Well, I finally did some real actual work on this thing. We've got a club auction coming up on March 7th, so I'm trying desperately to have it cycled by then.


When I was growing up, I was the youngest of 3 boys, and we ALL played with Legos. By the time I came along, we had multiple big popcorn tins filled with Legos. Basically, any part you could even want for anything you could ever want to build.

I tried to apply that approach to this.

At Chevron, a lot of my work was building micro units, so plumbing is kind of second nature to me. With each unit I built, I tried to hone my skills to create not only a functional workspace, but also something pleasing to the eye....I'm still working on that last part.










The blank slate:

 

I suppose I left one part out. You can see the drain line and refill lines coming out of the wall. I installed those a couple of weeks ago and forgot to say anything about it. 1/4" refill line, that's running through a Granulated Activated Charcoal filter to remove Chlorine. At 10% water changes per day, that should eliminate all my risks of not using Prime.



Finished product:

If you reference my plumbing diagram in the post below, everything should be pretty clear. The Eheims aren't in yet(obviously) but they'll go on the left.You can see the barbs they'll attach to in the next picture. The green irrigation valve is my refill solenoid. The Danner 7 is there in the very center. Hopefully that helps you orient.


Left Side:

I made a mistake here. I had purchased two 1" FPT ball valves to connect to the bulkheads so that I could unscrew them if I ever needed to remove the bulkheads(for whatever reason). I ordered them months ago, and I forgot why I ordered them, so I forgot to use them. The two ball valves there are slip and glued in. Means I'll have to cut them out of I ever have to take off the bulkheads.

Center:

Right Side:

Obviously I could have built the thing with a few less 90 elbows, but I was building for form and function. I was trying to maximize my left over space in the stand.

And, for the record, I still had to make 1 more trip to Home Depot, and 2 more trips to Ace for more parts.


Now I wait for it to dry.

Mario Brothers, Here I Come

I suppose it's about time to do some real work. I've been thinking about the design of the plumbing pretty much since I decided to set up a big tank like this. As I've stated before, I want pretty much all equipment to be inline. That includes inline pH probe, co2 injection, heaters, and co2 injection.


Originally I had planned on three filters: 2 Eheim Pro II 2128 Thermofilters and a Magnum 350 for water polishing. However, I decided to drop the "Thermofilter" part and go with 2 Eheim Pro II 2028's. I've had several Thermofilters and I've basically come down to the conclusion that they should be avoided. A standard filter plus a Hydor inline is a better alternative. The reason is that the cost of the standard Pro II and Hydor combined is a little less than the cost of the Thermofilter, and if he heater portion of your filtration fails, it's a lot cheaper to replace the Hydor than the internals of the Thermofilter. I also decided to drop out the Magnum 350. Instead I'm putting in a Mag Drive 7 pump powering a co2 reactor. If I need water polishing I have a  diatom filter or I can put the Magnum 350 back in some day.

After a lot of discussion between different members of different forums, discussion with my wife(the engineer), and some deep thought on my part, this is what I've landed on:

Those Parotocincluses...

While I did take some time off from the 120g, I can't say the same for the ADA 60-P.  If you remember, back in October I acquired some Parotocinclus eppelyi, or at least that's what they were labeled. Well, as it turned out, they were actually Parotocinclus sp 'Peru' sometimes known as P. leticia. I've had them in a 15g in my basement since October.

Well, I decided to move them up to the 60-P:

 

In preparation for their transition, I tested all water parameters. I transferred an Otocinclus affiinis into the tank to make sure it was safe. He made the transition easily.  I then drip acclimated them for 12 hours.

Sadly, they did not survive past 48 hours in the tank. Unexplained. The Oto, plus 3 others, are still fine.

I suppose I should have mentioned something, but I had to take most of January off from the tank build. I was taking some distance learning classes and had to finish those up so all of my free time went there.

That devil of a question: will it be enough

I've been planning on using two Eheim 2128's for filtration rated at about 260 gph each, and then also using a Mag 350 with the micron sleeve for water polishing. Now I'm concerned on whether or not that'll be enough flow after I get everything all piped in.

I recognize that according to manufacturer's information, that's 870 gph of total flow. However, once I fill it all up with media, an inline Hydor, and inline UV, and all the bends and turns, I'm hoping it'll still be in the 500 gph range. I could be happy with that.

Just in case, I think I might build the plumbing in such a way that I could add a back-up pump inline later on down the road if I need to.

Too much to think about...

2 plugs for you!

I acquired my Tek 6x54w T5HO fixture about 6 months ago, used. I got it along with 75g setup from an SFBAAPS member that was moving and didn't have the space for such a large tank. And I got it for an AMAZING deal.

