Zach's 120 Gallon Reef Resurgence - Page 2

zachxlutz · 08/24/2016, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Good call on the new tank!

The bulb anemone is the most durable, and gorgeous. The common clowns are the least mean of the clownfish. Get one small and one big and you should have a mating pair.

Live rock and sand? I love farmed Florida rock, like Gulf Live Rock-they have shipping-included deals. But there's tons of choices.

Thanks for the info on the anemone and clowns. I'm sure I'm going to be doing a LOT more research on the livestock additions before we make any purchases. I honestly haven't even put much thought into it beyond what I stated previously. I'm tackling this project in phases, as it allows me to focus my efforts on each individual task and really do the best job possible with it. I can't wait to get the new tank, drill it, leak test and then bring it inside.

The live rock, which was dead rock from a previous tank that had been sitting for a couple of years in a storage container, is currently cycled and waiting in a brute can for the tank to be set up. I'll be using a mix of old rinsed sand and a couple of new bags of live sand for the sand bed in the display.

I'm thinking about doing a slightly deeper sand bed in the 'fuge with about 3 inches of the dark "miracle mud" with a thin layer of heavier sand on top to keep it from being stirred up to much.

zachxlutz · 08/26/2016, 01:50 PM

Friday Update:

I picked up a new Marineland 120 gallon 4'x2'x2' tank last night from Shac at Reefshac. It looks great and free of the scratches that have been driving me crazy on the used tank I bought. I'm heading out to Chattanooga in the morning for another big bike race and won't be back until Sunday evening. I'm going to drill the bulkhead holes Monday night, hopefully. That should put us right back on track. I'm thinking if I can get that done, plumb it back up and do a leak test I'm not too far off from bringing it inside from the garage and getting things rolling!

merith82 · 08/26/2016, 08:19 PM

Congrats on what looks to be the making of a beautiful tank.

zachxlutz · 08/29/2016, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by merith82

Congrats on what looks to be the making of a beautiful tank.

Thanks, looking forward to spending some time working on it throughout the evenings this week.

merith82 · 08/30/2016, 07:49 AM

Right on. Can't wait to see what you do with it. I'm currently in what's been and becoming a very long process of upgrading the tank in my room so trying to see what others with tanks in the same range are doing as I'm always open to new or better ideas

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

zachxlutz · 09/02/2016, 12:42 PM

New Marineland tank... I took very careful measurements of the previously drilled holes in the old tank as I only wanted to drill holes this time around (measure twice, drill once!). I had no intentions of changing up the plumbing work:

Thankfully, I made all the plumbing very modular in the event I needed to change one part here or there... This made things infinitely easier in the dissasembly of the previous tank and reassembling here:

IT FITS! (I had my fingers crossed the whole time):

Paint applied to back of tank:

Filled with water for the leak test:

Shiny! No scratches or haziness:

Thoughts:
I'm a little disappointed I had this setback, but I know I'm going to be much happier in the long run. The leak test appears to be going smooth. It ran all night last night with no leaks. I assume I'll come home after work today to the same scene as I saw this morning. 170-ish gallons of water still contained within glass walls.

If all goes smoothly, I'll disassemble everything again and being working on reinforcing and painting the structural portion of the stand. I'm going to paint it with white appliance epoxy paint for a strong, somewhat waterproof coating. I'll be painting the inside of the canopy with the same white epoxy paint as well.

I need to get in the crawlspace under the house and add a few supports for under the tank and then I'll be bringing it inside to start filling it with water, salt, sand and live rock.

I'm getting excited! I placed an order today for new canopy cooling fans, live sand, refugium mud and a silicone insulation mat for the return pump to help keep the noise down.

Question:
I'm running 2x250w Metal Halide Lights in the canopy along with 2xPC lights. It's going to be hot. I'm thinking of running the fans in tandem. One on each side. One pulling air in and the other expelling air out. Does this seem like the best solution or would it be better to have them both pushing air into the canopy?

zachxlutz · 09/02/2016, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by merith82

Right on. Can't wait to see what you do with it. I'm currently in what's been and becoming a very long process of upgrading the tank in my room so trying to see what others with tanks in the same range are doing as I'm always open to new or better ideas

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! Glad you're following along. I understand about it feeling like a long process. I've been working on this for over a month now!

