Jasonanatal's 120 Gallon "Advanced Complexity" Reef Aquarium.

ilovemytank

ilovemytank

Member
Originally Posted by Oceansidefish
http:///forum/post/2895092
I lied mine will have 9. 3 for the lights 1 return, 1 skimmer, 1 phos reactor, 1 chiller, 2 powerheads. I was thinking 6 because all my lights are wired in the ceiling.
OK check this list out ( I'm soory not trying to change the subject but I gotta get in on the plugs. Great tank, love the tangs. )
Plugs list: 3 meatal halides, 2 for accents, 2 for moon lights, 1 for skimmer, 2 return pumps, 1 refugium light, 1 phosphate reactor, 1 refugium pump, 4 korilias, 4 timers, 1 canister ( for carbon ). 1 pump set up to empty water for my water changes.
Ok I lied, I don't have 29, I have 23. I have multiple surges which run a loop and system set up to be able to shut the power on certain sections, so I am using more plugs but these are my minimums.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Originally Posted by Oceansidefish
http:///forum/post/2892791
holy crap batman thats alot of outlets for one tank! My 120 is only going to need 6!
Oceansidefish, I like to plan ahead. Yet I think I still need one additional Reef Keeper 2 to control everything that I want.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Originally Posted by Veni Vidi Vici
http:///forum/post/2892797
Just an observation.If that's a laminate floor ,i would keep an eye on those stand legs,angle iron with no feet could easily go through floor.
Veni Vidi Vici, that has already been addressed. The stand has been reinforced with 2x4's in order to evenly distribute the weight of the aquarium.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Originally Posted by -Tara33-
http:///forum/post/2892838
they are cute lil things arnt they, but arnt you worried about aggression from putting them in first, what about adding other fish, if it were me i would deffinently put them in last, but good luck with them
Tara23, I don't worry about that since they were getting along fine and haven't bothered my Starry Blenny a bit.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Originally Posted by saleensc405
http:///forum/post/2894095
hey jason which fish store do you go to? i go to fishtown usa in queens. they have alot of tangs there
Saleensc405, I actually grab my stuff from all over including internet orders. I don't stick to one store.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Originally Posted by premilove
http:///forum/post/2894096
shoot i have 12 - 15 for my 28, which happens to be one of jasonatals old tanks from what i was told!
Premilove, yes that is correct. I used to have a devils device, my 28 gallon Nano Cube.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Originally Posted by Oceansidefish
http:///forum/post/2895092
I lied mine will have 9. 3 for the lights 1 return, 1 skimmer, 1 phos reactor, 1 chiller, 2 powerheads. I was thinking 6 because all my lights are wired in the ceiling.
Oceansidefish, lieing is bad. LOL
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Originally Posted by Dennis210
http:///forum/post/2895193
Okay I am addicted too - but man - keep the pics coming - I like seeing another guy having his own personal money pit too!
Dennis210, money pit... is that why algae is the color green? LOL
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Equipment: Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer (Damn Good Bang for Your Buck)
As most of you know I have a love affair with Deltec and other High End name brands within the aquarium hobby. Well I have been in the market for a new Protein Skimmer for this aquarium and all that could think of was Bubble King or Deltec. But I remembered seeing an a review for the Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer on ReefBuilders.com and decided to give it a try. What is the worst that could happen? I could have positive evidence to convince my wife that this Protein Skimmer blow more then just bubbles and that I have to purchase a Bubble King. So I made a trip to my local Fish Store and picked it up.
Setup was extremely easy since the majority of the unit comes assembled with the exception for the Recirculation Pump, Air Line Tubing, and Feed Pump (not included). You have an option for the feed pump you can have a powerhead connected or you can tee off from your return pump. I personally choose to connect a powerhead to the feed input (I am using a Maxi-Jet 1200). The feed line states that it must be between 300 gph to 400 gph in order to get optimum results. I played with the skimmer for 2 days making minor adustments to the air intake as well as the control of the water outlet which adjust the height of the Foam. The Neck washing system is a real plus but it doesn't have a squeegee like the $1,000.00 Deltec a Bubble king counterparts. So placing the Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer in an accessible area is a must since the neck washing system is manually controlled and should be done daily.
My overall opinion of the Protein Skimmer is that it is large and give you the most bang for you buck. The foam and Micro bubbles are amazing and as you can see in just 4 days it's pulling out some nasty stuff. I say Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe FTW (For The Win)!


