120g mixed reef build - virgin reefer (pics/long)
- Thread starter Tilian
- Start date
Thanks JM! And I couldn't agree more with the little brother! I almost feel bad about framing him for breaking all my crayons when he was 4 and I was 12! LOL
Cycle winding down
Cycle winding down
Looks like my cycle is winding down, both in the QT tank and in the rock tub. Here are a few graphs of my test results since starting. The rock tub is still working on cleaning out the phosphates so that will still need a few more weeks.
As for the QT tank, I'll keep an eye on it over the next week and see how it's doing. If NH4 and NO2 stay at 0 for the next week I'll be ready for a big water change and a fish order!
Cycle winding down
Looks like my cycle is winding down, both in the QT tank and in the rock tub. Here are a few graphs of my test results since starting. The rock tub is still working on cleaning out the phosphates so that will still need a few more weeks.
As for the QT tank, I'll keep an eye on it over the next week and see how it's doing. If NH4 and NO2 stay at 0 for the next week I'll be ready for a big water change and a fish order!
anarchyx914
New member
Really awesome build. I love the detail in which you lay everything out.
Totally keeping an eye on this
Totally keeping an eye on this
ashish
New member
I have a 120 with interal overflow! Let me tell you I hate it. I hate the look and the fact you can't clean it. You will get the true aquascaping potential out of a the 23'' inside width. I only have about 18'' to play around with, with my 2 megaflo.
I would not worry to much about the cycle. Your taking your time and everything will work out fine.
The biggest problem is reefers overstocking to fast.
When everything is balanced, work primarily on keeping your alk, calcium stable and your corals will be great. These are the things you'll have to learn on your own. Alk and calcium test are main thing. Phosphate & nitrate can be hard to detect (from test kits) unless it very high.
Great job so, far I can tell you have done your research.
I would not worry to much about the cycle. Your taking your time and everything will work out fine.
The biggest problem is reefers overstocking to fast.
When everything is balanced, work primarily on keeping your alk, calcium stable and your corals will be great. These are the things you'll have to learn on your own. Alk and calcium test are main thing. Phosphate & nitrate can be hard to detect (from test kits) unless it very high.
Great job so, far I can tell you have done your research.
Last edited:
Update from last weekend
Update from last weekend
Sorry guys, a little late on this update. My brother and I got quite a bit done this weekend. Here's what we worked on.
First we thought we'd tackle drilling some glass. We started with the easy ones... drilling the three holes in the bottom of the external overflow box. I've got a nice little 10" drill press which worked great for this! I just layed out the center point of each hole and added a small drill bit to the press to make sure it was aligned with center point. Then, we clamped the glass down, switched to the diamond bit, and ran a hose over the glass from behind while we drilled them out. It went pretty smooth... very little chipping. The most challenging part was knowing when we were close to breaking through the back side... that's a bit tricky. Here are a few pics of the drilling rig we set up and the finished results.
We then decided to tackle the single drain hole in the sump. The sump is a 40g breeder and the hole needed to go as low to the floor as possible and roughly in the center of the front side of the glass. In order to ensure I stayed 1 full hole diameter from the edge of the glass, the center point of the hole needed to be 4" from the bottom of the tank. Unfortunately the drill press only has 3" of space between the chuck and the frame of the press. So, we couldn't use the press for this one. My brother ended up drilling this by hand using the 45 degree entry technique. Essentially you start drilling the hole with the bit at a 45 degree angle to get the hole started. Then you slowly increase the angle until you get the drill back to 90 degrees.
This was REALLY tricky. It was really tough to get the hole started. The bit wanted to dance all over the place. Eventually we got it started but then the challenge was to be able to get the bit back to 90 degrees before the edge of the bit broke through the other side of the glass. It turned out we were able to get vertical again. Eventhough my brother wasn't putting any pressure on the drill, unfortunately he wasn't able to huld the weight of the drill up before he broke through the other side. It pushed through pretty hard and left a pretty good chip on the inside of the tank.
The good news is that the chip is only about 1/4 of the thickness of the glass and it will be on the nut end of the bulkhead. The bulkhead gasket will be on the clean side so I think we're going to give it a try.
We then moved on to installing some baffles in the sump. We layed them out then designed a wood block/clamp setup which would hold the glass steady. It seems to work really well. Unfortunatley we're short one piece of glass so I'll need to have one more cut before we can water test everything. Will try to do that this week.
We then finished up the weekend by practicing with some acrylic. The plastic supply company we got our acrylic from was nice enough to give us a bunch of scrap to play with. I decided to work on a probe holder to practice welding acrylic joints. It turned out pretty good... need to tap the holes, add nylon thumb screws, and build a magnetic backing for it to hold it to the tank. Looks pretty good to me.
My brother was having so much fun he decided to keep practicing with other techniques. He grabbed my blowtorch and that was the last I saw him for 3hrs! Fire and plastic will keep him busy for quite a while! Nice results on his practice piece though!
So that's it... it was a good weekend. I'll have another update later tonight or tommorow to introduce you to some new arrivals... here's a teaser.
