K9s 20g Reef - Warning: Image Intense!

[K9]

nice new pictures! good luck with that cats paw

just curious- was it intentional or just coincidence that the SPS, leather and zoos are all shades of red/pink?

Pure coincidence . My favorite colors, in order, are blue, green, and orange. That's why I'm not too thrilled right now with the pink tint that my VHOs are making. I'm going to get my tank to look blue somehow.

 

[pimp2daizzo]

well to late lol..i have a lil frag of sps and adding some more tomor at work...but idk i think it will be ok but i need to find a smaller one..b/c right now i ahve a rio 60 and a prizim 100 dx on it...and i have a lil 1" sps lol looks good for from and a lut of soft crap

 

[nonamesright]

I know what you mean about the stand. when i built mine i made it big enough for a 55 just in case i ever felt the need to upgrade.

 

[K9]

well to late lol..i have a lil frag of sps and adding some more tomor at work...but idk i think it will be ok but i need to find a smaller one..b/c right now i ahve a rio 60 and a prizim 100 dx on it...and i have a lil 1" sps lol looks good for from and a lut of soft crap

Uh, did you accidently post this in the wrong thread? :lol:

 

[pimp2daizzo]

Plz comment back how in the hell do u get your pics so high of KB???mine look like crap b/c i cant get them over 30 lol

 

[pimp2daizzo]

Originally posted by pimp2daizzo
hmm i'm thinking about adding a stylo to my 5.5 do u think 79 watts of light is good?

I don't know if SPS are doable in a 2.5g. The flow you'd need to keep it happy would cause a sandstorm in that small of a tank.


and no i meant to post it here lol just was in a big rush lol

 

[K9]

Plz comment back how in the hell do u get your pics so high of KB???mine look like crap b/c i cant get them over 30 lol

I take the photos using either a 5.0 megapixel Canon PowerShot G5 or a 4.1 megapixel Sony CyberShot camera. The originals are about 1.5 megabytes each to begin with. I crop, reduce, and compress them in Macromedia Fireworks using JPEG compression of about 80-90 depending on the picture. Finally, I upload them to my Web site and reference to them when I post in this, or any other thread. This way, I'm not limited in file size to what Reef Central allows you to have in your RC photo gallery and I can post photos of much higher quality and resolution. I hope this at least somewhat answered your question.

 

[pimp2daizzo]

Grrr i need to get my music website back lol..yes it does i was thinking that how you did it..thxs for the help and nice tank ;p

 

[pimp2daizzo]

I WANT YOUR ZOOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[K9]

MAJOR UPDATE: October 1, 2005 - DRILLING TIME!

MAJOR UPDATE: October 1, 2005 - DRILLING TIME!

I finally got around to drilling my tank and adding a 10g refugium this weekend. I bought myself a 3-speed Black & Decker rotary tool, diamond drill bits, two 3/4" bulkheads w/strainers, a bunch of 3/4" PVC elbows, 10' of 3/4" PVC pipe, 10' of 1/2" ID vinyl tubing, and a Maxi-Jet 1200. The drilling was actually easier than I thought it would be, and took about 30 minutes to drill each hole. Below are photos from each step of the process...

Here are the diamond bits that I bought for $5.99 from Sears. The pack includes one ball bit (to drill pilot hole) and one cone bit (for cutting the circles out).

Here's the back of the tank as I trace the hole using the nut from one of the bulkheads. You never want to drill too close to the edges of the glass, so my holes were 3" in from the side and about 3" in from the top edge.

This is a shot after I'm half way done with the first hole. The washcloth you see is for keeping the work area cool. I'd squeeze water from it onto the hole and the bit about every couple minutes.

Here is a front shot of the empty tank after I finished both holes and installed the bulkheads.

This back view of the tank clearly shows the placement of the bulkheads. Not bad for my first glass drilling job if I do say so myself!

 

[K9]

MAJOR UPDATE: October 1, 2005 - DRILLING TIME!

MAJOR UPDATE: October 1, 2005 - DRILLING TIME!

These next two photos are of the plumbing on the back of the tank. I have both bulkheads feeding into a single pipe leading into the refugium in the stand. The vinyl tubing you see is the return from the Maxi-Jet 1200.

A shot from inside the stand. I still have to get some baffles from my local glass shop and silicone them into the fuge.

One last shot before I fill up the rest of the tank and give the new overflows a test-run!

As soon as I finish the refugium, I will be sure to post more pictures. It will be lit with two 20w 6500k screw-in PCs and will contain live sand, live rock, and chaetomorpha macro algae. Stay tuned!

 

[pimp2daizzo]

Are yout taking out the sand????

That would be much better whit sps...you will be able to keep the tank nicer

 

[pimp2daizzo]

You want to come down to ga and rill my 5 gal ;p lol...

 

[WarEagleNR88]

You should paint or stain the stand while you've got stuff disassembled. Just my thoughts if you were going to do it eventually. It gets a lot harder to do once you've got PVC plumbed up and everything in place.

