msn711's 120RR build

[msn711]

Long story short, the LFS was having a sale, and since I rarely make it out to the suburbs of DC, I took full advantage. AGA tanks and stands 20% off. I ordered a 120! Should be in next week. I'm going to upgrade my 40br and use the 40 for the sump. The current 20L that sits as a sump will be the QT tank. And hopefully the 10g ATO reservoir I can still use for the same purpose. Other than that, the planning is pretty open. I know I want a lot more fish and a fairly mixed reef. Anyway, what would you guys and girls (or am I the only female reefer in this part of n-r?) do if you could start a 120 from scratch? I have to go read the T5 threads because I'm sure my current 150w MH won't cut it, but I'm worried about the heat 2x250's would put out. And chillers for big tanks are expensive! Post your thoughts and ideas.

 

I need to post pics of the 40 so you can see what's moving. While at the LFS I also picked up a bright red chalice, orange monti cap frag (but nice size), and encrusting green hydnophora. LPS are my faves by the way.

[msn711]

A pic of the 40

 

 

This isn't the most recent pic though. I need to get the new ones off of my camera.

 

I took a quick glance at reefgeek today, and I'm thinking price-wise, the T5s will work out better, plus I won't have to worry about the tank overheating with the cover on top.

 

Still researching...fish and equipment.

[mattyice]

i would say that 2x250W MH kit would be fine for the tank, or if you think that will be too much why not have a 2x150W MH kit for it, with how deep the tank is i would go with 250 though, as long as the tank isnt completely covered with a hood and you have some air movement across the top of the tank then the 250's will be fine, if you go with T5's go with the Aquatinics Solar Flare, that will be more then enough light i think

 

im going to have a 400W MH in the center and then 250W MH's on each side when i go with my 210 (im going alot of SPS with LPS on the bottom)

[carb850]

What sort of corals do you plan on keeping? It your not so interested in SPS, I would say an Aquactinics TX5 would be plenty of light. I'm thinking about a 120 build myself and want to go with T5. I have to reasons, one for energy savings and second to prove a point. No one in the local reef club gives any props to T5 and I just want to prove it can be done.

[mattyice]

T5's are definitely more efficient then MH and the replacement costs just about equal, i was thinking about going with an aquatinics constellation on my 125 and i believe it puts out the equvelant to about 1000W of MH

[msn711]

Are the aquatinics better/cheaper than the teks?

 

There will be a few sps, but not too heavy. Mostly LPS. Lately, I've been collecting chalices. So I'm going to do the flow with that in mind. And I want to add some softies. If you've ever seen David Playfair's TOTM on RC, that's kinda what I want.

 

I'll check the aquatinics. I was kinda thinking the 6 bulb tek just because the limited edition blue would be pretty cool.

[carb850]

Are the aquatinics better/cheaper than the teks?

 

There will be a few sps, but not too heavy. Mostly LPS. Lately, I've been collecting chalices. So I'm going to do the flow with that in mind. And I want to add some softies. If you've ever seen David Playfair's TOTM on RC, that's kinda what I want.

 

I'll check the aquatinics. I was kinda thinking the 6 bulb tek just because the limited edition blue would be pretty cool.

 

 

The Aquactinics has better reflectors than the TEK setups. I have seen some claim the 5 bulb Aquactinics is superior to the 6 bulb Tek, but I have seen others that claim the opposite. The price is similar, with the TEK being slightly cheaper. However, the Aquactinic comes with a acrylic shield and fans were the TEK comes with neither.

 

Now the Aquactinics Solar Flare is something all together different. It comes with 6 bulbs and an IceCap ballast which overdrive the bulbs to approx. 85W. It cost a good bit more but you should be able to keep anything under it. Actually, I bet it would be too bring for a lot of softies.

[mattyice]

the only other way you will get more light is if you go with metal halide and get a lumenarc or a lumenmax reflector/pendant i know someone that went from 2x 250W aqua medic ocean light pendants to just upgrading the reflectors to lumenmax pendants and he bleached some of his SPS within hours

 

lumenarc reflectors are the best but take up alot of room, their mini pendant is still 14.5 x 14.5 x 6

[msn711]

I definitely want something that I can sit on top of the tank. So lumenmax/lumenarc's are out.

