My 120 built in with updates
- Thread starter trido
- Start date
It just so happens that my wife has decided that she wanted a new digital camera for christmas. The romance has gone. We bought a Canon Sure Shot A630 8.0 megapixels. Here are a few shots from learning how to use it. Ill start first with a few of my critters and finish with the plumbing nightmare under the tank. As much as I try to keep things under the tank managable and organized it still gets messy due to the amount of equipment I have in such a small area.
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Now I will summarize what I have done with the plumbing. It has changed quite a bit since I fired it up last spring. I have sequence barracuda as a CL Split into two main feeds to the tank. One feed goes to my super squirt which consists of two lower spray bars behind the rock work and eight valve adjustable loc lines. The other half of the CL returns are just 3/4" PVC split eight times. I have 16 adjustable flows topside as well as two sump returns. Under the tank I have a mag 18 as a return pump split to feed the 30 gallon fuge. The sump Is 25 gallons which I modded 5 baffles into. An ASM G-3 skimmer is all the that sits in the sump besides the M-18. I have a DIY kalk reactor which is having a hard time keeping up with calcium demand so My DIY calcium reactor will be put online within the next two weeks as well.
Due to my small sump size I cant drip kalk to match my evaporation rate as it will drip too much at night and make my skimmer act up. I keep my ATO on and this allows me to be a little less diligent on an exact drip rate from the kalk reactor. I just recently bought a new float switch with the secondary fail safe float from ATO.com. My single float caused me a 20 gallon flood last month and we all know that too much RO can be deadly. I think that about sums up my plumbing. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask. Pics of MY DIY reactors are in the DIY forums if your interested.
Due to my small sump size I cant drip kalk to match my evaporation rate as it will drip too much at night and make my skimmer act up. I keep my ATO on and this allows me to be a little less diligent on an exact drip rate from the kalk reactor. I just recently bought a new float switch with the secondary fail safe float from ATO.com. My single float caused me a 20 gallon flood last month and we all know that too much RO can be deadly. I think that about sums up my plumbing. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask. Pics of MY DIY reactors are in the DIY forums if your interested.
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And finally a couple pics of the front. The door is just half inch plywood with 1"x4" trim around the edges to seal in the light. There is 1" styrofoam insulation screwed to it for noise reduction. I have a continuous piano hinge along the top, a couple of compression stops to keep the door closed ( the old fashioned kind if that helps) and a piece of PVC to hold the door open when I do maintanance. I feed from the back side. MY lighting I 500watts of 14K phoenix DE in two PFO pendants with 3 VHO lights. Two actinic and one 10K daylight. They were all three actinic but it was feeling too blue lately so I changed one. Maybe its all of this Seattle rain. :lol:
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Duane, two questions/requests:
Was it you that had that dark blue hippo that was almost black? If not, do you remember who it was or what thread it was?
And second, it's been almost 5 months since the last update, can we see some more pics and hear some more news?!
P.S. I have some great news to share with you soon! I'll e-mail you.
Was it you that had that dark blue hippo that was almost black? If not, do you remember who it was or what thread it was?
And second, it's been almost 5 months since the last update, can we see some more pics and hear some more news?!
P.S. I have some great news to share with you soon! I'll e-mail you.
Actually I am the person with the dark black/blue hippo.
You are right about the updates. I am going to wait about another month and a half for the full tank shots for its one year lighting B-day. I have been real busy building my newest tank room for my prop/display system. I doubt any one noticed, I havent been posting much lately. I havent started a build thread for the new system yet because I didnt want to bore everyone with framing and electrical pics.
I will try to get some updates of my carbon reactor and recirc hook up on my skimmer and the black hippo tang in the mean time.
You are right about the updates. I am going to wait about another month and a half for the full tank shots for its one year lighting B-day. I have been real busy building my newest tank room for my prop/display system. I doubt any one noticed, I havent been posting much lately. I havent started a build thread for the new system yet because I didnt want to bore everyone with framing and electrical pics.
I will try to get some updates of my carbon reactor and recirc hook up on my skimmer and the black hippo tang in the mean time.
too late. I came home from work and put the third coat of sheetrock mud and textured all in one swoop. The small tank will be in place by monday. Ill try to post pics then.
So far the tang hasnt nipped any corals. I wish it would nip the xenia. It does tend to nip at the turbo snails, fighting conch and I am wondering if its nipping my crocea when Im not watching. The clam will go into the new tank as soon as possible just in case.
Its been almost a year since this tank has been stocked so I thought Id post a couple befor and now pics. Alot has changed in the system since I first fired it up last June. A went form a Single Mag 18 two two Mag 18s to a Sequence Barracuda on my CL. I have since added a Ca and Kalk reactor. I have almost complletely rebuilt my CL locline inputs on the tank. I have also upgraded from PFO pendants to Lumen Arc Minis'. I still have 250w DE phoenix 14ks and 330w of VHO actinic.
Here you go.
This is what it looked like after I added the corals that came from Cali.
This is what it looks like after a frag pack from Rommel at ultimatefrags.com, a little bit of frag trading, and alot of purchases.
And a couple close ups for fun.
Here you go.
This is what it looked like after I added the corals that came from Cali.
This is what it looks like after a frag pack from Rommel at ultimatefrags.com, a little bit of frag trading, and alot of purchases.
And a couple close ups for fun.
I like the minis alot. They give me light in the corners that the PFOs could not due to size alone. These are the new ones with the black housing and glass shield. The biggest bummer about the Lumen Arc pendant, it does NOT have any easy way to remove the glass to change the light bulbs. I have to remove four very small machine type screws and literally pry the housing open enough to get the glass out. I will be forced to remove the pendants from above the tank which for me is going to be a major PITA. They are fairly heavy for one person, on a ladder, stretched over a tank. I will surely miss my PFOs in a couple months. I am now using the PFOs on the prop system so at least I dont feel like I threw money out just to get a little bit more light in the corners of the 120.
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