My 12-yr old non-reef ready 55 with DSB was crashing and I used that to finally pull the trigger on the upgrade I had been wanting. A 75 would fit in the same area and wouldn't be too much weight and I could still use my LEDs, 120 watt Evolutions. I also wanted to go the plumbed in sump route, being tired of all the HOB equipment I had.
I agreed to buy a very nice 75 with a 30L sump/refugium and stand from Hazmat once she upgraded to HER new tank. I spent the rest of that winter doing research on the equipment I would need, sending Heidi (Hazmat) constant emails and asking everyone in the club for advice.
I went with the Avast Marine CS-1 You Build It skimmer, mostly on Rwinfrey's advice and picked up an Eheim 1260 return pump as that was what Heidi had used and I knew it worked with the system and would fit in the return section of the pump. A couple of Tunze Turbelle streams (non-controllable) and a TLF Phosban 150 reactor and I was good to go. My husband had agreed to build me a new stand, taller than the one Heidi gave me so that I would have more room for the skimmer and other equipment.
We suddenly decided to move to the next town over for their better schools for our son. All tank business went on hold and when I finally picked up Heidi's tank, it went straight to a storage facility until after the move.
Finally, we moved in August 2012 and the poor, suffering 55 inhabitants moved into a baby pool in the garage of the new house for 3 weeks until I could put up the 55 again. Luckily, I had moved frags of some of my more sensitive corals into my nano at work, figuring they wouldn't do too well in the baby pool. I wasn't ready yet for the 75 as we hadn't gotten the new stand made, nor had I built that darned skimmer!
When we finally started talking about the new stand to be built, my husband had a flash of the wisdom and brilliance that I love him for; he said "œyou know, since the tank is going into this large, finished basement, you aren't limited by size or weight. If you want a larger tank, now is the time to speak up". Love that man.
Now it's a brand new AGA 125G "“ big size so I should get a new one with a warranty. Of course, only a few manufacturers make stands that will keep the warranty valid. Maybe he just didn't want to have to build it, but I ended up with an R&J Enterprises Xtreme stand with a cherry finish. It stands 36" which I really like, not only for the extra room underneath, but so that I don't have to bend down as I am looking in the tank. I lined the bottom with shower pan liner I got from Home Depot in case of splashes. I had to return the Eheim 1260 return and picked up a 1262 to make sure I had enough power for the larger volume.
Zach, at Achille's Aquarium Design, ordered the tank and stand for me, delivered them and then set up the plumbing for me back in March. Not having had a drilled tank before, I was paranoid about the plumbing and felt it worth hiring someone to do it for me. He was great to work with and I recommend him to anyone. Many thanks to all who offered to do it for me, but I thought it best to have it all done by the same person.
The plumbing is simple "“ 3 drains and one return. I have a T off of the return so I can pump out water for changes right into a shower in a bathroom about 15 feet away. This isn't completely silent, but it's pretty darned quiet which is good because this is our main TV room. Last month I added the Tunze 3155 ATO and was even able to put a 5 gal bucket in the stand to use as the reservoir.
I put the sand in, ~2-3" of Caribsea, SeaFlor special grade, covered the top with plastic wrap, weighted it down with my dinner plates and started adding the water. Gotta say, it takes a LONG time to make ~150 gallons of RO/DI!
Now I was ready to put in my rock "“ I wasn't going to use any of my old rock, it was infested with nuisance algae . I picked up ~50 lbs of Marco dry rocks, maybe 10 lbs of Marco shelf rock, and Zach brought me at least another 20 lbs or so of live rock from his stock. We made two main islands and tried to give it some depth, trying to keep the rock away from the sides of the tank. It's visible from both sides so I want to be able to keep it clean all the way around.
Right side:
Left side:
After a few weeks to cycle, I turned on the skimmer moved over my tomato clown from the 55, but couldn't catch my old striped damsel. I've had these fish for at least 12 years so they deserved to move from the ghetto to the palace.
Here is a pic of the completed skimmer (acrylic fabrication will NOT be my next career) "“ it wasn't too bad to put together, considering I've never done that sort of thing before. I also picked up the Avast Swabbie, to keep the skimmer neck clean and their Davy Jones skimmate locker - both items that will help cut down on the day to day maintenance.
