Dave's Life Aquatic (180 build)

[davewbush]

Thank you mikeanddanielle.

Reeftopia order came today. Everything came alive except 1 shrimp. I ordered 12 and they were $2.75 each, not bad. I ordered 24 blue legged hermit crabs and when I counted them there were 30. Thank you reeftopia.

Live stock in the tank minus corals.

Fish

2 Ocellaris Clowns
2 Neon Blue Gobi's

Clean Up Crew

8 Star Snails (1 in the refugium)
32 Blue Legged hermit Crabs
2 Sand Sifting Conch's
14 Nassarius Snails (1 in the refugium)
4 Bumble Bee Snails (1 in the refugium)
11 Peppermint Shrimp (1 in the sump)
30 Ceith Sanils (1 in refugium and 2 in the sump)
3 Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs (1 in the refugium)

 

[wowkingjames]

Love your tank and your sump set up with your refuguim. I see your not concern with your wooden floor being damage by the salt creeping, I'm debating cermatic or wooden floor in my living room with a tank size 215 gal. Can you give me some advice on your wooden floor or a web site I can research.

Thanks,

Enrique

 

[davewbush]

wowkingjames, I got my flooring through Lumber Liqidators. They have a lot of stuff to read on there web page under flooring 101. I had a spill when my bulkhead was leaky and had about 1 gal hit the floor behind my tank. It ran out around the sides and a little got under the stand, but not much. I cleaned it up when it happened. One of my joints in the floor the next day was a little discolored, but went back to normal the day after that.

Before I got my wood floor I posted a thread asking if I should put the tank on the floor or build the floor around the tank. Every one said it was fine to put the tank on the floor, so that is what I did. I bought two water proof mats from DFS to work on, when I'm working on the tank. If water does hit the floor, I clean it up when I see it.

Weight wise, I think my tank weighs about 2700, 200 gal of water in the system, 400 pounds for the tank, 400 pounds for the stand, sump, and refugium, 250 pounds of live rock, 190 pounds of sand, and 56 pounds for the lights. With all of this on the floor, I didn't even hear a crack and the floor has no indentation at all.

When it comes down to what you want, tile or hard wood, it is all preference of what you want. When it comes to up keep on the floor, I'm a custodian for the school district where I live and if need ever be, I can use there equipment to polish, strip, wax, sand, and buff as needed. We also went with a floor with a 30 year warrenty. When we compaired the floor from Lumber L to the stuff at Lowes, the finsih on the Lumber L's was a lot harder. Our dog has put a few scratches on the floor when he was learning to walk on it, and honstly, he spills more water on the floor getting drinks in the kitchen, which is tile, than I get from the fish tank.

I will worry about the salt creep when it startes happening. I have noticed that you get a lot of salt creep where bubles pop and the spray lands on things and dries up. I'm try to keep all bubles out of my sump. I get some from the filter sock but thats about it. I know I will get it, just a matter of where.

 

[davewbush]

I fine tuned the plumbing today. The loudest thing on the system is the fans on the light which are no louder than the ones thath were on my 90 gal. The durso is pulling a full syphon with the ball valve all the way open and the other is pulling a mix of air and water (which I can't hear) with the ball valve 3/4 of the way open. I get a little noise from the filter sock but can barly hear it with the doors shut. The refugium doesen't make any noise either. It drains back into the first compartment of the sump. I have a union hooked to flex tubing, that goes in to an elbow, with a hole drilled into it at the water line. Makes no sound. I'm very happy with all of this. I'll get some pics up tomorrow.

I also had another snail get eaton by my Sunny D Acans. Last time it was the brain eating and this time the acans. I didn't get the brightest snails. I got some pics of this too.

 

[chris3_16]

thats a pretty awsome set up and alot of live rock.

 

[davewbush]

Thank you chris3. I'm at about a puond of live rock per gal for total system water volume. The tank holds 140 gal so I'm at a little less than 1 3/4 pounds per gal. I think rule of thumb is 1 1/2 to 2 pounds per gal, but I dont know if this is for system gal or DT gal. Either way I think I will be fine.

I'm working with my camera, trying to get some good shots. I have to shoot in manual and I have never really done this before. They look a lot better than the ones in auto, but they are coming out too blue, which makes it hard to see the true colors of the corals. My wife is teaching me about the settings on the camera.

Everything I put in the tank yesterday looks happy and is still alive. Another good sign.

 

[davewbush]

Couple of my new friends.

