Eric's 240 build

[Bdonaldson]

The plumbing looks great. Yea make sure you do that leak test. I had an issue with mine where I didn't use enough pipe glue on one of my elbows and it leaked. I was lucky though the elbow was over top the sump. Can't wait to see it all come together and flourishing with life.

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[PB_Smith]

I mounted my LED light on the top/outside of my canopy and it is working fine.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/canopy-for-galaxyhydro-165-watt-led-335476.html
Could something like that work in your set-up?
you could also cut some doors into the front panel for easy access for daily stuff like feeding.

 

[erichm20]

Thanks for sharing. I'm thinking of doing something like this.

Got some rock and sand today and the guy had a pair of Picasso clowns and a tomini he threw in.



You can't really tell but it's a good variety of with several flat and shelf pieces.

Here are the clowns. They're pretty small so I plan to leave them in this 10 until the main td is ready and they will go in first.

 

[Bdonaldson]

Thanks for sharing. I'm thinking of doing something like this.

Got some rock and sand today and the guy had a pair of Picasso clowns and a tomini he threw in.

View attachment 272710

You can't really tell but it's a good variety of with several flat and shelf pieces.

Here are the clowns. They're pretty small so I plan to leave them in this 10 until the main td is ready and they will go in first.

View attachment 272711

Nice pair of clowns you picked up.

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[erichm20]

Thanks, B! One's not doing great so I did 50% wc and added an airstone- he was breathing fast near the top of the tank. Hopefully he'll make it.

Added the sand and new rock today. I also started filling it with water! ?







I'm going for a 2 pillar rockscape with a channel through the middle with lots of caves and overhangs.

 

[Bdonaldson]

Thanks, B! One's not doing great so I did 50% wc and added an airstone- he was breathing fast near the top of the tank. Hopefully he'll make it.

Added the sand and new rock today. I also started filling it with water! ?

View attachment 272742

View attachment 272743

View attachment 272744

I'm going for a 2 pillar rockscape with a channel through the middle with lots of caves and overhangs.

That will be pretty cool and the fish will love it.

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[erichm20]

Well the tank is full and the sump is filling up now- slow going since I decided to just stick the rodi line straight into the tank and turn on the water. Then when it was full enough I started adding salt. It's so slow it's kinda like watching grass grow.

The drain plumbing is sealed, had a tiny drip with 1 bulkhead which was an easy fix.

Getting close now!




On a sad note I got rid of one of the new clowns. He was not looking good the day after I got him and he wasn't getting better. A couple days ago he looked pale and was breathing fast and the other clown was picking on him so my neighbor offered to put him in his tank to try to revive him.

I will now have a motley crew trio of clowns in the new tank: an occy, a maroon, and a Picasso... At least it will be in a big tank.

 

[markodeniro]

How long did it take for your rodi to fill the tank? Just seeing if buying one is worth while


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[erichm20]

It took 3 days straight to fill up to just under the overflow. Then probably another 5 hours to fill up the overflows and the sump half way. I am going away for 2 days so I'm leaving it as is until I get back to turn the main pump on. Im sure it will be fine but I want to be close for the first few days in case of any disasters.

The rodi filter is a must IMO, I'm saving hundreds just with this initial setup: my lfs charges $2 per gallon of sw so that would've been over 400 right there. The filter is 150 and a box of salt is 50. Also, having it for top off is awesome.

I added a big chunk of my homemade fish food to start the cycle.

I ran out of salt and it's at 1.020 so once more salt gets here I will begin adding live rock from the 90 to hopefully speed up the cycle.

Some tidal snails survived in one of the batches of sand I put in, which Is pretty cool considering both tanks I got the sand from have been broken down for a couple weeks.

The next big to do item is the hood mod. I decided that I will be cutting the entire top length wise and fastening the front and front part of the sides together, then add a piano hinge so the back part will always stay closed. Then I will cut holes in the top of the back part for the lights to rest on. This will allow for me have plenty of room to get in the tank without having to move the lighting.

 

[PB_Smith]

The rodi filter is a must IMO, I'm saving hundreds just with this initial setup: my lfs charges $2 per gallon of sw so that would've been over 400 right there.

OUCH!!!
Man I guess I'm lucky because the store I have been getting water at only charges .39 a gallon, but I think part of that is because most folks, like me, can't leave the place without dropping $50 + on other stuff...LOL
They also test each new batch and post the parameters so you know what you are getting.
I have yet to go there and leave with only water.

 

[Bdonaldson]

It took 3 days straight to fill up to just under the overflow. Then probably another 5 hours to fill up the overflows and the sump half way. I am going away for 2 days so I'm leaving it as is until I get back to turn the main pump on. Im sure it will be fine but I want to be close for the first few days in case of any disasters.

