Lazyreefer Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 (edited) So I went through a long process this year with finding a tank and finally decided on the one I was looking at in the first place before I saw any dropoffs. Received the 112 lagoon 2 weeks ago and they rolled it right into my garage for me which was perfect because I had people scheduled to come help move it in because they say they won’t do that but no need! On the same pallet was my 20 gallon drop off tank and they both arrived in perfect condition. 20 gallon drop off: I had a 25 gallon lagoon set up in my living room area and decided that this tank could replace it for the time being but I wanted it in a back room rather then having all my tanks in the front area of the house. It sits on a separate stand that has a little drawer that pulls out for storage. In my 25 lagoon it was overrun with aptasia so I took only a few rocks that had nice corals and only 1 or 2 aptasia and put them into the drop off. I used about 20 lbs of natural reef live sand, those few rocks from the established 25 lagoon, a few lbs of dry caribsea branch life rock, and put it into the drop off then filled it almost completely up with water from my other reef tank that has been running for about 4 years. I added the clownfish that was in there along with it all after dripping it because the water was from a different tank and put the pintail fairy wrasse into my reefer 350. They are both looking great today 2 weeks later. I added some microbacter7 for a few days after the filling of the tank and I am doing my first water change today on it as there is a brown film growing now, all the corals look perfect in the tank as well. I added the ghost skimmer from the lagoon, the spin stream nozzles, the hydra 26, and the mini reactor from the lagoon that was setup. The 100w jaeger heater won’t fit in the back compartment where it should so it’s in the display currently and looks bad so still looking for one that fits it’s a very small spot the neotherm I have seen breaking open in too many tanks I believe... 112 gallon INT lagoon: Apex EL Ruby 30 trigger sump Maxspect Jump pump Dc8k Curve 5 elite skimmer 24” hybrid fixture w/bulbs w/ 2 ai prime16 w/mounts 3k and 4K WiFi icecap gyre(thinking of running these vertically on the back wall on each side) 200 watt heater 20 lbs branches life rock dry life rock Caribsea shapes rocks 20lbs large synthetic rock cave structure from cuttlefish 16lbs X2 natural reef live sand 10lbs X2 Florida crushed dry sand 20lb special grade live reef sand Plumbing w/cement & primer 2 3DReefing diffusers 2 high flow media cups Neptune ATKv2 15gallon hydrofill Ato container This is going to be a really fun tank to setup I am taking my time and really just want to do stuff right the first time especially in regards to setup of the actual tank and equipment. I have the stand completely setup(it wasn’t to bad with 2 people) with my sump and ATO set in the stand so I can access both, the doors on 3 sides make this very easy. Next step is to get the tank onto the stand this weekend, along with going to see @Oregonic 112 build to get an idea of it set up completely and running along with allowing me to borrow a tool for plumbing then plumbing the tank! Which gets me to my other point I have never dealt with hard plumbing a tank and I am dreading it for this tank! Also figuring out the best way to cycle this tank and I would be interested in the best way for me to do it would be, I have 2 other tanks with some media and stuff to seed some if that would have input into your method you’d recommend. Anyways just a start to this thread I wanted to get going to keep track of all my stuff for these tanks because I have seen other peoples and thought they were cool and useful for other people to see what different people use and their methods. Any thoughts on the builds and input will be much appreciated 🙏🏻 Thanks! Edited November 21, 2020 by Lazyreefer 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyreefer Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 🤙 got it set on the stand wasn’t too bad I had 4 people and easy access. Now to start on the plumbing, feel a lot more confident after checking out @Oregonic’s tank today which was super nice thanks again and learned pretty much everything I needed too about the plumbing I think! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyreefer Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 Yesterday I filled the lagoon up! I used two 32 gallon brute trash cans filled them up fully with saltwater and expected to fill 1 of them when it was done emptying and the other one was filling the tank up. I ended up needing pretty much 4 of the brute cans filled which actually makes sense but for some reason felt like it would be fine with the 3 filled up and sand and rock! I got the tank all filled up and turned on the return and the tank was extremely loud because the gate valve hadn’t been adjusted to the correct amount and it was still below the main returns opening in the overflow. After hours of adjusting the gate valve slowly I finally got it to sit where it’s supposed to and my return pump at the speed it should be 👍🏻 I added an entire bottle of dr Tim’s nitrifying bacteria the 60 gallon bottle and took out the filter socks as it says too. The noise coming from the tank now is just the water pouring into the sump where the filter sock would be, otherwise the tank has almost quieted down completely. IcecapGyre is still a little loud too but hopefully that breaks in and quiets down. This was my first time hard plumbing a tank so I am very happy with how it turned out 🙏🏻 Not perfect but it works for me and I feel comfortable replumbing my reefer 350 now for sure. I have to give A TON of thanks to @Oregonic again for answering my many noobish questions really most of the credit should be theirs wouldn’t have been able to do it nearly as easily without the help! I added a chunk of some shrimp after adding the dr tims to get the cycle going and will return the filter socks in 48 hours. Littlw update on the drop off, it is coming along has some algae growing from it being new but no ammonia no nitrite and has 2 ppm nitrates so I will add a fish in the next few days hopefully the pixie hawk fish I saw @MrBret’s shop Paradise Coral where the stock was looking realllllly nice when I visited for the Dr.Tims. I read they should be added last so maybe I will add another fish first then grab that guy assuming he’s still there! Let me know if there’s anything you see here that I have done wrong or would have any suggestions for at all, thanks for reading 🤙 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 Looking good 😎 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyreefer Posted February 7, 2021 Author Share Posted February 7, 2021 Got the tank cycled with the dr tims and ammonia bottle. Also added some chunks of shrimp about 2 weeks ago and it is reading 0 ammonia and about 3.5 nitrates with salifert. I am still waiting on the 8020 railing and then I will hang my light! Got my ai prime on there for now just to see what it looks like lit up and for when I add a fish next weekend not sure what my first one will be maybe a few Anthias. Also added 2 Chinese zebra bar gobys to the drop off about a week and a half ago and they are pretty shy but come out to eat everyday and are out a good amount of the time when I’m not walking around the tank. Just today I added a Pygmy hawk fish from @MrBretat Paradise and it seems to be looking great so far and getting along with the other two fish! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyreefer Posted February 22, 2021 Author Share Posted February 22, 2021 Just a little update: Still waiting on my railing from 8020 should be here about first week of March..... Ended up getting the live rock rubble from Aquabiomics and adding it to the tank in my sump section that has all the other bio media along with doing a micro biome test of the tank before I added them. I think I will be doing another one next week to see how it has effected the bacteria populations. I still have not done a water change on the big tank yet but it is reading no ammonia no nitrites and about 3.5 nitrates. Added a carpenter wrasse from world of wet pets to the lagoon yesterday and it has eaten both days and seems to be doing well so far! The zebra bar gobys and the hawk fish are doing well in the drop off eating aggressively and look healthy. Happy with how things are going so far I think 👍🏻 On another note I can’t find tropic marin classic salt to buy anywhere and I am down to the last bucket and am kind of freaking out because I believe I would want to start mixing in the new salt I would be using in this batch towards the middle of it so I don’t just all of a sudden do a whole water change with a new salt if I can’t find any to buy..... 😪 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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