Apollo's 120 Build Thread!

Apollo1K9

Apollo1K9

New member
Well, I'm finally putting this up. These photos are from the past (almost) year, catching you up to now!










My original route with plumbing, tubing. I changed my mind on this eventually.


This was me finding out the hard way that 1" bulkhead meant 1 1/4" OD for the barb, meaning 1 1/4" ID tubing. Fail.









I figured this would make my life a lot easier down the road.

continued...
 

The first one of these (possibly the one pictured, I don't remember) fell off of the center brace and into the fuge. I came downstairs to a strong smell of saltwater and no light coming from the stand. I hadn't plugged in the power strip yet, so the light was plugged into the outlet directly behind the center brace in the back of the stand, making it nearly impossible to get out, so I tried grabbing the light by the cord (out of the water) to pull it out, and it still shocked me. I still need to invest in GFCI due to this event.


I didn't like how the right side drain was dipping into the fuge, disrupting flow.








This is where the rock finally really started to show algae growth!


I could barely see through the side anymore, lol.


This is where I finally got the right side drain out of the fuge flow. Progress!


Now we have my skimmer I won in the raffle at MACNA... a Bashsea Blu Demon 6.24! The owner, Steve, said it was rated for a heavily-stocked 220. Sick.

 

Mine is the only one that has this! Wewt.


Sicce is always a good choice.




Fun styling


I'm sensing a theme... skimmate is definitely nasty stuff, lol.


Bottom bubble plate


Yes, it has two bubble plates. I've never seen that before, anyone else?




You can definitely tell this thing was made by hand, lol. That means it got more love!

 

Plugged in and going nuts already! Look at all of those bubbles, sheesh.


Definitely have some growth in the fuge.


Finally changed out the plumbing on the drains to PVC piping instead.


Designed so I can move the tank without cutting my plumbing.




The rock is in!







 

Got a sweet archway on the right side.


Top-down, left side.


Top-down, right side.


Decided I wanted to support the right-side drain.


One of the Mags was being a little loud, so I got some rubber bushings to put on the bottom to dampen the noise. Seems to be working quite well! It is attached with 100% silicone, designed for auto & marine.

Well, that's current! I'll take pictures when it gets filled up!

Any questions/comments/concerns/suggestions? I'm all ears!

I have all of the fittings and pipe to hard plumb my returns too, I'm just waiting on the threaded bulk heads to come in from BRS.
 
Looks to be a awesome tank. Can't wait to see it alive. That skimmer looks
kick A**.:)

What are you doing for lighting?

Get your tank ground faulted before someone gets nailed:eek1:
 
I think I have the same sump that you do, so I was wondering what section of your sump you have your skimmer in? It looks like the section that's normally big enough for a skimmer was/is all refugium?
 
dbuesking said:
Looks to be a awesome tank. Can't wait to see it alive. That skimmer looks
kick A**.

What are you doing for lighting?

Get your tank ground faulted before someone gets nailed:eek1:
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'm pretty stoked about it too, lol.

As of right now, I am considering going with metal halide retro and LEDs for actinics, so I only have to replace the MH lamps. I'm specifically going to go with 2x ReefBrite Twin-Arc 250w 10k/20k. Premium carries them now, but Seascape will be picking them up soon.

Also, agreed. I need to upgrade the circuit the tank is on too when I put the GFCI on.

jjwill_sdsu said:
I think I have the same sump that you do, so I was wondering what section of your sump you have your skimmer in? It looks like the section that's normally big enough for a skimmer was/is all refugium?
Click to expand...

I have mine set up for skimmer -> fuge -> filter pad -> return. Hope this helps!

Side note, I realized I forgot to thank the person from whom I got the bushings. Thanks to dano83 for those!
 
Last edited:
Nice rock :) I'm guessing you already have but have you called all the LFS and asked if they have one of the bulkheads you need?? It's worth a shot. If not, can you used slip/slip and then adapt fittings from hd or lowes?
 