BigDave · 09/02/2016, 12:49 PM

When I mounted my fans in a previous canopy, I mounted one fan on each end, both blowing in. I then installed a fan grate in the top of the canopy in the middle. Basically the cool air got pulled in from the sides, blown over both hot bulbs and then escaped out through the middle top.

zachxlutz · 09/02/2016, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigDave

When I mounted my fans in a previous canopy, I mounted one fan on each end, both blowing in. I then installed a fan grate in the top of the canopy in the middle. Basically the cool air got pulled in from the sides, blown over both hot bulbs and then escaped out through the middle top.

Interesting. I'm going to do some tests when I get them. It shouldn't be hard to pin-point which method will work the best.

zachxlutz · 09/02/2016, 01:04 PM

Oh! Also, I'm picking up a Reefkeeper Elite system from my local reef club next week. This should help me get the whole system automated and hopefully make for a very clean install!

Temp, pH, Salinity and 3x power strips. SCORE!

Michael Hoaster · 09/02/2016, 01:36 PM

Awesome! You're really doing it right. Taking your time, and enjoying each phase is the way to go.

On your question, I'm running two fans, with one blowing in at one end, at about light-level, and one blowing out at the other end, above light level. So, that's what I'd recommend. I suppose you could have them both blowing in, if there's plenty of ventilation for the air to escape easily. My hood does not.

That is going to be hot. You may want to take a hole saw to the top of your hood to help ventilate. Also, with a good reflector, you could easily go to just one metal halide.

zachxlutz · 09/02/2016, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Awesome! You're really doing it right. Taking your time, and enjoying each phase is the way to go.

On your question, I'm running two fans, with one blowing in at one end, at about light-level, and one blowing out at the other end, above light level. So, that's what I'd recommend. I suppose you could have them both blowing in, if there's plenty of ventilation for the air to escape easily. My hood does not.

That is going to be hot. You may want to take a hole saw to the top of your hood to help ventilate. Also, with a good reflector, you could easily go to just one metal halide.

Thanks... They say patience is a virtue. It's certainly a virtue that requires work!

Unfortunately, the reflector is a very simple design so I'm just going to stick with what I have for now. I'll snap a pic tonight. Opening up a few more holes in the top is a good idea which I hadn't thought of.

I'm really hoping the canopy and lighting is a temporary situation until I can upgrade to a hung LED lighting system. They just look so clean!

zachxlutz · 09/06/2016, 10:11 AM

WE HAVE A TANK INSIDE THE HOUSE!

First things first, here's a picture of the system in it's final resting place:

Here is a quick run down of the latest steps I've taken to get it inside:

I painted the inside of the canopy with gloss white Appliance Epoxy to give the wood a nice uniform finish as well as provide a small amount of water resistance. The paint sets up as a very hard epoxy finish and will, fingers crossed, give me an easy surface to wipe down and keep clean. I also cleaned and re-mounted the lighting fixture inside the canopy. Previously it had wood screws holding it in and wasn't very secure so I drilled holes in the top of the canopy and used machine screws, washers and nuts to attach it. It's very easy to remove now if I need to service anything.

Sprayed and rolled with this product, Rust-Oleum Appliance Epoxy:

I also added some more 2x4s to the stand to create a safer and more stable base for the tank. After adding 5 more 2x4s I continued with the epoxy paint to, again, create a smooth uniform finish and provide some water resistance.

I painted the bottom with the same epoxy paint, but the plywood base was very porous and dry and wouldn't allow the epoxy to form a thick barrier like I had hoped and ended up looking like this:

That wasn't going to work, so I set off to Home Depot in hopes of a solution. I found some 12"x24" self-stick vinyl tile in a white marble finish. Turned out better than I hoped:

Here you can see it through the bottom of the sump, as well as testing locations for the heaters and my fancy silicone pump insulation.

zachxlutz · 09/06/2016, 10:12 AM

Finally, some more pictures of the tank it's final position:

Regarding the fans and cooling inside the canopy, I've got two 120mm fans pulling air from outside the canopy and directing it over the two metal halide bulbs. The air is exhausted through the opening in the back of the canopy. Initial tests (sticking my hand inside the canopy) point towards this being the best solution and the fans won't be subject to pulling hot, humid, salty air through themselves and risking a higher chance at corrosion.

