190 Rimless upgrade

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

  1. portereef

    portereef RRMAS Supporter

    This tank is gorgeous! I am glad I was able to see this tank in person its going to be a show tank in no time!
     
    Jake atkinson likes this.
  2. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Thanks man. I appreciate the compliment. Hopefully one day it will be amazing as I dream it will be with a lot of tlc.
     
  3. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member


    Beautiful Jake! Look forward to seeing this bad boy mature!
     
    Jake atkinson likes this.
  4. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Thank you very much! I look forward just as much to posting some good update pictures in the future.
     
  5. Botheboss

    Botheboss Director-At Large

    Here we go!!!
     
  6. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Just wanted to put an update on the tank. The corals and everything seem to be adjusting very well and showing new growth since the transfer and have no fatalities at all which is great.
    A few new things that have happened is that I have put the old calcium reactor back online the new system and applied some poly carbonate pieces to the overflow to keep light out of that area. I ordered pre cut pieces from e-plastics online and used velcro to attach them to the glass. It seemed to work very well and came out looking very clean.
    There was very minimal diatoms dusting for about the first 10 days on the rocks and the trochus snails seemed to keep it in check very easily. Starting to see very small dots of coraline algae on the rock so I am sure that will develop quickly. I have continued doing 30 gallon weekly water changes using tropic marin pro and siphoning out any detritus build up in the few areas it seems to accumulate from the flow pattern. I will attach some pictures of the polycarbonate pieces being put on the reactor and updated tank shots. Please feel free to ask any questions. Thanks for following along.
     

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  7. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Sorry for the lack of attention to this thread but I figured it's long past due for an update at this point. So much has happened and changed with this system.
    First I will start off by saying that I took the chiller offline, carried it to the garage and smashed it...haha..to make a long story short I had an ongoing issue for over a month that was affecting my system in a very negative way and it took a lot of work to keep it from completely crashing. In the end it was the used chiller I bought that was leaking freon into the water slowly everytime it turned on. It didn't start showing issues until the spring came and temperatures got higher. I guess that's why the guy I bought it from broke his tank down and sold it..lol luckily no fish suffered any fatalities and I only ended up loosing one maybe two small pieces of coral. Since then over the last few months the system has rebounded nicely and all is well. Put the progress behind but it's better then a complete crash for sure. So I am very thankful .
    Secondly I got a very nice clear view lid custom made for the tank to keep my wrasses and other fish from skydiving off the edge. While waiting for the lid to come about a week before it arrived I happened to be out in the living room late one night and heard a huge splash. After closer inspection I realized the flame wrasse had jumped out right into the plant next to the tank. What great timing to save that little guy. I rinsed him off and put him back in the tank. All was well thank goodness.
    Third, i have added a precision marine kalk reactor to help with ph. And extra calcium that will be needed in the future. Even using a calcium reactor i have always seen benefit from implementing kalk in some way. I also added a kamoer dosing pump to have better control over my calcium reactor. So far i am very pleased and couldnt be happier.
    Fourth I added a huge dual canister co2 scrubber brom bulk reef supply. The smaller single one just wasnt getting the job done enough and I was burning through media too quick with a house full of kids and a few pets. In addition to solve this problem i also added another nyos 220 quantum protien skimmer to help increase the ph using the dual reactors. One skimmer just wasnt enough at all and my ph was still low enough to be a concern. I had plenty of room in the sump and now there is definite redundancy in that department.
    I have added another apex power bar to power a few extra pieces of equipment like the sump light, the sump fan, and a few other things. If anyone has any questions I will be happy to answer. Here are some picture of the current status of everything as of this week.
     

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  8. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Looking great Jake! Those chalices are looking awesome! Nice save on the flame wrasse. It's really hard to keep more than one wrasse for any time without a top of some kind. The Clear View lids are awesome, you'll love it.
     
    Jake atkinson likes this.
  9. Adam Mulling

    Adam Mulling Wrasse Staff Member

    Very nice
     
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  10. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Thanks Doc. Some of my best chalices are not even big enough to see in the pictures yet but when they are they will steal the show. I feel like ever since I got the lid the fish know and now they are splashing at the surface all the time.
     
    huntindoc likes this.
  11. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Thanks
     
  12. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    I am way past due an update so here we go....so as most of you guys already know I decided to tear down the system and do a complete reboot with fresh rock. I had a chiller that I found to be leaking and it basically just slowly destroyed my system. Only way to keep things alive and going was doing huge water changes every week. Even after I pulled the chiller off line the damage was done and the rocks continued to leach even months afterwards. It could have taken 6 months or two years for things to finally clean out. Wasnt going to sit back and wait and loose pieces here and there in the meanwhile. Aaron was nice enough to house most of my corals during my downtime and Wayne came over to help me tear everything down and pull it out of the tank at the end of August. I tore out the sump, cleaned it all out, and replaced most of the plumbing. By the end of September the tank was back together and new rockscape finally finished. I used the marco rock cement to help put all my rock together. After seeing what the rock putty turns into I will never use it again. Plus it doesnt work that well anyways. So here are a few pictures of the progress from tear down to putting water in it. I put water in it the first week of October and then added my fish slowly after about 6 weeks mid November. Then kept them in for another 4 weeks with lights off. Also during the downtime I added two led HO strips to my lighting.
     

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  13. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    So around mid December it was time to slowly start adding corals back to my system and see how everything was going to react. So far everything has been going great and everything seems to be responding perfectly as expected with fingers crossed. Within a month the coraline algae was covering everything as you can see in the pictures and coral frags starting to color up and grow. Most of my old colonies I started back as frags again this time around. I must say that it may have been a pain in the butt and extremely discouraging to tear everything down and restart but it was all worth it. Here are some pictures of the system currently as of today. I will also post an update with equipment soon.
     

    Attached Files:

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  14. Adam Mulling

    Adam Mulling Wrasse Staff Member

    Looking awesome jake I’m jealous I wish mine looked that great some awesome coral you have
     
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  15. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Thanks buddy. I am trying to keep everything high end with a few exceptions for sentimental reasons..lol now I just need to let time run it course so everything can grow in and mature.
     
  16. Adam Mulling

    Adam Mulling Wrasse Staff Member

    For sure I’m working on going more high end just takes time and $$$
     
    roco likes this.
  17. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Looks great Jake! That aquascape is dope! Corals look great!
     
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  18. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    More money then time unfortunately..lol
     
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  19. Jake atkinson

    Jake atkinson Wrasse

    Thanks Doc. I appreciate that. I think a part of me wishes I had kept the aquascape a bit lower on the back side but it's too late now so I will just adjust accordingly. I really like the placement options with lower light corals I have though with it being so open. On the bottom. So far it's working very well.
     
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