New tank

[Bluetangclan]

Been away for a few years and am thinking about building a new tank. I did this hobby for about ten years, was even breeding pipefish for a very short time when I lived walking distance from a dock on deep water. Kept everything from star gazers to lions to mandarins. But about 8 or so years ago I moved and pretty much stuck to easy to keep and breed African cichlids, although I had discus for awhile but they were way too much work. Now I am kinda bored with cichlids and am thinking of switching my 120 over to SW. I also have a 40 gal sump for it, which weirdly enough, most FW people do not use for some reason, and I have never understood why. I see a lot of things have changed over the years, and might as well catch up. Most equipment questions are in IV: service and support.

I: Situation: I live in the woods, I have a deep well on the FL aquifer. I am also an hour from the nearest fish store. Both good and bad.
Opposition: -Wife that doesn't understand.
-Tech has changed. My old tank simply had a Euroreef clone skimmer and live rock as filtration and it did fine for years.
Friendly: -Wife She likes bright objects but a tank is a tank is a tank and she heard SW tanks are expensive. No really, we go to the Living Seas at Epcot and she just shakes her head at me.

II: Mission: To set up a 125(165) gallon tank doing some odds and ends to make it different than tanks I had in the past, do so and have it run quietly, and of course look nice in the living room.

III: Intent:To build a foam and rock back wall with a long decending rockwork finger in the middle lengthwise from the wall with several arches.
-Use LED lighting to cut down on heat, (I hear the price has dropped tremendously in the past years).
-Grow mostly softies with a few of the hardier SPS's and LPS's.
-Mostly have smaller fish such as four line wrasse, possum wrasse, and one of my favorites, a convict tang. Rest of livestock will mostly be inverts as it has always been the smaller things that have caught my attention.
-Minimize the complication of things.

IV: Service and Support:
-Needed: An in sump skimmer that will work regardless of water level as it is also the evaporation tank. The current freshwater setup uses about 35 gallons a week in evaporation.
-A RODI unit that can attach to a hose or sink that is relatively fast, ie, not waiting all day to fill up buckets of water. Aquarium is not located anywhere close to a water source. Need to check current well water for its conditions, works fine unaltered for Africans, but might need to change things for SW.
-An LED fixture that doesn't break the bank.
-Mostly base rock to build things with some choice live rock from TBSW, hopefully he will let me pick it up since Tampa is only an hour and a half or so away.
-I guess I will add a bag of LS or get some from Tampa like I did my last SW tank.
-Gotta think about any other equipment I might need.
- What powerheads are used now days? Vortecs that I think are still over priced I think still exist. What else is used? Maxijets were a big name along with those flimsy black ones with the strong magnets you stuck on the outside of the tank but seized up if you looked at them wrong.
-There is space for a reactor or two in the stand if need comes up that I have to supplement something on a constant basis. I haven't researched any breakthroughs in this area.

V: Command and Signal:
-Having the lights on controller would be cool.
-Anything else remotely controlled is a bonus but not something I am actively looking for.


Bonus points for figuring out what I did there. I think I was pretty clear and concise

Suggestions, comments, etc?

 

[J_Albereefing]

Very well constructed 5 line. You are a "go" at this station. As I am an FNG to the hobby I will defer to others for the answers.

 

[ReefKeep66]

Planning like this can really make a difference when you go to build this system. Your definitely on the right track. Gonna start in the beginning with a few q&a. do you have a set place in mind to place the tank? Keep in mind weight. If your going to have a sump, are you going to hard plumb your system with pvc or flex tubing? Or a mixture of both? Are you going to have your return pump feeding anything such as reactors? This will help determine what size pump you needed rated on gph. As far as circulation pumps, the vortech are way over priced for me. They are nice but you can get the new jabeo pumps with 2/3 the features for 1/3 the cost. Led lighting, there are tons of options nowadays. It really depends your price range. One of the most popular leds is the radion. Which is also pretty expensive. You obvisouly want something that will cover the tank as needed, check out these couple examples, aqua illumination, kessil, razer, reefbreaders, ecotech marine (makes the radion and vortech pumps), there are a ton more out there but those are the ones that first pop in my mind. I'm personally using (and loving) the kessil a360we. Which is also sort of pricey, but you can get 2 for the price of one radion pro gen 3. Check out bulkreefsupply.com. They have just about everything and make their own products which work great and are cost effective. Big plus to me. Skipping around to V: command and signal, I would highly suggest looking into a aquarium controller. It does so much more than you think and can be the brain for your whole system. It can also save your system (turning off heaters if the temp gets too high, sending you alerts if something is out of wack,monitor ph, Salinity, etc.) A controller can really give you a peice of mind and do a lot of things for you. I suggest you continue your research on equipment and see what suits you best. My suggestions might not work for you and every tank is different.

