Smite's 180g MODE

Smite

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#1
I've been waiting to get a larger system for some time now. We finished up a whole bunch of home projects so now I have a small window to try and get my build together. We are expecting our second daughter right around the new year, so I'll be jumping back and forth between this build and getting the bedroom set up for a nursery.

I've really been struggling to keep my frag tank stable in the garage. Its only 35g and has all my acropora from my 66g SCA. Its been stressful, with HUGE swings and Im just grateful most everything is alive. Can't wait to receive this tank but realistically I still have 3 weeks before then.

Tank: 6x2x2 MODE aquarium/Low iron glass front and sides/fitted with external Modular Marine 2400GPH overflow
Stand: Steel, powder coated primer grey. Made by Willie @ OceanMarine sales. Great guy to do business with if you need a steel stand
Sump is Unknown. Used off a fellow socalireefer. I may upgrade to a GEOREEF or AA sump down the road but for now I'm happy to have found this sump.

20181104_141026
by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

I decided to section off areas under the stand.
Far left is dedicated to "wet" equipment and will contain:
CaRx GeoReef 6x18 with a secondary chamber
GAC reactor
20181104_141042
by matthew schueneman, on Flickr


Middle is my sump. It flows
Drain on right, with skimmer/bio media/heaters
Back to middle with return
Manifold feeds refugium to left, drains to frag section then back to return in middle.
Vecton v2 UV sterilizer mounted on right. (Why? because I had it)
20181104_183243
by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Right side will be dedicated to dry equipment. Apex ect. I'm thinking about how I can make a pull out drawer for my apex display when I skin the stand

I decided to 3m spray my tank pad to the 3/4" plywood and cut to fit.
20181104_143200
by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

I've added a few plugs on the wall. 2 behind the tank and one above for what will be a wall mount canopy. Right now its just 1 dedicated GFCI circuit. Doing the math I think I should be fine, but I may pull a 12/3 to that top plug and separate my tank power from light power just to be safe. Plus I've had issues with Radions and GFCI circuits in the past, and last thing I want is my whole tank to trip.

Lighting:
4 xr30 G3 Pros ( I may add a 5th) not sure.
They will be housed in a wall mount canopy. I'm trying to come up with my design now but they'll for sure be recessed to avoid light spill into the living room/kitchen area. I also plan for the canopy's skin to be removable in event I need to remove rock. I plan to have the lights a good 20" above the top of tank. canopy will be 8-10 inches tall.

Other than that I've had rock cooking for about 2 months now. I'm sure I'll have a mini cycle but hopefully it really speeds things up.

I'll have 1" of sand and a decent amount of rock. I want to keep the top 1/3 of the tank open for strong random flow and plenty of fish swimming room.

Flow:
Gyre xf150 shooting across the back wall
Mp40wqd x 2 on back wall
Either Tunze pumps or jebao will be added later on
Return pump will be M1 vectra. I'm going to feed the refugium off this pump. The manifold will have a dedicated pump thats still undecided. Open to recommendations on small pumps that can hold enough pressure to keep my calcium reactor stable.


Current fish list:
Pair of clowns onyx x something
Longnose hawkfish
2 firefish
lawnmower blenny
micro gobie I forgot the name of
In QT
chocolate/mimic tang
scopas tang
pintail wrasse
imperator angelfish *not sure I'll have the balls to throw him in when the time comes. Size of my pinky nail right now.

Fish wish list:
lineatus wrasse
rhomboid wrasse
melenarus wrasse
Coris wrasse
ruby/velvet wrasse
wrasse wrasse and more wrasse
white tail tang/kole yellow eye tang or tomini tang
white cheek tang
a group of anthias still undecided. I love sunset, princess and Bartlett.

Live stock will be sps dominant mixed with zoanthids and anemones on their own islands.

I'll update my QT setup and frag tank as I go.
 
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#2
Wow.. I so want to get back in…
If you need help with plumbing or anything lmk

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Smite

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#4
Whats behind that wall where the tank is now?

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Do it :)

I might take you up on that plumbing help. Behind that wall is outside. I've been thinking of moving my water change station out there.
 

five.five-six

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#5
Really nice looking beginnings! I can not see any reason to ever replace that sump, unless your money fire has just gotten too big and you need somewhere else to dispose of all your extra "Benjamins".
 

