My Oceanic Tech 120

[JRWOHLER]

So I caught some virus at a monthly meeting and, I "just had to have" a new tank.
I was lucky enough to spread it to my wife, and we have similar tastes, so we decided on the Oceanic Tech tank.

Then I was picking stuff up from Bill(thanks again for all the work), I was looking at his tanks with all those beautiful LPS and softies ... the bug seemed to come back. I decided to go to AO to just look around after.
When I asked Will about the prices how lucky was I when he said 'you know until the end of the month the 120 is on sale cheaper then the 90'. Well, I went home delirious with the fever and the only cure was to go ahead and order a new tank. ;D

The only catch is I got the stand but not the tank as it is still on back order.

I picked up the stand the following week. Here it is in its glory.
As you can see it was decided that I needed to paint the living room before I set up the tank. :

We decided to eventually use the AP that is in the picture as our QT tank.
I know what I am going to use for the following equipment but I have some questions that I would like all you guys to chime in on PLEASE.
Lights: 8x54W T5
Skimmer: Octopus probably depending on what is available.
Flow: 2 X Koralia 4 1 or 2 MJ900(lower W usage then MJ1200) on wavemaker.
Return Pump: No idea what to use here I know a lot use the Mag(X). Suggestions after you read the rest are welcome. :-\
Sump/Refugium: 36x22x12 Orca refugium. Will be using cheato (from Mangrove thread thanks for help). Skimmer in sump.
Rock: Hoping to get around 100 lbs from dflint(thanks in advance), plus what I have in my nano to start.
Sand: Carib-Sea ARAG-ALIVE BAHAMAS OOLITE
Heaters: yep
Controllers: Reef Fanatic Level Controller w/2 Float Switches for my ATO and Neptune Aquacontroller JUNIOR
Calcium: ESV 2-part ...going to do it by hand.
ViaAqua Poly-Reactor for carbon or phosphate...going to do a mix to start. Anyone use one of these or other suggestions welcome.

I want to establish the refugium before I add the skimmer so some of these things I have and some will come over time.
Sept PA buy for instance.

We are going to have a fairly non aggressive tank(fish) with mostly LPS and softies. Our plan is to keep the bioload pretty low. I know those are usually questions that get asked, if we have any SPS they will be up top for flow and light.

I have a major question for everyone, I have a split level colonial. The tank will be on the lower living room, directly behind the tank is my crawl space. It is about 4 feet high and would be a 2 feet lower then the tank floor.
So my question is should I place the sump in the stand or in the crawl space?
Easy access in stand crawl space not so much.
The crawl space usually stays cool though, so in the summer it is pretty helpful. In the winter not sure how much additional heating would be needed. Any spilled water in the crawl space is not a big deal.

Any input that you might have is more then welcome, even if you tell me I am being stupid.

Another question how many of you put something between the live rock and the glass bottom of your tank? What have you used?

Thanks for looking and thanks for any comments you may make.

 

[chase33]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

Congratulations. I can't wait to see this as it progresses. You stated there isn't so much room for the sump in the crawl space. You are going to need to get in there from time to time especially if you have the skimmer in there. For that reason I would put it under the stand. Easy access. I've seen where people place PVC between the rock and the glass bottom. I've seen where people have placed eggcrate. I don't have anything under my rock. It sits on the glass bottom. Good luck with your build.

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

congratulations on the new tank!

Ya know - I kinda kick myself a little bit for getting the AGA 120 from Wil last fall. I didn't even know (stupid me) that Oceanic made a 120 in their tech series. I'll just have to make do dealing with the dual overflows (aquascape-wise)...and constantly be jealous of you folks with tech tanks.

One idea for the crawl space would be to put your top-off water in there. You'd have to figure out a way to set it up so that you could fill it up again every so often - but if it's big enough - you could just plunk in the back and set an ATO and connect it to your main display. Then the hole would not have to be very big, just large enough for a tube to push water in (when adding) and a tube to your sump via the ATO.

