I'll give you guys a little back story. I started with a 46 bow back in 2008; I started off like many people - not really knowing what I was doing, rushing into things with crappy equipment. I had a HOB overflow, a Coralife PC light and Coralife skimmer. Slowly I learned and upgraded along the way; moving up to a 75, then 120 and finally a 180.
In 2011, I bought my first house and moved in with the 180 going into the unfinished basement. I already had big plans for a new tank, but as soon as I started building my first wall in the basement, I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep the tank down there and work at the same time. So I sold my livestock, packed up the rock, sand and equipment and sold the 180.
As usual, life got in the way, and my 6 month schedule grew to over two years. In fact, the only thing that was growing faster than the delays were the budget overages. Mind you, I have the basement of my dreams; but my tank still only exists in my dreams for now.
Oh, and for those wondering; my "big" tank will be a 400 gallon, 8 foot x three foot x thirty inch, in wall monster that will be view-able from three sides and will have an attached 120 square foot fish room complete another 200 gallons of sump tanks.
Now to the story of the little tank.
It's been over two years since I sold off the 180 and I've been itching to get saltwater flowing again somewhere in this house. I decided a couple of weeks ago that I could not wait the two years that I'm planning to get the big tank going. So after much pleading and bargaining, I got the approval from the wife to put an aquarium in her part of the house. You see, we had a deal; the basement is my area and I can build whatever the heck I want in any way that I want - but upstairs; well that's her domain, and if I know what's good for me, I keep it that way.
Ok, so long story short; I had the ok to put a small tank on the main floor. Two major stipulations - only allowed to use equipment that I had from the 180 and it had to be DEAD silent.
First rule went out the window (just don't tell her that, at least not until the credit card statement comes). The second condition however, I was able to honour; hopefully as long as she can't hear it, I won't have to hear it either. If you know what I mean.
On to the tank. I found a guy selling a Perfecto 27 cube (18x20x20) and stand for $150.
This is tank after I had already built the overflow and drilled for the drain and return lines. Speaking of the overflow, this is what I did. I just asked my glass place to get me tinted glass. Costs about three times as much as clear glass, but worth it in my opinion. It was about $50 for those three pieces alone.
I knew I wanted as much sump space as possible and the only way to get that would be with a custom built sump. Well, that's an easy fix, let's build a sump !!
All that glass cost about $45. I had a bunch of small pieces that I was actually charged minimum size prices for, but 6mm is cheap.
I made the Sump 17x19x14, but the water will be at 12", 10" and 8" heights in the each of the chambers. You can see on the back left the first small section that the water drains into, followed the largest section, which will be a RDSB/fuge; water flows across the centre line into the skimmer section and finally through the bubble trap and into the return section. It's a tight fit, but it looks like it'll work.
Here you see the Sump in the stand. It's a TIGHT fit; about 1/8" all the way around.
Here you can see what I did with the plumbing; I obviously went with a Herbie set-up, it's worked for me in the past and IMO beananimal is overkill for small tanks running low flow rates. I went with 1" bulkheads for drains and 3/4" for the returns. The return line is 1" almost all the way up to the bulkhead.
Once I got everything plumbed up I ran it with freshwater for 3 days before filling it up with saltwater and adding the rock and sand. I'm using a Vertex puretek RO system and mixing my SW with Royal Nature salt. The big rock covered in coraline, I just picked up on sunday from Advanced Reef Aquatics in Milton, Ont; it had come in on a fresh shipment the day before. The other two pieces I used from the rock I had from my 180. The big rock is 20 lbs and the two smaller ones are about 10 lbs each. There's another 10 lbs in rubble the FUGE which I'll probably end up removing most of.
In 2011, I bought my first house and moved in with the 180 going into the unfinished basement. I already had big plans for a new tank, but as soon as I started building my first wall in the basement, I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep the tank down there and work at the same time. So I sold my livestock, packed up the rock, sand and equipment and sold the 180.
As usual, life got in the way, and my 6 month schedule grew to over two years. In fact, the only thing that was growing faster than the delays were the budget overages. Mind you, I have the basement of my dreams; but my tank still only exists in my dreams for now.
Oh, and for those wondering; my "big" tank will be a 400 gallon, 8 foot x three foot x thirty inch, in wall monster that will be view-able from three sides and will have an attached 120 square foot fish room complete another 200 gallons of sump tanks.
Now to the story of the little tank.
It's been over two years since I sold off the 180 and I've been itching to get saltwater flowing again somewhere in this house. I decided a couple of weeks ago that I could not wait the two years that I'm planning to get the big tank going. So after much pleading and bargaining, I got the approval from the wife to put an aquarium in her part of the house. You see, we had a deal; the basement is my area and I can build whatever the heck I want in any way that I want - but upstairs; well that's her domain, and if I know what's good for me, I keep it that way.
Ok, so long story short; I had the ok to put a small tank on the main floor. Two major stipulations - only allowed to use equipment that I had from the 180 and it had to be DEAD silent.
First rule went out the window (just don't tell her that, at least not until the credit card statement comes). The second condition however, I was able to honour; hopefully as long as she can't hear it, I won't have to hear it either. If you know what I mean.
On to the tank. I found a guy selling a Perfecto 27 cube (18x20x20) and stand for $150.
This is tank after I had already built the overflow and drilled for the drain and return lines. Speaking of the overflow, this is what I did. I just asked my glass place to get me tinted glass. Costs about three times as much as clear glass, but worth it in my opinion. It was about $50 for those three pieces alone.
I knew I wanted as much sump space as possible and the only way to get that would be with a custom built sump. Well, that's an easy fix, let's build a sump !!
All that glass cost about $45. I had a bunch of small pieces that I was actually charged minimum size prices for, but 6mm is cheap.
I made the Sump 17x19x14, but the water will be at 12", 10" and 8" heights in the each of the chambers. You can see on the back left the first small section that the water drains into, followed the largest section, which will be a RDSB/fuge; water flows across the centre line into the skimmer section and finally through the bubble trap and into the return section. It's a tight fit, but it looks like it'll work.
Here you see the Sump in the stand. It's a TIGHT fit; about 1/8" all the way around.
Here you can see what I did with the plumbing; I obviously went with a Herbie set-up, it's worked for me in the past and IMO beananimal is overkill for small tanks running low flow rates. I went with 1" bulkheads for drains and 3/4" for the returns. The return line is 1" almost all the way up to the bulkhead.
Once I got everything plumbed up I ran it with freshwater for 3 days before filling it up with saltwater and adding the rock and sand. I'm using a Vertex puretek RO system and mixing my SW with Royal Nature salt. The big rock covered in coraline, I just picked up on sunday from Advanced Reef Aquatics in Milton, Ont; it had come in on a fresh shipment the day before. The other two pieces I used from the rock I had from my 180. The big rock is 20 lbs and the two smaller ones are about 10 lbs each. There's another 10 lbs in rubble the FUGE which I'll probably end up removing most of.
