Belly up!

A

agentgreen

New member
Ok I'm finally at the point where I feel I can start up a build thread. Sorry if this is long :)

My current tank is a 30 gallon hex, which houses 2 GSMs, 1 "getting-too-big-for-his-house" snowflake eel, and 1 "I'm-going-to-regret-this" domino damsel.

Obviously the 30G is way too small for the eel so I am upgrading to a 120G. It's a standard AGA 120G, with 2 megaflow overflows in the back.

I have spent what feels like the last 20 years of my life constructing a stand and canopy for the 120G, with a slight twist. It was my first DIY woodworking project, and I think it turned out pretty good.

Here is your standard aquarium stand:



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Here's the twist:



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As you can see a bar top rolls out of the stand, allowing one to consume beverages of their choice while watching the tank.

There are flaps on each side of the bar top that fold out as well, which you can see here:



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The flaps extend the bar top but also prevent the bar from sliding back in when in use. Pretty cool eh? I have to cut the flaps back a bit because I trimmed out the opening for the bar top, which wasn't in the original plan so now the flaps won't open out. Did I mention I rule at woodworking?

Anyways, now that the canopy (not shown) and lower stand have stain and poly on them, I'm ready to start moving on with setting up plumbing and lighting and all that.

Here is my equipment list so far:

40 gallon breeder sump partitioned out: skimmer | return | refugium
Reef Octopus XP-2000-INT skimmer
Workhorse 7 Ballast and 2 110W VHO bulbs (eventually adding 2x250W SE MH)
500gph return pump (more like 250-300gph at 4-5' head)
60lbs of dead reefsaver BRS rock
Roughly 40lbs of 'live' rock that's been in my 30G tank for over a year

That's about it for now. Over the next couple of days I'm going to be working on a plumbing plan. Should be pretty straight forward, but I'm open to suggestions.

I'll also be wiring up my Workhorse ballast, and building out a new hanging light system. I'm not real experienced in electrical work, so I may be asking for help in the emergency room :P

Anyways, thanks for looking and I'll be adding more as I make progress!
 
So in addition to my advanced woodworking skills, I'm also an incredible artist.

I give you.....

MY INITIAL PLUMBING DIAGRAM!!!!!




Whatchoo think? Any suggestions or changes?
 
Just throwing it out there, 300gph return pump isnt going to do much one a 120. might want to get at least 800+ gph
 
Thanks for the info, but I'm not going to rely on my return pump for flow in the tank. Plan on getting power heads and possibly a wave maker.
 
nice stand! on the return pump... I have a little CS90 bringing the water down to my sump and use a mag9.5(4ft lift) return wide open and it barely keeps up. With dual drains might want dual pumps or one large one IMHO.
 
wedwards said:
That stand is SICK!!! Got any pics of the current tank? Looking forward to seeing this one progress!
Click to expand...

Heh, I'm not sure if I want to show my current tank, it's been mostly a 'holding' tank until I can get this 120G up and running, so it's not very pretty :P

almostazoo said:
nice stand! on the return pump... I have a little CS90 bringing the water down to my sump and use a mag9.5(4ft lift) return wide open and it barely keeps up. With dual drains might want dual pumps or one large one IMHO.
Click to expand...

Really...Now that's 3 people who have said this same thing. Is the problem that the overflows just trickle or something? I guess I'm having trouble understanding what they pump is keeping up with.

I guess I could upgrade to the Eheim 1260 that a lot of the 120G people use.
 
Anyone have any issue with my plumbing setup?

I'm itching to purchase the ball valves. I already have my LocLine and spaflex on the way, should get here Friday.

Should I purchase SCH 80 Unions? Or will the HD SCH 40 unions work just fine?
 
Plumbing is done so I decided to do a freshwater leak test.



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Discovered two pinhole leaks in the left two plugs in the back :sad:



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I tried to tighten them as much as I could while the tank was filled, but they still had a problem. My plan is to razor blade the area again and clean it up with rubbing alcohol. Not sure what else to try.

Here are the culprits.



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The return pump is definitely not powerful enough with all the splits I have, so I think I'm going to drop down to one locline per return instead of the two until I get a new return pump.

I'm running Hofer Gurgle Busters for my overflows, and my left one was doing some major flushing. I discovered my tank was slightly unlevel, the left side being a 1/16" lower than the right side. It caused my left overflow to fill up about 50x faster than the right overflow too.

