Custom 22.1g Eurobraced Reef!

[PotysGSXR]

Ok, before I even get into my tank, I feel I really need to express my thanks to Danny from www.homeoceans.net (he's also known as CMReefer here at reefcentral.com). This man has been so patient with me from day one and also very informative. As this was my first custom tank, he helped me from plumbing suggestions to any other minute detail questioning I threw at him with the utmost patience. He also built my base and canopy in his garage. I can't recommend him more to anyone out there who wants a custom tank and stand built or any other aquarium product for that matter.

Ok, so we all know that in this hobby, it's only a matter of time before we want to move up to a bigger and better tank right? Well, I got bit pretty hard by that bug and so I decided to upgrade. I didn't want to skimp out on poor quality to save a buck here and there so I told myself even if I have to take months to save, I'll do it.

I wanted my tank on a specific part of my desk and the largest footprint I could make it was 26" x 15". The height is 14". I also decided that I would no longer go for a sump but would make a natural filtration tank with a closed loop system... perhaps a remora on the back.

Here's the tank:

I have 4 holes drilled in the back and an overflow box in the back. The tank is eurobraced and put together with black sillicon. The picture above was after I painted the back black.

I decided to leave the area where the overflow box is unpainted so in case anything gets stuck in there, I can easily see it.


I then also got the canopy and base custom made.

Now I know most people don't get a tank eurobraced just to cover it up with a canopy but I just gave myself the option in case later on I decided I wanted to get rid of the canopy and just have a light fixture.


To be continued...

 

[PotysGSXR]

Continuing on...

Here's my old tank. It was a standard 5.5g tank that I set up for my room. I filled it up to the brim with rocks and corals and used it to house a pair of harlequin shrimps. Unfortunately, one died, but the other is now in a bigger home. The thing about the 5g tank was that it was just too small, constantly hot even with fans, and the large canopy just wasn't appealing to me.

Once I got my new tank, I decided to put the closed loop intake from the overflow box, out the tank, to the pump (eheim 1260), and back into 2 of the returns. Later on, I also added a second eheim 1260 to use for the my JBJ 1/10th HP chiller. I used one of the return nozzles as an intake and the last return as the... well... return.

Before transferring all the corals, I had to just place them in a bin for awhile (this isn't even half of the corals).

Tank with SW and LS! I hate the initial cloudiness....

Now from here I had to re-aquascape again and again and again till I felt it was just right. I can be kinda anal like that when it comes to my tank (don't shake your head at me! You know you do the same thing!)

 

[PotysGSXR]

So after much work and time, here she is!

I gotta say, I really like the open space look much more than the crowded look in my 5g tank. I have one 1.5" Yellow Watchman Goby and one firefish in there as of now. I'll be adding more fish later on but since I'll be away for about a month overseas, I'll have to update you all later on.

As far as lights go, I currently have a 70w MH and 2 32w PCs under the hood. I purposely placed the MH slightly to the right so that it doesn't illuminate the tank completely evenly as I like that "off to one side" look much better than everything being just symetrical. I also feed the fish liquidlife with cyclopeez and DTs phyto once a day.

Well boys and girls, that's it. I'm more than sure I've forgotten a lot of things to write down but its 12:24 in the morning, I've got one eye open, and I'm probably drooling so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Paul

P.S. Does anyone know why some of my pictures come out large and some small? I'm using photobucket to host them and I took all of the pictures without touching the settings on my camera. Thanks.

 

[Billy1234]

Very nice tank! It looks like you put a lot of work in to this. Keep it up!

 

[Fishfreak218]

i love your tank... i always liked your tank.. and corals.. try resizing w/ MS paint and then upload them to www.tinypic.com
it will work better.... i REALLY want to see a larger FTS BTW lol
what happened to the Harlequin Shrimp???
Love the gorgonians BTW

 

[PotysGSXR]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7653430#post7653430 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billy1234
Very nice tank! It looks like you put a lot of work in to this. Keep it up!

Thank you. Much appreciated!

 

[PotysGSXR]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7653550#post7653550 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fishfreak218
i love your tank... i always liked your tank.. and corals.. try resizing w/ MS paint and then upload them to www.tinypic.com
it will work better.... i REALLY want to see a larger FTS BTW lol
what happened to the Harlequin Shrimp???
Love the gorgonians BTW

Ok. I'll try tinypic. Thanks for the compliments. The harleys still there but just in the corner hiding. I'll try and get a pic tonight.

 

[shouldabenacowboy]

That is a sweet setup.....

SBC

 

[mikey77]

nice setup. I plan on building a custom glass tank in the near future. What kind of silicone did you use and how long did you wait before filling it with water? Can we get some pics of the plumbing and equipment?

 

[PotysGSXR]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7654432#post7654432 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mikey77
nice setup. I plan on building a custom glass tank in the near future. What kind of silicone did you use and how long did you wait before filling it with water? Can we get some pics of the plumbing and equipment?

Thanks everyone.

I didn't build the setup myself. I had it built from a guy here on RC.com named Danny (CMReefer). Give him a call or email him (www.homeoceans.net). He's really good at what he does and his prices are more than fair. Tell him you saw Pauls tank and want something made, I'm sure he'll help you out.

Paul

 

[Nathan4Wvu]

WOW that tank is sweet i love all the colors with the rics. I think you have done a very nice job picking your livestock

 

[PotysGSXR]

10q

 

[PotysGSXR]

Ok. Time for an update.

I got home early today from work so ... pictures anyone?

I've been getting a lot of questions from people about my plumbing so I drew a quick sketch of it

Sorry the drawing sucks so bad haha. All those years and money at art school down the drain!!!

SO basically, here's how it works...

-From the overflow box, water gets sucked up and over the tank and down to Pump 1.
-From here it gets split into two and returned back to the tank via return holes #1 and #2

-Return hole #4 is being used as a second intake which goes into Pump 2.
-From there it gets pushed through the chiller and back to the tank via return hole #3.

Pretty simple no?


Well, here are some pictures with the lights off and flash on. My lights turn on late because I get home late.

Clam and um.... stuff...

My blueberry TREE! Kinda looks like those trees you find in the African saharas no?

Couple pics of some EE zoos (these are for sale btw! *HINT HINT*)

My ric collection (anyone wanna donate? )

Here's Harley. She was the star of my last 5g tank. She's chompin down on a Choc Chip Star.

I love Firefish. Here's a community of them (please don't flame about too many fish. I do 2 %10 water changes per week and don't overfeed).

Random pics

 

[PotysGSXR]

FTS with flash and lights off....

Pink tip Frogs:

Nigel (my gf named him Nigel cuz was all alone at the LFS. You Aussies know what I'm talking about)

Fiddler crab with claws missing.

Till next time!

- Paul

 

[DarkXerox]

I like that echino and those gorgonians look awesome!

 

[AIMFish]

Great looking setup, I like the firefish in a group, I think they get lonely when people keep them by themselves:rolleye1: You mentioned people donating to your ric collection. If your not going to use the base and canopy for that 5.5g let me know and I could transform that into some potential ric money

 

[PotysGSXR]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7657615#post7657615 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AIMFish
Great looking setup, I like the firefish in a group, I think they get lonely when people keep them by themselves:rolleye1: You mentioned people donating to your ric collection. If your not going to use the base and canopy for that 5.5g let me know and I could transform that into some potential ric money

Haha. Thanks. But I decided to keep the 5.5 as my QT tank