View Full Version : spieg's 125g build
spieg
02/06/2010, 10:31 AM
It's been off and on for about four years in the planning stages, but im finally in a position to make it all happen. First a big thanks to the following people for helping me along:
artful-dodger (http://reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?u=59610): for answering several questions, steering me in the right directions, and helping me with my initial ideas way back in 2006.
Anthony Calfo (http://reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?u=6832): for the ideas of a coast to coast overflow, a closed loop manifold, and just being a wealth of knowledge for the aquarium hobby in general.
The Grim Reefer (http://reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?u=38553): For being a wealth of T5 knowledge and taking the time to answer EVERYONE's questions about T5 bulb selections.
BeanAnimal (http://reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?u=21579): for putting together a nice concise and easy to read diagram on silent and failsafe overflows including a full parts list
RocketEngineer (http://reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?u=148629): For putting together a quick and easy DIY stand plan and taking the time to answer specific questions about the engineering thereof
saltwaterfishlover (http://reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?u=8359): for inspiring some additional stand ideas and taking the time to answer some specific questions.
And everyone else that makes this hobby as easy to get into these days as it is. The wealth of knowledge here at reefcentral is mind boggling. All that said, lets get on with it! And just to be upfront, I dont actually expect this thing to be up and running much before June or so!
My display tank is a 125g AGA. It will be drilled for 3 1" bulkheads that will be used in a coast to coast overflow. It will also be drilled for a 2" bulkhead to feed a closed loop pump. My sump is a 100g leftover from my freshwater days (and still running actually). Its the same dimensions as the 125g and will be housed in the stand underneath the display tank. There will be a section for the skimmer that all of the coast to coast overflow will drain into, a refugium section in the center, and a return section. After baffles, I expect the running compartments to be about 15g for the skimmer, 40g for the fuge, and 25g for the return. The return will incorporate 3 jager 200w heaters, 1 eheim 1262 for return (with the possibility of adding a second if adequate flow isnt achieved with one), a gac reactor, ato, and various probes. The stand is going to be oversized to accomodate the sump. Its external dimensions will be about 86"x30"x40". That will leave a 6" shelf around the tank for my cat to walk on, and to hold guinness bottles as necessary. The top frame is going to be made out of 2x6 and incorporate joist hangers for piece of mind. Its going to be skinned in plywood, finished off with 4 doors on the front and one on each end, and painted high gloss black. For a skimmer im leaning toward an SWC/MSX200 for now unless something better comes out before I pull the trigger on that. And for the closed loop pump ill be using a super dart gold with a short 2" input line returning through a 1.5" bulkhead with 15 3/4" tees set up with loc-line for flow adjustment. Im planning on going with a neptune apex to control everything for now. And I think thats about it for now! If anyone has any suggestions or improvements, id love to hear about them! This will be my first saltwater setup and the more I do right the first time, the better! Thanks in advance!
spieg
02/06/2010, 10:42 AM
Heres a sketchup of the stand with tanks:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/standsketch.jpg
spieg
02/06/2010, 10:59 AM
Drilling the tank!
Getting ready to drill the three 1 3/4" holes for the 1" bulkheads (beer required for this job):
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/1drilling1.jpg
Drilled and dirty, glass dust is messy and I still need to find a good way to rinse out between the frame and the glass:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/1drilling2.jpg
All cleaned up:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/1drilling3.jpg
Moving on to the 3" hole for the 2" bulkhead:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/2drilling1.jpg
This is a big hole and also requires beer:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/2drilling2.jpg
Cleaning up with a squeegee:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/2drilling3.jpg
spieg
02/06/2010, 11:00 AM
Bulkheads installed:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/1inchbulkheads.jpg
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/2inchbulkhead.jpg
spieg
02/06/2010, 11:00 AM
Stand construction begins!
Top box done:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/frame-topbox.jpg
SnowManSnow
02/06/2010, 11:01 AM
looking great. well done on the holes.. that is a time consuming process I know.
Good luck with everything else!
