whyamisofly
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Which AIO's are you going with?
Build Thread: TKERacer619's 600gal SPS Tank
- Thread starter tkeracer619
- Start date
tkeracer619
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The QT tanks are TruVu. Well at least the one I have is. They're kind of pricey so I am on the lookout for another one locally or will use the dollar per gallon sale to get a 55 and install a sump section to it.
I install a sump section in the 20L tanks myself. I set one up about 6 months ago to test it out. Seems to work well and keeps the powerhead out of the main tank.
I install a sump section in the 20L tanks myself. I set one up about 6 months ago to test it out. Seems to work well and keeps the powerhead out of the main tank.
whyamisofly
New member
I am looking for an AIO to have on my desk at work - hence the reason I was asking.
tkeracer619
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Plasticare can laser cut and bend the acrylic for cheap if you want to diy. They're in Englewood.
whyamisofly
New member
Clean out your inbox!
tkeracer619
New member
I just did 
tkeracer619
New member
Been slow, cast is off, but I'm still limited in what I can actually do. Turns out I fractured and bruised two bones that xrays didn't show. That was one soccer ball I should have let go into the goal... Taking the year off of goalkeeping.
Was looking through texts and came across this photo from 6 months ago :lol:. This is in addition to whats in my display, sump, and a 100gal rubbermaid that's plumbed into the tank. Somehow I fit this pile of rock (it's in a 100gal rubbermaid) into a 150gal rubbermaid. I think I may have too much live rock!!
Was looking through texts and came across this photo from 6 months ago :lol:. This is in addition to whats in my display, sump, and a 100gal rubbermaid that's plumbed into the tank. Somehow I fit this pile of rock (it's in a 100gal rubbermaid) into a 150gal rubbermaid. I think I may have too much live rock!!
whyamisofly
New member
Love to see updates to this thread!
If you're looking to offload rock, I could use about 600#
If you're looking to offload rock, I could use about 600#
tkeracer619
New member
Once it's all said and done I'm pretty sure I'll have a considerable amount leftover. Most all of it is made up of choice pieces.
I'm holding off selling any until I have the tank setup how I want. At this point it has been curing for 6 months but some of it has been live for years.
I'm holding off selling any until I have the tank setup how I want. At this point it has been curing for 6 months but some of it has been live for years.
tkeracer619
New member
Still Making Progress
Still Making Progress
I've been crazy busy and trying to keep ahead of maintenance on my current tanks.
This week I re-plumbed my water storage tanks. I gained 9 inches which means I can put the shop sink inside the filtration room now instead of across the hall in the furnace room :thumbsup:
Should make some good progress on the rest of the stuff over the next couple of days.
Still Making Progress
I've been crazy busy and trying to keep ahead of maintenance on my current tanks.
This week I re-plumbed my water storage tanks. I gained 9 inches which means I can put the shop sink inside the filtration room now instead of across the hall in the furnace room :thumbsup:
Should make some good progress on the rest of the stuff over the next couple of days.
tkeracer619
New member
Lets Get Started On The Fun Stuff!
Lets Get Started On The Fun Stuff!
Up to this point a lot of the work going into this build has been on the house to prepare it for this size aquarium. It's now time to shift focus to the actual install, it's an exciting part of the build! Let's get started.
My buddy Eric does home renovation work. He helped moving the 600gal into the house. He's been a huge help when I needed an extra hand but now he gets to have some fun actually building stuff! We spent Saturday cutting and assembling components of the BTA and QT racks. He is also going to help with skinning the tank. That is going to be in a while though.
We started out with a trip to Home Depot with his work van for supplies and settled on some 11 layer cabinet grade 3/4" plywood. It's nice stuff with minimal voids. This took 7 sheets.
Eric's testing the table saw to confirm the fence is still true. We made a lot of effort to make sure the cuts were accurate.
First set of boards ripped! His dog chilled with us most of the day. The sun felt great on this warm winter day so the pup decided to chill out on some leftover snow :spin1:
Measure twice, cut once.
The finished boards are starting to stack up!
Lets Get Started On The Fun Stuff!
Up to this point a lot of the work going into this build has been on the house to prepare it for this size aquarium. It's now time to shift focus to the actual install, it's an exciting part of the build! Let's get started.