 

What's the purpose of the acrylic shield?

 

I'm afraid that overdriving the bulbs will hurt the lps/softies. So it's looking like a 6 bulb fixture of something.

[mattyice]

all the acrylic shield does is keep water from splashing on the reflectors to keep their output up

 

overdriving them wont hurt most LPS or softies they just need acclimated to them properly thats it

[msn711]

Then I won't need the acrylic shield because I keep a glass top over my tank to keep my fairy wrasses from jumping out.

 

Does overdriving them cut down on the bulb life? What are the advantages to overdriving them actually?

 

Any suggestions on skimmers. I'm looking at the various euro reefs, octupus, asm, maybe even the bubble master.

 

On my current 40, I have a mag 5 for the return and I think it's too much. So on the 120, I'm thinking about just going up to a mag 7 or trying out the quiet one 3000. I need to find out why the eheims cost so much more for about the same output.

 

I think those are the big decisions.

[msn711]

Just looked at the width of the tek units. A 6 bulb fixture is only 16" wide. And 8 bulb fixture is 20". Probably have to go with the 8 bulbs just to make sure the light spreads from the front of the tank to the back. Or will the width of the fixture compared to the tank not matter? Does the light spread very well from front to back. Hmm, come to think about it, it should. When I first started reefkeeping, I had 4x65w PCs on the 40br...no problems with the front or back of the tank being dark. So a 6 bulb tek or one of the aquactinics should be fine right?

[carb850]

I would imagine the 6 bulb fixture would illuminate front to back just fine. Plus, are you planning to keep much in the front of the tank? My thought was to make it a bit of a beach, maybe a good place for some lower light corals.

 

Overdriving shortens bulb life. I have seen conflicting info but most seem to say the normal HO will last 18-24 months were the overdriven is about 12 months.

 

Skimmers... I keep reading great stuff on Euroreef. The recirculating series look sweet but I'm not sure that gravity is enough to feed it, if not then that means another pump installation. So most likely I'm looking at the standard Euroreef models.

 

On pumps, I would love to get a Japanese Iwaki, but That is adding more complexity to the system were it is an external pump. They are supposed to last forever and hold value well, but I'm not sure it is worth the hassel. It would be nice to help keep water temps down though.

[msn711]

The front of the tank should be a beach area because I like open brains. And I'd love to get a scolymia or two one day. Someone on RC thought I wouldn't be able to keep clams at the bottom, but I'm not sure if that will be an issue yet becuase I'm thinking about a bluethroat or niger trigger as the centerpiece fish. And with a DSB of 4", the tank would only be 20". I keep seeing good stuff about Euroreef too. I thought I had read somewhere that the recircs weren't that much more efficient than the regulars, at least not compared to the price increase.

[NanoDude]

i would say that 2x250W MH kit would be fine for the tank, or if you think that will be too much why not have a 2x150W MH kit for it, with how deep the tank is i would go with 250 though, as long as the tank isnt completely covered with a hood and you have some air movement across the top of the tank then the 250's will be fine, if you go with T5's go with the Aquatinics Solar Flare, that will be more then enough light i think

 

im going to have a 400W MH in the center and then 250W MH's on each side when i go with my 210 (im going alot of SPS with LPS on the bottom)

 

 

I got 2 x 150 on my 75. Good light for a 75 gal but anything bigger I would def go with at least 2 x 250. Maybe throw a 3rd halide in the mix..

 

Holla!

[msn711]

Well, I spoke with the LFS today and they can deliver the tank on Thursday.

 

For lights, I think I'm going to go ahead and get the 6x54w LE Tek. Someone thought they upgraded the reflectors in the LE Teks, but I didn't see anything about it on reefgeek. I know they're making retros with upgraded reflectors. Technology aside, I think it'll be fine for what I want to keep. Still plenty of details to work out to get this tank going.

