J's 120 Vanguard Build

[Miah2bzy]

1 year ago, March 2016, I moved back to the Front Range from the Western Slope and sustained multiple tank crashes, failures, and oddities. I decided to step back for a while and take a breather. Oddly enough, my children started to act out, spiral out of control, temper tantrums, etc. (5,3,2). This was more than just the normal terrible two/threes, and we finally determined that, for them ,this was not home because they didn't have a fish aquarium setup - my 5 year old has never not had a tank setup at home so this was a BIG change among other changes that were happening with the move.

So, we're pushing forward and I'm back in with a 120 build.

 

[Miah2bzy]

Equipment

Display Tank: I picked up a 120 from a friend, tank is in ok condition - has hard water deposits on the front glass
Lights: I have a Aquamedic Ocean Light 2x250 Metal Halide with 14k double ended phoenix bulbs and plan to add 2x48" T5 Geissman Actinic to the tank as well. The bulbs have approximately 6 months left on them and I'll swap these out later for 10K 250 Double ended Hamilton bulbs as I've always gotten the best growth with 10k bulbs and have the T5 for actinic.
Skimmer: ASM G3 with Tunze pump upgrade
Controller: Reef Keeper Lite with Temp Control and ATO
Dosing Pumps: 2xBRS Dosing Pumps with Calc/Alk
Return Pump: Rio 2100 (this will likely change but is the one I have for now).
Sump: 40 Breeder (am waiting for the next $1 sale at Petco)
Heaters: 2x150 Jager Eiheim Heaters
Wavemakers: Jaebo RW-8(2), SEIO 1000

 

[Miah2bzy]

Fish

I'll update this list as I research compatibility and tank needs of different species.

Springer Damsel or Yellow Tail Blue Damsel
Tomini Tang
Yellow Canari Wrasse
Yellow Goby
Lawnmower Blenny
Pink Pseudochromis
Pajama Cardinalfish or Benjia Cardinalfish

 

[Miah2bzy]

Corals

SPS:
Montipora Capricornis:
Orange
Red
Purple
Green
Mystyic Sunset
Starburst
Chili Pepper
Ultra Lime Green
Leng Sy
Galaxy

Montipora Digitata:
Orange
Purple
Red
Forest Fire
Jade Green
Metallica Purple
Royal Purple

Montipora Encrusting:
Christmas
Reverse Superman
Sunset
Rainbow

Others:
Orange Lepto
Rainbow Acans
Baby's Breath Favia
Blue Sympodium
Yellow Leather
Yellow Scroll
Maxima Clam

Zoas:
Blonde Blue Eyed Bluies
Tubbs Blue
Rainbows
Orange Bams
Fire and Ice
Mandarins
Blue Berry Field
Sunny D
My Clementines
Purple Hornets
Blue Hornets
Red Hornets
Fruit Loops
Rasta
God of War
Armor of God
Candy Apply Red
Pinwheels

 

[Miah2bzy]

Fish Room

 

[Miah2bzy]

2 Problems have presented themselves straight out of the gates:
1) Hard water deposits on the front display glass of the 120. I am thinking of doing something rather different with this tank anyways and want to see if this is a good option. I am considering plugging the 4 holes drilled on the bottom and pulling out the overflows. I would then flip the tank so that the back wall is the "front wall", eliminating the need to remove the hard water deposits. I'm thinking of getting a Glass-holes 3000 kit and then drilling 2 2" drain holes on the back wall and adding their overflow box. I then would either drill 2x1" returns or do an over the back return on the tank. Thoughts on this?
2) Ballast has rust on it. I'm slightly concerned about the state of the ballast. I took the cover off as I noticed a lot of build up and the ballasts are both rusting and while they still work, I'm considering replacing them down the road. Thoughts?

 

[MuralReef]

I have a glass-holes on the 180 in the library and it tends to be loud. When I do the 120 at home I have a Synergy Reef Shadow that has the bean animal style plumbing in the back externally. It will take up less space internally and about the same externally.

 

[Miah2bzy]

I have a glass-holes on the 180 in the library and it tends to be loud. When I do the 120 at home I have a Synergy Reef Shadow that has the bean animal style plumbing in the back externally. It will take up less space internally and about the same externally.

Looks like the 16" is $40 off right now to, thanks!!!

 

[DJBM3]

I just received my Synergy overflow and it is one awesome piece of equipment!
I highly recommend it over the others.

 

[Miah2bzy]

Getting a small 30b frag tank together. Built a stand and one of the uprights got all the torque from slightly twisted 2x4s on it.

This is a side pic of the stand.
I'm going to add some cross bracing but with all the force being down on top of that joint I think it'll be fine. I used high quality wood glue, literally break the board before the joint (I've trie before and snapped 2x6 joint never gave out).
Using my 400w xm10k light over it, high to diffuse some light.



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[Miah2bzy]

The right of pic is the top of stand.


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[Legonch]

Id take that warped 2x4 out, along with the cracked 2x4, replace them with good ones, wood glue and screw it back together. Nails will get loose. That looks sketchy like that. I wouldnt trust it.

 

[Miah2bzy]

Id take that warped 2x4 out, along with the cracked 2x4, replace them with good ones, wood glue and screw it back together. Nails will get loose. That looks sketchy like that. I wouldnt trust it.

With it being glued in place I wasn't able to pull it out without redoing the entire thing. It's stressed down not sideways, the pic isn't the right angle.
I sat on the stand and then added 300 lbs of weights to it and it didn't move a bit or wiggle.


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[Miah2bzy]

Made some headway with the 120 today. Oldest son and I ripped out the old overflows. It was....educational. Used a saws all and razor blade to pull them out. When we got to within 6 inches of the bottom we ran into sand and debri from the old setup. Easily 6 inches of dead stuff that accumulated in the overflow boxes. I can see why these would cause the tank to nuke, glad I took them out.

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[Miah2bzy]

Got the glass plates siliconed in place today, two circles around the holes and outlined the plates. Looks like it'll hold well.

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[Miah2bzy]

We had babies, j/k but my bbeb has been struggling this past month. Got it with 8 polyps, had one die immediately. Only 3 opened since delivery and the other 4 remained visible but always closed. Today there are two new polyps that opened and one of the 4 opened. Up to 6 polyps now and growing


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[Miah2bzy]

Wow...old thread.
To be brief, tanks crashed. All of them. Over night. 9 months ago.
We moved and the kids are now asking when their tank will come back.
Have wife approved plan. Have kid approved plan.
More to follow.

 

[Legonch]

Learn from your past mistakes grasshopper. Learn u will.....

 

[SkyShark]

Wow...old thread.
To be brief, tanks crashed. All of them. Over night. 9 months ago.
We moved and the kids are now asking when their tank will come back.
Have wife approved plan. Have kid approved plan.
More to follow.

Bummer. What caused the crash?

 

[Miah2bzy]

Bummer. What caused the crash?

Moved. In the moving process I caused a small mini cycle in the tanks after I set them back up that I didn’t catch for a few days and when I did a water change it was a huge shock to the whole system and threw it out of balance very quickly. My main tank I had not done water changes in for almost 9 months and when I went to move it threw all the params out of whack, which I had expected to see. What I hadn’t thought thru was the water change being a shock. My calc/alk went way high and the nitrate nitrite spiked as well right after. Im not entirely sure what started the whole thing, have a feeling it was a chicken/egg situation where the answer is both/and.
Looking back I should have setup a second tank as a “quarantine” for everything to sit in while I got the main back up and not tried to hurry the process.
On my next tanks I’ll keep better eye in params, I did like the no water changes and want to keep going in that direction, once the tank was setup and cycled it wasn’t that bad, I did keep track of calc and alk and dosed daily to replenish what the corals took out, I also pruned the algae in my refuge every other day which cut down in the nitrate nitrites and phosphates.
Overall, it was an expensive lesson to learn but I’ll know next time.


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