Reefing in a different way.

[Imz]

Good evening all.
My name is Chris and have had a marine aquarium 1 year turned to reef aquarium during my second year.
My aquarium setup has been more of a task then most due to how I am setup.
Currently my aquarium is a 36gallon bow front.
No overflows drilled but a fluval 206 canister filter hooked to it and hob eshopps psk 75 skimmer.
Lights are maintained by 1 current USA ic led and 2 660gph Wave makers.
Media in the canister filter runs as....matrix in first chamber. Seachem seagel and phosbond in second and a coarse sponge in bottom.
Maintenance is a 10gallonwater change with Aquavitro salinity salt at .025 Every week. (When Fowlr it was instant ocean. First corals started with Aquaforest reef crystals and now salinity)
Seagel is changed every 6 weeks and phosbond every water change.
I only dose Aquavitro fuel and nothing else.
(P.s I use to buy rodi water for 1$ a Gallon and bought 10 gallons every week with a brute container backup of 40gallons)
So already as you can see my journey has been a brutal one from the get go but the thrill of growth and life keeps me going.
As far as fish goes I've had such a horrible journey with them. (Ich)
My only legacy is a Randall Goby who has conquered the outbreak with the loss of 6 other tank mates.
Please note I did move all to hospital tanks and it kills me to lose them...even after following every precaution I never knew ich could be brought into the tank by corals.
I do have 2 skunk cleaner shrimp from the beginning of time and 1 hermit crab that is now the largest and king of the rock climbing and still 4 original trocus snails.

I've suffered algae battles at my 1.5year mark which got me onto phosbond.

My coral experience started with zoanthids and daisy star polyps. Loved the motion.
Lps then creeped in starting with Duncan and candy cane.
Followed by leathers sinularia finger and cabbage leather.
Then it blew up.
Hammers, frog spawn, acans, blastos, palys, mushrooms and gsp.

So now that the tank has been fishless and corals growing crazy for 4 weeks now I sit down and decided to take the step to grow.

Currently my gatherings of items are of the following...
150 gallon tall 48x24x30 corner overflow (2 one in each corner) durso style drain.
Trigger Systems Ruby 36
Jbj 1000w true temp heater
Eshopps s200 skimmer
Sicce sdc 9.0 return pump
Xf250 gyre with controller
X2 kessils a360we
Aquatic life 48 t5 led hybrid (back order till December 22nd)
Tunze ato
120lbs caribsea life rock
80lbs pink Fiji sand.

My stand i am currently building and hope to be done in the upcoming days.

It's a big leap and large investment but it's something I would like to journey down.
This is a new realm for me in this type of filtration with a sump but am looking forward to the larger ecosystem.
(P.s I did get a 150gpd rodi unit and am now making my own. Best investment I made few months ago)

Last photo I had with my livestock before the plague...

My horrible algae period that almost made me give up. But a 99cent tooth brush and constant water changes gave the tank it's beauty back.
Had to remove my corals due to major algae growth.

Will upload one more pic tomorrow with real time photo of tank now due to the moving of rock when fish had to be moved.

So all in all I'm starting over...
My main questions and concerns will be plumbing and setup.
This will be my only large tank and hope to have it last for many years to come.

 

[SAT]

Glad the crash didn't cause you to give up!

The algae problem was likely caused by more nutrients going into the tank than leaving, over a long period of time. It will take months or years for the effects of that to become a problem, but can be devastating when it does. May I ask, what method do you plan to use to balance nutrient import vs. export in the 150?

 

[Imz]

Evening. Apologies on the late reply. Been doing the main chores of the holidays.
For the first it's mechanical. The sump came with 2 mesh socks.
In this chamber will sit the eshopps s200 skimmer.
From that chamber it flows to a center which was meant to be for a refugium. But most likely I'll have it packed with matrix and rock rubble left over from seascape.
After the center chamber it drops over a dual baffle system that has racked shelving.
This might house my seagel in bags that water can run over before heading back to my return pump back into the tank.
I still require a lot of reading on reactors on the side for carbon and gfo if I go down this way instead of the seagel. Refugium is a big possibility but If I do go with this it needs to be separate and flows into the sump not a small portion in the sump.
Also a water change but not as frequent haha. 2 weeks maybe 3 but that might be pushing it. 30gallons is 20% of the display volume which might be enough. This weekend should be stand brought home from workshop then setup should start.

 

[Imz]

P.s Randall Goby still doing great. Getting a good belly on him. More then it was before.
Also the picture of the tank I said I was going to upload.

 

[SAT]

Looks nice!

The Seagel should keep the phosphates under control. I'm guessing it's more expensive than GFO but the convenience might be worth it.

 

[Imz]

Latest Update

Latest Update

Hey all it's been awhile.
So I got some valuable knowledge that I have learnt this far from trial and error.

I got my new tank stand 100% complete and finished.
Got my new tank all setup.

But have discovered many issues that have now been corrected.

Future lesson for all the adventurous tank stand builders out there.

Knowledge 1. Durso drain with an almost 6ft drop sounds exactly like a jacuzzi with max jets full throttle.
After converting the setup to herbie didnt even know why durso was still around....

Knowledge 2. Canopy cannot be air tight due to high chance of mold and mildew. Got the tank running to get cycled went away for 7 days came back to....pictures does not do it any justice. Heart breaking.

Knowledge 3. When moving the sump out to remove back panels in base cabinet for more air flow. Be sure to watch union sleeve when placing sump back. Caught mine without noticing and cracked the bulk head on left side.
One corner overflow full contains a lot of water. More then most people would think.

Knowledge 4. If a skimmer says it will work in max 9inches of water and your chamber has 10inches. It wont work....reality needs to be 8.5inches haha.

Knowledge 5. Be sure to run all cables needed if stand is close to wall or no clearance to get behind....4hrs of fishing the wires will cause things to get broke and sanity to be lost.

So besides those valuable pieces of knowledge I think I've got most things down pat.

The following pictures are of my journey so far with this new tank.

The canopy i reworked it now is lined with a mold and mildew blocker and essentially bathroom paint to help aid and combat mold and mildew. A decent size vent using fiberglass screen was added to the center and 2 cpu fans controlled by a switch to set the speed was installed.

Reason why i never did any vents in the first place was to try and keep all light spillage inside the cabinet. Even now there is no light spillage which i am so thankful for.

As far as the durso drain to herbie was new to me but now that it is setup like so i am glad that it worked out.
My new tank has 2 corner overflows (dual durso) what i did was turned the left side to full siphon let the return line stay as return in the overflow tower and turned the right drain into a emergency overflow but the return fully functioning. Stagnate water was my only challenge on the right side but is solved by a small hydor wave make at the bottom of that tower to move the water on that side.

As far as skimmer goes obviously platforms. ( The skimmer is tuned so nice right now its just right between thick crap and watery. haha)

Bulk head breakage caused me to remove whole floor of base cabinet out to make sure the hard wood floors below the cabinet didnt get damaged.
New modification is water tight floor in base which can now hold few inches of water.

As far as cables go. Hammer and drywall. Wall cavity is hell of a lot easier to fish through then hitting a 2inch by 2inch opening between cabinet tops and upper units.

The following pictures are the start process from beginning to current situation now.

 

[showmebutterfly]

Your cabinetry looks amazing! That is a gorgeous built-in and I am totally jealous. How's your tank coming along?

Sent from my SM-S902L using Tapatalk

 

[Jason9488]

That's a lot of mold from no ventilation

 

[Superbikejay]

Very nice cabinet work, can't wait to see this build develop.

Good job

 

[FullBoreReefer]

That's a lot of mold from no ventilation

Yikes!