Update from last weekend
Sorry guys, a little late on this update. My brother and I got quite a bit done this weekend. Here's what we worked on.
First we thought we'd tackle drilling some glass. We started with the easy ones... drilling the three holes in the bottom of the external overflow box. I've got a nice little 10" drill press which worked great for this! I just layed out the center point of each hole and added a small drill bit to the press to make sure it was aligned with center point. Then, we clamped the glass down, switched to the diamond bit, and ran a hose over the glass from behind while we drilled them out. It went pretty smooth... very little chipping. The most challenging part was knowing when we were close to breaking through the back side... that's a bit tricky. Here are a few pics of the drilling rig we set up and the finished results.
We then decided to tackle the single drain hole in the sump. The sump is a 40g breeder and the hole needed to go as low to the floor as possible and roughly in the center of the front side of the glass. In order to ensure I stayed 1 full hole diameter from the edge of the glass, the center point of the hole needed to be 4" from the bottom of the tank. Unfortunately the drill press only has 3" of space between the chuck and the frame of the press. So, we couldn't use the press for this one. My brother ended up drilling this by hand using the 45 degree entry technique. Essentially you start drilling the hole with the bit at a 45 degree angle to get the hole started. Then you slowly increase the angle until you get the drill back to 90 degrees.
This was REALLY tricky. It was really tough to get the hole started. The bit wanted to dance all over the place. Eventually we got it started but then the challenge was to be able to get the bit back to 90 degrees before the edge of the bit broke through the other side of the glass. It turned out we were able to get vertical again. Eventhough my brother wasn't putting any pressure on the drill, unfortunately he wasn't able to huld the weight of the drill up before he broke through the other side. It pushed through pretty hard and left a pretty good chip on the inside of the tank.
The good news is that the chip is only about 1/4 of the thickness of the glass and it will be on the nut end of the bulkhead. The bulkhead gasket will be on the clean side so I think we're going to give it a try.
We then moved on to installing some baffles in the sump. We layed them out then designed a wood block/clamp setup which would hold the glass steady. It seems to work really well. Unfortunatley we're short one piece of glass so I'll need to have one more cut before we can water test everything. Will try to do that this week.
We then finished up the weekend by practicing with some acrylic. The plastic supply company we got our acrylic from was nice enough to give us a bunch of scrap to play with. I decided to work on a probe holder to practice welding acrylic joints. It turned out pretty good... need to tap the holes, add nylon thumb screws, and build a magnetic backing for it to hold it to the tank. Looks pretty good to me.
My brother was having so much fun he decided to keep practicing with other techniques. He grabbed my blowtorch and that was the last I saw him for 3hrs! Fire and plastic will keep him busy for quite a while! Nice results on his practice piece though!
So that's it... it was a good weekend. I'll have another update later tonight or tommorow to introduce you to some new arrivals... here's a teaser.
Thanks Ashish,
Yeah I really wanted the C2C overflow design for it's performance and silence. The internal Megaflow type designs were kind of out of the question for me. So the decision really broke down to internal C2C vs external C2C.
An internal C2C looked a lot easier to setup but I've seen a lot of pics of internal overflows and they're just distracting to me. I've seen some increadible tanks with internal C2C overflows which always look like they're only 3/4 full of water. The internal overflow gives the appearance of a half empty tank.
Doing the external overflow with an internal C2C weir seemed to have the best appearance. I'm taking the extra step of covering the entire back of the tank with 1/8" black acrylic which should make the entire overflow disapear from the eye. I hope it works out the way I planned... if so I think it will look pretty slick.
New Arrivals
New Arrivals
Well, here they are... my first arrivals swimming happily in the QT tank!
1 male and 3 female Bartlett's Anthias! They arrived today from BlueZooAquatics.com. Originally I had planned on buying my fish from either LiveAquaria.com or VividAquariums.com. Both have great reputations but neither offered the Anthias by sex. Bluezoo did so I decided to place my first order with them and I'm certainly NOT disappointed.
The fish arrived in individual bags packed inside a styrofoam cooler with 3 heat packs taped to the lid. Everything was packed well in very heavy duty cardboard, styrofoam and plastic bags.
Bluezoo includes an acclimation kit which included the styro box, a 3' length of silicone tubing, a suction cup, a small vial of stress coat and a week's worth of food. I followed the included acclimation instructions which started with moving the fish from their bags to the styrofoam box.
One of the females was laying on her side a bit but then she up righted herself in the bag and swam around. I put the styro container on an angle and opened each bag and I tried to gently let the fish swim out of the bags into the styro box. They weren't cooperating well though. Each one got stuck on the side of the bag and it took some shaking to get them in the box.
Here they are after I got all 4 in... huddled together for comfort I suppose!
Back in my freshwater days, I stuck to my LFS for fish purchases. I use to temp acclimate by floating the bags in the water then I'd drip acclimate for an hour or so.
The Bluezoo instructions didn't ask for temperature acclimation though and since I was sticking to their instructions to ensure the warrenty applied... I decided to just drip acclimate as they instructed... 2-3 drips per second for 2-3hrs.
