BB's 190G Build

[bberman]

I Joined ARC a few months ago after being in the hobby for about 1.5 years. Growing up my dad always had salt water tanks. A few years ago he got a Red Sea Reef Tank and I thought it was really cool. My 2 year old daughter always wanted to go over to my parents to feed and see the fish so I took his old 92G bow tank and set up a FOWLR tank. After about 18 months I had outgrown that tank and decided it was time for an upgrade!

Most everything is in and ready, the Tank and Stand will be delivered on Monday and the Sump is being built next week.

Here are the specs on the new tank
Most of the stuff I bought from Pure Reef. Jorge, Angela and their staff are the Best!

190G three sided Starfire Glass from Planet Aquarium
Zero Edge series 7 Custom Sump - Plans and Specs below
4 AI Hydra HD 26
Nyos 220 Skimmer
New Apex with ALD, WMX and Breakout
60 Watt UV
(2) 400 Watt Heaters
(2) BioTek Marine reactors for Carbon and GFO
BRS 3 Stage 150GPD RO unit
Tunze ATO
2 EchoTech MP40 Quite Drives
140 LBS of Pukani Rock from BRS and the rest from LFS
For right now I am going run the tank off of a Mag 12 pump and will either get a EchoTech L1 or the new Apex COR pump. I am undecided right now so I have not purchased yet.

Sump Idea
I had been going back and forth on which sump to get - I really like the BioTek Marine 44 but it was very expensive and they were not willing to make any changes or customizations. In the pictures you will see a Tideline Sump that I bought but returned I didn't really like the way the socks fit in the holder. I was going to buy a Synergy Reef but then I called Zero edge and they were willing to do a completely custom sump.

Mounting Board -
For those who have set up Apex and DT with a "control" center do you have any advise on the layout and placement? The magnets are the Apex modules. I am going to CUT out holes for the cables to go through and paint the wood black. It will then be mounted on a hinge to access the back.

Since I just got the rock in I am going to cure it all in acid on Sat if the weather will hold out.

The New Apex looked really cool for the 10 min I had it plugged up, I then did the update and I guess I have one the defective units mentioned on ReefCentral. Neptune is sending me a new one on Monday to replace the defective one.

More pics to follow as I progress!

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />
<fieldset class="gc-fieldset">
<legend> Attached files </legend>

 

[danh]

I'd be psyched with that material in front of me to start putting together! Looks awesome.

 

[bberman]

I have been iching too the last few weeks I have been working on the water change station. My goal is to be able to do a 20-30 gallon water change in just a few minutes and with just the turn of a few valves. So far I have tested it a few times on my 30G qt tank and it actually is too fast I am going to switch out from one inch tube and pvc to 3/4 this way I get more head pressure and it slowed down a little.

 

[axio]

Ooooo this looks like it's going to be a good one! Following along...

 

[bberman]

Thanks Jakub! Some of my corals are from your shop! Y'all did a great job putting together the event this month! My huge flame hawk, spit fire Leptastrea, and some green Cyphastrea - Are from Premier! Also I think all my turbo snails, urchin and crabs are all from there! I think the snails are laying eggs and some are hatching because I never put a small snail in the tank only huge turbos and there is a small baby snail crawling around right now. (All my live rock and coral are in a qt tank and all the fish are in a seporate tank right now while I am getting ready for the build otherwise the triggers would have eaten that little snail in 2 seconds!

 

[bobz]

Nice build so far! This will be a great system. Please keep us posted

Bob

 

[bberman]

Well the tank was delivered this week and it looks great!

alt="" />

I got some Pukani Rock from BRS - my mind is not 100% made up on it yet.. I gave it a bath in muriatic acid last weekend because it smelled really bad and there was some dried up organics I could see on the rock... the acid ate away at way more of the rock than I thought it would and there still was a TON of dead mushrooms, starfish and other organics left on the rock after the bath.. so I let it sit in some bleach water and now I am rising it out and going to let it "cure" for a while.. I will see what happens. I did however take some of it out and set it up on the ground to see how it looks.. What do yall think? I don't think there are enough "caves" for the fish to play in... I may add some other live rock to the mix as well.

alt="" />
I may take them and "mount them" on some pvc and turn them a different direction this weekend.

I also got my control center board mounted with the new APEX on it. Its on a hinge so I can access the back. The two modules there are the ALD and the WMX for the EchoTech MP40s. I was going to mount the EchoTech controller ion there but I don't think the cable is long enough to reach. I have been debating tinkering with it and see if I can do an extension cored on it...

alt="" />

The sump should be here in the next 10 days I am hoping! I just ordered the new PMUP from Neptune Systems to control the GFO and Carbon! Has anyone had their hands on one of these yet?

 

[ricky5415]

U can chinsel some of the big rocks to make more holes/caves

 

[danh]

You need to cure that pukani before you use it. Just put it in a container (or the tank if you want) with powerheads and heat. All of that dead stuff has to degrade in to ammonia. I don't think short acid or bleach dips will do that. Mine cured for a month and cycled at the same time.

I thought you didn't have to use a wxm module with the new apex?

 

[danh]

Ricky5415;1093707 wrote: U can chinsel some of the big rocks to make more holes/caves

Yeah, just go really slow. I broke two big pieces before I asked my wife to do it for me. She had a lot more patience.

