90 gallon DIY reef build

[B E A R]

Hi guys,Any and all help/advice is more than appreciated on this. While I am not new to aquariums, I am new to saltwater and do not know what I am doing as of this moment. I am an active duty member of the Air Force. I am a machinist, welder, CNC Programmer and operator. I have been doing metal fabrication for almost 15 years. I have been leaning towards this saltwater setup for years but have not had any friends or associates that have saltwater aquariums much less fresh to learn from. I am wanting to build a reef tank. I am more interested in coral reefs than fish, I have plenty enough fish in my house. I will start by showing what I have in my house. My primary is a 180 gallon glass tank that I acquired off Craigslist for a straight even trade. It came with filters and 24 spare cartridges, lights, real drift wood decor, various maintenance supplies, and no stand. I new this would be extremely heavy, the glass aquarium took three guys to move, I decided to build my stand out of steel. I used 1x1 square tubing with a .160" wall thickness. I welded the whole thing together and then bought that 5mm paneling from lowes and attached it to the steel to make it look like a wooden stand. I attached the cheapest trimmed they had and made doors from 1x4 planks that were on clearance due to warpage. This stand ended up costing me $55 to build and can withstand around 4500lbs.

I used a all in one stain and varnish. I put 4 light coats over a course of 2 days. It fits very nice in the living room and looks extremely well.

This is my wife's tank, she started off hating aquariums and now has her very own that she maintains herself (truth), and is also the cause of us having 2 poison dart frog set ups. This was a 55 but we swapped out her tank with this 75 one week ago.

Now moving on to the reason I am here on this forum, the future reef tank. I had an old motorcycle in my garage that I found in a pasture. After some mechanical work and a lot of of cutting, welding and fabricating, I had an awesome bobber that did not really cost me anything.

It ended up just sitting in my garage collecting dust and taking up space. I completely lost interest in the bike because of my truck, I converted my old 1994 Chevy pickup to the 2007 Ls1 power train out a Corvette. My buddy had just returned home from Korea and had orders to North Dakota. He decided to stop and stay a night on his way up from Louisiana. While visiting we ended up trading the old bobber for all the salt water stuff he had in the back of his truck. I believe he is a member on this forum. We were stationed together in Louisiana where we did the freshwater hobby together. Since I left he moved over to salt and has convinced me to do the same. Here's the stand for the new 90 gallon. I will be building a matching one to the 180 stand that I built. This stand is under my wife's 75 now.

I got a Cascade canister filter rated for a 100 gallon aquarium. A 5 gallon bucket of live rock and a couple of extra pieces (all dead, been out of water for a year now). Some carbon, replacement filters, and power heads with a very nice coralife light.

Here is the tank. I have it masked off for painting after I drill the holes. I have locations on the tank marked for the drill spots. I will be painting the back OD the tank black because of it clean look and the bottom white to help with lighting and give it the appearance of a substrate presence.

I am holding off drilling the tank for just a little bit until I can design the sump for the bottom. I know nothing about salt water except that I want a reef and that can't be done with a canister filter setup. I added the canister to my freshwater and use the extra space for a larger sump tank. I am going with the biomedia, 55 gallon design I saw on Melev's reef website. Any advice here is very much appreciated. I am extremely patient and time is not an issue for me. I want to build it right the first time but cheap it as cost effective as possible (I have all the time but not the money).

 

[B E A R]

Well now that I have my plans for the sump, it is time to drill some holes. I have a hole on each end, one will drain into the skimmer's side and the other will drain into the fuge and pumped back up from the center. Here is the drilling.

I sprayed the back black and the bottom white. Came out very nice, used Rustoleum 2 in 1 for both colors. Going to let this cure up a bit and install my DIY bulkheads.

It's cured up enough to move around but not installed the bulkheads. It looks really good on the stand, even better with the Coralife light which is now on my wife's tank. I will be using all LED multi chips that I am building. Should arrive in the mail next week.

I will also have light under the stand in sump. I will be ditching the stand for a steel one I am going to make to match my 180 gallon. It will be built specifically to house a 55 or 75 gallon under the 90 with electronics.

