smarcus3 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 In my 120G reef tank there has been a very invasive zoanthid that has quickly grown over everything by blocking the light from the other corals or preventing them from opening. This coral grows so quickly and spreads all over the place has lead me to move all the remaining corals to the frag tank and nuke the tank so that I can start over. I am just going to shut the lights out to kill off the bad coral and hopefully not harm the fish. Once all the badies are killed off the good corals will be moved slowly back once they have grown and recovered fully. Okay now that the background story is complete here is the build of the tank. After researching and instigating the cost to build a tank out of acrylic or glass it was going to cost around $8 / square foot of glass and therefore very expensive for a 3' x 3' x 1' tank. However at petsmart they had 20 gallon breeders for only $30 so I bought two of them to connect together. The rest of the equipment for the frag tank is as follows. Protein Skimmer - ASM G-2 - $250 Overflow Pipe - $5 Siphon Keeping Pump - Aqualifter - $10 Auto Top Off - $60 Auto Top Off Pump - Aqualifter - $10 Hamilton Cabo Light - 14K 250W - $310 Koralia 750 GPH Pump - Qty. 4 - $30 each Fluval 200 Watt Heater - $18 Pictures to follow. Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 Here are pictures of the tank of various sections of the building with captions. None of the pictures show the tank complete. Front view of frag shelf made with egg crate and zip ties. Top view of frag shelf made with egg crate and zip ties. Link to comment
evo_2679 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Nice !! Can't wait to see how this build turns out . Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 Tomorrow the protein skimmer and the auto top off will arrive. The protein skimmer will be placed in the back tank and will have its overflow piped into the front tank. A siphon will allow the water from the front tank to flow back into the back tank and keep the two tanks equalized. The siphon will have a small air tube in the top of it to suck out any captured air. I will take a picture of this once it is created. I already have one of the same design for my nano tank. Nice !! Can't wait to see how this build turns out . I'm really excited. I can't wait to get the light on Friday and start moving corals into it. Link to comment
US Marine Coral Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Sounds like you have a good plan. I'm following along. Good luck! Link to comment
TinyGiant Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 how are you going to connect them together? Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 how are you going to connect them together? Ill take a picture of the proposed system when I get home to explain it better. Link to comment
TinyGiant Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 I've been thinking about getting two 33L and having a glass shop cut a 3" hole in the side on both sides. then put a connecting bulkhead between them.. .Then the fish could swim between the two tanks if they were small enough this would be on a basement floor.. so it wouldnt settle and snap the tanks lol Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 how are you going to connect them together? The protein skimmer outlet will be plumbed to empty into the front tank. The white 'U' tube on the right of the tanks will be a siphon and return water to the back tank. Siphon pictures below will airline to suck out air via a tom's aqualifter pump. THe airline is silicon sealed to the plastic to make an air tight seal. I've been thinking about getting two 33L and having a glass shop cut a 3" hole in the side on both sides. then put a connecting bulkhead between them.. .Then the fish could swim between the two tanks if they were small enough this would be on a basement floor.. so it wouldnt settle and snap the tanks lol I wonder if a fish would ever swim between but would be cool if they did. Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 Old G-2 protein skimmer compared to the new G-3 for the 120G display. The old G-2 will be used for the frag tank. The next 4 photos show the difference in size. The new protein skimmer breaking in in the sump of the display tank. The protein skimmer in the back frag tank. The small amount of #### from the clean before anything dirty is added. Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 Genius...... Thanks. I hope it works well. Link to comment
Pickle010 Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 I'm not a fan of relying on pumps and syphon returns - although I have seen some people here do it successfully. If this was my only option - I would probably raise the display tank 3 - 4 inches, drill it and allow it to gravity feed back into the sump section. At least that way you know that a failure of any kind won't flood your house. Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 23, 2011 Author Share Posted December 23, 2011 I'm not a fan of relying on pumps and syphon returns - although I have seen some people here do it successfully. If this was my only option - I would probably raise the display tank 3 - 4 inches, drill it and allow it to gravity feed back into the sump section. At least that way you know that a failure of any kind won't flood your house. Here is my siphon design: It keeps it liquid filled and has the pump to suck out any stray air. Even if the pump dies the one way keeps the siphon liquid filled. Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 Final building and setting up is now complete. A power head was used instead of the protein skimmer to provide circulation due to ease of install. I believe everything else went as planned. Light Hanging Supports in the ceiling Tank with light pictures Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 Today some corals were added to the frag tank from the 120G display. One of the Koralia 4's was removed from the back tank to decrease its flow to make it more suitable for softies; however, 2 of the number 4's seems good for SPS corals in the front frag tank. More frags will be added daily until the display tank is empty so the baddies can be nuked / rocks removed. Here are some pictures of the frags. Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 26, 2011 Author Share Posted December 26, 2011 At this point most of the corals from the main display are in the frag tank and everything seems to be adjusting well. The 250W 14K MH seems to be great especially with the massive reflector that really evenly distributes light evenly across the two tanks. The two tanks also are nice to have a tank for high flow for SPS coral and one for lower flow for the softies. I will take pictures tomorrow once all the corals are happy after moving. Link to comment
smarcus3 Posted December 26, 2011 Author Share Posted December 26, 2011 Here are some pictures of the various corals in the frag tank. Link to comment
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