Zach's 120 Gallon Reef Resurgence

[zachxlutz]

Man, that is looking sweet!

I have a few suggestions.

On your hood, you may want to add felt or something, to fill the slight gap under the top, so light doesn't peek through.

Are you putting more lights in the hood? If not, consider moving the ones in there towards the front of the tank. You want the lights in front, so you are looking at the lit side of your fish, etc., as opposed to the shaded side.

It looks very nice in your dining room, but don't forget the most important species-you. You need a very comfy place to sit and observe the tank.

Thanks man, I always appreciate your input.

Regarding the hood: I added the felt in certain spots, not thinking about how it was going to let the light leak out. I'm going to switch that up and use a tubular weatherstripping to completely seal the top.

Regarding the light placement: I hadn't even considered that but it's now high on my priority list to move the lights closer to the front. That makes a lot of sense!

Regarding the tank placement: The dining room is just about the only place in the house where we could manage to fit the tank, but we really think it's a great place. We often eat lunch and dinner at the dining room table as well as spend a lot of time in the area as it leads to our back door and subsequently the back porch. We travel the area frequently as we're always letting the dogs in and out of the back yard. I think we'll be very happy with it here... I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time in the chairs in front of the tank staring at everything!

 

[zachxlutz]

So, a couple things have happened since I last posted.

I picked up the ReefKeeper Elite, which I may make a separate post about... I'm struggling with getting MyReef 2.0 to see any modules but the SID (usb attachment) and the SL1. When I plug anything else into the SL1 through the SID cable, it disappears from my listing of modules. It's the only one that will show up, the head unit, the power bars, nothing shows up. I've done a bit of googling and exhausted my knowledge. I've got no problem setting it up from the head unit, but the MyReef software would likely make this easier.

We finally decided on a piece of furniture, from IKEA, to house the Reefkeeper Elite controller and power strips on the "controller board", lighting ballasts and 5 gallons of ATO water. I hope 5 gallons is enough to keep me from having to fill up the ATO container too often. If it turns out to be too small, I may be able to cram a 10 gallon tank into the bottom of the cabinet and squeeze the ballasts under the cabinet. Looking at the picture, it appears I need to line up the cabinet doors a bit better. I'll tackle that once the cabinet is positioned correctly and attached to the wall.

I'll post a follow-up, with inside shots of the cabinet, after I wrap up the controller board and wiring this weekend.

4 bags of CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand in Bimini Pink ready to go in:

I already dumped the 2 containers of Mineral Mud into the fuge, I think I'm going to go ahead and fill that section of the sump with water, get a small powerhead going and let the silt settle out so it doesn't cloud the tank too bad when I turn the system on.

I've got 150 gallons of saltwater mixing in the garage ready to go in the tank. We'll do this Saturday when the pump and 100' of vinyl hose shows up from the delivery man.

I'm sure you're all really wondering about the big white buffalo head from the picture up top... My girlfriend is, among other things, a photographer and went to school at SCAD in Atlanta and it was one of her projects. It's a wire mesh frame with individually tied small pieces of string covering the whole thing. We're going to hang it in the corner above the cabinet once we get everything where it needs to be. Everyone loves the buffalo when they see it, so we think it's going to be great as a display piece of art.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Coming along nicely!

You could add a thin layer of sand on top of your mud to minimize clowding.

Your girlfriend could probably sell a bunch of those buff heads hear in Boulder, to CU students. Although she probably never wants to make another one!

 

[zachxlutz]

WE DID IT! IT'S HAPPENING!

I've had the past two weeks off from training on the bike to promote recovery, physically and mentally, to lead me into a successful cyclocross season, so I made the most of my free time and wrapped up all the final major components to the system.

First and foremost, I didn't want to take any chances with the floor caving in so I installed two jack-posts directly under the tank in the crawlspace.

Checked for level... BOOM!

The next step was to take the rock out of the holding bins in the mixing station and play around with aquascaping. This was what I ended up with in my make-shift "rule of thirds" "display tank". It's not exactly what I ended up with in the tank, but it was a great way to help visually guide me before hanging over the side of the tank on a step ladder.

At this point, I felt comfortable with filling the tank. I pumped the water in from the mixing station in the garage through a 1/2" 80' vinyl hose. It didn't take that long at all. The worst part was running out of water with about 20 gallons to go. I had to wait for the RO/DI unit to make the water before I could get the tank running. UGH! We got it though!

