Setting up a new 185 reef tank.

[JoelV]

I am new to reefing and have been studying now for 4 weeks getting all the info i can gain. What I am lacking in experience i am hoping to make up for with knowledge with your help in this thread, I will post some pictures as they come available, the tank arrives from Sea star on Tuesday and live rock will be in from Jakarta later in the week. I already have a 100 gallon tank going but its in poor shape. I have set up a 100 gallon tub with skimmer to prepare the water for curing the rock when it arrives I will just do frequent water changes till the ammonia spike is over I am hoping the die off will be small as the rock will be received with in 32 hours of it being shipped, please share with me your experiance as things progress.

[Doug]

Hi Joel,

Welcome to Canreef

I will move this to the main reef forum. You can also start your own tank build thread in the Tank Journal forum, if you wish.

[Skimmerking]

congrats on the tank and congrats on becoming a member on a amazing board. Our family welcomes you....:mrgreen:

[StirCrazy]

the tank arrives from Sea star on Tuesday and live rock will be in from Jakarta later in the week.

is this going to be at your house or at the store? If it is at the store I will stop by this week and see how your doing.

Steve

[JoelV]

Im setting it up in our Victoria location,we already have a 100 gallon running, for others intrested in stopping by please refer to our website for the address.

[JoelV]

So here it is a 76 x 24 x 25 built buy H20 Aquarium.(Formely Sea star). I mapped out on paper how I'm going to set up the feed and the drains went and bought all the fittings and thats as far as I got today, Here is also a pic of our 100 gallon that we transfered down from our Nanaimo location it suffered global warming( chiller not turned on) on its first day in Victoria, the only thing that survived was the Marron Clown fish, hermit crabs and all the stuff living in the sand, it got up to 96 degrees when we came in the next day. We stabilized the tank and added in some new fish and some frags. the Coraline that all turned white is coming back real good now and its only been 4 weeks. I welcome any questions and advice. I'm hoping not to make to many mistakes setting up the new tank but some times its the only way I can learn anything. Cost of education can sometimes be high.
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/DSC00360.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/DSC00363.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/DSC00361.jpg

[StirCrazy]

The first thing you have to do is unhook that canister filter and give it to me for my fresh water tank :mrgreen: looks good, I'll try to get in this week and see it in person, I am in the middle of a hockey tourney so not sure of my timeings yet.

Steve

[JoelV]

Today, I removed the sump and drove it back over to H20 Aquarium>I Had them increase the size of the pump intake hole to 1.5 inch to better accommodate the sequence dart Pump. They did it free of charge, even though it was my fault for not specifying the size,(thanks guys!)I also had to take a trip back to the Irrigation place to change over some fittings, changed my mind a bit on the plumbing.
I had a customer today who had to have my Protein skimmer, so I sold it :neutral: It was a Pacific coast PS3000. I got few more models coming in so Ill have it replaced soon enough.:smile:

[Snappy]

Lots of potential with that baby

[JoelV]

Today I finished plumbing the drains I used spa flex on the drain ends so I can easy access them for putting on filter bags. I started the manifold for the supply, it will accommodate loc-line outlets. I am coming out of the pump at 1 1/2 inch's and then going though a Y fitting and into two 1
inch spa flex into the manifold then 3/4 lockline outlets. thats it till Monday.
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/DSC00354.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/DSC00355.jpg

[spoot]

Hey joe, How do you keep the pipes on the rim like that? Any strapping?

[JoelV]

I just cut it tight so it would lie on the inside lip, I'm still thinking on how to fasten it. it sits pretty good maybe just a little Velcro or something, i still have to connect the flex hose to it ill see how it sits then.

[mark]

Looks good.

For securing the pipe can use the square pads like in post 12 in this thread (http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=279070#post279070) and zipties. Can use silicone to hold the pads in-place.

What's the eggcrating for?

[JoelV]

I was advised to put egg crating in to protect the bottom glass from possible breakage from the live rock hitting it also to help give support and stability to the reef. Stop sand sifting fish that could undermine the reef or expose the bottom.

[StirCrazy]

I was advised to put egg crating in to protect the bottom glass from possible breakage from the live rock hitting it also to help give support and stability to the reef. Stop sand sifting fish that could undermine the reef or expose the bottom.

its in there now, so you might as-well use it, to stop sand diggers from knocking things over you just put the rock in before the sand, or just move the sand over when you put the rock in. But ya you already did the work to cut it might as well use it.

