AbsoluteAcro
New member
The tank is a 120 Gallon Oceanic Tech Series. The plan from the beginning has been sps and a high bio load. I have 2 young children (2 and 3 yr) and a wife that want to see stuff swim… I’m more of a techy and like to see all the high end equipment and keep stuff that requires a challenge. I started this journey back in July of 07. I had 3 long months of research and equipment gathering to make sure I knew what I was getting into. Then I had a month setback when my fridges waterline broke and had to replace 400 sq ft of kitchen/laundry room/bathroom flooring… The underlayment and up had to be replaced; only the subfloor was able to stay.
A recap of the last 5 months… Early July I was plotting on graph paper to see if everything was going to fix.
I wanted as much water under the tank as I could fit to help with the params and to keep a fuge. I decided on the Vortech power heads fairly early on, as I liked the idea of having 2 rock islands and having a vortech behind each island.
Once I figured out I was running MH, vortech’s in the back and a large sump… I started on my stand. The footprint of the stand is 48.5x29x36†(WxDxH)… I added 4.5†o the Depth to give the vortech’s room in the back so I could have a hidden panel to hide them in the stand. I also made 2 hidden doors on the side of the stand to allow me to get out the 45x12x22†acrylic sump. The sump was broken into 2 sections. The fuge was 29x12x19 and the return was 14x12x19, 3†at the top for if the pump is off. Started construction on the stand in August and finished early December.
I ordered my rocks from MarcoRocks.com, I got 100 lbs of Fiji and 25 lbs of tonga. Next up was getting a skimmer; I first decided to go with an H&S A200 from finsreef.com. They were great, but due to shipping issues the first one got lost and the 2nd one was cracked. They felt so bad they found me a AP 851 from Atlantis Aquariums and worked with me to get that one. Atlantis is a great store and Marvin has a great place there in Richmond.
Mid Oct I setup a 40 breeder with the 2 vortech’s and a HOB power filter. Then added the 120# of rocks and filled it up with salt water. I then added 2 pieces of really nice coralline algae rocks from another reefers tank and 2 cups of ls to seed the dead rocks. They sat in there until 1/15/08, that’s when they were added to the 120.
I used 2x4 and a 2x10 in the rear to add some extra support since there was no cross beam for the back of the tank.
Early December 2007: Tank’s in the house
Added water 1/9/2008:
Added rocks 1/15/2008:
![url]](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2F%5Burl%5Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fi227.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fdd153%2Fmatt_heffernan%2FDSC_3647.jpg%5B%2Furl%5D&hash=e926b3de78b10fcf5e2fd00027623116)
After I added the rocks I tested the water 2 hours later, ammonia tested at 0, nitrites were at 0, and nitrates were at 10. Ammonia and trites never went up, and the nitrates ended up going down to 0 within 2 weeks after adding 100 lbs of ls to the fuge.
I just hooked up the skimmer a week and ½ ago because I was missing my inlet union, still waiting on it from deltec. I ended up fabricating my own out of a compression fitting screw piece and a thin wall ¾†union from Fergusons.
Even with no livestock in the tank, the skimmer has still been producing a ltr + of darker than tea skimmate a day… The algae was able to take off during the week between turning on the lights and getting the skimmer running but it has already started dieing off once the skimmer went online.
Diatom bloom lasted for about 2 days then the green algaes started taking over. I have several little patches of hair algae but they are already turning clear, I’m assuming that means they are dieing form a lack of nutrients. (nitrates and phosphates are at 0 salifert test kits).
Some pictures from last week:
If you all want to see a lot more pictures of the setup just go to tank pictres
I have more updates I'll post later tonight/tomorrow.
Matt
A recap of the last 5 months… Early July I was plotting on graph paper to see if everything was going to fix.
I wanted as much water under the tank as I could fit to help with the params and to keep a fuge. I decided on the Vortech power heads fairly early on, as I liked the idea of having 2 rock islands and having a vortech behind each island.
Once I figured out I was running MH, vortech’s in the back and a large sump… I started on my stand. The footprint of the stand is 48.5x29x36†(WxDxH)… I added 4.5†o the Depth to give the vortech’s room in the back so I could have a hidden panel to hide them in the stand. I also made 2 hidden doors on the side of the stand to allow me to get out the 45x12x22†acrylic sump. The sump was broken into 2 sections. The fuge was 29x12x19 and the return was 14x12x19, 3†at the top for if the pump is off. Started construction on the stand in August and finished early December.
I ordered my rocks from MarcoRocks.com, I got 100 lbs of Fiji and 25 lbs of tonga. Next up was getting a skimmer; I first decided to go with an H&S A200 from finsreef.com. They were great, but due to shipping issues the first one got lost and the 2nd one was cracked. They felt so bad they found me a AP 851 from Atlantis Aquariums and worked with me to get that one. Atlantis is a great store and Marvin has a great place there in Richmond.
Mid Oct I setup a 40 breeder with the 2 vortech’s and a HOB power filter. Then added the 120# of rocks and filled it up with salt water. I then added 2 pieces of really nice coralline algae rocks from another reefers tank and 2 cups of ls to seed the dead rocks. They sat in there until 1/15/08, that’s when they were added to the 120.
Early December 2007: Tank’s in the house
Added water 1/9/2008:
Added rocks 1/15/2008:
After I added the rocks I tested the water 2 hours later, ammonia tested at 0, nitrites were at 0, and nitrates were at 10. Ammonia and trites never went up, and the nitrates ended up going down to 0 within 2 weeks after adding 100 lbs of ls to the fuge.
I just hooked up the skimmer a week and ½ ago because I was missing my inlet union, still waiting on it from deltec. I ended up fabricating my own out of a compression fitting screw piece and a thin wall ¾†union from Fergusons.
Even with no livestock in the tank, the skimmer has still been producing a ltr + of darker than tea skimmate a day… The algae was able to take off during the week between turning on the lights and getting the skimmer running but it has already started dieing off once the skimmer went online.
Diatom bloom lasted for about 2 days then the green algaes started taking over. I have several little patches of hair algae but they are already turning clear, I’m assuming that means they are dieing form a lack of nutrients. (nitrates and phosphates are at 0 salifert test kits).
Some pictures from last week:
If you all want to see a lot more pictures of the setup just go to tank pictres
I have more updates I'll post later tonight/tomorrow.
Matt
Last edited:
