oldbones 56g custom reef attempt!

[oldbones]

Well, nobody never accused me of being smart... So, with an entire MONTH of experience in this hobby, I've decided I dig it, that the 29g biocube I started with is too small and too beat up, and that I will just build a new system to fit my living room.

Now, I don't have a very big living room, there's no place for an in-wall, and I'm not ready to cordon off part of the downstairs for a fish room just yet, so this will have to be a free standing tank/stand/sump setup. Did I mention the living room is small? Without actually removing any furniture, the largest practical size I think will look nice is 34" long x 19" wide and 20" tall. By my math, this comes out to 56 gallons (I know it'll never hold that). My LFS (Shark Reef in Silverdale, WA) contracts with Oceans By Design in Tukwilla, WA to get custom tanks built, and Mike at OBD sent me this drawing, with an acceptable price attached to it. Bam, trigger pulled. That was two weeks ago.

My deposit has been paid, the glass has been cut, and the tank stood up and siliconed. It needs two weeks to cure, and some cleaning/finish work before I can bring it home.

 

[oldbones]

In the meantime, I figured I could get to work on a sump, so I jogged on down to Petco before the $1/gal sale was over, and picked up a 20h. Not the ideal sump size, but with the cabinet space I have to work with, I figured it was the best compromise.

Here's what it looks like on the kitchen table with an Eshopps filter sock trying to hide the new skimmer.

Oh, did I say skimmer? LFS gave me a GREAT price on the Eshopps S-120. I decided on this skimmer because of it's compact footprint, whisper quiet Sicce pump and great price point. It also gets great reviews.

I also went ahead and picked up a Sicce 2.0 return pump (currently running my 29g), two Jebao RW-4's (one running in the 29) and two Jager 150w heaters.

 

[oldbones]

Never built (or HAD) a sump before, but since mine doesn't need to be fancy, I decided to tackle it myself. Had a few baffles cut with rounded corners on the bottom and all edges sanded. Bought some aquarium safe silicone, broke out the painters tape and had at it.

I made the skimmer/drain chamber 9.5", a tad larger than it had to be, but allows plenty of room to get the skimmer in and out for maintenance. I think I'll just have an over/under bubble trap here. I made the skimmer section 12" tall, and I'll build a 4" stand to get the skimmer sitting at 8", that'll be easily adjustable.

 

[oldbones]

Next, I decided I should be making my own RO/DI, so I rang up Mark at Melev's Reef and he sent me this setup rated at 150 gpd. It's bigger than I need, but it comes with a booster pump installed (I'm on a well and pressure isn't very high) as well as dual inline TDS meters.

The most practical place for me to install it is out in my shop, so I've resigned myself to hauling water 5 gallons at a time. Not ideal, but ok for a smaller tank like mine. I'll be installing a tank (maybe 40 gallons) on a raised stand under the RO/DI unit to store fresh water. It'll have a valve and hose off the bottom so I can gravity feed out of the tank into a mixing container (Brute).

 

[oldbones]

Next, I ordered up 50# of Marco Rocks, a little bit of shelf rock and a bottle of priming fluid (bacteria in a bottle). The rocks are super porous and very easy to stack. I was thinking I would use Marco's cement mix to build a fancy scape, but have decided just to build the scape in the tank when I set it up. What you see here is literally what I got when I pulled the rock out of the shipping box and spent about 5 minutes playing around with it.

I did fiddle with a couple rocks to make sure I had a few nice base pieces.

Next, I gave all the rock a good RODI rinse, and dropped in a brute full of salt water with a pump, heater and one of the RW-4's. To this, I added the bottle of bacteria starter. I'll also rotate in a couple live rocks full of pods from my DT. By the time the tank shows up, the rocks should be well cycled and ready to rock.

 

[oldbones]

Well, now you're all caught up. I imagine the next two weeks or so will be pretty boring while I just wait for the tank to cure and for my buddy Mark to finish my stand. I probably could have cobbled something together, but he's a real pro and I know it'll look (and last) way better if he does it.

Have I screwed anything up yet???

 

[Johnnycat]

Congrats on moving past the 29 cube - very smart move! Looks like you're off to a great start.

I love the sump, too. I may have missed it, but what is going on the wide open space of the return pump - a refugium?

Don't forget about an ammonia source in your curing rock bucket.

 

[oldbones]

Thanks Johnnycat.

Regarding the sump, yes, that space will most likely end up as refugium. I've got a 10" baffle ready to partition off the last 4.5 inches for the return pump, so that would actually give me a 10x12x9 fuge, which is right about 4.5 gallons. Not as big as I'd like, but I think big enough to be worth the while. Probably some LR rubble and macro.

4.5 inches ought to be plenty of room for that return pump, it's a tight fit in the back of my biocube, and that chamber measures just shy of 4". There should be room next to the return pump for one of the slim reactors when the time comes.

Will start looking for ammonia in the rock bucket in a day or two. There's a few pounds of half dead live rock in the bottom, I'm guessing the die off from that will get the ball rolling.

 

[nyxx]

Nice work so far. Good to know someone local in the hobby.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Great start! I look forward to seeing this come together.

 

[oldbones]

So, I've been running a Jebao RW-4 in my biocube for about a month now, and I'm very happy with it. It generates an incredible amount of water movement for such a small pump, and it's absolutely silent (at the low power levels I'm currently using).

I did, however, find the JBWave aftermarket controller to be too intriguing to pass up. It allows way more flexibility and programmability, and will control two powerheads to create at least 10 different wave patterns. I purchased the IOS version, so I can control it with an iPhone app.

One shortcoming of the stock controller for the RW series is the "Else" mode, which basically runs a random cycle of pulse/wave/power combinations. The big problem with Else mode is that you cannot select a power level, and the mode enables the pump to run all the way up to 100%, which in my 29g, is WAY too much. The JBWave should allow me to design my own program, alternating wave patterns and intensity throughout the day and night.

I'm pretty excited to try it out, and USPS tracking just told me it should be here in a few hours!

http://joejaworski.com/jebao/

 

[oldbones]

Oh, and hello to Nyxx! I met Nyxx through a local craigslist ad, he was selling a few frags. As I don't know any local reef keepers, I sent him a message to say HI. A few days later, my wife and I dropped by his place to check out his setup and see what he had to sell. He's got a very nice 55g tank running, with lots of DIY ingenuity going on, I love it!

He had some nice Green Stylophora frags to sell, so I decided to take one home and see how it would do in my 29g setup. Well, once his hands were wet, Nyxx just kept pulling stuff out of the tank, and before I new it, had dropped a 2" Green Hydnophora in the bag, as well as a meaty looking Frogspawn that had recently become grumpy and reclusive in his tank.

The frags are looking well in my tank so far, but it's only been a few days. The Frogspawn looks to be waking up very nicely, it has two main branches, with about 3 heads each. It's color is a great green center with perfect purple branching tips. I suspect maybe it was getting picked on by a fish in Nyxx's tank when he wasn't looking. Here it is:

Anyway, great to meet you Nyxx, thanks for the goodies, and we'll talk to you soon!

 

[oldbones]

Well, here we are. My rocks have been cooking for two weeks. I've been looking in on them every couple days. Sometimes, I drop in 1/2 cube of Mysis, or a whole cube of Brine. Sometimes, I check Ammonia, Nitrites or Phosphates. The good news is, I think the rocks are well cycled and the tank should be a quick startup once it's wet. I'm seeing a little bit of phosphates, but nothing alarming. I'm hoping that this cook period is rinsing the majority of is off the surface rock.

On a more exciting note, the tank SHOULD be 100% complete, ready for me to pick up tomorrow when the shop opens. From there, I plan to run to my buddies house where my new stand awaits. We'll make sure the two fit together well, then cut the final holes in the top and back of the stand for water/power/cooling and hopefully I'll bring the whole shebang home with me.

Here's what the tank looked like a week ago tomorrow.

Here's what $80 will get you at the local big box store!

I can almost taste it!

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Do you have any gate valves? I highly recommend them if you're doing an Herbie system. SO much easier to dial in than the ball valve.

I haven't seen the OBD tanks in person but the pictures I've seen on my local club website/Facebook really look nice. Mike has a very good rep.

 

[oldbones]

I do have a Spears 1" gate valve and 1" siphon strainer, but they were out in the shop and didn't make it into the picture.

Just talked to Mike, and he needs one more day to finish the trim work on my tank, so I guess I'll pick it up tomorrow.

I suppose it's time to start thinking about moving my 29g Biocube to a new spot across the living room to make room for the new arrival!

 

[oldbones]

Well, the tank is here! The stand however, was lagging behind just a touch, so it won't be here until tomorrow morning.

I'm really happy with the way the tank looks, it's going to be a huge improvement over the scratched up biocube. I am having big tank envy though, when I went to Oceans By Design to pick up the tank, I had to walk past all these big beauties in work in their shop. Sure wish I had the room for something like that, but honestly, I'm not really ready for that big a step yet anyway. Heck, if I'm still this fired up about this new hobby in a couple years, who know's what might happen. Anyway, without further delay, here's the tank!

I'm so excited to get started on the next phase of this build, but really limited in what I can do before the stand is here. So, I've been busy filling every container I can find with RODI, built a pedestal for my skimmer out of egg crate, and put together a screen top. I glued on some acrylic tabs so it will sit flush inside the "rim" of my rimless tank, and had to make some relief cuts so it would sit down over the overflow box. It came out pretty nice, here it is:

Tomorrow, I forsee three trips to Lowes for plumbing parts I forgot to buy...

 

[mystikal]

Clean looking tank!

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Very nice, indeed.

Tomorrow, I forsee three trips to Lowes for plumbing parts I forgot to buy...

Been there... :headwallblue:

 

[SaltyMember]

Nice! Following.

 

[oldbones]

Well folks, look what we have here! My pal Mark (Fox Island Woodworks) dropped off the stand this morning. It's built with 3/4" plywood, dadoed (sp?) together and finished with a "food grade water resistant" finish, whatever that means. The inside of the cabinet is lined with formica, siliconed in, up to about 12" or so. Holes in the back for wires and a 120mm exhaust fan that's in the mail. The shelf is only about 14" deep, so there's room behind it for plumbing and electrical, and it slides out for access on loosely fit wood rails to allow for expansion.

More to come later, I'm busy!!!