Getting everything closer to wrapping up...

 

[zachxlutz]

At this point I was ready to finalize the controller board, as well as implement some cooling into the storage/controller cabinet. This was my initial layout of the controller board.

I was happy with that, so I went ahead and drilled the holes and mounted all the modules. I also took this time to cut holes in the back of the cabinet for wire management and a cooling fan, as I knew the light ballasts for the metal halide and power compact lights were going to get hot. I'm really happy with how it all turned out. The Homer bucket is for ATO water, soon to be Kalkwasser ATO water when my shipment from BRS arrives. I think I'll switch the orange bucket out for a white one I have in the garage. IIRC correctly the white buckets are food grade, but the orange ones aren't? Not sure.

I also drew up a small wiring diagram for the inside face of the cabinet door for future reference. I'm going to end up relabeling all the power cords with smaller easier to read tags, as well as label the power strips with my label maker. (Which is conveniently missing! Hmmmm....)

Now, for the money shot!

Some more initial setup work remaining:

• Skin the stand.
• Wire management between tank and controller cabinet.
• Build a hidden wall/channel to hide wiring running between stand and controller cabinet.
• Paint.
• Weatherstipping in canopy to prevent light leak.
• LIVESTOCK!
• OTHER THINGS I'M FORGETTING!

 

[zachxlutz]

Coming along nicely!

You could add a thin layer of sand on top of your mud to minimize clowding.

Your girlfriend could probably sell a bunch of those buff heads hear in Boulder, to CU students. Although she probably never wants to make another one!

Thanks! I did add a layer of sand over the mud and it helped some with the clouding. The tank is currently running a floss type filter between the baffles in the sump to help clarify... It's about ready to come out, the water looks great!

I'm sure she never wants to make another one of those heads again... It took her FOREVER!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Tank looks great!

Moments after mentioning your light leak, I noticed one on my tank! It's been there for 15 years…

 

[zachxlutz]

Tank looks great!

Moments after mentioning your light leak, I noticed one on my tank! It's been there for 15 years"¦

Thanks! I think I'm going to use a tubular weather stripping gasket. I'll go poke around Home Depot until I find the right product. Always something to find at HD!

 

[zachxlutz]

Tank Equipment Updates:

I placed an order with Bulk Reef Supply and got a few things recently. Most notably, I added a carbon reactor and a GFO reactor. I'm pretty happy with the placement of them, but not happy with the routing of the plumbing from the manifold to the reactors and subsequently from the reactors back to the sump. I'm going to try and find a roll of that same 1/2" hose they sent with the reactors and re-do the routing to make both reactors follow the same plumbing routes. Just not happy with how the separate reactors have such dissimilar plumbing.

Additionally, I swapped the big PC light pod over the refugium out with something with a little smaller form factor and a better spectrum for growing the macroalgae. The lamp is an LED grow light from amazon.

Livestock/Macroalgae:

I placed an order with reefcleaners.org and added some dwarf ceriths, some nassarius, some florida ceriths, some nerites and a couple of hermits. They're doing well in the display, I'm dropping a small sinking algae wafer in the tank every few days in order to provide something for them to scavenge as well as add some bioload to the tank.

One of the snails already laid some eggs...

Action shot of one of the hermits going to town on the algae wafer...

In addition to the snails and hermits, I also added a ball of chaetomorpha and a small piece of red gracilaria. I've just got the chaeto floating in the refugium, while the gracilaria is attached to a small piece of liverock with a rubber band. Both seem to be responding well to the new LED lighting setup.

Also, I added one bag of Pods+ and one container of Reef Pods in order to help start the population off strong, as I used dry rock.

 

[zachxlutz]

RO/DI + Saltwater Mixing Station + Water Change Setup:

In the BRS order, I also received bulkheads and a few plumbing pieces to construct my RO/DI + Saltwater mixing station. The left 44 gallon Brute can holds the RO/DI water which has a float switch in order to provide security from over filling. It's plumbed to the tank on the right through a set of valves which lead to a Lifegard Aquatics Quiet One Aquarium Pump 5000. From the pump, the water can be diverted to fill up the saltwater can, mix the saltwater or pump saltwater to the tank for a water change. The hanging hose is 1/2" vinyl hose, I'll just keep it hooked up and hanging there for easy access and ability to bring it through the house from the garage. The saltwater mixing can has a heater in it as well in order to bring the freshly mixed saltwater up to temp.