 

I need to refine the fish list, but I definitely want the niger trigger and snowflake eel.

 

I have about 60lbs of LR right now. I think I'm going to go with 150lb total. So right now, I'm thinking 50lbs of marco rocks, and 40lbs fresh live rock.

 

The cheapest option for circulation would be to keep my 2xSeio 620s and add 2xSeio 1100s. But the vortechs look sweet, and if they work as well as they claim to, I bet I could get away with just one. Another option is to add 2xNano Streams to my 620s.

 

I'm definitely leaning towards the ER RS 180. I haven't come across anything bad about these skimmers, and I want something that's plug and play.

 

Those are the big things. I'm working on uploading the most recent pics of the 40br...gotta keep this thread interesting while I slowly work on the 120.

[mattyice]

for the flow vortechs work great, a friend of mine has one on his 50G breeder and he said he gets flow everywhere in the tank, it spreads out and pulls in the flow from everywhere in the tank

[msn711]

That's what I keep reading about the vortechs. And they make a battery back up just for them that runs about 30 hours if I remember correctly. I might have to make that investment. If one isn't enough, i can always add my Seios.

 

Pics of the 40:

Most recent FTS:

 

Rose Millepora:

Not much growth, but it has started spreading out a base.

 

New Orange Cap:

 

Hot Kiss Micromussa:

Trying to figure out where that green algae is coming from. It only seems to be on frag plugs and super glue...weird.

 

A few more coming...

[eddie29]

tell me how it goes with those vortechs if you go that way. I just don't know if I can justify spending that kind of money especially when you mulitply it by 2 or 3 of those suckers

[msn711]

Oh yeah, the damage to the favia in the pic above is from when my acan lord managed to fall on it while I was out of town. Hopefully, it doesn't get any worse.

 

More Pics:

"Chronic" Echino

 

Encrusting Hydno:

 

Bright Orange Echino:

 

A shot of the middle of the tank that I really like:

 

If I get one, it'll be just that...ONE. Worst case scenario, I'll add my 2xSeio 620s to the vortech.

[mattyice]

vortechs are without a doubt worth the price, they offer just as much flow as the Tunze 6000 stream pumps and they have a battery back up, also the vortech finally has a controllable option that ends up only costing 50 more but the pump has somewhere around like 15 different mods of operation

 

i know in my 210 im going to have a vortech, 4 tunze 6000's controlled by my controller, and then another closed loop that will be fed by a reeflo snapper thats alot of flow but definitely worth the price with how happy and healthy your corals and tank will be

[msn711]

I've read that the vortech basically distributes the flow evenly throughout the tank. In your experience, is that true? Or does it create some high and low flow areas. If the distribution is even like vortech claims, then I'm definitely going with that and the battery back up.

[mattyice]

from what i know it spreads out the flow and what isnt picked up by the outlet is pulled in from the inlet

[msn711]

So I just tested my water in the 40 since I'm about to go out of town for a week. My nitrates tested at 50! I thought for sure something was wrong with my Salifert kit. No way they go from 0 to 50 in a week. Well, I get to looking around, all of the corals look fine, all of the fish are present, and the anemone is looking fine. Then I checked the sump, and found out that something had rotted away in my sump. I have no idea what it was, but the mass was pretty big and smells like sh*t! Seriously, it smells worse than anything my protein skimmer has ever pulled it. And the craziest part is that my skimmer wasn't even going nuts!

 

I've got about 15g of RO water waiting, and I think I'm going to make 5 more gallons and just siphon out the sump. I seriously can't believe things aren't dying and algae hasn't taken over. And it's now official...my CSS 125 is a piece of junk! How could it not go beserk with something like that sitting in the sump with it?

 

I've already changed the carbon and phosban in my reactor and that's running on the display tank for now. I just can't believe this. And I have no idea what could have died and rotted in my sump! There's nothing missing from my tank.

[mattyice]

a protein skimmer can only do so much...but yes the CSS skimmers are junk...good thing you are looking for a better skimmer with the 120, i know im going with a bubble king 250 on my tank