B
reidcrandall
02/06/2010, 11:36 AM
Drilling is the hardest part :)
Looking great!
spieg
02/06/2010, 08:02 PM
Thanks guys! Got the bottom box framed up today. Gave it the upside down beer bottle test for squareness and its looking good so far. I should be able to get the legs in it tomorrow.
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/frame-bottombox.jpg
spieg
02/07/2010, 07:58 PM
Made a little more progress today, got all of the legs in. Next up will be the tops for the boxes, and then itll start getting some primer!
Here it is with 4 legs in, still beer-square:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/stand4legs.jpg
A 3lb sledge and a little guinness convinced the legs they were all perfect fits:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/standlegs.jpg
And here it is with all 8 legs installed:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/stand8legs.jpg
munkyboy111
02/07/2010, 11:11 PM
Definitely can't do anything without beer!! Nice progress so far. I'd like to see it all together. Keep the pictures coming.
spieg
02/08/2010, 10:17 PM
Floor's in:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/standfloor.jpg
dubdlee
02/08/2010, 10:22 PM
Looking great! following along to see it through :fun4: good luck sir
Fish Ace
02/09/2010, 05:42 AM
Floor's in:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/standfloor.jpg
Looks like a well put together stand, built to hold lots of weight. I only hope I can match it.
spieg
02/09/2010, 10:46 AM
First coat of primer, sure didnt take long to remember how much I hate painting. Still waiting for some of the filler to dry so I can sand it before priming the floor.
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/standprimer1.jpg
stevek480
02/09/2010, 12:54 PM
Looks good so far!
onecoder
02/09/2010, 01:42 PM
Looks good tagging along.
wakebum187
02/09/2010, 02:40 PM
Good job on the details
spieg
02/09/2010, 04:45 PM
Well, I ran into my first snag. I had been planning on just priming the inside with a few coats of killz, then slapping on a bathroom and kitchen paint. The bath/kitchen paint had a mildewcide in it and I decided I didnt want that in my stand. So, I went off to sherwin-williams to get some advice. They sold me on a two part epoxy but suggested I sand off the killz as best I can and use a different primer. So, thats the new plan. Given the two part epoxy needing to be mixed then used pretty fast, I decided I would abandon the idea of priming in stages and just assemble the whole stand first. Once its all built Ill go ahead and prime it up on the inside, mix up the two part epoxy, and go to town all at once. Im sure itll be harder to work inside the stand, but I think that will be easier than trying to mix up multiple batches of two part to do things in pieces.
All that said, the stand gained some significant weight today. Its getting to the point that its almost too big for me to move on my own. Added a 3/4" top, 1/4" back, and 1/4" sides. Next ill cut most of the sides out for access doors, put the front on, cut most of the front out for access doors, and then finish wood filling and caulking.
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/standsides.jpg
d2mini
02/09/2010, 04:52 PM
That stand looks nice and sturdy! Looking forward to updates...
spieg
02/10/2010, 07:49 PM
Cut the door opening into one of the sides:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/stand1doorcut.jpg
theyammieguy
02/10/2010, 08:42 PM
I like your level.
spieg
02/12/2010, 08:46 PM
I didnt get to make any progress yesterday thanks to the track bar in my jeep deciding it didnt want to be bolted in anymore. Tonight I got the other side hole cut, but then broke my last belt on my belt sander so I didnt get it completely sanded down. I got a bunch of caulking done and have it all prepped to get the front on tomorrow after some light sanding. Slowly but surely its coming along!
onecoder
02/13/2010, 04:59 AM
Spieg, what CAD software did you use for your planing?
chino402
02/13/2010, 07:57 AM
the wooden trim with holes on it... GOOD FREAKING IDEA!!!! i never thought of that. @@
spieg
02/13/2010, 09:47 AM
Spieg, what CAD software did you use for your planing?
