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JWoo's 120G

Printed From: Utah Reefs
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Forum Name: Tank Threads
Forum Description: A place to show off your tank build.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=58706
Printed Date: November 28 2024 at 2:38pm
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Topic: JWoo's 120G
Posted By: jwoo
Subject: JWoo's 120G
Date Posted: August 27 2012 at 8:33pm
So after a long summer of having a tank sit in my garage and collect dust I've finally found the time to hopefully get this up and running.

Back in April I bought Quickness's 120G that he had setup. I had planned to have this tank setup in May but ummm life got in the way big time.

Here is the original tank:



We decided to refinish it as it had some salt damage and we weren't really a fan of the color. Well four months after we started we finally finished it and have it moved to my basement.





We went with a dark stain and did the antique look. I have to say that sanding the old stain off and refinishing this thing was way more work then I thought it would be!

Tomorrow I'm going to clean out the sump and tank and try to get them moved to my basement, it's going to take some serious work as I think it has a layer of four inches of dust! With the hopes of getting plumbing setup soon and getting some test water in.

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront



Replies:
Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: August 27 2012 at 8:34pm
Place Holder

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: August 27 2012 at 10:05pm
Stand looks great! Can't wait to see it all done.

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Jackie Stuver

"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas?   I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart


Posted By: Quickness
Date Posted: August 28 2012 at 1:50am
Been waiting to see this!


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Molon Labe
Si vis pacem, para bellum


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: August 28 2012 at 8:40am
Originally posted by Quickness Quickness wrote:



Been waiting to see this!


I know! It's been so long since I got it from you! Going to try to get it wet this week!

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: BobC63
Date Posted: August 29 2012 at 11:02am
An upgrade from the 45 to a 120... NICE ClapClapClap
 
This should turn out pretty sweet!!!


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- My Current Tank: 65g Starfire (sitting empty for 2+ years) -

* Marine & Reef tanks since 1977 *


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: August 31 2012 at 11:03am
So I attempted to get the plumbing done yesterday. I ended up getting half of it done. One overflow is plumbed and the return to that side. However I had a major issue with one bulkhead on the other side.

I installed the bulkheads and though I should test their seaworthiness before I got gluing. Good idea. The left side overflow bulkhead had a very very slow leak. Not a problem though I - I'll just give this one more little crank with a wrench and we will be in business. Didn't fix it. Ok one more little twist with the wrench . . . CRACK. Bulkhead down!

So yeah I broke the bulkhead because I sorta hulked out on it. So I take it off and guess what? The gasket is malformed. That's why I couldn't get it to seal. Sooooo I guess it's down to Reef Runners today to get a new bulkhead and hopefully this time be able to finish the plumbing.

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: BillyC
Date Posted: August 31 2012 at 11:23am
Bummer man. Plumbing is my least favorite part of reefing. I feel like no matter what, I always have to run back to home depot 5 times.


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: August 31 2012 at 12:06pm
Originally posted by BillyC BillyC wrote:

Bummer man. Plumbing is my least favorite part of reefing. I feel like no matter what, I always have to run back to home depot 5 times.


Yeah mine too. Seems like something that should take an hour seems to always take 10x as much time. I spent like four hours on it last night. So frustrating! It doesn't help that bulkheads are so temperamental.

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: September 12 2012 at 9:38am
Well it's been a busy week! I had some major issues with the plumbing that I've finally got fixed and have started to move on with the tank build again.

Our story so far!

So after getting the stand down in the basement I went to go get the tank out of the garage. Did I mention that it had been sitting there for 6 months? Looks how filthy the tank and sump are! Gross!



Got Disneymania (Jeremy) to help me move the tank down stairs. Shortly after getting it on the stand it had it's first piece of livestock in it! She enjoyed the filthy tank so much that she didn't want to get out!



I then proceeded to plumb it. This is where I got stuck for a week because I got frustrated. I had a major issue with flushing from the overflows in the durso drains. It was like an explosion in my sump! After much research I decided to try out a reverse durso in the sump. I finished it up Sunday and it's DEAD silent now.

I did all flex tube except for the reverse durso which is standard PVC. I only have this one picture of the plumbing for now.



So I mentioned that the tank was filthy right? I was able to clean the sump up but could not get the etching off of the glass on the tank. I also needed to fresh water test it for a few days. Enter vinegar water!