The Tek fixture was either an older Tek or he purchased as a hydroponic light...either way it only had one cord to power both ballast. This just wouldn't do. I want to be able to time my lights independently, so I wired in a separate cord.

I'd love to say the brown cord served a purpose, but no, it was just cheaper. 

Water Treatment

As I mentioned before, I'll be incorporating an automatic water change system into my setup. This means I will have to figure out a way to remove any potential chlorine/chloramine from my water automatically.

One possibility is to assemble a separate water treatment area. For my purpose, this has a many downsides. It would require me to dedicate space in my house to a separate water treatment reservoir, something like a 55g trashcan. It would also require a separate pump to pump the water from the reservoir to the tank at water change time. The pump would be pricey and it would require the use of one of my control channels. I only have 6 control channels, so every one of them is precious. Finally, it would require a peristaltic pump to dose Prime automatically into the reservoir and another control channel. It would likely require at least one, but maybe two float switches. To make it fully automated, like I desire, this option would simply require too much equipment. I must say, however, that to completely remove chlorine and chloramine, this is the best option.

Another possibility is to take said peristaltic pump from above and hook it up to the tank, so that I'm dosing Prime straight into the tank as the water is being refilled. This would require a peristaltic pump and a control channel. The major downside of this is that I can't just treat the new water, I have to treat the entire tank...every water change. Since I'm considering doing 10% daily WC, this would mean I would have to treat 120g of water every day. Prime is cheap, Pond Prime is cheaper, but treating 120g of water daily would really add up. Additionally, it would still require a control channel.

The solution I've decided to go with is inline carbon canisters. A decent amount of thought went into this decision. Carbon cannisters can completely remove chlorine from water, but they aren't as effective at chloramine removal.  I read through the Atlanta Watershed Maintenance 2008 Annual Water Quality Report to see if Atlanta used chloramine or just chlorine to treat the water. The report was inconclusive, listing ppm of chlorine in the water as required by the EPA. The EPA has guidelines for what must be included in an annual water report, and chloramine levels and usage is not among them. I then turned to the local club. It appears that Atlanta, like many cities, may primarily use chlorine but at least adds chloramine every once in a while at random. This presented me with a problem. Carbon canisters remove chlorine, not chloramine, or so I thought...

I stumbled upon the article "Chlorine and Chloramine" by Chuck Gadd. It turned out to be most insightful. Chucks sources mostly involve discussion on the Aquatic Plant Central forums, so while not completely scientific, they were good enough for me. Chuck pointed out that when used at the correct residence time, carbon canisters can remove chloramine, not all of it, but significant levels.  He also stated than in many people's experience, small water changes, 10% or less, where the refill water contains chloramine, seem to not cause any problems with livestock. I believe that between my carbon canisters and 10% water changes, I will effectively eliminate and risks associated from chloramine. The best part about this is the low cost. The carbon canisters I will be using cost $5 each, and treat up to 1500 gallons of water. It comes out to be about 4 cents per water change. The other big advantage is that it won't require any pumps or control channels.

It's important to point out that Prime is cheaper per gallon of water treated, but in my specific case, it is not cheaper per water change because Prime would require that I treat 120g of water EVERY water change, whereas the carbon canisters will only treat the 12g for the top off.

And after a few shakes from the money tree...

I ordered all of the supplies for automation. I've opted for the Wasser-Controller Pro. Materials include:

• DIG 5006 Drip Irrigation Controller ordered from Sprinkler Warehouse for $65.
• 4 120 VAC, 3 Amp relays, part number Tyco KHAU-1711-24 ordered from ebay, $4/each
  
• Technical Pro PS-S8 rack mount power supply ordered form ebay, $20/shipped
• 2 Rainbird irrigation solenoids, 1" NPT, from Sprinkler Warehouse, $11
• 1 "miniature" float switch from Fish Bowl Innovations, $12 plus shipping

I'm starting to get excited now.

Not to overflow...

Removed the overflow.

It's gonna work out the best for me. I may end up with a float valve in the tank, but I've read about kind of a "mini" float valve that hopefully won't be so visible.

Since that didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would, I went ahead and painted the back of the tank. 4 coast of paint plus touch up later I was done.

You'll notice some Styrofoam insulation under the tank. It's 1/2". I would have loved to have 1/4". The 1/2" makes the rim of the tank stick almost a 1/4" over the stand. I don't think it's gonna be an issue. I have a feeling that stuff is going to compress a lot once I put 1200 lbs. of water in it!

To overflow or not to overflow....

I've really been going back and forth on removing the overflow. It shouldn't be such a hard decision, especially since it would be easy to put it back in.

