5' of questionable decisions.

[KnightMetro]

Well, I got a lot done over the weekend.

The tank is now on the stand. Most of the stand trim and design is now done. I have to to a lot of filling in the cracks, holes, and imperfections before paint. I also got the bulkheads in place and the elbows put in so I can run pipes in and down the center of behind the stand.

Worth noting, all of the trim around the top of the tank is PVC. I wanted to make sure that anything that actually may come into contact with water, continually, would never rot. The rest of the trim is primed pine. Going with MDF would have been cheaper, but sooner ro later I am sure it would have got wet.

Now the only thing is to design the doors for the hood access. Right now I am playing with an inset panel idea that is just held in place with magnets.

 

[travisstewart]

Everyone wants to see what's in the closet!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KnightMetro]

That's the door to the basement. There is an access panel in the stairway though that gives me access to the shadowbox overflow that is pretty neat.

Yes, the equipment room for the fish tank will be directly below in the basement. I try not to think of how much work I have to put in this thing before I can even get water in it. I mean, the room that will house the filtration and sumps doesn't even have walls yet.

I set out to do things the right way with the most future stability from the start. The truth is that takes a long time and my ADD is kicking in. Knocking down walls, engineering the design via these forums/pics/Youtube, custom tank order, pick out a place for a fish room, map out piping ,DIY everything, etc etc.

I can't wait for this thing to be sitting with water, sand, and some rock in it. In reality, that probably won't be until the end of summer.

 

[sp4zzy]

Gotta say I'm pretty jealous - this build looks beautiful! Can't wait to see it filled!

 

[KnightMetro]

So, while we wait for the next boring step, sanding and finishing before paint, I figured it was time to start talking about the equipment and plans.

I have had a few tanks since 2007. I had a custom 90 and 2 custom 120's that never saw water as I had to move across the country a few times, due to life, and they never were completely finished. Well wait, one saw water and then I got laid off that same week. Aww. I had a 15g Biocube, then a custom 30 and then I actually did have a nice 30g rimless cube for a couple years and that was stepping in the right direction. It was mostly DIY and I liked how it turned out for a custom touch. That was about 3 years ago. I can honestly say though, because of life and chaos, I never had the time to educate myself enough for the tank to succeed. I had so little setup for automation and too many decisions were based on a tight budget and impatience.

Now that we own a home, we don't plan to move until the kids leave home, and we have the space to go all in and do it right, the above project is the scope it is. After hundreds of hours of research and years of stalking around the forums, I'm trying to do this tank the right way while considering all of the new advances in technology, ULM methods, Triton, roller mats, LED, DC pumps, etc etc. Reefing has changed a lot since I started back in 2007 and I have to actually give BRS a lot of props for their evolution and addition to my knowledge. The last few years of their video series has lead to a great deal of research and inspiration into what works vs trying method after method after method.

So here is my preliminary thoughts. Most of these are based on being naturally budget minded but buying the right solution for long term success. Some things will be put in first and other things will be left for when it's needed later. I am attempting to design the whole system for the future in mind. I want to leave space or design solutions to incorporate what comes later.

- The new Kessil A360x's for lighting. 3 of them should do the trick.
- I'm not set on one, but I am very closely watching all of the new roller mat options. This is a hands down a must(so far) in my design and I/we/everyone hates filter socks.
- 2 DC return pumps. These will be run from the basement and I want two for safety and load spread. I am still unsure what brand I'll get but I have kept my eyes on the Jeboa's for a while. There are too many DC pumps on the market right now that have astronomical pricing.
- I may consider an external pump but there are so many negatives I'd like to steer from. Noise, it being external and the drilling needed, and no redundancy. Still considering.
- I'm going to stick to a realistic turnover for the whole system through the sump. Probably 5-7X. Flow will be much higher of course.
- Flow - I am really interested in the Gyre pumps that have come out do to their cost against Vortech's and the ability to run 1 vs multiple powerheads. Let's face it, all things Ecotech are very expensive. The new Maxpect Gyre 300 warrants soem research.
- Water changes will be automated. I think I want to incorporate a slow pull and fill for each day. I have a lot of research on how to keep stable chemistry with this method.
- I already have a good amount of dry rock ready for when I aquascape. I strill have no real idea how that is going to coem out, but I'll grab another 40-60lbs and start putting the pieces together this spring.

- I am still on the fence about the Triton method vs BRS/WWC method and have a lot of research to continue.
- I will run a large sump with a refuguim.

I do think this is worth saying, I do not have any intention of having a SPS dominant tank. There is so many new methodologies and content that seems to be basing a lot of their processes on supporting huge SPS heavy tanks. The WWC tanks for instance have a huge emphasis on what it takes to produce such sustainability and growth with some of the most difficult coral. I am more attracted to a mix of movement, color, and fish. That, of course, can be more difficult to accomplish.

Well, back to filling in nail holes in wood and sanding. More to come. Of course.

 

[KnightMetro]

OK, the hood access panels are going well so far.

I am using a hardboard for these due to rigidity and thickness. They are only 1/8" thick and about as hard as an acrylic panel. I wanted to just make something that can VERY EASILY be popped in place/removed without the need for hinges, hardware, or be complex. They need to block out all light from the edges but also be soemthing that can be popped out a million times without wear.

The front panel will get trim slats as well.