After about 2hrs I tested the parameters and they were still way off from my QT tank. The pH was at 7.6 and my QT is 8.3. The Salinity was at 1.020 and my QT is at 1.024.
I spead the drip up a bit and kept going. After nearly 4hrs, the pH reached 8.2 or so and the salinity reached 1.024. The temp was 76.7 after all that time and my QT tank is running at 78.5. I thought that was close enough so in they went, one at a time (with a net of course).
I left the lights out for a couple hours and they started to get more active and were exploring a bit. I thawed out some frozen Cyclops and decided to try to feed at that point. It took them a couple minutes to recognize the food flying around but once they did it was a feeding frenzy! All four were eating really, really well. Man, they really love that Cyclops stuff!
I only fed them a little, they had the water clear in about 90s. I fed them again an hour later and once more a couple hours after that. They all ate well all three times.
They all look happy and are swimming well. They look in perfect condition from what I can tell. I'm extremely excited with how the first purchase went. My photog skills are severely lacking but I'm learning. Getting in-focus shots of fish that never hold still is a bit tricky. Here are a few pics that didn't turn out horrible.
Side shot of the Male:
Male giving me attitude!
First Female
Second Female
I couldn't get the third female by herself so here's the harem together!
Thanks to everyone who has been offering advice for helping me get to this next big milestone!
New Arrivals
Well, here they are... my first arrivals swimming happily in the QT tank!
1 male and 3 female Bartlett's Anthias! They arrived today from BlueZooAquatics.com. Originally I had planned on buying my fish from either LiveAquaria.com or VividAquariums.com. Both have great reputations but neither offered the Anthias by sex. Bluezoo did so I decided to place my first order with them and I'm certainly NOT disappointed.
The fish arrived in individual bags packed inside a styrofoam cooler with 3 heat packs taped to the lid. Everything was packed well in very heavy duty cardboard, styrofoam and plastic bags.
Bluezoo includes an acclimation kit which included the styro box, a 3' length of silicone tubing, a suction cup, a small vial of stress coat and a week's worth of food. I followed the included acclimation instructions which started with moving the fish from their bags to the styrofoam box.
One of the females was laying on her side a bit but then she up righted herself in the bag and swam around. I put the styro container on an angle and opened each bag and I tried to gently let the fish swim out of the bags into the styro box. They weren't cooperating well though. Each one got stuck on the side of the bag and it took some shaking to get them in the box.
Here they are after I got all 4 in... huddled together for comfort I suppose!
Back in my freshwater days, I stuck to my LFS for fish purchases. I use to temp acclimate by floating the bags in the water then I'd drip acclimate for an hour or so.
The Bluezoo instructions didn't ask for temperature acclimation though and since I was sticking to their instructions to ensure the warrenty applied... I decided to just drip acclimate as they instructed... 2-3 drips per second for 2-3hrs.
After about 2hrs I tested the parameters and they were still way off from my QT tank. The pH was at 7.6 and my QT is 8.3. The Salinity was at 1.020 and my QT is at 1.024.
I spead the drip up a bit and kept going. After nearly 4hrs, the pH reached 8.2 or so and the salinity reached 1.024. The temp was 76.7 after all that time and my QT tank is running at 78.5. I thought that was close enough so in they went, one at a time (with a net of course).
I left the lights out for a couple hours and they started to get more active and were exploring a bit. I thawed out some frozen Cyclops and decided to try to feed at that point. It took them a couple minutes to recognize the food flying around but once they did it was a feeding frenzy! All four were eating really, really well. Man, they really love that Cyclops stuff!
I only fed them a little, they had the water clear in about 90s. I fed them again an hour later and once more a couple hours after that. They all ate well all three times.
They all look happy and are swimming well. They look in perfect condition from what I can tell. I'm extremely excited with how the first purchase went. My photog skills are severely lacking but I'm learning. Getting in-focus shots of fish that never hold still is a bit tricky. Here are a few pics that didn't turn out horrible.
Side shot of the Male:
Male giving me attitude!
First Female
Second Female
I couldn't get the third female by herself so here's the harem together!
Thanks to everyone who has been offering advice for helping me get to this next big milestone!
greg1786
Active member
Your plan is absolutely amazing! As is everything you have done up to this point. Congrats, its hard to believe youve never done this before i cant wait to see the finished product. I noticed you said after recieving negative feed back you removed the barred dartfish. Just curious as to what made you change your mind? Ive had one in my system almost a year with an open top and its never jumped once and i love him. He shoes no aggression whatsoever to my other goby and i added two peppermint shrimp about 6 months after the barred dartfish to help with an aptasia outbreak, and after three months together, my barred dartfish paired with one of the peppermint shrimp! Its actually very cool to watch them together.
Thanks for the kind words Greg! The negative feedback really wasn't on the dartfish but on the green cromis. Ultimately I decided on the Anthias over the dartfish simply because they're more colorful and it sounds like they might be slightly better at schooling in an aquarium. I also like the dynamic of having clearly seperate male/female fish. Being able to see how the male interacts with the 3 females sounded interesting.
That's really it, it was really a pretty close call but ultimately I settled on the Anthias not because of negatives with the dartfish, but because of a few extra positives for the Anthias.
