Log of new 135gal

cabbagehead · #1 01/10/2006, 10:38 PM

Greetings!!
The day has finally come that I can share with you the construction and setup of my 135 gallon reef tank. I began this hobby in 2003 with little knowledge of saltwater aquariums and only basic knowledge of freshwater. I setup my first 55 gallon reef tank and with a lot of research on RC was able to keep almost everything alive for the first 3 months. After that I learned the most important virtue of reefkeeping...
PATIENCE!!

55 gallon - Custom stand and canopy

Right before I made the transfer

After some more research I decided that I needed to build an aquarium that would allow me to keep certain fish like and have plenty of room for my ever growing"coral wanted" list. I choose a 135 gallon mostly because of the length. I was finally able to purchase the tank in June 2005

And so began the task of building the stand for this beast. This aquarium will be in direct view of the front door so I wanted to make it look good and go with the decor in the house. I originally choose maple as my choice of wood but a trip to the lumber yard slightly changed my plans and my budget. While looking trough the various grades of lumber I came across two sheets of bird's eye maple. I was sold! After 1 month of planning and 2 months of construction
(I don't have much spare time) the stand and canopy were done

Going any further from here took some time. I wanted to completely overhaul my lighting so I saved and bought a 3x175watt MH 4x65watt PC retro unit from Hamilton. I decided on all 10000k bulbs to start with though I plan on going to 14000k in the future.
Three months later and finally past hurricane season
(did it ever end??) I was able to get water into the tank. After letting the live sand go thru a mini cycle I made the big transfer. Everything went smooth and the coral seem to adapt well to the new environment. I traded in ALL of my fish to get a fresh start and to try not to overload the bioload.
I added new fish after the third week and have slowly been purchasing new coral. My live stock list is as follows

Fish:Yellow Tang, Blue Hippo Tang, Purple Tang, Six Line, and a
Orange Skunk Clownfish.
Coral:Yellow figi leather, Favia brain, Silver xenia, Assorted
mushrooms, Assorted zoos, Open brain, Orange sun coral
Finger leather, Encrusting Hydnophora, Button polyp,
Clams: Crocea(blue with teal accents), Gold Maxima
Inverts:30 Nassarious, 30 Cerith, 15 red leg hermits,20 turbos, Sand
sifting star

cabbagehead · #2 01/10/2006, 10:39 PM

As of late December I have had a zero nitrate reading and have been able to maintain PH at 8.2. The next phase of this project will be converting my old 55 gallon into a sump/fuge. I would now like to thank those at reefcentral who have guided me and motivated me to continue with this hobby. rjwilson37, Flipturn88, AEALOVESHERGIRLS,
NOLACLS, thrlride, countertopguy and many more.

Thank you for reading this thread !!!

Roger'sReef · #3 01/11/2006, 12:25 AM

looking great!

Mikeeal · #4 01/11/2006, 12:58 AM

Wow! Great job on the woodwork.

rjwilson37 · #5 01/11/2006, 02:32 PM

Great work cabbagehead, I am now along for the ride!

cabbagehead · #6 01/11/2006, 08:49 PM

Thanks everyone!

Today I noticed that I have a crab that comes out at night and picks at the live rock. It looks like it has hairy claws. Must have come in on one of the last two coral peices that I got because this is the first time I have seen it. I hope its not a gorilla crab but after doing some research
on RC I think it might be. Why aren't these guys reef safe? I have heard that they can catch small fish but can anyone tell me what kind of damage they do to coral?

cabbagehead · #7 01/15/2006, 01:45 PM

I have observed the crab for the past two nights and have not noticed anything harmful. The crab does not have red eyes so I think it might be reef safe. I am also having quite the algae bloom. I think I have narrowed it down to lack of flow. I currently have four maxijet 1200 with rotating heads connected to a wavemaker pro. I will be trying different locations for these powerheads and seeing if that makes a difference. I would like to get some opinions on what people use to clean the glass inside the tank. I thought my snails would have done a better job.

cabbagehead · #8 01/18/2006, 08:57 PM

Greetings All!
Well I have a small update to my situation. The algae on my sand and glass is still an issue. I did a 16 gallon water change and normal maintenance on my powerheads .I also did a full range of tests.
Here are the results:

Salinity : 1.025 (refractometer)
Nitrate : 10!!! (Salifert)
Phosphate: >.1 (Seatest)
PH : 8.2 (Red Sea)
ALK :High (Red Sea, my test kit does not give specific values)
CAL : 490!!! (Salifert, read the directions to the T tested twice)