In terms of the LR and glass - my last tank I placed the LR right on the glass and then added live sand. This way if I had a burrower, it would not cause an avalanche since the LR was on the glass already. I think the next set up I'll probably place it on PVC. I'm not sure I'd use eggcrate only because I want my fauna/critters to be able to "swim" thru the sand - not to get hampered by little boxes. Of course there's the entirely other way of doing it which is to forgo the sand altogether in the display.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

Thanks for the great advice. Especially the ideal about the ATO that is a great idea. I do have room in the crawl space but it is not as easy to get to as directly into the stand obviously. I am for sure going to place the LR down before the sand. Just wondered what alternatives there were thanks.

 

[jonathan.]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

In terms of the LR and glass - my last tank I placed the LR right on the glass and then added live sand. This way if I had a burrower, it would not cause an avalanche since the LR was on the glass already. I think the next set up I'll probably place it on PVC. I'm not sure I'd use eggcrate only because I want my fauna/critters to be able to "swim" thru the sand - not to get hampered by little boxes. Of course there's the entirely other way of doing it which is to forgo the sand altogether in the display.

You COULD have just a few pieces of egg-crate where the rock actually is and let the rest of the tank be without it. That way, you get the best of both worlds.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

That is a good idea too...did you do that in your tank?

 

[jonathan.]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

That is a good idea too...did you do that in your tank?

No, but I thought of it when I read your tank and I would think it could work pretty well. Never tried it myself!

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

I think I will give it a try. I have some eggcrate leftover so will give it a go.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

OK so I have some pics to post and some further questions.
First I picked up a bunch of live rock from dflint and I got my light from Catalina Aquarium.
So I went to home depot to get a couple new "tanks" for the rock. You can see the light and my high tech setup here.

Jim from Catalina has been a great guy to deal with. He also has hooked up our frag swap.
He said he was going to send us a pump, but he lied and sent us a pump, a filter and a bag of airstones.

So my question is I have finished painting the area where the tank is going to go. Since it is in a corner area, where my AP is in the first picture, how far from the wall should I place the tank on the left and back side?

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions I have gotten some great info already.

Thanks

 

[reefsandrotts]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

Mines out just far enough to clean behind and get a paint roller,just in case the wife wants a new color.

 

[jonathan.]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

I think I will give it a try. I have some eggcrate leftover so will give it a go.

Rad. Post how it goes. I am definitely interested and whenever I upgrade to a large tank I'll probably do it if it works well for you.

 

[Phyl]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

I wouldn't do that. The benefit of having a tank with a bare bottom is that the sand isn't there to trap detritus. Imagine how much detritus can be trapped in those little squares of egg crate! That could become a long term maintenance nightmare. I'd be more inclined to use something solid like starboard or cutting boards.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

What is the difference between starboard and a cutting board? I do not plan on having a bare bottom tank but I am chicken to put the rock directly on the glass. I know the bare bottom people have starboard cut to fit, but if I am not going bare bottom can I just use different size cutting boards or will that make the pressure uneven?

 

[blange3]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

Sounds great!

Glad your wife is supportive since my name is so closely linked to the virus.

If the crawl space is more difficult to access,if you are like me, your maintenance schedule will suffer. I clean my topoff barrel every couple of months so make sure that you can get it in and out without too much difficulty.

So how deep a sandbed are you going to have? If it is a real deep sandbed, then it will be about 6" deep and the eggcrate won't affect the critters. I'm using a shallow sandbed in the 180 and have been thinking about starboard, but will probably just go with the glass like my other tanks.

If you go with an Octopus, do the gate valve mod as well. Someone sells a kit for it. Next time on RC I'll get a link for you. If have the NW150 on my 75. I had the NW200 but it was too big for the sump and stand.

So is it here yet???? Huh, huh, huh?? ;D

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

No it is not here yet, I am going to try and stop by today to see if I can get a read on the delivery date.
It is a very good point about maintance.....I think I am going to put the ATO in the crawl space and the fuge under the tank as taking care of the skimmer and so on is more of a pain. Getting into the crawl space is not a problem weekly or monthly but daily nah I am too lazy.

I don't know how deep, I suppose that there is a table somewhere to tell me how deep 120 lb of live sand would be in a over 8 SQ FT. I have 170lb of live rock give or take.

 

[Phyl]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

I'm sorry, I thought you were thinking of doing BB as an alternative. I've seen folks put egg crate down under their sand bed, I just wouldn't do that unless there was sand covering the holes.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

No problem thanks for the input.
I was talking to Will last night and one of my choices for my return is one of those squid thing.
What is everyone's opinion on them good bad or no clue? I will be running a Mag 12 for my return for what it is worth. Should be 800 GPH approximately.