Lost one of the females
Lost one of the females
Sadly, one of the female Anthias died today.
Last night they all appeared to be doing fine. All 4 were eating well. When I awoke this morning, all the fish were hiding in the PVC fittings at the bottom of the tank. I turned the light on made some coffee. When I returned, they had all come out of hiding and I fed them some of the sample BlueZoo mixed food which was included with the fish. I noticed that one of the females wasn't eating and was staying at the bottom of the tank, breathing heavy, and leaning to its side.
After a couple hours she was struggling to stay upright. At noon today she stopped moving and died I'm afraid. The gills on one side were pretty red which leads me to believe she just had too much ammonia in her bag during shipping.
I tested the tank's water parameters both before introducing the fish and again today when I noticed this one wasn't doing well. Both tests were the same:
NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 5 ppm
pH: 8.3
Salinity: 1.024
Temp: 78.2 "“ 78.5
I took a few pictures to send to BlueZoo along with an explanation of how I acclimated. Within 10 minutes of sending them the e-mail, they responded and approved my credit. It will take 4-5days to show up on my account but they were very sympathetic and provided excellent customer service.
So here's the question now. Should I immediately order another single female Anthias to complete the harem or should I wait? I'd prefer an odd number of females and wanted at least 4 total Anthias so they would school a bit. I assume it's best to introduce them all at the same time which is why I was thinking about immediately ordering a new female now and then I'd use the credit later for a future purchase.
Any thoughts?
Lost one of the females
Sadly, one of the female Anthias died today.
Last night they all appeared to be doing fine. All 4 were eating well. When I awoke this morning, all the fish were hiding in the PVC fittings at the bottom of the tank. I turned the light on made some coffee. When I returned, they had all come out of hiding and I fed them some of the sample BlueZoo mixed food which was included with the fish. I noticed that one of the females wasn't eating and was staying at the bottom of the tank, breathing heavy, and leaning to its side.
After a couple hours she was struggling to stay upright. At noon today she stopped moving and died I'm afraid. The gills on one side were pretty red which leads me to believe she just had too much ammonia in her bag during shipping.
I tested the tank's water parameters both before introducing the fish and again today when I noticed this one wasn't doing well. Both tests were the same:
NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 5 ppm
pH: 8.3
Salinity: 1.024
Temp: 78.2 "“ 78.5
I took a few pictures to send to BlueZoo along with an explanation of how I acclimated. Within 10 minutes of sending them the e-mail, they responded and approved my credit. It will take 4-5days to show up on my account but they were very sympathetic and provided excellent customer service.
So here's the question now. Should I immediately order another single female Anthias to complete the harem or should I wait? I'd prefer an odd number of females and wanted at least 4 total Anthias so they would school a bit. I assume it's best to introduce them all at the same time which is why I was thinking about immediately ordering a new female now and then I'd use the credit later for a future purchase.
Any thoughts?
greg1786
Active member
Ammonia poisoning seems to be a reasonable culprit. The only thing i would be worried about is that signs of heavy breathing and red gills are also classic signs of flukes. Im not suggesting that your fish definitely had flukes but i wouldnt rule them out just yet. Have any of the other fish shown any of the same symptoms? I bought an atlantic blue tang that died in an identicle manner. Got him home in the tank. Wouldnt eat and showed signs of heavy breathing along with redness on the gills. Within 6 hours he was dead. When i removed him from the tank i noticed one of his gills was inflamed quite a bit so i decided to try a freshwater dip to see if anything fell off. Sure enough after about two minutes tiny opaque dots began appearing in the bottom of the container. It was flukes for sure. Maybe a quick freshwater dip of one of the fish that survived just to be safe? That way you can rule out flukes or in the worse case scenario, know exactly what your dealing with so you can treat the fish properly. I only suggest this because ive battled a horrible ich infestation and flukes and they were one after the other. I almost gave up reefing altogether it was so disheartening. With your tank being so new it would be best to be absolutely certain while the fish are in qt so you dont end up with a contaminated display tank. Hopefully this isnt the case and it was simply ammonia poisoning or the fish simply didnt fare well with the travel stress. Good luck hope all is well
Long overdue updates
Long overdue updates
Hey guys, sorry for the long delay in updates. Work has been a bit hectic lately and I haven't had the time to keep up. But, I have been working on the tank and taking pictures as I went so I finally had time tonight to catch everyone up"¦ I'm very excited about the progress! So here's what's been happening.
So first, let's cover the 4 Anthias in QT. I did have one death immediately after putting them in. I had that one replaced and after about 2 weeks I noticed they started to exhibit flashing and rubbing behavior. I decided to order some Cuprimine as I suspected Ich. By the time the Cuprimine got here I noticed the first white spots on their fins started showing up. Well, I guess that's what QT is for right"¦ to catch these things now before they go into the display tank.
I went ahead and dosed the Cuprimine per instructions and it's been in the QT tank for nearly the 2 week waiting period. The fish all showed immediate improvement and seem to be fat and happy right now. That stuff worked fast! I still have a couple days to go, but then I'll start running carbon in my filter to clear out the copper and then watch them again for another 4 weeks. Kind of a bummer, with that extra delay, but at least I caught it early and they seem to be doing much better!
Continued"¦
Long overdue updates
Hey guys, sorry for the long delay in updates. Work has been a bit hectic lately and I haven't had the time to keep up. But, I have been working on the tank and taking pictures as I went so I finally had time tonight to catch everyone up"¦ I'm very excited about the progress! So here's what's been happening.
So first, let's cover the 4 Anthias in QT. I did have one death immediately after putting them in. I had that one replaced and after about 2 weeks I noticed they started to exhibit flashing and rubbing behavior. I decided to order some Cuprimine as I suspected Ich. By the time the Cuprimine got here I noticed the first white spots on their fins started showing up. Well, I guess that's what QT is for right"¦ to catch these things now before they go into the display tank.
I went ahead and dosed the Cuprimine per instructions and it's been in the QT tank for nearly the 2 week waiting period. The fish all showed immediate improvement and seem to be fat and happy right now. That stuff worked fast! I still have a couple days to go, but then I'll start running carbon in my filter to clear out the copper and then watch them again for another 4 weeks. Kind of a bummer, with that extra delay, but at least I caught it early and they seem to be doing much better!
Continued"¦
Building the overflows and sump
Building the overflows and sump
So the next thing we worked on was building both the internal and external overflow boxes. As a reminder, the tank will have a 1.5" X 5" X 48" internal Coast to Coast overflow and a 5"X7"X20" external overflow to house the BeanAnimal drain system.
So to build the external box, we used 1/4" glass and placed it into a wooden jig we made to help make sure all the pieces were nice and square. The two sides were clamped to the jig so they were at 90 degree angles to the face that would be attached to the tank. Then, we laid the bottom down flat on the table, and had the back ready on standby to set on the top once we raised the bottom up to meet the sides. After everything was taped off, we laid down a continuous bead of black silicone on all the connecting edges. Then it was just a matter of pivoting the bottom up to meet the sides, and lightly clamping it in place. Then we laid the back down on top of the sides and bottom finish the 3 sided box.
It was really tricky getting it all laid out properly and we did a lot of "œdry runs" to be sure we could get it all clamped up in the 7min or so we had before the silicone started to skin over. This was one of the more challenging parts of the entire build thus far but it went pretty well. Here are a few pics of the process.
We then moved on to the internal overflow. The internal overflow is a 5" x 1.5" box that will cover the entire top back edge of the tank. Now I've seen lots of pics of both internal and external overflows and I always find the illusion of a waterline that you see when looking at the tank from the front distracting. I also had an issue since I was going to silicone an external box to the back of the tank with the silicone seams from that box showing through when seen from the front of the tank. So, to avoid both of these problems, my design has the internal overflow box actually build onto the top edge of a 48"X24" piece of 1/8" black acrylic. This acrylic wall, with the overflow actually bonded to the top edge, will be silicone right to the back interior wall of the tank for a nice clean look.
Here are a few pics of the overflow box attached to that 1/8" acrylic wall.
We then moved on to finishing up the baffles in the sump and water testing it for leaks. That went great! No leaks at all and I think it turned out relatively clean.
We even had a good omen show up in the garage! The brightest rainbow I've ever seen from the sun shining down on our water test!
Oh, and we also tested out another little DIY project we started when we were practicing with the acrylic. Here's the magnetic probe holder we made. I still need to drill and tap the edge to accept some nylon screws I got to hold the probes in place but it turned out great! The magnets are actually imbedded between the layers of acrylic so they never touch the water.
Continued"¦
Building the overflows and sump
So the next thing we worked on was building both the internal and external overflow boxes. As a reminder, the tank will have a 1.5" X 5" X 48" internal Coast to Coast overflow and a 5"X7"X20" external overflow to house the BeanAnimal drain system.
So to build the external box, we used 1/4" glass and placed it into a wooden jig we made to help make sure all the pieces were nice and square. The two sides were clamped to the jig so they were at 90 degree angles to the face that would be attached to the tank. Then, we laid the bottom down flat on the table, and had the back ready on standby to set on the top once we raised the bottom up to meet the sides. After everything was taped off, we laid down a continuous bead of black silicone on all the connecting edges. Then it was just a matter of pivoting the bottom up to meet the sides, and lightly clamping it in place. Then we laid the back down on top of the sides and bottom finish the 3 sided box.
It was really tricky getting it all laid out properly and we did a lot of "œdry runs" to be sure we could get it all clamped up in the 7min or so we had before the silicone started to skin over. This was one of the more challenging parts of the entire build thus far but it went pretty well. Here are a few pics of the process.
We then moved on to the internal overflow. The internal overflow is a 5" x 1.5" box that will cover the entire top back edge of the tank. Now I've seen lots of pics of both internal and external overflows and I always find the illusion of a waterline that you see when looking at the tank from the front distracting. I also had an issue since I was going to silicone an external box to the back of the tank with the silicone seams from that box showing through when seen from the front of the tank. So, to avoid both of these problems, my design has the internal overflow box actually build onto the top edge of a 48"X24" piece of 1/8" black acrylic. This acrylic wall, with the overflow actually bonded to the top edge, will be silicone right to the back interior wall of the tank for a nice clean look.