Ive been using google sketchup. Its a little wacky to get used to, but all in all its pretty easy to use. Im definitely NOT a CAD guy and ive managed to get it to do just about everything I want. Plus, its free. Check it out: Google Sketchup (http://sketchup.google.com/).
myaerica
02/13/2010, 10:08 AM
Looks good what do you plan on putting on that stand 2 sherman tanks?
spieg
02/13/2010, 10:29 AM
Looks good what do you plan on putting on that stand 2 sherman tanks?
Its going to be a 125 on top and a 100 below. I wouldnt have overbuilt it as much if the rim of the tank could sit on the edge of the stand, but I wanted the top to be oversized so the bottom tank could still fit in the stand.
This one is way underbuilt by my standards! The first stand I ever built was for a 40gal long, and it had more linear feet of 2x4 in it than this one does! :lmao:
Skinner
02/13/2010, 11:08 AM
I'm gald to see the beer quality has been upgraded!!
spieg
02/13/2010, 01:05 PM
The bud lights were freebies, and im not one to let a free beer go to waste. :beer:
myaerica
02/13/2010, 01:54 PM
I was just kidding,I built my 180 inwall stand out of 2x8s.
spieg
02/13/2010, 02:25 PM
I was just kidding,I built my 180 inwall stand out of 2x8s.
My initial plan was to go with 2x8 and span the entire length with no supports. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized I would probably be trimming it out and want to do doors/panels/something and need vertical support anyway. So, I just decided to shrink the span down a bit with supports and drop to 2x6. I may have been able to get away with 2x4 for the top box but it wasnt that much more for 2x6. Plus this way if I ever stumble into a 150 or a 180 I wont need a new stand!
spieg
02/15/2010, 08:35 PM
After taking the weekend off, I made some more progress tonight. Finished cutting the holes in all of the 1/4" wrap and wood filled the rest of the gaps. Tomorrow ill hopefully get the wood filler sanded down, and cover all the remaining seams with caulk in preparation for some primer! Should have the first coat of epoxy on the inside this weekend. I did a few test patches of some spray paints to see if I like any of them enough to spraypaint the outside of the stand, too. I really dont want to have to brush the whole thing if I can avoid it. So far the rustoleum high performance enamel is looking pretty good. The rustoleum high gloss laquer isnt too bad either but doesnt seem to cover as well. I like the hammered finish rustoleum as well, but its not dark enough. I also got in a test coat of krylon fusion on the back of my test tank to see how id like the look of that. The royal blue ended up being much lighter blue than expected. Ill see how it dries tonight and looks in the morning. Heres a few pics:
The stand, getting closer:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/standwrapped.jpg
The test paints for the outside of the stand:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/finishes.jpg
The test paints on the aquarium:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/painttest.jpg
spieg
02/17/2010, 08:29 PM
Made a bit more progress tonight, got most of the inside of the stand primed up. I ran a little short on primer, it took every bit of a quart to get most of it covered. I may pick up another quart and cover the thin spots again before epoxying on Saturday!
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/insideprimed.jpg
Also got a little bit of a start on brainstorming for my closed loop manifold. I havent decided if I want to use 45's in the corners or 90's yet. Still have lots of planning to do with that.
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/manifold1.jpg
spieg
02/21/2010, 10:31 AM
Got the epoxy all applied, turned out great. I highly recommend the 2 part epoxy to anyone wanting a permanent finish on the inside of their stand! Now I just have to wait 14 days for it to cure.
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/epoxied.jpg
spieg
02/22/2010, 10:04 PM
A little more visible progress tonight. After spending a couple of hours at Lowes deciding what to trim things out with, I settled on some casing. The plan is to go with a crown moulding around the top when I get to that point. I got the front panels framed up and trimmed out tonight. Aside from one blowout with the brad nailer it all went pretty well. Hopefully I can cover that up with some putty and caulk. Primer and paint is next!
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/frontpanels.jpg
spieg
02/23/2010, 10:10 AM
First coat of primer on the front! Once I get the fronts primered up, I think ill epoxy the back of the panels with the same stuff I did the inside of the stand with. Then ill finish off the front of them with a high gloss black enamel.
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/primer.jpg
spieg
03/09/2010, 03:26 PM
Its been too long since an update! Ive done a lot of caulking. A lot of priming. A lot of painting. A lot of sanding. Over, and over, and over. Im sick of working on the stand! :fun5:
I finished the bottom half of the hood that will be used to conceal the top edge of the aquarium as well as conceal all of my closed loop manifold. I decided to epoxy the inside of it since I had a little epoxy left and that is done. I also decided to epoxy the back of all of the panels as well. Tomorrow I can start finish coating the front of the panels and the outside of the bottom half of the hood. I built a top half to the hood as well, and then scrapped it because I built it too short to fit my T5 retro shelf/drawer. Then I rebuilt it tall enough, and I think im going to scrap it again. Im thinking I may just go with an ATI sunpower 6x80 instead instead of retrofitting. Im still debating but im heavily leaning toward the ATI. If I go that route, I think ill build a different top half of the hood to suspend the ATI inside of and add some front access doors for feeding/maintenance.
Heres the bottom half of the hood and a couple of the panels all epoxied up:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/bottomhalfhood.jpg
I also have been painting the outside of the stand. The epoxy on the inside should be all cured up so I should be able to get started on the sump soon. The first step of that will be tearing down my 100 gallon freshwater tank. Im not looking forward to that. Either way, since I had some epoxy left over from the panels and hood, I epoxied the top of the stand as well. So far ive hit the outside with 5 coats of paint and im thinking one or two more coats and im calling it good.
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/blackstand.jpg
spieg
03/13/2010, 11:53 AM
Well, im sick of painting this dumb thing, so im calling it good! The first 4 or 5 coats were fine, the last two started doing the orange peel thing in a couple of spots. Luckily its not too bright in the room the tank will sit so it shouldnt be too big of a problem.
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/paintedstand.jpg
spieg
03/22/2010, 07:47 PM
Painted the panels in stages, two done a couple of days ago and the other three done tonight. Since the first two were fairly cured up, I screwed the magnets on and hung the panels. I just need to wait on the other three panels, get the magnets on those, and trim out the top edge and corners. Getting close, and none too soon, im sick of working on the stupid stand!
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/fronttwothirds.jpg
spieg
03/24/2010, 05:57 PM
Magnets are on the front panels and holding them in place! I might look for some heavy duty magnets for the center panel but for now its working. I got a little bit of a start on laying out the 100 gallon sump, too.
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/frontpanelson.jpg
spieg
04/17/2010, 07:06 PM
Finally a bit more progress to post!
I changed out the magnets on the big panel and went with some spring clips instead. They seem to hold the door on a little better. I went with magnets on the ends as well though, and they are working fine so far.
Since the seal in my old 100 gallon didnt look all that great and had some weird water blisters (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1817880), I decided to reseal it before installing the baffles. I cut all of the old silicone out with a razor blade, then hit it with a scotch brite pad and some rubbing alcohol to get the last little bits of silicone until it was squeaky clean.
All of the silicone cut out of it:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/reseal.jpg
Scrubbing it down with the scotch brite pad:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/reseal1.jpg
Installing the first baffle:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/baffles.jpg
After a couple of coats of primer and several coats of spray paint followed by switching it up to a brush paint, I finally got the top shelf looking how I wanted it. Ill probably never spray paint wood again. The quality of the finish just isnt as good as I like. Once the paint cured up, I got the shelf glued down to the top of the stand.
Top installed:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/topshelfon.jpg
With the top on and the baffles in the sump, I decided to do a quick water test and make sure the sump didnt have any leaks.