Apollo1K9 said:
Annoying news... BRS called me today to tell me that the bulkheads I ordered on Sunday are actually on backorder. I'm having a hard time finding them anywhere else. I need the ones that are like this: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/3-4-abs-bulkhead-slip-x-thread-slip-on-the-flange-head-side.html
Premium has some but I can't tell for sure if they are the right ones, or if they are threaded on both sides. Anyone have any insight?
Click to expand...

http://www.glass-holes.com/main.sc

Im sure they have what your looking for
 
dano83 said:
Nice rock :) I'm guessing you already have but have you called all the LFS and asked if they have one of the bulkheads you need?? It's worth a shot. If not, can you used slip/slip and then adapt fittings from hd or lowes?
Click to expand...

Thanks! I checked with Saltwater Island today, they don't have them. I'll have to call Seascape and Gateway tomorrow. Premium doesn't carry them either. Apparently I'm nuts for wanting slip x thread bulkheads. The whole point of those is so I can completely disassemble the tank and save space in the stand with concise plumbing. Perhaps I'm being too picky, but it is definitely what I want!
 
Quick update! The tank is now full of water and is cycling! :dance:

I'll post some pictures ASAP. I used the Prodibio START UP, which claims to cycle a tank in 12 hours. I'll be checking my parameters tomorrow, and if everything looks good, I'll be putting it to the test with 2x Pterapogon kauderni (Banggai Cardinals) at that point!

So, I'm offering myself as the guinea pig here for the Club, since I haven't seen anyone use this kind of additive that claims to cycle quickly. Let's hope this stuff works!
 
FINALLY! :dance:

Time for an update. I have been very patient, and now things are starting to roll so I figured I should get this updated.



Tank ALMOST full, complete with my ghetto rigged lighting... (2x 120w flood lights and 2x Marineland Submersible Actinic LED




Time to hard plumb the returns!




Other side




For future expansion!




Second tee for additional expansion... one tee off of each return.




Plumbing complete!




With sump light, this time.




One more bucket should do it... here's the point of no return! (I had no way of leak testing for the return, so it was a hold-your-breath kind of moment.)




It liiiiiiiivves!!!
 


This stuff is fantastic. I'm so glad I used it!




It comes in individual vacuum-sealed vials, pretty neat.




It works! I got these two 72 hours after I started the tank. The smaller one died, but the larger one is still with me to this day!




Finally got Chad's old halides put up, I was starting to have some algae issues, but the halides eliminated that issue quite quickly, which I'm perfectly okay with!



More recent photo, after I had transferred my Cinnamon Clown and 3x RBTAs from my old 20gal and had added a Filamented Flasher Wrasse.



Midas Blenny and Potter's Wrasse... the Potter's didn't make it past 48 hours, thanks to Mark at Saltwater Island for working with me on this one.


LET THE CORALS BEGIN!!!
(All of these next corals were picked up at the Frag Swap)






 


My personal favorite, Jedi Mind Trick!




FTS after adding the corals.




Finally picked up a RO/DI unit from BRS. 75 GPD RO/DI 5 Stage Standard System




I also picked up a glycerin-filled pressure gauge, an auto-shut off kit, and a membrane flush kit. These seem to be the most important accessories. I'll pick up a handheld TDS meter soon.




Unboxed! It looks so shiny and new, lol.




Now, to get those screens on the top of the tank...




Tools required for actually putting the screen in. The part shown is just normal 5/16" window screen frame and corner brackets. I personally just used a hacksaw with a fine-toothed blade. You'll also need spline to hold the screen in place, and the screen I found works the best is the stuff that BRS sells here. There's also an instructional video on how to do it on the page.




No fiberglass that can become brittle, and no egg crate that blocks a lot of light!
 


I had photos of the process of sanding the frames down and painting them with Krylon Rust Tough Semi-Flat Black. However, apparently my phone is holding a grudge against those photos, so they're nowhere to be seen. Here they are installed!

DIVER'S DEN ORDER!!!



Caribbean Porcelain Crab




Pederson's Cleaner Shrimp (Periclimenes pedersoni)




Blue Spot Radiating Urchin (Astropyga radiata)

This thing is absolutely sick. This was the first one I had ever seen, and it happened to go up the day I was placing an order anyway. They have only listed one additional specimen since then, and looking around online yields little results, so this thing seems to be pretty rare!



Free in the tank...




Most recent FTS... there we go, I'm all caught up! :bounce3::bounce2:
 
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