My buddy Eric does home renovation work. He helped moving the 600gal into the house. He's been a huge help when I needed an extra hand but now he gets to have some fun actually building stuff! We spent Saturday cutting and assembling components of the BTA and QT racks. He is also going to help with skinning the tank. That is going to be in a while though.
We started out with a trip to Home Depot with his work van for supplies and settled on some 11 layer cabinet grade 3/4" plywood. It's nice stuff with minimal voids. This took 7 sheets.
Eric's testing the table saw to confirm the fence is still true. We made a lot of effort to make sure the cuts were accurate.
First set of boards ripped! His dog chilled with us most of the day. The sun felt great on this warm winter day so the pup decided to chill out on some leftover snow :spin1:
Measure twice, cut once.
The finished boards are starting to stack up!
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tkeracer619
New member
Lets Get Started On The Fun Stuff!... Continued
Lets Get Started On The Fun Stuff!... Continued
Assembling the shelf supports. I want these racks to last so they have a fair amount of reinforcement. We used glue and Kreg pocket screws to assemble the support frames.
Frames for the BTA shelves complete!
Frames for the QT shelves complete!
We setup a large square on the bench to make sure the frames were square, applied glue, lined up the shelf ply, and used a brad nailer to secure the tops to the frames.
This assembly method resulted in sturdy shelves. They hold several hundred lbs without any sign of bowing. It's time to pack up my Jeep and head home. We spent a good 10 hours from the trip to HD to the loaded Jeep.
Lets Get Started On The Fun Stuff!... Continued
Assembling the shelf supports. I want these racks to last so they have a fair amount of reinforcement. We used glue and Kreg pocket screws to assemble the support frames.
Frames for the BTA shelves complete!
Frames for the QT shelves complete!
We setup a large square on the bench to make sure the frames were square, applied glue, lined up the shelf ply, and used a brad nailer to secure the tops to the frames.
This assembly method resulted in sturdy shelves. They hold several hundred lbs without any sign of bowing. It's time to pack up my Jeep and head home. We spent a good 10 hours from the trip to HD to the loaded Jeep.
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tkeracer619
New member
Lets Get Started On The Fun Stuff!... Continued 2
Lets Get Started On The Fun Stuff!... Continued 2
Atul (BigBlueTang) came over this morning to help assemble. These went together easily.
It took us about 4 hours to get this one together and in place... It's a tight fit and provided some challenges to get it in place! We accidentally knocked the overhead light fixture off... but that was a good thing. It wasn't grounded, it was attached to the ceiling with a single wood screw into a fiberglass tile, and the wire nuts have live wires exposed...
Here's a panoramic of the North and East walls. I took it while standing in the sump. No space will be wasted here!
Simon approves! :dance:
Next up is painting, plumbing the shop sink, and finalizing the installs of these racks so I can get them cycling. I'll need them cycled and stable to move livestock around for the breakdown of my current systems.
Lets Get Started On The Fun Stuff!... Continued 2
Atul (BigBlueTang) came over this morning to help assemble. These went together easily.
It took us about 4 hours to get this one together and in place... It's a tight fit and provided some challenges to get it in place! We accidentally knocked the overhead light fixture off... but that was a good thing. It wasn't grounded, it was attached to the ceiling with a single wood screw into a fiberglass tile, and the wire nuts have live wires exposed...
Here's a panoramic of the North and East walls. I took it while standing in the sump. No space will be wasted here!
Simon approves! :dance:
Next up is painting, plumbing the shop sink, and finalizing the installs of these racks so I can get them cycling. I'll need them cycled and stable to move livestock around for the breakdown of my current systems.
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tkeracer619
New member
Thanks!
tkeracer619
New member
The Devil is in the details.
The Devil is in the details.
I thought about painting the BTA racks tonight but decided to take a few moments to polish them out. Stopped at the store on my way home for sanding belts and Bondo.
First things first, I needed to shave 1/4" off the bottom of the racks, they fit but left me no room to shim. I used a piece of wood as a fence and used a circular saw to make the cut. If you notice the bottom shelf doesn't sit on the ground, this will help dry the room out in case of a spill and keep water from soaking into the rack.
This is a close up of the joints as it stood. I'm sure after primer and two coats of paint it would have looked fine... the wood is high quality with minimal voids.