I also wanted to say I stopped by the store the other day to look at the set up, it is going to be nice, and it looks a lot bigger in person. also saw some new ballasts that kinda intrigued me, digital ballasts instead of just electronic.

Steve

[JoelV]

Ya those ballasts are so cool. they are newest technology and are selling hard in the hydroponics industry! pretty soon all the large Aquatic outlets will have them. Here is a link to the Canadian website.

http://www.lumatek.ca

[Cameron]

Looks good Joel,
I might have some time tomorrow to drop off those frags,

[JoelV]

I did what Mark suggested earlier in this thread and used pull straps with the square sticky pad things I had cut the pads in half so they would fit nice in the rim, I also place a piece of black doormat style carpet between the tank and stand as I was adviced to do so by H20 (Seastar).
Most the plumbing is done, Im just waiting now for the Pump and the loc-line fittings to show up. I put in insert adaptors just till i get the loc-line as you can see in the picture. The Tank is filling up over night with water from the R.O unit its a 100 gpd so shouldn't be full by the time I get there in the morning:neutral: I hope.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/DSC00358.jpg

[Johnny Reefer]

I notice your tank has only one cross brace in the centre. Is the tank eurobraced also? It doesn't look like it. I have two SeaStar 180s (both 72x24x24). They insisted I get two cross braces spaced apart or they would not warranty the tanks. No biggie as I'm fine with the way they are. Particularly my Reef as a centre brace would conflict with the Aqualight MH lights I eventually bought.
Just wondering.....did they change their warranty policy?

Cheers,

[JoelV]

I didn't like how the skim boxes stuck so far out into the tank with the euro bracing so I went with the cross bracing. I was only told not to have any HID light directly over the brace. I wanted to use two 400's to light the tank. so the brace would not be in the way. I could see having two brace's in your case if you were to use 3 250's there was no mention of two braces nor non warranty issues.

[JoelV]

Just got some new info, the tanks Sea star were making in the past were made of thinner glass requiring more bracing H2O makes their tanks of much thicker glass that requires less bracing. the new tank is built like a TANK

[JoelV]

The live rock Has arrived! The tank is turning over now with the help of a submersible pump. I still don't have the reeflo pumps in stock yet I'm hoping next week.I also have not finished the plumbing as i want to have the pump first to see how it will sit, I,m going to plum one of the over flow drains to the intake side of the pump with use of a tee, this way i will be moving less water though the sump and better contact time with the skimmer while still maintaining max flow at the top of the tank. Thanks to Todd at H20 Aquarium for his advice on the plumbing.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/DSC00363-1.jpg



The rock arrived in Styrofoam coolers, all rocks were wrapped in wet newspaper and put in separate plastic bags. I un packed 6 boxes about 300 pounds. It was so cool we found all kinds of interesting things that I still haven't identified like 4 cool anemones that are purple in color in a white tube with what looks like four teeth in its mouth. We found hermit crabs, snails, lots of crabs that we separated out shrimp, and something thats about 4-6 inch's long golden green snake like wormy thing that hasn't come out of the rock yet. we put the anenomies and snails and stuff in one of our Nano tanks till we can identify if good or bad. New creatures are starting to showing themselves all the time.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/DSC00369.jpg


It has been two days and no testable nitrates or ammonia as of yet, I was told that their maybe only a small amount of die off butt i will keep checking i will start with the water changes when that happens. I only had the rock in the rubbermaid for 20 Min's ... the water went crystal clear wow! the rock is a great bio filter. I'm going to sell 100 pounds of the rock and keep the rest. will start reef building next week. I am reluctant to put any sand in as of yet I want to build the reef first also makes it easier to remove any unwanted creatures that may show them selves.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/DSC00361-1.jpg

Will my Tank Cycle with no sand? and just the die off from the rocks?

[Slipstream]

Thats some nice live rock.. Where did ya order it from?

[JoelV]

the rock was purchased from Jakarta, with the help of a Canadian broker, it was a direct flight into Vancouver. 36 hours max out of the water.:lol:

[JoelV]

Got ta doing some rock work over the holidays. Enjoy the pics.:smile:

Im still tring to decide on the sand bed wether shallow coarse sand or deep fine sand im leaning towards shallow and a coarse grade like Carib sea Agaramax select. Sugestions? I heard some bad things about deep sand beds releasing poisons over time.:sad:

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/1.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/2.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/3.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/5.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/6.jpg

[Skimmerking]

Dude that looks great like the last pic of the rock that you put together/...

[Cameron]

What are your hours at the store Joel? I will try and come by Fri or Sat after work, whats the LR per pound?