I ran the vinegar water for four days before emptying it out again. I was able to get the glass and back wall crystal clear again. The coraline algae on the overflows would not come off though even with the vinegar water! The mistake I made was using only distilled vinegar apparently you need to use pure. However being able to get the coraline off of the back wall and side glass and koralias was enough to satisfy me.

Once cleaned up I did the rock work!



I wanted a fairly simple design that allowed me to have a lot of sand bed and not look overcrowded. About 40 lbs of this rock is stuff from my old tank and the other 45 is man made reef rock. Fish should be able to swim behind both structures as there is a one-two inch gap between the back wall and the rocks. The front has about a 6 inch gap to the rocks at the start of the little grotto and in the middle of the crescent about 20 inches. I love wellso's and plate corals so there should be ample room for all of that.

Today I'm going to get the sand cleaned up and put in and hopefully water! I'm on vacation as of Friday for 9 days so I'm hoping to get thus cycling so that I can get my fish moved when I get home!

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: BobC63
Date Posted: September 12 2012 at 10:31am
ClapClapClap
 
 
The rockwork looks great!
 
Love that juvi female homo sapiens you put in there LOLLOLLOL
 
 
 


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- My Current Tank: 65g Starfire (sitting empty for 2+ years) -

* Marine & Reef tanks since 1977 *


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: September 12 2012 at 10:32am
Originally posted by BobC63 BobC63 wrote:

ClapClapClap



 

 

The rockwork looks great!

 

Love that juvi female homo sapiens you put in there LOLLOLLOL

 

 

 


Do you think a 120 is big enough for her? I've heard that they can get to be SIX feet in length!    Maybe I'll just have to get a bigger tank when she grows out of this one!

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: Molli
Date Posted: September 12 2012 at 11:22am
 
[/QUOTE]

Do you think a 120 is big enough for her? I've heard that they can get to be SIX feet in length!    Maybe I'll just have to get a bigger tank when she grows out of this one![/QUOTE]
 
I think you better put a screen top on your tank in case she is a jumper!Tongue


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: October 07 2012 at 6:20pm
UPDATE!

I've had the tank cycling for the past four weeks. A week ago I started to slowly move the few fish I had left in my 45 Gallon. This weekend I finished moving all of them and added clean up crew.

At this point the tank is not ready for coral as I don't have any lights yet. However I will be receiving my lights come Tue! I ordered the new AI Vega lights. I'll take more pictures later in the week so that everyone can see the new Vega's and how they look.



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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: October 07 2012 at 7:11pm
Originally posted by jwoo jwoo wrote:

UPDATE!

I've had the tank cycling for the past four weeks. A week ago I started to slowly move the few fish I had left in my 45 Gallon. This weekend I finished moving all of them and added clean up crew.

At this point the tank is not ready for coral as I don't have any lights yet. However I will be receiving my lights come Tue! I ordered the new AI Vega lights. I'll take more pictures later in the week so that everyone can see the new Vega's and how they look.



How many Vegas did you get?  They should look great. 



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180G Mixed Reef Tank

170G Dart Frog Tank


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: October 07 2012 at 7:38pm
I got two Vegas. It's a 48" tank so with the newer optics and the increased spread when I talked to AI they recommended two. I think three would be overkill on this tank.

I'm VERY excited.

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: October 10 2012 at 7:48pm
OK! OK! I got my lights in on Tue and had them setup and running 30 minutes later. I have to say I am SUPER impressed by these Vegas.

Some photos for those that love to unbox things:

Box!




Plug it in. Enjoy!



The unit out of the box:



On the tank. I went with the old rails and not the EXT arm as I have a canopy that goes on the tank that I want to use and it wouldn't work with the new EXT system:




As far as pictures with the LED's turned on . . . I need to break out the DSLR for that. My cell phone can't handle the lights. Everything comes out looking super saturated. Here is one I just took and was able to make it look OK. I had to turn the LED's down to 10% in order for my cell phone to pic it up.



I'll hopefully be moving a few coral into this bad boy by weeks end!

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: tfmreefs
Date Posted: October 10 2012 at 8:46pm
LOOKS AWSOME! Cant wait to see it all come togather

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"The early bird might get the worm, but only the second mouse gets the cheese."


