My 150 build thread...

OK, so wanted to post some updates to my thread here for everyone...

Saturday, Dre came by, helped to dry fit the plumbing, and silicon the sump. The sump turned out good, bubble trap baffles were fine, except for the one closest to the return... When we silicone'd it, must have been late and it wasn't totally straight. So when I leak tested it early this morning there were no leaks, but with it not being straight, it was creating a kind of waterfall to the one side that went out too much... So I scraped off all of the silicon, dried it all off, and re-siliconed it... It's straight, and should work MUCH better....

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Here is our skimmer... holy crap'ola this is HUGE........... what nice construction, and everything. I can't get wait to get this thing wet..

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I'm going to let everything settle and do another leak test tomorrow to see how it all works out, but should be MUCH better than before..
 
krocky12 said:
Looks nice what type of lights are you doing to use
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I have LEDs right now and will continue to use them in this tank.. I'm looking at some fixtures (Dre had recommended some China fixtures that dim, etc) and I am also looking at RapidLED DIY solution that has a total of 96 LEDs. I'm kind of leaning toward the RapidlED solution because I can plug them into my ReefKeeper do a sunrise\sunset type of thing..

Either way, the answer is LEDs..... Thanks for looking!
 
I should have my 2x MP40w es ordered tomorrow... I'm thinking that should be plenty of flow, especially when having the return flow added as well for gravy.
 
Some updates after yesterday.... Dre came by with the plumbing assist and it is now hard plumbed...

Here is the tank pushed back into its ultimate resting place..

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A shot of the underside, showing some of the plumbing.

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Shot of the first area with the Bubble Magus Curve9... This thing is a BEAST. I can't wait to start watching it produce skimmate.

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Close-up of the skimmer area... It's a little tight, but still good amount of room being able to pull the skimmer out, collection cup out, etc.

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Thanks guys... I'm going to start making water right now, and filling the tank with RO water.. It will take several days to do that, so getting a start now. The plan is to fill the tank with RO. Hook up the MP40s, and do the salt mixing inside of the tank.

Sand and Marco Rock gets here on Tuesday (125lbs of Rock and 160lbs of sand). I'm going to end up rinsing the sand for several days, so it will work out well. I can do that as the tank is filling.

Friday or Saturday of next week, I will be getting a couple boxes of the salt I plan on using (Seachem Salinity) and will then mix it.... Reef Crest mode should be good for mixing salt :-)

Thoughts?
 
krocky12 said:
its lookin nice cant wit to see it filled up to see it filled up with water
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You and me both.......... :-) I can't wait to migrate the fish from up in the cube down here.

When the rock gets here, I'm going to see if we end up doing a really crazy aquascape with acryclic rods, etc... How flexible are those rods, if at all? I'd love to make some crazy arches, and overhangs.
 
OK, some updates.....

I've been making RO water since Sunday and the tank is almost full... MP40s will be running today moving everything around... wahoo!

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Some rock scaping ideas we came up with. They hook together rather well but also thinking about using small zip ties and hooking them through the crevices to avoid using the weld, and cement stuff.... So we're going to experiment with that in the next couple of days and see how it goes. I know zip ties are reef safe but don't know if coraline will ever grow on them and over take it to make it look natural? Anyone have thoughts or experience?

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Now if only I could find a Magnifica to sit on one of these top pillars and soak up the LEDs once they get here............
 
Updates, updates and more updates......

I put the new Reefkeeper PC4 I ordered on the stand (inside), as well as mounted my MP40s. I have the MP40s going right now moving my RO water around until Friday when I will mix it all in tank. Sadly, one of the MP40s died about 4 hours after turning it on but Ecotech has a new one set to arrive Friday morning.... Great customer service by the way...

The heater is in the return area, as well as the skimmer in the intake area. My plan is to take the RKL from my cube, and start getting that mounted in the stand either tomorrow or Friday.. Sand is rinse, eggcrate cut, and ready to be dropped in one salt is mixed.

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We did some scaping... here is what my wife came up with.. these are all attached via white zip ties, so they are actually really really sturdy, and I think looking awesome!!!

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This is what I added... a little arch connection in front that adds some room for fish to swim through, but she thinks it's too busy.. I'm afraid she's probably right...

