TOTM quality 6' SPS tank for under $1k? The 5.56 build thread; AKA a really bad idea

[five.five-six]

So you have enough space for a 48-ish tank right?
I cut a while back a regular 30G tank because I don't like the height of it; get a 50g tank and cut a few inches off of the top.
Home Depot has a Ryobi 4" glass/tile saw, pricey but it does the job.
Just be careful when removing the top plastic, sharp blades will take care of the silicone.
I used the top plastic rim as a straight edge then removed the glass pieces off of the trim. Added baffles and have a sump.
http://www.bareefers.org/forum/attachments/007-jpg.6334/
http://www.bareefers.org/forum/attachments/cam01464-jpg.6523/

I can rent a tile saw from HD, just never thought to cut glass with it.


I really only want one set of baffles for micro bubbles and that's not even a necessity

Wet dry sandpaper makes short order of the sharp edges on glass. But wear leather gloves in case it cuts through the sand paper

 

[marioensf]

I used a hand held circular saw fitted with a continuous rim diamond blade and lots of water, slow process but was worth it. Goggles, gloves a must and of course sandpaper for the edges, I used a rubber block. There's a guy on craigslist here in the sfbay that sells diamond router bits in different grits, have not tried them but seem attractive to use to smooth the glass edges, the worry some is that glass dust is highly hazardous if inhaled, similar to asbestos so I just used sandpaper.
Good luck with the project!
*as a side note, your skimmer is a 135 right? I posted a Sedra FS, good to have a spare, if you are interested send me a pm and we can work something out.

 

[five.five-six]

And I'm out of money, new total $986.18

And I'm out of money, new total $986.18

marioensf was kind enough to ship me a sedra pump for my ASM skimmer for $40

Paint for the stand from Home Depot $36.98


And I bought a calcium reactor setup on the WTS forum for $150.00

I do have $180 cash from selling stuff

I have most of the stuff in my WTS thread

Also have a spare 6105, 6095 and a corallife biocube 29 with stand to sell.


Should net me over $1k for livestock but I need to get selling Best/lowest prices will be here but I'm not opposed to making money on eBay.

 

[five.five-six]

Bad news, out of a dozen random halide lamps, the best matched pair, XM 14k's one of the lamps keeps shutting off. So now I'm running a hammelton 14k and a XM. There's 1 more decent looking lamp but I'm just about out of spares.

I had looked into the plusright 14k lamps, not because they are $12.74 each but because they are a M58 type 1 designe which matches my avalable ballests.

I did get 1 working ARO electronic ballest in a trade/gift/deal. I really like that ballest because it runs lamps hard and will run M80 rated lamps correctly. I think I am looking for another ARO 250 ballest.

The guy with the CaCl2 reactor seems to have dissapeared and never gave me his paypal address so I guess I didn't buy a reactor. It's ok, I have tons of kalkwasser mix and a good supply of 2 part mix to adjust my parameters.

 

[marioensf]

Following your build, I have a couple ARO 250w ballasts, they should work, just the postage if you want them. About that CaRx, let me see what I can come with...

 

[five.five-six]

You are far to generous. Thank you

 

[marioensf]

here are the images

 

[five.five-six]

here are the images

That ain't nothing but rouge and lipstick. I can fix that100%

 

[five.five-six]

new total $848.30

new total $848.30

I ended up backing out of that reactor deal -$150

Wife went to McFadden Dale to get a O-ring for the skimmer +$2.12

 

[Zatoichi]

OMG I knew you couldn't last in a BioCube long LOL I have a bunch of stuff including CO2 regulators 250 watt hqi electronic ballast kalk reactor five gallon bucket of kalk and Lord knows what else LOL

Sent from my LGLS775 using Tapatalk

 

[five.five-six]

hook a brother up! PM inbound

 

[Dhoggs]

If you decide to run biopelllets....i have a Reef Octopus BR1000ss reactor with a sealed bag of biopellets from brs I could sell to you for a fraction of what I paid for when I bought new. Lmk

 

[five.five-six]

New total $861.90

New total $861.90

6105 gyre is a llittle too strong... unless you are looking for that 50/50 bare bottom look. Takes about 3 days to do this:

I have over 20 26 watt CFL actenic lamps and a workhorse ballest, I added blue lights and fans to the canopy this weekend.