Here are a few pics of the overflow box attached to that 1/8" acrylic wall.
We then moved on to finishing up the baffles in the sump and water testing it for leaks. That went great! No leaks at all and I think it turned out relatively clean.
We even had a good omen show up in the garage! The brightest rainbow I've ever seen from the sun shining down on our water test!
Oh, and we also tested out another little DIY project we started when we were practicing with the acrylic. Here's the magnetic probe holder we made. I still need to drill and tap the edge to accept some nylon screws I got to hold the probes in place but it turned out great! The magnets are actually imbedded between the layers of acrylic so they never touch the water.
Continued"¦
Installing the Overflows
Installing the Overflows
Next we had to tackle drilling the display tank to allow the water to flow from the internal overflow to the external overflow box. We did this using my 10" drill press which we set down on some paint cans to get the correct height. We laid the display tank down on its back so the head of the drill press would fit inside. That way we ended up drilling the tank from the inside out. We got a tiny bit of chipping but not much"¦ turned out pretty good doing it this way.
Next up was installing the actual overflow boxes themselves. First we did the internal box. So really, this was installing a 1/8" thick acrylic wall right to the back interior of the tank. Then we ran a bead of silicone all the way around it to seal it in. I also ran a bead of silicone along the cut-out area where the water would flow through the holes we drilled in the DT. I cut out a piece of plastic gutter guard so that it could be wedged into the internal overflow (under the top trim of the tank) which would prevent anything large going through the holes into the external overflow box. Overall, it turned out pretty good!
Here's a side view of the internal "œwall" and the black silicone lines we affixed to the sides.
Here's the screen I made and what it looks like from the back. You can see the silicon seal all around the cut-out area where the water will flow from the inside of the tank to the outside.
And here's what it looks like from the top"¦ pretty low profile!
Finally, it was time to install the external box. Unfortunately I ran out of black silicone so I had to attach it using clear. We went a little overboard with the silicone but we wanted to be sure to get not only a tight seal between the glass, but also a nice thick bead along the inside and outside edges to prevent any water seeping into the seams.
With that much silicone, we let it cure for a full week before adding water! LOL
Continued"¦
Installing the Overflows
Next we had to tackle drilling the display tank to allow the water to flow from the internal overflow to the external overflow box. We did this using my 10" drill press which we set down on some paint cans to get the correct height. We laid the display tank down on its back so the head of the drill press would fit inside. That way we ended up drilling the tank from the inside out. We got a tiny bit of chipping but not much"¦ turned out pretty good doing it this way.
Next up was installing the actual overflow boxes themselves. First we did the internal box. So really, this was installing a 1/8" thick acrylic wall right to the back interior of the tank. Then we ran a bead of silicone all the way around it to seal it in. I also ran a bead of silicone along the cut-out area where the water would flow through the holes we drilled in the DT. I cut out a piece of plastic gutter guard so that it could be wedged into the internal overflow (under the top trim of the tank) which would prevent anything large going through the holes into the external overflow box. Overall, it turned out pretty good!
Here's a side view of the internal "œwall" and the black silicone lines we affixed to the sides.
Here's the screen I made and what it looks like from the back. You can see the silicon seal all around the cut-out area where the water will flow from the inside of the tank to the outside.
And here's what it looks like from the top"¦ pretty low profile!
Finally, it was time to install the external box. Unfortunately I ran out of black silicone so I had to attach it using clear. We went a little overboard with the silicone but we wanted to be sure to get not only a tight seal between the glass, but also a nice thick bead along the inside and outside edges to prevent any water seeping into the seams.
With that much silicone, we let it cure for a full week before adding water! LOL
Continued"¦
Stand Bracing and reactors
Stand Bracing and reactors
In the meantime, we started working on the plumbing in the stand. I started with the return plumbing, up to the point where it left the stand itself. My design has a large 4 port manifold which will hang from the ceiling of the stand to supply flow to the refugium and both carbon and GFO reactors. The problem was that this stand is pretty flimsy. The bracing is only 5/8" pine and I didn't want to try to hang all that weight from such thin wood. Besides, I had to remove the top center brace of the stand anyway in order to get the sump in and out for the install. It won't fit through the back or the front.
So here's what I did to solve these problems. First, here's what the original brace looked like.
Note that it's simply mounted to the two center vertical braces that go from the top of the stand to the floor. All the weight from the tank is simply transferred to those two center vertical braces at the back of the stand and between the two front doors. I had to be sure that whatever bracing I designed also made sure the weight was distributed that same way. Since I also want to water test everything in the garage first, then move it into the living room, whatever I build had to be fully removable. So here's what I came up with"¦
First, on the right hand interior wall of the stand I installed two stop-blocks about 5.5" below the brace that the actual trim of the tank will rest. These stop blocks will hold the brace I'm going to build to the top of the stand.
