SFeST's 100g mixed reef build/fiesta

[SFeST]

Hello friends. It's time for me to start from scratch again after uncontrollable circumstances forced me out of this hobby a little while ago (I had a 55 softy tank for a number of years.) While in the middle of remodeling our front room recently, I decided that now is as good a time as any to get back into it.


I picked up this sweet 100 gallon (60x20x18) tank/stand/misc goodies off my local craigslist a few weeks ago, and I've been lurkin on these forums in the mean time and picking up things as I go along. My skimmer is showing up Monday and I think I'm about ready to start filling this bad boy up with water. Probably tomorrow.


Time for some pics:

Ze Full Tank Shot, with a pile of power heads and some pvc that I was messing with for aquascaping. Most of the powerheads came with the tank deal.





Wet dry converted to refugium, plumbed into a generic target bin for sump (roughly 40 gallons of extra volume total)




Power outlets/timer array to be mounted under the stand, as far away from the sump as possible. I'm gonna rig the 5-stage somewhere in my garage and get creative with making it get to the tank



One of the many goodies that came with the tank. This was brand new, never even opened.




My camera died after that last pic but I'll keep this all well updated. As I said, my skimmer is showing up monday (NW200) as well as a bunch of testers and other junk from marine depot. I'll order the lighting soon. I'm going to order the 4x60" t-5 retro from reefgeek with Blue plus x 2, Aquablue, and GE 6500k. Overdriven 60 inchers put outabout 100 watts each, so this should be plenty of light for my tank since it isn't all that deep.


This is going to be the full setup:
100 acrylic tank w/ overflow
20 gallon fuge
~20 gallon sump
Octopus NW200 skimmer
4x60" t-5 retro (2x icecap 660)
~100 lb live rock, with a few base rocks if I need them
rio2500 (return pump)
seio620 x 2
maxijet900 w/ mod
rio200 to hide in the rocks
25 watt UV sterilizer
80-100 lbs of sand
2 heaters (I think one is 300w and the other is 150w)
20 gallon gravity fed auto top off (still in the works)


My goal with this tank is to keep it as simple as possible to maintain. It doesn't get too hot where I live, and with only t-5 lighting my evaporation will be minimal (My last tank I remember was reeeealy slow.) A 20 gallon brute trash for auto top off can be cleverly hidden in the garage behind the wall that the tank is on. With proper amounts of kalk mixed in it (with an air tight lid I'm told,) should make maintenance a breeze. I don't plan on keeping SPS, but if I ever get bitten by the bug, I have enough room in my hood to add 1 or 2 more bulbs. I wont even need another ballast. I might even be able to get away with one or two forgiving specimens kept way up high. Other than that, I plan on a fiesta of soft and hard corals with a clam or two. I see frags for sale all the time on my local craigslist and I plan to stock up on as many different colors as possible and let the tank grow out. Fish list I still have time to work on. As soon as the skimmer arrives (assuming I finished the plumbing and got it filled with SW) I think I'll hop down to the LFS for live rock.

Questions, comments, concerns, don't hold back. I'm sure I forgot to list something. These threads are some of my favorite to read (and I know I'm not the only one) so I am doing my part to give back to this wonderful community. I am getting anxious now to fire up the RO/DI. Probably a good idea to plumb it first. Feel free to tag along, there will be plenty more updates to come.

[barbra]

Good luck on this project. Keep us posted as it comes along

[Misled]

Get the RO/DI hooked up and check it out. If you don't have a TDS meter yet get one. You can also fill the tank and check all the pumps for proper operation.

[chem-e]

Looks like you're off to a good start. Have fun with the startup.

[SFeST]

So apparently there is this thing called "Christmas" coming up and I have some sort of expectation to do all this work for other people. So along with all the shopping, and finding a tree, and putting lights on the house, and moving all our furniture back into our room, I still found time to do some work on the tank this weekend. Since All the plugs in the room where the tank is going are on the same circuit breaker as our garage and (I think) one other room, I thought it would be bad times to leave it this way. So I spent the better part of last night re-wiring the socket directly behind the tank and making it so it ran on its very own 15 amp circuit. I also went to town on drilling a hole straight through the wall behind the fish tank and into the garage for my RO line/top off.

behind the tank:


in garage:


The reason I didn't put more equipment in the garage is also part of the reason the fish tank gets its own circuit; The garage gets used. A lot. Grinding, cutting, sanding, etc happens often (woods, metal, plastics, everything,) and all that crap would end up in my sump somehow even if I had it well protected. A skill saw draws a ton of amps and I could see the lights going out every time it would be used. Also, all the fish tank stuff would just take up too much space, the garage is cluttered enough how it is. Hiding just my auto top off and RO line is much more manageable.

During the carnage:


I got all of the plumbing done except the NPT adapter for the loc line didnt show up today like it was supposed to. Neither did the skimmer... But everything else is done. Even got it filled it with water.

plumbing behind before water:


sump bin where skimmer will sit. I got the float valve installed too.




I ran a rubber hose temporarily from where my return line ended into the tank just to watch everything run and check for leaks. The only road block so far out of this whole experience was me being an idiot with drilling holes for the pvc that connects my sumps underneath. I drilled the wet/dry first without thinking too much , and i ended up drilling a whole right were there was a ridge or whatever in the plastic bin. Me being to olazy to do anything else about it patched that sucker up with epoxy putty (aquamend rocks hard) and said good enough. I plan on making something out of glass to replace that or even everything underneath the tank eventually.


This is our dog and how it likes to sleep next to me while I'm working.


And finally, full room shot with everything put in it and the tank where its supposed to be (before I put water in it though.)


So there it is. I should have all my equipment either tomorrow or Wednesday, and as soon as that shows up, its live rock/sand time.

[SFeST]

BAM

Live rock day. I got tired of waiting for one stupid little piece piece of plumbing to show up in the mail so I made it good enough for now and just went to buy the rock and sand. My LFS buys bulk amounts of live rock and cures it themselves, and since I'm starting from scratch I could pick anything I wanted. I aimed to get 100 pounds, and ended up with 99.7 pounds. I guess thats close enough. Slapped in 100 pounds of sand on the bill as well.

Rocks:


Here it is in the tank. Little stirred up. Stupid loc line adapter has yet to show up but I got everything running regardless. My ghetto replacement isn't half bad either.



Skimmer in action:



Durso I whipped up quickstyle, huge success. My overflow is dead silent now.



You can kinda see the pillar I made on the right side from drilling a few rocks. It was just a test to see how it comes out. As soon as everything settles I'll get to work aquascaping. Even though I just dumped the rocks in the tank, everything looks rather nice.

[SFeST]

Alright, last update until my lights show up. Everything cleared up and looks rather good for not even trying to aquascape. Obviously I'm going to cover up all the pvc eventually.

[SFeST]

I'm getting fed up with not being able to find the computer cable for my nicer camera so I'll continue to update with that I have available.

Cycle = done. Very painless. It finished cycling quickly, (the live rock I got was about 95% cured) but I let it sit for a while anyway knowing that patience is everything in this hobby.

Everything thats supposed to be zero is zero.
PH is 8.2
Salinity is 1.026

I didn't run my lights at all during the cycle and I am running only half of the lights right now (1 aquablue and 1 blue plus.) Also replaced my home made maximod with a koralia 3.

Current full tank shot with the diatom bloom that hit me a few days ago



I got a tonga mushroom frag from a friend recently, and sent in a welcoming party for the algae yesterday.


I'm very impressed with how bright just 2 of the T-5s are. They are way better than the VHOs I had on my last tank. I had a lot of fun aquascaping and I seemed to have accomplished exactly what I had envisioned in my head. In the FTS you can still see some of the PVC framework, but only through holes that are perfect for placing corals. I plan on slamming some LPSs into everyone of those holes and you will never know the PVC was there. Another thing I am very happy with was how much of the rock is off of the sand. This, to me, makes so much sense because I am utilizing almost all of the sandbed now, as well as almost every surface of every rock.

The mushroom was a good confidence booster for me. A canary in the coal mine, so to speak. My snails and hermits are going to town on the algae and I expect most of it to be gone by the end of tomorrow. The bloom wasn't bad at all, and I attribute that to barely running the lights more than I needed to. I might hop down to the LFS for something colorful to look at soon (fish or coral,) and maybe some more hermits. I cleaned them out yesterday (only had a handful left) and I think they got more in today.

Which now brings me to start thinking about a more finalized wish list for my fish. I want to start off with some small, peaceful reef safe fish. I kinda see myself having a whole bunch of small fish, and then ending it all with a nice tang. Its nice and long (60") so I feel that my options for tangs open up a little more as opposed to a 48" tank.

What needs to go in it eventually:
clowns
shrimp
6-line wrasse
group of something small that schools
tang

maybe list:
dwarf angel
nem


Happy new years. The fun starts now.

[SFeST]

New frags





new fish





Cardinal doesn't do a whole lot. Clowns are the exact opposite. I've never seen clowns so active. They make my 100 look like theres not enough room. Hard to take pictures of.

Better pic of tonga shroom



Stay tuned, I'm stopping by a local reefer looking at more frags. There might be SPS in my tank tonight, completing the trifecta of coral types.