Hello everyone.
Ive been coming here off and on.. and now that Im starting my new build, I figured id start sharing with everyone.
My salt history goes back to high school in the mid 80s.. keeping a small 30 gallon system up into college. Then I was out of it for a while, just didnt have the money.
About 12 years ago a friend of mine at the local community college was moving, and gave me his 55 gallon setup.
I kept that for many years... had a few soft corals growing in it but nothing much. Still being green and dealing with no RO/DI water or a fancy setup, it was not all that involved. But it was a nice tank and I enjoyed it greatly.
In august of 2011 I was on vacation. While gone, my air conditioner malfunctioned and shut off.. however it was kind enough to turn on the emergency heat strips. Temps in the house were high enough to melt candles. My neighbor discovered it the next day when she went to feed the fish and check the top off. Needless to say it killed the tank. sorta.
when I returned home I looked at the mess and of course was mightly sad. And just left the tank as is until I decided what to do about it.
A few days later I was walking by and saw movement. I cleaned off the glass and to my astonishment, my black/white percula had survived. Hence forth he has been called Rocky. The tank really has never recovered.. horrible algae issues and such. But I left it running to keep the rock and sand going to use for seed in a new build.
That build finally started a few months ago. Ive always wanted a really NICE setup. a big tank. proper equipment etc. But I know how much all that costs. So Ive been saving.
I finally started buying equipment last month after my tank , FINALLY, arrived.
so here is the current equipment list. all purchased and sitting around my house in various piles.
220 gallon Marineland dual corner overflow tank W/Majesty stand.
75 gallon aqueon tank for sump/refugium
30 gallon aqueon tank for gravity drain refugium mounted above display tank
440 lbs of fiji pink sand
80 lbs of dry pukani rock (very large pieces)
40 lbs of dry tonga plate and tonga multibranch
60+ lbs of live fiji rock from my existing 55 gallon saltwater tank
50 lbs of dry fiji. used for base and refugium rock
80 lbs of live manado rock (large pieces)
BRS 6 stage RO/DI (Dual DI) and 150 GPD upgrade
TWO BRS dual reactors with Cobalt MJ1200 pumps each running Rox .8 carbon and High Capacity GFO
Three BRS 1.1ml dosers : Calcium / Alk / Mag
Three 5 gallon food grade buckets for holding dosing solutions
Waveline DC1200 Return Pump
(2) Vortech MP40es pumps
(2) Finnex 500w titanium heaters
(3) Kessil A360WE lights
Neptune Systems APEX with lab grade PH probe
Neptune VDM
Neptune WXM for vortech pumps
Neptune LSM lunar module w/4 LEDs
Neptune Secondary temp probe (for monitoring house temp while away.. so I dont have another boiling incident)
Neptune : a second 8 outlet energy bar for under the display tank
Neptune PM2 Salinity Module
Neptune Lab grade salinity probe
Tunze 9410.0 Skimmer
8 feet of 3/4" loc-line and 4 loc-line valves (tank came with 2' of loc-line and 2 Y splitters for the returns)
Autoaqua auto top off
32 gallon brute can for top of water reservoir
Hanna Phosphate, Alkalinity and Calcium checkers
Flexible 1 1/2" and 2" PVC
Bulkheads for Sump and Refugium
400 gallons worth of red sea coral pro salt
BRS felt filter socks
several extra pumps and heaters for running the curing tanks and later salt mixing
a crap load of plumping
(2) sections of 2'x2' BRS black egg crate
295 ML of ecotech coral glue
4x6' foam white board... two coats of gloss black..followed by a coat of metallic cobalt blue. heavy up top, then getting lighter going down the board. taped to back of tank.
I think thats about it.
the layout is as follows.
Display tank is in the living room. Where i want it.. is parallel with the floor joists.. so I tripled the joists and put 4x4 posts under each corner and in the middle the front and back span of the tank. luckily the front and back of tank sit over top of he parallel joists. To level, I screwed down cement board to the oak flooring, created a frame and put down 1/2" of self leveling cement. Its pretty level now.
To the right side of the tank, I built a raised platform to house the 30 gallon refugium which will be on an alternating light cycle.
For the drains and return, I drilled holes in the floor. secured PVC pipe in the holes before pouring the cement. giving me a dam for the cement..and a clean install look afterwards. Each hole was one PVC size bigger than the pipe going through it. Another 1.5" hole was created to run APEX and other cables.
The sump sits below the tank in the basement. The twin drains from the tank will go through the floor, come together in a manifold at the sump and empty into three filter socks at the sump.
The return line will T off a 3/4" line to slow feed the elevated refugium, in which sand and rock will house various varieties of copipods and macro alge. a 1" bulkhead will gravity feed a 3/4" line into the main tank.
Inside the tank the twin 1" return lines splits into 2 3/4" loc lines on each side for a total of 4.
So thats what i have so far. Plumping is half completed. Most of teh wall structure around the tank is done.
Most of the apex stuff is installed and tested. The next thing I have to do is cut glass to make the different chambers in the sump.
some pics to follow..
