[ljv]

I am new to reefbuilders but not to the hobby. I had a 125G reef tank for about 6 years until I moved last year. I sold the tank before we moved with the hopes of getting back into the hobby in a few years.

I didn't realize how much I would miss it. Anyhow, 6 months later my wife had enough of my moping and comments. For my 40th birdthay she surprised me with a 120G AGA tank with built in overflows and a stand. The only condition was that I am not allowed to charge any purchases for the rest of the setup. She rocks!

I've been slowly building up the equipment over the last few months. A little from each paycheck and I've sold some stuff on EBay to raise some cash. I'll give you all the low down on where I am at with photos.

Here is the tank. It is filled with saltwater and circulation system is running. Has a lot of potential don't you think?



To my wife's dismay (she started it) I decided to put the sump behind the wall in the furnace room. Now we have a brand new house with big holes in the wall. Here is a view of the sump from behind the wall. Its a 30G DIY with a ASM skimmer. I added the short loop of flex tubing from the pump because the hard plumbing transferred the vibration from the pump into the wall and you could hear it upstairs in the living room. The loop made it completely silent. I was amazed.



I did not include a refugium area in the sump since I plan on a much larger refugium in the area to the right of the sump (yes I have big plans). The nice part about this is that underneath the tank is EMPTY. Check it out.



Here is a closeup of the plumbing under the tank. I also built my own Durso standpipes for the overflows. The AGA kits had bulkheads with barbed fittings that would not work with my hard plumbing. I saved a lot doing it myself anyway. They are nice and quiet and work like a champ.



I also installed an RO unit in the furnace room. I cut into the plumbing of my new house and put in a separate supply with shutoff. I plan on adding a DI canister or two eventually.



Also, before installing the sump, I ran a new electrical circuit and outlets (GFCI protected) in the furnace room to support the pumps, heaters, etc without having to use power strips.

The next big purchase will be lights. Ouch! That one may take a little while.

I ordered some dry fiji live rock to build a sturdy structure for my live rock (next step after the lights). They came in yesterday and other than the fact that they are completely dry and "dead", they look really nice. I'll post pics in the next few days. That's it for now. I'll try to keep this up to date as I move along.

[jimw369]

Looks good! Keep em coming!

[Tonz of fun]

Thats how I would do it...

[Tonz of fun]

Any ideas on stocking? I would gladly donate for the cause if you are wanting what I have...

[ljv]

My last tank was all softies. They were a lot of fun and I did a lot of fragging. Shared with some friends and even the pizza delivery guy. He was just getting started in the hobby and I gave him frags of 6-7 different corals (zoos, mushrooms, leathers and xenia). He set me up with free pizza and salads every time he delivered to my house.

This time, I was thinking of doing more LPS and maybe even some SPS or clams. Haven't really decided yet. I want to avoid too much mixing of coral types to prevent chemical warfare.

I'm still a few months away from stocking but I will keep your offer in mind. Thanks.

[Hosser]

Looking really good, cant wait to see it come along.

[ilovemash]

I like how u set up ur filtration.....frees up a ton of room under the tank.

[map95003]

Nice start, I started my build about a month ago too, still trying to figure out what I want to put in the tank.

[map95003]

Greg, did I hear that right??? you're donating stuff, I'm working on a list for my tank, I would even be willing to pay...

[Tonz of fun]

There are a few things that need taming, I have some baby leathers, blue shrooms, zoas (i would charge for those), Kenya trees, and xenias. I have to charge is you want the zoas because the LFS is paying me 25 bucks in credit and i get all my things for cost...

[Tonz of fun]

Originally Posted by ljv

My last tank was all softies. They were a lot of fun and I did a lot of fragging. Shared with some friends and even the pizza delivery guy. He was just getting started in the hobby and I gave him frags of 6-7 different corals (zoos, mushrooms, leathers and xenia). He set me up with free pizza and salads every time he delivered to my house.

This time, I was thinking of doing more LPS and maybe even some SPS or clams. Haven't really decided yet. I want to avoid too much mixing of coral types to prevent chemical warfare.

I'm still a few months away from stocking but I will keep your offer in mind. Thanks.

Sounds like a good idea. SPS are very venerable so that would be your main area of concern. Keep me in mind...

[ljv]

I ordered some "dry" fiji rock from bulkreefsupply. It came in and I was pleasantly surprised by the shape and condition of the rock. Below are some photos of the rocks. In the first photo, I connected a few of the rocks together to make an arch. I attached another pair to get a flat table-top shaped rock to be firmly attached and stand upright.

They are all in my tank curing. There is a good amount of dried organic stuff on the rock so it needs to be cured for a while. This stuff should look pretty nice after of few months in the tank with some "live" live rock.





Here is a picture of 6 gallons of Merlot that I have fermenting in my sump room. It should help me get through my first algae outbreak.