So far so good:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/watertest.jpg
And here it is all filled up. No leaks yet after a couple of days:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/watertested.jpg
Im going to give it another day or so, then drain the sump. Then I need to nail and glue on the crown moulding. Once thats all set, its time to start on the plumbing!
glaukos
04/18/2010, 04:04 AM
nice build!
keep the photos coming!
great job with the stand
DIYnitemare
04/18/2010, 06:50 AM
that stand looks great
spieg
04/19/2010, 06:24 AM
Thanks for the compliments! The stand has definitely been a long time coming. That said, I got the crown moulding all secured last night. So, after 2 and a half months, im happy to say the stand is almost done! Tonight im going to glue on some corner moulding, caulk some shadow lines, and prepare for the final coat of paint! Hopefully tomorrow ill get it painted. And then I can finally be done with the stand. I still have to do the canopy, but the stand will be done at least.
spieg
04/19/2010, 05:02 PM
Crown moulding on:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/crowned.jpg
Apparently high gloss black isnt very photogenic in low light situations...
spieg
04/24/2010, 03:31 PM
Slowly but surely, progressing...
Got the coast to coast overflow siliconed up today. I had planned on doing it sooner, but I decided to wait until I could integrate some bracing. The glass shop screwed up my first triangles (they cut them as isosceles instead of right triangles) so I had to wait for them to redo them. Once this is all cured up, itll be ready to go in the tank. I need to install my cutting board bottom first though or else im afraid it wont fit. Once im at that stage, the plumbing is all in a box ready to go. So, if all goes well, I should be doing a water test in a week or two.
Heres the coast to coast, sitting on top of my stand to cure:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/coast2coast.jpg
And heres the box of plumbing parts ready to go:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/plumbingparts.jpg
scott26
04/26/2010, 10:03 AM
I know now how much plumbing cost that looks expensive nice build so far!
spieg
04/26/2010, 11:29 AM
Thanks! I got a heck of a deal on the ball valves. The 2" full flows are only single union, but at $20/ea it was hard to pass up. Grainger has them all on close out right now marked down from $95. The worst part was the spa flex (not in the picture). Almost $3 a foot for that crap.
spieg
04/27/2010, 05:21 AM
Got the bottom piece of HDPE from usplastics.com trimmed to size and dropped it in the bottom of the tank. I havent decided if I want to try to silicone it down, or just let the weight of the sand and rock hold it in place. I think if I silicone it, its going to require a ton of silicone, and probably a week or more to cure, and im not even sure it would hold long term. Im leaning toward skipping the silicone on that.
I also got my coast-to-coast installed and its curing up. Hopefully I can get the back of the aquarium painted this week, sort out all of my plumbing, and be water testing this pig by the weekend!
Heres the coast-to-coast installed and curing:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/coast2coastinstalled.jpg
Heres a better shot of the stand:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/standfinalcoat.jpg
spieg
05/04/2010, 06:13 AM
Updates and modifications! I got the closed loop all cured up, set the tank in place, and hooked up some plumbing to do some testing. The bracing that I had installed in the overflow was restricting flow through the overflow enough that ive since decided to remove all of the bracing. I also ended up with a bulkhead that I could not get to seal very good. So, with my plumbing all of about a day old, I had to cut out a bulkhead. Upon inspection of the bulkhead, I think its at least partly due to the bulkhead itself. Tightening it down off the tank still wont get a flat seal. Ive ordered up a few more and hope to get them today or tomorrow. The closed loop is all done and after a couple of test runs seems to be ready for business. There are still a few vibrations im trying to work out of the system but other than some minor adjustment, its pretty much done at this point. Next up is redoing that leaky bulkhead, making the return pump plumbing permanent, painting the canopy that hides my closed loop manifold, and more leak testing!
Here are a few pics of the progress...
Closed loop:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/closedloop.jpg
Closed loop on the tank with loc-line:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/closedloopinstalled.jpg
Closed loop pump/plumbing:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/closedloopback.jpg
Aquarium mostly filled up:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/tankfull.jpg
Front shot:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/tankfullfront.jpg
frankpayne32
05/04/2010, 07:01 AM
Very nice stand!
