My 72g Bowfront Build - Pics & Vids

[llebcire]

Since December 2008, I've been working on building a new tank and getting out of my Biocube.

But first, I want to take a moment and personally thank all of the local reefers that either bought or traded frags and equipment to help me make this possible!! :wavehand: :thumbsup:

I'm going to document as much as I can here, from start to finish - but let's start with today, 03/08/2009:

 

[llebcire]

For newer members or those that don't remember, I started reefing in 2003 (from Cichlids) with a 75g Oceanic Reef Ready tank and found Reef Central and this forum (GIRS) in November of 2003.

Went from this in 2003:

Helios 4x55 dual lights, Prizm skimmer, wet/dry trickle filter, crushed coral (purchased from Pet Degree in IC - remember them?)

To this in 2007:

With little or no out of pocket expense! :thumbsup: (My wife now knows better) 2x250w 14k halides, 4x65 PC, 30g fuge, 100g sump, ETSS skimmer (don't ask me why there's a Sea Clone in the pic - think this pic was just before the ETSS).

We were to move in the fall of 2007 so I tore the whole thing down and sold it. I had also acquired from Hung a 180g Oceanic reef ready to move into but I sold that as well

 

[jmadison]

Eric- Stand turned out really well for the bowfront!!!

 

[llebcire]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14567852#post14567852 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmadison
Eric- Stand turned out really well for the bowfront!!!

Thanks Josh!

I learned something staining that I'll discuss later in the post.

 

[llebcire]

From the fall of 2007 until July 2008, I was tankless. Sometime in July, happens to be when my wife wanted to get a kitten (coincidence?), she informed me of a 14g Biocube that she found a deal on. So I purchased the cube, and we (she) got a kitten :rollface:

I was able to trade my 100g Rubbermaid sump for the live rock:

And traded my metal halides for the corals. We added cleanup and a pair of false clowns:

I had leftover Southdown that I used alond with some seeded from a local reefer (thanks phishcrazee!). I didn't have a sandstorm and had diatoms for only a few days. Above pics from August 2008.

In October, we did move to a new townhouse, and here's the tank before I started fragging (to pay for equipment) in early January 2009:

 

[jmadison]

Looks like someone's gonna need some more corals to fill that beast!

 

[llebcire]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14567908#post14567908 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmadison
Looks like someone's gonna need some more corals to fill that beast!

Maybe I'm going for the minimalistic approach?

I already have a stock list in mind and the stages that I want to add - but, as the tank only has about 10 gallons of "seasoned" water in it, I need to let it run for a bit to make sure all is well.

I learned when I added my 100g sump to my old system, when you dump that much fresh mix on existing corals, strange things (bleaching) can happen! With the sump there's better than 60 gallons of new mix now.

 

[llebcire]

So it was either later November or early December, about the time my wife started talking about a puppy (I think there's a trend here), that she started sending me links to tanks for sale on classifieds.

We looked at a lot of pictures, and while I really wanted an identical tank to what I used to have (Oceanic 75g RR that I found), she informed me that she wanted something different as this was going in the living room. My old tank was in the basement so apparently she didn't care and always thought the tank looked "old".

I do like the look of a bowfront versus a rectangular tank, and in our new place the side of the tank is visible when you walk in the front door. If you've seen the old Oceanics, you would have been staring at the overflow as it was in the back left corner and square.

I've heard people prefer a rectangular to a bowfront for stocking, but I like the height, which @ 23" is more like a 90 gallon. I would have liked the extra couple of inches in my 75 for SPS so this should work!

After searching for weeks, I stumbled across a deal: I got a used stand and brand new tank from Hung for what I would have paid for a used combo.

I did have to decide whether I wanted a Megaflow or not, and as I think the factory overflow takes up too much space, I decided to have the tank drilled and create my own overflow.

All-Glass 72g Bowfront, black trim, and used stand:

Heck - a new Oceanic is just an All-Glass now anyway.

 

[llebcire]

I had the following equipment left over:
Small variety of frags
20 lbs. live rock
ETSS Reef Devil Deluxe Superskimmer with Rio 2500+, rated for 75g fish only, 120g SPS or 180g softies
Eheim 1060 return pump @ 607 gph
2 ea. 300w heaters
Refractometer
50gpd 4 stage RO/DI
Hagen 402 Powerhead @ 270 gph
Maxi-Jet 1200 @ 295 gph
Maxi-Jet 900 @ 230 gph
H.O.T. filter @ 250 gph (for carbon and flow)
Test kits (probably expired)
Thermometer
Other misc. stuff

 

[ipiniowa]

Following along....

 

[llebcire]

With the equipment listed above that I had left over, I needed to get the following:

Sump

Lighting

Additional rock (not mandatory but needed)

A design for my DIY overflow

Sump:

I was able to trade a couple of frags to a local reefer for a 20L tank to use as a sump/fuge. I had heard that a 29/30, with a 36" footprint would work, but the stand on the bowfront limits the space with the bow and those using a 36" tank said that it was a pain and the stand needed modifications to fit.

Sump in the stand

If you notice, the way the stand was built didn't allow the sump to fit flush against the back so I needed to modify the center rear support

They had notched the board and I decided to flush the bottom and re-mount it giving me additional space.

 

[llebcire]

I removed the support, cut the ends flush, and re-mounted. I had to add an additional support for the top brace as it's original support was gone when I moved the rear brace.

