Ed's 120 gal. Reef build

[Edzykan]

I am going to document my build. The tank is a marineland 120 with a cornerflo overflow. I have a reef octopus 225 XS skimmer on the way. Today I installed the trigger systems ruby sump 36S with a mag drive 9.5 return pump, reinforced the floor under the house just in case, installed a back wall on the stand to enclose it, leveled the aquarium and now filling the tank with RO/DI water



Top down view





Pukani dry rock from BRS curing

 

[Cichlid-dude]

Following along. Are you moving the inhabitants from your 60 gal to this tank or starting fresh?

 

[Edzykan]

I am moving most of my other tank over to this one minus the tomato clowns and the 2 damsels. And maybe my neon dottyback I can't prove it but I think he killing my snails and crabs?

 

[Qube]

Looking forward to this! I'm jealous of the ruby sump! I ended up having to settle on the crystal series as the ruby was an inch too wide for my stand. The pukani was a great choice also!

 

[BallinCrew10]

Minus the sandbed you should be able to move everything over without curing the LR. Seed it with some rock from your established tank. Looks good so far though.

 

[Edzykan]

Well tank is filled with ro/di water and added salt. Plumbing had no leaks, but I think my return pump,mag drive 9.5 is to powerful I have to turn my return line valve halfway closed to keep my overflow water level at a constant level. If Increase the pump flow any more the water in the overflow goes up and down and then makes a gurgling sound. I am contemplating buying two BRS reactors for phosphate and carbon. And tee them off the return pump in hopes that my return pump doesn't have to be throttled back so much?

 

[Qube]

Well tank is filled with ro/di water and added salt. Plumbing had no leaks, but I think my return pump,mag drive 9.5 is to powerful I have to turn my return line valve halfway closed to keep my overflow water level at a constant level. If Increase the pump flow any more the water in the overflow goes up and down and then makes a gurgling sound. I am contemplating buying two BRS reactors for phosphate and carbon. And tee them off the return pump in hopes that my return pump doesn't have to be throttled back so much?

I have the BRS dual media reactor t'd off of my return. I say do it. Doing this will eliminate an extra pump in your sump and makes it that much cleaner.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Well tank is filled with ro/di water and added salt. Plumbing had no leaks, but I think my return pump,mag drive 9.5 is to powerful I have to turn my return line valve halfway closed to keep my overflow water level at a constant level. If Increase the pump flow any more the water in the overflow goes up and down and then makes a gurgling sound. I am contemplating buying two BRS reactors for phosphate and carbon. And tee them off the return pump in hopes that my return pump doesn't have to be throttled back so much?

You can install a gate or ball valve on the return line to lessen the flow, it won't hurt anything...

 

[Edzykan]

Another good day today I took the all the rocks I could out of my old DT just left the ones with coral attached. New DT is now full of rock new and old. Installed reef octopus skimmer 225xs and my reefkeeper lite+ controller. I also put a 4" DSB in sump refugium with about 10 pounds of rubble rock, and chaeto algea , And two plants, a Halimeda and shaving brush. Well take a picture once the dust settles. Tommorrow is back to reality vacation is over. But at least I was doing my favorite thing in the world building a reef tank!!

 

[Edzykan]

Up and Running

My tank has been up for 5 days now, with fish and coral. I have been testing the water for the last 3 weeks and it really never had a spike or for that matter a cycle at all. I guess all the old live rock and 40 gallons of old tank water did the trick. So i went ahead And moved foward. I installed the phosban reactor, I will eventually get the BRS reactors. Got a dual float ATO setup with my Reef keeper lite. Using kalkwasser as my top off water, made a skimmer vent for my reef octopus skimmer,it is much quiter now, Tinkered with my plumbing, now I have the valve 3/4 open on my return pump and its working great and very quiet. Added 140 lbs of live sand, and 2 400w heaters in sump. I just ordered a PC style fan for the stand. It has been holding a lot of humidity in there. Hopefully that fixes the issue. Everthing is doing great and corals look better than ever.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

My tank has been up for 5 days now, with fish and coral. I have been testing the water for the last 3 weeks and it really never had a spike or for that matter a cycle at all. I guess all the old live rock and 40 gallons of old tank water did the trick. So i went ahead And moved foward. I installed the phosban reactor, I will eventually get the BRS reactors. Got a dual float ATO setup with my Reef keeper lite. Using kalkwasser as my top off water, made a skimmer vent for my reef octopus skimmer,it is much quiter now, Tinkered with my plumbing, now I have the valve 3/4 open on my return pump and its working great and very quiet. Added 140 lbs of live sand, and 2 400w heaters in sump. I just ordered a PC style fan for the stand. It has been holding a lot of humidity in there. Hopefully that fixes the issue. Everthing is doing great and corals look better than ever.

As long as the live rock was transferred wet then the BB will remain intact and will convert ammonia to nitrite then nitrate... Basically an instant cycle. I wouldn't give any credit to the old tank water tho, because the BB is in the live
rock, and not so much the water itself...

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Pics are looking great tho Ed!

 

[Edzykan]

More pics

 

[MahiMahi]

Nice tank

 

[Qube]

Looking really nice! Excellent work!

 

[Keimaxbode]

Beautiful!

 

[obscurereef]

Beautiful tank and love the coralline algae! That's quite the zoa colony too Jealous...