120 Gallon Setup Has Begun

[marino420td]

I bought my Rubbermaid Sump at a local farm store called Tractor Supply Company. Most farm or feed stores carry them and they are fairly inexpensive. I only paid $59 for this 100 gallon one.

 

[Cuby2k]

Great, thanks for the reply.

 

[marino420td]

I added a lawnmower blenny and a cleaner shrimp to the tank. I'll get pics of the new additions up later. The tank has cleared but I'm still fighting micro bubbles coming from the sump.

 

[marino420td]

First Frags In Tank Today!

First Frags In Tank Today!

I decided to trim some of my sps and put the frags into my new tank today.

Purple Rim Cap

Pink Milli

Green Milli

Orange Cap

Green Slimer

 

[marino420td]

Monti

End View

Front View

 

[STEELERFAN747]

Hey Marino. Just wanted to let you know I have purchased the moldings and soon will be underway with the construction of the stand and lid. I would have let you know sooner but was preparing for Ernesto. (turned out to be a dud, Thank God)

Also, wood must be cheap in your neck of the woods. I have onlypurchased the moldings and I'm already at $150.

I will let you know how the process goes. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[STEELERFAN747]

Hey. I just noticed your tank doesnt have a center brace. Do you know if it was custome made?

 

[marino420td]

The tank was custom made by a company called Ocea. I think they were in Florida somewhere but they are no longer in business as I understand.

The material costs do add up when building a nice piece like this. But it is worth it.

 

[PatrickJ]

yours is coming along like mine. I still got a few things to do to it, but I got coral and stuff in it now.

 

[STEELERFAN747]

Hey Marino, you mentioned in your other thread that you were worried about the weight of the canopy. About how much did it end up weighing?

 

[marino420td]

I'm not sure of the weight but it is heavy. I would guess around 70-80 lbs.

 

[STEELERFAN747]

Are you still worried about the weight? and do you wish you would have designed some support columns into your design (atleast in the back to aleviate or support some of the weight?)

 

[marino420td]

I'm not worried about it. I wanted the canopy to be removeable for tank maintenance so this worked out. I don't think the glass will have any problem supporting this long term.

 

[marino420td]

Changed about 30 gallons of water today. I'm fighting an algae outbreak.

What kind of algae is this?

I siphoned out what I could. I think I need to hurry and get my closed loop going to get more flow into the tank. That is on the agenda for tomorrow.

I also changed the aquascaping on the left side. I removed about 1/4 of the rocks and reworked it into this shape. I really like the way this looks so it should be permanent.

There is a lot of open space in the middle, which I really like.

 

[marino420td]

I am also fighting micro bubbles in the tank so I decided to try something different. Instead of the water overflowing the salt bucket into the sump, I drilled holes in the bottom of one side of the bucket for the water to exit into the sump. The idea is that any micro bubbles will rise to the top while water exits at the bottom. We'll soon see if this works.

 

[drummereef]

Your stand and tank are seriously a work of art. Norm Abram would be proud! :thumbsup:

 

[marino420td]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8079607#post8079607 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by drummereef
Your stand and tank are seriously a work of art. Norm Abram would be proud! :thumbsup:

Thanks but I can only dream of making furniture as nice as Norm.

Still working on the closed loop system. I hope to have it in place and operating this evening.

Here is one item I added. I am always in need of paper towels around my tank so I added a roll to the inside of a door.

I bought a small wire spice rack to hang inside the other door to hold food canisters.

I also received my large clean up crew order from Reeftopia today. Packaged very well and delivered right on time.

floating the bags in the sump

It's kind of weird getting livestock shipped with no water in the bag (Astrea Snails).

 

[marino420td]

Here are some pics of the livestock in the tank.

100 blue leg hermits

12 small nassarrius

25 Ceriths

100 Astreas. I'm using the handle on a Kent scraper to flip these upright

4 emerald craps. Here are two of them already eating some small bubble algae I had in the tank. This is what I wanted to see as I have never had any luck with these guys eating bubble algae.

Full tank shot

Now I should be able to keep this thing clean!

 

[tony13]

Just caught this thread and read thru the whole thing. Everything looks great. I saw your bubble tower idea and said there's the answer to my micro bubble problem, but I guess not. I ended up raising the water level in the sump as high as I dared and sticking the overflow pipe in a 5 gallon bucket. While this has eliminated most of the problem it's not where I want it. I'm curious to see if the hole in the bucket design works, keep us informed on the progress.

 

[marino420td]

The bucket idea has helped with micro bubbles but I'm getting a surface scum build up in my sump. I 'm going to need to point a powerhead at the surface for agitation until I can figure something else out.