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: October 18 2012 at 7:06pm
So with the lights going now for a week or more I've had the inevitable outbreak of diatoms. I also had a bacterial bloom that lasted three days and seems to have subsided as off today. The diatoms also seem to have hit their peak and are on the way out the door.

I did a water change two days ago and got my phosban reactor hooked up in the sump and filled it with GFO. Put new carbon in as well. I also put in a frag of zoanthids and I had to move my maxi mini as it was in very real danger of going on walkabout in my wifes nano tank. Both corals are doing great so I think I'll be moving the rest of my meager corals over very soon.

Will get new pics once it doesn't looks so rusty in the tank.

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: kellerexpress
Date Posted: November 02 2012 at 12:44am
Looking forward to seeing how the Vega's do. Did you get the color ones?

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IM 30L
Kessil A160we x2


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: November 02 2012 at 9:02am
Yeah I got the color ones. So far I really dig them. They've been up for almost three weeks and are not almost at 100%. I've had the coral acclimation mode running the whole time they've been up. They look super nice!

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: February 13 2013 at 4:23pm
Update time!

Tanks has been running since Sept now. Moved fish and coral that was leftover from my other tank in October. Haven't honestly done too much to it since then. Added a few things here and there. It's running well no nuisance algae outbreaks or anything. I've been able to do bi-weekly water changes since I set it up so that's all going well. Need to of course put more fish and coral in it. Really just enjoying this tnak and taking it slow!

Here are some pictures, I took these all with my crappy cell phone cam so some came out better then others. I also have my Vegas turned down by 50% right now in coral acclimation mode for the two new corals I picked up Saturday.

Meat coral that I picked up last weekend:



Red Wellso that I got at the same time as the meat coral:



HUGE Neon green bubble coral that I've had for three years now. It was maybe the size of my fist when I got it and now when fully open it's about as big as my head. By far one of my favorites.



Maxi Mini that I got from Chad a few years back and my Pencil Urchin photobombing.



Amazing hammer. This thing has quite the history. Mother colony was in my dads tanks for years and reached the size of slightly bigger then a basketball. This was three heads when I put it in three months ago. Closer to 20 now.



Cool paly rock!



The right side of the tank. Check out that clam. I got that think at the FIRST MWRF back in 2009. It was maybe an inch big. It's basically part of the family now and about 4-5 inches.



Full tank shot. Still looks bare to me. Need more coral and fish.



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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: Quickness
Date Posted: March 02 2013 at 8:17pm
I miss this tank!  Looks good!


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Molon Labe
Si vis pacem, para bellum


Posted By: Luv68tiger
Date Posted: March 02 2013 at 8:38pm
I thought you can't have a pencil urchin in a coral tank. Is that not true? You obviously have some awesomely healthy corals!

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~Michelle


Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: March 02 2013 at 8:55pm
Originally posted by Luv68tiger Luv68tiger wrote:

I thought you can't have a pencil urchin in a coral tank. Is that not true? You obviously have some awesomely healthy corals!


I have a pencil urchin it's never touched my coral...

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Jackie Stuver

"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas?   I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart


Posted By: joelduval1
Date Posted: March 03 2013 at 4:19am
Great looking tank.


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: March 03 2013 at 5:56pm
Originally posted by Luv68tiger Luv68tiger wrote:

I thought you can't have a pencil urchin in a coral tank. Is that not true? You obviously have some awesomely healthy corals!


Perfectly reef safe. I've had him for two years in two separate tanks. Never caused any issues.

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: March 03 2013 at 5:56pm
Originally posted by joelduval1 joelduval1 wrote:

Great looking tank.


Thanks!

It's coming along slowly.

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: Quickness
Date Posted: June 01 2013 at 3:03am
More pics?



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Molon Labe
Si vis pacem, para bellum


Posted By: Dionysus
Date Posted: June 01 2013 at 7:41am
wow been a long time! ^

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AquaMedic 250 Watt XM 20k
2 420s Vhos
29 DT SPS Dominant
20 G Long Frag

http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=56607&title=dionysus-tank-build" rel="nofollow - My Tank Progress =)


Posted By: Quickness
Date Posted: June 01 2013 at 2:32pm
Yeah debating about getting back into the hobby, but have a million other things going on and do not want to neglect a setup.  

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Molon Labe
Si vis pacem, para bellum



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