a long time coming
- Thread starter Acro
- Start date
Acro
Premium Member
sixxer,Yeah thats probably what I should have done in the first place. I should have known this was the direction this thread would take. The mods can move it over there if thats what they see fit. Or I'll see if my Buddy that took on the project with me and biult a 525ish gal tank wants to tackle a thread with me over there. It would be a bit though as he's busy with getting his system running right now.
10 feet wasn't an option for me because I biult the tank to my running budget which was 4 lights and I felt 8 feet was the best for this. I don't think I could put a time on this project as it was a few weekends here a few hours there as well as a break in there to get married. It would really depend on your spare time and motivation.
Karl, If you like shoot me a pm and we can figure something out.
I bought the epoxy through Steveston marine for about $600 I would try some where else if I did it again as I wasn't happy with service there. I just hate giving money to people that don't deserve it.
David, Yes those are Luminarcs and I'm surprised your the first to comment on them. They are the mini LA3's. These ones are a proto type though. As they have change a few things on them which improves the design on the bracket. My dealing with Luke at PGS have been great and we continue speaking. Great reflectors!!
I'm running 2-400watter and 2-250's right now. There are all ushio 10ks, I'm pretty happy with the look. I think fluorescents would bring out some color but I'm not sure if I'm willing to add them. I may try a higher k bulb down the road. I am happy with these though, I think the starfire glass helps some too. I also love the openness of the top of the tank with out fluorescents. So we'll see with time.
Hey NIck, I enjoyed the talk too! Have fun with the project and keep me informed on your progress.
Steve, Really a great product. Great customer service too. I talked a many time to there tec support. One of the best things I was able to use it in my basement with very little if any smell to the rest of the house.
Aquaduck, I'm definetly not the first. There are a few people that have done this on RC. If you do a searcg here you'll find some info. AS well as some freshwater hobbiest have done it too. Check out some of the cichlid boards. I also borrowed a book from a buddy that was good too. I can't recall the name though. If you go to the westsystems page that was linked earlier you'll find info that pertains to epoxy work that is tranferable to a project such as this too. BOat biulding reading as well. HOpe that keeps you busy.
10 feet wasn't an option for me because I biult the tank to my running budget which was 4 lights and I felt 8 feet was the best for this. I don't think I could put a time on this project as it was a few weekends here a few hours there as well as a break in there to get married. It would really depend on your spare time and motivation.
Karl, If you like shoot me a pm and we can figure something out.
I bought the epoxy through Steveston marine for about $600 I would try some where else if I did it again as I wasn't happy with service there. I just hate giving money to people that don't deserve it.
David, Yes those are Luminarcs and I'm surprised your the first to comment on them. They are the mini LA3's. These ones are a proto type though. As they have change a few things on them which improves the design on the bracket. My dealing with Luke at PGS have been great and we continue speaking. Great reflectors!!
I'm running 2-400watter and 2-250's right now. There are all ushio 10ks, I'm pretty happy with the look. I think fluorescents would bring out some color but I'm not sure if I'm willing to add them. I may try a higher k bulb down the road. I am happy with these though, I think the starfire glass helps some too. I also love the openness of the top of the tank with out fluorescents. So we'll see with time.
Hey NIck, I enjoyed the talk too! Have fun with the project and keep me informed on your progress.
Steve, Really a great product. Great customer service too. I talked a many time to there tec support. One of the best things I was able to use it in my basement with very little if any smell to the rest of the house.
Aquaduck, I'm definetly not the first. There are a few people that have done this on RC. If you do a searcg here you'll find some info. AS well as some freshwater hobbiest have done it too. Check out some of the cichlid boards. I also borrowed a book from a buddy that was good too. I can't recall the name though. If you go to the westsystems page that was linked earlier you'll find info that pertains to epoxy work that is tranferable to a project such as this too. BOat biulding reading as well. HOpe that keeps you busy.
nbd13
New member
Jamie you bet, i may start a thread once things get moving here in august...
Anyway i will have fun with it and i have decided to not worry and just take things as they come...
Hey i forgot to ask you on the phone, what type of fish are you going for?
Also when you get a minute post some pics of the sump and equipment running this thing...
i would love to see more pics of the main tank to w/ stock in it of course.haha..
anyway keep in touch.
Nick
Anyway i will have fun with it and i have decided to not worry and just take things as they come...
Hey i forgot to ask you on the phone, what type of fish are you going for?
Also when you get a minute post some pics of the sump and equipment running this thing...
i would love to see more pics of the main tank to w/ stock in it of course.haha..
anyway keep in touch.
Nick
Coral Polyp
New member
Any updates? 
