Drama's 125 build progress (build progress)

[Spiderguardnano]

Nice to see it up and running!

what sancho on nanoreef?

[Sancho]

what sancho on nanoreef?

Ive been lurking a while now.Great forum. Nice to see water in your tank also.

[Dramad1]

Tank is 3/4 full, sump still empty. I'm making more water now.

I had made a scape a while ago and it was broke in half during storage, the larger piece was almost to big but I some how managed to fit it in the tank. It was super heavy, esp after it go wet. I can't tell how it looks as the tank is some what cloudy but by the way it went in, I'm probably going to have to break it up. Gonna have to see how it looks.

So my plan is to fill the sump now and then kick the pumps on and then fill display as needed with fresh ro/di. I'm 2 1/2 bags of salt in and my salinty is at 1.030. Maybe I will just fill the sump half way to be sure I can bring the salinity down to 1.025.

My mind is all over the place right now. I got a yard sale scene in my kitchen, two mixing cans going, towels everywhere, stressing a bit.

What's up Sancho! Nice to see you over here! Those rw15's are finally wet, thanks for throwing that group buy!

Open to suggestions and comments. I'm playing the waiting game right now waiting for water to make. So far none of the plumbing is wet yet so I'm kinda stressing a bit if I'm going to have a leak.

I'll post current pic in a sec,

[Dramad1]

[Dramad1]

About 15g to go! Taking forever to make water.

[Simplicity]

Almost there!!

[Dramad1]

Less than 5 gallons to go, I'm going to save that for the morning. I don't want there to be an issue in the middle of the night.

 

So sitting here thinking about things, I was thinking about my probes. I still need to calibrate them and hook them up. Any tips or tricks? Location, Middle chamber? The water level stay consistent in this area after power loss and only return section fills with water. I don't want my probes to become fully submersed after power outtage. Would this be a good plan? Where is everyone putting there probes?

 

My sump is half filled and I have turned the return pump on and played with it a lil. I need a few more gallons so the overflow fills up a lil more and by doing so this will give my return section enough water so return water level doesn't get sucked down so much to where it is sucking air, <--- if this makes any sense. My water level in the tank is right at the rim of the overflow without overflowing. I need just a lil more water.

 

I just tested my tds after di and I'm showing between 0 and 1ppm. It keeps going back and fourth. Using tds3 handheld meter. I'm guessing these long runs have been taking there toll on my di filter. The resin is 6 months old and due for a changing anyways. I will swap it out after I fill a few 5g buckets tomorrow and recheck. Anyone notice there di resin being used up faster after long runs? I have ran my system for 12 hours plus 3x this week making aprox 160g in 3 runs.

 

Sorry fellas, I'm bored and making water, impatiently waiting. Big thanks to everyone who has helped and contributed to this build. I've never ran a sumped system before and this is the largest tank I have ever set up. It has definitely been a learning experience. Without all your help, I'd be lost.. thanks again everyone.

I'm sure I will have tons more questions and needed advice in the days and years to come as this tank starts it's journey to maturity. I have learned so much but still feel I still have so much to learn as well. Lol end ramble.

Stay tuned

[Daveluce]

Man such a baller set up! I've been following this thread for a while now. Never thought I'd be excited to see someone I've never been in contact with put water into a glass box haha. Good luck man, and keep the pics coming!

[Eisernes]

I like to have my probes upstream from the heater. I put the probes in the first chamber and the heater in the second. That way I am sure that the water in the display is really the temp I want it at without needing a thermometer in there.

[Dramad1]

So system is running. Took another 5g to fill it the rest of the way. I had a lil issue at first trying to get the full syphon drain to function correctly. There was air stuck in the line, I removed the stand pipe cap and adjusted the gate valve, seems to be acting as full syphon now.

I've been making water all day, filling ato, wc on bc29 and cad34 tank and trying to finish set up on my apex. I had an issue calibrating my conductivity probe. Not sure what the deal was but it was reading 18. Hmmm, I

[Dramad1]

Had the wires running next to all the other wires so I'm guessing there may have been signal innerference. I removed probe and am drying it out now for a few hours and plan to try and recalibrate again and run the wire separate from the rest of the wires. I have been super carefull not to smack the probe or hit it as I know it is super delicate. Hoping the miss calibration was signal innerference.

Tank is starting to clear up, scape look like garbage imo, very bland. I used all dry plate rock. I need to go pick out some pieces of cured lr from lfs and rescape with dry rock. Pics of scape if you want, lmk, Def need more rock.

