HQ Aquarium 75 Gallon Build

[MattM3]

Hello everyone! I have been a member of this forum since 2009. I got into this hobby with a 55 gallon in 2008, and then quickly upgraded to a 100 gallon. I had to sell my custom 100 gallon since I was moving from place to place every year in college. I graduated from UF with a degree in Food Science & Human Nutrition. I recently moved back here to South Florida where I grew up. My brother and I decided to start a tank for his apartment. We decided a 75 gallon was probably the best dimensions for the room we had to work with.

We got the tank from exotic aquatics. Non-tempered on all sides, and no reef ready overflow.

The original plan was to install a bean animal overflow through the bottom of the tank to save space in the back. This is why we had to buy a new non-tempered tank. We quickly decided that an internal coast to coast bean animal overflow off the back wouldn't take up too much space and keep things much simpler. We designed and planned everything in Google Sketch-up. Learning this was invaluable because it literally allowed me to spatially plan everything to the inch. We somehow ended up with with a 38 tall for the sump even though we ordered a 30 long. It fit in the sump so we decided to just go with it.

This was our original plan for the sump design. (Bikini model for scale.) I used this on my previous 100 gallon. Refugium is inside (slow flow), and drain runs around the outside (fast flow.) I think it is still a good design for larger sumps, but when space is limited, a more traditional sump design is better. We wanted to put a lot in a little area, so space was really important.

This is the sump design we decided to go with. I think it is more suited for the space we had to work with. Refugium to the far left (slow flow), and drain to the far right (fast flow). However, if I could redesign I would put the refugium to the far right.

For the main display. Coast to coast glass overflow, two returns on the outside, and three drains for the bean animal.

 

[MattM3]

Finally we started to put everything together.

A 1" SCWD is now in place instead of a standard barbed T.

Built roughly a 14 gallon reservoir from scratch to sit behind the tank. I made the base out of wood to help me keep the glass aligned when I glued it. It connects to a 5 stage RODI unit from the filter guys.

 

[MattM3]

Here is where the problems started. We decided to close the back of the canopy and add four 120mm fans for cooling. We got the fans and power converter from newegg.com for about 10$ each.

While drilling one of the holes, the tip to the hole saw broke off. The hole saw went shooting towards my leg and got caught my shorts. I wasn't hurt, but it scared the hell out of me.

We decided to paint the inside of the canopy gloss latex white for maximum light reflection instead of just plain black.

Unfortunately, I managed to get paint on the front display part of the canopy. The canopy looked like a black stain to me, so I figured if I just sanded down a little, and then re stained with a black ebony, everything would be fine. I couldn't have been more wrong, and this lead to the biggest delay in the entire build. I really want to thank DRThompson for taking his personal time to help us out. His advice lead us to finally getting the problem solved. After calling the manufacture company, we learned that the canopy was originally painted with a black lacquer. There was no way to get the finish like new again, so I ended up sanding the whole thing, and using a black laquer spray paint from home depot. This was such a painstaking process, and took a lot of time to finally get an even coat. The laquer spray paint is not easy to work with, and I hope no one has to ever go through what I had to.

We decided to go with a black back ground. To cover up the PVC from the bean animal overflow inside the tank, we had a black piece of acrylic cut to match the front panel of the coast to coast overflow. We glued the acrylic front to the glass with silicone. We also notched the top of the plastic frame and glued the acrylic piece to it with Weldon. After my first attempt at free hand dremel failed miserably, I decided to build a make-shift table. The results dramatically improved.

Fail

My makeshift rig.

Huge improvement.

 

[MattM3]

We finally got the tank running and cycling in mid-October after installing two 54 watt dimmable t5 ballasts from ATI. We purchased about 100 pounds of Pukani dry rock off of a guy on Craig's List. An Apex reef controller was also installed so we could put everything on a dimming schedule when we later added LEDS. We are pretty blown away with the various functions of the Apex. However, still struggling with the pH meter.

The next goal was to finish the lighting system and get leds installed. We decided to make our own custom build from RapidLed.com. This was incredibly complicated with about a billion different opinions on spectrum and intensities. The build wasn't nearly as hard as the research that went into it. I cannot thank TropTrea enough for taking his time to explain everything to me. He was incredibly helpful and really broke everything down for me in terms I could understand. The system we built is completely over kill and excessive. We are running 6 different ballasts all mounted to the back of the canopy on a ¼" aluminum plate. The dimming functions are split on the apex to run the blues, whites, moonlights + UV leds, and T5 bulbs on separate channels. To give you an idea of how overkill this setup is: We are currently running the blues at about 15% capacity and the whites around 50%. Anything over will cause bleaching to the corals.