I have two thoughts:

1) Remove the overflow. All equipment would be inline, including all probes and whatever mechanism I choose to control the fill cycle of the automatic water change system. The main hiccup here is that last part...figuring out a way to control the fill of the tank. Scolley chose pressure swtiches....that's a bit out of budget for me. I think in this scenario, where I remove the overflow, I may just have to end up with one piece of equipment in the tank which would be some manner of float switch.

2)Leave the overflow. Probes could be in the overflow, float switch, and I could use the dursos. This would be the cheaper option. Making inline probes isn't expensive, but certainly it would be less expensive to not have to make them. The overflow occupies the back corner, an arc with about a 9" radius. Since I so dearly want the entire 24" of tank depth to play with, this would be a problem.

I'll have to ponder this further.

An Outline

As I mentioned, I started the early stages of the planning for this tank over a year ago. Therefore, in that time, I was able to do a lot of reading. I'll be stealing shamelessly from a lot of people on different forums, but why reinvent the wheel, eh? I've done all that reading, but now was the time for decisions. This is what I'm planning on for the tank:

• I will most likely be removing the overflow and simply using the exisiting holes as the intake and output for my filtration system. There will be one input from the overflow hole. Output will either be entirely by a substrate level spray bar similar to BryceM's, or the substrate level spray bar plus two glass lily outputs.
• The stand is maple, custom built. I've built plenty of stands before, some that even passed as decent(see the first post here), but for this I wanted professional furniture grade. After getting the thing home, it's apparent that I could have easily done the stand because most of the trim is prefab from a woodworking store like Rockler, but the canopy was the real gem du jour. The canopy is very solid, and incorporates a nice design to minimize light from shining through the seams. That was important to me and I couldn't have duplicated it unless I blatantly ripped off the cabinet maker.
• The filtration will be a closed loop system similar to Scolley's, but incorporating three canister filters instead of his seperate pump/filtration modules. I will also be incorporating an auto water change similar to Sergio's.
• Lighting will be a 6x54w Tek T5HO with 3 Giessman Middays and 3 Aquafloras. 
• CO2 pressurized with a pH controller.
• I'll be installing a single dosing pump for dosing prime during the water changes, but I will be building the piping to allow for an additional two dosing pumps for micros and macros later on.
  
• Finally, the whole thing will be controlled by a Wasser-controller. 

These projects will be completed in the very near future. 

I've taken a year to plan this out, so when I say "near future" that means, hopefully, before December 31. I'm patient and planning to build everything perfectly. I'm heavily leaning on the learning and experience of others.

Distractions

Well, things have been a bit hectic around here, what with the holidays and all. We had some of my family and some of my wife's family over for Thanksgiving, so the 120 got bumped down on the priority list. We hadn't really decorated much since we moved in, but Thanksgiving was kind of our hard deadline to have the house in presentable shape. That required staining and polyurethaning of furniture, hanging pictures, and multiple, extensive honey-do lists from my better half.

The week after Thanksgiving I allowed myself another minor distraction: an ADA 60-P.

I purchased this tank before our move from the west coast, but like the 120g, it required some patience. Again, like the 120g, I purchased a custom cabinet for the stand but I stained this myself. The stand is made from maple and stained with a Jet Mahogany.


Equipment for this tank includes:

• Eheim Ecco 2236
• Coralife 2x55w PC fixture
• Bulbs:1 GE 9325k, 1 AHS 7800K
• ADA Aquasoil Amazonia I
• 10 lb Pressurized CO2 with Milwaukee pH controller
• Coralife 6x Turbo-Twist UV Sterilizer
• Hydor ETH 300w Inline Heater
• DIY Inline pH probe and CO2 injection

The  pH probe was my only real DIY on this, aside from the piping. It uses a simple PVC tee, Heyco liquid tight cordgrip for the pH probe, and an irrigation drip connection for the co2 injection.

The plumbing looks like this: 

It's pretty simple, but gave me a good opportunity to get back in the swing of things before I dive into the 120g.

A quick shot of the hardscape:

And then we move onto the scape.

 

It's rough now. I threw it together because I wanted to get things cycling.I got pretty much all of these plants from Phil Edwards. He's moving to Dallas and is doing a bit of restructuring of his own. I needed to get these into some water/light/co2 so no time to waste on some pretty scape.

It's been a long post, and if you made it this far, I apologize because there's no good full tank shot to be seen. I'm not ready. I need to tweak the scape a bit. Give me a few days and you'll be rewarded. 

