drummereef's 180g in-wall build

[drummereef]

very nice, im in the process of building a 75 gallon in the wall.

Thank you warrior. Good luck on your build!

love all the new corals. the tank continues to mature nicely, can't wait to see it grown out in a year or two. keep at it!

Thanks so much Chris, appreciate the kind words and good to hear from you again.

excellent additions. Those corals are looking very nice. Can't wait to see all these bad boys grow up!

Few questions if you don't mid relating to the fuge plumbing:


I finally finished my larger growout tank: 60x 32x12

I plan to run two 2 simple PVC drains internally(no overflow), for redundancy. One on each back corner proximity.
Max flow to the tank will be ~ 400gph. So 1 -1" drain should easily handle it let alone 2.

Would it be better to have them just go out thru the bottom or go out the back and have upturned elbows to set the water height? How are you liking your upturned elbows? either way I plan to use intake screen to keep critters out. Are you using anything on yours?


Out the back seems to leave more space on the bottom for corals or rock or whatnot.
Also seems that if the PVC got knocked out that it wouldn't fully drain the tank, only down a few inches...
But will the extra bends be any sort of issue down to the sump??

The drains in the bottom seem a simple straight shot down to the sump. But if the PVC comes out, full drain of the tank!

I don't want to glue the PVC into the BH so if i need to adjust something or clean the PVC is removeable. It really shouldnt ever come out as it's a pretty tight fit..but nonetheless........

I would go out the back if at all possible, for the reason you mentioned. Any plumbing failure without an overflow siliconed-in would result in a total drain of the tank if you plumb out the bottom. I'm assuming your sump wouldn't be able to handle another 83 gallons! FLOOOOOOOD! I used thread x slip bulkheads, glued on the back side (where the pipe is attached behind the wall) and threaded 90 elbows inside the fuge - works great! That way I can easily remove the elbows and replace with another fitting if necessary. I might add a little gutter guard to the upturned threaded elbows to keep the macro from going down the drain but haven't had a need to do so yet. I'm probably draining ~300-400gph and there's just a tiny bit of excess noise. Not a gurgling, but kind of sounds like gentle bubbling - like a small fountain or something. I had to dial in the flow the first couple days because it will gurgle if the flow is too high, but I want low flow in the fuge anyway so it works out nicely.

Lots of open space in there! Beautiful corals.

Thanks black hills. That was the goal. I wanted a lot of open swimming space and open sand. Hopefully once the corals take off I will be able to keep them pruned back to keep the "open" look.

 

[110galreef]

you have 2 -1.5" drains correct in your fudge?

And I know the waterfall /gurgle sound as I curretnly only have a 3/4" drain in my overflwo on my 45g frag tank and it makes that noise.

3/4" drain and about 150gph.....

 

[drummereef]

you have 2 -1.5" drains correct in your fudge?

And I know the waterfall /gurgle sound as I curretnly only have a 3/4" drain in my overflwo on my 45g frag tank and it makes that noise.

3/4" drain and about 150gph.....

That is correct, 2x 1.5" drains and a single 1" return.

 

[henrystyle]

Cool, thanks for the info Henry. Are you running your Phoenix bulbs on HQI? If so, how long are they lasting for you? What happened to your build thread, I thought you had started one?

I dont run them on the hqi setting..Im getting a good year out of mine..
Build thread still going. Tank doing fine..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1831666&page=6

 

[Laugh_At_Rice]

Enjoyed reading this incredible attention to detail.

 

[drummereef]

I dont run them on the hqi setting..Im getting a good year out of mine..
Build thread still going. Tank doing fine..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1831666&page=6

Cool. Somehow I got unsubscribed... back on it!

Enjoyed reading this incredible attention to detail.

Thank you Laugh At Rice.

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


Jon at Warner Marine was nice enough to send me some more goodies to try out. Thanks again Jon! :thumbsup: This time he sent some more EcoBak ULNS Pellets and some Ultimate Snow. I'm trying to get my hands on the Ultimate Aminos to dose with the Ultimate Snow to see the difference between Warner's product and the Zeo I previously used. The plan is to add it to my daily feeding routine. I'll update as I progress...

In the mean time, a couple coral shots. My Birdsnest finally has started to take off - albeit slowly. It was a Dino magnet for months but as of the last couple days I've seen positive growth, polyp extension is good, and it seems to be slowly coloring back up. Fingers crossed... Birdsnest is one of my favorite corals.

Trumpet coral is doing good.

Here's a couple shots of the new additions I added recently, now that they are mounted on the rock.

And finally, some nasties are starting to take hold in the fuge. Looks like a bit of Dinos and some Cyano. All to be expected with the "new-ish" rock I'm guessing. Chaeto is growing quickly too.

 

[slapshot]

Cyno it is. It is easier to get in the fuge for me and I'm sure it has to do with flow and lighting quality. I've always been OK with it in the fuge as long as it doesn't start showing up in the display. Under the theory that it will consume what it needs out of the water and prevent it growing in the display where conditions are not as ripe for it. Tank looks great!!

 

[cromedogg33]

Brett,

What stuff are you using to put your frags on your rocks?

 

[psteeleb]

looking good - like the way the fuge is coming along

 

[Vlado4x4]

Brett, why don´t you get a cleanning crew inside the fuge ? At least some snails to take care of the cyano.

Tank is looking amazing and it shows in the corals !!