I've got 150(ish) gallons of salt water mixing in the garage at the moment. I just need to go into the crawlspace tonight and add some supports under the joists to keep everything safe and then we'll be bringing in the live rock, sand, fuge mud and water and we'll be all set!

After we get the tank going and I'm comfortable with the way it's running, I'll add the skin and cabinet doors to the stand and put a final coat of paint on it.

We'll be adding another cabinet to the right of the tank to store the controller, power strips, etc as well as a 5-10 gallon auto top-off/kalkwasser container.

I'm so excited to get this thing going!

Michael Hoaster · 09/06/2016, 10:52 AM

Man, that is looking sweet!

I have a few suggestions.

On your hood, you may want to add felt or something, to fill the slight gap under the top, so light doesn't peek through.

Are you putting more lights in the hood? If not, consider moving the ones in there towards the front of the tank. You want the lights in front, so you are looking at the lit side of your fish, etc., as opposed to the shaded side.

It looks very nice in your dining room, but don't forget the most important species-you. You need a very comfy place to sit and observe the tank.

zachxlutz · 09/06/2016, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Man, that is looking sweet!

I have a few suggestions.

On your hood, you may want to add felt or something, to fill the slight gap under the top, so light doesn't peek through.

Are you putting more lights in the hood? If not, consider moving the ones in there towards the front of the tank. You want the lights in front, so you are looking at the lit side of your fish, etc., as opposed to the shaded side.

It looks very nice in your dining room, but don't forget the most important species-you. You need a very comfy place to sit and observe the tank.

Thanks man, I always appreciate your input.

Regarding the hood: I added the felt in certain spots, not thinking about how it was going to let the light leak out. I'm going to switch that up and use a tubular weatherstripping to completely seal the top.

Regarding the light placement: I hadn't even considered that but it's now high on my priority list to move the lights closer to the front. That makes a lot of sense!

Regarding the tank placement: The dining room is just about the only place in the house where we could manage to fit the tank, but we really think it's a great place. We often eat lunch and dinner at the dining room table as well as spend a lot of time in the area as it leads to our back door and subsequently the back porch. We travel the area frequently as we're always letting the dogs in and out of the back yard. I think we'll be very happy with it here... I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time in the chairs in front of the tank staring at everything!

zachxlutz · 09/09/2016, 11:55 AM

So, a couple things have happened since I last posted.

I picked up the ReefKeeper Elite, which I may make a separate post about... I'm struggling with getting MyReef 2.0 to see any modules but the SID (usb attachment) and the SL1. When I plug anything else into the SL1 through the SID cable, it disappears from my listing of modules. It's the only one that will show up, the head unit, the power bars, nothing shows up. I've done a bit of googling and exhausted my knowledge. I've got no problem setting it up from the head unit, but the MyReef software would likely make this easier.

We finally decided on a piece of furniture, from IKEA, to house the Reefkeeper Elite controller and power strips on the "controller board", lighting ballasts and 5 gallons of ATO water. I hope 5 gallons is enough to keep me from having to fill up the ATO container too often. If it turns out to be too small, I may be able to cram a 10 gallon tank into the bottom of the cabinet and squeeze the ballasts under the cabinet. Looking at the picture, it appears I need to line up the cabinet doors a bit better. I'll tackle that once the cabinet is positioned correctly and attached to the wall.

I'll post a follow-up, with inside shots of the cabinet, after I wrap up the controller board and wiring this weekend.

4 bags of CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand in Bimini Pink ready to go in:

I already dumped the 2 containers of Mineral Mud into the fuge, I think I'm going to go ahead and fill that section of the sump with water, get a small powerhead going and let the silt settle out so it doesn't cloud the tank too bad when I turn the system on.

I've got 150 gallons of saltwater mixing in the garage ready to go in the tank. We'll do this Saturday when the pump and 100' of vinyl hose shows up from the delivery man.