 

[zachxlutz]

Oh! I forgot to add... The water change system works perfect. I did a change of about 30 gallons this weekend with no trouble whatsoever!

Most of the invasive sump setup work is done and now I can begin working on my design for skinning the stand. I'm thinking I'm going to make the whole skin removable in order to have easy access to the sides. Research incoming.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Nice job on the mixing station! Very well thought out.

Keep an eye on those hermits. In my experience, they kill snails, which are better algae eaters. Then once you start feeding the tank, they eat leftover fish food, not algae.

 

[zachxlutz]

Nice job on the mixing station! Very well thought out.

Keep an eye on those hermits. In my experience, they kill snails, which are better algae eaters. Then once you start feeding the tank, they eat leftover fish food, not algae.

Thanks, it should serve my purposes well. I'm going to build a stand under it so that I can store buckets of salt and supplies under the mixing station. At that point I'm going to add another bulkhead to the bottom of the fresh water container to fill up my ATO containers easier.

I don't mind having killer hermits. They're fun to watch and provide a little bit of excitement. If I notice the snail population dwindling, I'll likely replace some as needed.

 

[scubadan206]

Nice setup. Same size DT as mine.
Your approach is a bit, OK a lot, old school, but it will do fine for you.
Depending on what kind of corals you are planning on, I'd save some space for your dosing containers and dosing pumps. Do it now before you're too comfortable with everything.
Also circulation pumps have grown a few generations in the last 10 years. Not saying you need a thousand dollars worth of pumps, but I think an upgrade may be in the future.
Last bit of advice is to set up your quarantine tank now just to get it cycled and ready as well.
Yes. You need to quarantine.
Best of luck. :celeb3::celeb1:

Daniel.:wildone:

 

[zachxlutz]

Nice setup. Same size DT as mine.
Your approach is a bit, OK a lot, old school, but it will do fine for you.
Depending on what kind of corals you are planning on, I'd save some space for your dosing containers and dosing pumps. Do it now before you're too comfortable with everything.
Also circulation pumps have grown a few generations in the last 10 years. Not saying you need a thousand dollars worth of pumps, but I think an upgrade may be in the future.
Last bit of advice is to set up your quarantine tank now just to get it cycled and ready as well.
Yes. You need to quarantine.
Best of luck. :celeb3::celeb1:

Daniel.:wildone:

Yep, getting the 29 gallon going soon. I'm going to place some media in the sump to help cycle the QT tank.

I'm not planning on getting to the point where i have to individually dose additives on a daily basis. I'd like to keep SPS and hard corals, but pick and choose what I put in the tank. I'd rather have a few really nice pieces rather than a ton of mediocre things, I think. I'll fill the rest in with LPS, softies and an anemone. I hope to only ever have to use kalkwasser in my ATO as my main additive.

The powerheads are just placeholders until I make up my mind on how I want to get flow going in the tank. I'm currently thinking of either 2 maxspect xf230 gyres set at either end of the tank or using the RKE to set up a couple wave modes and use 2-3 Sicce Voyager 4 powerheads.

Why do you call the tank old school? The MH lighting? The DIY approach? I do think adding some LED lighting in the future would be cool and slim down the top of the tank and reduce heat and power consumption. Other than the lighting, I don't think there are too many things different than most of the modern tanks I see on here.

Anyway, thanks for your comments, I'm very excited to see how the tank progresses.

 

[zachxlutz]

I posted this elsewhere, but thought I'd post it here as well... I'd like to upgrade the flow in the tank and have a few options I'm considering:

It's come time to look at upgrading the flow situation in my 120 gallon 4'x2'x2' tank and I'd kindly like to ask for your advice. Here's a link to my build thread if you'd like to peruse through before offering your advice: Zach's 120 Gallon Reef Resurgence.

I'm planning on keeping a mix of softies, LPS, SPS... a nice mix of everything. Currently the tank is running two 1600 gph SunSun JVP-201B powerheads (remnants of the past). They're working fine but my inclination is that they won't work well with my Reefkeeper Elite running them on a wavemaker timer as they tend to clatter and clank when I turn them on and off.

