My "Little Bit Bigger" 215 Gallon Tank Build

[bellis31]

Did you ever find out what was wrong with your clownfish?

Pretty scary losing the temp probe.. I have my heaters set at 80 and the controller at 78.6 seems to work out pretty well and if the controller screws up 80 is all it will get up to..

[Cidcaltrop]

Is your frogspawn ok with the clownfish hosting it? When I first got my pair, they annoyed my hammer so much I had to build a cage around it!

[Curious George]

Any updates on the tank?

Recent pics?

[rogermccray]

Originally Posted by bellis31

Did you ever find out what was wrong with your clownfish?

Pretty scary losing the temp probe.. I have my heaters set at 80 and the controller at 78.6 seems to work out pretty well and if the controller screws up 80 is all it will get up to..

I treated the clownfish with some antibiotics and he is great now, a part of his fin had ended up getting rotted away as well and that is coming back as well.

The temp probe freaked my out pretty good but thankfully everything made it okay. That's a good idea I will have to set up my heaters that way as well.

[rogermccray]

Originally Posted by Cidcaltrop

Is your frogspawn ok with the clownfish hosting it? When I first got my pair, they annoyed my hammer so much I had to build a cage around it!

My frogspawn has no issues with the clownfish it is growing another head right now so it doesn't seem to be annoyed at all.

[rogermccray]

Originally Posted by Curious George

Any updates on the tank?

Recent pics?

There have been quite a few updates and I am working on writing them all up, here is the only picture I have while at work, it is a few weeks old.

[rogermccray]

Originally Posted by Curious George

Any updates on the tank?

Recent pics?

Let’s start with a fish list as I am not sure what I have posted about and don’t feel like reading 


Current Fish List:
Occelaris Clown (Elmo, that’s how my son used to say Nemo)
Green Clown Goby (Gregory)
Lawnmower Blenny (Ziggy)
Yellow Tang (WhoHaw, my son named him)
Hippo Tang (Dorry, again my son)

Let’s start with a plumbing/sump update, from the beginning I have been planning to move my sump into the basement so over the Christmas break that was what I did. First, I collected all the supplies I would need, I found a 55 gallon tank online for $5, I got some acrylic, and some silicone. I also upgraded my equipment, I replaced my mag 5 with a mag 18, I bought a BRS reactor for carbon, and I picked up and ASM G3 skimmer, a tad bit undersized, but it was used from Reef Central. I turned the 55 gallon tank into a sump using one of melev’s design and that worked out okay, I didn’t do a great job with the silicone and one of the baffle of the bubble trap came loose and the baffle between the refugium and return chamber is leaking. The tank doesn’t seem to have any bubbles so I think I am okay on that and the refugium has enough water in it so I think that is okay as well.

Then I started plumbing into the basement which turned into a huge PITA, first I tried to replace the existing PVC because I didn’t really like the way it turned out and I did not want to drill holes where the PVC was located. Also, the PVC going up from the return pump was not completely straight so it would have been tricky to drill a hole in the floor for it. Well all I managed to do with that was create a leak from my bulkhead (a bi t of an understatement) and all the water in the overflow ended up on the floor. It took me about an hour or two to clean that up, but the bigger problem was that now the bulkhead refused to tighten or loosen and I didn’t have a replacement, but thankfully my friend did. It was too late in the day to go pick it up from his place so I plowed on with the plumbing, but didn’t finish it. The bulkhead was for the drain so I did seal in the return lines, but I didn’t do a good job with the PVC (again) and it wasn’t straight up and so it was going to be tricky to drill it. At this point I just gave up with PVC and decided to do what I should have done to begin with and cut the PVC and installed vinyl tubing, which I also was going to get from my friend (same friend). The next day I got the bulkhead and the tubing and had finished the plumbing with no more issues, I split my return line to run my Carbon reactor with no problems. I also split my drain to go to the equipment chamber and the refugium, this was a bit of a pain because vinyl tubing doesn’t stay where it is put but I was able to get all in there.

At that point it was just a matter of getting everything installed into the sump, apparently I didn’t make my equipment part quite big enough because I had to get a little creative to get it everything in. I also hooked up my ATO at this time as well.

At that point I was ready for a break and left the tank alone for a little while.

[rogermccray]

I really pushed the basement sump project because of my flatworm problem, I had the nasty rust brown flatworms covering the glass on the front of my tank and it was making my tank look really bad. So I wanted to get the sump in the basement for the water change after a treatment of Flatworm Exit, there was no way I was carrying 100 gallons of water up the stairs. I also wanted to get my skimmer and my carbon running to clean the water. So I prepared a lot of saltwater and dosed the tank with flatworm exit. I also turned off my return pump so I would be able to turn it on and get 50 gallons of clean water into my tank. The directions say to wait up to 45 minutes to run carbon but after 15 minutes there were flatworms floating all over and I was getting nervous about the toxins their death releases so I started up the return pump to bring the sump water into the DT. Then I started a big water change and changed another 60-70 gallons of water and it seemed all the flatworms were gone. The only thing I lost where some of my snails, I lost all my dwarf ceriths and a few of my other snails. All the fish were fine. Well it turns out that I did not get them all and I have a few starting up on the glass again, today I will be getting a six line wrasse out of the QT to have him start eating them up.

[lucas73]

Originally Posted by rogermccray

And thank god my wife is good natured about this crazy project, every time I mention getting a new fish or invert she asks me what I am going to name it...I told her nothing so she has taken to naming them. Well my son named the clownfish "Elmo" which is how he says Nemo, I know I know, but at least I know the technical name and its name is not Nemo

The clown goby's name is Gregory and she even named the snails, how the heck she keeps track of which snail is which is beyond me.

That's cool man that the whole family is involved.That's what it's all about.My 5 year old son know's their name's Ocellaris,Coral Beauty,Purple Basslet,Springer Damsel.He's really taken and interest in the tank.Thought about starting him up a 14 gallon Biocube for his room and put a Clown in it.He hold's the hose when it's water change time.Future Reefer in the making.Best of luck with the tank.

[rogermccray]

This will be my last update and will focus on the livestock/coral changes that I have going on. After the snails died I decided I need to pick up some more cleanup crew, so I bought 15 trochus snails, 30 dwarf ceriths and another fighting conch. Of the 15 trochus snails I got 3 died and the rest are fine, I received about 100 dwarf ceriths instead of the 30 I order (which I kind of assumed would happen since it happens every time I order from reef cleaners, and the fighting conch I got is huge.

I also got some new corals; a guy I work with has a pink anemone that has split into 13 different anemones so he gave me one. He also accidentally fragged his hammer coral while cleaning his glass so he gave me one of those as well. He also gave me a toadstool and another coral that I am not sure what it is. I am going to get some pics of those up when I get a chance. I love the pink anemone under the actinic lights.

I also picked up a six line wrasse because I am again seeing some flatworms on the glass, I am going to put him in the DT tonight and hope that he will take care of the flatworms that I have. I have heard some horror stories about the six line, but I am hoping that since the tank is so big that he aggression will be less.

After that I am going to get a black background and put it on the back of the tank and then take a bit of a break until I can afford another 100 pounds of dry rock.

[rogermccray]

Originally Posted by lucas73

That's cool man that the whole family is involved.That's what it's all about.My 5 year old son know's their name's Ocellaris,Coral Beauty,Purple Basslet,Springer Damsel.He's really taken and interest in the tank.Thought about starting him up a 14 gallon Biocube for his room and put a Clown in it.He hold's the hose when it's water change time.Future Reefer in the making.Best of luck with the tank.

