Mudskipper's Rimless 140 Peninsula Build

[mudskipper1]

Hello and welcome! I figured now would be as good a time as any to kick off this thread, as I picked up the tank today and the stand is almost done, most of the goodies have arrived, and the tank should be up before too long!

I am really psyched for this new tank, since it will be my first "œbig" tank, and I am planning on having it for a long time, so I am trying to do it right (or as right as I can on a grad-student budget). The tank is a 140 gallon rimless, 60"x24"x22H" with black silicone from Great Lakes Aquariums. I will be putting a 16" wide low-profile ghost-style overflow from modular marine on one end for a peninsula-style tank that will act as a room divider.

I am an Engineer, and really enjoy the designing and building side of the hobby, so I will be doing quite a bit of the build myself, but didn't trust myself to build the tank itself so that I could sleep well (and dry) at night, and more importantly, so that it looked good! I will be building the stand, sump, light rails, drilling the tank for the overflow, as well as plumbing and electrical, so let's hope I don't mess something up (too bad)!

For this post I will just mention the plans for the new setup. Soon I will post some info about my current tank and plans for stocking, pics/info on the stand build, etc. I enjoy photography as well, so I hope to keep the thread filled with images to avoid boring writing!

So, in terms of equipment:
Lighting: 2x Radion XR30w Pro
Flow: Quietone 4000 return plus Vortech MP40wQD and Jebao RW-20
BeanAnimal style drain
Skimmer: Avast Marine CS1 cone skimmer with SICCE PSK-1000 recirculating
Alk/Cal.: 2-part dosing pump
Sump: 2 sections, one for drain/skimmer/heater, another for fuge/frag/return
Controller: transferring my RKL over with PC4, pH, temp, NET module
Other odds and ends: BRS dual media reactor for Carbon/GFO, frag/fuge light "“ rapidLED dimmable Onyx

Obligatory Gear shot:

[/url]Goods by kazyakphoto, on Flickr[/IMG]

That covers the majority of the big stuff, and to avoid getting too lengthy, that's it for the first post, but I will leave you with a few teaser photos from my previous tanks.

[/url]20140924-DSC_6593 by kazyakphoto, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]20120103-DSC_2960 by kazyakphoto, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]20120103-DSC_2968 by kazyakphoto, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]20120103-DSC_2912 by kazyakphoto, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[mudskipper1]

Oh, and here is a quick render of the look I am going for.

[/url]Stand Render by kazyakphoto, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[Bogue Chitto]

Great pics, I hope you get everything going as you planned. Keep us posted on your adventure.

 

[mudskipper1]

Thanks! Will do!

 

[mudskipper1]

Hello again! I have been spending pretty much every waking hour of free time the past couple weeks on this, and have made quite a bit of progress. The stand is done!

This won't be a DIY thread with all the details, but I will post some steps along the way, and feel free to ask questions if you have them. As I showed above, the design came together in a CAD design, so I was able to really get an idea of what the color scheme would look like. My main goal with the stand was to make something unique, but not so much so that it would distract from the tank itself. I have always been a fan of two-tone wood looks, so that's what I went with, and I am really happy with how it turned out. It came in WAYYY over budget, but I blame that on the budget.

I started out by converting my bedroom into a woodshop, and then worked on putting the structural part together, using pocket-screw joinery. I really like the system, and it seemed to work well for this application.



Once that was taken care of, I got to work on the skin. Cutting them to size and then cutting out the places for the doors. I used ½" Maple faced ply. For finishing, I setup my patio with a tarp and heater to help keep it warm enough to do the painting/staining/sealing. Everything on the inside of the stand got at least 2 coats of Kilz interior/exterior water-based primer to seal it up. I also put some silicone around the outside to seal up the bigger cracks in case of leaks.



On the outside I just used minwax pre-stain wood conditioner and then 3 or 4 coats of water-based polycrylic, sanding with 220 after the 2nd coat and polishing with 3M rubbing pads, starting with a rougher one, and then finishing with the finest one, using the palm sander for the polishing step. This gave a nice mirror-like shine and it seems to be a reasonably tough finish as well. Once that was done, I moved it inside to its final resting place and put the tank on it.



Then I got to work on the trim and the cabinet doors, made of oak. I went with a water-based minwax stain called "œcinnamon toast". I really like how the contrast of colors turned out. Again, several coats of polycrylic on top, finished by polishing to a nice shine.



For the doors, I used a rabbeting bit in the router (I don't recommend doing this freehand, it was pretty challenging) to make a groove for the ply panel to sit in, and also for splines to sit in between the rails and stiles. They went together pretty easily, just glued them up and clamped them after staining. I sealed the doors all together with polycrylic. I used magnetic door closures on the doors I will be opening often, for a little more professional feel. The "œcountertop" is also oak, and was put together using pocket screws.





