Gary's 120 In Wall Tank Build (1 Viewer)

[Gatorbait]

Everything for this build is brand new so far. I'll of course use my live rock from the Red Sea 34gal but pretty much everything else will be new. I'm considering the following items.

Maxspect Razor 300w or Echotech Radion Gen 2
Apex Controller
Ecotech MP40 (thinking I need 2 of these)

Not sure what kind of dosing pumps to buy. Any advice?

I just picked up a new Eshopps IV-200 doser and am going to give it a try. I think they're pretty new but Eshopps been around for awhile. Plus, it's $100 less than the bubble magus. PM me if you want the link to where I got it.

http://www.eshopps.com/products/ivdosingpump/iv200/

 

[Gary]

Im curious to what is next to the tank/stand. Sump standing on end?

Yup, that is my sump sitting up on end. I bought one of the Something Fishy tanks last year when he passed away. It should make a great sump. I bought plastic for baffles, probe holders, filter sock holder, etc.

On the bar question, yes I plan to put a piece of granite across the front.

 

[Gary]

Curing Pukani dry rock

I bought some dry Pukani rock from SWE. It's the BRS stuff you see online but they have been out of it for awhile so I got it from SWE. After doing some research I realized the curing problems folks have had with this rock. Leaching phosphates for over 6 months has been a common complaint. I did some searching for a way to clean the rock prior to putting it into my tank and had some limited success. I decided to make my own DIY video to show the steps for using chlorine and muriatic acid to purify the rock. This is important to me because I had another tank at one point that somehow got something in it that I couldn't seem to test for. It killed some pretty expensive corals, so I'm really not taking a chance on rock that has had run-off from rains and streams running through it. Fertilizers, insecticides, farm chemicals, etc could be in that rock. Purification is necessary in my opinion.

Anyway check out the video at

http://youtu.be/Qac3ibzkjV0

I'll continue to post updates as it progresses in my new tank.

 

[David Grigor]

IMO/IME: there is no need to spend $ on programable dosing pumps like the eshopps listed above since you already have an apex to do all the controlling. No complaints with the BRS dosing pumps, there are some issues with the plastic gears stripping, I think it's only on the 50ml version but should still get 18 months out of it. When my 50ml died I thought long and hard and lots of research and really to get higher quality will cost you 3X the price. I don't really know if the bubble magnus, esphops and other self contained units are any better quality so for sure find out the cost of replacments to fact into your choice. I chose to just repurchase as it will take 3 replacments and still would break even. Not certain the high quality would get much more than the 5 years service. Best time to get them is during Holidays as they will put them on sale especially black friday sales.

 

[Gary]

Got the tank up and running 2 weeks ago. Radions a are running, skimmer works, auto top off, etc. Just need to finish installing and programming the Apex. Got my granite counter on too last week.
The dry rock curing worked out well but I think I may need some more rock now that I see it in the tank. I used fiberglass rods and plumbers epoxy to hold the rock work together per the David Grigor article.

 

[Otolith]

Hey Gary! I remember you and your dual 90s! Glad to see another old timer from RiverSouth back in the game.

I'm currently setting up a 210 in wall.

 

[tdriehorst]

very awesome tank!!!

 

[David Grigor]

Hey Gary! I remember you and your dual 90s! Glad to see another old timer from RiverSouth back in the game.

I'm currently setting up a 210 in wall.

Do you remember that toy clownfish he had swimming in the pool out back at one of his meetings at the old place in Burnsville.....

 

[Otolith]

Do you remember that toy clownfish he had swimming in the pool out back at one of his meetings at the old place in Burnsville.....

Yep!!

 

[Gary]

Good to be back in the hobby Derrick. I looked at your 220, looks pretty awesome. Didn't I say something like "come to the meeting and see the worlds largest clownfish in my 24000 gallon backyard tank".

 

[RSnodgrass]

Love it... open access sump, now that would be nice.

 

[acharpenter]

:bump1:

oke:oke:oke:oke:

Any updates?

Hoping to make it out and see this at your upcoming meeting on the 19th!

 

[Gary]

I found this picture of my old dual 90 gallon tank setup. I had this back in 2000-2005. Sold the whole thing to club members when my ex-wife announced that she wanted a divorce. The tank on the right had primarily SPS corals with dual MH 20k Ushio's and the one on the left had LPS corals and dual 250MH with 10k bulbs. I could keep both my large tangs separate this way and eliminate the constant fighting. One was purple and the other was a yellow Tang. Prior to this I had another set of tanks in the same corner. One was a 55 and the other was a 65 gal. Notice the large cup coral in the photo, it really had a nice shape for a green monti.

 

[Gary]

Then for a while I had this frag tank set up in my basement. The idea was to finish the fish room first, get the tank set up and start growing out some man sized corals from frags. I figured it would take me about a year to finish the rest of the basement. That was in 2009, and after a year of heart break with this tank I sold off all of it and started my Aquapod nano. I think I lost quite a few corals from friggin asian beetles getting in the water and dying. I believe that I sold the frag tank to Maxreefer but i can't be sure of my memory on that one.View attachment 19167View attachment 19168View attachment 19169View attachment 19170

The wall you see in pic #1 is the spot I now have my 120 fatboy. It took me 4 years to finish the basement project and another couple of years to get the tank installed and running.

 

[Gary]

It's been about 9 months since I set up the 120 Fatboy and now I'm working on getting a frag tank going. I still have the Aquapod and would like to transfer everything from there over to the new tank. I bought a 60 gal 48x24x12 tank. Stand is now complete, and I'm working on the plumbing. I plan to use the same sump and pump for both tanks with valves to control how much water each tank gets. Anyone have comments on this idea? I was also considering putting two pumps to one Apex outlet and feeding the same input. That way if one pump goes down the other one would continue to run both systems. I keep debating in my mind that I may want to shut off each tank separately though.

I kind of got a little crazy with the orange PVC from BRS.

Here is a picture of my valve setup. The capped stub is for the frag tank.

 

[Gary]

I moved the tank into position on top of the stand I built and started work on the plumbing. I will have to run the drain and return lines around the backside of my RO tank in the corner to get to the sump.

 

[Gary]

I got the plumbing mostly done over the weekend. I used red PVC for the main drain and Herbie drain, blue for the return line. I started doing this and quickly realized that I needed something kind of custom to hold the three pipes equal distant apart at a 10 degree decline to the sump. So I designed my own part and made an ABS rapid prototype. The first proto is the grey one which works, but requires me to thread all three pipes into it. This wasn't the best idea considering they are 5' long so I re-designed it into a 2 piece construction and made the blue one. I ended up using 4 of these to mount all of the pipe.

 

[jlanger]

Great job on the pipe management!
Very slick!

Isn't it fun having "toys" that you can use to make the exact things you need; and not having to rely on someone's design, craftsmanship and cost?

And you've reminded me that I still need to find a whiteboard to record important dates, parameters and such.

 

[Gary]

I don't own the rapid prototype machines, but they are new at my office so I'm kind of using my aquarium ideas to learn about Fused Deposition Modeling. I made another new part today, it's kind of cool because after searching for just the right thing at every friggin hardware store around I made my own Herbie Drain strainer. It's adjustable up and down via a slip fit and a nylon thumbscrew. Since I had a disaster flood due to a snail clogging the drain I'm never taking that chance again.

Photo on the left is the part being made - photo on the right is the part in my overflow.

 

[Gary]

Last night I was finally able to complete the Herbie drain at the sump. The return line is blue in the picture. You can see the main drain for the frag tank running horizontally across the back. I made another part to evenly space the 3 lines and lock them into place.