My 120 gal in-wall + Research Lab Build Thread

Ocean-Aquarium · Mar 20, 2018

Hello all! My name is Brian Plankis and I came and spoke to your club....a while ago....7-10 years ago? But over the last two years I have been planning my return to the hobby. Most of the planning is now done and the main tank got salty about two weeks ago. First, overall summary of system/goals: [Main tank: 120 gallons reef ready] [Sump: Roughly 90 gallons, will hold about 75 gallons of water normally.] [Quarantine tank: 20 gallons, able to be connected to main system when needed.] [Frag tank: 20 gallons, able to be connected to main system when needed.] [Research System 1: 4 10 gallon tanks, all of which can be independently connected/disconnected from main system for stability.] [Research System 2: TBD, this system will be 1-2 years down the road once I get familiar with the hobby's research needs.] [All of this will fit into my dedicated research lab which is roughly 20' x 20'. I will post exact dimensions when I remember to measure. ] [Research Plans:] [Nothing extensive yet, the first goal is to get all the plumbing done and get the entire system stabilized. Once that is accomplished I will start the first two research projects: ] [1. Breeding Banggai Cardinalfish. Plenty of people have done this before, I am going to start this project just to get used to breeding fish again. Will move onto something more complicated once I have gotten these producing like clockwork.] [2. The "DIBS Turbo". Once I have a stable system I will contact people I know who got some of the Turbos from me and get some of these snails shipped up here and begin to work with them again. Again, nothing special about working with these snails, but I will use them to practice scientifically documenting their life cycle so I can use these skills with a more difficult species later. ] [These two projects plus beginning to collect specific corals I want to attempt to breed (especially brooding corals) will keep me busy for at least the first 2-3 years. Then the REAL fun will begin. ] [Hello my name is Brian and I'm a total science geek.] [Brian]

Ocean-Aquarium · Mar 20, 2018

The main tank is a 120 gallon reef ready in-wall. Stand and custom wall were built for the tank. The tank is the corner of the wall so you can see front and left side of the tank. I will take a better picture soon, but here it is:View attachment 4601All that dead rock is from my old 75 gallon system in Houston, I saved EVERYTHING from my days there knowing I eventually would start again. I have been waiting to finish the research system before I order my new live rock so I can quarantine it properly. I will keep the rock in my research system initially to look for undesirable hitchhikers and document all the awesome life that comes in on the rock.At the same time I was working on the main tank I began setting up the research lab. I will post exact dimensions later, but the room is roughly 20' x 20' with a dedicated stainless steel lab bench for microscope work:View attachment 4603I then built an 8' long by 36" wide lab research bench that will hold the first research system. It consists of 4 - 10 gallon tanks, a 20 gallon broodstock/frag tank, and a 20 gallon quarantine tank. All of these tanks can be added to or isolated from the sump via ball valves. Here is the research table after being built:View attachment 4604Will be back soon to post more. Feel free to ask questions!

jenkinscrew · Mar 21, 2018

This is awesome! Will be exciting to see this all come together. What do you plan on putting/doing in the main display?

bump1 · Mar 21, 2018

You have a very nice set up there. Ill be tagging along to see all of your hard work. Welcome back to the hobby.

Ocean-Aquarium · Mar 21, 2018

Posted by: Chris This is awesome! Will be exciting to see this all come together. What do you plan on putting/doing in the main display? said:
Will be mostly a holding tank for broodstock for coral, fish and mobile inverts as I work to collect multiple specimens for breeding attempts. Fish will be all captive bred unless not currently bred in captivity and I want to attempt them. A couple of clowns and an anemone and Bangaai for sure, beyond that will depend on breeding plans. Ideally all captive bred snails and other inverts.Corals will be a mixture of corals I just want to have or my family wants (have to let the wife and kids select some) and mostly corals that are known brooding corals or are likely brooding corals as those are the easiest to breed. A few almost certain selections:Manicina areolata (suspected brooder, if I can get some from Florida aquacultured live rock, cannot be legally collected otherwise). Pocillopora damicornis (known brooder, only green and other more colorful morphs). There are MANY other brooding corals known, I will need to read up on the literature to select the ones with best chance of success:http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/60/m060p185.pdfBack when I was working with the RSF we were super close to recording Pocillopora settlement. I learned the basic techniques from Eric for concentrating the planulae and then trying to photo document the settlement. I have a couple of nice microscopes that might even be able to get video. But first I need to get the main lights up over the tank! I will have plenty of time to select the fish, corals and inverts for research.Brian

melev · Apr 2, 2018

That sounds great Brian. Where do you live these days?