~Johnny
Ive been coming here off and on.. and now that Im starting my new build, I figured id start sharing with everyone.
My salt history goes back to high school in the mid 80s.. keeping a small 30 gallon system up into college. Then I was out of it for a while, just didnt have the money.
About 12 years ago a friend of mine at the local community college was moving, and gave me his 55 gallon setup.
I kept that for many years... had a few soft corals growing in it but nothing much. Still being green and dealing with no RO/DI water or a fancy setup, it was not all that involved. But it was a nice tank and I enjoyed it greatly.
In august of 2011 I was on vacation. While gone, my air conditioner malfunctioned and shut off.. however it was kind enough to turn on the emergency heat strips. Temps in the house were high enough to melt candles. My neighbor discovered it the next day when she went to feed the fish and check the top off. Needless to say it killed the tank. sorta.
when I returned home I looked at the mess and of course was mightly sad. And just left the tank as is until I decided what to do about it.
A few days later I was walking by and saw movement. I cleaned off the glass and to my astonishment, my black/white percula had survived. Hence forth he has been called Rocky. The tank really has never recovered.. horrible algae issues and such. But I left it running to keep the rock and sand going to use for seed in a new build.
That build finally started a few months ago. Ive always wanted a really NICE setup. a big tank. proper equipment etc. But I know how much all that costs. So Ive been saving.
I finally started buying equipment last month after my tank , FINALLY, arrived.
so here is the current equipment list. all purchased and sitting around my house in various piles.
220 gallon Marineland dual corner overflow tank W/Majesty stand.
75 gallon aqueon tank for sump/refugium
30 gallon aqueon tank for gravity drain refugium mounted above display tank
440 lbs of fiji pink sand
80 lbs of dry pukani rock (very large pieces)
40 lbs of dry tonga plate and tonga multibranch
60+ lbs of live fiji rock from my existing 55 gallon saltwater tank
50 lbs of dry fiji. used for base and refugium rock
80 lbs of live manado rock (large pieces)
BRS 6 stage RO/DI (Dual DI) and 150 GPD upgrade
TWO BRS dual reactors with Cobalt MJ1200 pumps each running Rox .8 carbon and High Capacity GFO
Three BRS 1.1ml dosers : Calcium / Alk / Mag
Three 5 gallon food grade buckets for holding dosing solutions
Waveline DC1200 Return Pump
(2) Vortech MP40es pumps
(2) Finnex 500w titanium heaters
(3) Kessil A360WE lights
Neptune Systems APEX with lab grade PH probe
Neptune VDM
Neptune WXM for vortech pumps
Neptune LSM lunar module w/4 LEDs
Neptune Secondary temp probe (for monitoring house temp while away.. so I dont have another boiling incident)
Neptune : a second 8 outlet energy bar for under the display tank
Neptune PM2 Salinity Module
Neptune Lab grade salinity probe
Tunze 9410.0 Skimmer
8 feet of 3/4" loc-line and 4 loc-line valves (tank came with 2' of loc-line and 2 Y splitters for the returns)
Autoaqua auto top off
32 gallon brute can for top of water reservoir
Hanna Phosphate, Alkalinity and Calcium checkers
Flexible 1 1/2" and 2" PVC
Bulkheads for Sump and Refugium
400 gallons worth of red sea coral pro salt
BRS felt filter socks
several extra pumps and heaters for running the curing tanks and later salt mixing
a crap load of plumping
(2) sections of 2'x2' BRS black egg crate
295 ML of ecotech coral glue
4x6' foam white board... two coats of gloss black..followed by a coat of metallic cobalt blue. heavy up top, then getting lighter going down the board. taped to back of tank.
I think thats about it.
the layout is as follows.
Display tank is in the living room. Where i want it.. is parallel with the floor joists.. so I tripled the joists and put 4x4 posts under each corner and in the middle the front and back span of the tank. luckily the front and back of tank sit over top of he parallel joists. To level, I screwed down cement board to the oak flooring, created a frame and put down 1/2" of self leveling cement. Its pretty level now.
To the right side of the tank, I built a raised platform to house the 30 gallon refugium which will be on an alternating light cycle.
For the drains and return, I drilled holes in the floor. secured PVC pipe in the holes before pouring the cement. giving me a dam for the cement..and a clean install look afterwards. Each hole was one PVC size bigger than the pipe going through it. Another 1.5" hole was created to run APEX and other cables.
The sump sits below the tank in the basement. The twin drains from the tank will go through the floor, come together in a manifold at the sump and empty into three filter socks at the sump.
The return line will T off a 3/4" line to slow feed the elevated refugium, in which sand and rock will house various varieties of copipods and macro alge. a 1" bulkhead will gravity feed a 3/4" line into the main tank.
Inside the tank the twin 1" return lines splits into 2 3/4" loc lines on each side for a total of 4.
So thats what i have so far. Plumping is half completed. Most of teh wall structure around the tank is done.
Most of the apex stuff is installed and tested. The next thing I have to do is cut glass to make the different chambers in the sump.
some pics to follow..
~Johnny
