120 gallon journal - picture Feb 27
 

I will keep the most up to date picture of the tank on the first post here:
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquar...ewrockwork.jpg
Taken Feb 27, 2007

Current Specs (as of Feb 23, 2007):

• 120 gallon glass 48x24x24, tubular steel stand
• Sunlight Supply 4', 8 bulb teklight fixture
• 1 x Rio Seio 1500
• 2 x Rio Seio 1100's
• 33 gallon sump
• Mag 7 sump return
• currently ~100lbs liverock
• Euroreef RS135
• Aqua FX 75gpd RO/DI
• phosban reactor (rowaphos media)
• 1 cup carbon actively run in aquaclear HOB filter (in fuge)
• DIY air driven top-off

livestock in the tank now:

• Royal Grammy, aprox. 1.75"
• Pair of cinamon clowns. Viscious buggers.
• 2 adolescent sixline wrasses
• one finger leather coral about 5-6" wide.
• Three various toadstools, 3" and smaller
• Fragged toadstool (was 1' across)
• Silver, pulsing Xenia that's growing like a weed.
• Green Star Polyp, 2"
• Blue/Purple leather frag (like capnella but not)
• Pink chalice w/ green hilights, 2"
• Red chalice, 2"
• Green porite frag
• favia coral frag, about 5 polyps, still small
• red paly frag (about 5 polyps), still small
• pink mouthed zoos
• purple body, green mouthed zoos
• 6" branching hammer/frogspawn
• 1 sea hare
• 5 trochus snails
• 3 turbo snails
• 4 cone snails
• 1 left handed hermit crab (he's in there somewhere...)
• 2 emerald crabs
• 1 hitchiker crab that behaves like the emeralds, and hasn't caused trouble YET... (innocent until proven guilty)

plans as money comes in (and time):

• more liverock
• peristalic pump array for dosing

the following is the beginning of the thread, where I found some metal halide lighting, and started thinking of converting my 120 gallon cichlid tank to a reef tank

ok so I've gotten my hands on some free 400W M59 lights yesterday. gotta test them. I've been REALLY humming and hawing over whether to convert my 120 gallon cichlid tank to a reef tank. It's what I wanted it to be in the first place when I was building it. It's 20% stocked where I want it, and I could move most of the fish to the 3 foot tank I own already.

here's what I have:

• it's a 120 gallon tanganyikan tank, 48x24x24, with a 33 gallon sump w/ trickle filter. mag 700 return pump. drilled overflow/return

• a little 18 gallon nano reef which I've already spent close to $300 on upgrading it's crappy 36 watts of lighting to 150 watts of geissemman HQI, which still aren't operational

I went nano reef instead of big reef, because the initial cost of liverock for the big reef was so daunting. But now I've spent whackloads on this nano, which isn't very satisfying in size, and wished I did the big one in the first place. I could have cultured half the rock with baserock.

I've been considering the costs required to build a little nano cube the way I want it, and it's just so rediculous to do something that small. I'd be saving on the liverock, but the equipment doesn't scale in price the same way as a large tank.

If they work, I'm wondering if they'd be too crazy in heat for me to use? Before I covered the tank, the basement was SUPER muggy, since it has no ventilation. I would need to buy a chiller which would defeat the purpose of taking advantage of these free ballasts.

So if the heat's a major issue, I'll be getting rid of them one way or another.

I'm going to have so much leftover gear after all these changes in decisions. I should just start saving my money and buying everything at once instead of bit by bit as I go. That way I can't change my mind. They say gemini's are fickle, they must be right lol

any input, though?

I'm sure when all's said and done, I'll be giving the same advice everyone gave to me: go big or you'll regret it.

where you from? i went the same route, if a reef tank is what you always wanted and are itching to do it, then stop spending on the smaller tanks because 9 times out of 10 you'll go bigger, and its cheaper to start bigger than to work your way up to it. a 120 is a good size, i would some research on the trickle filter, they are a little out dated, but its your option. a straight sump with baffles and skimmer would be better IMO. i started with a 55gal, then turned my 10gal QT into a nano and then now i'm almost finished assembling a 280gal and i wish i went straight to the 280 because i would have saved a bundle.

I'm from calgary, and I'd rip out the trickle portion of the sump, and maybe put in a bubble trap, leaving space for a protein skimmer, and a way to hook up a calcium reactor down the road.