I'm sure you're all really wondering about the big white buffalo head from the picture up top... My girlfriend is, among other things, a photographer and went to school at SCAD in Atlanta and it was one of her projects. It's a wire mesh frame with individually tied small pieces of string covering the whole thing. We're going to hang it in the corner above the cabinet once we get everything where it needs to be. Everyone loves the buffalo when they see it, so we think it's going to be great as a display piece of art.

Michael Hoaster · 09/09/2016, 01:21 PM

Coming along nicely!

You could add a thin layer of sand on top of your mud to minimize clowding.

Your girlfriend could probably sell a bunch of those buff heads hear in Boulder, to CU students. Although she probably never wants to make another one!

zachxlutz · 09/12/2016, 04:29 PM

WE DID IT! IT'S HAPPENING!

I've had the past two weeks off from training on the bike to promote recovery, physically and mentally, to lead me into a successful cyclocross season, so I made the most of my free time and wrapped up all the final major components to the system.

First and foremost, I didn't want to take any chances with the floor caving in so I installed two jack-posts directly under the tank in the crawlspace.

Checked for level... BOOM!

The next step was to take the rock out of the holding bins in the mixing station and play around with aquascaping. This was what I ended up with in my make-shift "rule of thirds" "display tank". It's not exactly what I ended up with in the tank, but it was a great way to help visually guide me before hanging over the side of the tank on a step ladder.

At this point, I felt comfortable with filling the tank. I pumped the water in from the mixing station in the garage through a 1/2" 80' vinyl hose. It didn't take that long at all. The worst part was running out of water with about 20 gallons to go. I had to wait for the RO/DI unit to make the water before I could get the tank running. UGH! We got it though!

Getting everything closer to wrapping up...

zachxlutz · 09/12/2016, 04:29 PM

At this point I was ready to finalize the controller board, as well as implement some cooling into the storage/controller cabinet. This was my initial layout of the controller board.

I was happy with that, so I went ahead and drilled the holes and mounted all the modules. I also took this time to cut holes in the back of the cabinet for wire management and a cooling fan, as I knew the light ballasts for the metal halide and power compact lights were going to get hot. I'm really happy with how it all turned out. The Homer bucket is for ATO water, soon to be Kalkwasser ATO water when my shipment from BRS arrives. I think I'll switch the orange bucket out for a white one I have in the garage. IIRC correctly the white buckets are food grade, but the orange ones aren't? Not sure.

I also drew up a small wiring diagram for the inside face of the cabinet door for future reference. I'm going to end up relabeling all the power cords with smaller easier to read tags, as well as label the power strips with my label maker. (Which is conveniently missing! Hmmmm....)

Now, for the money shot!

Some more initial setup work remaining:

Skin the stand.
Wire management between tank and controller cabinet.
Build a hidden wall/channel to hide wiring running between stand and controller cabinet.
Paint.
Weatherstipping in canopy to prevent light leak.
LIVESTOCK!
OTHER THINGS I'M FORGETTING!

zachxlutz · 09/12/2016, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Coming along nicely!

You could add a thin layer of sand on top of your mud to minimize clowding.

Your girlfriend could probably sell a bunch of those buff heads hear in Boulder, to CU students. Although she probably never wants to make another one!

Thanks! I did add a layer of sand over the mud and it helped some with the clouding. The tank is currently running a floss type filter between the baffles in the sump to help clarify... It's about ready to come out, the water looks great!

I'm sure she never wants to make another one of those heads again... It took her FOREVER!

Michael Hoaster · 09/12/2016, 04:36 PM

Tank looks great!

Moments after mentioning your light leak, I noticed one on my tank! It's been there for 15 years…

zachxlutz · 09/12/2016, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Tank looks great!

