Jason's 220 build

[RedStangGA]

make sure you check out the pukani sticker on curing this rock. decent amount of work but need cause what it leaches out. just food for thought if this is your 1st time using this type of rock in your aquarium.

Thanks for the warning, I am aware that this rock needs some up front work to get it clean. I honestly haven't decided if I'll go the traditional curing process of heater and water changes, the shorter but riskier route of an acid wash, or try bleaching it first and then curing it for a bit. I have until tomorrow to decide lol! I have muriatic acid already as I use it to clean some pool equipment.

 

[RedStangGA]

Last bit of plumbing is in place and glued. Was also able to rinse 120 of the 160lbs of sand and get that into the tank.

Pukani is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and I'll start cleaning/prepping it for the DT.

 

[RedStangGA]

Pukani from BRS came in today. 2 very large pieces, one small, and a bunch of rubble. Box was beat to hades so I'll give BRS a pass on this one lol! Currently bleaching the rock in an attempt to dissolve surface organics. Then it'll get multiple rinses and/or a pressure wash before getting a muriatic acid bath. This pukani is not a hole'y as a lot of what I've seen and seems to have a fair amount of what looks like sludge caked onto it making it very much like concrete. We'll see what it looks like after the bleach bath but I'm thinking the acid bath is a must.

All of the sand has been rinsed and dumped into the tank. Not thrilled about putting the sand in the tank before the rock but I have an idea for that anyway.

Thrilled to be getting so close to getting this thing up and running. I bought the tank, stand, and canopy in November of 2015. Stored the tank as we knew we were moving the following summer, moved it, and have had it sitting in my office since cleaning and drilling it. I never thought it would take this long but with a new house come new home improvement projects that definitely took priority.

Still needed(Not necessarily in order):
More rock
Backup return pump, or primary if I find something I like more than the Sicce Syncra 5
Another Kessil AP700
Another Apex EB8(Pretty sure, I haven't mapped the outlets yet)
An order from TBS for the fuge
Power heads for the DT

 

[RedStangGA]

Rock was rinsed and soaked in bleach Friday afternoon until this morning. It was then rinsed again after the bleach bath and put into a muriatic acid bath for about 2 hours. I checked progress by pulling out a smaller rock that I placed on top for that purpose. Rock looks fairly clean so it's now receiving its first freshwater soak to hopefully remove any of the chlorine smell that's left. Tomorrow it'll be placed into another RODI bath where I'll begin checking for phosphate. As long as the numbers are low it'll then be put into the tank.

Also starting the process of making the salt water for the tank. My unit is only rated for 75gpd so it'll take a while!

 

[RedStangGA]

Tank is slowly filling up.

I am going to have to move my remote fuge up a couple of inches. Just not enough flow from it to the sump. Draining it now, and will use that water to fill the DT. Then I'll slide a couple of 2x4's under the legs to give it the increased height.

Once I get the return going, temp up, and salinity dialed in I'll move over some seed rocks from the cube to get the cycle going.


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[RedStangGA]

My first real issue, yay.

The primary drain is leaking at the gate valve. Of course. So, another is on it's next day air way from BRS. On top of that, as I was searching for said valve, the sump overflowed because I hadn't arranged for a siphon break yet. Double-yay. Thankfully this is why I got tile floors in this room. The bulk is cleaned up at least and fairly easily. It'll suck to redo the piping but not a horrible setback in the grand scheme of things.

 

[RedStangGA]

Well, the slight leak was "fixed" by just shuffling the sump over two inches. This way the leak drips into the sump and allowed me to save a ton by cancelling the order for the new valve and I can just place a regular order. I can truly fix it at my leisure though before I move any livestock over.

Next up is tuning the overflow. Right now it's loud so I need to raise the level up some. Then I need to adjust the location of the return as it's louder than acceptable though if I move it around it stays sort of quiet but the pressure of the silicone hose always pushes it up close to or against the glass.

I'll move some seed rock and a bag of matrix over from my 60 cube today. A nice bonus is I remembered yesterday that all of my rock was fallow for nearly 6 months after we sold our old house and before we moved into the new. The fish went into a coral only tank at a friends house that had also been fallow. So, once the new tank is cycled and I'm comfortable that it's safe, I can just move the fish and the rest of the rock over.

 

[RedStangGA]

Seed rock was moved over as was the bag of matrix.

Found another leak at the back of the sump where the primary drain from the remote fuge comes in. Thankfully that seems to have been fixed now too. I've plumbed many things, including our old house basement, and never had a single leak. Maybe I was due.

In any case, tank is cycling but now with the sump thrown into the mix. Overflow is still loud as I haven't had the time to tune it.

I was able to build my filter sock holder. First attempt was on very thin acrylic and while the first hole drilled just fine the second cracked and shattered the panel. Went to Lowes and and had them cut an 18x24 piece into 2 panels of the size I needed and kept the scraps. One scrap looks destined to be the rear overflow box cover. I drilled the first panel this morning without issue. Well, the garage smells like burnt plastic but the panel came out great. Filter socks fit perfectly, and the panel fits into the section I created in my sump nearly perfectly. I won't need to silicone it in as plenty of flow goes through the socks.

Next up is getting the salinity of the remote fuge up and then getting it on line but I think that will hit until after I get back from a work related travel next week. Once the fuge is online and I test power outage results with it running I'll run the electrical for the fuge light and get it in place.

I need to check with TBS and make sure they're open/available on Aug 19 or 26 for me to go down and pick out some additional Pukani. That will be the last of the rock until I transfer over the rest of me ceramico rock from the 60 cube.