I then build the brace itself. It's a ladder configuration with the two open "œlegs" resting on those two stop blocks I added. On the opposite side, in the middle of the stand, the brace has a 5/8" thick board that overhangs the legs of the ladder by 5/8" on each side. That overhang will rest on top of the vertical braces of the stand to ensure that all the weight from the tank is transferred directly to those center vertical braces just like the original stand design. The ladder then just slides into the stand, with the right side resting on the blocks I installed and the left side resting on those vertical legs. The whole thing was build using 2 X 6 redwood (scrap wood I had already) and fastened using a pocket screw jig. It's solid as hell and perfectly square. Those pocket screw jigs are awesome!
I then fastened the manifold I build right to the ladder and it slides right into the stand along with the brace.
So here's what it all looks like"¦ it turned out great! None of this bracing is actually screwed to the stand, it just floats on the natural braces of the stand to ensure all the weight gets transferred properly.
I then mounted the two reactors and ran the ½" quick connect tubing to the manifold. Note that the manifold has two outputs on it with a drilled and tap plug that accepts a threaded ½" John Guest style push connect fitting. That allows me to easily connect and disconnect those lines when I want to pull the reactors out. I need to find a few 90 degree John Guest elbows though so I can run the lines tight to the braces rather than having them dangling like this. Overall though, it still doesn't look too bad.
Continued"¦
Stand Bracing and reactors
In the meantime, we started working on the plumbing in the stand. I started with the return plumbing, up to the point where it left the stand itself. My design has a large 4 port manifold which will hang from the ceiling of the stand to supply flow to the refugium and both carbon and GFO reactors. The problem was that this stand is pretty flimsy. The bracing is only 5/8" pine and I didn't want to try to hang all that weight from such thin wood. Besides, I had to remove the top center brace of the stand anyway in order to get the sump in and out for the install. It won't fit through the back or the front.
So here's what I did to solve these problems. First, here's what the original brace looked like.
Note that it's simply mounted to the two center vertical braces that go from the top of the stand to the floor. All the weight from the tank is simply transferred to those two center vertical braces at the back of the stand and between the two front doors. I had to be sure that whatever bracing I designed also made sure the weight was distributed that same way. Since I also want to water test everything in the garage first, then move it into the living room, whatever I build had to be fully removable. So here's what I came up with"¦
First, on the right hand interior wall of the stand I installed two stop-blocks about 5.5" below the brace that the actual trim of the tank will rest. These stop blocks will hold the brace I'm going to build to the top of the stand.
I then build the brace itself. It's a ladder configuration with the two open "œlegs" resting on those two stop blocks I added. On the opposite side, in the middle of the stand, the brace has a 5/8" thick board that overhangs the legs of the ladder by 5/8" on each side. That overhang will rest on top of the vertical braces of the stand to ensure that all the weight from the tank is transferred directly to those center vertical braces just like the original stand design. The ladder then just slides into the stand, with the right side resting on the blocks I installed and the left side resting on those vertical legs. The whole thing was build using 2 X 6 redwood (scrap wood I had already) and fastened using a pocket screw jig. It's solid as hell and perfectly square. Those pocket screw jigs are awesome!
I then fastened the manifold I build right to the ladder and it slides right into the stand along with the brace.
So here's what it all looks like"¦ it turned out great! None of this bracing is actually screwed to the stand, it just floats on the natural braces of the stand to ensure all the weight gets transferred properly.
I then mounted the two reactors and ran the ½" quick connect tubing to the manifold. Note that the manifold has two outputs on it with a drilled and tap plug that accepts a threaded ½" John Guest style push connect fitting. That allows me to easily connect and disconnect those lines when I want to pull the reactors out. I need to find a few 90 degree John Guest elbows though so I can run the lines tight to the braces rather than having them dangling like this. Overall though, it still doesn't look too bad.
Continued"¦
Plumbing and Water test!!
Plumbing and Water test!!
So we’re in the home stretch! I then started working on the back of the tank and getting all the plumbing done there. I started by installing the BeanAnimal drain system in the external overflow box.
For those that aren’t familiar with the BeanAnimal design, it’s nearly dead silent with lots of redundancy to ensure safety. The right hand drain is the full syphon line. The center drain is an emergency line and it’s the tallest of the three. The left hand drain is the overflow line and it has an air valve at the top to allow air to come in. That air valve has a piece of ¼” tubing on it though which is mounted to just below the lip of the emergency drain. This tubing is there so that if the water rises to the level of the tubing it will block the air to the overflow line and turn it into a second full syphon. This will immediately flush any excess water from the overflow box down into the sump to prevent a flood.
Here’s what it looks like with the rest of the drain plumbing going into the sump. This is all pretty beefy 1 ½” PVC so they will be clamped to the stand to support the weight. Note that the syphon line has a gate valve attached. This allows me to adjust the flow of the water in that line so that there is just a trickle of water going to the left overflow line. This is how it remains silent. Since the right line has a full syphon (no air) and the left overflow line is 95% air and only a trickle of water, neither line makes any noise no matter how much water is flowing.
