Dane's 175 Gal in-Wall Tank Build

[TulaneDane]

@nicdu Interesting insight. Thank you.

I'd been considering activated carbon, but am not running anything at the moment. I'm guessing I'm at about 185 gallons of total water volume.

Is one reactor sufficient? Something like the below is supposedly good for up to ~125 gallons...so perhaps I start here?

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-gf...or-deluxe.html

[Odysi]

Just a thought on your Herbie restarting. I had a similar problem. How far into your sump is your drain line? Mine was about 3" under the waterline and I cut it down to 1" and it restarts every time with no hickups.

[nicdu]

You could try some carbon in a filter sock, and see if that does anything to help before springing for a reactor. That's my default move when things start to look out of whack in my tank, but all my parameters are fine. It's a frustrating situation for sure!

[TulaneDane]

@nicdu Went ahead and sprung for a dual reactor.

It's going to get interesting mounting it, as space is getting limited in the sump area...am SO glad I sprung to widen out the lower cabinets...y'all were 100% right there. BIG THANKS

Also did a large 50 gallon water change last night. My ORP fell to 417 but within three hours was back above 460. Will do another 50 gallon change later this week.

@Odysi As for my Herbie, good point on the drain line. It's an Aqueon Proflex Model 4, so the tubes fall pretty deep into the sump within a self-contained cylinder:


It will require some deconstruction to get to it and shorten...I'll see how this "feeding ring while leaving the return pump on" idea pans out first...

Contributing to my Herbie problem is my emergency drain being self contained in a completely different overflow weir. This eliminates running the emergency drain 'trickle' option completely, giving me little room for error.

[Indymann99]

@Dane

updates? hows it going? Pouring rain here in Indy so I am surfing RC while watching IRL. Did you get your clowns in the DT?

I will say that I am super happy looking at my yellow tang picking about the LR... he has been with me for 8yrs... he is looking a bit old but then again so am I...

Looking fwd to see you populating you your tank

[TulaneDane]

@Indyman: It's been pouring here in Memphis as well.

Clowns are still in the QT. I'm being very cautious as I'm still not sure what killed my two Cleaner Shrimp & Emerald Crab. I have a dual Carbon & GFO reactor arriving tomorrow. Maybe it will pull out some toxins I'm overlooking...

Other progress though! Built screen tops in preparation for putting my Clowns in:







My two Scarlet Leg Hermits and Blue Knuckle Hermit (has shown his face after a week of hiding) are doing well, so I added 6 smaller red legged hermits:



Also, as you suggested, still working on a float switch to cut off my skimmer in the event the water level gets too high. Have the breakout box setup, and spent an hour plus trying to figure out why the float switch wouldn't send the signal when mounted. Then I realized the magnet mount is probably interfering with the signal:


I'll need to get a bracket instead.

Finally, today I noticed what looks like a bunch of white lice on the glass and swimming around. Copepods? Shouldn't be worried?

[Indymann99]

All sorts of small critters in the tank are GOOD!! I waited about 6mo before adding fish and watching all the life from the LR was actually fun.. maybe not so much for my family ;-)

Yeah a mag mount that close to the float is prob not good..

I am running a BRS GFO and Carbon unit and it is working out well.

If your DT water is testing well, I would put the clowns in.. Inverts are hit or miss sometimes.

my 0.02

[TulaneDane]

Received my Dual Carbon & GFO reactor yesterday. However I did not install it. Here's why:

In waiting for it to arrive I continued my research on what could be making my ORP so high. A hunch told me I could have not rinsed my filter socks enough after cleaning them with bleach (1 wash, 2 rinse cycles, fully dry).

I dropped a cap full (supposedly will treat 50 gallons) of Seachem Prime into my overflow last night and the ORP collapsed:



It has since climbed steadily a bit. I'm going to fully remove the filter socks tonight and see if the climbing stops. If so...that could have been my issue...

[TulaneDane]

Well, my ORP climbed right back to it's prior level after about 24 hours. I removed the filter socks completely last night and added another cap-full of Seachem Prime. Things look to be again headed back to their 450+ level:



This leads me to believe I had a solution looking for a problem, and therefore my filter socks (and related cleaning routine) are fine.

I'll hook-up my reactor tonight, and move two my Clowns into the DT this weekend. That will have given them 4 weeks in the Quarantine Tank.

[TulaneDane]

Setup the dual GFO/Carbon reactor last night:



I'll either add my first two fish to the Display Tank tonight or tomorrow morning. My two Clowns have been in the Quarantine Tank for 4 weeks now.

Must admit, I'm pretty excited. Not sure I'll be able to wait until tomorrow...I bought the house (tank) almost 10 months ago!

[Cymonous]

Put em in! Why wait?

[710Reefer]

Beautiful tank. Any update on livestock?

[TulaneDane]

Clowns we're put in the display tank yesterday:







They are doing well. They look so little in the tank!

l'm already contemplating my next fish. Thinking a species of Goby or yellow Tang...

[TulaneDane]

A few updates:

Clowns continue to do well.

Dual reactor is definitely polishing the water. Much clearer. Less yellow tint.

Picked up a yellow tang as my next fish. He's in my QT now. Feel bad for him as it's only 15 gallons.





Looking forward to getting him in a Display Tank. He's beautiful. I understand they are more susceptible to disease so any pointers on what to look for would be appreciated.

Also only feeding him the algae sheets seen clipped on the glass. Is that enough?

[woodnaquanut]

Originally Posted by TulaneDane

A few updates:

Clowns continue to do well.

Dual reactor is definitely polishing the water. Much clearer. Less yellow tint.