-Jack
-Jack
Acro
Premium Member
Jack,
Nothing new really I've been adding fish and removing them too. I've got about 22 in there now and it's starting to look pretty neat. I ended up adding 3 flame angels and they were as risky as I thought. They desided to pick more then I was willing to allow. So off to a buddies to biuld a trap and out they went. I've also added 3 black leopards and a few barlett's anthias. So right now I'm having fun with the fish. At feeding time it's looken like a real reef.
My Bud was over last night for a few beers and one thing he was real impressed with was the calmness the fish showed. We both had are faces pasted against the front glass and the fish didn't mind a bit. I even tried to scare them a few times by waving my hand and tapping the glass but nothing would bother them. Sometimes with mask and snorkel I'll stick my face in the tank and even them most of the fish will still act calmly and swim around. This is something I've never experienced personally in smaller tanks and it's pretty neat to watch. The behavior both during the day and as night approach is very intresting to experience and is a new learning arena for me.
The corals are also slowly getting richer colors. I would still like to try a few different lighting arrangements as I think I'd like a hint more blue. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing yet though. I guess thats about it.
Nothing new really I've been adding fish and removing them too. I've got about 22 in there now and it's starting to look pretty neat. I ended up adding 3 flame angels and they were as risky as I thought. They desided to pick more then I was willing to allow. So off to a buddies to biuld a trap and out they went. I've also added 3 black leopards and a few barlett's anthias. So right now I'm having fun with the fish. At feeding time it's looken like a real reef.
My Bud was over last night for a few beers and one thing he was real impressed with was the calmness the fish showed. We both had are faces pasted against the front glass and the fish didn't mind a bit. I even tried to scare them a few times by waving my hand and tapping the glass but nothing would bother them. Sometimes with mask and snorkel I'll stick my face in the tank and even them most of the fish will still act calmly and swim around. This is something I've never experienced personally in smaller tanks and it's pretty neat to watch. The behavior both during the day and as night approach is very intresting to experience and is a new learning arena for me.
The corals are also slowly getting richer colors. I would still like to try a few different lighting arrangements as I think I'd like a hint more blue. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing yet though. I guess thats about it.
Travis
10 and over club
Jamie, could you describe and post a pic of the fish trap you made? It sounds like it worked like a charm. Did a lot of other fish get caught in it before the flames? In the past 6 monhts I've had to tear my entire 280 down twice to get a fish out that was picking on corals more than I cared for. The first was an imperator angel and the second was a regal. I would love to see a nice fish trap that really works so I can have one ready "just in case". In fact, I even had to remove a sailfin tang a month ago that developed a taste for acros, mainly the blue ones too. 
I had the fish for 4 years before he turned to the dark side so you just never know what could happen.
I had the fish for 4 years before he turned to the dark side so you just never know what could happen.
Jamie,
Glad to see you got that beast running. I remember seeing the skeleton of it when I came by for some frags.
Sadly, I am still waiting on my replacement 320g from mitch over in alberta... and I kinda put the new tank build up on hold to get married as well... if mitch doesnt send the replacement tank soon though, I may try my hand at building a plywood tank too - I'm dying to get it up and running!
The pics look amazing, that's some serious build quality. Glad to see it all came together so well.
Good luck, even if you don't need it
Shane
Glad to see you got that beast running. I remember seeing the skeleton of it when I came by for some frags.
Sadly, I am still waiting on my replacement 320g from mitch over in alberta... and I kinda put the new tank build up on hold to get married as well... if mitch doesnt send the replacement tank soon though, I may try my hand at building a plywood tank too - I'm dying to get it up and running!
The pics look amazing, that's some serious build quality. Glad to see it all came together so well.
Good luck, even if you don't need it
Shane
Acro
Premium Member
Hey Nick, I think I can pull it off.
It was a much easier request on the 120 though. Here we go:
2-Pink spotted shrimp gobies
1-Cleaner wrasse
3-Black leopard wrasses
4-Blue chromis
4-Green chromis
3-Yellow tangs
1-Purple tang
4-barlett's anthias(more to come)
1-Indian Ocean bristlemouth tang
1-swissguard basslet
OK so theres 24. I'm pretty sure I havn't forgotten but the lights are out right now so I can't double check.
Hi Travis, The trap of coarse will only work on fish that are feeding agressively, the shyer the fish the longer you need to leave the trap in before attempting to catch it/them. In my old tank I used a similiar trap but would need to leave it in the tank for a few days and slowly putting food closer and closer to the trap. Then inside the trap with out attempting to capture the fish, just to bring up the comfort level. The new tank though is much different and the fish didn't get scared at all. I put the trap in at night and had fish going in it the next day. Once I started adding food most the fish would go in it. The following day the flames went in it and the first time on both I caught them with in 15 min I had them both. The trap is pretty simply but effective. The only thing I would change is the trap door which needs some rails or upper giudes so the door does sit on an angle. The back bracket simply sits on top the tank. I use an algae magnet to hold it on. Depending on the design of ones top you could change that to accomadate. A hole was drilled in the back of the trap and 3 in the bracket arm and tapped so the trap can be fastened at different heights. Anyways here's some pics.