[Slipstream]

Dang, wish i could get my hands on some of that LR.. some of the best ive seen for a long time.

[Brent F]

Impressive rockwork and nice pictures showing how to build the pieces
________
portable vaporizer (http://vaporizers.net/iolite-vaporizer)

[JoelV]

Some Progress, Dart pump is installed and running the locline manifold, Reef sand Special grade has been added. I introduced 10 cromises fish to the tank to help the cycling process. Lots of things starting to grow on the rocks now many hitch hikers have been seen, anemones, corals,lots a worms, crabs snails. feather dusters, an unidentified worm thats 4-5 inches long looks like a centipede greeny goldy translucent color. also shrimps and beetle looking things. i added the lights two 400 watt coral vue 20k bulbs powered by electronic Lamatek ballasts. I think i will be adding a third once I get my sps corals in. I am in the process of a fish order I am looking to introduce the fish all at once with as many different tangs possible. So looking to get some good advice on fish selection and suitability. More pics to come.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/2008momcruise001.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/scorpion/2008momcruise002.jpg

[Cameron]

and updated pics?

[JoelV]

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/Reef%20tank/IMGP2071.jpg

The reef tank today still awaiting some lps and sps corals. I have Profilux unit up and running, I'm still working on having it control the lighting and dosing, So far so good, Sure is nice to use the LAN card interface on my shop network, can look at it from any computer connected to the router. the tank is really starting to eat up the carbonate and mag so I'm going to get my reactor hooked up soon. I lost a sea hare in the tank and have not noticed any ill affects whatsoever haven't seen it in weeks, its got to have died.

[JoelV]

185 gallon 72x25x24 cross braced 2 skim boxes,
with 70 gallon sump all built by H20 Aquarium.

Pacific Coast Skimmer PS-3000

Phosban reactor with charcoal

Profilux pro plus with lan controller

400watt Lumatek digital ballasts

Reef optix reflectors

Eco plus ½ horse chiller heater combo

Coralvue 14k 400 watt bulbs

Reeflo Dart pump

Pacific Coast ozone generator

Jakarta live rock.

Carib-sea Live reef sand course grade


Two fairy wrasse Hi Fin Banded goby pair with a pistol shrimp

Yellow tang Purple tang

Sailfin tang Naso tang

Two gold headed sleeper gobies Blue tang

Coral beauty 10 cromisis

Candy cane coral goby Sand dollar

4 kinds of snails orange/red/blue/algae hermits

2 cleaner wrasse one lost or dead seahare

4 -5 inch unidentified centipede looking thing that comes out at night,.

[tang daddy]

looks good so far, the rock is nice love the coraline algae!

What are you using for water movement any powerheads?

Might I suggest that it would be better to run carbon in a canister filter that's what I do now and it works great. I use a ehiem ecco 2236 and have 3 of the 5 chambers filled with charcoal, have the supply going from the display and the return in the refuge compartment in my sump. The pump on the canister is not plugged in because it causes a siphon from the display to the sump.

[JoelV]

looks good so far, the rock is nice love the coraline algae!

What are you using for water movement any power heads?

Might I suggest that it would be better to run carbon in a canister filter that's what I do now and it works great. I use a ehiem ecco 2236 and have 3 of the 5 chambers filled with charcoal, have the supply going from the display and the return in the refuge compartment in my sump. The pump on the canister is not plugged in because it causes a siphon from the display to the sump.



If you look at previous pictures of the build you can see the manifold i built to help with water movement. I like this because I did not want un sightly power heads and water movers visible in the tank I do however have two that are behind the rocks to help with some hard to flow areas

[untamed]

I lost a sea hare in the tank and have not noticed any ill affects whatsoever haven't seen it in weeks, its got to have died.

You might be surprised. They are nocturnal and hide very well during the daytime in spite of their size. In a tank that size, I'm not surprised you haven't seen him lately. I lost mine for weeks and it is maybe 7"L x 4"W. The thing is huge.

[JoelV]

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/Reef%20tank/IMGP4405.jpg



http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/Reef%20tank/IMGP4400.jpg

[JoelV]

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/Reef%20tank/IMGP4403.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/Reef%20tank/IMGP4394.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/Mornin_chubby/Reef%20tank/IMGP4396.jpg

I used the flash on the first pic and no flash on the rest , the flash seemed to drown out the colors and to much glare, I tunrned off the sourounding lights to reduce the glare even more, you can sure tell im running 20k lights.

[X-Treme]

Wow.....Looks great. Sure wish I could get coraline to grow like that. 18 months and hardly ANY coraline. :(