Adam The Aussie - 70 gallon build

[Adam007]

Hi Everyone,

Not really sure if this post belongs here or in the Nano area.. however everything in the Nano area seems under 50 gallon, and everything in this area seems to be over 150 gallon !

This is my first ever marine tank, I had a 3 foot tank when I was about 10 that I tried to keep goldfish in with no filter and a desk lamp and didn't even know what a water change is.. that didn't work out so well

Im abit older and have abit more money now, so here goes.

Tank:

600*600*600 cube
10mm glass
12mm base
euro bracing

Sump:
450*450*300
6mm glass
acrylic baffles
DSB section

Equipment List:

Reef Octopus NW-110 Skimmer
Eden 155 Return Pump (4200Lph)
3x Hydor Koralia's Copys (5000Lph)
2x Jager 200W Heaters
Hailea HC-300A 1/4hp Chiller Marine Aquarium to 800L
250W MH & 4x 24W T5 Unit
14000k 250W DE Lamp
2x 24w 10000k Bulbs
2x Actinic Bulbs

Here's some pics of the equipment sofar:

Jager Bombs anyone ? :cheers:

Maybe not.. just reflecting how big these things are for only 200W, also the entire white section you can see here is heater element, unlike the cheap ones which have a tiny amount of heating surface:

Eden 155 4200lph return pump.. I tested this thing out by dropping it side on into my 90ltr QT tank. The pump shot across the other side of the tank and luckily I didn't have much water in the tank as it was seriously pushing some water !

 

[Adam007]

2x 54W T5 HO GLO Unit - was bought when i was going to do a freshwater setup, so this will be placed over my sump for the Refugium. Has 6500K bulbs in it which are designed for plant growth, so it should do the job very well.

First up the MH & T5 Unit:

Has a nice warning about making sure the Lamp is re-seated:

The Hydor Koralia's K Copy 5000L/H Power head's

 

[Adam007]

The Octopus NW-110 Skimmer:

And I thought this thing was small ???? :

My baby.. Hailea HC-300A

Some salt

Refractometer in a groovy box:

The MH came with a 20,000K Lamp however I swapped this out for a14,000K one. Took alot of heaving to get the 14,000K lamp in, and I do hope I can get it out when the time comes...

 

[Adam007]

Well here is the day that I build the stand. Im no cabinet maker thats for sure, had to cut the bottom 3 times and the door 4 times.. gah

Didn't take any pictures during the day, cause well I was just too engrossed with building the thing !

18mm structural ply was used. All joints are glued and screwed. The unit is very sturdy and im really pleased with how it has turned out.

I bought the wrong sort of hinges, I need to get the "cabinet style" ones, I didn't get them

Anyway on with the pics of it, how it stands now:

This shows the supports underneath the top, left room at the back for where my plumbing will have to be drilled through.

How the top and base of the unit are:

Next I will putty all the holes and start sanding, hopefully get afew coats of paint on aswell maybe ?

 

[Adam007]

Spent the next day continuing to prep and then getting some paint onto the stand.

Started off with a trip to the hardware store, about $100 later I had lots of Putty, Undercoat, White Enamel for the inside, outside paint, and some decent hinges.

Started off filling in all the screw holes and rough bits of the ply with the putty,

Then I undercoated the inside of the stand while I waited for some of the putty to set:

Once that was done, abit more sanding, abit more puttying etc - this was the most time consuming part as I would just about think I was ready to put the sander down I would find some more divets to putty up !

Finally it was time to paint the outside in undercoat:

I did about 4 coats in total of undercoat, the first coat soaked up a heap of paint but it was alot easier going after that.

Then we got onto the first coat of the outside paint, this colour was chosen to match our existing furniture and lounge chairs:

And thats where im upto currently, in about another 2hrs I will put a second coat of the brown on.

Also picked this up from my partners Grandmother today to store my NSW in once I start doing water changes:

 

[Adam007]

Next the tank turned up at the supplier, took my equipment in and we sized up the sump and the weir. Will all be done by tomorrow and hopefully I can bring it home provided the silicone has had enough time to dry !

