Moving Up To 220

[Jason Bell]

So definitely run T5 and LED combo. I think Painter Steve runs that combo on his tank and I have some great frags supplied by him. The options are endless, too many really.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Limited only by imagination and.....depth of the wallet.

Hey, really offside, what do you recommend as a home tech hack plasma cutter? I was going to just go with lincoln like my welder, but thought I'd ask. How many times I've had to cut, grind, smooth steel that I could have just sliced. Really been thinking of picking one up someday.

 

[Pistol]

With my tank being rimed, no plywood or foam should be used, that is for a flat bottom tank. Only support needed is the actual rim. The bottom glass is recessed due to the rim and does not make contact with the surface, have this same design on my current 120g.

The entire stand will be covered, I have something special in the works....

On a good note the balance of plumbing will arrive Monday, so goal this weekend is rock work completed, 3 of the lights hung from the bar as I am using 2 now then take stock of the overwhelming number of packages to ensure I have everything.

Electrician is coming Tuesday to install my circuit and GFI outlets then finally I can get some water in this tank. I still have a few more items to obtain, but none of them will stop me from getting it started up.

My tank is a miracles 84x30x24 with the bottom rimmed, miracles told me to put 1/2" white styrofoam under the tank on my 3/4" plywood

 

[Jason Bell]

Limited only by imagination and.....depth of the wallet.

Hey, really offside, what do you recommend as a home tech hack plasma cutter? I was going to just go with lincoln like my welder, but thought I'd ask. How many times I've had to cut, grind, smooth steel that I could have just sliced. Really been thinking of picking one up someday.

I will get you the name of the one we picked up last year, I want to say King, rest of our gear is Lincoln and Miller. We rarely have used it other than stripping lengths that will not fit in our shear and of course cutting happy faces out of plate. It does work well with a jig, I will say the $300 units from Amazon worked, but about 6 months max.

 

[Salty Cracker]

I will get you the name of the one we picked up last year, I want to say King, rest of our gear is Lincoln and Miller. We rarely have used it other than stripping lengths that will not fit in our shear and of course cutting happy faces out of plate. It does work well with a jig, I will say the $300 units from Amazon worked, but about 6 months max.

Cool!

I think they're perfect for the garage hacker, I can cut stuff with the bandsaw, but it fights be on corners and shapes, and for sure I love steel happy faces!!

 

[Jason Bell]

My tank is a miracles 84x30x24 with the bottom rimmed, miracles told me to put 1/2" white styrofoam under the tank on my 3/4" plywood

I have never used plywood for any tank as I've done structural steel that is flat, foam I can understand to a degree, however it is there to correct imperfections in the stand. In the 30yrs playing with tanks I only had 1 leak and unfortunately that was on a factory stand, I blame the carpeted floor for that one.

 

[Jason Bell]

Cool!

I think they're perfect for the garage hacker, I can cut stuff with the bandsaw, but it fights be on corners and shapes, and for sure I love steel happy faces!!

Absolutely perfect for the garage, max out around 3/8 but great for 20/22ga sheet. I will say the larger I replaced it with goes through webs of beams like a hot knife through butter, makes flush beams and copes much easier and cleaner.

 

[Jason Bell]

So typically I run filter socks and change every 4/5 days, skimmer, bio Pellets and carbon. My thoughts for the new tank are filter socks, skimmer and an algae reactor (ARID n24) with carbon.

I know the algae reactor can take nutrients to zero which I do not want, however the more I read the more I'm learning that reducing light cycle will help to tune the growth and therefore somewhat control the nutrients.

For carbon I've been reading that it is possibly better to run it only 4-6 hours per day solely for the purpose of polishing the water. I should mention that currently I only run carbon passively where as new system it will be in a reactor.

I think that is all I want for filtration, I've decided to go with ATI essentials for dosing. Water changes will be daily automatic changes of 4/5 gallons and then bi-weekly changes of ~30g or so.

As much as I have looked I can't really seem to find intimate details of what successful tanks are running in their sumps or for filtration. I know there are multiple methods that provide success, perhaps my issue is that I am looking directly for what I want to try.