 

[Adam]

If you make the rock work the way you want it now. Chiseling, drilling and/or adding more. It will be better than doing it after you cure it. Once you have all that done put it all in the Brute(s) and fill with RODI, throw in a heater and powerhead and let it sit a week. Drain rinse and repeat. The RO water will rinse the residual bleach out and help leach any other crap out.

After a couple weeks of this it's time to drain pull the rock and rinse it and the brutes out. Set everything back up and add your first salt water. Now let it sit topping off as needed. This is a long process and the rock will need to sit here for at least 4 to 6 weeks to cure and cycle. I would not recommend doing it in the tank, once you see all the crap that come out you will see why. Also doing all of this now will save you a lot of nutrient issues later on.

This is a nice looking setup!!!

 

[axio]

I find the Pukani rock to be pretty hit or miss. Some times it comes in great and sometimes it's kind of brittle.

I really like that hinge mounted control board!

 

[danh]

anit77;1093714 wrote: If you make the rock work the way you want it now. Chiseling, drilling and/or adding more. It will be better than doing it after you cure it. Once you have all that done put it all in the Brute(s) and fill with RODI, throw in a heater and powerhead and let it sit a week. Drain rinse and repeat. The RO water will rinse the residual bleach out and help leach any other crap out.

After a couple weeks of this it's time to drain pull the rock and rinse it and the brutes out. Set everything back up and add your first salt water. Now let it sit topping off as needed. This is a long process and the rock will need to sit here for at least 4 to 6 weeks to cure and cycle. I would not recommend doing it in the tank, once you see all the crap that come out you will see why. Also doing all of this now will save you a lot of nutrient issues later on.

This is a nice looking setup!!!

I did mine in the tank with saltwater and didn't do a single water change through the cure. Maybe I got lucky and mine wasn't that dirty but it didn't seem to have much of a negative impact in my tank after the 100% water change once the ammonia stopped for about a week. I had a little bit of brown algae but not much. Agreed, do the chiseling and breaking before you start curing or as early in the process as you can. And mine didn't smell like anything when I got it.

 

[Adam]

I guess I wasn't lucky then. The water looked an smelled like swimming pool in July that hadn't been taken care of for a year. This was after bleaching & acid washing...

 

[danh]

Mine smelled a little bit. The water was always clear. It was nothing a little bit of carbon didn't fix.

 

[bberman]

The bleach cleaned the color up - but wow was the water brown and green... Kinda like the water in Rio!

Now that it's cleaner I'm going to mess with the design this weekend and take some pics. Then put it in to cure. I have about 10 pieces of live well cured rock that has 10000s of pods on it I was going to stick in the tank when the dry rock goes in- hoping all that good bacteria will help keep algie to a min. Hoping the sump comes next week! Just ordered breakout box A going to put some float switches on the skinner and sump.

I am having a hard time deciding what pump to get- the L1 or use my mag 12 and then get the COR when it comes out. I am pushing two 3/4 returns and driving a 60 watt uv on a manifold... The reason I would love to have the COR is bc I could click feed a and have the pump stay on but go to 10%. With the L1 it would just compleatly turn off. I didn't want to turn the whole pump off and have the sump fill up with water or have to rely on check valves and then have all of the float switch alarms go off. Also the COR will run of 1link so that's pretty nice to free up a port. Any thoughts?

 

[jdabs]

Looks great!!! Following along on this one!

 

[snowmansnow]

Acid bath of you really want to clean the Pukani. It's a hassle, but it works.
And yes. You can shape that stuff into whatever you want. A power tool is best so you aren't chiseling it.


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[bberman]

So a bunch of progress this week and the Sump got delivered! I took all of the frags off of my live rock and set it "aside" in some egg crate so I can get ready to place the rock in the new tank. The replacement unit for the Apex came in. I sent the MP40s back to Ecotech to get a 6-7 foot extension added onto them. And today the custom sump from zeroedge came in! I was super excited for this, as I spent a lot of time making sure everything was going to fit and be perfect. The sump itself is exactly what I wanted... but I think the UPS person may have been a little too rough. There were 3 cracks/chips in the plastic. I called zeroedge and they are going to get back with me on Monday. While, I don't think any of the defect will affect the function of the sump its like getting a scratch on your new car... I will see what they say. They were very nice and I expect what ever they decided to do will be the right thing.

Here are some pic- and features. :
45x18x18
two 7" socks
two 1" overflows
Cut out cord slots
two heater holders
probe holder
4 dozing tube openings

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

The extra bulkhead in the main compartment I was going to directly connect up to my salt water mixing station so I can just pump saltwater right to the sump when I do water changes.
And yes I picked black and red because I'm a Falcons Fan!

 

[bberman]

Installed the Tank on Friday, will post pictures soon... everything went pretty well... only a few tweaks needed.
We put a level on the tank before we filled it and the bubble was inside the lines; however, it was not dead center... well we found out that over 6 feet that slight off center lead to about 1/2 inch in water level from one side to the other... so we drained the tank and stick some shims under the low side. While it is not perfect it is about 1/4 inch off now. With the L1 pump on full power I am able to bring the water level on the left side above the trim but on the right side I can still see the water line about 1/8 in below the trim... I guess we have too many 90 degree elbows in the plumbing... I would think that that pump should actually be able to "crest" the tank at full blast. There are 10 90s and a 2 inch UV in the return line.... so its loosing a lot of pressure. I may have to run the UV on a separate pump... I will post some pictures tonight!