It was really that easy to cut holes in the glass? Wow, I think I may need to stop by Sears sometime and pick up that little $6 jewel for cutting my tanks. I've got a really good Craftsman cordless drill that shifts into three different speeds as you squeeze the trigger, maybe that would be ok? What are the RPMs of your rotary tool you purchased?

Another thing I thought of is a closed loop. You might want to go and drill it's holes now while you've got the tank like this. That is if you were planning to do one.

Otherwise, things are looking good. I'm thinking of upgrading my FW Planted 10G into a 20G long Planted FW with a sump. And you can bet I'm making mental notes of your progress. Great job!

 

[K9]

Are yout taking out the sand????

That would be much better whit sps...you will be able to keep the tank nicer

Well, the sand is still there, it's just down in the fuge now. The sand is much deeper in there as well since it's only a 10g tank, so it will aid in denitrifying my water better. I am going to try to find some cutting board for the bottom of the tank from the kitchen section of my local Marshall's or Ross store. You can finds all sorts of stuff dirt-cheap at those stores.

You should paint or stain the stand while you've got stuff disassembled. Just my thoughts if you were going to do it eventually. It gets a lot harder to do once you've got PVC plumbed up and everything in place.

I still have to finish the corner molding on the stand before I can think about sanding and painting it. It was just too much for me to cram into this weekend. It will eventually get done.

It was really that easy to cut holes in the glass? Wow, I think I may need to stop by Sears sometime and pick up that little $6 jewel for cutting my tanks. I've got a really good Craftsman cordless drill that shifts into three different speeds as you squeeze the trigger, maybe that would be ok? What are the RPMs of your rotary tool you purchased?

It took me about 30 minutes to cut each hole. Unfortunately, you can't use a regular cordless drill since they don't spin fast enough. You'd be there for hours just trying to cut one hole, and your battery would run out long before you could finish the job. My Black & Decker rotary tool has three speeds. Low is 12,000rpm, medium is 24,000rpm, and high is a blistering 30,000rpm. By comparison, my B&D 12v cordless drill only spins at a maximum 700rpm. The rotary tool was a necessity to get the job done. Now, if you had a diamond hole saw, you can use a regular cordless drill to cut the glass, but for a hole saw in the diameter I needed, it was about $40 online. Plus, after I used it for my tank, it would sit and gather dust. The rotary tool I can use for other things like cutting through SPS corals to frag them in addition to other uses around the house. The rotary tool was $35 at Home Depot and as I mentioned, the bits were just $6 at Sears, so it was a much better way to spend $40 than just to buy the diamond hole saw itself.

Another thing I thought of is a closed loop. You might want to go and drill it's holes now while you've got the tank like this. That is if you were planning to do one.

I have no immediate thoughts on making a closed-loop. Right now I'm happy with my dual drains and single vinyl tubing return from the fuge. I don't think I'll take this tank so far as to need a closed loop. Maybe someday when my Maxi-Jets die, I'll do it, but they're only a couple months old, so they have plenty of life left in them.

Thanks as always for the kind compliments. :thumbsup:

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Sweet. Reasonable comments. I see what you mean about the RPMs on the rotary tool vs a drill. I've never cut class before

Looking forward to the next pics! :thumbsup:

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Hey K9, can you go into detail on your stand? How much material, how long, what type, etc? Did you buy a big sheet of ply or were they the smaller pieces that are more/less precut? What thickness of ply did you use?

Also I noticed you had a floor to your lower shelf back on the first page, how do you have that installed in there?

 

[pimp2daizzo]

my **** that lol go to homedepo and get acillic (cant spell it) but get the one you cant see through its like $8

 

[K9]

Hey K9, can you go into detail on your stand? How much material, how long, what type, etc? Did you buy a big sheet of ply or were they the smaller pieces that are more/less precut? What thickness of ply did you use?

Also I noticed you had a floor to your lower shelf back on the first page, how do you have that installed in there?

The stand is all pine. The four vertical 2x4s are 36" long and the stand is 36" long and 15" from front-to-back. The plywood is 1/2" pine and it came in 4x2 foot sheets and then I cut it down from there. The corner molding is all pine as well. The stand is held together by 3" long drywall screws. I predrilled all the holes first so I wouldn't risk splitting the wood. The shelf on the bottom is just a spare piece of plywood I had lying around. It's only held to the stand by a couple screws. If you have any other questions requiring more detail, don't hesitate to ask!

 

[K9]

Here's some pictures of the tank and refugium after the water had a chance to clear. I will be putting sand back into the main display tank sometime in the next couple days. Only about half an inch or so just for looks will go into the display, and whatever's left in the bag will go into the fuge. Sorry the photos are a little blurry, but I've had a long Sunday and was a bit jittery taking them. :lol: Those of you who remember my 10g nano I had not too long ago will recognize the hood on the fuge. It has the two 6500k 20w screw-in power compact bulbs. I'm sure these lights will make any macroalgae I get VERY happy .