 

[Salty Cracker]

I run 2x canisters with GFO and carbon, the carbon first so runout gets trapped in second canister...then to a fine mesh sock on the output (I wonder about HLLE in angels with carbon dust). I also run a larger single reactor for biopellets. One chamber in the sump is full of liverock, but otherwise it's just for water flow, additives and heat down there. I used to run filter socks on the returns, but got tired of cleaning them, but now I have a billion snails in the sump plugging things up

 

[Jason Bell]

I run 2x canisters with GFO and carbon, the carbon first so runout gets trapped in second canister...then to a fine mesh sock on the output (I wonder about HLLE in angels with carbon dust). I also run a larger single reactor for biopellets. One chamber in the sump is full of liverock, but otherwise it's just for water flow, additives and heat down there. I used to run filter socks on the returns, but got tired of cleaning them, but now I have a billion snails in the sump plugging things up

I did purchase 2 reactors with the initial plan of skimmer and bio pellets plus those. I have a couple marine pure blocks, the large ones in the current tank and thought I would use those and the bio pellets to seed the new tank.

The current trigger 39 sump has 3 socks, I don't wash them, just buy in bulk and toss them, 6 a week but with the new sump only 2 as third is on the safety.

 

[Dr. Zoos]

I’ve got carbon and gfo running and have been on the fence of also running bio pellets in my tlf550 that is sitting here empty. I also have roller filter amd skimmer in one section another for chaeto so wasn’t sure if I’d be “over” filtering?

 

[Matt1997]

A well lit refugium is better than all the above export methods. I would personally do a refugium, skimmer, and carbon.

 

[Jason Bell]

I can easily do that given the sump space, I did run many tanks ago, a remote with deep sand bed and algae.

 

[Dr. Zoos]

A well lit refugium is better than all the above export methods. I would personally do a refugium, skimmer, and carbon.

I use the tunze eco chic fuge light amd have it submerged 2” Definitely happy with the growth I get from chaeto.

I can easily do that given the sump space, I did run many tanks ago, a remote with deep sand bed and algae.

I have a remote deep sand bed/mangrove tank running into my 20gal cube that I’m trying to decide if I want to shift over to my 100gal amd continue to run it. Not as easy as that sounds because it’s on the opposite side of the room, mounted on the wall and weights prob 400-500lbs with the sand in it. Struggles of reefing. Lol.

 

[Jason Bell]

I was originally going to do something similar as my current tank is behind the wall this one sits infront of. However plans changed, it will sort itself out, nothing a sledge hammer can't solve.

 

[Seasquirt]

I recall a friend of my sons, he was in University in Hamilton and in his room in his dorm house, he had a 120 gl sump/ fuge for his 20 gl tank, i thought at the time that it was amazing, he had chaeto, a section for a dsb and pods all over the place scurrying about. The tank had Corals and 1 fish. He sold coral for extra cash, the sump/fuge had be set up for years..

 

[Jason Bell]

No doubt, sure sign of health is the pods. I have plenty in my current setup, as long as they have a safe place they replicate like crazy. I had a mandarin in my old tank and it was great watching it hunt them.

 

[Jason Bell]

Well slow and steady I guess, another piece of rock done and several to go. Will be happy when I get the other two done and tied in, then of course will move them all around.

Electrician came and installed my dedicated GFI outlets, 2 x 20amp, that should do the trick. 2 under the stand for half the equipment and 2 in the back room for lights and some Neptune gear. Also had him swap the existing outlet to GFI.

Plumbing is now all here, hoping to get that sorted out by the weekend.

 

[teebone110]

looking awesome, have you finalized your lighting plans?

 

[Jason Bell]

Oh lighting, for now will be 5 Hydra 52HD units. Really not sure after that, maybe Orphek V4's, maybe T5/led combo (aquatic life hybrid with Radion) might even go back to ATI T5 with a couple Reef Brites. I honestly have been looking up photos of other tanks same size to see what they are doing. By the time I decide perhaps Neptune will have their LEDs out.

I'm close to finalizing the stand skin, meeting with the shop Wednesday that is doing it, finished up the CAD files for them today. Once I get a render I'll post it up.