144 Gallon Half-Cylinder Build

[jjwill_sdsu]

So it's been about 2 1/2 or 3 months since I bought this setup used.. but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel (or perhaps it's the light at the beginning of the tunnel), so it's time to start a build thread! The tank is plumbed, aquascaped, cycled, and I've finally started transferring inhabitants over from my 72 gallon bowfront.

The setup came with an ASM-G4 skimmer, 48" Coralife Aqualight Pro (2x150W MH, 2x96W Actinic PC, 4 moonlights), an acrylic sump, and I'm guessing about 200 lbs or more of live rock. It also came with an assortment of fish... some which didn't make the transition period or I sold because they would have simply been too big and disturbed the harmony of my 72 gallon, but I'm down to a pair of percula clowns (possibly mated or they just get along well) and a 6 or 7" pink-tail trigger.

So first dilemma, the original sump (from Marine Solutions I'm guessing) didn't fit in the stand. Of course, I didn't find this out until we got everything home since the owner had it plumbed to another room. Anyway, after searching for a new sump for a few weeks, I eventually ended up buying the same style sump in a smaller model (~40 gallons) from Marine Solutions.

Then began the process of designing my plumbing (I think I took a lot of my ideas from logiktest's build thread) and finding a return pump. I ended up buying a used (but never actually used) Mag-18. I plumbed in three outlet valves so I can run a carbon/GFO reactor, water changes, etc. in the future.

So here are some pics to get you up to date:

Start of the water filling (with the dogs anxiously waiting...)

Full of water, and a few live rocks randomly thrown in:

Sump up and running:

More pics to come in a second...

 

[Im Lon 2]

Looks good so far..

 

[glnkng]

love it. keep the pics coming!!

 

[logiktest]

Looks good! Your plumbing appears to be well thought out and organized.

It's difficult to tell from the pictures, but are you using any insulation between the pump and sump? If not, and you notice any vibration from the pump, you may want to place a piece of rubber (or silicone) mat beneath it to quell the noise.

What are your plans for this tank, Fish Only, Mixed Reef, all SPS?

Half cylinder tanks are very cool. Cant wait to see more!

 

[jjwill_sdsu]

Now on to the aquascaping. I considered getting some acrylic rods or smaller diameter PVC, but I went with fiberglass driveway markers from Lowe's for support instead. Not the sturdiest supports out of the water, but once the structures are in the water they seem to do just fine. Tied the base rocks down to eggcrate with zip ties (which will hopefully be covered by sand/other rocks eventually). I made 3 pillars and then one arch to start with.

First three pillars in the water:

Added the arch on the right and a little stand-alone (no fiberglass support rods) on the left:

Moon lights on (with sump chaeto light on... apparently black glass doors aren't completely opaque):

Finally a few corals and a few clownfish to test everything out:

Picture of the 250+ gallons of saltwater in our kitchen... which my wife would like to reduce once the new tank is up and running

 

[jjwill_sdsu]

Looks good! Your plumbing appears to be well thought out and organized.

Thanks! I didn't happen to show all of the extra and failed pieces of plumbing parts from Lowe's that I've accumulated over the past couple of months

It's difficult to tell from the pictures, but are you using any insulation between the pump and sump? If not, and you notice any vibration from the pump, you may want to place a piece of rubber (or silicone) mat beneath it to quell the noise.

I attached the foam mat that came with the mag drive and haven't noticed too much noise from it so far *crossing my fingers*

What are your plans for this tank, Fish Only, Mixed Reef, all SPS?

Going to stick with the mixed reef. I had some success with monti's but struggled with other SPS in the 72 gallon. Now that I'm more experienced and hopefully have this one started off on the right foot, I'm hoping to expand my SPS experience a little bit, though.

 

[glnkng]

don't let her win!!! Keep them both up and going!

 

[spooda420]

LEDs look nice, i think. like the tower look....

 

[jjwill_sdsu]

don't let her win!!! Keep them both up and going!

Technically, I think it was part of the agreement before I bought the new tank. However, I could try and convince her that it's necessary to have a 72 gallon quarantine tank right next to the show tank...

LEDs look nice, i think. like the tower look....

