Ctaylor81's 120-gal Upgrade

C

ctaylor81

So my quest to upgrade from my current 4 foot 90-gal to a 200 plus 6 foot tank will have to be delayed due to space constraints. The wifey is a bit strict on what I put in our living room, so my best bet was to get a little more depth and go with a standard 120-gal for now. I originally wanted to do a coast to coast external overflow, but being able to view the plumbing from the side was a deal killer. So, I contacted Rodney (My Exotic Fish and Corals) and got him to set me up with a euro-braced 120 with a single center overflow box from the guys at Planet Aquariums.

I began by obtaining this stand/canopy setup. It wasn't what I was 100% looking for, but it does have the doors on the canopy for easy access and it has a nice tall 40 inch base, so it will be much easier to view standing up.

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Next was the tank build, I went with a standard 120 (48x24x24), euro-braced, single center overflow box, PVC bottom and black silicone. The tank has a single 1.5" drain and two 3/4" returns.

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Lastly, I wanted a sump that incorporated a top off container so I didn't have the unsightly orange HD bucket in the stand any more. I went with a standard sump design (skimmer/intakeXrefugiumXreturn), but added the topoff area next to the return, which should hold around 8 gallons. The sump is 44x16x16, PVC bottom, bubble trap in intake section and I had them cover the back wall in black vinyl so it would help hide cords/clutter behind.

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The tank and sump were finished last week and I'll be picking them up this week to begin the setup process. I am still working on a few things, such as rocks, powerheads, supplemental lighting, etc., but I'll probably have the tank plumbed and water tested within the next week or so.

I purchased a new skimmer a few months ago (Reef Octopus 160XS). I'm going to see how this does with my bio-load for a while, but may upgrade to the XP2000SS later on down the road if the 160XS can't keep up.

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As far as lighting goes, I'm going to keep my custom 47" Cree LED setup for a while and will probably add a couple of T5's in for supplemental lighting. I have mounting height constraints, so I don't get the coverage I need to get proper lighting to the whole tank. A simple 2 bulb retro T5 setup would help get light to the lacking areas, so that is the way I am steering for now. This is not finalized yet, so we'll see what happens. I am strongly considering going with a more compact and out of the box setup like the AI Sol's, but again, I'll probably start with what I have and worry about that later on.

Return pump is a QuietOne 5000. I have a BRS reactor that will run GFO and I may add something for carbon later on, possible a TLF reactor to save space. I currently manually dose my 90-gal and a set of dosing pumps is in my near future as well.

This build may be slow until the end of the year, but here is the start. I'll try and keep it updated as much as possible. I'll put up better pic's of the tank and stand this week when I pick them up as well. Feel free to ask any questions or make any suggestions you see necessary.

Thanks everyone! This club/forum has helped my progression ten fold and I'm glad to be a part of it!

Oh, and here is the 90-gal I've had for about 14-months now. It has been a project in the making and has been my stepping stone to where I am now. It had its ups and downs, but has been an awesome tank for me to grow on. As you can see from the bottom of the tank, I'm out of room. Keep an eye out for a sale thread soon for the tank and some corals.

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Wow your ank look great. I love your sump with the auto top off chamber. I think I may have to steal that when I build my nano tank.

Kevin
 
Thanks. I really wanted an all in one sump, so this fits perfectly. It actually maximizes the space in the stand, as you don't have gaps between buckets/containers. I have about 46" or so in length to work with, so the 44" wide sump is going to fill it up nicely. I'm putting a squishy floor mat in the stand to help reduce any noise/vibrations, then stapling in a pond liner in case there is ever spillage or overflowing. It should all fit nicely once complete.

I got a lot of rock from the guy I bought the stand/canopy from, but there are only a few pieces I could work with to accomplish the rock-scape I'm looking to build. I've ordered pukani rock from BRS in the past, and plan to use a piece or two that I currently have, but I wanted to try something different, so I ordered 50lbs of Marco Rocks and 20lbs of their Prime Cuts. I have a few ideas I'm going to try to see if I can accomplish, so scaping this thing should be interesting. Hoping to make something I don't hate 6-months down the road.
 
A little progress report, picked up the tank and sump today. Here are a few pic's in my garage. Not the best, but they'll do for now. I'll get good pic's once it's in the house in a few weeks.

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I plan to put in a liner in the stand before the sump goes in, which I'll be picking up this weekend. Once I staple it in, I'll put the sump in the stand and start plumbing it.

As noted above, I ordered 50lbs of Marco Rocks and 20lbs of their prime cuts. Both boxes arrived today and I'm really happy with what I got. There was only 2 small areas of the flat pieces that broke off. Marco Rocks wraps each rock individually, whether flat or normal, so I was very happy with the condition the rocks came in. Very little breakage. Here are a few pic's of the prime cuts. Really nice pieces. I won't be able to use them all, so there will be a few up for sale in a few weeks.

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Next up is plumbing, water testing, scape building, etc. I ordered my bio-pellet reactor yesterday, so that should be here next week. I'm not going to set this up until I have everything here and functional, so it'll be a few more weeks at least until it has water in it. I'll put up some pic's of the regular Marco Rock once I get it out of the box and am able to play with it a bit.
 
