29 Gallon to 120 Gallon Upgrade Build

[marvelfan]

Here are some Pictures of my Aquarium so far!
I had an orangish/brown algae on my rocks and sand shortly after I first added all my livestock. I then added some snails and a Diamond Goby and the tank cleaned up real nice.
Since then my rocks are staring to discolor with a brownish and bright greenish covering. doesn't really look like hair algae or anything slimy. Just a change in color. I was thinking it may be the dry rock "doing its thing", as I know it will not always stay white. Could it be bacteria colonies?
Enjoy the pics! More to come recent ones to come. These are from Feb 16th. Tank was nice and clean back then. Now I'm seeing some browning of the sand and rocks again.

 

[stevorino]

Marvel - just wanted to chime in.... I stumbled upon this forum as my wife and I are starting to look at saltwater aquariums as a potential hobby.
Your project is amazing.
You should be very proud of this. I can't wait to see how it looks finished and am now VERY excited to be part of this hobby. Thanks for sharing this experience!

 

[marvelfan]

Thanks Steve. Good luck in pursuing this hobby! It's worth the time, effort and cost in my opinion. Just take your time and always look for help on these forums. I made a few costly mistakes (both financial and to the detriment of a couple livestock) learning the starting points of the hobby.
Looking forward to seeing what you decide to start with.

 

[marvelfan]

Hey everyone,
It's been a while since I've posted. My 120 is up and running stable. My autowater change system is working great. I have ~30 gallons of water change each month at a rate of 1 gallon a day with no change in salinity, and I don't have to do anything except turn a couple ball valves and add some salt to the mixing barrel once a month I . I monitor my salinity every week. I have added some new livestock over the past month. My current livestock list (in order of addition) is as follows:
2 Ocellaris Clowns
2 Bangai Cardinals
3 Blue-Green Reef Chromis
1 Orange Spotted Diamond Goby
2 Fire Goby's
1 Six Line Wrase
I was a little nervous about the addition of the Chromis, as I heard they can be agressive. I started with a shoal of 5 Chromis and they killed off 2 of there fellows. The 3 remaining Chromis are now keeping together and not bother anyone else. I also was nervous about adding Fire Goby's with the Diamond goby, but everyone is getting along splendidly at this point. I spend about a hour or so a night sitting directly in front of the tank just watching it (like its an episode of my favorite tv show). and I can see everyone has figured out a pattern that works for them.
I still would like to add a 3 larger fish to finish off the livestock of the tank.
I'm thinking of adding a Blue Hippo Tang, a yellow tank and a Flame angel.
I've been told by 3 different people at my LFS's that the yellow tank needs to be added as a last fish as they can be the most aggressive of the bunch.
I was told I should add the Flame angel and Hippo tang at the same time and then wait and add the yellow tank.
Does this sound like solid advice?
I feel that this would be the maximum amount of livestock I would feel comfortable supporting in my 120 gallon.
Looking forward to opinions. I'm going to be waiting a month or two before any new additions. I'm letting the ecosystem adjust slowly.
I'll be adding some new corals in the meantime. Thinking some birds nests and zoa's and maybe another plate coral and some frogspawn or torch coral. My hammer coral, zoa and monti are doing really well in the new tank. Hammer is fully extended and the zoa's are spreading quickly.
.

 

[marvelfan]

Made a SWF.com purchase this last week. Added the new corals today; also added a bubble tip anemone. Thought I would share some pics.
Bubble tip moved between some rocks over the course of the day. Hard to get a good shot. I used Coral Rx to dip them before I placed them in the tank. They all seem to be doing really well.

Bubble tip Anemone from back corner of tank. Front shot.

Neon Plate Coral

Australian Blasto

ORA - Green Stylophora

Torch Coral

Rainbow Ric

Candy Cane Frag

Frogspawn
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/data/3/33/337c8a22_2013-05-0820.20.05.jpeg

Lastly a chili soft coral - I was hoping it would be more red, or become more red. Looks pinkish/orange at the moment. (He fell down off the rock above. have to glue him in place)

These I didn't add to my tank. just saw these today for the first time on the back of a rock while I was placing the candy cane coral. I have no idea where it came from. Must be a hitchhiker from the first batch of live rock from my original setup.
Can anyone ID this. A type of Zoa I suppose. Pretty large polyps.