I've noticed that too. It seems like the 4 moonlight LED's on the big tank outperform all 18 of the LED's on my SunPod for the 72 gallon right now. Could be the lenses I guess.

 

[jjwill_sdsu]

So I have a preference question for everyone. I'm still debating which lights are going to end up on the new tank. I've had the 48" Current USA SunPod on my 72 gallon tank to date - 2x250W with white and blue moonlight LED's. I just replaced the bulbs with Phoenix 14k's. The Coralife fixture has 2x150W with 10k bulbs. It also two 96W PC fixtures, but I don't even have those on yet since I think the bulbs burned out. Any suggestions on which to keep on the big tank. I'm actually getting used to the yellower tint of the 10k's now, but I'm not sure if I'd like the 14 k's color and higher wattage of the other fixture better.

SunPod:
Pros - Higher Wattage, "bluer" color
Cons - No possibility of actinic supplementation, LED's not as bright

Aqualight Pro:
Pros - PC supplementation, brighter LED's
Cons - Less power, not sure if it will be enough for all SPS, ballasts get much hotter than SunPod ballasts (no fans on the ballasts)

Any suggestions?

 

[roneil]

Moon lights on (with sump chaeto light on... apparently black glass doors aren't completely opaque):

i had a 46 gallon bowfront with stainless stand that had tinted doors and had the same issue as they use to show the cheato light so i painted the doors from inside with krylon fusion and it looked pretty good.

 

[Nanook]

Tank looks nice!

 

[panaboy95]

looks great i love those round tanks.

 

[michealprater]

Tons of potential. Looking forward to it!

 

[jjwill_sdsu]

Well, I got the rest of the fish and coral transferred Monday night. Of course, the other clownfish and pink tail trigger I could have practically picked them out with my bare hands, while my blue tang, flame angel, and six-line took about two hours to catch. Everyone is happy and thriving in the big tank now, so I'm glad nobody got too stressed out.

And while I was moving some corals around, my pink tail decided to bite my thumb again... that sucker bites hard! (He's drawn blood once or twice before). If I put my whole arm in the tank, he leaves me alone. But if I just have a finger or something in the water, he assumes it's food for him.

Anyway, it looks like the transition went smoothly aside from a few personal injuries I have pictures of the whole crew, but I just have to upload them to photobucket. I'll also have to try my other set of lights (the 2x250W MH) and see how I like it.

 

[SaltwaterChris]

Cool looking tank keep the pics coming. What is the dim on the tank?

 

[jjwill_sdsu]

Okay, rather than try and capture the essence of the tank from 30 different angles, I decided to just shoot a video and post it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfC0_p49Imo

I had just fed them at this point, so they might be slightly more active than normal, but not much. It's surely an active tank.

As far as the dimensions of the tank, it is about 57.5" wide x 29" tall x 29" deep. I still have to try my other lights on it to see how it looks, but hopefully tomorrow I'll get some time to do a quick test swap.

 

[jjwill_sdsu]

Just switched the lights this morning to 2x250W MH (14k Phoenix's), so I'll see how I like them tonight and will probably post some pictures to get your opinions. I can already tell that the12 LED moonlights on my SunPod still aren't as bright as the 4 on the Coralife I have had on there to date, so I would probably end up adding some moonlights if I went with the SunPod.

 

[jjwill_sdsu]

Okay, so a few still pics of the tank with all the fish and corals transferred. First, with the Coralife 2x150W 10K's:

And the tank with my Current SunPod 2x250W 14K's (Phoenix):

I might have been playing with the camera settings on the last picture or so, so it might appear a little darker. But what do you think about the light intensity/color difference? The Coralife might sit a little bit higher off the tank, so it might not produce as many shadows? Any opinions on which light I should stick with are welcome...

 

[smoothdog]

Looks good! Color is always a personal preference so go with what looks good to you since this is your tank. That being said I run the 14k Phoenix bulbs too since I like the color and par they produce. I would stick with the 250 watters though since they will give you more placement options deeper in the tank since it is taller than the old one. You can always change bulbs later if you decide you don't like the color. You might want to try to figure out how to raise the fixture a bit though to help reduce the hot spots and get a little more spread.