You can't see the lamps because they are under the white freflectors I fashioned from an old valance i had in the garage. I made my own inline CFL connectors from slip on connectors and bondo. Cost nothing . The lamps are held to the reflectors with zip ties, I hope they stand up...

The section of PVC valance is screwed to a block of scrap acrylic which is screwed to the canopy rib.

You'd think that since the lamps are running perpendicular to the tank the coverage would be spotty but it's actually remarkably even lighting. I'll snap a photo later


Spent $13.60 on shipping for a pair of ARO ballests which another reefer was kind enough to give me for the price of shipping.

 

[five.five-six]

New total $881.88

New total $881.88

Just spent $19.98 on a tom aqualifter and prefilter. My 0.06l/hr doseing pump just can't keep up with evaporation.

 

[five.five-six]

New total: $861.90/$1k, stack of cash $ $126, PayPal $0.0

New total: $861.90/$1k, stack of cash $ $126, PayPal $0.0

Danmb you marine Depot and your scratch n dent sale. I spent $60 at marine Depot of which a small portion got me a trigger systems sump, exactly the dimensions I was looking for just without the giant cracks. A short trip over to paragon plastics for some scrap and advice on fixing it for $4.00. Filled it with water, punched and kicked it a few times and we are GTG. Plenty of room for my big Euroreef skimmer with Eheim 1260 pump, it's a beast for this tank


You can see the repairs, 2 good sized cracks on the front, I sheeted about 80% of the front with 1/8" acrylic and placed strips over the cracks on the inside. Similar repair on the one small crack on the back side

Cut out one of the center baffles that I didn't want, cut out the 2 mini sock holders which were on the wrong side for me and cut down and glued in a HOB style regular sock holder right where I wanted it.

That's the beauty of a $30 sump, I have no problem cutting and gluing it as I like LOL

Added a 20 pound bag of fiji pink, thanks MD! Took a shot of the cloudy water and it gives a good idea of how well those 3 stupid CFL actenics cover the tank. Not bad!

 

[dodgerblew]

So where's the total at?

 

[five.five-six]

So where's the total at?

New total: $861.90/$1k, stack of cash (cash I have from selling fishy things) $126.00, PayPal (paypal money I have from selling fishy things)$0.0

Time to start selling extras.

BTW, what's the deal with WTS threads? Can I just abandon my old WTS thread or do I have to request it get shut down before I start a new one? It has gotten pretty mucked up

 

[Jimbo327]

That's a hell of a deal on that sump. I was checking it out...thinking wow, he got a good sized Trigger sump, probably had to spend a couple hundred on that.

 

[five.five-six]

New total: $910.34/$1k, stack of cash $0.00, paypal $0.0

New total: $910.34/$1k, stack of cash $0.00, paypal $0.0

Ok, now I did it. I went to the LFS to get some chromises, check my water for ammonia and have them look at my pH probe that was giving me trouble.

Ammonia and nitrite are fine but while rummaging around for a pH meter to check out my probe he comes out with a used korallin reactor full of agragate, asks if I want to buy it $180, I say I would not buy it at all without CO2 bottle and regulator, which he produced and let me play with for about 1/2 hr.

The regulator was used but worked well and the tank was full but with expired hydro date I offered $100, we settled on my chromises, 8 SPS frags and the reactor $160 cash.





CaCl2 reactor, fish and frags $160
Melafix dip $17.44

 

[five.five-six]

Since I obviously need to sell some stuff to continue, I was looking in my old imageshack account and found these: