Dante's Marineland 220 FOWLR

Dante_JoseCuerv

Dante_JoseCuerv

New member
So after what seemed like centuries of planning and constantly changing plans, my new tank has finally come to fruition!!!

It started out as an A.G.E. or DD build, but money was getting tight so I settled for a 220XH (they were having a sale on them too!) and after about a week and a half of waiting we moved it in today!!!

So far he's what we have on the list for this tank:


Tank: Marineland 220XH w/pine majesty stand (black)

Plumbing/Filtration:
Return pump: Sequence Dart
​
Sump: NextReef custom sump (pics to come once I get them from NextReef)
​
Skimmer: Octopus XP-3000 Internal
​
Everything else is still a work in progress (but what isn't when it comes to these things?)

Now for some pics!!!

Here's us unloading it from the truck. (Notice big Omar, he's did the bulk of the lifting...)

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And now down the stairs:

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We had 2 people on the end going down mostly because Omar probably counts as about 3 people :-)

More pics to come!!!
 
AgeDynasty said:
What are your plans for the tank. I am very interested.
Click to expand...

Well basically I'm moving the fish from my 90 into this 220. Our cowfish has long outgrown its current home (especially in terms of how much it poops). At any rate, at some point I may convert it into a softy reef but for now I'm just trying to get it together.

Aquascaping, on the other hand, is something I haven't gotten to yet. I want to do something very minimalistic to allow my fish to have plenty of swimming room.

Now the plumbing is something I'm still trying to figure out. I'm using all 4 holes for drainage. I've decided to go a herbie-style route (I don't feel like drilling extra holes as I don't think they're needed). How much should I shorten the full siphons? I'm finalizing the design of the sump with NextReef and my biggest concern is making sure the 1.5" pipe leading to the sump will be enough.
 
Sorry for the lack of updates here, but I've been ill for the past few days. No real news except I just picked up 25' of 1.5" flex pvc and 14' of 2" for $35 this morning. Hopefully I'll have some pics up on monday or tuesday. As it turns out I've decided to start cycling the tank without the sump. I'm just going to "soft plumb" everything just so I can get stuff going and then when the sump comes in (in about 2 weeks, apparently NextReef is a little behind since one of their machines went down) I'll start with the more serious plumbing. Cheers!
 
Paint Samples

Paint Samples

Picked up some paint color samples today. Took the Dorkfish with so she could help. As you can see, the basement is currently an interesting shade of mustard. This will be changing. I definately want blue for the tank area; a cooler blue without getting into the teal spectrum. Dorkfish suggested a sand color between brown and tan for the rest of the basement. Brought home some shades to try out, and she put them up on the wall to try them out. This is what we ended up with. She prefers the second blue and the first sand. I like the first two blues (the third would look nice, but only if we put more lighting behind the tank) and the other two sands.

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P.S.: Pic Updates!

First: My Dart!!!

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Also, as I mentioned before I got some obnoxiously HUGE suction screens for my dursos so without further delay here they are!

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And installed on the durso:

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$35 worth of flex pvc:

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Bump, no pic updates yet but we're priming the walls around the tank right now in preparation for the blue paint (still haven't decided on a shade yet).

Also, I just got some pics from NextReef of my sump and it looks AWESOME. They really went above and beyond what I was expecting.

Right now I'm trying to figure out my return plumbing. Has anyone used a distributor to split flow evenly? I'm thinking I might do that instead of having tees or even 120* wyes.

I was thinking of using a 1.5" -> 4x 1". Something like this:

http://www.flexpvc.com/cart/picserve.cgi?picserve=/672-4620.png

As always, any/all feedback/comments are welcome :-). I'm looking at having the filling process start some time next week. Just waiting for the sump (can't fill the tank up till it gets here).
 
EaZy DuZ iT said:
You got some nice friends helping you out. Tank looks beautiful! cant wait to see it up and running.
Click to expand...

Yeah they're pretty awesome.

Anyway, finally got some pics from NextReef and they're pretty awesome.

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Sump.jpg


It actually came out being about 47" instead of 48". I'm not upset or anything just found it a bit amusing.

