My 30G Cube Money Pit
- Thread starter navyav8tr
- Start date
navyav8tr
Premium Member
I think I misspoke up above. The Optima Advanced is a RO/DI filter I got from Purely H20. After reading the post I amde it sound like it was a chiller.
I am still in the market for a chiller and am looking at the Current 1/10 HP. I need something quiet so that my wife won't make me move it out of the living room.
Anway I am in the market for a chiller and am open to ideas or offers.
I had thought about reflectors in there for the PC but it was going to be hard to work them into the mix. I still might find a way though. Thanks for the comments and ideas.
I am still in the market for a chiller and am looking at the Current 1/10 HP. I need something quiet so that my wife won't make me move it out of the living room.
Anway I am in the market for a chiller and am open to ideas or offers.I had thought about reflectors in there for the PC but it was going to be hard to work them into the mix. I still might find a way though. Thanks for the comments and ideas.
JimBob Schmidt
Premium Member
hey nice looking tank! My question is how did u drill all the holes into that glass? Is the back wall made of acrilik or did u pay a shop to drill the holes?
navyav8tr
Premium Member
To answer a few questions
1. If I could move back to Fleming Island I would be so happy that out of sheer joy I'd make you one Ocnreef. I don't call it Jacksonville, I call is Satisfactionville. What a great place to live.
2. I am test running in the garage and I have central air but my garage has been way cool this week due to the weather. The temp in the garage was 68 and my tank was still sitting at 85 and spiking to 88. Fish fry at my house.
3.I drilled the holes in my tank. Extremely easy but very unnerving. I ordered a diamond hole saw from a fella off Ebay. It was $6 and worth ever penny. I drilled two holes, one for the overflow and one for the closed loop system. MY LFS was going to charge $50 per hole to drill. Too much in my opinion.
3. My electrical panel is pretty much two seperate things. I have an American DJ power strip, which I got from Guitar Center $35, and made a platform for it to sit on. You can also get one off EBAY. Now I am plugging anything that doesn't need a timer or some type of controlling like my OM squirt, interior cabinet lighting, skimmer pump, etc. Here I can just turn it on via the red orange switches.
My RK2 power strip is mounted on the side of the tank and the controller cable just runs over top of the other power strip and the controller is mounted in it's little holder I built. The setup is not fancy but I didn't want cables hanging all over the place so what I did to fix that was I bought a cord strip from Home Depot for $5. It is in the electrical section. It is just a plastic strip that you mount and it has a face side that slides off. There are all these side slots that you can run cables in and out as well as stow them in there. When you get them in there you slide the cover back on. Now I also bought some flexible tubing from HD which you can slip all you cables that are running from other areas to the cord strip into. Cleaner look in my opinion and keeps everything manageable. I did this for the cords running from the canopy as well as the return and skimmer pump coming from the sump.
As they say a picture is worth a thousand words so I will get a pic up today of the setup.
1. If I could move back to Fleming Island I would be so happy that out of sheer joy I'd make you one Ocnreef.
I don't call it Jacksonville, I call is Satisfactionville. What a great place to live.2. I am test running in the garage and I have central air but my garage has been way cool this week due to the weather. The temp in the garage was 68 and my tank was still sitting at 85 and spiking to 88. Fish fry at my house.
3.I drilled the holes in my tank. Extremely easy but very unnerving. I ordered a diamond hole saw from a fella off Ebay. It was $6 and worth ever penny. I drilled two holes, one for the overflow and one for the closed loop system. MY LFS was going to charge $50 per hole to drill. Too much in my opinion.
3. My electrical panel is pretty much two seperate things. I have an American DJ power strip, which I got from Guitar Center $35, and made a platform for it to sit on. You can also get one off EBAY. Now I am plugging anything that doesn't need a timer or some type of controlling like my OM squirt, interior cabinet lighting, skimmer pump, etc. Here I can just turn it on via the red orange switches.
My RK2 power strip is mounted on the side of the tank and the controller cable just runs over top of the other power strip and the controller is mounted in it's little holder I built. The setup is not fancy but I didn't want cables hanging all over the place so what I did to fix that was I bought a cord strip from Home Depot for $5. It is in the electrical section. It is just a plastic strip that you mount and it has a face side that slides off. There are all these side slots that you can run cables in and out as well as stow them in there. When you get them in there you slide the cover back on. Now I also bought some flexible tubing from HD which you can slip all you cables that are running from other areas to the cord strip into. Cleaner look in my opinion and keeps everything manageable. I did this for the cords running from the canopy as well as the return and skimmer pump coming from the sump.
As they say a picture is worth a thousand words so I will get a pic up today of the setup.
i want to start off by saying that i love the set up and keep posting pics of the progress also could you give a diagram of the plumbing so i can tell what goes where and what is hooked up to what pumps. im fairly new to reef keeping and im looking into getting a simular set up but a little bigger cube and made of acrylic
thanks in advanced
thanks in advanced
This is very close to the system I've been dreaming about when I return to the hobby maybe later this year. Can you please post an updated/completed list of the equipment with full spellings of the products rather than abbreviations?
How to you have your stand/canopy corners joined?
Is the T3 too much pump for a closed loop in a tank this size? I have a few Mags to choose from my collection of crap.
I'm trying to use as much equipment as I already have available to keep my costs down. I have the tank, ballasts, hqi fixture and bulb, pc clips and endcaps, fans, probably have enough of the plumbing stuff. I'll need PC bulbs, skimmer, some electrical stuff I'm sure, drill it, make overflow, figure out sump/fuge, and of course I'll have to build the stand and canopy.