 

[Bluetangclan]

Currently it is set up as a cichlid tank. I will be selling a few of the meaner Africans in my other tank which will enable me to move my breeding groups in the 125 over to that tank. Then I will start to build the project in its existing location. Currently it has a 40 gallon sump which other cichlid people find weird for some reason.

-Plumbed with PVC already.
-Already has a return pump.
I will check out the LEDs and pumps you listed, good leads.

Bonus points for J hehe

 

[danil]

Nice planning!
List of 'needs' is looking good. I will put my comments over you IV.

IV: Service and Support:
-Needed: An in sump skimmer that will work regardless of water level as it is also the evaporation tank. The current freshwater setup uses about 35 gallons a week in evaporation.
**This is A LOT of evaporation for 120g tank. This should be a mistake or you have small nuclear reactor for your ligting and heating . Skimmers need constant water level otherwise you wont be able to tune them up properly. It's really easy to achieve by putting single divider in your sump. Second option is to connect skimmer externally.

-A RODI unit that can attach to a hose or sink that is relatively fast, ie, not waiting all day to fill up buckets of water. Aquarium is not located anywhere close to a water source. Need to check current well water for its conditions, works fine unaltered for Africans, but might need to change things for SW.
** Even most efficient RODI system wont do what you want. You have to have some sort of water storage for your RO water. You have to plan for it. With your well water filters and membrane most likely will have short live cycle since water high in minerals.

-An LED fixture that doesn't break the bank.
** Good idea. I like LED fixture. And you are correct there are system for all budgets in mind. Best and most popular are radions, ati and kessil. They are all good and expensive . Chinese made lights are more price friendly and finally there is DIY light. Kits are widely available and if you have skills you can save some $$$.

-Mostly base rock to build things with some choice live rock from TBSW, hopefully he will let me pick it up since Tampa is only an hour and a half or so away.
** bulkreefsupply will help you with it. They have all soft of base rock to start with. Don't forget to clean them up and cure for few weeks.

-I guess I will add a bag of LS or get some from Tampa like I did my last SW tank.
**. Life sand is useless. Get dry send and save $$.

-Gotta think about any other equipment I might need.
** You need a controller. Look into Apex.. you need it.

- What powerheads are used now days? Vortecs that I think are still over priced I think still exist. What else is used? Maxijets were a big name along with those flimsy black ones with the strong magnets you stuck on the outside of the tank but seized up if you looked at them wrong.
** I would get few WP40 (Jebao). It will work well for some time. Then you can switch to high end pump if you need|want too.

-There is space for a reactor or two in the stand if need comes up that I have to supplement something on a constant basis. I haven't researched any breakthroughs in this area.
** I would check mentioned above web site for media reactor(s). You might need only one now for phosphate. Also if you plan to keep corals look into kalk dosing. You might need to plan for your RO storage next to your sump
GL!

 

[Bluetangclan]

Nope I have some cheap multi-spectrum LEDs from ebay and I keep the temp at 77ish. Note my other tank(75) only has a 20 gallon sump and it loses about 15 gallons every two weeks. I have not figured out why except maybe the surface area is too exposed. Now funnily enough I had my main AC unit drain get clogged(thanks to the moron who put the drain 8" underground for some reason) and it was filling up a 5 gallon bucket every day until I got it fixed. I would like to add a low canopy to maybe cut down on evap but it isnt like there is a lot else. Water hits the overflow and drops 3 feet down a pvc pipe and then hits a downward slant to the far end of the 40 gallon sump where it drops. The pipe ends about one inch from the bottom to cut down on splash noises. Perhaps a plastic plate over this section of the sump would reduce this as well once I get going on this.