Finished painting the stand, got really annoyed with the door hinges as I cant get them to hang straight. I think the door is too heavy as it hangs straight as when laid on its back. As soon as you turn it up the right way the door sags and wont shut properly. So throwing in the towel and using another method and going with a "clip-on" style of door :

Stand just waiting for the tank to turn up now

Powerboard + hole for electrical to enter - probably will add another powerboard.

 

[Adam007]

And here is the tank!

The sump -

Water enters the sump through this "catchment style area which forces the water to flow against the glass, making the sump input very quiet - a big factor as this tank is going to be positioned in our living room. You can see better detail of the catchment area here:

Water then will swirl around where the skimmer will be located, and then head over the DSB and then into the return pump:

Hopefully will have it on the stand tomorrow, have to cut out where the bulkheads go through the stand.

 

[Adam007]

And after the effort put in the evening all this happend, I was stuffed !

Started with getting the hole cut in the stand to make clearance for the plumbing to pass through, and then threw on the foam with the painted edges :

Checked to see that the stand was level when in position, and guess what - its completely level, didn't have to add anything under the stand - how lucky am I ?

Was not enough room inside the sump to fit the heaters comfortably, so they sit in the weir. Need to get a sheet of black perspex to go on the front of the weir. Guess who forgot to paint the back of the tank while it was in the garage ??

Sump all setup, im going to have to hang the light as its going to be too close to getting wet I think :

In perspective to the room, chiller also off to the side:

Have not finished the light stand yet, but for the hell of it plugged it in to have a look:

 

[Adam007]

It's ready for water Just finished off the plumbing, it's alot better then it was originally and the chiller is now plumbed in !

 

[Adam007]

The tank is now officially wet !

Spent the day fabricating the light stand system, don't have any pictures to show as I forgot my camera, and I was too busy welding away anyway

Also purchased a sheet of acrylic to cover the weir front so that it hides the ugly white PVC piping. I siliconed this in early this morning.

Here is the setup with the light all attached, have not trimmed the excess cable from the light yet, want to make sure I have the height correct:

And its now wet, water still cloudy as anything from adding the salt. Extra powerhead on the front is just there to move the salt around.

 

[Adam007]

I need to get this taking photos with lights on down pat, hrmmm

Also had my MH Lamp crack

Emailed the seller and a new replacement is on its way today,

 

[Adam007]

Updated underneath my tank, got rid of the T5 light unit as it was simply too big, I need room for a water container for the auto-topoff so the light had to go, this has filled its place:

Also made the hose off my durso longer so that it is fully underwater and abit longer so that I can direct it away from the DSB area:

Had afew questions about the light stand and how its setup, pictures speak better then words so hopefully this helps:

Also got some stuff ready for my auto-topoff system, grabbed a strip of acrylic and used the toaster to heat it up (improvising !)

 

[kar93]

Looks good However......

This forum is dedicated to water volumes of 180 gallons and larger.

 

[Adam007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12599045#post12599045 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kar93
Looks good However......

Thanks for that, I have reported my post and asked for it to be moved to the correct area, so hopefully a Moderator can do that.

Bought the only LR avalible in town today, and that was only 1/2 a box

However I got all this for only $70 - they offered me a free urchin aswell but I wasnt very interested so made them pick him off the rock. They also discovered a cuc living in their LR container after I cleaned them out of LR

Unfortunately it also came with some freebies !

Bristle Stars - removed these

What I believe to be a Mantis (thank goodness I found it before it went into the water !)

Have no clue what this is, im sure it was moving when they pulled the rock from the shop, however it would not move at all once home, pulled it off anyway:

All the rock layed out to check it out. Bug removing tools aswell

 

[Adam007]

In the tank after only 2mins of "aquascaping"

 

[Jflip2002]

That looks like some nice quality rock, with a whole bunch of little critters hiding.

 

[kdblove_99]

looks great. That was a mantis too bad. Great creatures but not good for reef

 

[dougie]

nice :thumbsup:

 

[cvilla44]

so far so good keep it going

 

[amehel0]

nice to see another aussie meber i to will be starting my 90g build and dont know where to put it!