Display 332 Total Watts

2 x 54 Watt ATI T5
(1) ATI Blue Plus
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/t5-ati-blue-plus.html
(1) ATI Coral Plus
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/t5-ati-coral-plus.html

60 Watts (12 qty x 5 Watts ) Cree XT-E 5W Royal Blue
http://www.rapidled.com/cree-xt-e-royal-blue-led-1/
3.5 MaxV @ 1500mA Max Current
450-465nm wavelength

42 Watts (14 qty x 3 Watts ) Phllips 3W Rebel ES Royal Blue
http://www.rapidled.com/philips-rebel-es-royal-blue-led/
3.25 MaxV @ 1000mA Max Current
440-460nm dominant/peak wavelength (typical: 447.5nm)

50 Watts (10 qty x 5 Watts) Cree XP-G 5W Neutral White
http://www.rapidled.com/cree-xp-g-neutral-white-led/
3.25 MaxV 1500ma Max Current

48 Watts (16 x 3 Watts) Cree XP-E Blue
http://www.rapidled.com/cree-xp-e-blue-3w-led-on-star/
3.5 MaxV 1000mA Max Current
465-485nm wavelength

(8 qty) Violet UV LED
http://www.rapidled.com/violet-uv-led/
4.0 MaxV @ 700ma Max Current
410-420nm Wave Length

(8 qty) Royal Blue Moonlights
http://www.rapidled.com/royal-blue-moonlight-led/
3.3V @350mA

Total: 108 Watts T5 Light, 150 Watts Blue Led, 50 Watts White Led.

Sump 40 Total LED Watts

30 Watts (6 qty) Cree XT-E 5W Royal Blue
http://www.rapidled.com/cree-xt-e-royal-blue-led-1/
3.5 MaxV @ 1500mA Max Current
450-465nm wavelength

10 Watts (2 qty) Creep XP-G 5W Warm White
3.25 MaxV 1500ma Max Current
http://www.rapidled.com/cree-xp-g-neutral-white-led/

Sketch Up design of the LED layout.
This is not a typical LED layout, but I truly believe this is a superior way to arrange leds than clusters and rows. The total length of the display tank (not just the heat sink) is divided by the amount of leds in each color plus one to account for the additional gap from each tank edge. The heat sink is six inches wide giving us a total of six different lanes we can disperse the leds within. Since the tank is longer than it is wider, it is more important that the lights be evenly spread out by its length than its width. However, the leds on the heat sink should be distributed on its width as best as possible, and to mirror the adjacent fixture. I admit this isn't the typical layout that most people go with, but from what I have seen, I think rows will cause banding, and clusters will cause a spot light effect. By using this method you can achieve the greatest possible light dispersion. I was nervous at first, but after finishing the build, no where in the tank can you tell where one light begins, and where one light ends. Everything looks very very even. In my opinion and from what I have seen from this build, this is a superior arrangement.

 

[MattM3]

Various Spectrums

 

[MattM3]

Current/Past Issues & Design Flaws:
• SCWD: Occasionally when the SCWD changes flow side, the emergency drain will kick on. This is most likely due to the change in flow caused by SCWD since it retains water to rotate direction. Could also be caused by a change in sump level from the retained SCWD water.
• The emergency siphon on the bean animal is not functioning: I’m not exactly sure why, but the emergency siphon is not gaining suction once the 1/8 john guest tubing is submerged under water to create a full drain. It’s possible the seal on the top of the stand pipe is not good enough. The pipes are 1.5 inches and can handle pretty much any kind of clog/problem, so I’m not overly concerned.
• Have to restart flow in media reactors once pumps restart: To get water flowing through the media reactors, the drain has to be shut, the reopened for water to start again.
• pH meter on the apex is not functioning: We are not 100% sure what is causing it to read various number, but we assume it is rf interference from the dimmable ballasts. We have tried copper shielding tape without any success.
• Microbubbles in the return: The refugium on the left of the sump empties directly into the chamber where the return pump is. If the water level is not exactly perfect, microbubbles will form. This isn’t a huge deal, and is an easy fix once we get an ATO, but If I could redo the sump I would place the refugium to the far right emptying into the chamber with the filter sock that leads into the bubble trap.
• RODI Unit reading low PSI: House pressure has not seemed to change, but the PSI has dropped from 65-70 to around 20. Tried flushing the membrane without any success.
• Protein skimmer sometimes floods: When the pumps stop, the protein skimmer will occasionally flood. This can be fixed by raising the skimmer level and lowering the sump level.
• Painting PVC pipes: Huge mistake. I spray painted the PVC pipes black, then we tried to cut them to insert T's with 1/2 inch threads for the reactors. The paint doesn't allow a new seal and caused us a bunch of leaks that had to be completely redone. If you decide to spray paint your pvc, which I don't recommend, make sure you are 100% done with it.
• OLD SILICONE: I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. BEFORE YOU SILICONE ANYTHING, CHECK THE MANUFACTURE DATE & EXPIRATION DATE. We purchased rtv108 silicone from our local Grainger. We unknowingly used it on the sump only to have it never try or halfway harden. We had to scrape everything out, order silicone online, and redo everything. We had no idea silicone had an expiration date. The stuff we were using was over a year expired.