Next up was lights. Those Evolutions weren't sufficient for the larger tank size so I went with the ReefBreeders Photon24s. I have LPS and don't intend to have a lot of high end acros and this is what Logan of ReefBreeders recommended to me. Once they came in, I had to figure out a way to hang them. We haven't come up with our final solution yet, but in the mean time, this is working pretty well "“ 1-1/4" PVC stanchions with conduit going through some Ts. We sank the PVC sides into buckets of sand to keep them steady for now.
I must say, I really like the lights so far. I think our final solution will be to hang a long wrought iron type curtain rod from the joists in the ceiling and have the lights hang from that much as they do from the conduit now.
I salvaged what I could of my corals from my old tank. It was infested with bubble algae so I mostly just took frags of larger colonies to decrease the chances of bringing it over. I did hydrogen peroxide dips of it all and nothing seemed to be harmed by that. I hated dumping my zoa and paly encrusted rocks so I spent a lot of time pulling off polyps and gluing them onto small bits of the Marco rocks.
Call me crazy but I went through every rock from the old tank, pulling off little clams, trying to get all the amphipods and mini-brittle stars that I could find and put them in the new tank. I even grabbed some bristle worms to help get my populations going. Once the old tank was empty of rocks and a good bit of water, I was finally able to catch that striped damsel and move him over.
I picked up a clip on light for my refugium and put an LED Par30 bulb in it. The chaeto is growing like crazy under it. I have some rock rubble in there as well and even made a pod condo out of gutter guard to help move some pods up to the DT.
Sump:
Slowly I have added fish "“ first a purple firefish, then a flame angel and coral beauty from Blake's, 2 bangaii cardinals, yellow watchman goby/pistol shrimp & McCosker's flasher wrasse from Cultured Aquatic Life, and finally a purple tang, also from Cultured Aquatic life.
Not too much in the way of fancy corals, but I've gotten some nice frags over the summer with the various club events we have had and some generous trades. I can't wait for them to start filling in "“ I have already seen growth in most. Sorry for the lousy pics but I used my iPhone for all of these.
Left side:
Middle:
Right side:
FTS:
I agreed to buy a very nice 75 with a 30L sump/refugium and stand from Hazmat once she upgraded to HER new tank. I spent the rest of that winter doing research on the equipment I would need, sending Heidi (Hazmat) constant emails and asking everyone in the club for advice.
I went with the Avast Marine CS-1 You Build It skimmer, mostly on Rwinfrey's advice and picked up an Eheim 1260 return pump as that was what Heidi had used and I knew it worked with the system and would fit in the return section of the pump. A couple of Tunze Turbelle streams (non-controllable) and a TLF Phosban 150 reactor and I was good to go. My husband had agreed to build me a new stand, taller than the one Heidi gave me so that I would have more room for the skimmer and other equipment.
We suddenly decided to move to the next town over for their better schools for our son. All tank business went on hold and when I finally picked up Heidi's tank, it went straight to a storage facility until after the move.
Finally, we moved in August 2012 and the poor, suffering 55 inhabitants moved into a baby pool in the garage of the new house for 3 weeks until I could put up the 55 again. Luckily, I had moved frags of some of my more sensitive corals into my nano at work, figuring they wouldn't do too well in the baby pool. I wasn't ready yet for the 75 as we hadn't gotten the new stand made, nor had I built that darned skimmer!
When we finally started talking about the new stand to be built, my husband had a flash of the wisdom and brilliance that I love him for; he said "œyou know, since the tank is going into this large, finished basement, you aren't limited by size or weight. If you want a larger tank, now is the time to speak up". Love that man.
Now it's a brand new AGA 125G "“ big size so I should get a new one with a warranty. Of course, only a few manufacturers make stands that will keep the warranty valid. Maybe he just didn't want to have to build it, but I ended up with an R&J Enterprises Xtreme stand with a cherry finish. It stands 36" which I really like, not only for the extra room underneath, but so that I don't have to bend down as I am looking in the tank. I lined the bottom with shower pan liner I got from Home Depot in case of splashes. I had to return the Eheim 1260 return and picked up a 1262 to make sure I had enough power for the larger volume.