spieg
05/22/2010, 01:58 PM
Well, all the leaks have been worked out, sand has been added, a little over 50lbs of live rock added, some dry rock added, and ive been up and running for a week as of today. I got my skimmer rack built and have my octopus extreme 200 running at 8" and it seems to be breaking in fairly well. Its helped get rid of a lot of the sand dust for sure. Im hoping to clean the rest of the dust out of the other areas of the tank tomorrow. I added a couple of PC spot lights to hopefully keep some of the coralline and hitchhikers alive until I can get some better lights. Not seeing much of a cycle yet, so hopefully the live rock will help me skip the long delays with that. I still have a lot of sand that I had planned on adding to the display, but im thinking I might not add it all. Im already getting some pretty good dunes. I had once been concerned about not getting enough flow out of the closed loop, and that is no longer a concern. I thought I may have to run it on 6 outlets, now im thinking more along the lines of running it on 12 to lower the velocity at each port and quit building dunes in the tank. I still have some tweaking to do on that. Other than that, things are moving along. I decided to change my plan for lights as a result of getting an awesome deal on some lights, so ill be going 3x250w MH instead of 6x80w T5. I still need to add the rest of the sand and aquascape everything. Heres a few recent pics:
Skimmer stand:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/skimmerstand.jpg
Epoxying some dry rock together:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/rockepoxy.jpg
Full shot of the sump:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/fullsump.jpg
Full shot of the tank:
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/tankdunes.jpg
scott26
05/25/2010, 03:38 PM
Looks good
BryanS
05/25/2010, 04:03 PM
Great build, very clean!
scott26
08/19/2010, 03:32 PM
Any updates?
eb8919
08/19/2010, 03:51 PM
You should've done a weight check on the stand with a few thousand beer bottles :).
beex215
08/19/2010, 05:29 PM
im surprised the cat likes beer too. also on the fact that no beer was used when filling the tank. good start
small alien
08/19/2010, 05:38 PM
Beer.
spieg
08/19/2010, 08:22 PM
Thanks guys! Things are still coming along, but im taking it all pretty slow. Ive added a few snails and a pair of cleaner shrimp, and have a pair of tailspot blennies in quarantine. Other than that, its just letting things get established. Im planning on redoing my closed loop and hood before too long. Im also going to make a second closed loop for my return pump. Dual closed loops coming soon! For now the MH are temporarily mounted to keep things alive. I still need to adjust some of the rockwork as well, but im fairly happy with the aquascaping at this point. Once I get the hood done, Im planning on picking up an apex to make my life a little easier. I think im going to replace the eheim 1262 with a water blaster hy-7000 or hy-10000 and integrating a reactor manifold for a carbon reactor (brs deluxe) and a solid media reactor (nextreef smr1). Ive got an autotopoff.com ATO on the way to tide me over until the apex is set up. Ive also finished the design of my water change station but I still need to order up the storage tanks and build a platform for them. Then I just need to keep adding fish off my list and getting things cooking! Im waiting for a randall's goby pair to show up on liveaquaria.com. Im also planning on getting a royal gramma trio, and possibly a banggai pair or trio. Id like to pick up a clown pair at some point but I havent decided if I want to go with maroons, tomatoes, or ocellaris yet.
Ive been fighting off a little bit of majano's and aiptasia that came in on the live rock I acquired. The seller was upfront with me about it and I just figured it was worth it for the high quality rock. Ive got a few nudibranches working on them in the sump for now, but im considering adding a few peppermint shrimp to the display to get the tiny ones popping up in there. The majanos have been a little easier to keep under control by starving them from light for a couple of days and then rounding them up with tweezers. Ive considered throwing a bristletail filefish in my sump to battle them as well, but im worried that may have too much impact on my pods for now.
Here are a couple of full tank shots, brought to you by Bell's Porter!
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/quarantine-fts.jpg
http://www.unruliness.com/spieg/aquarium/reefcentral/081910-fts.jpg
EdSnyder
08/30/2010, 07:22 AM
Why isn't the tank full?
spieg
08/30/2010, 08:26 AM
The tank's full, the lower water level is in the horizontal overflow. The level in that runs a couple of inches below the tank trim.
footballdude2k3
08/30/2010, 09:57 AM
be careful if you get the peppermints after they wipe out the pests they could feed on corals
AwkwardParrot
08/30/2010, 11:58 AM
Sweet build, tagging along!
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