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I still have a LOT of rock left over from the 125lbs ordered.... Not sure what we're going to do, can only make so many small piles of rubble in the fuge for pods to populate.

What do you guys think so far?!

 
Here is actually I think one of the final ones, or contenders at least..... It's the same as the last one, but added a little ledge on the left most stack for a Magnifica... I was debating between a Gigantea and Magnifica, and I think the way we like our aquascape is much more condusive to a Mag since they love being up in the rock in chaotic flow.... It will be baking under some nice powerful LEDs.

Let me know what you guys think.. It seems to me the fish will have PLENTY of room to stretch out in here and swim.

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Here is another configuration, the spire in the middle is now on the right with a nice anchor rock to make it sturdy.. I figure the Mag will like a nice tall spot, high chaotic flow from the MP40s, baking under LEDs.

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OK, so plumbing question, should be simple but I just need clarification.... I'm trying to PVC cement the return and drain in the overflow today... here goes..

Here is the bottom of my return pipe, it's a 1" pipe that curves at the top, is threaded and I can put my locline in. My question revolves around how to put this into the bulkhead.

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Do I just PVC cement this directly into the bulkhead or do I need something else PVC related to fit it in there? I dry fitted the other one in the tank, with the locline, and when I push it in, it's perfect and sits just on the overflow right. So because of that, I'm thinking I just PVC cement the bottom directly into the bulkhead. I could be wrong though. This is how it looks dry fitted with the return pipe directly inserted into the bulkhead.

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Also the other question is, I dry fitted the drain in the bulkhead as well and it's nice and snug. Do I need to PVC cement the drain directly into the bulkhead or because it's downward drain pressure and not return pressure it should be fine un-cemented? I'm leaning toward cementing everything, I don't want any mis-haps but wanted to clarify.
 
MMreef said:
Looks good, are you going to put eggcrate on the bottom?
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Yes I am...



So some more updates from last night... Plumbing is done, just need to make a little fix on the return side and we'll be done today. Finally. The tank has been running completely since yesterday morning, so water is moving, skimmer was tested, and then I had to add some of the "rinsed" sand into the fuge area... Boy did that make my skimmer go insane, and cloud up the entire tank since last night.

Oh well... So need to fix this plumbing issue, then move the rest of the sand in there as carefully as possible. Then, we'll have to sit there and let this all clear out.... Progress everyone.......... woohoo!

The tank was running all day yesterday with no sand and just water, and it looked awesome... My skimmer got an initial cup of nasty gunk likely from plumbing and oils, etc..... We're on our way!!!!
 
OK, well even more updates, and huge monumental progress.......

So Dre & I fixed the leaks yesterday, and happy to report no issues overnight... think we're out of the woods on this one! Thanks Dre, huge gratitude for your guidance and help on making this work right the first time around.

The system is now running completely, and the raw shrimp is hanging out in a mesh bag, with ammonia starting to climb. I'm hoping it will spike by tomorrow, and I can put in the Fritz Zyme 9 to level it all off. I blindly put in our Rock structures which are zip tied together, and added sand.. I rinsed this sand for days several times, but I guess you can't get rid of it all. It's already starting to settle down, should be much better once bacteria colonizes and starts doing its job. i'll have to even out the sand too, i'm sure it's all over the place right now. Skimmer is off because it is just going wild with bubbles and overflowing, so I will wait until the cycle actually starts, and plus the skimmer has to be off for Fritz Zyme to work anyways, so it's staying off for a little while.

Here she is....... In the final completed glory.

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Plumbing. two drains on the left going into bubble traps, and skimmer in the same area. The baffles are next going right, with return in the middle, and a large large fuge on the right side. I filled up about 5-6" of sand in the fuge, and put in a nice sized piece of rock, porous as could be to get things started. I hope to have a few mangroves some day, chaeto, and other macro occupying this fuge. I plan on keeping tangs, so maybe i can cultivate some of their snacks in there as well, but that's all in the future.

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Up close, you can see the sand is a mess, but I did my best.

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For lighting, I have decided to go with 3x Radion XR30w Gen2 fixtures... I have one right now but will have the other two first week of January, by the time I start moving stuff over.

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Last but not least, the ammonia is starting to climb.... woohoo!

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Thanks for looking, and hope to have more updates with clear water in the next several days.
 
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