Zach, at Achille's Aquarium Design, ordered the tank and stand for me, delivered them and then set up the plumbing for me back in March. Not having had a drilled tank before, I was paranoid about the plumbing and felt it worth hiring someone to do it for me. He was great to work with and I recommend him to anyone. Many thanks to all who offered to do it for me, but I thought it best to have it all done by the same person.
The plumbing is simple "“ 3 drains and one return. I have a T off of the return so I can pump out water for changes right into a shower in a bathroom about 15 feet away. This isn't completely silent, but it's pretty darned quiet which is good because this is our main TV room. Last month I added the Tunze 3155 ATO and was even able to put a 5 gal bucket in the stand to use as the reservoir.
I put the sand in, ~2-3" of Caribsea, SeaFlor special grade, covered the top with plastic wrap, weighted it down with my dinner plates and started adding the water. Gotta say, it takes a LONG time to make ~150 gallons of RO/DI!
Now I was ready to put in my rock "“ I wasn't going to use any of my old rock, it was infested with nuisance algae . I picked up ~50 lbs of Marco dry rocks, maybe 10 lbs of Marco shelf rock, and Zach brought me at least another 20 lbs or so of live rock from his stock. We made two main islands and tried to give it some depth, trying to keep the rock away from the sides of the tank. It's visible from both sides so I want to be able to keep it clean all the way around.
Right side:
Left side:
After a few weeks to cycle, I turned on the skimmer moved over my tomato clown from the 55, but couldn't catch my old striped damsel. I've had these fish for at least 12 years so they deserved to move from the ghetto to the palace.
Here is a pic of the completed skimmer (acrylic fabrication will NOT be my next career) "“ it wasn't too bad to put together, considering I've never done that sort of thing before. I also picked up the Avast Swabbie, to keep the skimmer neck clean and their Davy Jones skimmate locker - both items that will help cut down on the day to day maintenance.
Next up was lights. Those Evolutions weren't sufficient for the larger tank size so I went with the ReefBreeders Photon24s. I have LPS and don't intend to have a lot of high end acros and this is what Logan of ReefBreeders recommended to me. Once they came in, I had to figure out a way to hang them. We haven't come up with our final solution yet, but in the mean time, this is working pretty well "“ 1-1/4" PVC stanchions with conduit going through some Ts. We sank the PVC sides into buckets of sand to keep them steady for now.
I must say, I really like the lights so far. I think our final solution will be to hang a long wrought iron type curtain rod from the joists in the ceiling and have the lights hang from that much as they do from the conduit now.
I salvaged what I could of my corals from my old tank. It was infested with bubble algae so I mostly just took frags of larger colonies to decrease the chances of bringing it over. I did hydrogen peroxide dips of it all and nothing seemed to be harmed by that. I hated dumping my zoa and paly encrusted rocks so I spent a lot of time pulling off polyps and gluing them onto small bits of the Marco rocks.
Call me crazy but I went through every rock from the old tank, pulling off little clams, trying to get all the amphipods and mini-brittle stars that I could find and put them in the new tank. I even grabbed some bristle worms to help get my populations going. Once the old tank was empty of rocks and a good bit of water, I was finally able to catch that striped damsel and move him over.
I picked up a clip on light for my refugium and put an LED Par30 bulb in it. The chaeto is growing like crazy under it. I have some rock rubble in there as well and even made a pod condo out of gutter guard to help move some pods up to the DT.
Sump:
Slowly I have added fish "“ first a purple firefish, then a flame angel and coral beauty from Blake's, 2 bangaii cardinals, yellow watchman goby/pistol shrimp & McCosker's flasher wrasse from Cultured Aquatic Life, and finally a purple tang, also from Cultured Aquatic life.
Not too much in the way of fancy corals, but I've gotten some nice frags over the summer with the various club events we have had and some generous trades. I can't wait for them to start filling in "“ I have already seen growth in most. Sorry for the lousy pics but I used my iPhone for all of these.
Left side:
Middle:
Right side:
FTS:
Meanwhile, stinky black stuff is in my skimmate locker and it makes lots of bubbles and lots of brown schmoo coats it wherever the swabbie doesn't wipe it off.