 

[blange3]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

I had one on a Mag 18 for a closed loop and seemed to produce a lot of head loss.

I have one on a Mag 7 return with similar results.

A lot of folks have Sea Swirls that may want to chime in. More expensive than SCWD's but I believe they are much more efficient.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

Hmmmm I thought maybe that might be the case. The sea swirl looks interesting but because it is on my internal overflow it won't work so well. I have one pump but two return lines so the squid thing would be perfect if I didn't loose a ton of flow.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: My Oceanic Tech 120 and a request for input.

OK so I have not updated this since the "waiting patiently for the tank" stage.
Few weeks ago the tank came in and I got it moved into place. As I was cleaning I found out the floor was not nearly as level as I had hoped. With help from MikeM and some others I got it shimmed up and now it is level and I am set. Thanks again for those who helped out.
So here is the equipment I have decided on and some reasons why.
Tank: Oceanic 120 Tech with stand....liked the look and quality of the tank...size because Will gave me a deal I couldn't refuse. ;D
Lights: T5 8x54W with moon lights from Catalina Aquarium...I liked the T5 setup... JerseyWendy's tank really sold me on them, I liked the light without the heat of MH. Jim Wharton gave me some encouragement in regards to Catalina...I called directly and Jim(manager/owner) personally helped me get lights. I liked being able to talk to the source directly.
Skimmer and Refugium: Both custom made by Orca Systems....called and spoke to Shan..see above talking directly to source, plus he is from Ohio pretty close to where I was raised...he really went out of his way to do what I wanted...much more on that later. http://protein-skimmer.com/FAQ.asp?id=446996&page=1&shopperid=
Pumps: Mag 12 return, 2 Korilia 4, 2 MJ900 on wavemaker. Personal experience here I had one MJ already and wavemaker. The MJ900 uses less W then 1200 so decided to go with them. Will gave me a great deal on the Mag 12...thanks again.
I am dosing with two parts manually at this point same with water top off.
Heaters 2 250W Stealth heaters...personal experience again.

So without further ado I will give some pics.
Tank in place prior to shims.

Skimmer..recirculating design with Sicce pump with mesh mod and gate valve. I was going to go with an Octopus either recirc or the new extreme with Sicce pump. After talking with Shan he said I can build one with both. Did you know that the area out in W PA E OH was the tool and dye capital of the world for many years? Anyway he sent me picture of the skimmer and it blew me away. I can tell you that this skimmer is not huge in size but it kicks some serious butt...and is built like a tank. I compared it to to some other skimmers at Trop, the quality is not comparable. Price...great but sworn to secrecy.

and a pic up and running.

The sump/refugium was also built by Shan.
So my rock came from my old AP, dflint, and Justin, plus a couple pieces of base rock from Trop.
I figure I have around 190lb of rock...sand 160 lb in main display and 10lb of live sand and 15lb of miracle mud in Fuge...cheato and rubble also.
Sand and supplies

I decided against eggcrate put down some cutting boards just to protect the glass on the bottom.
Then I put down the first layer of rock. Dan had cut some of his pieced flat to act as the base, so used those and a few others to create the base before the sand.
Then put the sand in.

Followed by rest of non coral encrusted LR(few small hitchhiker shrooms)

After sand settled down couple days later...I tested water everything was good zero everthing. 1.0235 SG.
All rock had been kept with heaters, light and water flow so I didn't expect much die off.
I went to check temp in new tank with my

well I couldn't see how that could be. I ran and got a standard thermometer.
Temp is 80F...&*^&^()^$
I fixed the thermometer

I wondered why I was having so many issues lately with my AP :.
Transferred everything out of the AP and coral bucket into main tank (used drip method so it took a long while.
Shortly after

More final

And some shots of my very happy fish and some corals...I got these two from Kenny mankc on Manh Reefs super nice guy

I have one issue that is hard to figure out. Unfortunately the water traveling down to the sump sometimes sounds like a washing machine ... I guess air gets sucked in. How can get rid of it?
Any other thoughts are welcome. I plan on shifting the lights forward to be more centered, do you think they are too far off the tank?
Thanks for looking.
James