Moments after mentioning your light leak, I noticed one on my tank! It's been there for 15 years…

Thanks! I think I'm going to use a tubular weather stripping gasket. I'll go poke around Home Depot until I find the right product. Always something to find at HD!

zachxlutz · 09/22/2016, 02:42 PM

Tank Equipment Updates:

I placed an order with Bulk Reef Supply and got a few things recently. Most notably, I added a carbon reactor and a GFO reactor. I'm pretty happy with the placement of them, but not happy with the routing of the plumbing from the manifold to the reactors and subsequently from the reactors back to the sump. I'm going to try and find a roll of that same 1/2" hose they sent with the reactors and re-do the routing to make both reactors follow the same plumbing routes. Just not happy with how the separate reactors have such dissimilar plumbing.

Additionally, I swapped the big PC light pod over the refugium out with something with a little smaller form factor and a better spectrum for growing the macroalgae. The lamp is an LED grow light from amazon.

Livestock/Macroalgae:

I placed an order with reefcleaners.org and added some dwarf ceriths, some nassarius, some florida ceriths, some nerites and a couple of hermits. They're doing well in the display, I'm dropping a small sinking algae wafer in the tank every few days in order to provide something for them to scavenge as well as add some bioload to the tank.

One of the snails already laid some eggs...

Action shot of one of the hermits going to town on the algae wafer...

In addition to the snails and hermits, I also added a ball of chaetomorpha and a small piece of red gracilaria. I've just got the chaeto floating in the refugium, while the gracilaria is attached to a small piece of liverock with a rubber band. Both seem to be responding well to the new LED lighting setup.

Also, I added one bag of Pods+ and one container of Reef Pods in order to help start the population off strong, as I used dry rock.

zachxlutz · 09/22/2016, 02:43 PM

RO/DI + Saltwater Mixing Station + Water Change Setup:

In the BRS order, I also received bulkheads and a few plumbing pieces to construct my RO/DI + Saltwater mixing station. The left 44 gallon Brute can holds the RO/DI water which has a float switch in order to provide security from over filling. It's plumbed to the tank on the right through a set of valves which lead to a Lifegard Aquatics Quiet One Aquarium Pump 5000. From the pump, the water can be diverted to fill up the saltwater can, mix the saltwater or pump saltwater to the tank for a water change. The hanging hose is 1/2" vinyl hose, I'll just keep it hooked up and hanging there for easy access and ability to bring it through the house from the garage. The saltwater mixing can has a heater in it as well in order to bring the freshly mixed saltwater up to temp.

09/02/2016, 01:36 PM	#36
Michael Hoaster Registered Seaweedist Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 5,807	Awesome! You're really doing it right. Taking your time, and enjoying each phase is the way to go. On your question, I'm running two fans, with one blowing in at one end, at about light-level, and one blowing out at the other end, above light level. So, that's what I'd recommend. I suppose you could have them both blowing in, if there's plenty of ventilation for the air to escape easily. My hood does not. That is going to be hot. You may want to take a hole saw to the top of your hood to help ventilate. Also, with a good reflector, you could easily go to just one metal halide. __________________ As many naturalists and environmentalists have suggested, we should set aside our arrogance, our desire to conquer and control everything, and walk hand in hand with Mother Nature. -Walter Adey Current Tank Info: 180g Seagrass Sandbar Lagoon, START DATE November 28, 2018

09/06/2016, 10:52 AM	#40
Michael Hoaster Registered Seaweedist Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 5,807	Man, that is looking sweet! I have a few suggestions. On your hood, you may want to add felt or something, to fill the slight gap under the top, so light doesn't peek through. Are you putting more lights in the hood? If not, consider moving the ones in there towards the front of the tank. You want the lights in front, so you are looking at the lit side of your fish, etc., as opposed to the shaded side. It looks very nice in your dining room, but don't forget the most important species-you. You need a very comfy place to sit and observe the tank. __________________ As many naturalists and environmentalists have suggested, we should set aside our arrogance, our desire to conquer and control everything, and walk hand in hand with Mother Nature. -Walter Adey Current Tank Info: 180g Seagrass Sandbar Lagoon, START DATE November 28, 2018