 

[RedStangGA]

Been a while since my last update. Tank is fully cycled, fuge is online. I even have an additional load of rock in the tank and rubble in the fuge. It's only about 100lbs of Pukani but I can't imagine putting much more in it. I'll probably order some branch rock to add a little depth to it but that's it.

Sump is more than large enough to handle the drain from the tank and fuge. Enough that I think I'll build a higher stand for the fuge. That will allow me to divert more flow to it.

Purchased a chiller just in case. Irma knocked out our power for 5 days and while temps never got above 82.5 I'd rather be safe than sorry. It'll live in the garage next to the fuge.

All three of the fish from my cube, 2 ocellaris clowns and an orange back fairy wrasse, are on the tail of of a TTM move. Those three fish were purchased before I knew/realized the importance of QT. A FW dip confirmed no flukes and I don't believe that they, and all of their fishy friend over the years, would have velvet and it not show itself by now. TTM was done purely to eradicate any chance of ich. The fallow period for the new DT, due to moving over seed rock from the 60 cube, was over yesterday. Fish will go into the DT Saturday. I'm slowly raising the DT salinity to match QT.

Once that is done it's a holding pattern until Black Friday. Hoping to get some deals on power heads, a return, and maybe even some fish. The second AP700 will come next, followed by a new Apex and the Trident they just announced. Oh, I'll need a new regulator for my calcium reactor too.

Feels good to be so close. I've had the tank for about 2 years now. Stored it for the first year as we knew we were moving and then slowly getting it ready. Once the 60 cube has been fallow for 76 days I'll move the rest of the rock over, break it down, clean it, and set it back up as a long term QT observation. I'll use it for fish and coral QT but not at the same time. That should help slow down purchases lol!

 

[RedStangGA]

And, the fish are in! They've been happily exploring their new surroundings. Especially the wrasse. He swims in and out of all of the caves throughout the day. The clowns are still searching for "their" spot to hang out. I might even pick up an anemone for them soon and see if they like it.

Found a used AP700 at a good price so it should be here Tuesday. I already have the wood light rack in place and hardware to mount them.Tempted to pick up a powerhead before black Friday as there is not nearly enough flow in the tank right now but I'm not certain that it's necessary. If I need to, I will.

Just happy to finally have fish in it. Been a long time coming.

 

[HiImSean]

Hey Jason, how are things south of the border lol. Glad things are going well with the new build.

 

[RedStangGA]

Hey Jason, how are things south of the border lol. Glad things are going well with the new build.

Hey Sean! Things are going well. Tank is finally getting some life. Just hooked up the 2nd AP700 about an hour ago and am a happy camper. Patiently waiting for BF deals. Hoping everything I want is on sale but realize most of it won't be lol!

How are things with you? How are the dogs?

 

[HiImSean]

Things are going here. My tank have been neglected I'm afraid to admit but plan on doing some work this weekend on it. Unfortunately our dog passed away about a year ago.

 

[RedStangGA]

Things are going here. My tank have been neglected I'm afraid to admit but plan on doing some work this weekend on it. Unfortunately our dog passed away about a year ago.

Sorry to hear that, we lost two of ours shortly after the move down.

On the tanks, the nice thing is they tend to be resilient and can take a little neglect.

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

Glad to see your tank is coming along.

- Ivan

 

[RedStangGA]

Glad to see your tank is coming along.

- Ivan

Thanks! Looking forward to being able to add livestock like you are!

Busy days the last couple of days. I didn't like how low the fuge was in the garage. It wasn't going to be able to serve as overflow capacity for the sump, and frankly wasn't needed, plus I wasn't able to get much flow into the fuge because the drains through the garage wall to the sump were so high. So, I built a much taller stand, drained the fuge almost all the way down, and enlisted the help of a visiting cousin and my daughter to lift the current stand and tank up, slide the new stand under, and place the old stand right on top of the new one. The old stand had 3" stubby legs that worked perfectly as guides and to help secure the old stand on top of the new. This also served as a water change for the DT.

Since BRS was having bonus rewards and 10x rewards on the Tunze Stream 3, I ordered two of those as well this morning. The 5 year warranty really wins me over as well as their reportedly great customer service and reputation for quality. I just can't see spending over twice the money on MP60's for a shorter warranty. I really love the Ecotech MP's but it's getting more and more difficult to justify the cost, especially when the default answer after a year now is to buy a new wet side. So, excited that I'll finally have some real flow!

 

[RedStangGA]

Looks like I need to lower the lights some to get less interference from the braces. Middle rock will get moved and stacked on the left somewhere when I move the rest of the rock from the cube over in December.

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[RedStangGA]

Got reef toys in. 2 Tunze Stream 3's, another 3155 ATO, and a Kessil H380 grow light. I promised the wife she could have something to wrap up for me for Christmas and the grow light won that contest.

I like the Stream 3's. they're smaller than I expected and so far have made my back corners devoid of sand. I'll need to move both closer to the center back wall, lower them, and aim them slightly upward. I'll also move some rubble from the fuge to the back corner and see if that keeps the sand in place. Oh, the Tunze's are dead silent too.

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[RRA]

Beautiful tank

 

[RedStangGA]

Beautiful tank

Thanks! It'll look better once I get some coral's in it. Have a shipment coming in tomorrow that'll get dipped and then into QT until mid-January.

I moved the Stream 3's around but am still blowing out my sand from the corners on full blast and this isn't "fine" sand either. I take that as a good thing.

My wrasse that had a bacterial infection seems to be recovering very well. Fins are just about completely restored and only a small reddish area on his back left side now. His 10 days of treatment are up tomorrow and I'll just observe from that point but continue to treat food with selcon.