That's awesome, I got an 8 gallon Biocube in the basement for that purpose

[rogermccray]

And now some pictures

Tank Shots





Frog spawn



Pink Anemone





Emerald Crab (and some bubble algae)



Fighting Conchs



Hammer

[rogermccray]

Zoas





Candy Cane





Toad Stool/Mushrooms



Yellow Tang (WhoHa Playing Peek-a-boo)



Lawnmower Blenny (Ziggy)

[rogermccray]

Crappy, I just did a water change and the tube came out of the sump and shot water all over my temp controller. And fried it!

[rogermccray]

For the last week or so I realized that I really was not taking full advantage of the size of my tank. My rock work made my tank look like it had no depth. So, this weekend I decided to redo the aquascape.

Here is an FTS from before the change


Here are pics of the new aquascape








A couple of coral shots

[tanksfishtank]

I like the new aquascaping a lot better! Tank is looking really nice! How many more fish are you planning on?

[rogermccray]

Originally Posted by tanksfishtank

I like the new aquascaping a lot better! Tank is looking really nice! How many more fish are you planning on?

Thanks I like it a lot more as well.

I am not sure on the total I want to add, but my next purchase is definitely going to be anthias. I want to get four of them, either Lyretail or Carberryi, I plan on getting four females and watching the process of one turn into a male.

I will probably replace my clown goby since I think he has died or been eaten. I have not seen him in weeks and he is usually out quite a bit.

After that I'm not sure what I am going to do, I want a mandarin or two down the line, I'm thinking red mandarin. Maybe some kind of wrasse, Mccoskers possibly. Maybe a chromis or two. At this point it is all up in the air.

[rogermccray]

I am also contemplating a yellow watchman goby, but I don't think that I have enough sand for it. I read somewhere they need four inches and I don't have that anywhere, any ideas if I can just put it in one part of the tank and hope he finds it?

[bellis31]

Tank looks good with the changes you made, your FrogSpawn is a big one..

[rogermccray]

Originally Posted by bellis31

Tank looks good with the changes you made, your FrogSpawn is a big one..

Thanks, it has been growing quite a bit lately too.

[robertcedgar]

Have you ever considered putting a black background on your tank? It's cheap and hides cords and equipment, and also really makes your tank pop out. You can buy the stuff at any LFS.......JMO, but I think that this addition would make a nice tank really great!

[rogermccray]

Originally Posted by robertcedgar

Have you ever considered putting a black background on your tank? It's cheap and hides cords and equipment, and also really makes your tank pop out. You can buy the stuff at any LFS.......JMO, but I think that this addition would make a nice tank really great!

Yup, it is on the to do list, the one thing I don't like is that it is going to have to be two separate pieces because I have not found any that is 30" wide.

[Holyreefer]

Nice soon to be finshed project!
i have a 210 in the works (finshing my ghetto canopy now)
But a 215 takes a lot to have that "Full look" you will keep buying and it wont look full for a while. But thats just more room for more livestock Good luck looking forward to the setup

Are you dosing right away?

[rogermccray]

Originally Posted by Holyreefer

Nice soon to be finshed project!
i have a 210 in the works (finshing my ghetto canopy now)
But a 215 takes a lot to have that "Full look" you will keep buying and it wont look full for a while. But thats just more room for more livestock Good luck looking forward to the setup

Are you dosing right away?

Thanks. Do you have a build thread?

I am not dosing anything right now, I need to research into dosing before I start.

I am going to enjoy filling it up a little at a time and letting what I do have grow. I plan on taking the rock with the zoas on it and adding a couple more colors, then let them grow on the rock that the frag is currently on. Then when they start on the rock I am going to pop off the original frag and pass it along. Then when I am done I will have a flat rock with several different color zoas on it.

Next up on the list though is anthias, right now I am leaning toward carberryi. I originally wanted Lyretail but read they can be a pain at times, but who knows if I will change that before I get a chance to buy them.

[robs.mark]

What lighting do you have? it may be worth putting the nem a little higher in the tank, they like it bright! like the new scape to!