my 20 gallon high diy project

[danoreef]

2 yrs ago I had an awesome 55 gallon reef tank (that I was completely obsessed with) but I broke it down because I was selling my house. well my house didn't sell, so I set up a 75 gallon cichlid tank. I am now going to break the cichlid tank down and start a nano reef. I am going to build as much stuff as possible with this 20 gallon high tank. I can do this now because of all the great diy threads here on reef central. I will try to acknowledge all the threads that helped me. here's what I am going for:

• 20 gallon high tank

• DIY stand and canopy

• DIY lighting. 150 metal halides, I might add a 55 watts PC from a PC fixture I have laying around

• DIY internal overflow with durso stand pipes

• DIY sump/refugium

• DIY rock

• DIY auto top off

that's it for starters, Down the road I will build a skimmer and look into doing a DIY calcium reactor

I ordered a ro/di unit tonight from http://www.purelyh2o.com/
Also a couple of diamond coated whole saw from http://www.richontools.com/index.html. I have heard some bad stuff about the bits wobbling from this site but for those prices I will check for myself. I am still waiting for both items to arrive. any advise on my setup would be greatly appreciated.
Here are some pics of the stand, canopy, rocks that are still curing and the overflow:

the canopy is a very simple design thanks to Travis L. Stevens.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=912378

here it is all together:

The rock could not have been easier, here's just one little peice of about 30lbs I've made so far. also thanks to Travis L. Stevens. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=952524

I have to find the thread for bending the acrylic. I learned alot about working with acrylic from http://www.melevsreef.com/

I will silicone in after I drill the holes

 

[EWC88]

Very nice! I can't wait to see your progress grow, keep updating us with pics

 

[sir_dudeguy]

wait...you made that rock!?? thats GREAT looking! Do you have pics of the other rocks you made?

 

[danoreef]

yup I made! and that is the exact reaction everyone has when they see it I will take some more pictures and post them check out Travis's thread on ultimate rock I posted it up at the top.

also I would like to mention dsparks's thread he got a heck of a project going on over there my wood working skills do not compare to his
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=763737

 

[danoreef]

here are the pics of the rock. all still soaking I am still making more. I figure I let it soak for 6 weeks doing water changes every other day and monitoring the ph every week.

I even made some plugs to hold future frags. if you plan on doing this do not use cardboard egg holders. I hade to scrub that paper off, even after it was soaking a while

Has any one used garf grunge? because I only want to use this rock and seed it with garf grunge for it to eventually become live rock.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

wow is all i can say That will truely look awesome when its been in a tank for a while

And for turning it live, you really only need to get some sort of amonia source in there. Once you get that amonia going, the bacteria will start growing and it will cycle on its own. Once its cycled, its live. Just dont use stuff like that "cycle" product that is sposed to cycle faster...it just neutralizes amonia....if you do that, then you cant even get the cycle started.

 

[danoreef]

thanks EWC88 will keep you updated.

thanks for the advice sir_dudeguy I will absolutely take my time. and let this tank cycle properly that's why I was thinking about going with garf grunge. but I not sure if it is meant to help cycle the tank.

you know how that old saying goes haste makes waste.

 

[drummereef]

I have to agree, that is some of the nicest looking diy rock I've seen. Very nice job!

 

[BLKTANG]

sweet setup,& awesome job on the diy rock.

 

[danoreef]

Thanks drumemrreef And blktang. if you tried to make it you would be surprised how easy it is.

 

[danoreef]

I am not sure how I will set up my sump/refugium here are the options I am thinking about. option 1 is straight off http://melevsreef.com/ except he used acrylic I will be using a 10 gallon glass aquarium
sump 1

sump 2

sump 3

sump 4

Any suggestions?

 

[danoreef]

after doing some research And checking out other DIYers sump/fuge I used the 1st diagram the one that follows the plan of melevs 14 gallon sump. I used a 10 AGA though. It came out pretty good I post pics later on today.

 

[danoreef]

here are some pics of the sump/fuge
Specs:
10 gallon AGA
1/4 inch acrylic cut to size
I made a jig to use with my zip tool and a straight cutting router bit to make the slots in the acrylic

 

[Pattylucylaura]

Nice rock mine never turned out that good. I would skip the garf grunge just see if you can get some live sand from the LFS or a fellow reefer and seed with that or you could just buy a piece of LR and it will all come alive eventually. I have to disagree with sir dueguy a little on what he said adding an amonia source would help the tank cycle a little but to truly get all of the benifical bacteria in there you need to get it from another source it won't just create it self from breaking down amonia and even if it did create some bacteria you still wouldn't have all of the little critters that are benefical and normaly come with LR/LS.

 

[danoreef]

thanks Pattylucylaura. did you use rock salt? thats the trick here. I also made the slurry a little wetter than everybody else says.
I was going to use aragonite reef sand not the live stuff for the substrate. But I'm looking for all the little critters like you mentioned, so I guess I use live sand from the LFS for the entire substrate. because what would a reef be without all that life crawling around in the substrate.

 

[Pattylucylaura]

You don't need all live sand a cup full or so on top of your sand bed will make all the sand live eventually. I used the rock salt and I tried both wet and dry mixes and mine is ok at best oh well maybe I will try another batch I also don't care for mine much since I had the grey cement.

 

[Moloch_0]

That faux live rock looks great.

 

[danoreef]

thanks Moloch_0 I am still making more I tried something different with a piece If it comes out nice I will post pics.

I drilled my first hole in the tank for the overflow I decided to go with 1 - 3/4" drain pipe and 2 returns going through a scwd. I'm not sure what size return pump I will use though I have 2 mag 7's but I don't think that will be enough flow through the scwd. here are pics of the hole I drilled. after I finished that hole I drilled 2 more in the back for the returns. It was easy with the hole saw.

 

[danoreef]

I painted the back of the tank the overflow and the DIY 3/4 inch PVC bulkheads with krylon fusion paint. I put the bulkheads in.I siliconed in the overflow, and stained the stand it needs another coat of stain but its winter here in NY and the first coat stunk up the house something fierce so I'll have to wait until warmer whether to do another coat. here are some pics

 

[Lpabsolute]

Looking Good