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92g Oregon Reef


jtarmitage

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Made some progress this weekend. Got the manifold done, as well as nearly all of the plumbing. A slight miscalculation on the room I had to work with on the CL pump means I have to wait a few more days for a few new fittings to run with plan B, but the drain lines and return lines are done, and skimmer is in the sump.

 

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33 minutes ago, albertareef said:

Very clean!  Looks like you mapped things out quite well - congrats.

Thanks. Was a bit of a challenge not having all of the pieces in place at the time. My only real error was not making enough room for 1 of the true union ball valves on the closed loop. I can live with that, but it'll cost me yet more time before I can put water in  the tank lol. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Guess it's been a bit since I last updated. Had a couple of plumbing issues pop up that delayed getting this thing wet. Decided to not fiddle with cheap bulkheads on the bottom of the tank, so I ordered some better ones, but the tank is now up, sand is in, rock is in, Apex is programmed, refugium light is in, and we have our first fish. 
For the fuge light, I'd have loved to get a Kessil H380, but that just wasn't in the budget(which I already blew by a considerable margin lol), so I found this 37w OHMAX LED Grow Light.

 

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First goal with the rockwork was to hide the closed loop. Nearly there, but need to pick up 1 more small rock to hide 1 of the outputs. And I'm going to see about finding 1 more piece of rock to bridge the structures on the right side to tie them together. The rock on the far right is a bit closer to the glass than I'd prefer, but that's where the hole that I'm using for the CL intake was, so I'm making it work and hiding it as best I can.
Current stocking list:
2 Percula variants
1 Chocolate Tang
1 Sailfin Tang
1 Coral Beauty Angel
1 Flame Angel

The Angels are a risk, but I've had good success with them in the past. Well fed, they tend to not pick too much on anything. I'm also wanting to add either a Regal or Majestic Angel. More of a risk, but such beautiful fish and those I've had in the past had such enjoyable puppy dog like personalities, I'm eager to try another. Also down the line will be a few wrasses. I definitely want to add a Radiant and a Potters or Leopard. As for the others, I'm still torn. I've had Flames, Lineatus', Rhomboids, and many more, but with the budget, and smaller tank, I will need to be a little pickier and limit my choices. At this point, I think I'm leaning towards either a pair of Flames or Labouti, but I may need to scale my wish list down to something a bit more budget friendly. Last on the list of future fish to add will be a pair of Mandarins. Need to let the tank mature a bit and build up the pod population before going down that road, especially as they will be competing with the wrasses for food.

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On ‎1‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 6:01 PM, Manny Tavan said:

The tank looks great

It Does! I see your Plumbing skills are far superior to mine. I learned (along with Google) something new just looking at how you repurposed those predrilled floor holes. 

 

Thanks!

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Thanks.  Been in the hobby for a wee few years before my 5 year hiatus :)  Added a Scopas Tang to the mix as they're one of my wife's favorite fish, as well as a skunk cleaner shrimp.  A clean up crew package should be arriving tomorrow as well, and got some chaeto added to the sump.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had a couple of wrinkles to work through.  First, the skimmer was sitting in too deep water to keep from overflowing.  No amount of adjustment could keep it from overflowing, so I actually removed the 1st baffle to drop the water level in the sump, as well as build up a small stand for it.  The problem is really that one of the holes in the bottom of the tank is right above the skimmer.  So I've got an elbow and true union ball valve in the way, preventing the simple approach of simply raising the skimmer.  I do wish this stand was taller lol.

The 2nd challenge was that the sump setup just didn't have the remaining volume to handle a power outage without overflowing.  That is also part of the decision to remove the baffle and drop the overall level of the sump by 2".  Next, I had to add a pair of check valves to the return lines.  I will never fully trust a check valve, but properly maintained they will prevent a few gallons of water from hitting the floor.  I may add them to the overflow lines as well, but that is such a small volume of water that can drop into the sump, that it doesn't make much difference.

Other than that, got some chaeto growing in the sump, a couple corals in the tank, and all of the fish are getting fat and looking good with the exception of the small flame angel that vanished after the 2nd day.  I suppose the clean up crew has taken care of business, as I can't find any sign of him.  I've got a care package coming in next week from a friend in California, so the tank will be prettier then.  I also did modify the rock work a tad bit, and got the CL returns hidden a bit better.

