Colleen & Scotts 100g build
 

After 7 years of being tankless my hubby and i decided to start a new build together. This will be the first build ive been responsible for where ive had the time and money to do it exactly the way i want.

At first we were thinking of going with a 30-40 cube all in one setup, but i have always enjoyed having a larger tank. I like the idea of having room for my own choices on filtration and water management.

My previous setups have included a 60g that melted down due to shattered heater and no gfci protection, and a 90g shut down due to life situations.

So Following the trend this time we decided on a custom 48"l by 20"w by 24"t tank. External overflow on the end to allow for use as a peninsula or two long sided viewing.
After posting looking for information on where to shop here in Calgary i went to Concept and ordered tank, stand and sump.

So now while im waiting to have my tank built i've started my shopping and wishlist.

For lighting i am sold on a kessil ap700. I love the all in one controlability. with having a longer tank i think i am going to mount it slightly down toward the non overflow side.

For a return pump so far ive heard good things about Sicce syncra silent 4.0 or Eheim compact+ 5000. Both have a reputation of being quiet with great water moving capacity. and are cheap enough keeping an extra on hand for cleaning and backup is practical.

For in tank flow i like the looks and idea of the Maxspect Gyre XF230 or 250, suplimented with a smaller powerhead.

For skimmer i got a great deal on a bubble magus.

Scott is pretty handy with electronics and is planning on building a controller for the system with display for the hood.


So, any feedback is gladly accepted and appreciated.

I had concept build my peninsula tank . I built my stand & canopy . Only regret - should have paid the extra & had the 2 vertical glass corners polished. Don't get me wrong , it's a nice tank , but that would have finished it off really nice . Considering the rest of the glass edges are covered with wood trim.

Sounds like the start of an awesome tank! I love the dimensions! I have an Eheim Compact 3000 on my tank and love it. It's so quiet that I have to look for water flow when I turn it back on to see if it's running because I can't hear it start up.

I'm not a fan of LEDs though. Maybe you could be persuaded to T5? :D

Funnily enough we did decide to get the 2 vertical edges polished. I'll have to post pics when we pick it up.

in the past ive run MH with t5 to supliment. I always liked the shimmer, and i never could get used to the flatness of the t5 only. i may again supliment with t5 if i dont find the light coverage to be enough. For the price of fixtures i really dont think i'll go straight t5 though.

I run Kessils with T5's . Works pretty good & still have the shimmer

same here I run 3 t5 bulbs and 3 a360we kessils . Best of both worlds and the pendants really made it easy to mount them with the t5's . Tank sounds awesome I have always loved the look of peninsula tanks cant wait for pics :biggrin:

I already had the shimmer of mh but not the pop so I recently added a couple a360 and it's looking great, you can't go wrong with a couple t5 and LEDs...

I am just wondering why you opted for a 24" gig tank instead of 24 wide?

A deeper dimension and lower tank is easier to work on and better to view scape wise....unless room was the issue.

The kessil ap400 looks like a decent light forsure, I've checked some of the reviews on you tube but I don't think one light is going to span 4'.

If I ever did it again and had a 48"x 24"x 20" tall I would run a 8 bulb dimmable ati with 2 kessils a360.

Looks like you're off to a great start...

With our current living space set up we were limited to 20" depth. Our original design was only 48x20x20. With the ap700 needing minimum 15-18" for light spread we were expecting a 18-20" hood. I thought that a 30" stand, topped with a 20" tank, topped with a 20" hood would look a bit off. I talked the Hubby into going 4" deeper. Personally i could have just gone with mounting brackets on the kessil but he insists on a hood. He hates the look of wires, and is planning to install a touchscreen for the controller in the hood.
I dont know exactly if it will make much difference in my viewing space, but im ok with my height.

you never know... i may hate it and redesign the stand or tank lol.

I like the dimensions. I prefer deeper tanks rather than wide and shallow. If you can get with deep and wide then that's the ultimate! :D My tank is 21" high (21" wide), and I don't think I'd ever go shallower than this ever again. I preferred my previous tank's dimensions of 18" wide and 24" tall. I think yours being 20" wide will be even better. :)

I agree the 24"H is good . Keep in mind: 24" overall . My tank bottom is approx 7/8" thick , euro brace - 1/2" & water doesn't run right to the top of tank .
My tank is 24"H , but just over 21" overall water viewing !

I guess I just have short arms... 24" deep tanks I feel like I need the ehiem tong to get to the back, sure my fingers touch the bottom but if you're at the front of the tank reaching to the back your ears get wet.

20" tall is good IMO but I guess I like the rock off the glass so it's easier to do maintenance hence going with a wider tank and keeping the rock work in the middle like an island. Ideally 48" long 30" wide and 20" tall is prime.

