zonly1]

Playing the ever familiar game of hurry up and wait. I have to get into my Zen space. Oh, so close, but no. Tonight was another 0 ammonia but .5 of nitrites. Oh, well, cannot rush a good thing. Dosed again tonight and we will patiently await Zen...0/0...bring it!

 

[Zonly1]

See above. Cycle is going, but slow going.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Great build @Zonly1. Be patience with the cycling, mine took 3 weeks. Check your Nitrates and if Ammonia/Nitrite are 0, just do a 10% water change and probably you good to go. Don't add more ammonia. You can add a little more of bacteria.

 

[Zonly1]

Thank you @spyder813 . Yes, my ammonia is sitting at 0, but my nitrites are ~.25. I keep doing a minimum dose of ~ 1 tbsp of ammonia every night. I decided to skip last night and checked the ammonia and nitrites again this morning and still sitting at the same reading as last night. I went ahead and did another tbsp this morning. I know it is working since the ammonia continues to be 0, but I find the nitrites interesting. Nitrates are almost off the charts: ~100 ppm. I kicked on my skimmer (previously had it off) Do you still suggest that I stop dosing?

 

[Ruben's Reef]

@Zonly1 Are you using API test kit? I use API for ammonia but Salifert for Nitrites and Nitrates, way better and accurate reading.

 

[Zonly1]

@Zonly1 Are you using API test kit? I use API for ammonia but Salifert for Nitrites and Nitrates, way better and accurate reading.

I'm so anal, I use both, haha. I only use Salifert for Nitrates though.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Thank you @spyder813 . Yes, my ammonia is sitting at 0, but my nitrites are ~.25. I keep doing a minimum dose of ~ 1 tbsp of ammonia every night. I decided to skip last night and checked the ammonia and nitrites again this morning and still sitting at the same reading as last night. I went ahead and did another tbsp this morning. I know it is working since the ammonia continues to be 0, but I find the nitrites interesting. Nitrates are almost off the charts: ~100 ppm. I kicked on my skimmer (previously had it off) Do you still suggest that I stop dosing?

I forgot, yes, stop dosing ammonia so the bacteria can grow and work on it. Also you can add Seachem Stability and will help to grow the bacteria.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

I'm so anal, I use both, haha. I only use Salifert for Nitrates though.

LOL. I had the same problem went I was cycling my tank and some other members recommend me Salifert and everything was good.

 

[Zonly1]

LOL. I had the same problem went I was cycling my tank and some other members recommend me Salifert and everything was good.

Okay, sweet! I actually have some Stability. I switch over to that and give it time. Thinking I should do a 10-20% water change to reduce my nitrates. Thanks for the advice.

 

[reef lover]

Cant wait to see it in action!

 

[grassy_noel]

Great build so far, I'm enjoying following along! It's pretty cool to have the opportunity to tailor your house to your aquarium...maybe I'll get there when I retire.

Two quick thoughts:

1. Any chance you can raise the top shelf of your sump stand so the skimmer isn't so close to the top? I'm just imagining that after a year of cleaning that skimmer cup you'll wish you had another 6" of clearance above it.

2. I know everyone differs on their opinions, but I don't think you need to keep adding so much ammonia. Ultimately, you're just building up a ton of nitrates that you're going to have to deal with eventually. A 20% water change is only going to drop your nitrates from 100 to 80. You'll need a lot of 20% water changes to get that down to say ~10 ppm (about ten 20% changes by my calculation). Would you consider some type of nitrate reduction method to supplement your water changes (Marinepure blocks, carbon dosing, chaetomorpha, etc.)?