 

[B E A R]

I got some more progress on the tank. I got both overflow boxes built, I just need to cut the overflow slots and silicone on to the tank. I had to remove all the silicone I used to install the bulkheads with, I made a phone call to the manufacture to double check and learned that it contains petroleum distillates, which are not safe for aquarium use. I am about to drive to the home improvement store to get the correct stuff. Anyways, here are the overflows. I post more after I get them slotted and sealed.

Alright, got the right stuff now and also picked some water weld. Here are the layout lines and cuts before cleaning.

Here they are cleaned up and siliconed into the tank corners.

I got my dead rock cleaning so I can aqua scape and attempt to bring back to life.

 

[B E A R]

Got my sump figured out to scale.

Just did the first water change on the cleaning if the live rock. They came out clean! Now I will let them sit another day with just water and decholrinator.

I know nothing about skimmers and cannot seem to make up my mind on which one to go with. I have been fabricating and welding. Got the top and bottom of the new stand welded together. I have to go to work in a little bit, so I will have to make the supports in the morning and weld them in.

This should get the job done, just a couple of more mods and it ready to start covering.

 

[B E A R]

I should have asked before I made the sump sock retainers, but are the plastics rings 4" or are they slightly larger than 4", I made the holes 4" to drop the socks into. Got the dividers made, they came out great and are ready to be sealed into the sump.

Project overkill is done and ready for painting.

I was at the petstore and found this on clearance. It says it can make 180 gallons. Has anyone here used this and what are your results, good or bad?

I got the 55gallon sump all cleaned and ready to start sealing together.

Got all the layout lines for the dividers.

Got the dividers in and siliconed in. Now just let cure, clean up and leak check.

 

[B E A R]

Alright, it's been a little while, I was waiting on my multichips and drivers to show up in the mail. I will be using 2 white and 2 blue 50 watt led multichips in a homemade hand fabricated fixture of 2024T3 and 6061T6 aluminum. Unfortunately, 2 of my drivers are not the correct ones. The wrong drivers are actually for RBG led multichips and come with a wireless remote control for dimming and adjusting the lighting spectrum. The original plan was to have the whites wired together and the blues together on a timer so that white goes off first then blue with some LEDs recycled from old children's toy as the moonlights. My power wires are all be recycled from old computer wires, fans and adapters.

Here are the 90 degree lens that came with the multichips

Pre-drilled heat sinks. The multichip that is attached is my blue 460-470nm, the sink next to it has the threaded lens space/retainer

Example of fans and ac/dc adapters

The aluminum fixture that I made. I will be cutting hole in the top for the lens to come through, the sinks will screw directly to the fixture to help with thermal transfer. Small fans on each sink with one large fan pushing air directly into the center of the fixture out to each end.

 

[B E A R]

Led being assembled.

Putting the reflector in place

The lens and retainer in place

 

[B E A R]

Got power to the chips, I am still seeing spots. Just the blue hooked up.

It turned the entire ceiling in the garage blue.

Blue and white next to each other.

 

[B E A R]

Thanks, I machined out the top of the fixture to house the LEDs and heat sinks. I made it so that I can add more of these if I need too in the future. I am not sure how much light I will need or if it will be too much light, but I am thinking of adding the RBG chips since I already have the drivers for it and they are dimmable drivers and can help balance put the spectrum.

 

[B E A R]

I got the tank set on top of the stand and the sump underneath it so I could finally start sizing up the plumbing, and decide the mounting system to suspend the lights above the tank. Here is from the front. I have a temporary freshwater light on here so I can see in the tank.



Here is the back with the overflow silencers I made. I am extremely picky when it come to electrical wires and appearance. I will spend a little extra time here to make it look as clean as possible. It will be a hanging fixture when I am done.

 

[john08007]

Looks great, one thing I noticed, are the pipes siliconed to the tank? Not sure how that will hold up in the long run, maybe someone else can make a suggestion. Typically PVC Bulkheads are used with rubber gaskets

 

[KrissiIZme]

That Wall Drug Cup is making me think you live in south Dakota...? My husband and I just got some dart frogs! We are also setting up our reef tank...135 gallon. We have lots of experience and made all the noob mistakes.