Kevin's 110g Build thread !!

[Vindicator]

OK! here we go !!!

Its been a long time coming. But the build thread is finially here!! First of all let me introduce myself. My name is Kevin Reid, and Iv been fascinated with the ocean for as long as I can remember. I live in south Miami, so the ocean is only a hop skip and a jump away from my house. My family has been vacationing in the Florida keys for longer than I have been around. We have family friends that have a house down there, and every single summer we go down and have 2 weeks of fun in the sun and water.
But I am getting away from the point! I have had more fresh water tanks then I can remeber, and did one saltwater aggressive tank a few years ago. Snowflake eel, lionfish, puffer and a grouper. That was a great tank, and provided years of enjoyment. But this time out I want to try my hand at a peacefull coral tank. This will be my frist go at keeping coral, so go easy on me .

At this point I have purchased -

-110g All Glass Aquarium
-110g All Glass Aquarium stand
-Octopus 200NW Skimmer with Octopus pump
-Eheim 900gph in sump skimmer
-2 Eheim Jager heaters
-2 Maxi-Jet 1200 powerheads with the 2100gph propeller upgrades
-Nova extreme T-5 light system 8 10k bubs .. I think, ill have to take a look.
-RO/DI unit
-150g worth of red sea salt
-120 pounds of agagonite sand ( may need more, not sure yet)
-and light for refugium.. ill get back to you on that.

Things I have built myself are -

-All the Pvc plumbing, including the overflows (super silent, thanks for everyones help)
-30g sump/refugium
-and I will be doing all the custom rockwork in the days to come.
-RO/DI water station set up and making water!

The tank is a 110g tall, with what will be a refugium/sump in stand. I am going to set it up so that the return pump is in the middle. That way I can control the flow to the Skimmer and Refugium sepearately. I really like the set up. I do need to add one more glass panel as a bubble trap. But I need to run out tomorrow and pick up some fish safe silicone.

Anyway, this is my first build thread, so If you have any questions or advice for me please feel free to chime in. I can use all the help I can get.

And now the part I'm sure your all waiting for !!! Pictures!!! This is my first attempt at taking pictures so they are not that good, but I am sure you will get the point, here we go!

Full tank shot, the lighting is very blue because I shot with the antics on.




Some shots of the plumbing thus far.



MORE!!



A Shot of the T-5 lights I got. Hopefully this thing will run without a chiller Did ok with temp on the freshwater test.



And some Shots of the rocks that I got. I really hope they come out the way I want. They look great! Lots of holes and places to hide. (sorry about the blue lighting, not sure why it came out like that)




OH YA!! before I forget. I got this light for the refugium. But I am concerned that It might be TO powerfull. Does anyone have any opinions on it?

[roka64]

150W for a 30G should be good, just watch for the evaporation. What are you planning on keeping in the sump/fuge?

[Ziggy953]

I keep a 100w (PC bulb) on my 20g fuge. The 20g is a fuge only inline with my sump. With your fuge being a 30g that is seperated into sump and only a portion being the fuge it may be a little too much light. I would try it and see what it does. The one thing I would do is keep it higher off the water to keep heat to a minimum.

[Zagz]

Although I am not a SW person, I will say it looks really great so far.

[melosu58]

Very nice. Looks great

[Vindicator]

Thanks guys!

Ya I actually incressed the size of the return area slightly since these pictures for evaporation. Also am planning on putting a float valve in the sump connected to a 30g RO/DI water supply for top offs.

I am not 100% on the refugium yet. I am open to idea's. But right now I was planning on having Chaetomorpha in there. I also wanted to put a small mangrove or 2. I heard they are not the best at nutrient export, but I really like them. So it would be more of a side project.

A few more pictures for everyone

Some of the Live Sand that I have got so far


The silicone I bought for installing the baffles in the sump/refugium. I figured with All Glass silicone its got to be ok right ? hehe


And I got my Salt! Woots!

[Zagz]

I have a question, as a freshie I don't know the first thing about SW. My question is how is the sand live in plastic bags? I thought live sand was because of the "critters" in it. Don't they suffocate. Sorry if this is a stupid question but I really want to know.

[roka64]

No, that is not a stupid question. It's my personal belief that from gathering, sealing, traveling (through cold weather or super hot), storing, shipping, then sitting on the (either AC or heated) shelves of the LFS, there might not be much "live" anymore (not to mention the oxygen depletion).
Vindicator, can you test the ammonia/nitrItes/nitrAtes of one or all of the bags (just to satisfy my curosity) to see what the levels are? Sorry to be the bearer of bad or good news, I think a lot of us were suckered into the :live" sand "idea".

[Zagz]

OK that is what I was thinking. In a much less technical fashion. It seemed sort of like instant cycle in a bottle is sold for FW use and has no live bacteria.

[Dave66]

Kevin,
Thing to do with a sump refugium is to put it on reverse daylight; that is, when the tank lights are off, the refugium light is on. If you keep macro-algae in the sump, the reverse daylight technique aids in keeping the dissolved Oxygen levels in the tank stable, which is what you want - stability.

Dave