Thanks, Bill.
How to you have your stand/canopy corners joined?
Is the T3 too much pump for a closed loop in a tank this size? I have a few Mags to choose from my collection of crap.
I'm trying to use as much equipment as I already have available to keep my costs down. I have the tank, ballasts, hqi fixture and bulb, pc clips and endcaps, fans, probably have enough of the plumbing stuff. I'll need PC bulbs, skimmer, some electrical stuff I'm sure, drill it, make overflow, figure out sump/fuge, and of course I'll have to build the stand and canopy.
Thanks, Bill.
Maverick27
New member
Beautiful tank Navy, looks 100x better then anything you could buy, and has such a nice unique look. Surprised you could find time to even get the stand done being a navy pilot. Hats off to you on that part too...always want to be one, but eyesight stopped me from getting to far. Not only great construction but engineering as well. Keep all the pics coming, would love to see this with fish and reef in it. Great job
schristi69
Master of Space and Time
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7317659#post7317659 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by navyav8tr
Here are a few more shots of the inside of the tank where the overflow is. The overflow box is acrylic and was siliconed to the glass and seems to be holding very well. I used a "liberal amount" of silicone and masked the area 1/4" around the box. After curing for two days I went back and trimmed the tape off with a utility knife. This gave a real clean look on the glass.
The two black return pipes running down each side are return lines from the sump. My plan is to create flow at the bottom of the tank to keep any "funk" buildup. BTW I am going barebottom on this one.
In the image above, what is the bulkhead in the lower left for? Is that the intake for the closed loop? How do you have your drain in your overflow set up? Are you using a Durso standpipe or just the bulkhead? What size bulkheads are you using? Any noise issues with the water draining? Can you supply more details of the inside of your overflow? Is the back of the tank painted?
navyav8tr
Premium Member
Ok I finally am putting up a shot of how the wiring is going. This is actually a shot of the cord organizer but I htink you can catch the drift of how this thing is working. Not all the wires are in here so you can see how this thing works. When all the wires are in there it is quite scary.
quote:
To answer some questions.
The bulkhead in the lower left is for the closed loop and both bulkheads are 1".
The drain for the overflow is an external durso standpipe and seems to work well. A heck of alot more quiet than a CPR overflow box I had on a 140G. The overlfow box is simply siliconed onto the back of the tank. I drilled a hole in the back slightly below the top of the box for drainage to the sump. It is a very simple setup. The two lines you see coming down the side are return lines from the sump. I ran it up from behind and into the top of the overflow box. I notched out two holes in the top of the overflow box to accomadate the return lines. I was looking for a clean look.
The tank is painted black with a flat krylon fusin spray paint.
navyav8tr
Premium Member
You asked for it.
30G Oceanic Cube
acrylic sump from acrylicsumps.com
Aqua C Urchin Pro skimmer with drain fitting
Reef Keeper 2 aquarium controller
Aqua Medic 250W DE HQI pendant
Custom Sea Life 2x55 W power compact w/ 460nm actinic lighting
American DJ power strip
Quiet One 4000 return pump
T3 Velocity pump
Mag 3 skimmer pump
Oceans Motion squirt
Euro Top Bracing from First Class Aquatics
Overflow box from First Class Aquatics
Optima Chloramine Advanced RO/DO from purely h20
5 80mm computer fans w/ diy wiring
2 120 mm computer fans w/ diy wiring
2 led moonlighting
Merlin fluidized bed filter to run carbon/other filtering agents
15 Watt UV sterilizer, can't remember model
Things probably to come
1/10 HP chiller
JBJ ATO
Think that's it not including pvc piping and electrical cord organization.
Nothing fancy. Put flat against each other, glued them and nail gunned them.
I don't think so but I am looking for alot of water movement for SPS. Now the return lines for the closed loop come into the top of the euro bracing and with the oceans motions squirt I have three outlets going at one time vice one single return line which would be a firehose in this size tank. Hope this helps.
Last edited:
I love this setup. Its going to look really nice once its up and running. Lots of craft. Just on the actinics, any particular reason why you went with 460nm instead of 420nm. 420nm is true actinic and really helps in developing the coloration in the zooxanthellae. Also, i have a 29g tank with a 250w mh and vho actinic supplimentation with fans and my tank evaporates a lot of water. I see a lot of similarities in both of our tanks. If so, do get that auto top off unit because in our small tanks lots of evaporation changes our salinity levels a considerable amount. This is an awesome tank and its very well planned. Someone made a comment about the plumbing earlier. I wouldnt change it. I wish my tank had as much plumbing so that it wouldnt look as messy as it does. LOL Keep up the great work.
navyav8tr
Premium Member
Thanks for the comment. I love hearing ideas from other reefers because when this thing is up and running, filling it with RO/DI right now, I don't want to look back and wish I would have done something differently. Of course I don't think anyone could ever do that. The top off is going to be critical and is going to be a must for stability sake. I think I am going to go with the JBJ. That buzzer thing inside of it sounds horrific from what I have read.
As far as the actinics I mispoke and have 420nm running. I had gotten into a debate with a guy at the LFS about actinics and 460 was what he preferred and it was in my mind. I plan on getting the tank finished off with water tonight and getting live rock in there tomorrow. I will get some pics up as soon as I can.
As far as the actinics I mispoke and have 420nm running. I had gotten into a debate with a guy at the LFS about actinics and 460 was what he preferred and it was in my mind. I plan on getting the tank finished off with water tonight and getting live rock in there tomorrow. I will get some pics up as soon as I can.
fishes2889
In Memoriam
Awesome setup!=)
Steve
Steve