I also added an additional support to one of the rear boards that looked to be splitting at a knot.

As I found out later, the sump/skimmer fit so snugly that had I not moved the brace, the additional 3/8" would have prevented the sump from fitting.

 

[llebcire]

Initially, I thought that if I could get a 36" long sump in the stand, then it would be easy to incorporate my skimmer, a fuge and the return section internally.

As my skimmer is less than petite, that didn't quite work

It's a ETSS Reef Devil Deluxe Super Skimmer with a 7" footprint and 24" height

By the time I would have the skimmer, feed pump and outlet in the sump, the fuge wouldn't be long enough to incorporate a 300w heater @ 12" long.

 

[llebcire]

I decided my best option was to drill the sump and hard plumb the skimmer output, making the drain section large enough for the drain, bulkhead and feed pump (5").

With 2 pumps, I initially thought I would use my Eheim, rated @ 607 gph for the skimmer and my Rio 2500+ @ 700 gph for the return.

After talking with tech support @ ETSS (AE Tech), they convinced me to use the Rio as it's a pressure rated pump, and ideally a Mag7 (which I'll do when I find a deal on one). According to them, a downdraft skimmer is different in the head pressure it creates and the Eheim, although a great pump, would yield less than spectacular results.

With some research, the Eheim return with the Rio feed seemed to be a good combination. The general concensus is to feed the sump about what the skimmer can process, and in this scenario the return would be approximately 420 gph (RC's head loss calculator) and the skimmer will process 350-400 gph.

Back to the sump, my design was, left to right:
5" drain/skimmer section
3 @ 8" bubble trap baffles
Middle - fuge
4" fuge baffle, later supplemented with 8" of eggcrate
5" return section

The last baffle height, for the fuge, was derived by creating maximum evaporation volume (ended up @ 4.5 gallons) but still being able to contain the 1.5" of sand I planned on using in the fuge. I added eggcrate to the fuge side of the last baffle, @ 8". to contain whatever I ended up growing in the fuge but still allowing volume fluctuations.

I chose 8" to get the most sump volume in normal operating conditions. I could have gone more with a 12" height on the 20l, but the maximum sump depth for the skimmer is 7". I raised the skimmer 1" using some wood that my light was packed in, 2 x 1/2" pieces glued together (screws were later removed) and painted black.

The issue that I ran into was the height of the skimmer versus the stand, and the need to be able to get the feed off the skimmer to clean the bio-balls used for bubbles created in the downdraft. This prevented me from raising the skimmer more.

 

[llebcire]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14568044#post14568044 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by llebcire
So it was either later November or early December, about the time my wife started talking about a puppy (I think there's a trend here), that she started sending me links to tanks for sale on classifieds.

I forgot to mention - she's since acquired a blue Min Pin, a pair of Parakeets, and we picked out a Boxer pup together. Add in a cat and an 18 month old toddler and there's never a dull moment!

 

[llebcire]

With the sump figured out, I needed rock and lights - there was a post here by JSM about someone in Ankeny tearing down a 10 year old 700g system (over 1,000g total volume) and selling rock @ $2/pound.

I went up and bought 50 pounds, bringing my total rock to +/- 70 pounds.

In my old 75g, I ended up with well over 100 pounds in the display, I'm thinking it was more like 115, and for me it was too much.

While 70 pounds probably won't be quite enough for this tank, it's a good start and I'm going to try to not go overboard again.

I picked up the rock on Sunday Feb. 22nd, it was out of water for about 3 hours in a tote with a small amount of water and moist newspaper.

I put it in fresh mix with a heater and powerhead where it stayed for about 10 days.

First pics are of the rather large bristle worms that were left in the tote - I didn't keep them. There are additional bristle worms, but these didn't interest me :eek2:

I know bristles are a great part of a clean up crew, but I think they're a pain. I managed to keep them out of my biocube, but I have them now!

 

[llebcire]

Curing

My first anemones for my clowns to host in!

They didn't like the kalk...

After a couple of days I mounted my new fuge lamp which brought out some hitch hiking shrooms

 

[llebcire]

20 long drilled for a 1" bulkhead (left side, hard to see)

Cut eggdrate to use as a support for the 8" baffles out of 1/4" glass, from Marv's Glass locally (think I could have found them cheaper @ Lowe's or Menards)

 

[llebcire]

GE silicone

Start of a mess

Setting up

1" between baffles

In hindsight, I don't believe the last baffle needs to be 8" as it creates a waterfall effect in the fuge and displaces the sand.

 

[llebcire]

Stand

First, I haven't worked with wood for years! I initially thought that I would glue 1/4" overlay on the existing wood, like Oak, but it would have been just as eay to build a new stand.

I decided to strip this stand down and give it a dark finish like the wood in our house.

I figured it'd take two nights to sand/prep, then a quick coat of stain (can said I could seal after 4 hours), then 3 quick coats of varnish, 1 every 4 hours (according to the can), then 24 hours to dry.

Yeah. Apparently, when Minwax determined dry time, they were using a controlled environment, and one that was different than my garage in the middle of February when it was below 0 outside!

My two nights to sand turned into 4 - of course I didn't use a power sander and did it all by hand with a sanding block

First night, thought I was doing okay - did one half of the stand and used one sheet of 60 grit paper, about 3 hours: