Taqpol's 120 gallon All in Stand Reef Build

[ajnweb]

It is not the FE that will kill the fish/corals, but the die off from the flatworms themselves. If things look bad run lots of carbon and do as big of water change as you can, hopefully someone else will chime in as well. Good luck! Nice tanks by the way!

Go Cougs!

 

[estanoche]

What are your ammonia and nitrate/nitrate levels - that'll probably tell you exactly what is going on..... Of course, both are remedied by water changes, just make sure your W/C is good and balanced!

 

[Taqpol]

Thread outlining my serious tang problems here, please help out if you can.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=490388#post490388

 

[Saltyfish]

Ok on my 90 gallon I treated for flatworm also.

I did one and half times the amount, I heard to do twice the amount but I was too chicken.

waited 1 hour and did a 25 gallon water change.
Waited 2 days and did another 25 gallon water change.
things started looking normal again.
Two days later still not 100% yet I did a 15 gallon water change
Bam everything is poppin and happy once again.

I never lost a fish and to chime in on your #2 I have heard people putting 100 of them in a large tank only to have two left to this day. If you have three then you got a bonus but how long that bonus going to last is anyones guess.

Hope this helps...

 

[1fishkeeper]

Wow is all I can say after reading and looking at your pictures of your tank. I hope that your tangs can make a full come back. Best of luck with everything.

 

[Taqpol]

So I've actually had another project going for awhile, here's some pictures:

I built the stand too. It will be going over my external skimmer and sit right next to my main tank. I will use the tank as a frag/anemone tank and it will be plumbed into the main system through the sump.

Also, the general consensus on another thread is that I should be fine with 1/4" glass on this rimless tank, but does anyone think I should add two rails of glass along the outside edges?

 

[Taqpol]

I can post pictures of the stand build process as well if anyone would like that.

 

[sandswhitson]

WOW! That new frag tank is going to be cool! Looks great.

 

[Taqpol]

Am I crazy for driving five hours one way for a fish store sale? Barrier Reef Aquariums in Seattle had a MASSIVE three year anniversary sale, and I walked away with a lot of goodies.

1x Half Black Mimic Tang
1x Baby Kole Tang (its smaller then a quarter!!)
1x Christmas Wrasse
3x Amazing looking SPS frags for $9.99
1x Head of purple/green Acanthastrea
1x ORA Spongodes



........and I even won the raffle my fiance really wanted!
2x ORA Semi Picasso clowns, a $140 value!
They are going in my frag/anemone tank that is unofficially my fiances tank. Maybe this will be her gateway drug.

 

[Taqpol]

Everything seems to be doing well in QT right now. The two tangs are already getting along with each other fine (Even in a 20 gal long), and the two picassos have started "hosting" a piece of PVC pipe and don't let the tangs in it!

I'll try and get some pictures up within the next few days.

 

[jake65]

good job Alex, cant wait to see the pics

 

[Taqpol]

Big update time! With pictures!

The lighting over the frag tank is my old Current USA Sundial 4x24w T5 fixture hung by the Current USA arms. Unfortunately the fixture did not come with mounting brackets for the hanging arm kit so I had to DIY my own. Basically I just unscrewed the plastic end covers and dremeled 3/16" slots into the edges where the metal end pieces could slight right in. Then the end covers were screwed back on over the metal pieces. It works well and looks nice, but it means i can't take the light off the cords without undoing six screws on each side. I'll have to wait and see if that becomes annoying.

My return comes from the main system pump (a ReeFlo Dart) and runs through a 1" SCWD. I didn't need the one inch version but I do like how you can unscrew the top for cleaning and you can hard plumb it into the tank.

My overflow runs through a "herbie" style drain. I have one standpipe with no openings that I purposely restrict using a ball valve to maintain a full blown siphon (which is silent) that can handle barely less then the water flowing over the weir (so I don't get the toilet sucking sound when the siphon breaks). The remaining water flows through a normal standpipe very quietly. As an added failsafe, if my siphon clogs or slows down the increase in water will cover a hole in the top of the second stand pipe, creating a siphon that drains the overflow box and makes the toilet noise so that i know something is wrong.

The stand itself covers my skimmer and has a few other goodies. As you can see, its a pretty tight fit.

Two shelves to hold all sorts of goodies on the left:

And my Drew's Dosers and Two Part jugs on the right:

 

[Taqpol]

Select new corals. The day lights had already turned off and I kinda suck at actinic pictures, but heres some I thought turned out all right:

Purple and Red Acanthastrea:

Pink Polyped Montipora Digitata:

Christmas Wrasse:

Picasso Clown (You wouldn't expect these fish to be so expensive, I'm really glad I won them in a raffle!):

As with all my projects, I made a complete mess out of the place that will hopefully get cleaned up tomorrow .

 

[Taqpol]

After reviewing them, I'm not too happy with the quality of the above pictures. I blame it on too many weird and contrasting lights and the fact that the glass on both tanks is horribly filthy. I promise better pictures within the next few days after I change my carbon and get sand in the frag tank.

 

[Saltyfish]

a little cloudy but over all they are ok

 

[mal1099]

So how you liking that coast to coast overflow. Im getting ready to start building a marineland deep dimension 250 and im thinking abouth that OF. Is it as quiet as they claim? Love how you put that huge skimmer into your frag tanks stand so its not visible now.

 

[Taqpol]

So how you liking that coast to coast overflow. Im getting ready to start building a marineland deep dimension 250 and im thinking abouth that OF. Is it as quiet as they claim? Love how you put that huge skimmer into your frag tanks stand so its not visible now.

The coast to coast overflow is great, and there is a lot of data showing that they skim the top layer where all the DOC's accumulate much more effectively then other types of overflows. The quietness, however, comes from the overflow configuration I use, which is BeanAnimal's Silent and Failsafe Overfow Design. This works a lot like the Herbie system I mentioned in the frag tank above, but has a third stand pipe for even more safety and redundancy.

 

[Taqpol]

Can anyone tell the difference?

(Hint hint: there are a few corals either moved or removed, but take a look at that glass!)

 

[fatboyt123]

well you some how changed a frogspawn into a torch on the left. The big ball on the right is gone, and did you get the coraling off with a razor blade?

 

[fatboyt123]

ooo and the brown dig. above the clam on the right i cant seem to find