Step 2: Tank

I made my decision. I went with the Marineland 120g with the corner overflow and black silicone. I did this for a few reasons. The first is that the corner overflow is more appealing to me. Once I cutout the overflow, the location of the holes will work very well for the filtration setup I have planned, and if I ever wanted to use a sump the corner overflow is much more appealing than two monstrosities in the middle of the tank.

The hard decision came concerning the black silicone. As I said before, I don't really have anything against, but I just assumed I'd always get clear. Marineland doesn't make a 120g tank with clear silicone, so my option was to either get black silicone that was done well, or get clear silicone that was all globbed on from another manufacturer. Ultimately, the choice was clear.

I purchased the tank, stand/canopy, and glass tops from Creation Reef in Canton, GA. Really great people, and I was happy I was able to do business with them. A while back, I did a tour of the local fish store scene here in Atlanta. I toured nearly every store recommended my members of various forums and clubs. Creation Reef and Aquatics was the cream of the crop. They had the best selection of plants, best equipment, and the most unique selection of livestock.

Before I left for the store, I called ahead to make sure someone would be there to help me load up the tank into my truck. When I got there, they just took over and loaded it up for me....above and beyond as far as I'm concerned considering the size of the tank. As it turned out, a 120g 4' tank was the perfect fit. Any bigger length or width and I couldn't have fit the tank and stand in my truck in one trip. I only had about an inch to spare.

Suprisingly, the stand/canopy and tank were not that heavy. I was able to unload the stand/canopy on my own, but had to wait for backup for the tank. Even then, my wife and I were able to lift the tank on our own.

Moving forward

It's time to roll.

I went by two local fish stores yesterday looking at tanks. My final plan is to purchase a reef-ready tank, cut out the overflow, and use the existing holes to feed a closed-loop filtration system. Between the two stores, I've been offered two different tanks for the exact same price:

Option 1: Aqueon 120g, two standard overflows offset from the ends of the tank with clear silicone

Option 2: Marineland 120g, one corner overflow, black silicone

Same exact price. The Marineland is a higher quality tank but my two concerns are whether one overflow would be adequate(or rather, in the closed loop scenario, one point of intake for the filter loop) and my other concern is that I've never had a tank with black silicone. I don't have anything really against black silicone except that I never really considered.

Relatively, this decision is pretty straightforward.

My second decision isn't quite as easy. I have to pick a stand/canopy combo. I am firm on construction being out of maple.  Essentially, I'm considering 4 different furniture grade stands produced by a local cabinetmaker. It's two styles, but they each come in two different heights. The first style is "standard" and the second style is "deluxe". The two heights are 30" and 36". Price range starts at Standard 30" and ends at Deluxe 36", with about a 35% increase in price.

I have always had 30" stands, but a 36" stand puts the tank at perfect viewing height if standing. 30" is good for standing and sitting. So that you can see what I'm talking about, here is a picture:

The style on the left is a maple 36" Deluxe. The stand on the right is an oak 30" Standard. Again, I'm firm on maple and neither of those is the stain I'm considering, but this picture is a good comparison of styles.

I've put some feelers out there on the various forums to get some outside opinions, so hopefully between that and a good nights sleep the decision(s) will be easy.

I am definitely set on a 4 ft 120g tank. I got a good deal, actually a GREAT deal on a 6 ft tank, but once I got it home, it's just too darned big. Too much of a headache.

I'm gonna sell it off and order 120g.

Full Circle...I think

Well, I've decided on a 120g again...I think. A 6' tank would be overbearing in the room I have picked out to put the tank in. We have two possible rooms for this tank: a downstairs office/entry way, or the unfinished downstairs den. If it were going in the unfinished den, the 6' tank would work, but the den would also have to be finished. Finshing the den is at least 2 years away.People say get the biggest tank you think you could want, or at least the biggest tank you have room for. Well, if I had room, I'd want a 180g tank, but I don't have room, so 4' 120g is the choice for me...I think.

The decision I'm dealing with now is either a standard or reef-ready tank. I'm planning a closed loop filtration system for this tank, where the intake for the filtration would be at the bottom of the tank. I had originally planned on purchasing a standard tank, and then drilling holes in the back glass, but now I'm considering getting a reef ready tank and removing the overflows. I think I'm going with the reef ready. The advantages are:

• Saves me from having to buy a $40+ diamond drill bit
• Removes the risk of cracking the glass and having to replace, thus increasing the cost
• If and when I resell this tank, it'll be easier to sell a reef-ready tank than a custom-drilled standard tank

The RR version is $120 more, but the savings from the drill bit plus the risk of cracking the glass is worth the money. And again, it'll hold more value if it's a RR tank. It's sound financial decision.

