Build thread - 180 gallon - final tank pics added 7/22

[ellisz]

Siphon break is normally on the return pipe not the drain/stand pipe. Water can back siphon through the return nozzles other wise. Limiting factor will be the wall of the overflow not the pipes behind it. If you look at most CL, the feed is lower in the tank. If you put a bulkhead in the overflow about half way down, it will not be an issue. I guess you want to avoid PH's? I have 2 PH's that run 1200+ each

I wish someone else would chime in to at least say I am wrong. It is a lot harder to change plans with water in the tank

 

[Scoot]

I know what you're getting at - a hole lower in the closed loop overflow box would take care of your concern - but for now, I've gone ahead and ordered 2 Gen-x PCX 40's, to run both of them to the basement.

Yes, I want to avoid powerheads. Messy, more to maintain, more heat, and there's honestly no great place to put any the way I'm setup (unless I set them within the rockwork). Still not a fan - if I can get 1400GPH + flow through my main returns, with the dual outputs on the new megaflow kits, I should be okay.

 

[Scoot]

I found a good source for aragonite - I've sent my builder the order for 160 pounds of aragonite (1 to 1.7MM), which I'll mix with the ~100 pounds that I have in use now. With the 150 pounds of base rock I've ordered, plus the ~100 pounds of LR I have now, I should be in good shape in a month or so.

 

[Scoot]

150 pounds of reef rocks from ThatPetPlace.com, and 160 pounds of aragonite from DrsFosterSmith.com are both on the way. Hopefully I'll see one of the orders, or both, before the weekend, but probably not.

I'll add the 100 pounds of well-established LR I have now, plus about 100 pounds of sand (which is pretty clean, and was just added 2 months ago when I moved my tank downstairs) , for a total of around 250 pounds of LR, and 260 pounds of sand.

Should be enough LR for the tank, about 1.4 pounds per gallon, unless I start adding more livestock. Another 60 pounds to get up to 2 pounds per gallon won't be a big deal.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Sounds like a plan to me.

 

[Scoot]

A few new pics since right before the stainers finished the cabinet. These are from my crappy camera phone, so don't expect DSLR quality

Sand has been added (after these pics). 160 pounds looks like it gave me about 1" to 1.5". I've got another hundred from my current tank. I don't want a DSB, but I might need a little more.

My pumps (2x Gen-x PCX40's) and skimmer (AquaC EV180, instead of the EuroReef 180) are on the way. Rocks will be here tuesday.

The water is a bit messy after adding the sand - I've got a couple powerheads in there, but need to add another and get more movement in the water. It's been closed up for the last few days while they stained everything.

 

[ellisz]

Very nice! Is the tank beside the kitchen?

 

[tecwzrd]

I've been wondering too, shame you couldn't keep some lobsters in the tank for a "quick dinner" if needed

P.S. The dark stain looks very sharp

 

[Scoot]

Yeah, the tank cabinet is part of the china hutch - which is technically in the dining area, next to the kitchen.

Added 150 pounds of reef rock yesterday. That was more work than I expected, lots of fist-sized pieces that had to be set in one at a time. It took awhile.

150 pounds covered the entire bottom of the tank - I couldn't stack them because the water was too cloudy to see, from adding the sand the day before. I couldn't rinse the sand because right now I don't have a water source onsite. A few more days.

I kept out one bag of rocks (each box had 2 or 3 bags), and put those in my existing tank, to get them seeded.

I should have my pumps and skimmer tomorrow or tuesday.

The water is pretty bad right now - it clouded over from the sand. And those 6 jumbo shrimp are well on their way to decomposing. It's not a great smell. My ammonia alert badge is showing "alert". Haven't done any water tests yet.

I'm running a small HOB filter, and a couple powerheads, but I need to get my sump up and running, and some real filtration.

Plus, the tank was all sealed up for a few days while they stained. It's going to be sealed up more, off and on, when they paint the walls. I opened it up yesterday and left the canopy doors open to get some air in. I need to get my cooling fans installed in the canopy to move some fresh air in there.

GlassCages hasn't processed the order for my custom sump because they say it "can't be build as designed." Gotta call them tomorrow, but I can't wait two more weeks, so I'm going to find the biggest rubbermaid tub I can, and use that as a sump, until the real one comes in. Just need to find another 3/4" bulkhead and some sump socks. Hopefully I can track them down locally.