Photograph - Friday, December 12, 2008 - Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer.

Photograph - Friday, December 12, 2008 - I'm a big guy so you can see Santa came early and left me a big gift.


Photograph - Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - 4 days running and look at all the nasty stuff it removed.
As promised I took some time out of my crazy schedule to take some videos of the Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer in action. I also took a second video to display the Neck Washing system in operation, Unfortunately the skimmate has gotton to think in the Foam View Window to really show how the Neck Washing system normally performs. It's great at removing small clumps of think skimmate. I also zoomed in to show you the size of the bubbles being produced and I am quite impressed... you may be as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXaqML7HR4U
Movie - Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer in normal operation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWNapuqK63Q
Movie - Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Deluxe Protein Skimmer in neck washing operation.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Do It Myself (Wife Helping) Project: Reinforcing a Iron Stand Continued...
I finally managed to get my wife and son out of the apartment for a while in order to rev up the saw and start to cut the some of the peices of wood for the reinforcement of the iron stand. However, I ran out of materials again and need to make another run to home depot. Here are photographs of the project so far. I haven't completed it and already their is a dramatic increase in the rigidness of the iron stand, there is almost no movement.


Photographs - Sunday, December 21, 2008 - Wooden skeleton to reinforce the iron stand.



Photographs - Sunday, December 21, 2008 - L Brackets holding the wood together.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Aquascaping: Marco Rocks (Recreacting a Natural Reef)
I looked at my aquarium recently and my wife said that I really needed some more rock. So with permission from the misses I began to do some searching for rocks online, within the local reef clubs and on Craigslist. Well lucky for me I stumbled upon an ad within Craigslist from an individual who was just starting a setup but decided to get out of the hobby in anticipation of his new child. So for an amazing deal of $175.00 I found myself in the possession of 200 lbs of some of the most beautiful pieces of Marco Rocks that I have ever seen.
The rocks were delivered on Saturday, December 27, 2008 and layed out for the the aquascaping project in my living room. Now I recently lost both the Powder Blue Tang and the Achilles Tang to a massive outbreak of saltwater ich so their is no worry to the animals within the aquarium with the exception of my Ultra Grade Maxima Clam which has been exposed to this type of cycling in my previous setup. I know what many would say but I just don't have the infrastructure in place to house him in a seperate aquarium. With guidance from the Mrs. the project began within a simple idea of how the layout would be. I hope everyone enjoys. Please excuse the massive algea outbreak which will be dealt with shortly.






Photograph - Sunday, December 28, 2008 - Marco Rock aquascaping within my 120 gallon All Glass Reef Aquarium.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Chemical: D&D H2Ocean Salt Mix (Starting Up the Reef With The Best)Well they are definitely a few things that I forgot to post about in order since the aquarium has been setup. I normally get wrapped up in various projects so I wanted to get a few things out of the way. I wanted to startup my aquarium with the very best salt possible. So I contacted Marvin at D&D The Aquarium Solution and had him send me a large bucket of the D&D H2Ocean Salt Mix which the majority is made of evaporated sea salt from the Red Sea and additives such as Calcium and Magnesium. The salt mix has had some great reviews from other reef aquarists, so naturally I thought I would give it a try.




Photograph - Thursday, January 01, 2009 - D&D H2Ocean Salt Mix.
For the current time I now conduct water changes on a schedule of every two weeks changing approximately 15 gallons of saltwater. The mixture is mixed one day in advance as well as aerated and heated for 24 hours. After the water change has been completed I wait another 24 hours before testing my aquarium water parameters. Below are the most recent test results.
Water Parameter Test Results for Monday December 29, 2008
Salinity Grade: 10.25 SG
Average Water Temperature: 79.3 degrees Fahreneheit
Alkalinity (CaCO3): 144 PPM / 8.06 dKH
Calcium (CA): 474.72 PPM
Magnesium (Mg): 915 PPM (Raised to 1335 PPM after dosing with Kent Tech M additive.)
pH (Lights On): 8.13
Phosphate (PO4): 0.05 PPM
Ammonia (NH3/4): Undetectdable
Nitrite (NO2): Undetectable
Nitrate (NO3): 2.0 PPM
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Plumbing: CPR CS90 Overflow Box (Some What Safe at Removing Water)
I originally opted out of purchasing an aquarium with built in overflows mainly since my original design did not include a sump in order to keep the overall weight of the aquarium to a minimum. However, as this project sprials into something else I am now making the best of things and had to resort to using an overflow box to transfer water from the aquarium to the sump. I could have drilled but that would require me breaking down this aqarium and that was simply not a task that I wanted to undertake again. So I have had great luck with standard U-Tube Overflow in the past but wanted to make sure that I choose the best equipment that would work with my design. So I turned to the nice folks at CPR and purchased a CPR CS 90 Overflow Box to solve my problem.