09/09/2016, 01:21 PM	#43
Michael Hoaster Registered Seaweedist Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 5,807	Coming along nicely! You could add a thin layer of sand on top of your mud to minimize clowding. Your girlfriend could probably sell a bunch of those buff heads hear in Boulder, to CU students. Although she probably never wants to make another one! __________________ As many naturalists and environmentalists have suggested, we should set aside our arrogance, our desire to conquer and control everything, and walk hand in hand with Mother Nature. -Walter Adey Current Tank Info: 180g Seagrass Sandbar Lagoon, START DATE November 28, 2018

09/12/2016, 04:29 PM	#45
zachxlutz Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lawrenceville, Georgia Posts: 94	At this point I was ready to finalize the controller board, as well as implement some cooling into the storage/controller cabinet. This was my initial layout of the controller board. I was happy with that, so I went ahead and drilled the holes and mounted all the modules. I also took this time to cut holes in the back of the cabinet for wire management and a cooling fan, as I knew the light ballasts for the metal halide and power compact lights were going to get hot. I'm really happy with how it all turned out. The Homer bucket is for ATO water, soon to be Kalkwasser ATO water when my shipment from BRS arrives. I think I'll switch the orange bucket out for a white one I have in the garage. IIRC correctly the white buckets are food grade, but the orange ones aren't? Not sure. I also drew up a small wiring diagram for the inside face of the cabinet door for future reference. I'm going to end up relabeling all the power cords with smaller easier to read tags, as well as label the power strips with my label maker. (Which is conveniently missing! Hmmmm....) Now, for the money shot! Some more initial setup work remaining: Skin the stand. Wire management between tank and controller cabinet. Build a hidden wall/channel to hide wiring running between stand and controller cabinet. Paint. Weatherstipping in canopy to prevent light leak. LIVESTOCK! OTHER THINGS I'M FORGETTING!

09/12/2016, 04:36 PM	#47
Michael Hoaster Registered Seaweedist Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 5,807	Tank looks great! Moments after mentioning your light leak, I noticed one on my tank! It's been there for 15 years… __________________ As many naturalists and environmentalists have suggested, we should set aside our arrogance, our desire to conquer and control everything, and walk hand in hand with Mother Nature. -Walter Adey Current Tank Info: 180g Seagrass Sandbar Lagoon, START DATE November 28, 2018

08/26/2016, 01:50 PM	#27
zachxlutz Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lawrenceville, Georgia Posts: 94	Friday Update: I picked up a new Marineland 120 gallon 4'x2'x2' tank last night from Shac at Reefshac. It looks great and free of the scratches that have been driving me crazy on the used tank I bought. I'm heading out to Chattanooga in the morning for another big bike race and won't be back until Sunday evening. I'm going to drill the bulkhead holes Monday night, hopefully. That should put us right back on track. I'm thinking if I can get that done, plumb it back up and do a leak test I'm not too far off from bringing it inside from the garage and getting things rolling!

08/26/2016, 08:19 PM	#28
merith82 Registered Member Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 0	Congrats on what looks to be the making of a beautiful tank.

08/30/2016, 07:49 AM	#30
merith82 Registered Member Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 0	Right on. Can't wait to see what you do with it. I'm currently in what's been and becoming a very long process of upgrading the tank in my room so trying to see what others with tanks in the same range are doing as I'm always open to new or better ideas Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

09/02/2016, 12:42 PM	#31
zachxlutz Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lawrenceville, Georgia Posts: 94	New Marineland tank... I took very careful measurements of the previously drilled holes in the old tank as I only wanted to drill holes this time around (measure twice, drill once!). I had no intentions of changing up the plumbing work: Thankfully, I made all the plumbing very modular in the event I needed to change one part here or there... This made things infinitely easier in the dissasembly of the previous tank and reassembling here: IT FITS! (I had my fingers crossed the whole time): Paint applied to back of tank: Filled with water for the leak test: Shiny! No scratches or haziness: Thoughts: I'm a little disappointed I had this setback, but I know I'm going to be much happier in the long run. The leak test appears to be going smooth. It ran all night last night with no leaks. I assume I'll come home after work today to the same scene as I saw this morning. 170-ish gallons of water still contained within glass walls. If all goes smoothly, I'll disassemble everything again and being working on reinforcing and painting the structural portion of the stand. I'm going to paint it with white appliance epoxy paint for a strong, somewhat waterproof coating. I'll be painting the inside of the canopy with the same white epoxy paint as well. I need to get in the crawlspace under the house and add a few supports for under the tank and then I'll be bringing it inside to start filling it with water, salt, sand and live rock. I'm getting excited! I placed an order today for new canopy cooling fans, live sand, refugium mud and a silicone insulation mat for the return pump to help keep the noise down. Question: I'm running 2x250w Metal Halide Lights in the canopy along with 2xPC lights. It's going to be hot. I'm thinking of running the fans in tandem. One on each side. One pulling air in and the other expelling air out. Does this seem like the best solution or would it be better to have them both pushing air into the canopy?