After smearing on some Bondo. If you haven't used it before this stuff is great but... it stinks like a nail salon (or body shop), cures fast as heck, and requires you to mix up small batches with a hardener. They say you can mix up enough for 15 minutes, but in reality you want only what you can use in 5. It starts to get thick that fast. Once it gets thick it won't spread very easy.
Used my belt sander with a 120 grit belt to take the front back down to wood. The only Bondo you should leave behind is to blend surfaces or in voids. You can sand and paint in 30 minutes after application.
The finished product ready for paint! Without any voids in the front face it is going to look sharp once painted.
After I paint the racks white I am going to adhere a sheet of FRP onto the back and seal the interior joints with white silicone. This will give me a nice water resistant rack that should last many many years. I could have gone 2x4 construction for these, it would have been much cheaper, but I think the finished product is going to look as good as it functions :bum:
May get to painting tomorrow, we'll see if father time cooperates.
The Devil is in the details.
I thought about painting the BTA racks tonight but decided to take a few moments to polish them out. Stopped at the store on my way home for sanding belts and Bondo.
First things first, I needed to shave 1/4" off the bottom of the racks, they fit but left me no room to shim. I used a piece of wood as a fence and used a circular saw to make the cut. If you notice the bottom shelf doesn't sit on the ground, this will help dry the room out in case of a spill and keep water from soaking into the rack.
This is a close up of the joints as it stood. I'm sure after primer and two coats of paint it would have looked fine... the wood is high quality with minimal voids.
After smearing on some Bondo. If you haven't used it before this stuff is great but... it stinks like a nail salon (or body shop), cures fast as heck, and requires you to mix up small batches with a hardener. They say you can mix up enough for 15 minutes, but in reality you want only what you can use in 5. It starts to get thick that fast. Once it gets thick it won't spread very easy.
Used my belt sander with a 120 grit belt to take the front back down to wood. The only Bondo you should leave behind is to blend surfaces or in voids. You can sand and paint in 30 minutes after application.
The finished product ready for paint! Without any voids in the front face it is going to look sharp once painted.
After I paint the racks white I am going to adhere a sheet of FRP onto the back and seal the interior joints with white silicone. This will give me a nice water resistant rack that should last many many years. I could have gone 2x4 construction for these, it would have been much cheaper, but I think the finished product is going to look as good as it functions :bum:
May get to painting tomorrow, we'll see if father time cooperates.
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tkeracer619
New member
So this showed up today! :bum:
I'm hoping to use my collection of MP40 pumps on the 600gal until I can afford to swap them all out for quiet drives. Most of my mp40s are from the original generation. Still run like champs! That said I use 3 of them on my coral flat in conjunction with the closed loop. I got this pump to replace the current closed loop pump and see what I can do with it's variable speed controls and hopefully free up 3 mp40 pumps. Very excited to see what she'll do!! I expect good things from a variable speed 31x turnover closed loop
Before I plumb it into the coral flat I am going to see how it performs as a return pump to the display. As posted earlier in the thread I have a few different pumps on hand but like the idea of using one of these Vectras, the build quality looks great! I have a pretty hefty head height though so I am going to run a test this weekend to see what's up.
I'm hoping to use my collection of MP40 pumps on the 600gal until I can afford to swap them all out for quiet drives. Most of my mp40s are from the original generation. Still run like champs! That said I use 3 of them on my coral flat in conjunction with the closed loop. I got this pump to replace the current closed loop pump and see what I can do with it's variable speed controls and hopefully free up 3 mp40 pumps. Very excited to see what she'll do!! I expect good things from a variable speed 31x turnover closed loop
Before I plumb it into the coral flat I am going to see how it performs as a return pump to the display. As posted earlier in the thread I have a few different pumps on hand but like the idea of using one of these Vectras, the build quality looks great! I have a pretty hefty head height though so I am going to run a test this weekend to see what's up.
SPotter
Active member
if you havent looked at this thread yet, you may want to before opening the box. I tried running two L1's on my closed loops and had significant issues with internal temps on the pump. I couldnt get enough pressure coming out of the pumps in the variable speed modes and when I ran the pumps in constant mode @ 100% they would shut down because pump temps. At max I could run them without temp issues was 65% on constant. If you do go ahead and try it out, just make sure you leave yourself plenty of room on the plumbing so it will be easy to switch back to your current pump if you are unfortunate enough to run into the same issues that I had.....I am hoping that you dont!
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2543238
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2543238
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