The rodi filter is a must IMO, I'm saving hundreds just with this initial setup: my lfs charges $2 per gallon of sw so that would've been over 400 right there. The filter is 150 and a box of salt is 50. Also, having it for top off is awesome.

I added a big chunk of my homemade fish food to start the cycle.

I ran out of salt and it's at 1.020 so once more salt gets here I will begin adding live rock from the 90 to hopefully speed up the cycle.

Some tidal snails survived in one of the batches of sand I put in, which Is pretty cool considering both tanks I got the sand from have been broken down for a couple weeks.

The next big to do item is the hood mod. I decided that I will be cutting the entire top length wise and fastening the front and front part of the sides together, then add a piano hinge so the back part will always stay closed. Then I will cut holes in the top of the back part for the lights to rest on. This will allow for me have plenty of room to get in the tank without having to move the lighting.

Yea the cycling wont take to long if you add a few pieces of rock from your other established tank, that's what I did and my tank cycled in about 1 1/2 weeks although my volume was much less than yours. The hood modification sounds great. Let me know how that goes for ya. I may be interested in modifying one of my hoods as well. Hope it all goes as planned.

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[markodeniro]

What are the dimensions of this tank? I've recently upgraded from 20G to 80G and it feels huge yours makes mine look tiny!


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[erichm20]

It's 6' x 2' x 31" h.

Nice on the upgrade, you're gonna love the extra room.

So I was looking at the 90 and thinking about the move and I'm unsure about this rock:



The anemone has been planted on it since I got it a year ago so I really don't want to try to move it off of the rock. I also don't want to introduce those palys to the new tank. So I'm thinking put the whole rock into a bucket of sw and pull off as many palys as I can. I don't know what else to do except part with the anemone and trade the whole rock into the lfs.

 

[mr_X]

Why not add the rock , but leave it an island of it's own so it can't spread to anything else? That way you aren't disrupting the anemone. Odds are it will move on it's own after the move anyway, and then you can take the rock to the lfs for credit.

 

[erichm20]

Yea, I like the 'island' idea and see if he moves, it sure would be easier and I am all for that.

So I have a couple nagging leaks with some of the threaded fittings so I have been going back through to remove and apply some silicone to the threads and re attaching. I did this on the fittings that went into the bulkheads but got lazy for the rest, so now I'm paying for my carelessness... I know, I should have done a leak test before attaching everything... Hopefully I will have all the leaks cleared up after work today.

I ordered a 300w eheim heater, can't beat the price. The system came with a temp. controller but I am not sure of it's condition, if it works- great, if not, I wll definitely be getting one.

 

[erichm20]

Man I guess I'm lucky because the store I have been getting water at only charges .39 a gallon, but I think part of that is because most folks, like me, can't leave the place without dropping $50 + on other stuff...LOL
They also test each new batch and post the parameters so you know what you are getting.
I have yet to go there and leave with only water. [/QUOTE]


.39 is a great deal! I was wrong, my LFS charges 1.25 per gal of sw and .50 for FW... and yes, you never just buy water when you go so I'm saving on that aspect as well!

 

[PB_Smith]

Man I guess I'm lucky because the store I have been getting water at only charges .39 a gallon, but I think part of that is because most folks, like me, can't leave the place without dropping $50 + on other stuff...LOL
They also test each new batch and post the parameters so you know what you are getting.
I have yet to go there and leave with only water.

.39 is a great deal! I was wrong, my LFS charges 1.25 per gal of sw and .50 for FW... and yes, you never just buy water when you go so I'm saving on that aspect as well![/QUOTE]

This weekends water change only cost me $54.

 

[erichm20]

Ok so I fixed the leaks for the most part (still have 1 little drip at a ball valve but it's over the sump) and I finally fired up the main pump and holy crap this thing is powerful! It moves some serious water- it literally sounded like a small waterfall in my living room ?. So I changed to the smaller impeller and turned it back on and it's still pretty strong. This is also dialing both returns down about half. So yes, mr x, you were right...

What baffles me is people are running these on 180s just fine... I even read one guy using it on his 120.

After doing some research on forums I think I have a solution. I still don't have a pump for the skimmer so I'm going to add a T to the return and reduce it to 1" and add a manifold to run the skimmer and a reactor that came with the setup. I figure it would be a shame to waste extra flow, right? This way I can run the 1200 gph the skimmer needs and still get about 1000 at the top of the tank returns.

 

[Sniperhank]

Good luck with the T. I was never able to pull it off with my pump.

 

[erichm20]

I did the plumbing modifications and it worked great! It is much quieter and the skimmer looks to be running nice. I still have to play around with it and fine tune it but I'm not too worried about that right now there's nothing to skim anyway yet. I plan to add some rocks from the other tank tomorrow.

I wanted to add a pic of the plumbing and sump but it says I have exceeded my photo quota... I have to find the thread on what to do about fixing that.