Picked up a yellow tang as my next fish. He's in my QT now. Feel bad for him as it's only 15 gallons.


Looking forward to getting him in a Display Tank. He's beautiful. I understand they are more susceptible to disease so any pointers on what to look for would be appreciated.

Also only feeding him the algae sheets seen clipped on the glass. Is that enough?

It's such a small fish it should do fine in the 15 QT.

You will get many opinions about feed. I'd also include some meaty goodness like brine, mysis or good dry food. I believe the grazers also get lots of meaty bits when they graze the reef. Fatten that baby up!

The first thing I noticed when diving on reefs is how FAT the fish are. By the time they make it to us they are half (or more) starved.

[mrpergo]

hopefully you don't have problems adding additional fish once that yellow tang goes in.
Usually that yellow tang would be the last fish in due to aggression.

[Shawn O]

I saw you cut holes in the left side of your sump and over-tank area for fans. Is that venting directly into the wall cavity? I don't know about your area but in my area this would cause black mold inside the walls pretty quick. It may be better to cover the holes and vent your system directly to the outside.

Nice looking house, btw. Did you buy the house because of the built-in tank or did you get interested in tanks and decide to restore the system after you bought the house?

[TulaneDane]

Tough news. Lost my yellow Tang over the weekend. A collection of errors I suppose. The largest of which was me leaving town. When I left Thursday around noon, he looked fine. Was pulling at the algae sheets I would stick in. On Friday morning, the Ms. sent me a text as she left for work that he was on the bottom of the tank. By the time she was back home, it was too late.

Tested the water when I got home:

• NH4 0
• NO2 0
• NO3 32 PPM
• SG 1.025
• Temp 77.5

I suppose the NO3 could have done it. He was in the QT for about a week by then. My other theory is I refilled the QT a bit more than previously when I did a 50% water change after moving my clowns to the Display Tank. This likely caused less surface agitation from my powerhead, possibly reducing O2. However, I still had the airstone running...

Will do a 100% water change before trying my next fish. Also try some meaty foods as suggested. Finally, not headed out of town anytime soon (though not sure what I would have done other than immediately toss him in my Display Tank had I been the one to find him Friday morning).

@ Shawn - I decided to restore the tank after buying the house. I've had no prior exposure with tanks. The final and most lethal of my mistakes here..

[nicdu]

Make sure you sanitize that QT and maybe even let it sit dry for a day or two before refilling it. That could take care of any possible nasties the yellow tang was carrying. You also might want to think about a slightly longer QT period than 4 weeks. 6 is a pretty good benchmark. Some parasites/diseases take longer than 4 weeks to manifest. So, especially if you aren't treating prophalatically (and I spelled this so poorly, even spell check can't save me), 6 weeks would be a good idea. I learned this the hard way. I ended up getting ich in my DT from an unknown source, and had to leave the DT fallow for 12 weeks and treat all the fish. That suuuucked.

[nicdu]

Also, don't feel too badly about the tang. Sometimes, fish just die from unknown reasons (stress, handling prior to you receiving them). And never ever ever toss an almost dying fish from your QT into your DT (unless it was uber expensive or rare and you're pulling all the stops to try to save it). You only run the risk of contaminating the DT.

[Indymann99]

Originally Posted by nicdu

Also, don't feel too badly about the tang. Sometimes, fish just die from unknown reasons (stress, handling prior to you receiving them). And never ever ever toss an almost dying fish from your QT into your DT (unless it was uber expensive or rare and you're pulling all the stops to try to save it). You only run the risk of contaminating the DT.

I don't care how "uber expensive" the QT fish is... not worth killing all your long time residents of the DT... even if they are damsels...

[nicdu]

Originally Posted by Indymann99

I don't care how "uber expensive" the QT fish is... not worth killing all your long time residents of the DT... even if they are damsels...

True, true. To each their own. I do know if I was dealing with a $5K fish, I would probably be desperate enough to try the DT (depending on how the fish was looking and relative value/hardiness of other specimens in the tank). But if I was in the habit of buy $5k fish, my house would probably be an aquarium at that point so I'd have my pick of tanks to try. lol. I can see cases that could justify that action is all.

My point here, was that it is just not even remotely worth it to toss that fish in the DT after a few days of QT b/c it's not doing well in an attempt to save it.

[TulaneDane]

Wow. Very helpful guys, thank you. Hopefully this won't happen again, but if it does I'll go for a large water change rather than going straight for the Display Tank.

You really think I need to breakdown, sanitize, and re-cycle my Quarantine Tank? I changed 100% of the water last night. Sure don't want to spend that extra 6-8 weeks unless its absolutely necessary.

[TulaneDane]

So the slippery slope continues...decided I'm getting a chiller.

Tank ranges from 79*-80.5*, and we haven't even had a true Memphis summer day yet. I have to set my AC to 73* to keep the tank from topping 80.5*

Also, with all the fans my 20 gallon ATO only lasts a week now. I used to get 12-14 days out of it.

Problem is...with the in wall setup...where would I put it? Only place I can think of is ABOVE the tank:



The shelf above where the vase is now. I already have the hole drilled that I need to run the vinyl tubing & power cord (from my original CPU vent idea).

So...any reason this idea is idiotic? Better in wall solution?

[Ikserk]

I would encourage you to not put the chiller in a closed cabinet. As you probably already know, they put off the heat into the air that they remove from the water. up on that vase shelf would work and if the shelf is deep enough (from the wall to the edge of the shelf), you may be able to put the chiller behind some more decorative items.

The biggest hurdle is getting water pumped up there from the sump and balancing head pressure to achieve the proper gph flow for which your chiller is rated.