09/02/2016, 12:49 PM	#33
BigDave Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Wylie, TX Posts: 473	When I mounted my fans in a previous canopy, I mounted one fan on each end, both blowing in. I then installed a fan grate in the top of the canopy in the middle. Basically the cool air got pulled in from the sides, blown over both hot bulbs and then escaped out through the middle top.

09/02/2016, 01:04 PM	#35
zachxlutz Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lawrenceville, Georgia Posts: 94	Oh! Also, I'm picking up a Reefkeeper Elite system from my local reef club next week. This should help me get the whole system automated and hopefully make for a very clean install! Temp, pH, Salinity and 3x power strips. SCORE!

09/06/2016, 10:11 AM	#38
zachxlutz Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lawrenceville, Georgia Posts: 94	WE HAVE A TANK INSIDE THE HOUSE! First things first, here's a picture of the system in it's final resting place: Here is a quick run down of the latest steps I've taken to get it inside: I painted the inside of the canopy with gloss white Appliance Epoxy to give the wood a nice uniform finish as well as provide a small amount of water resistance. The paint sets up as a very hard epoxy finish and will, fingers crossed, give me an easy surface to wipe down and keep clean. I also cleaned and re-mounted the lighting fixture inside the canopy. Previously it had wood screws holding it in and wasn't very secure so I drilled holes in the top of the canopy and used machine screws, washers and nuts to attach it. It's very easy to remove now if I need to service anything. Sprayed and rolled with this product, Rust-Oleum Appliance Epoxy: I also added some more 2x4s to the stand to create a safer and more stable base for the tank. After adding 5 more 2x4s I continued with the epoxy paint to, again, create a smooth uniform finish and provide some water resistance. I painted the bottom with the same epoxy paint, but the plywood base was very porous and dry and wouldn't allow the epoxy to form a thick barrier like I had hoped and ended up looking like this: That wasn't going to work, so I set off to Home Depot in hopes of a solution. I found some 12"x24" self-stick vinyl tile in a white marble finish. Turned out better than I hoped: Here you can see it through the bottom of the sump, as well as testing locations for the heaters and my fancy silicone pump insulation.

09/06/2016, 10:12 AM	#39
zachxlutz Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lawrenceville, Georgia Posts: 94	Finally, some more pictures of the tank it's final position: Regarding the fans and cooling inside the canopy, I've got two 120mm fans pulling air from outside the canopy and directing it over the two metal halide bulbs. The air is exhausted through the opening in the back of the canopy. Initial tests (sticking my hand inside the canopy) point towards this being the best solution and the fans won't be subject to pulling hot, humid, salty air through themselves and risking a higher chance at corrosion. I've got 150(ish) gallons of salt water mixing in the garage at the moment. I just need to go into the crawlspace tonight and add some supports under the joists to keep everything safe and then we'll be bringing in the live rock, sand, fuge mud and water and we'll be all set! After we get the tank going and I'm comfortable with the way it's running, I'll add the skin and cabinet doors to the stand and put a final coat of paint on it. We'll be adding another cabinet to the right of the tank to store the controller, power strips, etc as well as a 5-10 gallon auto top-off/kalkwasser container. I'm so excited to get this thing going!