 

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38 minutes ago, rdavis said:

How do you like the OHMAX light? I was thinking about getting one to replace my cheapo e27 light. Does it seem to be working alright? How did you hang it?

Too soon to say, but it seems great so far.  It can't compete with the Kessil H380 that I would have preferred, but it was a tiny fraction of the cost.  It is a knockoff of the kessil H150 however, and at 37 watts, should do fairly well.  I hung it with a bit of chain and S hooks attached to an eye bolt in the sump area.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Have a new project underway....😁  Decided while the current setup works well enough, it could be improved upon. So, we have this wonderful storage space located downstairs nearly right below the tank. Decided to use it and picked up a cheap 110g glass tank to use as a sump/fuge/frag tank. Needs a bit of work cleaning up the tank, removing some shelving, and building to suit. Will run the plumbing into the closet and down through the floor. As it happens, we already have a drain in the floor and a water line right where the tank is going. The water line has a shutoff valve for an exterior spigot with a leaking seal, so while we fix the leak, we are going to add another spigot to supply the RO/DI. 

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1 hour ago, Brian Tesch said:

Just looked at your build for the first time, impressed by your polish job and your overall build, looks great overall and I enjoy looking at the precise attention to detail. The 110G is going to be a nice addition, excited to see the new sump design in the 110. 

Thanks Brian. Still pondering how I'm gonna set it up and segment it. Hadn't planned on such a deep tank, but that's what was on the market for the right price when I was looking lol. It'll have at least 1 baffle, likely 1 on each end as water enters and exits the sump. I'll obviously have to elevate the skimmer and I'm thinking about doing away with the filter socks as the fudge is just a wee bit bigger...I'll add a bunch of live rock down low and create a bit of a cryptic zone, with the macro and frag rack up top. It'll be a bit before I add a frag setup as I'll need another light and have loads of space in the display, and the wallet needs a little recovery time 😂😂😂

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A bit of progress...Finished tearing out the old shelving downstairs, fixed a leaking water line, added a new faucet, ran a new 4 outlet GFCI line, and threw up some insulation(more for sound suppression than anything).  Will put up some sheetrock tomorrow and hopefully start building out the stand and shelves later this week.  I also picked up some additional live rock that I've got simmering as I have a bunch of room at the bottom of this 110g tank, so might as well add some additional biological filtration :)

 

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20 hours ago, jtarmitage said:

Getting a little closer...I must say I hate waiting on things to dry...drywall mud, a couple times, texture, paint, paint again...The tank is officially in place(no pic yet), but still need to run the plumbing.  Turned out pretty well for my first shot at doing drywall.

 

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Looking Good! Excited to see the sump all plumbed in and working, and the aquarium operation in this room grow! You've got a lot of space for more frag tank! 

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1 hour ago, Brian Tesch said:

Looking Good! Excited to see the sump all plumbed in and working, and the aquarium operation in this room grow! You've got a lot of space for more frag tank! 

LOL. I've thought about that. In time I'm sure. For now I'll have a couple of cans to the right for RO and saltwater, with shelves above. Gotta stock the main tank before I worry to much about the future frag system 😁

I've got the holes cut and run the flex pvc. Not really looking forward to actually doing the rest of the plumbing 😂.  Also, I decided to run a deepish sand bed with a plenum in the tank as I had the vertical space. Just built an overflow in 1 corner with the external yellowtail pump below the tank. The manifold system will be added at a later date.  Filling it with water today and adding the extra live rock i picked up. Still need to build a skimmer stand and start connecting the plumbing. 

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Getting there. The new sump is operational, though I still need to tidy things up and move the controller downstairs. I'll add shelving at some point, but I'm happy to hit this point and have everything working well with no leaks 😁.  I built an acrylic overflow in the right corner and put live rock in that empty space as I made it large enough to house an internal pump should I choose in the future. A bit of LR under the drains, and a LR baffle between the "fuge" section and the rest of the tank.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Not a lot to update as I've been busy, but a few things...

1. Replaced my now undersized vertex omega 130 skimmer with an 8" cone from RLSS. Loving it, a long with the Avast swabbie that it came with. 

2. Also picked up a pair of 65g drums to set up a proper mixing station. Still need to do the plumbing on it. 

 

3. And built up a stand for a future frag tank I'm considering building myself and mounted a DJ power station to expand my available plugs...😁

 

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Edited by jtarmitage
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