Other than that, no leaks and system is running. If I could change anything now it would be my sump. I over thought the whole thing and wish I would have made a more simple design. Two chambers and a sock holder would do much better imo. Could be an upgrade in the future.

[Dramad1]

Plan was to have a similar scape to one I seen online, I really liked it but recreation was a fail. Originally the shelf extended from one side to the other but, it broke and collapsed while I was procrastinating with the build.

I may move it to the center of the tank and do a few rock pillars on either side or....? Need to play with it

[Dramad1]

Got impatient and recalibrated probe, all appeared nice and dry before recalibration. Sucess! Showing 34.9 now with calibration solution. New issue is logging into fusion, lol if it ain't one thing it's another.

Close ups of rock. Doh!

Plenty of room for improvements.

Gyre is creating mini tornados in my tank, looks pretty cool.

[Dramad1]

Rain day today, worked 3 hours and got sent home. Walked in my house to some funky smell. Tank is stinky. I've never had this issue with the smaller tanks I have set up. Can I run some carbon to help eliminate the smell or should I just deal with it until after tank cycles? Any thing else I can do to fix the smell? It's a fishy funk, lol. The wife thought one of my kids pets died

Also found 2 tiny leaks, in a threaded fitting in my return, about a drop per hour. I think I will try some teflon and if that doesn't work then I will throw some silicone on the threads.

[Steensj2004]

Rain day today, worked 3 hours and got sent home. Walked in my house to some funky smell. Tank is stinky. I've never had this issue with the smaller tanks I have set up. Can I run some carbon to help eliminate the smell or should I just deal with it until after tank cycles? Any thing else I can do to fix the smell? It's a fishy funk, lol. The wife thought one of my kids pets died

Also found 2 tiny leaks, in a threaded fitting in my return, about a drop per hour. I think I will try some teflon and if that doesn't work then I will throw some silicone on the threads.

Carbon, problem solved. My tank has about 2x the amount of carbon I need in a mesh bag. It still stinks some. Best bet is a reactor, with Carbon( ROX carbon is the BOMB http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?idproduct=UJ00177&idCartRow=61536029&isKit=0&child=UJ00178), they say all carbon is the same, I disagree. Anyway, you will have much better success with the carbon inside a media reactor like a TLF150 or 550. Love the tank!

[Dramad1]

Thanks.

I know carbon will take care of the smell, just curious if it's okay to run during cycle. I've never ran any media during a cycle.

I got me some rox, yeeeeehaw, oh f yeah I do and some udder media two

Sorry, I'm all Joe dirt and and nascar'd out right now

[Steensj2004]

Thanks.

I know carbon will take care of the smell, just curious if it's okay to run during cycle. I've never ran any media during a cycle.

I got me some rox, yeeeeehaw, oh f yeah I do and some udder media two

Sorry, I'm all Joe dirt and and nascar'd out right now

No issue running carbon during cycle, at least from what I've ever heard.

[Dramad1]

It won't strip benificial bacteria?

[Steensj2004]

It won't strip benificial bacteria?

Carbon Strips impurities from the water, IE. smells, chemicals, etc. If anything it might give more surface area for bacteria to grow? Someone else might chime in, but I can't think of one reason for it to hurt. I run carbon to remove smells and keep the water clean. If carbon stripped bacteria in the cycle then it would also strip it the rest of the time....

[cindyp]

what sancho on nanoreef?

 

 

D, i don't know what half the stuff is

even going on in here, but looking good!

 

can't wait till it's done, man!

oh snap, i just saw it's wet. congrats!!!

 

WHAT NOW WHAT NOW!!!!

 

oh yeah, i guess there's the whole cycling thing. ahem.

[Dramad1]

Thanks cindy. Now I need to find some more decent lr to add to the display. Also plan on putting together a stocking plan for corals and fish while I wait for the cycle to complete. Plan is for lots of fish and an sps dominate reef but who knows it may turn i to a mixed reef.

I've been avoiding the lfs so I dont go and buy stuff I don't need atm, but I do need a few things for this build. I'm going to try a make it down this week sometime.

I also need to break one of my other builds down and just throw it in this tank. It will probably be the cad tank and then the cad tank will serve as a quarantine tank for new fish and coral additions for this tank.

Also looking into trying to raise.some clown fry, and grow them up. Still looking for an appropriate mate for my frostbite. 8 missed out on the last handful.o a local forum. These lil guys pop up all the time so it shouldn't be an issue finding one soon. Raising the fry and growing colultures and rotifers may wait until this tank is more mature. Not sure how much more time this will take up in my week. Right now my Sunday has been overtaken with tank maintenence and about 30mins a day between the 3 tanks. It's like having my own fish store over here lol

[Gooburz]

FINALLY! The beast is wet and running! I leave for a 9 month deployment this Monday and never thought I would see this tank wet. I can't wait to see the progress over the next 9 months (duration i'm gone).

 

I'm hoping to save up several grand to either pimp the hell out of my 40 breeder or upgrade it to a 60/80 breeder when I get back! You tank design and your whole setup is just beautiful!!

[Dramad1]

FINALLY! The beast is wet and running! I leave for a 9 month deployment this Monday and never thought I would see this tank wet. I can't wait to see the progress over the next 9 months (duration i'm gone).

 

I'm hoping to save up several grand to either pimp the hell out of my 40 breeder or upgrade it to a 60/80 breeder when I get back! You tank design and your whole setup is just beautiful!!

Thanks a bunch. It took me quite a while to get it wet.

So far everything seems to be going well and as designed. I'm still having issues logging into fusion but I plan to trouble shoot the problem this weekend if I have time. I'm headed to SeaWorld this weekend with my kids, but I'm hoping to make time on Sunday between wc's on my other tanks. We will see how it goes.

So, I picked up a few pieces of lr from a local reefer, not much, lil over 10#'s. I need more rock but this lil bit will help seed the dry rock. After playing with it for an hour, this is what I came up with.

^^^This is the right side of the tank, I just wish it was double the size.

I also visited the lfs. I went in for 2 part and food, walked out with a chiller, new skimmer(super secret,wife can't find out or I'll be getting yelled at cause I have 3 on my bed room floor), sweet mag cleaner and back up heater along with the 2 part, food and microbacter7, lmao. I almost picked up a new doser as well and threw the bm on the bc29. I had some tax money to play with so, no big deal but yeash... I went I for 2 part and food.

Hello my names drama and I'm a reef acholic. Hooked again baby! Sucks cause I'm now wanting a bigger tank, something in the 300gph range.

Back to the equip, the chiller is a 1/4hp aqua euro. Summers just around the corner and I figured it couldn't hurt and might as well get one while I had some freed up money. Still in the box and waiting to be opened.

The mag cleaner is a vertex hexaplex, bad ass mag cleaner imo. The design is sweet and the magnets are super powerful, must be careful when placing it on glass. It's so strong that I will not jump my corners with it in fear of breaking the glass. I have a duplex and simplex I may throw on the sides of tank instead. Cool mag though and worth the lil extra imo.

Can't show the new skimmer off cause its hidden in my tool shed atm,lol but it is a kz rev s. It's bad ass, shoot it's just bad ass to look at. Ha ha. I will be Unboxing after I break it to my wife gently. I did get it for a great price so my excuse is, I couldn't pass it up.

[Dramad1]

Today's diy started well but ended unfinished.

I went out and got some supplies to plumb up the chiller. Picked up some vinyl tubing, barb fittings, loc line, hose clamps and a pump.

Taking measurements, cutting the tubing, getting things ready. I wanted some 90° barb fittings but they were out of the 3/4" so I had to 2 piece the barb fittings to make some 90's. Typically I would just use teflon on the threads and screw it in and tighten a bit with a set of chanel locks and cresent. But I had a few drip leaks on my return lines on my tank using this method so I opted to just use a Lil aquarium safe silicone on the threads and tighten it up. Barb fittings went well, then started to screw in the one loc line to barb fitting, few twist with the chanel locks and cresent and...snap!

 

So now I have to drive 30 miles back to the lfs and get a new loc line thread fitting and new barb, fml. Stuff like this seems to happen all the time when doing diy projects.

So here is how far I got.

Hoping to get the chiller up and running this weekend. Next week 90's are expected and it's not even summer yet. Current tank temp is 80.2°f. Not bad but that's with it being 75° out and house temp of 72°.

In other news, I have been dosing some nitrifying bacteria called nite-out ||. It has been working great, diatom bloom galore. After seeding tank with some lr and a scoop of sand from my other tank, I stopped dosing the bacteria. When I filled the tank, I used 10 gallons from my other system to help get things started as well.

Clean up crew was ordered and arrived yesterday afternoon. I just picked up a small lil package. They have made a nice dent in the diatoms already. , tank will remain fish less and coral less till the beginning of next month, then I will throw some tester frags in from my other tanks and start making a fish list. I'm thinking predator reef or nano fish reef. Still unsure atm.

[cindyp]

slowly but surely.