[Hosser]

hmmm wine and waiting for cycling, who'd of thunk to do that haha.
Note to Ian ....he said in his sump ROOM not his sump! J/K Ian haha.

How much rock you plan on having?,Live sand? Everything looks good

[ljv]

I'm thinking about 150 pounds of rock. This dry stuff was so nice that I may add another 25 pounds of it before diving into the real live rock. I'll use this for a decent base and then hand pick the rest from my LFS. They have a pretty good selection but its kind of expensive. I'm sure I'll be adding a little at a time.

As far as sand goes, I plan on a shallow bed of fine sand (non-live). I have three 30 pound bags sitting in my storage room waiting. I don't want to add it until I get all of my live rock in place, so that all of the crud that comes off during curing will be easier to get rid of.

In my sump room (formerly known as the furnace room) I plan on having a refugium to grow some chaeto and a deep sand bed. I may seed that with some live sand to get it going. I had a five inch DSB in my last display tank but it took up too much room. Im going to try it in a refugium this time.

[Tonz of fun]

I get my LR from mrmarine and it goes for 75 per 50 pounds shipped. It could be a money saver...

[map95003]

Hey Greg, I bought 50 lbs LR from mrmarine 5 weeks ago, I paid $150 shipped....good stuff, $150 is pretty cheap compared to the LFS but $75????. I'm thinking of getting some more, how did you get it for $75?

[ljv]

I picked up 80 pounds of Fiji LR from my LFS tonight. I was able to negotiate them down to $4 a pound which was acceptable to me. At least I could see what I was getting and I want to support them since they seem to be one of the few good ones out there.

I just tossed it in the tank (very gently). I didn't have time to aquascape or anything since I had to help my daughter with her Spanish homework. Here is photo of my new rock pile. Its all spread out on the bottom of the tank so it looks like there is less than there really is. Total rock now is up to 130 pounds. I'm very excited. This weekend I will arrange it. I'll post some pics after I am done so that you can all critique my artistic abilities.

I'm going to order some lights tomorrow. I'm going with a T5 fixture (for a number of reasons). I actually got to see a new 6x54W Nova Extreme Pro on a 120 at my LFS. Very bright fixture. I didn't like the color all that much (too white and washed out) but I think changing out a few of the bulbs will take care of that.

Before too long its going to start looking like a reef tank

[Magaman]

Very nice tank, we just ordered the same tank. Gotta wait a few weeks for it but gives me plenty of time to do my research. Coming from a 29BC this seems like a nice jump and from what I have read the system is pretty easy to set-up and run. The biggest thing I'm looking into is the plumbing.
My thought right now is flex to hard slip adapters with ball valves on both drains and both returns. Then hard the rest of the drains into a sump/fuge. Hard return from pump with a swing check valve into a T into ball valves. Only reason I'm adding the check is better safe then sorry.

[ljv]

You should probably skip the ball valves on the drain lines. They aren't necessary and if they become clogged or are closed off when the tank is running you could easily cause a flood. The overflow design is self limiting so there is no need to shut off or restrict flow on the drains.

[ljv]

I arranged all of my rock on the bare glass bottom. When everything was stable, I added 60 lbs of sand. Looks pretty good. I don't see any problems with the arrangement. Do you?



By the next morning the dust had settled and I used my handy dandy turkey baster to clean off the rocks. Here is how it looks today.



My lights should be here this week.

[ljv]

I've got lights!!! My Nova Extreme Pro 6x54 T5 fixture came in today.

Pretty darn bright. I like it. I may swap some bulbs to get a little better color, but not right away.

Now I need to be patient, watch my parameters and let the tank cycle. It will give me time to gather up stuff for my QT tank. Christmas is coming and I've got 3 kids that are old enough to like only expensive stuff. Any real reef stocking will have to wait until after the holiday financial massacre. Did I say financial massacre? I meant joyous holiday season.

[RyanG]

Looks good Larry, new lights are very bright! Your corals that you'll get after the holidays will love them!

[Tonz of fun]

I agree those lights are perfect. They are a nice spectrum color as well. I would wait to replace them... Let me know when you need softies.

Also correction mrmarine sells LR for 150 shipped...

[Bamaguy]

Looks good! I have learned a lot of patience with the Saltwater hobby but I don't know if I could wait to stock a new tank thru the Holiday season. My Christmas list would be full of reef stuff. Good luck!

[ljv]

Yep. It isn't easy. My tank is just getting through the initial diatom bloom / crud stage. For about a week or two it looked really bad. I had it on the substrate and the live rock. Just kept cleaning my skimmer and blowing off the rocks with my handy dandy turkey baster. I've been watching and maintaining pH, Alk and Calcium. Low and behold, its looking much better. The rocks are starting to color up and I have all types of little critters on the glass and rocks. I think a few more weeks and some water changes and I'll be ready to add something.

No major purchases until after the holidays, but I don't think I'll be able to resist picking up a few small frags at my LFS (small frags start at $9.99).