New neon blue gobi and my bubble coral. Got this 3 months after I started salt water in the 75 gal. Had a hard time where it died all the way back to 3 bubbles. Been doing great the last few years.

Pic of my rics. I bought 1 about 2 years ago and it has split into 3 and one of them is about to split again.

My hungry acans or my dumb snails. I didn't think life was that haed in my tank. I don't even make the snails get jobs, just the sponges, crabs, and star fish.

 

[davewbush]

Over the day the acan started working the shell out of its mouth. When it got it all the way out, it was still holding onto the fleshy part of the snail. About 10 minutes later the shell fell off and the acan ate the snail.

I will test my water tomorrow to see where everything is at. I ordered tech cb today. I've been using kent marine calcium and dkh buffer. I have reed a lot of good things about 2 part additives and after seeing the totm, I think it will work just fine.

In my experience the less I put in my tank the better. I will change 10 gal of water once a week, add 2 part as needed, half dose of tech i once a week, change chemi-pure every 4 months, filter socks every 3-7 days as needed, remove live rock from sump every 6 months and shack and rinse it in water change water to get any build up out of it, and use a turkey baster to clean the rock in the dt every week.

I also ordered a nano korila for my refugium. I will put it on a timer to be on for 15 min, off for 15 min, and off the 12 hours the light is off. Here is a couple better shots of the refugium.

I have the 24 watt cpr above it and a 60 watt plant light that I will change the bulb in soon. My cheto is going crazy right now so I might leave it. I'm getting about 8 watts per gal.

 

[davewbush]

Tested water today for the first time. I should of done it before I put the live stock in, but my 90 was getting pritty dirty. Everything went into the dt from my 90 on Monday, refugium was on line Tuesday, and I added part of my cuc on Wednesday.

Tested at 11:00am. Only LEDs on at 10. T5 don't come on till 12:00. I have a short light cycle while my corals are getting adjusted to the new lights.

PH- 7.8 (should come up later when lights are on)
Nitrates- less than 2
Ammonia- 0
Mag- 1350
DKH- 9
Cal- 390 (will bring up with kent marine liqued calcium while I wait for my 2-part)

I didn't test the phos. My rock that had corals on it had a few small patches of gha left. These spots are not growing and are browning out and getting smaller. Cheto is going crazy. I think this is a good sign.

 

[davewbush]

Did my first 15 gal water change today. I plan on doing between 10 gal and 15 gal a week. Changed the filter sock too. I changed it on Monday. I need to change every 3 days or at least twice a week.

I'm still working with my camera to get some better shots of the tank. They are still coming out too blue. I've done all the back tracking for the build, so I will do a system brake down soon for everone, explaining how everything works, my thought behind it, and what changed from the thoughts in my head to how the finished product came out, now that it is up and running and fine tuned. I want to get pics of all my corals also, so I can document there growth here.

I had to move a few corals around because of flow issuses. To much for some. My brains were not happy. My pink lobo is happy now and I'm working on my green maze. My maze is hard to deal with because of the size.. It has at least an 9 inch radious. Hard to find a place to put it where all sides are happy. Once I get it under control again, I may frag it.

I also stopped by my lfs Friday. Not much of a selection, but I like to look every once and a while. I grabed 4 large mexican turbo snals to help keep up with algae if I have a mini cycle. I noticed a little bit of algae starting on the glass today. None on the rocks and my flow blows the sand side to side so it stays white. At the fish shop I saw a chalice and some acans that I couldn't pass up. The chalice is blue,green, with pink/orange mouths, about 1 1/2 inchs, $40. The acans are purple and green, 4 heads, got it for $15. Great deal on the acans.

I still need to run the dedicated braker and electrical. My buddy is going to help me but he has 3 kids. Speaks for itself. He'll get here when he can, no big deal. I have 3 more korailla coming next week and a wave maker. This will help with the brains and a few dead spots. I have more areas that have a little to much flow than not enough. This will help those areas too.

This ends the intro to Dave's life Aquatic. Much more to come over the years, but what my wife and I are even more excited about and what I need to start spending my time getting ready for is the little gril we are expecting at the end of October.

 

[rpjaws74]

checked out your thread and you have come a long way. I like your overall set up, do you wish you had build a bigger stand. maybe? but very nice indeed

 

[davewbush]

Like everyone, I wish I had the room and money for a whole filter/fish room. Over all I'm happy with the stand. There is a lot of room under the stand, but having a 75 gal and 15 gal tank in there takes up a lot of space. Doing the water change today, I had plenty of room to change the filter sock, empty collection cup from skimmer, and put a pump in the sump to pump the water out. It was actually easier to change the water on this than then my 90 gal and the 90 had an above tank sump that was open on top.