I'll still have to do a little work to it. I'll most likely remove the overflows, and then do some funking plumbing to get good intakes in the position I want, but most of that plumbing will be hidden by substrate. I'll discuss all that later.

46g Planted: Killed Before Its Time

As I mentioned earlier, a few months after I started improving the 45g I was lucky enough to acquire a 46g bow front tank. My wife's coworker was moving across the country, and was not able to take this tank with him. For over a year this tank was the bastard child. It received all the left overs that the 45g didn't want. It got the Rena XP3 instead of the Eheim 2128. It got left over, used bulbs. All the while it was doing all the work, growing the pinches of plants I picked up here and there, waiting until I had enough to scape the 45g. This tank really did not fill the love.

And then I was ready. The "leftovers" from the 45g eventually included a 2x96w Coralife PC fixture, another Eheim 2128, 4" of Flourite Original,  and a 50 ft piece of tubing running from the co2 tank on the 45g. I placed a quick order from manzanita.com, built a custom intake and spray bar, and assembled an inline co2 reactor. Then, the scape. I spent two days tearing this tank apart. I remove the fish and the monstrous amounts of plants. Everything down to the substrate and began my work. And in April of 2009, this was the finished product:

Unfortunately, this tank never reached maturity. It would have been amazing. When my wife and I found out we were moving, this was the first sacrifice. At that time, I had four tanks setup and knew that I wanted to downsize to just two(a brand new ADA 60-P and the 120g which is the subject of this blog) so hard choices had to be made. I sold this tank off, and it left me just as it came, a bastard.

The real tragedy was that these, of all plants, were the ones I kept during the move. And unfortunately none survived. All those Anubias, A TON of Bobitis(not pictured), crypts....all so wonderful, and they all perished. I was truly upset.

Back to the drawing board

Suddenly I'm just not so sure on a 120g tank. I feel like it's not as big as I want. About a year ago I started thinking about a large tank, but since my wife and I were in an apartment, it was really just thoughts. However, I thought I had firmly decided on a 120g, but now I'm reconsidering.

I really have a blank slate. I have plenty of filters sitting around, plenty of equipment. I have a 6x54w T5HO TEK fixture that I was planning to use, which would be perfect for a 120, but I can always open it up and spread those lights out over a bigger tank. Or, I'm open to buying additional lighting. Point is, there are just too many options.

I opened up the decision for additional debate because I just don't want to pay new full price for a tank, so I'm cruising craigslist. A 120g, 4'x2'x2' tank is hard to come by at a good deal. I'm absolutely set on the 2'x2' part, but the length is what I'm debating on. 4', 6', or 8'. Decisions, decisions! I've found a good 8', 240g tank and now I'm trying to decide if that's just simply too big.

If I find a 180g, 6'x2'x2' I'll snap it up in a heartbeat....and change the name of the blog.

Got a little crazy

Yesterday I went to the Atlanta Area Aquarium Association Fall Auction (that's a lot of A's), and I went a little crazy, but there were some outright steals that I couldn't pass up. Until last night I didn't even have any tanks set up(not counting the 55g rubbermaid tub holding my fish since the move) and I still came home with 5 or 6 bags of fish.

The fish I brought home are all juvies, so I couldn't just dump them into the rubbermade...hence I just *had* to purchase a few tanks while at the auction, all below the $1/gallon benchmark.

I'm excited about all the fish. If I had to pick two highlights, they would be the 2 pairs of Apistogramma cacatuoides 'Triple Red' and the 2 pairs of Dario rubra. The Dario rubra are a real highlight because they have just been imported into the hobby. I also picked up 4 F0 Parotocinclus eppelyi, 2 Scarlet Badis, and 5 or 6 Apistogramma borelli 'Opal'.

Once they've had a chance to eat, grow, and display their colors I'll post pictures.

45g Planted: First Love

In January 2008 I formally put together my 45g tank. This tank started out as a 30g, with blue gravel, and one slowly dying piece of L. repens. In September of 2007 I built a DIY CFL light hood and began DIY CO2. Quickly I also ditched the blue gravel and added some Soilmaster Select followed by some Flourite.

This tank was pieced together over time with great buys from craigslist. A quick run down of the equipment is:

• Hood and stand I built. 
• Lighting started out as 208 watts of DIY CFL, and later was "upgraded" to 2x96w PC with AH Supply reflectors. 1 10,000K bulb and 1 6700k/Colormax
  
• Eheim 2128 Pro II for mech and bio, and a Magnum 350 with micron for water polishing
• Pentair 15w UV
• Pressurized CO2 with Milwaukee pH controller

To read more about this tank, you can check out this thread.