09/09/2016, 11:55 AM	#42
zachxlutz Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lawrenceville, Georgia Posts: 94	So, a couple things have happened since I last posted. I picked up the ReefKeeper Elite, which I may make a separate post about... I'm struggling with getting MyReef 2.0 to see any modules but the SID (usb attachment) and the SL1. When I plug anything else into the SL1 through the SID cable, it disappears from my listing of modules. It's the only one that will show up, the head unit, the power bars, nothing shows up. I've done a bit of googling and exhausted my knowledge. I've got no problem setting it up from the head unit, but the MyReef software would likely make this easier. We finally decided on a piece of furniture, from IKEA, to house the Reefkeeper Elite controller and power strips on the "controller board", lighting ballasts and 5 gallons of ATO water. I hope 5 gallons is enough to keep me from having to fill up the ATO container too often. If it turns out to be too small, I may be able to cram a 10 gallon tank into the bottom of the cabinet and squeeze the ballasts under the cabinet. Looking at the picture, it appears I need to line up the cabinet doors a bit better. I'll tackle that once the cabinet is positioned correctly and attached to the wall. I'll post a follow-up, with inside shots of the cabinet, after I wrap up the controller board and wiring this weekend. 4 bags of CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand in Bimini Pink ready to go in: I already dumped the 2 containers of Mineral Mud into the fuge, I think I'm going to go ahead and fill that section of the sump with water, get a small powerhead going and let the silt settle out so it doesn't cloud the tank too bad when I turn the system on. I've got 150 gallons of saltwater mixing in the garage ready to go in the tank. We'll do this Saturday when the pump and 100' of vinyl hose shows up from the delivery man. I'm sure you're all really wondering about the big white buffalo head from the picture up top... My girlfriend is, among other things, a photographer and went to school at SCAD in Atlanta and it was one of her projects. It's a wire mesh frame with individually tied small pieces of string covering the whole thing. We're going to hang it in the corner above the cabinet once we get everything where it needs to be. Everyone loves the buffalo when they see it, so we think it's going to be great as a display piece of art.

09/22/2016, 02:42 PM	#49
zachxlutz Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lawrenceville, Georgia Posts: 94	Tank Equipment Updates: I placed an order with Bulk Reef Supply and got a few things recently. Most notably, I added a carbon reactor and a GFO reactor. I'm pretty happy with the placement of them, but not happy with the routing of the plumbing from the manifold to the reactors and subsequently from the reactors back to the sump. I'm going to try and find a roll of that same 1/2" hose they sent with the reactors and re-do the routing to make both reactors follow the same plumbing routes. Just not happy with how the separate reactors have such dissimilar plumbing. Additionally, I swapped the big PC light pod over the refugium out with something with a little smaller form factor and a better spectrum for growing the macroalgae. The lamp is an LED grow light from amazon. Livestock/Macroalgae: I placed an order with reefcleaners.org and added some dwarf ceriths, some nassarius, some florida ceriths, some nerites and a couple of hermits. They're doing well in the display, I'm dropping a small sinking algae wafer in the tank every few days in order to provide something for them to scavenge as well as add some bioload to the tank. One of the snails already laid some eggs... Action shot of one of the hermits going to town on the algae wafer... In addition to the snails and hermits, I also added a ball of chaetomorpha and a small piece of red gracilaria. I've just got the chaeto floating in the refugium, while the gracilaria is attached to a small piece of liverock with a rubber band. Both seem to be responding well to the new LED lighting setup. Also, I added one bag of Pods+ and one container of Reef Pods in order to help start the population off strong, as I used dry rock.

09/22/2016, 02:43 PM	#50
zachxlutz Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lawrenceville, Georgia Posts: 94	RO/DI + Saltwater Mixing Station + Water Change Setup: In the BRS order, I also received bulkheads and a few plumbing pieces to construct my RO/DI + Saltwater mixing station. The left 44 gallon Brute can holds the RO/DI water which has a float switch in order to provide security from over filling. It's plumbed to the tank on the right through a set of valves which lead to a Lifegard Aquatics Quiet One Aquarium Pump 5000. From the pump, the water can be diverted to fill up the saltwater can, mix the saltwater or pump saltwater to the tank for a water change. The hanging hose is 1/2" vinyl hose, I'll just keep it hooked up and hanging there for easy access and ability to bring it through the house from the garage. The saltwater mixing can has a heater in it as well in order to bring the freshly mixed saltwater up to temp.