As you can see in that picture, I also put together my light hanging solution. It is an Aluminum u-channel suspended from 2 1" square tubes using a cable going through a pulley at the top. It is mounted to the "œcountertop" with a 6"x6" Aluminum angle. The design allows me to choose between several different heights above the water level, and I can also raise up the lights at an angle to get better access to the tank simply by pulling on the cable a bit. It hides the power cords pretty well. I brushed it with steel wool to give it a nice consistent finish.




You may have also noticed that the stand is longer than the tank. This is intentional, both for looks, and for functionality. This gives me extra space under the stand for equipment so everything isn't so crowded, and specifically, to keep all the wires and electronics separate and organized. I used the router to cut out slots for all of the gadgets I am planning, leaving a bit of room for expansion. I also put in some wire duct to keep the wires from getting too out of control





Stay tuned for further updates! Hoping to fill the tank after I get back from a trip to Boston for a conference. Can't wait!

 

[mudskipper1]

Hello again! I was travelling for work this week, so not much progress, but I did manage to get the rock cleaned with bleach and also glued up the plumbing. I took the plumbing into the lab at work so I could do it in a fume hood, to avoid fumes in the apartment, which was nice, because I didn't have to smell the fumes at all, probably saving a few brain cells. Just a quick update, but my planned stocking list is as follows:

Transferred from my current tank(s) will be:
- a pair of Zebra Barred Dartfish
- a pygmy angel
- a male mandarin dragonet
- a pair of ocellaris clowns

New additions will be:
- A Harem of lyretail anthias
- A female mandarin dragonet
- A female pygmy angel
- A Blue dot jawfish
- A Copperband butterfly
- A Magnificent foxface
- An Achilles Tang

I haven't completely decided on the foxface vs. a tang of some variety (purple, yellow, scopas, or kole), but for now it is a pretty good list, so it'd be great to get some feedback on it!

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

What process did you use to clean your rock with bleach?

 

[s_kelley]

Wow nice job w the stand, following along!

 

[mudskipper1]

Djturna4thakidz, I can't say that I was super precise with measuring out the bleach, but I just put the new rock (it was dry pukani from BRS, but it still has some debris and stuff I wanted to get off) in RO/DI water in a plastic tub with maybe 1-2 cups of bleach (I have seen a wide range of concentration recommendations, but since I wasn't trying to kill things off, but rather just do a general cleaning I went with a pretty small amount), and soaked it for almost a week. After that, I used a pretty aggressive bristled brush to clean all of the surfaces I could get to, rinsed again in the bleach solution, and then rinsed several times with RO/DI. Right now, the rock is soaking in fresh RO/DI with a bubbler, and I am planning on doing another rinse and replace each of the next 2 days, followed by a thorough drying. I have heard that a final step can be to add some vinegar to the last bath and let that soak for a little while before rinsing and drying. This helps neutralize any alkaline bleach solution that might be left, and it will slowly etch the rock and provide a secondary cleaning. I have also read in some places that the vinegar might help reduce phosphates because the acid will attack them, but I am not really sure how much truth there is to that, particularly at low concentrations, but I figure it can't hurt, so I will probably do at least a small amount just to try it out. The main thing is to be careful and patient with rinsing and soaking in fresh water to make sure you get all the remnant bleach off before you put it in the tank.

s_kelley, thanks! great to have you along for the ride!

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

Djturna4thakidz, I can't say that I was super precise with measuring out the bleach, but I just put the new rock (it was dry pukani from BRS, but it still has some debris and stuff I wanted to get off) in RO/DI water in a plastic tub with maybe 1-2 cups of bleach (I have seen a wide range of concentration recommendations, but since I wasn't trying to kill things off, but rather just do a general cleaning I went with a pretty small amount), and soaked it for almost a week. After that, I used a pretty aggressive bristled brush to clean all of the surfaces I could get to, rinsed again in the bleach solution, and then rinsed several times with RO/DI. Right now, the rock is soaking in fresh RO/DI with a bubbler, and I am planning on doing another rinse and replace each of the next 2 days, followed by a thorough drying. I have heard that a final step can be to add some vinegar to the last bath and let that soak for a little while before rinsing and drying. This helps neutralize any alkaline bleach solution that might be left, and it will slowly etch the rock and provide a secondary cleaning. I have also read in some places that the vinegar might help reduce phosphates because the acid will attack them, but I am not really sure how much truth there is to that, particularly at low concentrations, but I figure it can't hurt, so I will probably do at least a small amount just to try it out. The main thing is to be careful and patient with rinsing and soaking in fresh water to make sure you get all the remnant bleach off before you put it in the tank.



s_kelley, thanks! great to have you along for the ride!

Thanks!

 

[moondoggy4]

Where did you get the overflow box? I love the attention to detail.

 

[mudskipper1]

moondoggy4: The overflow box is from Modular Marine on ebay, and I am very happy with it so far. I just went with a standard option, which has 2 1.5 inch bulkheads between the internal and external box and 3 1 inch drains from the external box, but I have seen others who have worked with the guy to do custom sizes, including coast to coast ones, and have heard a lot of good things. I like it because of the extremely small in-tank footprint. And thanks! I am doing my best to avoid little issues that bother me or lead to future inconveniences.