I do wish I had more room for my supplies but when my electric is done, I will build a cabinet next to the tank to cover the wires and for a place to put my supplies. Here are a few pics to get a little better perspective on the size of the sump and how much room is above it. My skimmer is a Aqua C 120, (earlier I said it was a 180, had other things on my mind and wasn't thinking), and the jugs are 64 oz and 16 oz.

 

[davewbush]

Here are 2 shots of my mushroom toadstool. In mid 2005 I ordered a nano frag pack from DFS and I got a large mushroom with a smaller one growing out the side. The large toadstool wasn't doing good and was dieing. I cut off the small one and took the large one out of the tank. Here is a shot of it in 2005.

6-16-2005

6-12-2010

The last few weeks it was in my 90 gal, it would open up every 2 to 3 days. As soon as I put in the 180 gal, it opened up and stays open all day and night, just closes up for a few hours each morning.

 

[strout]

Nice, I saw one on Divers Den, might have to order it.

 

[jefathome]

Nice build thread. I just read through front to back.

So I take it you liked the quality fo the Cadlights build on the main tank?
I have a custom 150 (48x24x30in tall) that is supposed to be ready for pick-up on Thurs or Fri. Not sure if I need to get it from Ontario or from Ali's shop (where I ordered it) in Tustin.

 

[davewbush]

So I take it you liked the quality of the Cadlights build on the main tank?
I have a custom 150 (48x24x30in tall) that is supposed to be ready for pick-up on Thurs or Fri. Not sure if I need to get it from Ontario or from Ali's shop (where I ordered it) in Tustin.

Yes, very happy with the quality. If you have to go to Ontario to pick it up, the building is easy to find. When I picked mine up I saw a stand they made and it was very nice too. Their tanks are well worth the money.

 

[palmer373]

i love the tank and the direction it is heading! just a thought, im assuming you are going to have a tang or two and/or some big fish that like to pick on the rock a lot to sustain their never-ending hunger. if i were you i would of gone for close to 300lbs of rock in the DT for grazing and hiding issues. i guess this might be an ok time to ask what your stocking list is at at this time? im thinking a tang or two would look nice. anyways, i love the aquascape. i plan on taking my time like you did to aquascape instead of throwing rock in the tank like i did for my 75 FOWLR. i might of missed it but what did you use to hold/glue the rock together to keep them from falling apart? i was planing on using some sort of glue to create arches for my new tank im setting up. any ideas?

 

[palmer373]

oh yah, its been a day, WE NEED UPDATES WITH PICTURES!!!

 

[davewbush]

Having the egg crate under the rock gives it a firm base. There are only three places in the tank where I used AquaStik Epoxy Putty to hold the rock together. All on the left side of the tank. The rest is just stacked. I planed on using more epoxy but all the rock went together where nothing was wobbly. I have bumped things while working in the tank and nothing has fallen over. I guess I lucked out.

Some time in July, once my tank has time to stabalize a little more, I'm going to order 2 orange spotted dimon gobies, 2 green banded gobies, and I'm thinking a convict tang. I've had one before and it was a great fish. I want to stay away from some of the tangs that are prone to wearing white sweaters. At this time I am going to order a few more corals too. I will add more fish after this, but I don't know what.

Right now I have a maze brain that is about 9 inchs side to side (found a good place for it where it is looking good again, not dieing back), a pink lobo brain that is a foot long, mushroom toadstool leather over a foot and a half, 3 different kinds of zoas, pink birdsnest, porcilapora, another leather that is good sized, 2 acan frags, a chalice, large bubble coral, blue and orange rics, red mushrooms, and a favia. I'm working on getting pics of all of these. Everything is very happy now. My favia has gone from 9 mouths to 12 mouths in 7 days.

When I order the fish I will also order some more frags, 20'000 leagues under the sea sps, ora red planet table sps, ridler mycedium, purple eye lords, mind trick favia, purple rim montipora, true superman monti, grapevine favia, hulkf lords, hot tamale echinoruylha, tri color echinth, forest echinta, orange eyed mycedium, alien moon favia, and a few more acans. I will order all of this and the fish through vivid aquariums. Once this is all in, I will let everything grow out and take it from there.

 

[palmer373]

wow sounds great i cant wait!