Photographs - Friday, December 12, 2008 - CPR CS90 Continuous Siphon Overflow Box.



Photographs - Friday, December 12, 2008 - CPR CS90 Continuous Siphon Overflow Box Bulkhead being sealed with All Glass Aquarium Safe Silicon for extra protection against leaks.


Photographs - Friday, December 12, 2008 - Flexible tubing being connected using PVC Cement for a secure connection to the CPR CS90 Continuous Siphon Overflow Box.
The CPR CS90 Overflow box had some nifty features which made it stand out above the rest. The box itself is constructed to be 1 entire piece where as most overflow boxes come in two parts that are usually held together with nylon screws as well as sporting individual U-Tubes giving a combing total of 4 individual pieces on average. The CPR CS90 Overflow Box is constructed to one single piece and also includes a vent hole for easy siphone starting and continued siphoning of air via a Tom's Aqualifter Pump.
Now this device has it benefits but definitely has some downfalls as well. The siphon hole that is integrated into the CPR CS90 Overflow Box needs maintenance as much as any other piece of equipment in this hobby. It can become clogged with detritus or algea since the tubing is clear and reduce the flow or even break the siphon since bubbles cannot be extracted via the Tom's Aqualift Pump. I generally am anal about maintaining my equipment so I solved this problem by purchasing 3 seperated Tom's Aqualifter Pumps, two of which I use in a weekly rotation while one pump is strictly a backup pump should one of the pumps fail so that I can maintain the rotation. When the pump is removed for the weekly maintenance I clear the lines by running the pump in a Vinigar/Freshwater solution for 1 day. The pump is then dried off and placed in storage until the next rotation. I have also resolved the problem of the clear tubing building up with algae by replacing the tubing with Black RO/DI tubing which inhibits the light from feeding algae within the tube.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Plumbing: Custom Acrylic Sump 22"w x 16"d x 16"h (Custom King)
Normally my original plans did not include a sump but as the project progressed I really saw a need to add a sump. So I contacted one of the members of a local reef club "Manhattan Reefs" and asked if he could construct an Acrylic Sump. The sump was constructed with Euro Bracing, four seperate areas (Protein Skimmer, Filter Sock, Refugium and Return Pump) with bubble baffles. It measures 22 Inches width x 16 Inches depth x 16 Inches height and made with 1/8 Inch thick Acrylic. It currently holds 24.4 gallons of water and is currently filled with 15 gallons of saltwater.

Photograph - Friday, December 12, 2008 - My Custom Acrylic Sump made by Custom King of Manhattan Reefs forum.

Photograph - Friday, January 02, 2009 - My Custom Acrylic sump installed underneath my aquarium.
 
jasonanatal

jasonanatal

Member
Aquarium Issue: Algae Bloom Within My Aquarium (Pretty Intense)Well not everything that I post can about my aquarium can be good news and this is most likely the start of a series of post as my aquarium goes through the process of becoming mature. I must admit that I am a very heavy feeder for the fish that I house in my aquarium, which is most likely the source of my algae problem. However, the aquarium currently has no fish and I have not been feeding anything and this algae is wiped down in the morning and returns once I get home from work in the evening. Below are the most recent water parameter testing results. I know that the phosphates are present and that in combination with an 8 hour photo-period could be enough to keep my problem occuring. What do you think?
Water Parameter Test Results for Monday December 29, 2008
Salinity Grade: 1.025 SG
Average Water Temperature: 79.3 degrees Fahreneheit
Alkalinity (CaCO3): 144 PPM / 8.06 dKH
Calcium (CA): 474.72 PPM
Magnesium (Mg): 915 PPM (Raised to 1335 PPM after dosing with Kent Tech M additive.)
pH (Lights On): 8.13
Phosphate (PO4): 0.05 PPM
Ammonia (NH3/4): Undetectdable
Nitrite (NO2): Undetectable
Nitrate (NO3): 2.0 PPM



Photograph - January 02, 2009 - Algae Bloom in my aquarium.
 
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