I just need to know if the 400 watts would be too hot. I don't want to spend money on 400W bulbs, then find I have to take them out and redo the ballasts and all because it's too hot, and too muggy in the basement. I'd have to check on the electrical. I know when we used the two 800 watt base heaters in the basement, the breaker would go whenever the vacuum or a curling iron was used. not as much draw as the tanks, but I'd like to be safe.

once you goto a tank of that size you are gonna want to start off with 2 400 watt MH, as anything else you buy you will end up selling to get enough money to buy the MH when you want to upgrade. All the corals that you will eventually want will require these lights, so save yourself the hassle and get the lights.
You might want to get another breaker installed just for your aquarium if power overload is a problem in the basement, as the last thing you will want will be the heater in winter failing and killing all your corals or your tank overheating in summer and killing all th ecorals all because your power to the fans went off.

If you build yourself a self contained hood and install 2- 4inch fans on them this will dissipate most of the heat generated by the lights. Then all you would need to do would be paint the hood the same color as the stand to make your tank look nice.

400W lights are hot - there is just no way around it. I run 3X400W lights on 2 of my tanks and am always battleing heat. I am going to put a chiller on my 190g next summer as this tank is acrylic and no matter what I do it get's too hot. If you basement is already hot and muggy what you may want to do is to figure out some kind of ventilation or you will probably be dealing with mould at some point in the future.
On my 230g tank that is glass I can control the heat with fans blowing across the sump but it is just not enought on the acrylic tank.

yeah, I'll try that for the winter coming up and if it's getting too hot in the summer, I'll have cash then to get the chiller.

The basement's not already muggy and hot. I meant when the 120 gallon tank I have was being run with a completely open top, THEN it was muggy in the basement. the basement's actually quite cool and dry normally. I WAS thinking of a way to vent air from the hood straight to the furnace room on the other side of the wall and tapped into the chimney piping. It would be hot air, so it should rise, right? Anyone think this would be a problem?

An electrician was by a few months ago to fix some of the "do it yourself" wiring the previous owners did, and installed another breaker. We stopped using the base heaters before then, so I don't know . Maybe I should get out a couple blow dryers, and turn on two irons to test the maximum capacity?

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I run a single 400 watt on my 65 gallon tank and it heats up pretty good in the summer, due to ambient room temp. If your basement is cool though, I'd go for it. 2 400 watters should do fine, with fans of course.

I haven't read the whole thread so sorry if this was brought up already. Your nano tank would make a really nice refugium or frag tank, why don't you plumb it in?

The other thing to consider is that you said you basement was muggy until you covered your tank. The thing with putting the 400W bulbs over your tank is that the covered top is going to contribute further to heat in the tank. I know that I run both my large systems with open tops and as I said still have heat issues in my 190g even with the top open and fans blowing accross both the sump and the tank. I can't even imagine how hot this tank would get if I put the cover on.

you'll need some venting in that room, even though it is in the basement - dual 400's can be pretty hot yes, but people have gotten around that problem. I think Brad runs 400 Radiums on m59's, and over a 75 gallon. :surprise:

you could also suspend the canopy for a bit of help with airflow:

http://members.shaw.ca/AJ_77/oct04_tankroom.jpg

that's 2 - 400W over a 110, with a stand fan on "low" blowing across the tank top. it stayed pretty cool, in the basement.

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Hey I remember that tank.

Now it is not saying that you can't run both types of tanks.
Each has their own merits as well as challenges.
I have a 10g nano in the bathroom and a 33 that I am upgrading to a 75 later this year.

You must have a small bathtub. My tub is at least 30 gallons.

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:rolleyes:

:lol:

wow...who needs to read newspapers in the bathrooms when you can stare into one of your tanks

i did it... i started my conversion.

went to gold's and bought a Sun System Tek light 8 bulb T5 system. It's so damned bright you can't even look at it! It's 430 watts or so, and Albert was swearing up and down that it would be better than 250W metal halides.

I decided to opt out of the 400 watt systems because of their trouble, and the fact I won't be stocking much for SPS. AND the power consumption. And when looking at Sanjay's charts, the 400 watters don't scale in a linear fashion compared to 250's, so you're doing 75% more power for 45% more light. And the T5 bulbs can go forever without having to be changed, I guess. And basically I'm a sucker for new technology. I'm allways the early adopter.

We'll see. It broke the bank a little, but half the cost was in bulbs, and it's all done. no heat, no canopies to build, no airflow to worry about.

Now I have to worry about how I'm going to hang it. The one end of the ceiling where I have to hang the light from, the drywall's cracking. I don't think there's a stud running along where the two sheets of drywall meet.

http://www.esopenko.com/images/aquar...kedceiling.jpg

I'm still going to test these ballasts. They're TAR ballasts, so they won't be as noisy as outdoor ballasts, and if they work, I'm sure I'll be able to trade them with somone.