Any skimmer would be in the center space. Now I have been reading there are some skimmers that you set the height of the interior water and it doesnt really care about the exterior level to a certain point.

I still need to check my water params. Probably pick up a general test kit. My Africans love the water, I add only some epson salt every so often, but cichlids are a bit hardier than coral and much less sensitive to unrelated crap(phosphates, etc) in the water.

Do I really need more than one wp40? I saw several videos on youtube last night and even in a 120, one was making nice waves on its own. Far cry different than 6 or seven years ago when you needed an expensive wave making machine that took up a lot of space in the tank.

On that note I will need to put some shims under one side of the stand. Even though its on the floor in my living room, there appears to be a slight slant and one side is lower than the other. Could very easily be the stand itself, in two years I havent pulled up a level to check, but that could make a difference with waves in motion.

 

[Sk8r]

Recommend for a starting read: stickies atop this section: especially SETTING UP and Dirt-Simple Chemistry.

The hobby has changed massively since 2000. Reefs grow corals reliably and rapidly; we keep many varieties of stony that we coudn't, prior. We tend to use no filters, but do use a skimmer; use live rock for filtration, and a balanced ocean-like chemistry dependent on alkalinity buffer/calcium/magnesium, as well as, of course, ocean salt. Rock to be used needs to be of specific types, and either fully live, or preconditioned.

 

[Bluetangclan]

We had corals growing fine back when I was doing things, they were a bit cheaper though. Darth Maul zoos and Blue Hornets were the big things in softies. SPSs were well SPSs.

Did they ever get around to breeding that Lightning Bolt clown fish that was found and sold for 5 digits?

My current issues is resolving new tech and new names in the world. Never heard of a Jebao before this thread, now I see a bunch as I research. Gotta figure out how many and of what size will give good wave action underwater but not splash out of the tank. Sounds like a lot of people have 40s but have dialed the motion waaay back. That's kinda cool, my power heads used to be either on or off and the old Tunze was the size of a small show box. Wish those would have been out in my old grassbed tank, that would have been cool.

I am fairly aware of the whole chemical process, I doubt anything has changed in that respect side from equipment to control it.
Are there any decent, good phosphate reactors?

Who makes a portable RODI unit? Ie. I can make a few gallons in a plastic barrel and put it away when I am done. Might end up putting it in my garage and hang it on the wall. Meleve's Reef used to make a good one I used for years.

Any good recommended HOB skimmers for a tank my size? Thinking that might be a way around my sump depth issues as opposed to an in-sump. Or perhaps an exterior sump skimmer sitting in some spare space I can run two lines to so depth doesn't matter.

What happened to FMarini? He was studying the lionfish invasion and used to have his own forum section on here and seems to have vanished.

I also need to make this aquarium as easily operated as possible in case I get deployed so my wife can handle it with minimal work outside of refilling water and feeding. Any suggestions in that department? In my old tanks when I was gone for a few weeks, it was easy to just make a 55 gallon drum of water with an auto-feeder and let my neighbor watch it(she had a weird fascination with the algae magnet things).

 

[Bluetangclan]

Alright, got around to doing a cheap water test just to see where I am starting from on the water front from my well. I don't have a phosphate tester but I will likely buy a reactor at some point regardless.
0 on Nitrate and nitrite as it should be
Ph was right around 8.2-8.3 which makes sense as well. I am on the FL aquifer and have been keeping Africans with no problems and no additives for years now.
KH pegged the meter I have at 240+ppm Is this going to be an issue?
General Hardness was at an estimate 15ppm
Any red lights flashing yet?
Still coming up with a plan for RODI. Current thinking is building a wood case and hide a barrel of some sort of water and use one of those new fangled auto-top offs and a slow pump and just fill the tub from a bucket which is filled from my RODI which I havent decided on in the garage or laundry room.

Oddly enough the water issue is one of my biggest hold ups at this time.... well aside from AC work, tiling two rooms(to repair damage from the AC), and just having had to replace a septic pump(high ground water so we have septic mounds for drain fields which need pumps in the septic tank to get the nasty water into them, and also serves as an expensive point of failure). Oh yeah and Christmas is coming up..... joy.