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And finally they put a big NextReef sticker on it :-)

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One thing that really got me was that Dave added a removable lid for the filter sock area. These guys really went above and beyond with this project and I'm very pleased with what they've done.

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I'm still trying to decide on a color for the wall and should have that done by next week. Once the sump gets in here we'll get the plumbing done so I can have everything cycling. Also, we tested the overflows last night and I only had one leak (it was inside the bulkhead though so it would just drain into the sump anyway). More pics and whatnot to come soon.
 
Also, could one of the mods please change the "FOWLR" in the title to softy reef? I've decided that this tank needs more than just rocks and some softies/shrooms would probably be perfect :-)
 
Ok, well finally some more updates. As of now the tank is cycling (though even after throwing in a couple raw shrimp there's been no ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes whatsoever) though the pump has been turned down. I've been very behind on updates ever since I got back to school, not to mention all the random leaks in the system. At any rate, so as not to bore too many people here are pics that explain it much better than I do!

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The wonderful workbench :-)

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A couple good views of the plumbing (which took forever and a day).

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I don't have any good FTS shots yet, but it's full as of now. The sand got really blown around so the pipe-system I built for the eel I plan on getting is very exposed, will move the sand around once I get close to putting the fish in.
 
We finally have fish!!!

We finally have fish!!!

So after what seems like an eternity we finally got some fish into the tank! Well... by some fish I mean a HUGE damsel. Amazingly the damsel is quite tame and actually doesn't bother anything (though there's only rocks, sand and a couple hermits) so things look quite nice for now. Got a vid of the damsel being really shy and silly, and some pics of the tank and whatnot.

The only real problem I've been having is that the Dart is apparently strong enough to blow the sand out and has created a bit of a valley in the middle of the tank, which exposes the eel caves that I built :-(. I'm in the process of dealing with that problem. What I've come up with is to cover the pipes in portland cement or something and essentially roll them in something like a special grade reef sand so that if they are uncovered again they'll look like rocks rather than white pvc. That and I'm thinking I should turn the pump down (though I've got it split up into 4 outlets so I'm surprised that it has that much flow still.

I did get some new equipment in there though. Ended up valving the siphons on both the herbies to keep the system "quiet" (or as quiet as I can hope for now) and keep air bubbles out for the most part. The filter socks have been pulling a lot of debris out of the water and have only gotten clogged once. I also put my G2 from my 90 into the sump as a temporary solution. I'll be upgrading to an XP-3000 or an XP-5000 in the nearish future (depending on how finances turn out). The G2 is actually pulling a lot of really thick stuff out which surprised me, but that's not a bad thing :-). Also got a piece of halymenia from my nano into a little critter cage and put one of those Miracle LEDs over it. The flow in the sump keeps the algae tumbling around and around and it stays in the light pretty much all of the time. It's pretty happy so far :-).

And before I forget, here are my params as of now:

NH3/NH4+: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0

pH: 8.39
Temp: ~80 (varies slightly, but never more than a degree out of that range)
Alk: 10

So as of now everything looks nice and happy :-)

Now for some pics and vids!

Vid of the damsel:

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allownetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid260.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fii33%2FDante_JoseCuervo%2FNew%2520Aquarium%2FM2U00082.mp4" height="361" width="600">http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/...ew Aquarium/?action=view&current=M2U00082.mp4

Some views of the sump :-)

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Now some shots of the tank (and the damsel too!)

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The damsel itself is ~4-5" or so. It's a big one but very very docile. We'll see how that works out in the future though. It's funny how suggestive one can look when unraveling the power cable on a small lamp :-P (you'll see the pic, trust me). At any rate. Future plans include a dedicated RO/DI unit, an ATO, and of course lighting!!!

Stay tuned for more updates. Also, if any of the mods happen to come across this, could you please change the "FOWLR" to "reef" or something to that effect? Please and thanks :-).
 
Last edited:
Also forgot to add that I got lucky with the heaters. I'm currently using 2x Hydor THEO 400W heaters. The story behind that is that my LFS's supplier forgot to fill part of the order and my heaters didn't come in, so my LFS sold me a pair of his old THEO 400Ws for $12 a piece. I'm still a tad bit wary since they ARE used but I've had incredibly good luck with THEOS, will get a controller in the future though.
 
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