I'll probably run a little 5 gallon nano in my bedroom until summer hits. They do have their advantages, if you want to have a little fish tank in every room, or if you have limited space. My girlfriend's been hinting for a tank for her bday in november, and I might get her a small 24g, and salvage the HQI system I've purchased. She has about 2 feet of space she's clearing in her bedroom, and she's been hinting REAL strong she wants one :)

Errr, well, you should be changing the bulbs once a year man haha. You can drag out the replacements to 14 months from what I've read and stagger the blues a bit though.

"forever" was exaggerated ;)
it's just 12 months seems a lot longer than 9 months

and here's a current picture of the tank.
http://www.esopenko.com/images/aquar...ptylighton.jpg

IIRC those amazing european tanks that you see using only T5 lighting are changing their bulbs every 6 months. I know that I have 6 T5's over my 190g and am at the year mark on them now but they definately need to be changed.

The Americans beg to differ, haha.

8 t-5's are quite bright and intense too. Doug had 4 over his 75 and man it was bright ,but more intense then anything. I think it was bleaching his hydro and some other frags he had. I think that after that he took it down and ran just 1 set of t-5's not sure on what he's going to run now.

I have to say, I've grown quite impatient :redface:
http://www.esopenko.com/images/aquar...gsept4th06.jpg

i'm not running all the lights right now. I just turned 'em all on for the photo

put in 70 lbs of liverock from Gold's. Moved my existing 20 lbs from my nano. 90 lbs all together. Moved my whopping 4 frags into the tank, along with my fairy grammy. He spent the night creeping over the tank from cave to cave, till he found the real cool cave piece he bought. decided on his new home.

I'm running just the actinics, I removed about 75% of the sand, so it's just a fine, 1/4" layer on the bottom (unlike in the picture).

The toadstools should be fine halfway down the tank, with the half the lights on, right? I don't think they'll bleach when I turn the rest of the lights on, either, because it'll be gradual. The big tank's going to be a better place for them than the nano, even with half the tank's lights on. The toadsool's in medium-heavy water flow, and the xenia's in medium flow with some nice looking turbulence.

Now as for the echinophyllia (chalice), anyone know what kind of flow requirements it has? Hard to find much information on it. I placed it on the far right, off by it'self, because I know it'll get sweeper tentacles eventually, and I placed it in a way that I hope it will begin plating.

I have to figure out how to get the toadstool plugs out of the ugly clumps of epoxy though. Also, I didn't plan on having them in a tank bigger than the nano, so now they're too close together for how large I have decided them to grow.

Tested the water paramaters again, and again ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphates are undetectable. They're aquarium pharmeceuticals testkits though. I think I'm going to break down and get a salifert nitrate kit soon.edited next day. post was WAY too long

I wrote a review for the lighting fixture. Gave it a 4.5 out of 5. It's so intense you can't even look at it straight on :)
I'm wondering what it would look like overdriven with Icecap ballasts? :twised:

I hope some company comes out with VHO T5's. Then I think the only advantage to MH lighting would be the glitter lines (which are so dang cool).

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=26819

I'm acclimating a sea hare, a turbo snail, and 4 cone snails as we speak. It's a slow drip acclimation in a styrofoam cooler. I plan to do the dripping for 2 hours, since I don't want to lose this sea hare. They're sometimes hard to find.

What does the pipe on the right 3/4 the way up do? Is it a return.
BTW I like your aquascape, looks awesome.

Yeah, it's a return. I would like to put an inductor on it, but I've been doing research on inductors first. Various sized inductors require various PSI's for optimal efficiency. And I would like to know if the backpressure caused by the inductor would be safe on the mag pump.

And thanks for the comment on the aquascape. It's not as much rock as I would like, and I'll have to buy/cure some more later, but it's good for now. Only problem is it's covered in hair algae at ATM. I'm so impatient heh.

Is there a check valve on it?

yeah, there's a check valve, and I have the backup that the output is only 3/4 of the way up. I tested it, before installing the valve, and I have room in my sump for the backflow from the display tank in case the check valve fails.

the check valve's spring is stainless steel, but I'm a little nervous still having the metal in the tank... I was thinking of removing the valve at some point, and only having the empty space in the sump as backup.

If your returns are high enough, or have anti siphon holes drilled in them, you should be fine.

I finally got around to setting up the moonlight. It's a cold cathode light, and I decided to run it on the side of the tank, since it gives a different look than the usual middle of the tank.

