xtrstangx's 120g BB thread

[Wiskey]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6586505#post6586505 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by elephen
Bomber has been gone for a while, I guess RC had a 'cleaning out' party and he was made unwelcome from what I understand. I may be wrong -- oh well.

I sure did enjoy RC alot more reading all of his posts, wish he had some sort of a blog though, I learned quite a bit from him.

Bomber is not unwelcome, but some nasty things happened to him and he has decided to stop posting here. There is somewhere else you can find him, but for the moment he is not posting there either, or answering PM's for the most part.

Tagging along, just found this, BB won't make me jump ship

Whiskey

 

[elephen]

Well thats what I was trying to imply, basically when nasty things happen and all that it makes you feel very unwelcome...

Wish I knew where to find him.

Max- Are you going to add baffles to that sump?

 

[xtrstangx]

Good to see you joined us Wiskey.

elephen- Probably going to put in 2 baffles. One thing that I want is a huge return area. Mine right now is only about 5 gallons... and I evaporate about a gallon a day. If I don't top off every day, the pump will suck air. This tank will have an autotopoff so it doesn't really matter anyways.

Today's schedule is to clean the sump, decide on my baffles, do a water change, and make a trip to the fish store. Should be a busy day.

 

[Wiskey]

Thanks, I need to go to the begining of this thread and read it now, to see if I have anything of use to add.

Off to read,
Whiskey

 

[xtrstangx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6664342#post6664342 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Wiskey
Thanks, I need to go to the begining of this thread and read it now, to see if I have anything of use to add.

Off to read,
Whiskey

It started off as a 75g DSB tank and somehow changed into a 120g BB tank. It might be a little hard to read/understand.

 

[Wiskey]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6664361#post6664361 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xtrstangx
It started off as a 75g DSB tank and somehow changed into a 120g BB tank. It might be a little hard to read/understand.

WOW, that is quite an "about face" I think it is for the better though

I will still give reading it a chance.

Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

Ok, now I have a suggestion. To make this a little simpler to understand, perhaps you could do now, what you did on the first post. Put a full list of your current plans, it would likely help us all out .

elephen, let me know if you got my PM.

Whiskey

 

[xtrstangx]

Good idea Wiskey:
So far this is what I have planned:
- Display tank: 120g with external overflow from Aquarium Masters (I think thats the name)
- Closed loop: Sequence Dart with 5 1" returns
- Lighting: 2 250w ARO ballasts running XM 10K's and in a month I will get a Workhorse 7 running 2 URI Superactinics
- Skimmer: ASM G3 (perhaps ozone in a few months.. but not anytime soon)
- Live Rock: 45 pounds of Fiji (existing), 45 pounds of kaelini (cooking), and getting maybe another 20-30 pounds of good looking rock (arches to get my rock off the bottom I thinks)
- Sump: 75g with 2 baffles
- Fuge: no fuge
- Return pump: GenX PCX-40
- Substrate: 3/8" HDPE (aka Starboard) from http://usplastics.com
- Misc: Phosban reactor (for carbon and Phosban)
- Calcium supplementation: for now Randy's 2 part Cal/Alk additive, maybe for my birthday I'll get a calcium reactor from http://aquaticsystemdesign.com
- Flow: 2 Seio 820's in the back corners and 2 Maxi-jet 1200 in the rockwork for flow on the bottom.

Everything sound good?

 

[elephen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6664575#post6664575 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Wiskey
Ok, now I have a suggestion. To make this a little simpler to understand, perhaps you could do now, what you did on the first post. Put a full list of your current plans, it would likely help us all out .

elephen, let me know if you got my PM.

Whiskey

Yes I did get it and I replied

 

[elephen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6664689#post6664689 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xtrstangx
Good idea Wiskey:
So far this is what I have planned:
- Display tank: 120g with external overflow from Aquarium Masters (I think thats the name)
- Closed loop: Sequence Dart with 5 1" returns
- Lighting: 2 250w ARO ballasts running XM 10K's and in a month I will get a Workhorse 7 running 2 URI Superactinics
- Skimmer: ASM G3 (perhaps ozone in a few months.. but not anytime soon)
- Live Rock: 45 pounds of Fiji (existing), 45 pounds of kaelini (cooking), and getting maybe another 20-30 pounds of good looking rock (arches to get my rock off the bottom I thinks)
- Sump: 75g with 2 baffles
- Fuge: no fuge
- Return pump: GenX PCX-40
- Substrate: 3/8" HDPE (aka Starboard) from http://usplastics.com
- Misc: Phosban reactor (for carbon and Phosban)
- Calcium supplementation: for now Randy's 2 part Cal/Alk additive, maybe for my birthday I'll get a calcium reactor from http://aquaticsystemdesign.com
- Flow: 2 Seio 820's in the back corners and 2 Maxi-jet 1200 in the rockwork for flow on the bottom.

Everything sound good?

After seeing my setup what did you think? I have a ton of flow and STILL don't have enough to keep all the detrius from settling... That reminds me I need to run to Lowes and pickup a long tube to siphon and do new water changes. Got my UV hooked up and running this morning so we'll see how that helps.

