140 Gallon DSA Build

[T Diddy]

Very cool. I've read about this foam briefly before and would love to experiment with my next tank build. Are you planning on housing a heavy coral bioload with this tank? Will you be adding additional rockwork?

Also, what is the cure time on the foam? Are there any residual phosphates or chemicals that might seep into the water? Do you rinse it at all prior to filling?

Pylos, I plan on a mixed reef with a handful or two of fish. I will add some live rock, but not much. Foam only needs a day or so to cure, unless it is too thick in certain areas. I suppose it is possible that the foam or epoxy could contaminate the tank water, but both are fish safe after fully curing. I personally did not rinse mine, just filled the tank with fresh water for a leak check. That will be drained and refilled with RO water. Just to be safe, I'll have some carbon in the sump at all times to handle potential chemical seepage.

 

[crodger]

what foam did you use, I have seen pond foam used but that looks more like the regular expanding foam.

 

[frozenreefer]

hey that is a awesome rock wall ive seen some pretty bad looking ones out there but kudos to you! can you get a few up close shots to see the texture of the wall?

 

[Lyfey]

T Diddy, Hands down the best rock/foam wall I have ever seen! That tank looks like the tanks we see in public aquariums!

Honestly, please do not add the salt to the tap water. I would take all tap water out and refill with 100% RO/DI with 000 TDS. I would let the rock / foam wall "cure" in that water for a few days with heavy water circulation. I guarentee that the TDS will change from 000 to very high during that process. You might have to drain it again and refill with RODI until you get a stable reading of 0 TDS. Thats what I would do. Your asking for algae, seriously really bad algae, if you go ahead and start with tap water or even with RO/DI if your not sure that you might be leaking TDS. Beautiful tank, would hate to see all that work covered in Hair algae for a long long long long time. just my .02c!

-Chris

 

[T Diddy]

what foam did you use, I have seen pond foam used but that looks more like the regular expanding foam.

Crodger, I did use regular foam...I know, shame on me. There are a couple of water falls I built years ago using stone and/or slate held together with regular expanding foam with no ill effects At the time it was the only foam available...there was no "fish safe" foam. Sure the color of the foam changed over the yearsto a brownish, but they are still intact. The pond foam is black which makes it much more inconspicuous (Imagine a beautiful waterfall with natural splashing sounds, rippling water, live pond plants whisping in the breeze, and a bunch of bright yellow eye sores peaking out from between the rocks. Call me stubborn, but I feel confident that the resin and aragonite, and eventually encrusting corals and algae will protect the foam from any UV damage.

hey that is a awesome rock wall ive seen some pretty bad looking ones out there but kudos to you! can you get a few up close shots to see the texture of the wall?

Thanks frozenreefer, I'll try to get some posted this weekend.

 

[T Diddy]

T Diddy, Hands down the best rock/foam wall I have ever seen! That tank looks like the tanks we see in public aquariums!

Honestly, please do not add the salt to the tap water. I would take all tap water out and refill with 100% RO/DI with 000 TDS. I would let the rock / foam wall "cure" in that water for a few days with heavy water circulation. I guarentee that the TDS will change from 000 to very high during that process. You might have to drain it again and refill with RODI until you get a stable reading of 0 TDS. Thats what I would do. Your asking for algae, seriously really bad algae, if you go ahead and start with tap water or even with RO/DI if your not sure that you might be leaking TDS. Beautiful tank, would hate to see all that work covered in Hair algae for a long long long long time. just my .02c!

-Chris

Thanks for the compliments and the input. That is exactly the plan. I'm gonna drain the tap water, and replace with RO as you mentioned with some activated carbon for a few days. I was just curious if it would be wise to get this process started even though I don't yet have a functional overflow/sump.

Thoughts?

 

[T Diddy]

hey that is a awesome rock wall ive seen some pretty bad looking ones out there but kudos to you! can you get a few up close shots to see the texture of the wall?

thanks frozenreefer, The pic is terrible, but my lights are not yet mounted...