The right overflow was fairly quiet, but I imagine it's because the left overflow was seeing the most traffic.

That's it for now.

Up next is getting my electrical looked at to make sure it can handle everything, start plumbing my water change system and ATO, and build the cabinet that will house my ATO reservoir and new salt water mixing station.
 
Ok, major problem here.

Figured out why my bulkheads were leaking. I took them out to clean the area and the bulkheads and when I tried to put them back in, I came to the immediate realization that the person who drilled my tank drilled the holes too close to each other. Observe:



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I can NOT get them back in place properly. I have *NO* idea how I got them in originally.

Do they make smaller bulkhead sizes in the 3/4" size? Or am I going to have to shave down the bulkhead I have to make it fit?

What other options do I have?
 
I've had to shave off the outer edges of 2 bulkheads to get the fit down right. A little silicon for insurance and you should be in business.
 
breiter3 said:
I've had to shave off the outer edges of 2 bulkheads to get the fit down right. A little silicon for insurance and you should be in business.
Click to expand...

From the looks of it, I shouldn't have to shave TOO much off, so hopefully I won't have to silicone.

My other thought is that I could silicone a piece of glass over both holes and forget the bulkheads altogether.

Has anyone done this?
 
I ended breaking my existing bulkhead when fiddling with it trying to get it to fit (don't ask), so I had to locate a new one. Ended up getting one at a LFS near me.

When I got home I noticed the new bulk head had a smaller 'head' on it then my old one! I wouldn't have to modify it at all!!

Then I tried to fit it in the hole. :sad: The threads on the new bulkhead were taller than the original. So I ended up sanding the thing down for about 30 minutes and it fit perfectly! Hurray!! :thumbs:

So now THATS fixed (hopefully), I decided it was time to start tearing down the old 30G hex. I've had a 20G tall sitting on my counter for a couple of weeks now housing some of my old live rock, so I drained half the water out of it, and replaced it with water from the 30G hex. Mixed it up for about 30 minutes and began the transfer.

Everything went smoothly, I'll try and get pics/vids of it up.

Here are some shots of the old 30G hex and the new house for my fish:



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Up next are to take the sand out of the 30G and clean it, then start the setup of the 120G!!! :yay: :yay: :yay:
:thumbs:
 
Took down the 30G...we had a good run :)

imagexdh.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-01


Nasty!!!


imagebsu.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-01


Sand cleaning time.

imagewkh.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-01
 
Thinking about my ATO setup.

Here's what I plan on doing.

  1. Solenoid on timer in front of RO/DI. Have timer come on for an hour 3 times a day or similar.
  2. Autoshutoff valve on my RO/DI
  3. Solenoid hooked to the output line of my RO/DI.
  4. Triple float valve with latching relay in a RO/DI holding tank. Low float, high float and a fail safe. When the low float triggers, it turns on the solenoid inline after my RO/DI allowing the holding tank to fill. Once it hits the high float valve, it kicks off the solenoid. The third float is a fail safe. Holding tank has an overflow plumbed to a lower salt water mixing tank.
  5. Dual float valve sump ATO that powers a pump in the RO/DI holding tank. Pump would be an aqualifter or something similar that is really slow. Sump will be lower than holding tank so don't have to worry about head pressure.
  6. Leakfrog water detector in sump area that is shower linered about 2" high.

I could also put a timer on the aqualifter, but I'd have to figure out my evaporation rate vs. the flow of the pump.

Thoughts?
 
I pulled out my dry rock and decided to mess around with it a bit.

Here is the BRS rock I got:

imagewel.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-02

Here is our first attempt at aquascaping with it. I really like the right had side, not so sure about the left side though.

imagejyp.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-02
 
Updates!

Updates!

Have a few updates. Started building out my auto top off/salt water mixing station. It's currently used for mixing saltwater to fill up my 120G...half way there!

Tapped into the water supply

img0218us.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23



TDS and pressure meter

img0219lq.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23



RO/DI unit

img0220b.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23


The water lines go around the wall and into a hole in the wall and onto the other side

img0221uc.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23



The other side of that wall

img0222j.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23



Dual float valve with latching relay

img0223qk.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23



New saltwater line to tank

img0224fi.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23



The new saltwater line runs back through the same hole above, back into my laundry room, and into another hole to the tank. Need to do a little clean up here :P

img0226dg.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23



View of the plate behind the tank

img0227jf.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23



New saltwater line at the tank

img0228rv.jpg

By agentgreen at 2011-03-23
 
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