Ocean-Aquarium · Apr 10, 2018

Posted by: melev That sounds great Brian. Where do you live these days? said:
Hey Melev! Good to hear from you. I'm in Indianapolis, IN now (and for the foreseeable future). I would have come to the frag swap and caught up with you if I had not been working that day! I'll reach out to you in a few months about a few things.Brian

Ocean-Aquarium · Apr 10, 2018

Happy Tuesday All! [ ]I'm happy to report that the research lab officially became operational this weekend. After several weeks of building, tweaking and testing, the system is now complete. I have limited time in my day and I made several conscious decisions to reduce or eliminate time needed for maintenance: 1. RO/DI system is installed to fill my freshwater reservoir with the turn of one lever and a float valve stops the water automatically to prevent overflows. 2. Water changes (WC) will be simple: Flip one switch to activate a pump that removes 20-25 gallons of water from the system to our sewer system. Flip a second switch to add fresh saltwater to the system. Then change the position of the WC pump and flip another switch to add freshwater into the saltwater bin. A small mixing pump and heater are then turned on with another switch and the next batch of saltwater will be ready in 24-48 hours and always ready for emergencies. 3. All heaters and lights are computer controlled or run through automated timers, so the lighting and heating system can run on its own indefinitely. The second phase of the research system design will add cooling fans to the system. Our first O-A volunteer, Gu, will be performing a risk mitigation analysis for the system soon and our goal is to be able to run basic life support for the system for up to a week without power/heat. 4. The lab system utilizes a Tunze Osmolator for auto top-off of evaporation losses from a 20 gallon reservoir. 5. All electricity used in the lab is on GFCI outlets for safety and every piece of equipment can be switched off individually through the American DJ power switching bars. A couple of pictures: 1. The in-wall 120 gallon main tank which will be used to display my tiny part of the reef, but also to hold broodstock for research purposes and for pictures to be used in our educational programs:View attachment 4787And the now operational research lab system:View attachment 4788Nice to see two years of waiting and planning come to life!Brian

melev · Apr 10, 2018

I love it when a plan comes together.

jenkinscrew · Apr 11, 2018

Looking good Brian!

Ocean-Aquarium · Jun 10, 2018

Hey all,Things in the lab are keeping me and our first volunteers very busy! We are shifting to providing updates via our blog rather than posting directly on other websites. I will still post here when some interesting developments happen to give you a heads up!You can see our latest update on our website's blog:https://www.ocean-aquarium.org/Our latest update is primarily about beginning to acquire broodstock for breeding efforts we will begin in the fall. One question for you all: When I last visited Dallas I'm fairly sure I distributed a few small packages of self-breeding inverts to your club members. The unique item in those packages was the "RSF Turbo" or "DIBS Turbo" which was a Turbo sp. snail that laid egg masses that developed into crawl-away babies. Do any of your members still have any of these snails? You may post comments on the blog or you can post them here, I will answer them either way!Brian

melev · Jun 10, 2018

Brian, best thing to do is post a link to your blog in this thread. I do that on Reef2Reef to my own blog. All my DIBS snails are long gone, sorry.

jenkinscrew · Jun 11, 2018

Thanks for the update Brian, will go checkout your blog link.

My 120 gal in-wall + Research Lab Build Thread

Ocean-Aquarium

Ocean-Aquarium

jenkinscrew

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bump1

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Ocean-Aquarium

melev

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Ocean-Aquarium

Ocean-Aquarium

melev

Club President

jenkinscrew

Premium Member

Ocean-Aquarium

melev

Club President

jenkinscrew

Premium Member