 

[T Diddy]

Quick Update

Quick Update

...waiting to get the sink plumbed up to drain tap water and refill with RO. Tank is a little cloudy, but the only water movement is due to the powerheads in the wall. I picked up a Supreme HY-DRIVE pump rated at 1600 GPH. What impressed me was that the flow rate at 5' head is 1400 GPH. The Mag 18 I was considering was rated for 1100 or so I think.

 

[T Diddy]

Here is a full tank shot. Lighting is provided by (2) 400 watt 10,000K reeflux radiums:

 

[Lyfey]

Nice! Did you see any TDS issues or p04 from the foam wall?

 

[T Diddy]

Nice! Did you see any TDS issues or p04 from the foam wall?

I did drain it as we discussed, twice. Tank was refilled with RO water. I thought I was in good shape. I tested TDS again and showed ~20. As it turns out, ~20 is what is coming straight from the RO unit! I suppose I should replace the carbon and DI media.

 

[Lyfey]

I replaced all my filters and the membrain and after running it for 20-30 minutes, my TDS out of the membrain before the DI is 002.. thats with the TDS of the incoming water in between 380-420.

You might need a new membrain.. Before I replaced it was around 025.

-Chris

 

[T Diddy]

My critters so far include the banghai cardinals, a solarensis wrasse, and a christmas wrasse. I also added a few snails and crabs, as well as a monti that didn't look so hot at the LFS.

 

[T Diddy]

Quick Update

Quick Update

Everything is coated in a light dusting of my first bloom. I'll be adding more snails and crabs over the weekend. Also plan on upgrading to a real live sump instead of my rubbermaid tub...micro bubbles suck.

 

[masharp1126]

Nice rock/foam wall. As mentioned before, one of the nicest ones on RC. I think with more rock, there is more texture and depth to the wall, making it so much more realistic. I did mine a couple of months ago and it looks a lot like yours. Mine is an in-wall plywood tank, so I ended up doing the back and both side walls. Looks good, I'll have to update my build thread sometime this year.

Let's see some updates. Did you use the sugar fine sand? Any issues with your flow volume kicking up the sand or creating bare spots?

 

[Highlandjedi]

+1 on updates
I cant wait to see how its doing

 

[Frogmanx82]

I think you should have waited on the wrasses until you had a pod population, three bangaii cardinals will hopefully end up in a breeding pair. They are notorious though for being tough to feed.

Everything seems well planned on this but your fish selections seem to have jumped the gun. Your first coral is an SPS that wasn't doing well? It might be a good idea to post your stocking plans and get a little feedback.

 

[T Diddy]

I think you should have waited on the wrasses until you had a pod population, three bangaii cardinals will hopefully end up in a breeding pair. They are notorious though for being tough to feed.

Everything seems well planned on this but your fish selections seem to have jumped the gun. Your first coral is an SPS that wasn't doing well? It might be a good idea to post your stocking plans and get a little feedback.

I appreciate your concern frogman, and perhaps I have jumped the gun a little. I'm hoping that my experience over the years has led me to a happy place with this tank. As soon as the diatom bloom started, I added a full bottle of tigger pods...they have exploded in population. You could probably find a thousand of them on the glass alone. The wrasses were both doing great until yesterday, when the most beautiful wrasse I have ever seen/owned found his way into my powerhead housing in the rockwall. Now I am left with the christmas wrasse (piglet). All of the cardinals died within 24 hours of each other...they never would eat. They have been replaced with 3 firefish gobies. As for the original SPS (montipora denae??) it receded back to a little nub. Everything is going better than expected in terms of water quality and overall tank health. I'll post some pics later today when the lights come on



Tank parameters:

SG = 1.026
pH = 8.2
Ammonia = undetectable
Nitrites = undetectable
Nitrates = undetectable
Alk = 9
Ca = 400

 

[T Diddy]

So here are a few pics of the tank as of today...don't ask why I have so much livestock in a short period of time...it's a long story. Some of these pics were taken with flash, some without, but all under 10,000K MH, no actinics, by a horrible camera operator (me)

My fish:

My corals:

 

[T Diddy]

a few more pics

a few more pics

porites w/ lots of worms...they disappeared for the picture

blue zoanthids

full tank shot

different angle view