190 Rimless upgrade

Discussion in 'New Tank Builds' started by Jake atkinson, Sep 1, 2018.

  1. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Looking good! Why the long cycle? I forget, are you using dry rock, live rock or a combination of both?
     
  2. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Mostly dry rock with this system so I dont want to rush anything. I may throw a handful of sand in there from my current system just add some bacteria. We will see how things go I guess..I may not take as long as i am planning.
     
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  3. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Interesting study done by a guy on R2R recently showed the ability to cycle a tank to be able to process 4ppm NH3 in 48 hours using Fritz Turbo Start. Pretty amazing. I am with you in the slow and steady camp but this was pretty eye opening.

    Of course it doesn't mean the tank would be ready for SPS but it would allow fish to be added and shortly after maybe LPS or zoas.
     
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  4. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Yeah, I definitely agree that it is possible. And will be interesting to follow others that have tried it and see the different short term and/ or long term results they all get. But it won't be from me..lol.. I am in no hurry and would feel better just taking my time throughout the process leaving everything to mature at it's own rate.
     
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  5. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Got the tank up on the stand this weekend finally! I had some good friends and co-workers comes help me on Saturday.
     

    Attached Files:

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  6. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    That is going to be so awesome! What is the hole on the front pane of the tank for?
     
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  7. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    The whole is for one of the return lines. I know it would look a bit cleaner without it but in the end it's not much different than slapping an MP40 in the same spot. The reason being is that I wanted more dwell time and circulation of the filtered water coming out of the sump instead of having it come off the wall right where the overflow is. The other return line will be on a sea swirl.
     
  8. Botheboss

    Botheboss Director-At Large

    Nice bro! I’m loving it already!
     
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  9. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Thanks buddy! Gonna be doing the rockscape next week some time so should be getting water in it within a couple more weeks
     
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  10. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Alright so I finally got the plumbing finished and the rockscape done. I ended up using a black abs sheet for the bottom to set the rock work on and siliconed it to the bottom to seal everything up. Not worried about color because within a year it will be covered in entrusting corals. Also I used some new type of reef saver rock from BRS that has a completely flat side to it to use as my foundation pieces for better stability for the other rocks stacked on top. And I used the regular reef saver rock from BRS for all the other rock held together with aqua stick putty. I tried to design an open rockscape with plenty of room for fish to swim and flow for corals. Very happy with the foundation rock! It worked great and definitely worth getting. Will probably get some water in it very soon over the next 4 days.
     

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  11. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    That aquascape is tremendous! One of the best I've seen. Is that a Herbie set up with the drains (one full siphon and one open standpipe)? I made some rock like that for my initial build with a tile saw. Cool that you can buy it like that now!
     
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  12. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Thank you very much!
    It's just two standpipe for now. I may change it later. Just going to see how well I can dial these in and go from there if I am not happy.
     
  13. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    All you would have to do to make it a Herbie would be make one not have an air hole and slightly raise the other one. They are very quiet but Durso's can be too.
     
  14. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Finally got water in it! Plumbing looks to be all safe, sound, and working great. Will be adding salt tomorrow.
     

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  15. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Well it's been almost 2 months and the tank is finally cycled and I added the first few fish last week. Took a much longer time to cycle without live sand or a combo of live/dry sand but I expected this anyways. Used two pieces of wild caught gulf shrimp and left them in there to rot and that did the trick just perfectly. I added a Naso, a Convict, and yellow streaked fairy wrasse. I will slowly add the other fish from my other system over the next month and hopefully get everything transferred over and lights on within 2 more months.
    I took a few pictures of the new fish with a small Kessil light on to show them a bit better. They are eating really well and looking good so far. The progress is slow but steady. I will post more as things change.
     

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  16. Botheboss

    Botheboss Director-At Large

    Looks great bro
     
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  17. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Wow! Never seen a tank that clean at this point in the process! How are you going to light this bad boy?
     
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  18. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Thank you Bo. Much appreciate. It's getting there slowly but surely.
     
  19. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Well I think the reason the tank has been so clean still is that the lights haven't hit it full blast yet. It is lit very minimally from a Kessil ran at 100% blue. I am trying to hold out from blasting it with light until the tank is fully stocked with fish and the bacteria in the system can stabilize with fish populations. I feel this with help give the system a better advantage at dealing with any unwanted algae during any part of the maturing process over the next year or so.
    Also I forgot to mention above that after the tank cycled I did a 50 gallon water change. I will and have done 20% water changes ever week from here on out unless something happens that warrants me to change that routine in anyway. Time will tell but that's the starting point.
    And to answer your question about lighting. I have built a canopy for the lighting that I actually need to post some pictures of. It will have two Reef Bright Slim Line dual T-5 fixtures in it with two 19 "×19" Hamilton metal halide reflectors. So a total of 4 T-5 bulbs and 2 halides.
     
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  20. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Ok so a lot has happened in the past month. I built a canopy for my custom lighting a few months ago and forgot to post pictures of it. Also, today was the day the lighting canopy was hung and the old system was transferred over! Been a long time waiting for this day. Special thanks to Porter and Wayne and Annette King for coming over and helping me out with everything involved. There is still a lot of frags in the old system and other frags on the floor of the new tank that need to be mounted tomorrow but here are some pictures for now. Also I got a little shipment of 30 trochus snails in from WWC for the system too.
    The lighting looks great! It is running 4 t-5 ATI blue plus and 2 - 250 watt 20k ushio halide bulbs. It looks way better in person then in the pictures. Hope you guys like it so far.
     

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    Last edited: Feb 2, 2019
    cameronkclements, Botheboss and roco like this.

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