Frank's 120 gallon upgrade build.

I

itz frank

Gives Bad Advice.
So, it finally happened. After searching for something that worked for me I lucked out and found a 60" 120 that worked for me. You may recognize the tank because I purchased it from gillguy here on Florida.

Pretty happy with my purchase. Stand and canopy are very solid. Tank is in great shape although I found a gnarly scuff on the glass near the center last night.

Tank came with a nice three chamber sump, return pump, reef octopus 150, 4 retro t5s and a LedZeal 36" Malibu s300 that he started the "bought a Chinese led" thread here in our own forum.

I have some work planned before I can set it up. Stand and canopy will be sanded and refinished white. Plumbing needs to be ultra quiet as my current 60 cube is obnoxious.
I need to go about collecting dry rock as I want to cook and cure myself this time. My cube ended up with all kinds of algae and bryopsis in it and I really want to avoid that this time around.

My plans for the tank will be primarily sps but I am planning on having a slight mix.

I'm pretty happy about the size of this tank. I finally have some length to allow for a decent fish selection and I feel that the height of this tank will allow my mixed reef option to work. Currently, my Zoas right under my radion gets a little cooked under my current LED set up.

Sorry for the photo. Not a lot of room to take a decent photo as this tank is over 6ft tall.

17a62822d789dd984a731fa385fb1195.jpg
 
I'll be running a rw15, a rw8, and a wp25 on this. All on Else to create random flow.

For bulbs, I've concluded that I'll probably run 2 blue+ and 2 coral+. I need to get these LedZeals figured out.

I have an SRO 1000Int that I'll be moving from my cube. I'm also considering going the Siporax route along with GFO. Nutrient excess always has been an issue for me. So, the extra filtration will help and If I find I am running too clean, i'll drop one or the other.

I also plan on running Kalk for awhile in ATO and manually dosing Mag. Like I have been doing.

I purchased an Apex which is running on my 60. I'll move that over as well. I never completely configured it on my 60 because I figured this upgrade would be happening soon.
 
So, I've been really crunched with time because of my work load. So every morning I've been getting up at 6:30 and working in 20-30 minute increments on the tank.

So far, I have a first coat of white on the tank. It'll need at least a second coat I believe.

I ordered my new bulkheads and a drain strainer. I'm going with two 1" drains for my herbie. One siphon and one emergency.

I'm in the process of ordering my t5 bulbs for my retro kits. I'm also trying to decide if I should use the brs dimmer ballasts.

That's all I have for so far. Photo for proof.

0590c492faf320013cef99467fbe5324.jpg
 
Second coat is on the tank. Just need some finishing touches on the exterior with paint and that's done.

Got started on plumbing this morning. Probably about half way mocked up. I realized today that one of my drains is probably going to require a small amount of vertical run. Doing my research on that to see if it's going to work or if there is a better way around it.

I've also considered running two sets of side by side 45s to give it more turn and less corner. This will also allow me a little more ease of working around another drain line. I didn't take any photos but I'll try to get some soon.

The chase for dry and live rock is on as well. I'm thinking although I really want to cycle the tank full running in the garage, this might not be plausible and I might need to cycle the rock in holding tubs. I'm not thrilled about the holding tubs idea. I'd like to make sure that I can mock up the needed live rock and make sure I have the full look that I want.



Side question for those of you that run unions in your plumbing:

I noticed today that If I secure a union from my drain lines underneath the tank, I won't be able to remove the bulk head. This is going to make a bit of a problem for moving the tank to it's final resting place.

Example: PVC > SLIP> BULK HEAD> SLIP > PVC UNION > PVC

Obviously, the second portion of the union removed but the top part will prevent the bulk head from being removed.

Any work around for this?
 
Got my return pump last night. Tried it out in a brute can mixing salt. If imagine this is as quiet as a pump can be. So, she'll have to do.

I have plans to finish paint and plumbing by Sunday. Then, I'll start picking up rock to cycle. And start a qt with fish that I'm planning on adding.
 
I installed my bulkheads and drains with the tank in place. I did a mock up prior but at some point you need to glue it. Yes if I have to remove a bulkhead later, I'm out a union. No way around this on a tank this big.
 
rovster said:
I installed my bulkheads and drains with the tank in place. I did a mock up prior but at some point you need to glue it. Yes if I have to remove a bulkhead later, I'm out a union. No way around this on a tank this big.
Click to expand...


The unions weren't pricey so I'm not concerned about losing it. Just wasn't sure if there was a better way. I want to run the tank in the garage to make sure it's running fine and siphoning proper while still running quiet.

That was my main concern.
 
I see. For a test run you might be able to get away without gluing the drains. FWIW, in my system my drains in the overflow are slip and not glued. Also the pipe below my gate valve is also not glued. I did that so I can remove that piece to change filter socks if I want. That's the only pipe you may have to adjust for your siphon line. Technically you don't even need a standpipe. You want it to be about an inch below the water level in your sump. They are easy to tune. Hard to explain but once you see it and do it nothing to it....

I'm sure you know this but use a gate valve not a ball valve for the siphon line. It makes a difference!
 
Yea. I've done a decent amount of reading. I ended up with a ball valve because I couldn't find a 1" gate for less than 30-40$ that wouldn't take a month to get to me. I'm going to kick it up and get running on my ball valve and see what happens. I'll order a gate shortly after I'm sure. Also can't find any that are white. They're all gray.
 
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