SC Aquariums Owners Thread

I thought I would update everyone on my personal progress.

Yesterday my 66gal aquarium came in. Hopefully this weekend I will be doing the initial water testing. I am a little nervous that the overflow might leak because there is a 1 inch section on the sides of one of the glass pannels inside the overflow that appears like it has no silicone. If it does leak, I am hoping I can just easily fix it with a little silicone on the outside (thoughts?) I of course would never do that for the main tank, but since the overflow is not holding much load it seems like it should be enough?

Besides that the silicone job looks amazing! I am very impressed!

I plan to update this thread with LOTS of information. For one I want to include a photo guide on how to assemble the stand. While it seems pretty obvious, the instructions provided are no help. So I would like to provide some help towards that.

However I am not assembling the stand quite yet. I am concerned by the MDF construction, so I am going to make some improvements.

There are some portions on the sides of pannels where there is bare MDF. I am taking those sections and painting them with a black enamel paint. I am undecided if I only want to pain these with the enamel paint (which the MDF so far is sucking up like a sponge!). Or if I want to also apply some rustoleum neverwet.

After that I plan to assemble the stand, and add some L brackets for some extra reinforcement.

AFTER that I plan to make a bead of bathroom sealent around the base where the wood connects. Again to try and keep water from getting to the exposed sections of MDF.

After that I am thinking I may spray the bottom half of the stand with rustoleum never wet. I know this will give it a white hazy look, but since it's _inside_ the stand, I feel like it may be worth the extra protection.

I am undecided if I want to put plastic on the bottom of the stand or not. I am thinking I might, but I am also worried if water gets under it, it might just hold it in.

Let me know if anyone has any thoughts! I know I am being paranoid about the MDF, but I rather be paranoid now, than see swelling later on after the tank is on it.
 
White paint on the inside will be helpful, it will make seeing equipment and detritus much easier.
 
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No you are not being paranoid you are being realistic. MDF when it becomes wet looses all of its structural integrety, it turns to mush. First solution is to seal it all around before you build it. In addition I would to provide a place to capture water and drain it, because face it accidents happen. Thirdly is to add structual integrity, it may hold it if nothing bumps into the tank, or natural events don't rock it.

What I did was glue some thin PVC sheeting into the frame and sealed the corners with silicone. In addition I put a lip on the front. You can also use PVC shower liner, this is available in most hardware stores and quite easaly to glue with PVC cement (you fold the corners and glue the overlapping parts) guaranteed not to leak. I also built a frame inside the box out of 3/4" angle iron and 1/2" square tubing- probably over the top, but what aspect of this hobby is not?

Bill
 
A quick snapshot of my tank

782e9dc9b9364c10b548d8b8071cf519.jpg
 
Looks good OceanWolf!

You run into any new issues with the tank or anything?

I have still been progressing with mine. I expanded the small bulkhead hole with a diamond bit so I could put a 3/4in ABS bulkhead through it. I am still working on getting all the plumbing worked out, but it's coming together nicely.

I also re-arranged the sump slightly. I took out the two dividers on the right and put the return pump in the middle. I then siliconed the large glass piece on the left in so that I could have more water volume for my fuge.

I also started filling mine with RO. No leaks, and so far looking good.

If everything goes smoothly I will have the plumbing finished on Monday, and maybe running the water through the pipes on Tuesday. Salt on Wed (assuming I am lucky and there are no leaks!).

It's going to move fast after that, since I already have the rocks cured in a 29gal, and even some corals in there!
 
No issues so far. I replaced one of my MP10 with a MP40.
Next change would be getting my Eheim 1260 replaced by Jeabo 6000. I am trying to get a quieter pump through that change. I also bought a reefangel multi channel water level sensor. I am planning to control the DC pump based on my water level.

I am a bit lost on the mechanical filtering. I still have the blue and white filter pads. I also tried a sock to clean the water. My wife likes to feed the fish but she does give them a bit too much. The pads catches the uneaten food. Maybe I need to add some crabs in there to eat whatever goes down there.

I just enjoy watching the tank

0fcaedc6541f83e13bb80f27d947b8e4.jpg
 
OceanWolf said:
I am a bit lost on the mechanical filtering. I still have the blue and white filter pads. I also tried a sock to clean the water.
Click to expand...

I removed all the medium and got a vertex filter sock holder. I plan to just run all the overflow through that filter sock.
 
Good stuff! I am at about the same place. I am just about done building my stand and sump. Next is pluming and water testing. I will add some pics soon
 
I wish I went with my own stand. Those stands look amazing. Too late now, it is a major hassle to replace. I will just admire yours
 
I switched mine over to filter sock. Filtration is much easier to maintain, and the water is so much clearer. Sump is spotless. -That's how I like it.
 
I installed a RobertoFlow this weekend. It is a water level sensor in the overflow and DC6000 controlled by a ReefAngel.

It keeps the water level in the overflow constant by changing the pump output. I set it pretty high up, which reduces the waterfall sound. The hum of the Eheim 1260 is gone. Now I need to upgrade my vortech to quite drive. ☺
 
I definetly am happy with the sound of how I have done my setup. The herbie style overflow is super quiet! The only noise I have is the slightly trickle as the water goes over the overflow. I am also running way more flow through the sump than it would be stock.

I found the stock return pump to be way too noisy for my taste. But the flow it provided was too low anyways. I am feeding off two reactors, as well as the fuge from the return pump. I ended up getting a jabeo DC return pump so I could adjust the amount of flow, as well as have a bit more. I am not a huge fan of Jabeo, but the physical size was smaller than the others I was looking at.

As you can tell in this photo, I removed the right section of the sump and re-glued the large piece of glass in so I can have more water volume in my fuge.
 

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