When will the tank be built? I guess your expecting to get it wet after the new year?

The tank was ordered last week. Still another couple before I get to pick it up. I'm expecting I won't have it running til the new year as my big expenses are still coming up with lights and live rock.


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So aparently i dont want to wait until new years for my tank, LOL.

Yesterday i picked up salt and bins, and a couple powerheads to mix. Today i picked up 100lbs of liverock. I figured i'll let it sit in bins with a powerhead for a week or two until i get my tank. It was less of an expense than i was budgeting for so its moved things ahead a bit quicker than i planned.

New timetable is tank set up with water and rock by december, and inhabitants by mid january. The rock is fully cured so i could move faster but i want an opportunity to set it up and adjust things if needed without disturbing inhabitants.

Also, Scotts Arduino arrived this week. Today hes toying with the programming and getting familiar with the setup. I dont know anything about it, but hes happy :)

Just to warn you , don't hold your breath for tank to be done on time . Just my experience. Worth the wait & I wouldn't Rush them , but add a month on to their time frame !

Fingers are crossed at least. They've had the order approved since the 1st. 3-4 weeks puts me end November. I'd prefer not to leave the rock in the bin for much longer than that. Any tips for keeping it healthy like that?


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The rock will be fine , with heater & power heads . I had mine in a 1/2 barrel for a couple months , it gave me a chance to full clean & check parameters of the rock - no phosphate, etc

im so excited. Jay sent me a couple shots of my tank. I'll be picking it up by next weekend. Hopefully have it wet by the weekend after!

Looks like my tank was ready sooner than expected. Had to borrow some muscles from my cousin to get it down the stairs as my hubby is gibbled with something wrong with his ribs. So I think I'll still give it 2 weeks to fully cure the silicone and put together the plumbing.

Also, apparently all my stress about high ammonia in my live rock bin was all for nothing. They've dropped to less than 1 ppm. Did a second test to be sure. When I tested nitrites it was still reading zero though. I think maybe my nitrite test kit is no good.Attachment 15548


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Nice , glad to hear they delivered on time .

It must be all those fingers and toes i had crossed ;)

Its nice to have it in the house already. It gives me a chance to look at how i want to lay out my electrical and plumbing. I was surprised exactly how big the sump was lol, didnt pay much attention when ordering it. It was a pretty snug fit inside the stand. Barely a few mil front to back to spare. I think i'll have to build a little shelf above the return chamber on the sump to store a couple cleaning supplies, and house my electrical.

If anyone has any advice on the electrical my ears are open. As of now, we have plans of a 12x12x4 control junction box, housing the electronic components my husband is putting together. The part i get to play with is the relay interface for the controller. The relays will power 4 or 5 duplex receptacles. The idea was to use 2 circuits and split up the loads to ensure if one trips the tank will have a better chance to survive.

As for GFCI protection im deciding whether i want to go with inline protection or receptacle protection.

i love my Hubby, he knows im itching to get the tank wet, even just to put the liverock in and circulate it in there.

I came home to find a new inhabitant.

Wet test is a success! Picked up my pump and plugged it all in today to a temporary power bar. Added sand and right now its a cloudy mess but im sure by morning it will look a whole lot clearer.

The hubby is a bit concerned by the noise level of the skimmer. I might be looking to pick up something a bit quieter unless anyone has any tips to quieting pump hum.

yesterday the silt all filtered out, and today the rock went in.
I tried to leave lots of hole for fish to swim around while still leaving lots of surface area for future corals.
Tomorrow i'll start re-testing the water and see what kind of cycle i get.

we managed to get the skimmer a bit quieter but its still by far the noiseist part of the setup.

I think i need to go shopping today, pick up a float mag, and a loc-line nozzle. Im also looking forward to getting the powerhead off the side and getting a gyre in there but that will have to wait until after christmas.

is it pump noise or drain noise from the skimmer?

i think its pump noise. When we first plugged it in it was a loud vibration hum. now its quieted a bit. i personally think its a bit too big for my system anyways.

Its a bubble magus G9, and i was considering a curve 5. lol i wish there was a way to volume test pumps.

Nice aquascape
Glass cleaner - check out the : Tunze strong

so the tank has been circulating for a week, with no bump in any readings. I think the month in the bins did the job for cycling my rock. Scott and i spent the last few days assembling the hood and today we are sealing the inside surfaces of the hood and stand wood. Tomorrow we will be siliconing any remaining gaps and seams and mounting a t5 dual strip to get a bit of life in the tank. While taking a break from sealing the hood i spent some time searching for life in the tank. A little feather duster survived the curing cycle. I think i scared Scott when i was telling him to hurry and come look. I was so concerned i had cooked all the little life off the rocks that i was thrilled to see something alive in there. I also noticed a bit of green algae growing on one of the rocks and on the cord to one of the powerheads. Its amazing what can survive through such a harsh process as curing.
I guess the next thing we will be looking for is the diatom bloom. Up until now the tank has had no dedicated lights over it, just ambient lighting from the room.
If the parameters stay consistent we'll pick up a small clean up crew to keep the algae in control and maybe a small fish sometime before christmas.

Too small for your tank imo. I'd use Curve 7, or equivalent DC.

I like the aquascape, looks good!

Thanks guys :). We have gotten very used to the pump sound of the skimmer. It's a large skimmer and doesn't pull out much (yet) but will handle anything I throw at it in the future.


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and again im thinking of ditching this skimmer for a different one. GRRRRR.

Took out my filter socks to be cleaned and put in the new ones. Hubby noticed the skimmer going nuts. now nothing i do will slow down the skimmer. its bubbling out of control, causing micro bubbles in the tank and only producing clear, clean appearing bubbles to overflow into collection cup. it totally fills up within half an hour.

Left it off last night to see if it was just something from the socks, and plugged it back in today. Still going nuts :/
Pulled it out and cleaned it best i could and still bubbling over.

At this point i dont know if i should just let it bubble and dispose of whatever it collects or turn it off.

The crazy part is yesterday morning i had it turned all the way closed to try and get some skim with no success, now i cant open it enough to get it to slow down.

Are all skimmers this finicky?

The one thing i have noticed with people with new tanks is they expect the skimmer to work flawlessly from day one. Firstly, there may not be enough junk in the water for it to even remove. My skimmer on my first tank took about a month before it started making skimmate of any measurable amount. Secondly, tuning a new skimmer on a new tank can take weeks. Make a very small adjustment and leave it for 24 hours, then adjust again and repeat. Also, make sure you are running it at the recommended depth. Thats half the battle right there. Good luck.

lol, not concerned about flawless... the skimmer will skim when there's something to skim. however i am concerned that it goes from acting like there's nothing there to overflowing within seconds. What would cause that besides a major change in the water or setup?

The skimmer has been running in the tank for 2 and a bit weeks. It sits in 7.5" of water. I didnt have any instructions included with it when i got it but from what i can find online its best at 9.8" of water. If anything it should be running dryer, not wetter.
When i first fired it up i left it totally open (max flow min skim). there was silt in the water that it was helping pull out. over the first 5 days or so i emptied it of silty settlings i think twice. During week 2 i noticed my bubble level was sitting significantly lower in the chamber so i adjusted it a little bit per day. By Monday night it was at min flow max skim and the bubbles were still just barely coming up to the top of the cone/bottom of the neck. I was fine that it wasn't collecting. its a new tank like you mentioned and there's minimal algae in the water column or oils from feeding or bioload. I did want to make sure that if any started i would be on top of it.

What i am trying to understand is why it flipped on me in a matter of literal seconds. Id like to prevent from happening like that again. Id hate to have real skimmate reintroduced to the tank from an overflowing cup for some ridiculous reason that i didn't think of.

Maybe you stirred up detritus in the sump when you took out the old filter socks? Did you wash the new filter socks before you put them in? Are your new filter socks ones that you used previously ??

I always had similar issue with my skimmer whenever I do water change with Aquavitro salt mix.

When ever I've had a problem like that it's usually from changing water height in sump , or using chlorine remover & I think new filter socks (but been a while). I just **** the cup on top of the skimmer (so it doesn't overflow in 2min) it will usually still skim the stuff out & run smooth after 24hrs.
Love the thread but let's face it - not enough pics . Lol
Did you enclose stand yet ? That will quiet down a lot of noise .

Really !!!!
Another word for the **** , tilt .

Changing filter socks usually causes the skimmer to go nuts, but it usually calms down in about 15 minutes. When I change socks I clean the skimmer first, then remove the plug in the skimmer cup. I leave it like that for 15 mins, and then it's back to normal and I put the plug back in. I do find that using socks causes much more fuss than using filter pads.

Last week after picking up the hermits we started feeding the tank as well. My levels all stayed right on track so this weekend brought a few new inhabitants into the tank. 2 clowns and chromis, along with last weeks GSP patch.

Today i also got the christmas present of a diatom bloom in the tank lol. It came sooner than i was expecting but none the less it has begun.

Last weekend also had the finishing of the hood. We still need to attach the decorative trim to complete it but it is functional.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/IMG_3153.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...nk/image12.jpg

Seems like a bit of a strong diatom bloom. Have you checked nitrate and phosphate with good quality kits? Just make sure they aren't too high or you will be dealing with hair algae in no time.

Love the aquascape!