My manual dosing days are over! Ordered the Bubble Magus 3 stage doser today, along with 2 Vortech MP40 ES's. Also ordering 25 more pounds of Marco Rock. As I said, this tank will be setup when I have everything in hand, so it's looking like I'll take down my 90-gal next week and begin setting up the new tank around new years.
 
I went ahead and took down the 90-gal today and transferred all of my livestock to my temporary holding tank. Yes, the wifey loves this setup! Gracie is guarding her fishy friends.

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The only thing I'm uncertain of right now is if my midas blenny made it through the transfer. He hid in a rock when we were taking it all out and by the time we figured out where he was, he spent a couple of minutes dry in a 5 gal bucket. He did show signs of life once we got him back in water, but I have not seen him since I put him in the holding tank (no carcass yet, so that is good). Fingers are crossed that he is OK.

Here is the new 120 in its resting place. I've still got a lot of work to do and I'm still waiting for several items to show up before I put water in it (2xMP40's, Apex controller, 2 bulb T5 retro to supplement the LED's).

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Special thanks to Bhavin (b22) for the help today, couldn't have got it done without him!
 
Thanks Bill and Ron. You guys have helped me in the past several times, so I'm trying to make it look like I've learned something, lol.

I've pretty much tied down my equipment list, so here it is. I have most of these items in hand, but waiting for the final few items to be delivered:

Lighting - 48 Cree LED's on a 47"x8.5" heatsink (Meanwell dimmable drivers), with a 48" 2 bulb ATI T5 retro fit kit for supplementation (will be playing with blue plus and fiji purple bulbs)
Flow - 2 x Vortech MP40W ES
Controller - Neptune's Systems AquaController Apex Lite
Skimmer - Reef Octopus Extreme XS 160 (may upgrade to the sump saver 2000 later on)
Return pump - QuietOne 5000
Dosing - Bubble Magus T01 dosing pumps
Bio pellet reactor - NextReef SMR1
Bio pellets - Warner Marine EcoBak ULNS Pellets
Carbon reactor - Bulk Reef Supply Deluxe
Manifold pump - Mag7
Top Off - JBJ ATO
Additional power management - DJ Power Switch
Rock - 75lbs of Marco Rocks, 20lbs of Marco's "prime cuts"
Sand - CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand

Hoping this gets the job done...
 
PVC bottom tanks aren't as light as they're cracked up to be, huh? Ha. Thanks again for your help.

I got the main plumbing done this week, pretty basic, but it seems to work. I water tested with fresh water yesterday and found a few small leaks, but should have those fixed up shortly. The tank was pretty loud, so I need to mess with my durso a bit to quiet it down. Wires will be clean and out of the way, I'm just waiting for all of it to be in there before I tie it all together. I'm a bit disappointed in the noise created by the QuietOne pump, I was hoping it would live up to its name, but not so much right now. Maybe after it runs for a while it will quiet down. If not, I'll be in the market for a replacement.

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The bio-pellet reactor will be plumbed in where it is, the carbon reactor will be somewhere near it, and the dosing pumps/containers will be on the far right side of the stand. I plan to only dose alk/ca using the pumps, and will probably dose mag as needed by hand.

I received the retro T5 kit and I put it together. I ran out of time yesterday and was busy today, so I didn't have time to get them mounted. I'll get that done in the next few days. I am still waiting for my MP40's and the Apex, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed they arrive this week so I can get this thing finished and ready by the end of next weekend (3-day weekend for me). I like doing everything at once, that way I don't have to re-do everything when something new arrives. This is the method to my madness, so once I get the final 2 pieces (MP40 & Apex), I'll start knocking things out left and right.

Update on my livestock: I lost all of my SPS in the transfer to the holding tank, but all of my fish pulled through and are doing great. My monti-cap nuked the holding tank, so I was desperately scrambling to save everything else. Made lots of water and did a few water changes. All other corals are doing well now. I was hoping the anemone would split with all of the stress, but no dice. It is back to normal and huge as ever.

I'll update with progress pic's later this week.
 
Thanks for the comments guys. I did the rock work Saturday and got the tank 3/4 filled with water last night, but ran out, so I had to make water over night. When I get home from work this afternoon, it will be filled and the pumps turned on for the first time. I'll post up some pic's once it clears.

I did make one change, and that was the lighting. I decided to sell my LED's and give T5's a try, so I'm ordering a new TEK 8 bulb fixture today. The tank will be fairly dark until I receive the new unit, so hopefully it'll get here by the end of the week. I've had a few forms of LED's since I started the hobby, so I'd like to see what I can do with T5's before I decide which lighting method I like the best. I've seen a ton of great tanks that are lit with T5's, so I'm hopeful I can find a happy medium with them.
 
If you don't mind me asking... where did you get the stand and canopy? My wife really likes it. I just picked up the same size tank from another forum member and was planning to build the stand. But, she likes yours, and she wasn't crazy about my last stand... LOL
 
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