Asonitez's 180ish I think Dream Build

[asonitez]

Remember those cracked bulkheads? Well a quick overflow water test revealed that 2 more cracked and you guessed it. I had to disassemble the overflow replace the 2 bulkheads and re assemble.

Since I was up there I decided might as well hang the light.

My ceiling drywall is 5/8" thick which meant handing my light from the drywall using the anchors was needed since of course not a single stud lined up with my tank.

Hung the lights and tested for deflection and saw none. I'll install the bulbs later on but right now it's time to get my stuff plugged in.




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[Lizard333]

Watching the build. That homemade stand looks awesome!!! Well done!!


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[asonitez]

Update time !


Got my herbie installed. Waiting on a gate valve. Light is up and I've been playing with settings. This light is amazing!!!!

So much wiring cleanup! Waiting for my cable organizers.


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[asonitez]

@Husker I actually went with the Nanoboxreef hybrid. It's frickin awesome !!!!!!

I bought a leak froggie!

She's fillin Boys n girls!!!

She's setup my new rodi filters and did the necessary plumbing in the laundry room

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[asonitez]

Almost there!!! Will def be full by tonight. And I can turn on the pumps and test out my herbie. Or spend the evening ****ed off because it didn't work at which point I'll make 2 Durso's and say fcukit

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[asonitez]

Update time:


So I swear I have not been idle lol.

So I was able to get the tank full of RODI and salt

3 40lb bags of caribsea ocean direct later and I have a completely cloudy mess

So I figured I would put my skimmer in and crank that summabish up. Remember my sump area?

Not good. My skimmer could not fit due to the elbow!!! Earlier in my build thread I found out the 200sss was unavailable for weeks from my retailer and instead got the 250sss. Well it's to big.

85lb braided Fishing line later and I was able to cut out the first baffle.

Look ma it fits!!!

Finally set this bad boy up.

Threw a bunch of this in

About ready for rock I say !

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[asonitez]

Afternoon Update:


So I have the next week off which will be great for building and designing my aquascape and generally getting the tank really dialed in. I have a few issues I still need to solve one of which is my return pump. Its of course a Vectra L1 and something tell me its not working correctly.

I have heard a few L1's and they don't sound like this. A call to EcoTech this morning resulted in a very nice gentleman telling me to give it another week to "break in" and see how that works.

I have a different theory.

Notice to the left of the return section is a completely empty 20GAL reservoir for my Tunze 3155 ATO? Well I'm thinking maybe its amplifying the vibrations from the return section and making a little water speaker. So its currently being filled up with RODI. If that does not result in a nice HUM from my L1 then the nice guy from EcoTech told me to give them a call and they will replace it with a new one.


Lets take a vote. How many of you think that its vibrations from the pump into the empty ATO section that's causing the noise. How many of you think that my Vectra is Shot lol


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[asonitez]

The gifts keeps on giving:

So this one time I legit spent like 100 dollars on a cleaning magnet. I know right dumb. Just grab a magfloat and keep it moving amirite? Lol

Today I opened my box of goodness and pulled out ye' olde' magnet - goin on a few years old now and naturally it has a lump.

So being the good little reefer that I am I figure maintenance!! And pulled off the Velcro to replace it


Da FUQ?!!?!?

Oh right I forgot EVERY SiNGLe thing must challenge me for this project cuz why not fuq me right lol.

So I shot off an email to the manufacturer algaefree and after apologizing for the wet side failure he will be sending me a nEw replacement wetside for free and that my fellow Reefers is why I spent 100 bucks on a f*!&@:!& magnet.


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[asonitez]

My back hurts a lot. It took us 4 hours lots of wet floors lots of buckets and 3 tubes of epoxy.

The tanks too cloudy to show you pics of the final scape but there in some more clarity and hoping for the best.

Skimmer went crazy of course considering it's not broken in yet and temperamental...

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[asonitez]

Alright you scurvy reef pirates I got a pic of the scape

My inspiration is Chingchai

My thought process was to go slightly less than 3/4's to the height of the tank.

I'll be using 4 MP40's with random flow .

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[GQuinn]

Looks good. How many pounds of Real Reef rocks is that?

 

[asonitez]

Looks good. How many pounds of Real Reef rocks is that?

It's around 200lbs total of real reef rock


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[asonitez]

Monday Funday Update!

First up is a quick video of the rockscape

https://youtu.be/QiIdIN53Bpw

Next up is manifold!




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[asonitez]

So last night after a ru day doing rock and other tank stuff it was like midnight when I started doing the manifold.

Wife came in found me taking a nap on the job. In reality I had lay down on the floor to stretch out my back after crouching under the stand routing wires and closed my eyes. I eventually drifted off a bit lmao.

(That hose was the wrong size btw)

Woke up finished the job and my wife forced me to come to bed.

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[BZOFIQ]

Why double valves?

 

[asonitez]

Why double valves?

Double valves! Yes I didn't think anyone would ask haha.

Years ago I built a manifold with ball valves and found controlling flow was incredibly difficult. Not to mention after a few months they were almost impossible to turn. Dialing my flow into my calcium reactor and carbon/gfo reactors was also a challenge.

I learned that ball valves are for on and off. Gate valves are to control flow. By using both I can easily shut off a reactor or flow while keeping the flow setting the same on the gate valve. So for maintenance I'm not spending hours adjusting gfo tumble or calcium reactor flow. I just shut it off completely.

The gate valve also allows me to do water changes from my sump through the manifold flushing it out.

 

[asonitez]

Update:

I have been busy the last few days!

First up I took a trip to GREENSBORO,NC to checkout Daves shop and see a few of his custom fixtures in action. I will definitely be ordering 1 or 2 for my new frag tanks soon. It is a absolutely gorgeous facility.

While there we decided to checkout the science center while Dave worked on a secret upgrade to my light fixture!

Some very cool stuff there and only 12.50 to get in!! Easily an entire family day there and well worth the trip! After a few hours we decided to check out a new fish store in the area Reef Architect run by Earnest and his family.

We must have spend about 2 hours in there checking out his livestock and dry goods. In the end I walked out with 7 corals (Softies and LPS) and a quarantine tank!


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[asonitez]

Continued:

After the Greensboro adventure and picking up a quarantine tank my wife and I discussed a lot of my failures as a reefer and what caused them.

We considered that at any point we would have thousands of dollars in equipment, thousands in fish and corals, and yet take risks with those investments by not quarantine fish.

We realized that the reason we didn't was because we didn't have space for the tank, or the tank was on the floor where it was hard to work on or see in, or too small, and all these excuses that over time cost me hundreds of dollars in fish and frustration.

This time we decided to do it right.

Using my new tank stand building skills I whipped this up and painted it in about 2 hours.

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[asonitez]

Moved it in and setup the quarantine. I've been thinking of whether or not to black out the sides of the quarantine but I might want to or use the tank for some other purpose so I opted not to.

For filtration I got a biowheel filter and I'm gonna grab some dr tims and marine pure media


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[asonitez]

Update time:

So I had an eventful "vacation" and now that it's officially over I'm glad that I took it.

Over the last week I have been working on the tank daily!

Fist up I took care of my wiring

Then I turned my attention to the quarantine tank.

I mixed my salt water and also got some bioballs in my sump for when I dump in dr tims

I also painted the doors for the display

Current stocking list is
2 snowflake clowns
1 red fairy wrasse
10 hermit crabs

Corals so far have been loving the light from the leds.


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