The last thing to do was to run the return lines. Originally I was planning on running the return line between the drain lines and the glass of the tank. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough room… I had enough for the 1” PVC, but not enough for the fittings and the valve. Thus, I had to use some 90s and 45s to run the return line on the outside of the drain lines. I think it still turned out pretty good.
So that was it… time to add water! For that we recruited my sister-in-law again!
We filled it up and kicked the pump on. Originally, we had a hard time getting the syphon line to purge it’s air without some manual help. Turns out I had the output of the line too deep into the sump. We cut that pipe down so it only dropped an inch or two below the water’s surface in the sump and it worked like a champ! A couple of quick turns of the gate valve to get the flow right and 90s later, fully silent!
Here’s what the water looks like on the returns. This is just the flow from the return pump alone and no powerheads… I have pretty good surface agitation with just these lines alone.
Here’s a view of all the plumbing from the back. I think it didn’t turn out too bad considering this was my first time doing anything even remotely like this!
And finally here’s what the front of the tank looks like. I debated many times whether I was over-engineering things with the internal and external overflows and with that 1/8” acrylic wall. It was definitely a challenging build, but in my opinion the results speak for themselves. I just love how clean the look is. I think it was well worth the challenges!
So that’s it for now. I’m going to let this run in the garage for a week while I tweak the waterflow a bit. I’m getting a bit of noise from the manifold under the stand which is feeding the refugium. I want to play with that a bit. Then it will be a matter of draining it, taking apart the unions in the plumbing and assembling it in the living room. We also still need to build the LED lights and the mounting mechanism for those. Then I’ll order my fresh live rock and live sand and start aquascaping! I figure I’m about 2 weeks out now!! Getting close!
Plumbing and Water test!!
So we’re in the home stretch! I then started working on the back of the tank and getting all the plumbing done there. I started by installing the BeanAnimal drain system in the external overflow box.
For those that aren’t familiar with the BeanAnimal design, it’s nearly dead silent with lots of redundancy to ensure safety. The right hand drain is the full syphon line. The center drain is an emergency line and it’s the tallest of the three. The left hand drain is the overflow line and it has an air valve at the top to allow air to come in. That air valve has a piece of ¼” tubing on it though which is mounted to just below the lip of the emergency drain. This tubing is there so that if the water rises to the level of the tubing it will block the air to the overflow line and turn it into a second full syphon. This will immediately flush any excess water from the overflow box down into the sump to prevent a flood.
Here’s what it looks like with the rest of the drain plumbing going into the sump. This is all pretty beefy 1 ½” PVC so they will be clamped to the stand to support the weight. Note that the syphon line has a gate valve attached. This allows me to adjust the flow of the water in that line so that there is just a trickle of water going to the left overflow line. This is how it remains silent. Since the right line has a full syphon (no air) and the left overflow line is 95% air and only a trickle of water, neither line makes any noise no matter how much water is flowing.
The last thing to do was to run the return lines. Originally I was planning on running the return line between the drain lines and the glass of the tank. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough room… I had enough for the 1” PVC, but not enough for the fittings and the valve. Thus, I had to use some 90s and 45s to run the return line on the outside of the drain lines. I think it still turned out pretty good.
So that was it… time to add water! For that we recruited my sister-in-law again!
We filled it up and kicked the pump on. Originally, we had a hard time getting the syphon line to purge it’s air without some manual help. Turns out I had the output of the line too deep into the sump. We cut that pipe down so it only dropped an inch or two below the water’s surface in the sump and it worked like a champ! A couple of quick turns of the gate valve to get the flow right and 90s later, fully silent!
Here’s what the water looks like on the returns. This is just the flow from the return pump alone and no powerheads… I have pretty good surface agitation with just these lines alone.
Here’s a view of all the plumbing from the back. I think it didn’t turn out too bad considering this was my first time doing anything even remotely like this!
And finally here’s what the front of the tank looks like. I debated many times whether I was over-engineering things with the internal and external overflows and with that 1/8” acrylic wall. It was definitely a challenging build, but in my opinion the results speak for themselves. I just love how clean the look is. I think it was well worth the challenges!
So that’s it for now. I’m going to let this run in the garage for a week while I tweak the waterflow a bit. I’m getting a bit of noise from the manifold under the stand which is feeding the refugium. I want to play with that a bit. Then it will be a matter of draining it, taking apart the unions in the plumbing and assembling it in the living room. We also still need to build the LED lights and the mounting mechanism for those. Then I’ll order my fresh live rock and live sand and start aquascaping! I figure I’m about 2 weeks out now!! Getting close!
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Video of BeanAnimal Drain system
Video of BeanAnimal Drain system
Hey guys, thought I'd record a brief video showing how the BeanAnimal drain system handles a power outage. This shows that, without any manual intervention, the system will automatically re-establish the siphon and stabilize after about 2 minutes.
http://youtu.be/tWMzmiU3wDY
Video of BeanAnimal Drain system
Hey guys, thought I'd record a brief video showing how the BeanAnimal drain system handles a power outage. This shows that, without any manual intervention, the system will automatically re-establish the siphon and stabilize after about 2 minutes.
http://youtu.be/tWMzmiU3wDY
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