I posted how I made it in the DIY section http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=27340

http://www.esopenko.com/images/aquar...htovertank.jpg

No experience like experience. It's just over a month, now, and things are starting to come together :)

So the hair algae's all gone. I'm not embarrased any more to post a picture of the tank other than when the lights are out. ;)

http://www.esopenko.com/images/aquar...-06-10_800.jpg
I'm starting to feel I don't have enough rock... what do you think?

I think I pretty much sorted out my alkalinity problem for the moment. I'm just dosing more often, and I'm trying to work myself into the habit of regularity.

Oh and I got a refractometer. It's a nice tool, and now I'm aware I was running my system at a salinity of 1.028, instead of the 1.025 I thought it was running at. :surprise:

coraline algae's starting to show up, and the macro algae on the rocks is doing well. Nitrates have stabilized, and are sitting at 0.0 or 0.2ppm each time I test for them.

And I have two cinamon clowns in quarantine ATM. They look healthy, and they're eating well. They're little pigs! :D

And I added a branching frogspawn. And an elegance coral, which I hope turns out for the best. I purchased it off a fair amount of book research, but the books are out of date to inform one that recently elegance coral's not faring well in the aquarium... It's feeding, though, which I take as a good sign.

the xenia's continuing to grow like a weed. :neutral: The zoos are forming runners. :smile: And my early toadstool frag fell into the rock work. I managed to find the perfect spot for it, it was reacting well, but I didn't have any epoxy or superglue left. I can't find it for the LOVE of me! :puppydog: Tried a rescue mission tonight and carefully disassembled that end of the rockwork, but it's as if it vanished...

As money comes in, I'd like to add more liverock (i'll be curing it properly this time), get an auto top-off together (probably run it on an electronic timer rather than a float switch), and DIY a kalk mixer or a calcium reactor.

Plus on the backburner are plans for a small, 18x18x18 nano tank for up in my bedroom. That's for after christmas probably.

Oh and I tapped into the RO portion of my RO/DI, so now I'm able to make my jasmine tea with RO water. yum :)

Here's a link to recent info on the Elegance coral problems

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic31241-9-1.aspx

At one time these corals were hardy and easy to care for,untill this infection poped up.If you're lucky enough to get an uninfected elegance,you shouldn't have much problem keeping it heathy.If not,then good luck.Maybe message Borneman on the linked forum to see if he can help you out.

P.S. I like the rock work.lots of open spaces for good water flow.

I looked through the thread, and the website, but there wasn't specific info yet. Any clue what I should be looking for if it's infected? I've been feeding it every day, and I guess that's a good thing for it in case it IS infected.

Just would be nice to know what to look for.

It's interesting to hear this is what's causing it. I read on the net people figured they were being collected in deeper water, which caused a new set of husbandry requirements.

But the argument of them catching diseases from holding tanks because of the huge assortment of corals that are collected now, sounds quite plausible.

now thousand dollar question, is what does the infection look like? and the ten thousand dollar question is how do you treat it?

Come to think of it, at the LFS, one of the elegance corals did have an infection, and the guy wouldn't sell it. Quite thankful for that. It was from a different system, though, so that increases my chances of a healthy coral.

I'll continue the daily feedings and hope for the best.

Almost a month since the last update, so I figured I'd do a quick run-over of all the stuff in the past month.

I lost that elegance. Albert said he lost all his in the store too. Was kind of a bummer.

I cut back the photoperiod of my T5 10k bulbs. I run the aquablue +'s for 12 hours, and the 10000k's for 6 hours. The softies and the branching euphillia have reacted well to it. Pink coraline's starting to show up. I don't know if increasing the photoperiod of the 10k's would bring in deeper and darker coraline, or if it would just bleach it.

I want more liverock, and I think that'll be the next major thing I get for the tank, along with either a blenny or a goby.

The two adolescent cinnamon clowns are out of quarantine, and in the display tank for their second day. They're timid, as expected to be, and being weened off of Spectrum Grow to mysis shrimp because I can't feed the tiny sinking pellets in the reef tank. Man fish go crazy for that new life spectrum. Too bad it dissapears in the rockwork before the fish can eat it : \

I've been having an algae problem again. Weird, super soft wavy algae growing on the glass of the tank. I think it's because of the trouble I was having with my skimmer. Solved the skimmer problem by removing the sponge bubble catcher. It was affecting the dialing of the skimmer, causing the collection cup to overflow suddenly 10 hours after I'd dial in the skimmer.

Found a hitchiker crab in the liverock that looks like the emerald crabs, behaves like the emerald crabs, yet green. I've watched him a fair bit, and he keeps to himself, just picking at invisible stuff on the rock. Innocent until proven guilty. I'll leave him alone unless he keeps growing (2" across already).