I'm a little worried about having this ready on July 14th, the first day of the show which the house is in.

Update at 4PM

The water's scleared up quite a bit since I put the small HOB filter on. It was so cloudly yesterday I couldn't see where the rocks were going as I put them in. Today you can almost see to the back.

 

[Scoot]

update today - water has settled down completely. I'm regretting not rinsing the sand, but I really had no way to do it at the job site - no water. There's a layer of silt that's settled out.

I'll probably use a vacuum to get rid of some of the silt, but honestly, but maybe not - my sand gobie will love it.

My little HOB filter keeps shutting down - it doesn't sit as low it it should because the frame for the 180 is too thick. I'm going to have to make a trip out before bed tonight to make sure it's running.

The tank will be covered up for a few more days, they're almost ready to paint the room it's in. Right now I have to unwrap it every time I need access. I'm sure that's not doing much for the pH or O2 levels. I wonder if an airstone would be a good idea, but if my pumps and skimmer come in tomorrow, I'll get those setup, and the skimmer should do wonders for aeration.

I have the plumbing I need to setup one return pump, using a rubbermaid tub as a temporary sump. My glass-cages.com custom sump should be here next week, but I want to get some real circulation going as soon as possible.

I lost my ammonia alert badge - it feel off when I added the sand, and it's somewhere under all the rock and sand I added, so I'll have to either dig for it (no thank), or start doing actual water tests Last time I looked, the ammonia alert was heading into the highest range. I'll probably test for nitrites tonight to see how that's going.

I've got about 15 pounds of rock from my established tank, plus about 10 cups of sand, so I'm hoping the bio cycle will kick in strong.

 

[Scoot]

Everything came in yesterday. I didn't have time to pick up the rubbermaid tub for temporary sump (the custom one will be here next week), so I went ahead and setup the AquaC 180 on mycurrent tank. Setup was pretty easy, I'm not 100% sure I have it set just right for break-in, but it's definately generating a lot of microbubbles. Break-in is supposed to be 24-48 hours, so we'll see if it starts generating foam tonight.

Fine-adjustments are much easier to make than on my CSS 125.

I hope to get out to the house today to get the pumps and temporary sump setup, but they're putting tile in the kitchen/dining room right now, so I might not be able to get to the tank until tomorrow.

(Next day) I have all the plumbing I need now, except for one 17' section of drain pipe. The rubbermaid tub I bought is a little too brittle to drill I think, so I might get another one.

I couldn't get out to the house yet to install anything - they're tiling the kitchen/dining room floor today, so maybe tonight.

The skimmer hasn't started producing yet, but there are tons of bubbles.

 

[ellisz]

What kind of rubbermaid are you using? Stock tanks are wonderful if you have the room for them and they are cheap for the size.

 

[Scoot]

It's not the usual one - it's clearish, light blue. Not huge, but big enough - around 30G I think (the label was in liters). It's shallower than the big ones, but wider and flat.

It's just temporary until my custom glass-cages sump comes in next week. I can't wait another week to get water moving.

Today I cut out the bulkheads (with a dremel tool - easy job), and picked up the rest of the PVC parts to connect the 1" bulkheads to the pumps. I installed the bulkheads, the 1" PVC from that to the adapter down to 3/4" FPT to the pumps, and everything is ready to go. I need to dissassemble a big industrial stand I have, where everything will sit on at the new house, and get it moved out there.

Should take about 15 minutes to run the tubing, hook up the pumps to the bulkheads, and fill up the sump (pre-treated, mixed water). I'm using high-end checkvalves from MarineDepot on both return lines, and shut-off valves on the drains. The hard work now is moving the stand I'm going to use.

I'm anxious to see how much water the 2 PCX-40's can move.

Oh, and my EV-180 kicked in (it's on my old tank) - almost precisely 2 days after it was setup (they say 48 to 72 hours). None of the foam has reached the collection cup, but wow, there is a lot of dry, stable foam building up. It's going to put my CSS 125 to shame I might just leave it on my old tank until everything is moved. No need to protein skim a cycling tank yet - more critical to get a little mechanical filtration to remove some of the silt from the sand and rock.