I am a little dissapointed that my nitrate levels have gone up even with the water change. I know that I don't feed too much because I only feed one cube of frozen food a day. My only other concern is that some of my cleanup crew might be dying causing this nitrate problem. I do have quite a few Turbos and I know they are not very good at turning themselves over if they fall from the top of the tank. As for the cycle, I belive that I am experiencing a cycle in my tank. I guess I should have had a little more patience before I made the transfer from my 55 gallon. Does any one think that a twice a week 16 gallon water change would be benificial to solve this issue or should I let the bacteria build up and work its magic. One more question (sorry) Is it possible that my skimmer (AquaC120) is not up to the task of a 135 gallon? Thank you to all that have responded.

rjwilson37 · #9 01/18/2006, 09:03 PM

Yep, just keep it up twice a week and eventually it will go down, but 10ppm is not bad at all for nitrates and is very normal for a new tank setup with the ups and downs. Mine jumped up to 40ppm for some reason and I am doing 2 15g water changes a week to get it down, I am still not sure why it jumped so high. But this will take me a month or so to get it back down to around 10ppm.

rizkeeper · #10 01/18/2006, 09:05 PM

looking good!!! great looking stand...you should sell those, you could make some serious money

cabbagehead · #11 01/18/2006, 09:09 PM

Thanks RJ ,
In other news my monti cap is really starting to grow. It wasn't any bigger that a quarter when I got it and it has already branched out in 2 places.

cabbagehead · #12 01/18/2006, 09:12 PM

Thanks rizkeeper!
I don't know if anyone would want to wait the six months it took me to build it. LOL.

cabbagehead · #13 01/19/2006, 10:27 PM

I was wondering if anyone has checked out the podcast that is available with this months issue of reefkeeping. Rob Weatherly is the host of the show and does a fantastic job covering relative topics. This weeks episode also included a discussion about a thread that I started about the algae problem that I am going through. It was neat to hear a person disect a problem that that you are having with your tank on a podcast.

rjwilson37 · #14 01/19/2006, 10:30 PM

Sounds cool!

We need some new tank pictures.

cabbagehead · #15 01/19/2006, 10:59 PM

Ask and you shall receive

cabbagehead · #16 01/19/2006, 11:01 PM

one more

rjwilson37 · #17 01/20/2006, 03:24 PM

There all Red X's for me, no pics show up?

cabbagehead · #18 01/20/2006, 08:43 PM

sorry about that I guess Kodak's online storage is not compatible

cabbagehead · #19 01/20/2006, 08:44 PM

Chaotic Reefer4u · #20 01/20/2006, 09:39 PM

cool

rjwilson37 · #21 01/20/2006, 10:05 PM

Very nice, I like it.

cabbagehead · #22 01/20/2006, 11:05 PM

Thanks!!!
Well today was the single most frustrating day that I have had with my tank. I got a call at around 1:1:00pm from my wife saying that the tank was LEAKING water. I tried not to panic knowing that I had adjusted the skimmer late the night before . I explained how to open the flow valve on the skimmer and that I would look at it when I got home (7:00pm). AT first it seemed that this was the correct solution but after a couple of hours my wife noticed more water coming out from the bottom of the tank!!! I told her to shut everything off but the powerheads and separate the light ballasts from the cabinet. When I got home I tore apart the plumbing and removed everything from under the tank. It turns out that I had a one inch hole in my rubbermaid sump ( temporary sump ). Lucky for me the hole was about 5 inches from the top of the sump and was only letting a small amount of water leak out. When I removed the sump the hole got bigger and it started to really let a lot of water out. I was able to pump all the water to a 55 gallon brute container that I use for water changes that just happened to have my mag5 in it connected to a hose. Well, needless to say I have just spent the past 3 hours constructing my Sump/Fuge out of my old 55 gallon. I am now waiting for the silicone to dry so I can do a flow test with water. My tank is now running on just four maxijet 1200's pointed to the top of the tank to stir up water. Its going to be a long night!!!

rjwilson37 · #23 01/21/2006, 01:00 PM

Wow, sorry to hear about the problems, but it sounds like your headed to a better long term solution for your sump. I hope everything goes well, don't forget to post some pictures.

cabbagehead · #24 01/21/2006, 09:07 PM

Well it has been a long day and I did not get exactly everything I wanted but the tank is back up and running and everything survived the leak. I was without lighting for about 24 hours and without a skimmer for about 27. I was unable to covert the 55 into a fuge because for the most part lack of skill. I used to thin of glass and during installation of the skimmer I broke one side of the fuge. I needed to get the tank up and running so I Just went with a regular sump. Here are some pictures of the new setup.

You can see the giant mushroom has split into three parts

cabbagehead · #25 01/28/2006, 09:14 PM

A little update. Most of the diatom bloom is now gone and the sand looks great. I am starting to see major coraline algae all over the back of the tank. I also have never seen this much crap come out of my skimmer. I think I finally have good flow going through my skimmer because I have changed the skim collector every day since I installed the new sump.I will try to take some pictures tommorow.