Nobody's had interest in buying the 150W HQI light, so I think I'm going to keep it until I have the chance to start up a second reef tank.

I've been humming and hawing over starting a second tank, but I keep telling myself "NO! concentrate on the one you have! any money spent on another tank is money lost for stuff like dosing pumps, etc!" I really want an array of dosing pumps after X-Mas :D

I've been trying to figure out a way to convert my 33 gallon freshwater tank to another reef tank WITHOUT buying anything much more. I have two 33 gallon long tanks, one in display shape, one good for a sump. I also have a DE 150W PFO HQI light needing a reflector/socket. Great light, but not for something 3 feet long.

Anyone know of a SUPER cheap way to light a small tank? I was thinking of supplementing it with a single 96W PC light, but that would be like another $140. And I still need a reflector and bulb clips for the tank. Anyone have a good source for DE bulb clips? They're like $10 in the states, but $20 up here. I was thinking of making the reflector by butchering a worklight or two for theirs. We have some extras in the garage.

What, no pics?:mrgreen:

Looks good Sean. I agree that you could use more live rock.

BTW, Emerald crabs are green. Hence the name.

Cheers,

ok so I bought more stuff! woot!

I added two seio 1100's, totaling my water movement to aproximately 4000gph. that's 33 x of tank turnover haha. Everything seemed to perk up almost instantly when I added the extra 2200gph. I've got the powerheads arranged to prevent the deadspots I had before while not giving my softies/lps a thrashing. The clowns are definately enjoying the extra water movement :)

I also added another 10 lbs of liverock. Albert was nice enough to sell me some from a display tank, too, since there was slim pickings of rock left today. Total liverock is about 100lbs. Need more still. I stacked the rock I bought in the back lefthand corner, allowing open spaces for water movement.

And I did my own DIY auto-top off system. I bought a cheap 5.5 gallon water tank from ukranian tire, and hooked it up to a low output AC airpump run on a digital timer. It's set to pump water out for 5 minutes when the 10k's turn out at 10pm (ph starts dropping then), and another 5 minutes at about 3am. Total output then is 1.8 gallons per day. I was paying attention to my daily evaporation for a while, and normally have about 2.0-2.1 gallons of evaporation per day. It's a pretty good system, I think. Eventually I'll convert it to a 5 gallon glass jug to deal with the jug expanding/contracting when the air pump turns on and off. And I'd like to get a digital timer with more daily on-off's if I come across one for a good price. Spread out the dosing.

Upgraded some more test kits to salifert and aquatest kits. My aquarium pharmeceuticals kit was reading 330ppm calcium, but my new salifert kit reads 390ppm. Good thing I got the new one, I was about to make corrective action today. Also bought a good pH kit to see if my milwaukee monitor is still reading accurately, and it is. 8.3pH while the lights are full blast.

So here are some pictures. Don't mind the cloudy water, I just finished basting the rocks before the photos.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...aterbottle.jpg
Campwasser dosing bottle. Hehe, get it? lol I'm lame

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/507/undertank.jpg
Under my tank. Don't mind the mess.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/508/11-15-06.jpg
as of Nov 15, 2006

I'm completely sick of dosing kalk. I don't have the means to hook my RO system to the tank, so a kalk mixer is out of the question

i've ordered some calcium chloride, and i'm going to try two part dosing. my calcium's slowly worked it's way down to 320ppm, even though i'm dosing 6 tps of kalk every night like clockwork. it's getting expensive, too, buying kalk from the LFS.

the two part system will give me more control to balance out my kH and calcium, and if it works, i'll look into some dosing pumps to do it for me.

I'll have about 9 lbs of calcium chloride in about a week, ordered from littlesilvermax, and we'll see how it all goes :)

I'm gonna have fun baking baking soda (sorry, geeky word pun there lol) :)

Just joining this thread right now.

What salt do you use?

How do you keep up your magnesium?

I use to go through additives like crazy trying to get my calcium above 350 with no luck, cept I had precipitation all over my pumps, and they needed to be cleaned every 4 months or so. And that was when I had no corals!

Now I have no trouble keeping my calcium at 420 or so and I have huge SPS! All because my magnesium is in check.

Just a thought.

i use oceanpure salt. it has crazy high magnesium. when i mix to 1.025, it's mg is around 1500 ppm. It's calcium and carbonate hardness are imballanced when it's freshly mixed though. high kH, but low carbonate. I think that's why dosing kalk is a pain with it because i'm starting with imballanced water.