A huge sincere thank you to this community. Without the help of reef central and many forums alike we would have never been able to make any of this possible.

Total System Review:
Up Time
3 months
Total Volume
90 gallons
Display
75GAL LONG
Substrate
75LBS Fiji Pukani Rock, 20LBS Base Rock, 80LBS CaribSea Caribbean Live Sand Original Grade Substrate, 20LBS CaribSea Caribbean Live Sand Fine Oolite Substrate
Sump
38GAL TALL + DIY 14GAL Reservoir
Filtration
DIY Bean Animal Coast to Coast Overflow, Filter Sock, Carbon Reactor, Two Little Fishes GFO Reactor, Reef Octopus Protein Skimmer, Corallife UV Sterilizer
Lighting
DIY Rapid LEDs', ATI Coral Life T5 & ATI True Blue T5 on ATI Dimmable Ballast
Circulation
Syncra 5.0 Return Pump + (2) Hydor Evo's
Controller
Neptune Systems Apex Controller + pH Probe
Heater
Standard

http://aquarist.me/hqaquarium/hq-aquarium

 

[TropTrea]

Matt I'm glad you liked the lights and everything worked fine for you. Yes the lights are a bit overkill which I think I warned you about. But your setting with 50% on the 50 Watts of Neutral Whits and the 15% on your 150 Watts of Blues means your running them at roughly 25 watts and 22 Watts. I would have expected you to have the blues up a little higher and the whites a little lower. But that is personal color choice and everyone has a little different eye for color.

As far as burning your corals if you go higher I think this is an aclumation issue. I'm running roughly twice the power on my LED's you are with simylar T-5's. But you need to increase the lighting slowly no more than an additional 5 Watts per week. Then if you see some corals bleaching turn it down a couple watts before damage is done. Also keep in mind that the "white" light will bleach corals much faster than the blue light. Some corls have little tolerance for red light which comes from the "white" LED's.

More light especialy from the blues will speed up growth of your corals as long as they are not shocked with a sudden change.

 

[MattM3]

I got those ratios wrong. The whites are running at 25% and the blues at 30%. It's about a 3 to 1 ratio.

 

[KnownStrangeR]

Super clean build man. What program are you doing your drawing in?

 

[MattM3]

Google Sketchup

 

[saltym3]

Why isn't the bikini model in any of the real pictures?

 

[nivram]

Nice build. I'm glad you were able to get the canopy issue resolved. Looks like you are a sketchup master. Maybe we need to figure out how to convince you to do a sketchup class at one of our meetings. Hint hint! lol

 

[MattM3]

I like the way you think Salty. I'm no sketchup master, but I do know how to use the download and re-size button. My knowledge of it is very basic, but I could probably give a crash course!

 

[TropTrea]

Years ago I paid big busks for a nice 3 D cad p[rogram. Then I updated my operating system and it no longer worked. Company said I needed to buy there updated version that was almost as expensive as there original.

I need to look into this google sketch program. Does it allow 3-D rendering?

 

[MattM3]

I'm not sure what you mean by 3D rendering, but I'll message you.

 

[hqaquarium]

@Nivram. We finalized the LED lights if you're able to make it over sometime with that Par meter. My corals and I would be forever tankful

 

[nivram]

@Nivram. We finalized the LED lights if you're able to make it over sometime with that Par meter. My corals and I would be forever tankful

Ok. If you still have my #. Shoot me a text message to coordinate.

 

[hqaquarium]

Ok. If you still have my #. Shoot me a text message to coordinate.

never got your number
HMU 9546829fivefiveone


-kit

 

[baxinabox]

any build that has a bikini model in the sketch up is bound to be epic.. and my friend. your build is just that. very nice, i would of done the sump a little different though.

 

[MattM3]

Thanks! What would you have done differently? I mentioned in the thread that I would have put the refugium to the right of the filter sock instead of to the left.