I countersunk some magnets into the surface of the panel recess. I also have some magnetic tape I'll adhere to the door itself around the entire edge and then enamel over. This should give me an entire edge surface to stick to the tank and bloc out any light bleed. If the magnets installed in the stand isn't enough, I'll just add some more countersunk magnets.

 

[KnightMetro]

Well, I realized yesterday we are getting pretty close to the tank, just the big glass box in a wall, being done. What dawned on me is that we are still from here to the moon on getting water into the thing though. I also kind of became a bit concerned about how long it takes from receiving a custom tank to the day you actually see if there is anything wrong with it. I won't know if there are any fabrication leaks until we are 95% finished. It is what is it, I'm just thinking out loud.

- I still need to plumb some PVC from the return lines (1") and the shadow overflow (1") down through the floor into the basement. They will remained roughed in until I figure out where they will ultimately route to in the basement. More on that below.
- Of course, I still need to paint the front side of the surround. I'm thinking a solid three coats in total all the way around.
- I setup the smaller hood access door with magnets and epoxied them into the panel. I've got the inside panel coated with a good glossy enamel and now I just need to paint the outside the exterior color of the surround and see how it looks. I may not like how non-precise the panel fits, so I may redo it in the long run. One of the sides has a 1/8" gap I may just try to overlook aesthetically. My only real priority is making sure there is no light bleed around the edges of the cover when they LEDs inside are on.
- I also need to finish up the access panel that is in the left side closet so we can turn it back into a closet. The closet side access, no pictures yet, will give me access the under the tank, all the wiring for the lights and power heads, and access to the left side glass panel to place a power head. It'll also be where their respective controllers will be placed.

Anyway, here is some shots of the basement. After waling around there last night, I realized I also need a larger space. Maybe not all of it will be fish room (or so I tell my wife) but the space I had laid out was only 5.5" wide and maybe 20ft long. Only half of that could be used for fish tank space and some of it would be too close to the primary electrical panel and the entire HVAC system.

So, here is the drawing of what the new layout will be, roughly, and still pull off an office, spare bedroom, and family room.

Here are some pictures of what the basement looks like as of now. Yeah, a lot of work to do.

 

[Nrdau]

Looks amazing. Good job

 

[KnightMetro]

I finally had the moment this weekend to stand back and look at this thing. After a million ADHD back and forth, I can look at this wall and see the vision I had in front of me almost complete.

Here is the side access panel painted and installed. The magnets have a great hold and I am happy how it turned out.

Next is getting the front access panels started and finish up the return line plumbing and overflow through the floor.

 

[KnightMetro]

Hey! I did a thing! I built a wall....



So, this will be the fish room. The reef tank is just above the room against the wall with the staircase. Lines will come down the right side and routed to the sump. At this point, I'm leaning towards a 75g tank as I already have the baffles to make one into a sump.

I'm having my wife go out today to grab some 55g water barrels I found for $3 a pop. I want to stage the barrels under the stairs to see how I can design a water storage and saltwater mix station out of the way and under the staircase. I figure 110g of each RO/DI and Premix saltwater is a good number. Plus $12 for all 4 barrels is far more agreeable than the cost of a 100g+ water tank.



Sorry I have been out for so long. We have been working with some other projects and I was doing a lot of work on a car I picked up for myself. Now I'm back to trying to spend a couple hundred a month on getting this rolling.



The "room is 9.5ft x 5.5ft. It will be part of a larger utility room but I think I want to enclose the fish room on it's within the larger utility room. That way I can keep the room removed from contaminants. The other side of the utility room I will most likely use for indoor projects. Like finishing furniture, small projects, storage. Stuff not to be next to circulating water.



More to come on the design of the fish room. My goal is to have it enclosed and the pipes ran down to the room by mid Sept.

 

[KnightMetro]

So, this will be the new layout of the basement.

I realized my original plan for the reef equipment room may have been too small or the added utility/workshop room next to it would be too large in comparison. So, I decided to just make the entire utility space for the reef tank equipment and I will add more utility to my garage for workshop projects.

The reef/utility room will be completed first. Over the next few weeks I am going to get the remaining walls for the utility room up and put in the guest room closet door as well as the utility room door which will be on the side of the office. Then the walls will be 1/2 plywood. I figure this is appropriate for a utility space vs a finished room. Also, it leaves me the ability to mount anything to a wall, anywhere, without worrying about constantly anchoring into drywall. Of course, we will seal the plywood with exterior paint and make the room look good. Also, I may go ahead and just put in a dropped ceiling in this space as it would hide piping and allow me a flexible space to add ventilation to the outside of the house. I figure a good utility/storage room will one day be a selling point on the house. Plus, this new layout adds and office, rec room, guest room, and family room. All solid additions to a house.

I'm going to enclose the new HVAC system and water heater in the surround that used to be there, just slightly larger. It'll reincorporate the vented bi-fold doors that used to be there I kept from the demo.

The utility room also has the main circuit panel in it as well. I have found 4 slots that I can decommission and utilize for the reef equipment. 2 are for a range oven we don't have, as we use gas, and one is for a 40A plug in the garage I won't use and I believe isn't wired to the plug correctly anyway.

All in all, I like the new idea. I figure the sump, QT tanks, equip, etc will go in the southern section of the room and the northern section will be water storage, a freezer/fridge, and some shelving.

My next step will be drawing up some plans and seeing how I want to put counter tops/shelving in the equipment area. Then I can design electrical around that.

 

[Desertoasis]

Love seeing this coming along, will definitely be following!