Anyway back to the moral of my posting, you MAY want to consider a Tunze 6100/6200 or one of the new VorTech pumps that are controllable and you can run programs on (wave, surge, etc). I have 2 of the VorTech pumps from Ecotech Marine on pre-order so hopefully in March when they finally start shipping I'll have them soon. Supposed to be very cool, 100gph-3100gph at 40w...

 

[xtrstangx]

Your setup was really neat. I'm not sure about the flow.. I think I might have enough that I can direction at problem areas (with the Seio's and Maxijets). But that is probably just wishful thinking.

I may go with a big Seio (1100 or 1500 or whatever) and put that in the front of the tank. I'm also thinking about the VorTech pumps too. They look pretty neat.

I don't anticipate the tank being up and running till atleast mid-March so. I have 4 weeks minimum to get the tank from the builder and then atleast 2 weeks building the stand once I have the tank. Then a few days in plumbing, a few days of running it with all my rock to make sure there is no cycle, and then finally moving everything over.

Does $1500 sound like too much to sell my old 40g setup for? It comes with a nice canopy/stand, ASM skimmer, sump, and 2x175w MH with an actinic. Its pretty much a complete setup, just add rock and you are good to go.

 

[Wiskey]

New point, with bb you want to stack your rock loose, so flow can get around and between it, a little rock goes a long way, plus you need lots of room for your sps to grow out .

To keep my rock off the bottom of the tank, I drilled holes in the bottom peices with a drill, and took cut up peices of plastic coat hanger, put CA on them and shoved them in the holes. I put 3 feet per rock, this keeps the rock from "rocking" (pun definatally intended ) and it keeps my rockwork more stable.

Whiskey

 

[xtrstangx]

I was thinking of going with a PVC/eggcrate rock rack. I'll make that when I get the tank as I'm not sure how they are doing the bracing/etc. That way the back of the rockwork is open and I'll be able to have atleast 1 Maxi-jet dedicated at cleaning it off.

 

[xtrstangx]

Well, not much has happened. The entire family has been sick in the past week (all 5 of us).

This weekend my brothers come home from college with the truck. That means work can begin this weekend on the basement fish room.

I ordered my Dart and my ASM G3. The G3's are backordered and should be here next week, but I got my Dart yestarday. Dang, that thing is HUGE!

I also picked up a 75g for my sump. So either today or tomorrow I am going to drill it for my return pump.. After I get the G3 in, I am going to order my baffles. (not quite sure what I want to do yet).

Its looking like the end of May or even early April before I get the tank.

I'll take some pics today as I have a 4-day weekend.

 

[xtrstangx]

Tank is ordered. He says it will be $400-$500... not bad compared to what I was quoted by another manufacturer ($1200).

So we got about 1/6 of the framing done in the fish room tonight. It was a PITA cause the wall has a 135ishÃ"šÃ‚º angle. But we made this section out of metal, which I think is much easier.

I also cleaned out my return pump, the GenX PCX-40. Long story short, I couldn't take the fan off to clean it. So it is still pretty dirty, but I'm going to give it a new coat of white paint tomorrow.

So I'm hoping the last day of April, I will have water in the tank. Sound reasonable?

 

[xtrstangx]

The drywall is starting to go up on the fish room.

I'm going to get a ReefKeeper 2 from http://digitalaquatics.com to control my tank.

No word on when the tank is going to come in.

The price on my lights went up $100... my dad thought it would be a "waste" to order them two weeks ago despite the fact that the ballasts were like $20 off and the bulbs were 66% off.

 

[xtrstangx]

99.9% done with drywalling. I have a 3" strip to put up in one of the corners and a 3'x6" strip to put above the doorway to the workshop.

I'll try to sneak some pics in soon.

Spring break is next week... so excited.

 

[xtrstangx]

For lights I am thinking of 2x250w XM 10K running on either PFO or Hamilton Dual ballasts. I have 2 dual-VHO ballasts so I will either run 2 URI Super Actinics or 4. I need to buy another wiring harness for the 2nd ballast and make sure my circuit can handle the extra load.

 

[xtrstangx]

Changed my ideas on the lights. I decided not to go with the XM, going to try one of the newer bulbs: Coralvue Reeflux. These bulbs are meant to run on electronic ballasts and get much better color and PAR from them.

So 2x250 Reef Fanatic e-ballasts with the Coralvue 10K bulbs. Still going to use 2x110w URI Super Actinics on a Coralife e-ballast.

Drywalling is done, mudding & taping is done. Tonight we are going to go out and look at countertops. The opening where the cabinets are going is 10'4. The longest countertops HD and Lowes carries is 10'.. It is about 5 times more per foot if you get a 12' counter top, so thats out of the question. I think we are going to check out Builder's Surplus tonight and see what we can come up with as far as a 12' countertop.

I'll get pics of the fish room and tank as soon as I get a new battery.

Anyone still following this thread? I think everyone left when I went from DSB -> BB

 

[elephen]

I'm still watching I cant wait to come see it setup.

For a counter top why don't you just build your own. Get some cheap tile or an expoxy based paint and just go with wood.