 

[marvelfan]

Moisture somehow penetrated my UAS lighting. Started to blow my GFCI. Have to let it dry out and then rewire.

Just ordered a new skimmer that should be here today. Excited to finally have a properly sized for my tank. Reef Octopus Diablo XS200. I'll be installing it this weekend.

I am adding a 3rd tank to my existing set up.. Currently have my display into the sump. The sump is a tight fit so I will put a separate refugium in the back that is going to be a 29 gallon tank.

I just need to drill it and I should be good to go. I will also move my chaeto and scrubber to this tank for easier access.

I'll try to remember to get some pics. I'm still fighting cyano to some degree, but it is getting better. I feed every small amounts ever other day and feed my corals every 4 days. Been trying to do 10 gallon changes every 5 days, but I'm 2 weeks behind on my water changes.

Hope all is well with everyone, its been awhile since I posted.

 

[sweatervest13]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/393629/29-gallon-to-120-gallon-upgrade-build/100#post_3530410
Moisture somehow penetrated my UAS lighting. Started to blow my GFCI. Have to let it dry out and then rewire.

Just ordered a new skimmer that should be here today. Excited to finally have a properly sized for my tank. Reef Octopus Diablo XS200. I'll be installing it this weekend.

I am adding a 3rd tank to my existing set up.. Currently have my display into the sump. The sump is a tight fit so I will put a separate refugium in the back that is going to be a 29 gallon tank.

I just need to drill it and I should be good to go. I will also move my chaeto and scrubber to this tank for easier access.

I'll try to remember to get some pics. I'm still fighting cyano to some degree, but it is getting better. I feed every small amounts ever other day and feed my corals every 4 days. Been trying to do 10 gallon changes every 5 days, but I'm 2 weeks behind on my water changes.

Hope all is well with everyone, its been awhile since I posted.
You will love it man!!!!

Scary about the moisture. Glad you caught it in time.

You for sure need to post up some pics of the new sump and fuge setup!!

 

[marvelfan]

Skimmer is a beast. Its HUGE! I had that small Coralife 65g for the last 2 years. The Diablo barely fit in my 29 Gallon Tank.

Here is couple pics I took after setting it up. I'll get some other pics or a video of my whole setup now.

But here is a quick description of how it flows.

BeanAnimal overflow down to the sump below the DT in the cabinet. First chamber is Live Rock and Chaeto. Flow through the baffles to the final chamber where it is returned to the display and to the skimmer tank behind the DT (Shown). The Skimmer tank is drilled and piped to return back to the Sumps final chamber. 3 tanks all plumbed together. Its nice to have then extra ~30 gallons of water volume as well.
I took this pic while filling up the Skimmer tank. it is actually filled almost all the way to the top where I drilled the overflow back to the the sump.

I have some work to do to get my scrubber back in place again.

 

[snakeblitz33]

You know, the more I get into this hobby, I realize that safety is an important issue that we occasionally need to address... While I am not the model aquarist of how I do a lot of things, I have come to realize that electricity and water mix all too well. You might want to consider... for safety sake... to organize your electrical cords and drip loop them so there aren't any midnight mistakes. Besides the safety aspect of the hobby, a well organized and planned system can look and function a lot better then one thrown together - even though both styles can support a healthy system.

Just my .02

 

[marvelfan]

Actually this is on my "To do List" for this weekend (sooner the better). I started out with everything organized and mounted just a specific way. I had all my cords zip tied and mounted to walls. Then of course I had to make adjustments and battle component failures and everything became a mess again.


Your concern and observations are appreciated and won't go ignored!

I'm also thinking of eventually replacing my RKE with a Netpute System. I'm having issues with RKE malfunctioning every now and then. For example, yesterday I got home around 11pm and brought up my system stats on my phone. I noticed pH jumped from 8.05 when I checked at 5pm to 8.35.

I ran downstairs and found my alkalinity 2-part pump was stuck in the on positions. When I went to shut it off on the controller interface the sump turned off. Somehow the sump channel setting copied itself over the doeser channel settings. This isn't the first time this happened. I believe it has something to do with when I make system changes via the mobile and web interfaces. I may have to disable this feature, but I like to be able to shut down or start up my components from work if an emergency occurs.

I saw the new Apex Fusion during MACNA 2013 coverage and I'm pretty impressed. Digital Aquatics just isn't keeping up. I was warned about his by Acrylic, but got a good deal at the time on the RKE when money was tight. I'll either end up selling he RKE or save it for a future side project tank setup.

 

[marvelfan]

Oh.. and as of yesterday I would consider the skimmer broken in. I have never quite been able to get this much crap out of my water with the other skimmer. Its a whole new shade of dark brown!
I'm hoping that the combination of the new skimmer and the new GFO I just changed 2 nights ago will finally take care of the slight cyano that is creeping back on the right side of my DT.

I also adjusted my lighting to slightly reduce the intensity of my white lighting.

I'm want to get the balance back to my parameters before my next livestock addition. I'm thinking a Hippo Tank and Flame Angel are on the list as the next additions once everything starts to balance out again.

 

[marvelfan]

Update:

2 days ago I swapped out my ReefKeeper Elite with an Apex Lite. So far I really like it. Selling my ReefKeeper soon.

I installed the Leak detection module and Lunar module with the Apex. All my pumps shut down if any water starts to drip or leak from my system. I just let the powerheads keep running. Was able to program my skimmer to delay start after an outage to prevent the cup from overfilling.

I also finally discovered the source of the small flood I had last week. My overflow has a 90 elbow that routes water to the right end of the sump. I was having an issue with trapt air in in the Pipes so I drilled a very tiny relief hole a while back. I added some filter socks on the end of the overflow pipes. As the filter socks got dirty and clogged the back pressure on the end of the pipe caused a "sprinkler" like stream to shoot out of the top of the PVC joint in a perfect arch that shot over the edge of my sump. I have since siliconed and taped the hole.

Snake, all my cords are now cleaned up and I mounted what electronics I could on an opposite wall away from the tank as a precaution. My next step is to mount a set of tilt/pan IP webcams to monitor my tank remotely.

 

[marvelfan]

Thread Update:

Just ordered a ReefBreeder Photon48 as part of a group buy. Looking forward to being able to program a simulated sunrise and sunset.

I installed a HydroFill ATO system, which I'm really impressed with so far. I installed both the Pump and the controller. Pricey, but well worth it for no moving parts. I decided to invest in it after my float switches both failed on my ATO a couple weeks back, luckily I caught that failure before any harm.

Live stock update:

I lost a Diamond Goby after about 9 months. I think he may have depleted my sandbed, and since I was only feeding one cube every other day I don't think it was enough to sustain him. I wont' be replacing him at this time.

My new additions are a blue hippo tang and a flame angel. They were added to my DT about 4 weeks ago and are doing great.

Current Project:

I'm working on building a sump cleaning vacuum. I bought a Home Depot Bucket vacuum. Its just a vacuum that attaches to the top of a 5 gallon bucket. I have a uniseal that I am installing on the bottom lip of the bucket. The goal is to devise a filter system that will allow me to vacuum my sump and return the filtered water back to the sump. The vacuum can suck up 5 gallons of water in about 15 sec, so I need to return all water back to the sump to give myself time to be able to target all areas of debris before the bucket fills. The PVC outlet back the sump will allow me to do this and clean out all debris.

Should be a simple solution for sump cleaning that will cost around $25 in the end.

 

[marvelfan]

Received my Photon48 on Saturday. installed it last night. Working on setting the intensities and acclimating my corals. Running max intensity at about 45% on blue and 35% on the other white/color channel. I'll increase about 5% each week until I get to a good intensity for my tank. Lights are about 12" above water level.

I like the look I'm getting with the multi color LED's. I think my tank will enjoy the change.

My sump cleaning vacuum project is still in the works. All the parts are there just need to make it happen. Maybe this weekend, as the sump needs a good cleaning.

All livestock is doing great. My candy cane frag is finally splitting from 2 heads to 4 heads and my Hammer coral has grown another 2 heads as well. Monti has also been growing like crazy.

 

[acrylic51]

Not an expert but you might back your initial intensities back just a bit.

 

[marvelfan]

Thanks.. I have a sunset simulation going .. ramps jump and down vary slightly every half hour and only reaches 35% max intensity. Going to in increase the intensities about 10% every couple weeks until I'm at 70-80% intensity or until my corals react.

 

[ecooper]

This looks great! Do you have a final full tank pic??? I'm getting ready to upgrade my 75 to 125 and am interested in how your overall project looks! Thanks for all the help.