Option A:

I've got the Reefkeeper, which has the ability to control powerheads as a wavemaker which opens up the possibility of using 2x Sicce Voyager 4s (1600 gph each) set up through the Reefkeeper on timers and the 2x SunSun powerheads running full time. This would give me a total of 6400 gph with all units on and around 4800 gph as the two Voyagers would likely run at opposing times in order to create more random flow.

Cost: Approximately $178.00

Option B:

Continue to use the SunSun powerheads and add a Maxspect Gyre 230. This would give me a max flow rate of 5500 gph using all pumps and a minimum of 3200 gph as the gyre runs through it's scheduled flow pattern. I like this option due to the laminar flow that the gyre provides.

Cost: Approximately $290.00

Option C:

Any other ideas?

Final Thoughts:

I enjoy having new technology and adding the Maxspect with it's separate controller would be cool but also possibly open up the door to more complications as I'd be essentially adding another controller to the mix. The cost is a little higher and the flow is a little less, albeit laminar and different than the 2x Voyagers. The obtrusiveness of the Gyre seems like it'd be a little less than adding two of the big Sicce Voyager powerheads. Help! I just can't make up my mind.

 

[zachxlutz]

The tank is showing some early signs of maturity. The rock is becoming a more uniform color, some light brown algae is appearing on the glass, rock and sand. The refugium is also showing some signs of algal growth as well as seeing new growth in the chaeto and the gracilaria.

FTS:

 

[scubadan206]

Yeah the MH lights, the overflows, the black paint, the HOB skimmer. Stuff that someone would have laying around as if they had a tank set up 10-15 years ago. I got some of the same things from a guy who did just that.
Most, or all of it, will work just fine. Upgrade as you see fit.

Daniel.
:thumbsup:

 

[zachxlutz]

Yeah the MH lights, the overflows, the black paint, the HOB skimmer. Stuff that someone would have laying around as if they had a tank set up 10-15 years ago. I got some of the same things from a guy who did just that.
Most, or all of it, will work just fine. Upgrade as you see fit.

Daniel.
:thumbsup:

The main thing I want to upgrade as the system gets stocked is the skimmer. It's definitely under rated for the tank. In doing some initial research, I think the chamber in the sump that would hold a submerged skimmer is too small. I'm going to look into a different sump system at that point... I have another 55 gallon tank I may look at building up as a sump so that I can easily swap from the existing sump to a new one with a better setup for a new skimmer.

 

[zachxlutz]

MILESTONE!

This past weekend we reached a pretty big milestone with the tank. After watching our ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, calcium, alkalinity and pH levels over the past few weeks, I felt comfortable adding a few pieces of hardy coral to the tank. We stopped by Atlanta Aquarium Saturday morning after picking up some books for my girlfriend from Titan Comics, located in the same shopping center. Everyone at the store was very helpful in picking out coral and everything looked so healthy. We had a really hard time deciding on what we wanted but eventually settled on 4 pieces of coral.

Duncan (the largest piece we got, 1 large head and several babies popping up under the main head):

Frogspawn (tiny! cute!):

Fungia (very small little baby, but opening up great):

Zoanthid (Dragon Eye?):

We're also getting great growth from the macros in the 'fuge, although the red spectrum LED makes photographing it impossible with the iPhone:

And finally, a FTS showing the initial placement of the coral. None has been glued down or permanently mounted as they are so small and we're not really sure what direction we want to take the tank with what future corals we'd like and what sort of placement we'd like.

The fungia is on the substrate near the left side of the right island. The duncan is on the top right of the right island. The frogspawn in on the top left of the right island. The zoas are placed in the center of the left island.

I've been playing with the placement of the two existing powerheads while I still contemplate what the next powerhead purchase will be. I'm really leaning towards the new Maxspect Gyre 230 at this point.

We're also patiently waiting to get fish in the tank. It's come to the point in time where I'd like to start coming up with a plan for what fish we're going to want and the order of introduction to the tank. I've got the QT tank set up next to the DT and I've got some filters in the sump of the main tank building up bacteria so the QT tank should cycle relatively minimally.

We're really at a loss for what fish we want! I'd like a shoal/school of something beautiful... I really like anthias but I'm afraid they're going to require a lot of feeding and I'd really like to keep feeding the tank down to once a day. I'd like a tang but I'm not sure how well it would do in a 120. We definitely want clowns, although we haven't decided on what sort of variation yet.

Anyway, that's today's update! Thanks for following along!