Greybeard
New member
Far enough along to want to start a build thread... Love to hear comments, and sorry in advance for the long post 
Me: Had fish since I was a kid, got into reefing in the 90's. Build a large, in wall reef system in 2000, shut it down in 2004, due to several problems that left me frustrated. Hitchhikers, aptasia, mushroom corals going nuts... Tank was healthy, but uncontrollable growth of undesirable critters killing off my nicest corals just became too much. Too much time in maintenance, bad tank design difficult to access... just got tired of it.
Fast forward 11 years, and I miss having a tank. Going to 'do it right'... keep it small enough to be manageable, get good equipment, no live rock, I'll grow out base rock. No hurry, if it takes me years to get things right, so be it. Building it is the fun part, right?
Eventually, I want an SPS only tank, with a few small, calm fish. Pair of clowns, a few gobys, dottieback, perhaps one dwarf angel.
Decided on a 60g cube, corner overflow, DIY stand.. Initial concept drawing here:
Stand is to have a 'shelf' around the tank, set in an inside corner of my living room, with space to walk all the way around the tank. Bigger stand gives me more room under the tank, and provides a very stable base. My daughter is supposed to mosaic tile the 'shelf' around the tank, in blue and green glass tiles.
Stand build went well...
Plenty of room, white epoxy inside, black outside, fully braced... Build with dado and rabbit construction from solid poplar and cabinet grade poplar plywood. No screws, gorilla wood glue. It's solid as heck.
Purchased a new design R100 sump/refugeum from EShopps. Nice design, but the return pump compartment is a bit narrow, at 3.5". Limits the choices for a return pump, if you want a submersible. I picked up a cheap chineese DCT4000. We'll see how long that lasts. At the price I paid, can afford to keep a spare
Water test! Filled the tank with tap water to work on plumbing, etc:
Happy with the location. Corner-flo is a bit loud, I'll have to see what I can do about that. Surging sound, both from the durso and the sump (I have a reverse durso on that end) Anyone try the Maggie Muffler? Seems like it might be worth a try...
Rockwork: Bought 50lbs of base rock from ReefCleaners. Nice stuff. Since the tank is visible in the round, this is important, and is where I'm at now. My initial design on rockwork:
Ply base is the same size as the inside tank footprint. Stack is 19" tall, tank floor to water line is 23". Suggestions on rockwork appreciated... I'm going to cement the rockwork together before placing it in the tank, want to get it right, without having to worry about it getting knocked down (had an urchin do lots of damage in a previous tank). I'm reading that hydraulic cement is the thing to use... that right?
Ideas, comments, criticism? All welcome
Me: Had fish since I was a kid, got into reefing in the 90's. Build a large, in wall reef system in 2000, shut it down in 2004, due to several problems that left me frustrated. Hitchhikers, aptasia, mushroom corals going nuts... Tank was healthy, but uncontrollable growth of undesirable critters killing off my nicest corals just became too much. Too much time in maintenance, bad tank design difficult to access... just got tired of it.
Fast forward 11 years, and I miss having a tank. Going to 'do it right'... keep it small enough to be manageable, get good equipment, no live rock, I'll grow out base rock. No hurry, if it takes me years to get things right, so be it. Building it is the fun part, right?
Eventually, I want an SPS only tank, with a few small, calm fish. Pair of clowns, a few gobys, dottieback, perhaps one dwarf angel.
Decided on a 60g cube, corner overflow, DIY stand.. Initial concept drawing here:
Stand is to have a 'shelf' around the tank, set in an inside corner of my living room, with space to walk all the way around the tank. Bigger stand gives me more room under the tank, and provides a very stable base. My daughter is supposed to mosaic tile the 'shelf' around the tank, in blue and green glass tiles.
Stand build went well...
Plenty of room, white epoxy inside, black outside, fully braced... Build with dado and rabbit construction from solid poplar and cabinet grade poplar plywood. No screws, gorilla wood glue. It's solid as heck.
Purchased a new design R100 sump/refugeum from EShopps. Nice design, but the return pump compartment is a bit narrow, at 3.5". Limits the choices for a return pump, if you want a submersible. I picked up a cheap chineese DCT4000. We'll see how long that lasts. At the price I paid, can afford to keep a spare
Water test! Filled the tank with tap water to work on plumbing, etc:
Happy with the location. Corner-flo is a bit loud, I'll have to see what I can do about that. Surging sound, both from the durso and the sump (I have a reverse durso on that end) Anyone try the Maggie Muffler? Seems like it might be worth a try...
Rockwork: Bought 50lbs of base rock from ReefCleaners. Nice stuff. Since the tank is visible in the round, this is important, and is where I'm at now. My initial design on rockwork:
Ply base is the same size as the inside tank footprint. Stack is 19" tall, tank floor to water line is 23". Suggestions on rockwork appreciated... I'm going to cement the rockwork together before placing it in the tank, want to get it right, without having to worry about it getting knocked down (had an urchin do lots of damage in a previous tank). I'm reading that hydraulic cement is the thing to use... that right?
Ideas, comments, criticism? All welcome
