I decided to take the opportunity of starting a tank journal of my 120g.The planning started in March 2004 and the tank was finally set up in Feb 2005.
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
The first purchase was the tank. 4ft x 2ft x 2ft glass aquarium by Miracles. It has dual overflows, one in each corner at the back.
The next item was the sump. I just got a 65g tank and had some baffles cut and silconed them in. The one thing I regret now is not doing more research on sump designs, but I can save that for the next tank!
My husband designed and built the stand. The first part was for the tank and sump.
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
The next stage was the side cabinets. We built it like this as we wanted to be able move it. This turned out to be a good thing as we moved house in Oct 05.
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
Final stage of the stand was the canopy. This was also going to hold an above tank refugium on one side, and monitors and ballasts on the other.
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
The next stage was the plumbing and building the refugium.
I built the refugium myself from acrylic as it needed to fit in the space in the canopy and nothing was available commercially.
We were also worried the stand would not be strong enough, so we filled it with sand and water after installing it into the canopy
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
So now it was Dec 04 and I could hardly stand it any longer so the tank was filled and everything switched on for the first time.
After 7 months this was one of my most exciting days.
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
I searched out some interesting uncured live rock, added the sand and got some live sand from some fellow reef club members and waited for the cycle to finish
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
BY Feb 05 tank was ready for some additions and it took off from there.
This picture was taken April 05
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
We had to be out of our house by the end of Oct 05 and the new house would not be ready until Dec 05.
A friend very kindly offered to have the tank in her basement. The tank was taken down and moved the week before we moved out and re set up in a rubbermaid tub 150g. We took as much water as we could and I got new sand and kept the old stuff to recycle the tank when it was set up again.
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
We moved into new house on 22nd Dec 2006 and tank was set up again and recycled. This took a while due to the sand bed. It definately did not like being moved.
Tank was ready again by Feb 2006 and everything was moved back in one day. This was followed by 10% water changes every other day as I had a nitrate spike probably due to bioload overload, from completely stocking a tank in 24 hrs.
The tank has continued to do well since the move.
These are some pictures taken in Nov 06
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
No I didn't loose anything, I just was battling high nitrates for a month when I set it up at home again.
I thought everything would be fine as I was not reusing the same sand bed each time. We took as much water as possible and left the sand bed as undistured in the rubbermaid as possible. That sand got used in my QC tank when I set it up.
It just goes to show how important it is to build up your bioload slowly, even if you think your system is mature.
Ally
__________________ 120g with dual overflows, 65 g sump & 20 g above tank Refugium
H&S A-150-F2001 Skimmer, MAS CR4517 Calcium Reactor, 2 x 250W Ebo Jaeger Heater, 1/4HP Pacific Coast Chiller. ¾" Seaswirl on Mag 9.5. 2 returns to tank by Mag 18, Seio 820 and Tunze 6060
Two 250W Icecap electronic ballasts with 250W DE HQI 14500K Giesemann MegaChrome Coral bulbs in Reef Tech Pendants.
sweet, besides the edditions in the tank, your fish tell you everything about a persons love for their tank, and yours are in exceptional health by those shots. great work, show behind the scenes next round of shot if you can, id love to see your set-up
i also wanted to set up an above tank fuge. how big of a pump do you have pumping up to it?? and hows the micro bubbles coming back down? is it really bad? does the fuge return to your sump or display? ..
very cool tank by the way. i wish i had the room to do something big like that! you have made a very good decision coming here! everyone is great here!
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