This old tank...120 Build

FFrankie: funny you say that you scratched your tank. I did the same. I am going to fresh water test it tonight. If the scratch bothers me that much I will re-do the front pane. Maybe not in starphire though. Unless my friend with the glass shop gives one sweet deal.
The light fixture is the 8 bulb tek light. The bulbs are as follows
Blue Plus
Super Actinic
Aquasun
Blue Plus
Aquasun
Super Actinic
Aquablue
Blue Plus
HumbleLobster: Thanks man!
 
TO be honest, I see no reason to us Starphire. Unless you have two tanks on SP one regular your not going to see the difference. SP scratches easy also. When I built my 61 gallon frag tank recently I used regular glass and it looks just fine imo ;)
 
looks good - I am in the process of building a stand for my 55 and 250 gallon coming up and hope it will come out as nice as yours. lets just say the first stand was rushed and came out like crap.
 
Nice stand!

I think something like that would go well in my soon-to-be-new-to-me-house, I might have to do something similar for the room-divider tank I want to put in....
 
FFrankie: I have decided now after filling it with fresh water that I can live with the scratch. I wanted to put salt water in it this weekend but will have to wait till monday when air water and ice is open (only a few miles from my house). That is a HUGE clam!! How big is it?

Well not much to report on...I am really liking the overflow, but I definately need a larger return pump.

Thanks for the comments guys. This is my second DIY stand, but this time I got a little help from my buddy that works in a cabinet shop, actually he just gave me pointers and let me use his shop.
 
Cool, I am glad that it is not that bad. I look forward to seeing the pictures soon :) I have been trying to fix a small one on mine with glass glue to keep the algae out...
The T.Gigas is now 14" It is pretty cool when it cleans itself and the water jumps the surface. Scares the crap out of my wife.
Why are you thinking you need a bigger return pump, I do not see what you are using now in your earlier posts.
BTW that stand really did come out great.
 
I just used an old mag 7 to fresh water test it. I had it laying around because I use it to do WC's and mix salt. There is not enough flow to get the whole coast to coast surface skimming idea. It was pretty level but now it is sank in to my carpet. I may need to shim it on the right side when I fill it with SW, but it doesn't really cascade over the overflow it just kinda trickles down.
 
Yeah, I would use a larger pump then. The first return pump when the filtration was under my tank was a QuietOne 3000. It worked great and was true to it's name. I highly recommend getting the tank as close to perfect for levelness. Not only for the C2C to work properly but for the structural integrity of the tank and longevity of it's life span.
 
The tank was perfectly level before I put water in. It may have sunk into the carpet a little. It is just a small amount off. The return pump is the real culprit. I think I may have revise my sump though. Coralfragger has brought up a valid point. The drain comes from the DT, with all the detritus from the DT. If I used my current setup the refugium would just be a detritus trap. I will probably just use a MJ1200 or less in the return area to move water from there to the refugium, then the water would just overflow back to the return area, Coralfragger thanks for the help!! I may owe you a few ricordea next time I make it down To Coral Springs.
 
Looks good dude.

As far as feeding the fuge I see two options (although there's probably more).

1) You thought of it yourself already. Drop a powerhead in the sump (return area) to feed the fuge and just let it fall back over into the return area. In this case you would just leave the ball valve to the CLOSED position in the plumbing that you already did.

2) Add a filter sock to the fuge area and go ahead and feed it from the overflow. If you think about it, it isn't much different than grabbing water from the return area.

In addition, I would highly recommend adding a filter sock to the other side of the sump as well. You wouldn't believe the amount of crude a filter sock will remove from a system.

Keep up the good work and don't worry about the comment. I've forgotten about it already.
 
Thanks! I was checking out your build thread but it would only let me see a few posts. I will have to sign up later.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14305038#post14305038 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cutnup
Thanks! I was checking out your build thread but it would only let me see a few posts. I will have to sign up later.

You have a spare week to read? :)

How'd you find that?
 
Nice job cutnup,
We started at nearly the same place, I reused the AGA stand, and the tank is RR. Painted my stand and built a canopy though...
I like your setup it looks good!

Tim
 
Hummer: If you look at the first page. The 2nd and 3rd picture are of drilling the tank. What I did was set a bucket on top of an upside down bucket and start a syphon to cool the bit and glass I was cutting. I also used a 2x4 with holes the same size as the bit to keep it from walking. So set up your drip system an let her rip. Nice and slow of course. I just drilled a 29 today for a frag tank and it may have taken 3 mins. , but on 1/4" glass (on the 120)I really took my sweet time, each hole took approx. 10 mins.
Coralfragger: As per another one of your post I goggled chucks 150 build (or something like that) How did you think I knew you were a ricordea freak!?
Thanks everyone else for the replies and compliments!
 
Not really much to post on. I am re-working the plumbing because I picked up an Iwaki WMD40RXLT. I also picked up a WMD20RXLT I was going to use the larger one for a closed loop...but maybe in the future. I just want to get salt water in immediately! Until them I will be doing some plumbing and then I will post some picks.

On my changes to the refugium...I was going to exit the WMD40RXLT go up to a tee with a 1x1x1/2, then to a 1/2" ball valve, and feed the refugium with that. Just wondering if anyone sees any potential problems???
 
Ok all plumbed, and running nicely! It is about 2 am. I took pictures but you will have to wait with anticipation because I am not waiting to load them in my photobucket at this time. Stay tuned!!
 
cutnup, I really like the white inside of the stand. i'm thinking of doing it myself. what stain did you use for the outside of the stand? also, do you know if that krylon black paint you used would work on acrylic? I'm thinking of painting the back of my acrylic and i'm not sure if it would work or not? thanks
 
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