Hey Shane, Yeah it's come along way since you've been over.Still a ways to go yet though. I'm kinda lazy on the finishing touches.
Good luck with which ever route you take. If you do wanna try your luck on something like this shoot me an email.
Wee Man, Thanks
It was a much easier request on the 120 though. Here we go:2-Pink spotted shrimp gobies
1-Cleaner wrasse
3-Black leopard wrasses
4-Blue chromis
4-Green chromis
3-Yellow tangs
1-Purple tang
4-barlett's anthias(more to come)
1-Indian Ocean bristlemouth tang
1-swissguard basslet
OK so theres 24. I'm pretty sure I havn't forgotten but the lights are out right now so I can't double check.
Hi Travis, The trap of coarse will only work on fish that are feeding agressively, the shyer the fish the longer you need to leave the trap in before attempting to catch it/them. In my old tank I used a similiar trap but would need to leave it in the tank for a few days and slowly putting food closer and closer to the trap. Then inside the trap with out attempting to capture the fish, just to bring up the comfort level. The new tank though is much different and the fish didn't get scared at all. I put the trap in at night and had fish going in it the next day. Once I started adding food most the fish would go in it. The following day the flames went in it and the first time on both I caught them with in 15 min I had them both. The trap is pretty simply but effective. The only thing I would change is the trap door which needs some rails or upper giudes so the door does sit on an angle. The back bracket simply sits on top the tank. I use an algae magnet to hold it on. Depending on the design of ones top you could change that to accomadate. A hole was drilled in the back of the trap and 3 in the bracket arm and tapped so the trap can be fastened at different heights. Anyways here's some pics.
Hey Shane, Yeah it's come along way since you've been over.Still a ways to go yet though. I'm kinda lazy on the finishing touches.
Good luck with which ever route you take. If you do wanna try your luck on something like this shoot me an email.
Wee Man, Thanks
sfsuphysics
Active member
Wow, another great plywood tank. I second on the write up, doing a search for plywood tanks doesn't yield very many results of large size.
Btw how much epoxy did you end up using? I'm wanting to make a 12' long tank and one thing I can't yet figure out is how much 1 gallon of epoxy will cover, and at roughly ~$100 per gallon (brand dependant) I dont want to put together everything and find out I'll need 10 gallons of the stuff.
Btw#2, in the glass insertion picture the epoxy looks black, yet in the first page shots (full of corals) it looks blue, what did you do between those two steps to get the color change?
Btw#3, love that overflow, I think I'm going to want to do something just like that as well, are those all 1.5" pipes durso'd going into a 2" pipe? Or larger?
Btw how much epoxy did you end up using? I'm wanting to make a 12' long tank and one thing I can't yet figure out is how much 1 gallon of epoxy will cover, and at roughly ~$100 per gallon (brand dependant) I dont want to put together everything and find out I'll need 10 gallons of the stuff.
Btw#2, in the glass insertion picture the epoxy looks black, yet in the first page shots (full of corals) it looks blue, what did you do between those two steps to get the color change?
Btw#3, love that overflow, I think I'm going to want to do something just like that as well, are those all 1.5" pipes durso'd going into a 2" pipe? Or larger?
Acro
Premium Member
Mike, I bought a 5gal kit of the epoxy. I made the 412gal main tank and a 210gal sump out of that amount. If you do go with the west systems brand I would call there tec line. They have a great tec support staff. At least they where very helpful for me and I called on them a few times.
The pigment in the epoxy was and is blue. I used the same pigments as they add to tint paint. The color difference you noticed was just from the camera or room darkness.
The durso's are all 2" pipe plumbed into a 3" manifold.
The pigment in the epoxy was and is blue. I used the same pigments as they add to tint paint. The color difference you noticed was just from the camera or room darkness.
The durso's are all 2" pipe plumbed into a 3" manifold.
Acro
Premium Member
Hey Nick, Good to hear everything went well. Never mind my pictures how come I havn't seen any of yours?
I havn't taken any great photo's lately. The tank is just starting to show some good signs of growth and color improvements. So hopefully in another 4-6 months she'll be rock'n'rolling. Here's a few to tie you over.
I havn't taken any great photo's lately. The tank is just starting to show some good signs of growth and color improvements. So hopefully in another 4-6 months she'll be rock'n'rolling. Here's a few to tie you over.
nbd13
New member
Hey NICE regal angel!
is yours a male or female? eating well i hope?
i picked up a nice 4.5" female regal angel about 5 days ago and she is a PIG, haha she eats anything i throw into the tank!
i love these fish and i hope to get atleast another male for her or i might try my luck at getting 1 more female and 1 more male to form alittle harem.... i have a chance to get another healthly female, but she is smaller than the one i have right now, so i am unsure at this point, but forsure i want to try and get a male.... and i think i might try to get 1 more angel a conspic!
anyway can i get an updated fish list?
how did the tangs react to regal being introduced?
how is that trigger? i was thinking about getting a corsshatch one, but am still unsure....
also where do you get most of your corals from?
i will PM you a link to a thread i have on another board also.... she is still young so not too mnay corals, i should have about 15 SPS coming in, oh in about 2 weeks from Fiji!!
anyway beautiful tank! did you have any loses from the transfer? i am hoping i do not loose anything, haha!
good to see everything is going good! did you finish all of your projects up? skimmer and viewing room? haha!
Nick
is yours a male or female? eating well i hope?
i picked up a nice 4.5" female regal angel about 5 days ago and she is a PIG, haha she eats anything i throw into the tank!
i love these fish and i hope to get atleast another male for her or i might try my luck at getting 1 more female and 1 more male to form alittle harem.... i have a chance to get another healthly female, but she is smaller than the one i have right now, so i am unsure at this point, but forsure i want to try and get a male.... and i think i might try to get 1 more angel a conspic!
anyway can i get an updated fish list?
how did the tangs react to regal being introduced?
how is that trigger? i was thinking about getting a corsshatch one, but am still unsure....
also where do you get most of your corals from?
i will PM you a link to a thread i have on another board also.... she is still young so not too mnay corals, i should have about 15 SPS coming in, oh in about 2 weeks from Fiji!!
anyway beautiful tank! did you have any loses from the transfer? i am hoping i do not loose anything, haha!
good to see everything is going good! did you finish all of your projects up? skimmer and viewing room? haha!
Nick
Travis
10 and over club
Nick, how do you sex the regals? I have a small 2.5-3" regal that is in my FOWLR. I tried it in my 280 sps but it went to town on the sps polyps after it had been in there for about 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I haven't had squat for luck with angels in my sps tank. Last December I had to remove a 4" imperator the same day it went in due to eating sps polyps. My FOWLR has turned into "the tank for fish that ate sps polyps in the display".:lol: Seriously, it used to be a quarantine tank but now houses all the fish that had to be removed from the sps tank.
nbd13
New member
Hey Travis- well its still all theory at this point i think, BUT if you look at your regal, right below the eyes, there will be a blue spike looking thing.. like a shard point, its blue....
they call it a gill spine and it runs horizontal to the fish, its like a dagger so to speak and we "think" think being the key word here that the shorter it is the more likely its a female and the longer one its a male, look at the regal angel thread in the reef fish forum here on RC and read the last 3-5 pages and you will see what i am talking about... if you need pics shoot me a PM...
i heard about your experiences and am sorry but like all angels its 50/50....
Jamies, haha that covered it i think, did you get my PM with the links, haha....
man no updated fish list, that sucks i always look forward to thoses on bigger tanks, i love fish.... and SPS.....
anyway let me know what you think of my new tank....
Nick
they call it a gill spine and it runs horizontal to the fish, its like a dagger so to speak and we "think" think being the key word here that the shorter it is the more likely its a female and the longer one its a male, look at the regal angel thread in the reef fish forum here on RC and read the last 3-5 pages and you will see what i am talking about... if you need pics shoot me a PM...
i heard about your experiences and am sorry but like all angels its 50/50....
Jamies, haha that covered it i think, did you get my PM with the links, haha....
man no updated fish list, that sucks i always look forward to thoses on bigger tanks, i love fish.... and SPS.....
anyway let me know what you think of my new tank....
Nick
piercho
New member
Jamie,
just so I understand, you were using the West System like as a coating to waterproof the interior of the tank, without using a fiber mat with the epoxy for reinforcement? And over the West System you used epoxy tank paint? Or do I have it wrong?
Yours is the best execution of a ply&epoxy tank on this reef board I've seen so far. We just moved into this house and the spot where the boss wants the new tank to go is awkward for a standard glass, and I've never been too keen on acrylic. I've been reading up on sandwich core constrution which would be similar to what you've done but the wood is glassed inside and out.
Your tank is an inspiration both for its construction and its esthetic appearence, congrats.
just so I understand, you were using the West System like as a coating to waterproof the interior of the tank, without using a fiber mat with the epoxy for reinforcement? And over the West System you used epoxy tank paint? Or do I have it wrong?
Yours is the best execution of a ply&epoxy tank on this reef board I've seen so far. We just moved into this house and the spot where the boss wants the new tank to go is awkward for a standard glass, and I've never been too keen on acrylic. I've been reading up on sandwich core constrution which would be similar to what you've done but the wood is glassed inside and out.
Your tank is an inspiration both for its construction and its esthetic appearence, congrats.