Smite

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#6
Really nice looking beginnings! I can not see any reason to ever replace that sump, unless your money fire has just gotten too big and you need somewhere else to dispose of all your extra "Benjamins".
Thanks man. Your right about the sump and once the tanks cycled I'll have nice 6' pit to throw all that money into :)
 

Smite

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#10
Very nice Matt! It’s gonna be bad ass.


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Thanks Cody. Still trying to figure out my in tank flow plans. That Tunze Stream3 is on sale on BRS and I'm super tempted..

I've been cooking/cycling rock for a couple months now, adding ammonia every few days. Nitrates were through the roof on my API test. I pulled all the rock and did a 100% water change and added some ammonia back yesterday. Ammonia and Nitrites 0 today so its ready to go.

I know rock will absorb phosphate but will it hold nitrates as well? I'll test in a few days to see but was just curious if anyone has experienced it.
 

Smite

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#13
Man i thought the tank was coming this week but just got an email saying its not arriving until 2nd week of December........we are expecting our second kiddo first week of January. My goal was to have this running, corals and fish swapped and my tanks in the garage shut down by now. Hopefully there aren't anymore delays/set backs with this tank.

On the upside I've started plumbing what I can do without the tank. I'm going to start on the skin for the stand as well as my canopy, hopefully this weekend if the weather is better.

Running into some issues with QT. I think I've got a bacterial issue in the tank. I've lost my pinky sized Imperator angelfish. I have a tomini with a strange dark spot near the belly on his left side and he has labored breathing. I've added some kanaplex and furan 2 per some advice on another forum. Hopefully the tomini pulls through.

Other fish in QT are
Mimic tang
Scopas tang
supposed to be 6 waitei anthias, but it looks like I got 5 and a evansi. Got them before they went in the system at Tong's. Eating live brine and showing interest in flake and frozen but spitting it out.
Tomini tang
 

theMerchant

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#14
Good looking build so far. Looking forward to the progress...
I would be careful with the GFI. You may need to change it in the future when it decides to trip randomly just to mess with you >/

Congrats on the future new addition

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Smite

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Good looking build so far. Looking forward to the progress...
I would be careful with the GFI. You may need to change it in the future when it decides to trip randomly just to mess with you >/

Congrats on the future new addition

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Thanks man. I'm gonna work that millennium falcon under an overhang in the build for sure :)

I've been re-thinking that whole GFCI protected circuit to be honest. Already installed it and would hate to trash 75 bucks but I'm worried about one piece of equipment taking out a whole tank. I ran a dedicated 20A tank circuit and a 15A lighting circuit, so if a heater trips my whole system minus lights would go down....
I didn't want to have GFI plugs behind the tank where I can't reset them so that was my fix but I found a cool DIY on R2R today about running GFCI's off the EB8 of my apex which I may end up doing. That way I can have heaters on their own GFCI, return on another ect. Sounds like $$$ all said and done but may be the way to go.
 

Smite

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#16
I got around to plumbing most of what I could without the tank yesterday. Came up a couple pieces short to complete but getting pretty close. I'm thinking I'll separate my E-Drain and have it go straight to the refugium. If I place all three to the skimmer side I'm worried I block access to my UV cover. Trying to figure out how to get a secure strap on the 3 drains both under the tank and on the back side.

Here's what I've got so far. Manifold 1 comes off the return. That feeds the refugium and will supply additional flow to the frag tank later on. I plan to use one of the random flow generators in the frag area to avoid another pump.
Manifold 2 will be fed by a sicce pump. It will feed the Calcium Reactor, UV and possibly my ATS and GAC reactor.

I found two cheapo par 38 grow lights in my reef junk so I'll probably be using those initially for the refugium.

20181202_111843


also got my reactor ready to go
20181202_120757
 
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Smite

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#18
Me too and I always ended up with them in the past. That was meant to be the refugium but I repurposed the ATO as refugium so I could make that the frag section.
 

BeanMachine

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#20
No socks or cups huh? So drains directly into the skimmer section?

Nice and clean Matt its going to look great when its done.
 

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