 

[Relativity]

Can you post some more pictures of your jaw fish?

 

[mudskipper1]

Ask and you shall receive!

Plus a bonus Mandarin pic or two!

 

[mudskipper1]

Tank has water, salt, sand, and some rock in it!

The main island will look something like this:

The rest of the tank will get the liverock from my current tank (I have only moved a couple pieces over, just enough to hopefully prevent any ammonia spike, as I am planning on moving everything in soon. It is much clearer than this now, but these are the pictures I have for now!

 

[mudskipper1]

Time for an update! Everybody is in the tank as of a week or so ago. Some of my corals didn't seems to like the Bayer dip I did (lost my pearlberry and a couple other frags, though I can't say exactly what did it, could be that my drip acclimation wasn't good enough, who knows), but almost everything has turned the corner and has ppretty good PE and are starting to color back up.

I went to the LFS today and picked up some CUC, as the new rock is starting to grow some algae, and the bigger tank needs more CUC anyway. I picked up some trochus, nassarius, scarlet hermits, a diadema urchin, and a fromia star, pom pom crab, along with a couple frags and some Cheato for the sump. I also asked them to order a Ritteri Anemone, so hopefully before too long that will come in, as I am reserving the whole right island for it, so that it doesn't kill anything if it moves around when settling in.

Happy Holidays!:beer:

 

[mudskipper1]

So I guess this thread is way overdue for an update. Tank is around 5 months old now, and I am wrapping up the stocking process for both fish and corals (though the coral stocking process never really ends). I am really happy with the progress on the tank so far, and am happy with all of the hardware thus far as well.
My apartment is a bit crazy at the moment, since I have the DT plus 3 QTs, one of which is a 125 for the Achilles. Hopefully my roommate won't kill me before I get everything into the DT.

Current Fish List:
Ocellaris Clown Pair (9 years):
Cherub Angel (1.5 years):
Mandarin Dragonet (1.5 years):
Zebra Barred Dartfish (1 year):
Lyretail Anthias trio (2 months):
Blue Spotted Jawfish (2 months):
Yellow Watchman Goby (2 months):
Magnificent Foxface (1 month):
Copperband Butterfly (1 month):
Bicolor Blenny (1 month):

In QT:
White Tail Bristletooth Tang
Yellow Tang
Achilles Tang

One of my favorite aspects of the tank is the Ritteri Anemone, which has been in the tank for around 3 months now, and seems to be doing really well. I was a little worried that it would move around at the beginning and kill coral, but I managed to place it in a spot it likes, since it has not budged more than an inch since it went in. It excreted some zooxanthellae once a few days after introducing it, but I backed off on the lights (it sits about 8" down right under one of the Radions), and it has been happy since. It gets quite a lot of flow, from the MP40 on one side (Reefcrest mode) and from the RW 20 on the opposite end. The anemone seems to love the flow, and it makes it just spectacular to watch, but the clowns (which were reluctant at first but have come to love the nem), seem frustrated by the extra effort they have to put in to stay inside it, and sometimes resort to going underneath of the nem next to the foot where it is easier to stay put.

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The Jawfish doesn't seem to have totally settled in, as he still switches burrow location pretty regularly (Is this normal? The other jawfish I had pretty much stayed put).



The main weakness in the system at the moment seems to be the dosing pump, which is a carry-over from the previous (smaller) tank, a Marine color 3-channel model. One of the channels stopped working, and it took me a week or so to realize. I switched the channel, but since another could go at anytime, and I am dosing a lot more in this system than I was before. I picked up a couple BRS dosers and timers and will be switching over when I get a chance. I like the robust design of the pumps and the low dosing rate. I am currently dosing with BRS Ca and Baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate), as I was having issues with my pH going too high and not being able to add ALk effectively. I dose small amounts of Vinegar occasionally to bring the pH down to around 8.3.
My parameters seem to hover around
Temp: 77
SG: 1.025
pH: 8.3-8.4
Alk: 7.5-8.5
Ca: 400-420
Mg: 1300-1450
Nitrates: Undetectable
Phosphates: Undetectable

As I mentioned, my last fish is an Achilles Tang. I got it on Diver's Den, and I have heard good things about them being in good shape from them, but I picked up a 125 to use as a QT for it, as I don't want to stress it out by putting it in a small QT, and I don't want to risk introducing it straight into the display for three reasons: to hopefully avoid getting the current fish sick, to allow me to treat with medication if necessary if/when the Achilles comes down with something, and to allow me to feed very heavily if necessary to fatten it up and get the immune system going strong (or at least that is the plan). Once all of the tangs are done with QT, I am planning on introducing them all together. I don't think it would be too bad to introduce the yellow and Bristletooth together and then the AT later, but I think I will go with the all together approach if the timing works out.