wa1tx Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I have a BC 29 that got me started in the hobby about 7 months ago. Fell in love with fish and corals so I decided to go bigger. I learned a lot of expensive lessons on the biocube. Hopefully I will not make the same mistakes. I bought a 125 reef ready and my friend helped me build the stand. So far I have !25g Tank 72x18x22 Skeleton stand Reef Dynamics INS180 skimmer Eheim 1262 return Koralia Mag 8 Assorted plumbing parts and bulkheads Finnex Titanium heater Dr. Tim's Aquatics One and Only Reef Pure Coralife Salt For lights I am going to go with 36" 8x39 T5 retrofits and led stunners for moonlights (Aquadome). Getting my dry rock, sump and dry sand from Prof. With the sump/refugium, rock and sand, I should be somewhere around 175 gallons if I did the math correctly. Depending on where the tank is on nitrates and phosphates after the cycle, I may add a phosban reactor. I plan on finishing out the stand with oak plywood with the stain of my wife's choice. I am on hold for the next two weeks as I have family in town, but hope to be wet by the second week of April. Anyone see anything I am missing or might want to consider adding? Thanks to everyone that is a part of ARC. I have learned a lot from the forum posts! Will try to update as I progress if anyone is interested., WA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atxmandarin Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 add a piece of molding around the base of the tank where you have overhang for a nice rounded look Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Tank build is going excruciately slow. Seems I am the only person that has a sense of urgency on getting this up. Lol. Hoping to make some decent progress this weekend. Anyway, received my 6stage plus chloramine rodi from BRS. Putting it in this weekend. Trying to figure out the best location for it with the need for electricity and space. Picked up a couple of malt barrels from AHS. They are mostly cleaned and being sanitized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Gonna move this to the Tank Build forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Anyone know of a person that can skin a stand at a reasonable price and in a reasonable time frame? The boss says it can't look like me and my beer drinking buddies did it after a case of beer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindflux Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 You might ask Matt (mhart032) if his buddy who built his new stand is in town and does that sort of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I believe (one of our great sponsors) @prof might do stand work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted May 1, 2011 Author Share Posted May 1, 2011 I got my BRS RODI system in today and am filling the first 55g barrel I picked up from AHB. Was super easy to install.I have 13PPM going into the DI and 0 PPM coming out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindflux Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Where do you have your red line connected to? It almost looks like you've got it hooked right to your softener? How about your waste water line? Right now I just drag the lines out of my garage and hook up/etc, but I'd love to tap into the softener for the red line and permanently affix my black line somewhere too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 I do have it connected to the water softener. I am using the hose bib on the water softener and the hose bib connector for now. If I can find a self piecing saddle valve I may change it to that at some point. The one that came with the kit did not fit the pipe. The waster water line goes into the drain for the water softener. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindflux Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 I do have it connected to the water softener. I am using the hose bib on the water softener and the hose bib connector for now. If I can find a self piecing saddle valve I may change it to that at some point. The one that came with the kit did not fit the pipe. The waster water line goes into the drain for the water softener. I was thinking of using the saddle valve for the inlet, but was concerned the water pressure would pop that line off and just spew water into my garage until someone noticed. I don't think my softener has a hose bib connection on it. That's pretty interesting. Since my softener was a retrofit I think I'd have to cut my PVC tube at the inlet side of the softener and put a T in there with a murlock connection for the red line. Not sure about the waste line just yet. Ours softener drain is kinda funky, the installer ran PVC up the wall and into the attic and out some port on the roof. (no idea) rather than just running the drain outside the house through the wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 Update. Got new flooring in house so tank cam go in and not be on carpet. I am getting closer to getting water in the tank. I have to reorder bulkheads. I wrongly assumed that all bulkheads were the same. Should have watched the brs video before buying. Schedule 80 does not work with my tank. Reordering the correct ones today. Starting to research substrate. Really want to use black sand, but some of the comments about it having iron in it and magnetic have me concerned. I ordered a stand from RCA. Jake was really helpful on getting me what I wanted and giving me my options. I could not find anyone that would skin the one I had for less than $1000. Hoping to have tank installed in two weeks. At this point really just waiting on the stand to be built amd arrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 I have a lot of issues with burning through DI resin on my RODI. 55g of water made used 1/2 the resin. I was at between 14-20 tds going into the first DI stage. I had roughly 57 PSI at the membrane without any other water running in house or yard. As soon as water was being used in house or yard PSI dropped to 30 at the membrane. I decided to try the booster pump to see if it made any difference. I installed the booster pump this weekend. PSI is not steady at 90 regardless of what else is going on. TDS getting to the first DI stage is 2PPM. I am making water a lot quicker. I think I am using less DI resin. I made 110g of water this weekend and only used about 1/4 of the resin in the first chamber. So far I am happy with the result of the booster pump. The stand is supposed to be in this weekend so I will be setting the tank up as soon as I have the stand in my possession.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindflux Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Sweet. I think I'll order me a booster pump too. That way I can lower my house pressure back down. Did you install the pump so that it goes into the flow meter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 You cut the supply line and attach it there. It took me 15 minutes tops and 10 of those minutes were looking for a board and screws to mount it. If you ordered the deluxe version with auto shut off, then you cut the blue line that feeds your DI and put it there and then plug all the electrical connections in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted June 4, 2011 Author Share Posted June 4, 2011 Finally have water in my tank!I have a very slow leak from a bulkhead that I need to figure out. I also feel it is too noisy. The durso's pipes are way noisier than I think they should be. I followed direction off of durso's website to build them, but it seems really noisy to me. Not a showstopper, but something I need to devote some time to. If anyone has any advice or guidance I would happily accept it. Pic attached of my first go at aquascaping on this tank. Will try to take better pics tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted June 4, 2011 Author Share Posted June 4, 2011 Got the leak fixed and wrestled the skimmer in this morning. Now have to get salinity right and figure out the dursos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted June 5, 2011 Author Share Posted June 5, 2011 a few pics. still some tweaking to do and tie up some little stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atxmandarin Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 cant wait to see new pictures....if your camera isnt still in shock from all the light lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted June 12, 2011 Author Share Posted June 12, 2011 Will try to post some pics of the light. The pics I took really washed out. The wife says she needs sunglasses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted June 13, 2011 Author Share Posted June 13, 2011 pics of light... All I have is a crappy point and shoot so these do not really do the light justice..I have a friend with a professional grade camera will try to talk him into letting me use it for an afternoon.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 Got clean up crew today and ordered some cooling fans. Can't run the halides more than about 6 hours with out the temp getting close to 84. Also got the apex in today. Unfortunately I am going camping this weekend and do not have time to play with it before I leave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 Apex is set up. Had a hard time with getting emails to work. Went through three accounts before I just setup a gmx account. Did not want another email account but oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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