Update tonight - I've got it all running. The sump, stand, tubing, all went in without any problem. The only issue I did have is that the 1 1/4" ID reinforced flex tubing is curled up at the bottom - I need to figure out how to straighten it. For now, I stuck in a piece of 1" PVC on both lines, to hold it down in the sump. I'm sure this is slowing up the drain a bit, but the pumps seems to be a good match for the amount of overflow I'm getting now.

The pumps are a bit noiser than I hoped - but you can't hear them in the next room.

I'm probably going to want more flow than this is providing in the tank - so I'm going to look at a couple Tunze's or that cheaper brand that looks like TUnze's.

 

[Scoot]

Everything is still running smooth this morning. Not too much evaporation, but I added another 5G of treated water. I need to get 3 or 4 5G buckets filled up and treated for a PWC.

Somehow the salinity is high - 1.028 - I used a 160G mix bucket on 180G (when nothing else was in the tank but water), so I'm not sure why it's so high. I assumed that I'd be low.

I did some water tests - 'trites are on the 3rd step on the AP test (can't remember the numerical value), and Ammonia is at 4.0. Not sure if ammonia is climbing or dropping since it's my first test. I'll check in a few days and see where its at.

I added about 20 pounds of well-matured LR from my current tank, going to take some more sand out later. That should help cycling get moving.

 

[roka64]

Somehow the salinity is high - 1.028 - I used a 160G mix bucket on 180G

If you have sand in the tank, that will displace more water, possibly making the salinity higher since you probably have less than 180G of water in the tank as well with the tank not being filled completely to the top....just an idea....

 

[Scoot]

I didnt' have sand when I added water and mixed the salt. I have since added rocks and sand, which overflowed some of the water out, but the water was mixed before anything else was added. That why I'm confused.

Oh - and I've used to different swing-arm testers - similar results.

Is a SG this high going to screw up cycling? I would think it's going to keep O2 levels low. I'm just wondering if I need to get on this right away, or gradually work it down to 1.025 over the next few weeks.

 

[roka64]

Ahhh, gotcha! A few notes, try to get a refractometer, they are way easier to read and more accurate. My hydro read 1.022 the refracto read 1.027. I also noticed that when I measured the water's salinity while I was mixing it (the water was cold out of the tap) it gave me wacky readings. I wouldn't be surprised if your readings might be a little low. Salinity is not going to hurt your cycle (it may cause some stress to your critters on your LR). You could wait out the cycle or do a PWC to reduce the SG.

 

[Scoot]

I just ordered a refractometer, along with 2 new sump socks and brackets.

 

[roka64]

Sweet! Let me know how different the readings are.

 

[Scoot]

I added my old CSS 125 to the system today - it's broken in, and I'm familiar enough with it to trust it overnight. There must be a LOT of crud in the water, even at the lowest setting it was pumping a constant stream of fat bubbles over into the collection cup. I mostly want to clear the water up a bit. With such poor circulation for the first 2 weeks, and 6 jumbo shrimp rotting away, the water's pretty murky. I won't skim it to the point of removing too much decaying matter to interrupt the cycle, just enough to clean things up a bit.

Plus, the skimmer should help aerate the water - I'm sure the pH is pretty low right now.

The new skimmer, an AquaC EV-180, has started producing. I set it up Tuesday afternoon. I got up this morning to find foam all the up to the collection cup. I've been tweaking the output gate a bit, but I want dry foam, so it's almost wide open. The Mag-7 seems to be a good match, but I'm going to try the Mag 9 when I relocate everything to the new tank. The mag 9 is the main return pump on my current tank, so I can't really do without it.

I also added another nice piece of rock, and about a quart of sand from my current tank. I've got about 20 or 30 pounds of LR from my current tank, plus about 3 quarts of sand. I'd think that would really help kick-start the cycle.

There is a single nassarius (sp?) snail in the new tank - still alive, and crawling all around. Not sure how he's alive through this part of the cycle, but he's hanging in there. Hopefull I'm on the downware slope of the ammonia spike - I'll know tomorrow when I check again.

Also - the bag of base rock I added to my current tank has started to brown already.

On a side note, my current tank, which I just moved everything into about 3 months ago, has an incredible amount of corraline growth, for such a new tank. Using well-matured LR and sand must really make a difference, so I hope it helps with the new tank.

Tomorrow I'm going to start to arrange the rock a bit. I have easier access to the tank now that the tile guys are done with the dining room.