All the best and keep the pics coming

 

[crvz]

Brett, remind me, did you ditch the marco rock? I think that's what you went with originally. I know both our tanks went wet about the same time, but your rock is much more covered in coralline than mine. It looks really good. I've got a lot of ugly going on with the base rock I used, and I'm kind of wishing I had gone a different route (but there's no way I'm turning back now). Or might it be something you're dosing? I don't actively pursue anything other than my calcium reactor.

 

[iced98lx]

Looking great!

 

[tangtang clown]

+1 to know what you are using to hold frags in place. I need to do some rearranging soon and I'm think about using something other than super glue gel LOL

Brett,

What stuff are you using to put your frags on your rocks?

 

[drummereef]

Cyno it is. It is easier to get in the fuge for me and I'm sure it has to do with flow and lighting quality. I've always been OK with it in the fuge as long as it doesn't start showing up in the display. Under the theory that it will consume what it needs out of the water and prevent it growing in the display where conditions are not as ripe for it. Tank looks great!!

Definitely. I'm hoping it stays put.

Brett,

What stuff are you using to put your frags on your rocks?

If you are referring to the gray colored stuff... It's Two Little Fishies AquaStik Epoxy puddy. It comes in both gray and red which I think blends into the rock a little better than white epoxy. Most of my corals have already grown over the epoxy, hoping the new frags start doing the same.

looking good - like the way the fuge is coming along

Thanks Pete. Any suggestions on what to add to it next?

Brett, why don´t you get a cleanning crew inside the fuge ? At least some snails to take care of the cyano.

Tank is looking amazing and it shows in the corals !!

All the best and keep the pics coming

Thanks Vlado. That's a good idea. What snails typically eat cyano?

Brett, remind me, did you ditch the marco rock? I think that's what you went with originally. I know both our tanks went wet about the same time, but your rock is much more covered in coralline than mine. It looks really good. I've got a lot of ugly going on with the base rock I used, and I'm kind of wishing I had gone a different route (but there's no way I'm turning back now). Or might it be something you're dosing? I don't actively pursue anything other than my calcium reactor.

All the rock in the display is the original Marco Rock I used when setting up the tank. I dose Kalk daily which might be the difference, since I do think it promotes coralline perhaps more than other dosing methods - but that's in no way a scientific analysis. I've had really good luck cleaning up my rock with ZeoZym in combination with BioMate. It's designed to clean rock that has a layer of "mulm" on it. It might help at least to create an environment for coralline to attach.

Looking great!

Thanks iced.

+1 to know what you are using to hold frags in place. I need to do some rearranging soon and I'm think about using something other than super glue gel LOL

I never had any luck with super glue gel alone. What I usually do is... Mount the frag to a frag plug or rock rubble with super glue gel (if it's not already mounted). Then I make up a marble-ish sized piece of epoxy into a ball and super glue it to the bottom of the frag plug or rubble. Lastly I put a dab of super glue gel on the bottom of the epoxy ball and stick the whole thing in place on the rock structure in the tank - molding the epoxy a bit around the plug and into the rock. The super glue gel holds the epoxy in place while it has time to cure. Seems to work well even when I mount frags on the sides of rocks where I need a little more "sticking" power to keep it from falling off.

 

[psteeleb]

Thanks Pete. Any suggestions on what to add to it next?

I'd work on macrofauna size critters (1cm +/-); pods, dusters, brittles and sponges to mention a few. pm me if you want me to send you a baggie of stuff from my sump. I think the weather may be cooperative for a two day mail delivery.

 

[Vlado4x4]

Honestly i can't remember right now which snail eat cyanobacteria, if theres any. But i know the Saltwater Brown Leg Hermit Crab eats it. I have 3 of them and i have seen them eating it. Got them form reef2go, hope this helps.

By the way, do you get any detritus inside the fuge ? I have a lot, but i syfone it at least once every 2 weeks

 

[drummereef]

I'd work on macrofauna size critters (1cm +/-); pods, dusters, brittles and sponges to mention a few. pm me if you want me to send you a baggie of stuff from my sump. I think the weather may be cooperative for a two day mail delivery.

Thanks Pete.

Honestly i can't remember right now which snail eat cyanobacteria, if theres any. But i know the Saltwater Brown Leg Hermit Crab eats it. I have 3 of them and i have seen them eating it. Got them form reef2go, hope this helps.

By the way, do you get any detritus inside the fuge ? I have a lot, but i syfone it at least once every 2 weeks

Cool, I'll look into those. I don't hardly get any detritus in the fuge, I believe because I use socks on both drains and the fuge is feed from the return - not a drain.

 

[bheron]

Hi Brett -
I love following along this thread. You do great work and its an inspriation to follow!

Ever since I saw your sliding light rack I knew that's what I needed/wanted. I have 8x60" T5 lights mounted on an aluminum rack I built a few yrs ago. Its the suspension system I need to upgrade. I love the one you got from McMaster-Carr.

Two questions:

1) can you confirm the equipment you used? I see different types of tracks/rollers and am not sure (I know you posted it at least once before so sorry!)

2) As I plan mine out, is there anything you would (or have) done differently from your original light rack?


EDIT: ooops, one last quesiton. I remember you were battling algae, maybe cyano and just overall nutrient issues a few months back? Can you point me to the appx time b/c I'd like to go back and see what you did. thanks!

 

[salali]

The new corals are great addition to the tank. Lucky pic