120g tank build

ludnix · 04-24-2010

I thought it was time to share my 120g tank build, so here it is:

The stand was built in May of 2008, this was an upgrade from a 33g cube which didn't really have much in it other than clownfish.

All of the stands that AGA (aqueon) sells are very short so we decided to build our own at 40" tall!

The stand is built to hold a tank! I have never been concerned about structural integrity with how massively overbuilt it is!

Here I've painted the stand with kilz primer and sealer. More coats than I can remember, I just kept painting it until it was solid white. This has worked out quite well, almost two years in and no significant stains, it always wipes clean.

The doors are made of marine plywood with euro hinges:

I unfortunately have no pictures from the decorating process, but we managed to transform that white stand into this:

We made this stand design by using large sheets of bamboo reed mats we bought in Hawaii for very cheap. They were glues flat onto the stand's outside with wood glue and the excess trimmed. we then were able to apply cherry trim to the corners, top and bottom. The corner pieces are actually pine stained cherry, but the top and bottom are actual cherry.

ludnix · 04-24-2010

The sump is a 40g breeder with a compartment for the OTP-2000 skimmer, 10g of refugium, and remaining for the return section.

The power strip on the right was removed for safety concerns, luckily I never had an issue, but I always would rather be safe than sorry. The pump is a Mag-12, 1200gph.

Water going in!

I got this refractometer for $20 on ebay:

ludnix · 04-24-2010

We ordered 200lbs (90kg) of fiji live rock. We didn't want 200lbs in total, but this would allow us to cherry pick the rock for the best pieces. This rock is all direct from the collector so it had to be cured. Since it was uncured the LFS sold it to us for $2.22/lb!

In the tank cycling away:

Construction of the canopy:

The canopy frame was made out of poplar and painted with more kilz primer and sealer. The canopy houses 4x 54w T5 flourescents with individual reflectors and 2x 250w metal halide fixtures.

Skinning with bamboo:

First light test, MH lights only:

ludnix · 04-24-2010

A tank this size definitely needs an Auto Top Off device to keep the water level correct as well as the salinity. Here is a double float switch which I ordered from autotopoff.com The float switches control a mechanical relay which switches an outlet on and off.

Float switches:

Top off container next to sump, the container was ordered from US plastics and fits exactly within the available space.

Pump in the ATO container:

ludnix · 04-24-2010

Doing the rockwork:

I was inspired by the rockwork done by Carl Swaby in his video on www.reefvideos.com, I wanted to do a lot of arches and pillars for the fish to swim around in giving them more opportunities to get away from each other if they need to. I also wanted the rockwork to be viewable from all sides, so no piles of rock where razor blades could get lost in.

We started the towers. They are held together with Aquascape epoxy putty. We first dry fit the rocks and then puttied them together out of water. We lowered them in and let them cure for a few days before expanding on it.

All the rocks are sitting on a layer of eggcrate light diffuser. This keeps them from being able to slide around.

We then finished the arches but gluing on the rest of the rockwork, you can also see the inhabitants from my 30g moved over, 2x clownfish, their hammer coral, a clam and a flame hawkfish.

A month later I added more livestock, a yellow tang, sailfin tang and other fish. The sailfin turned out to be a huge mistake and should never have gone in there in the first place. Not only are sailfin's way too large for a 120g aquarium but the overall fish load on the tank was too much too quickly. Because of the excessive load you can see I had quite a cyanobacteria problem:

The sailfin was removed and the cyano started to subside: