Want to see your 29 gal!!!

[mr9iron]

Like the title says, let's see them. The wife is really wanting me to set her 29 back up but when we took a break I sold everything. So, I'm looking for ideas. I want to see your sumps, lights, skimmers, overflows or how you drilled them. I also want to see what your doing for flow as well. Give me all the ideas and specifications you can.

[aclos3]

This is a really old full tank shot to show the canopy and stand. Its before corals and more LR.

I found the stand at a Goodwill for $6. The doors were falling off and it looked like crap, but new hinges and some paint and it looks great.

I made the canopy with my grandpa's help (and huge shop with every tool imaginable!).

The stand and canopy were painted with shellac primer and oil based parker paint. My grandmother helped pick out the color and I think it turned out nicely.




Here a night shot of the inside of the canopy so you can see what I did for lighting. I have a 250w SE Hamilton + evc eballast, 2x13w PC true actinic 03, 1x20w daylight t12. The actinics come on, then 2 hours later the daylight bulb comes on, then another 2 hours the halide comes on and the flourescents shut off, until night, when the process reverses. The flourescents make no noticable difference in the tank when the halide is one... which is what I wanted, just something to view the tank longer.




Here is a picture of inside the stand. Sump is a standard 10g. The overflow enters on the skimmer side. Skimmer is a Coralife ss65 (works really well for me now, but took a long time to dial in). The water level in the sump is a bit high in this picture because I had just shut the pump off.

The main heater is actually in the big section submerged. The crappy thing hanging on the side is just there because the tank was getting too cold at night. The black thing in the center is a HOB penguin 170 filter to run carbon (no bio wheel). You can see my DIY auto top off float switch. I got the switch from ebay, relay from radio shack, used an old 9v ac transformer, and ran 10 foot vinyl tube to a 10 gallon rubbermaid tub with a power head.




Livestock includes:

-Maroon clown
-Pygmy Angel (purple with yellow face, 1" long)
-6 line wrasee
-emerald crab
-hermits and snails

They all seem to be getting along ok!

Corals (I don't know names):
-Two types of montis
-brown digitata
-blueish acropora
-two other green / yellow colored sps.
-green star polyp.

The corals were just added, and I completely suck at tanking tank shots with a my digital camera, so I don't have any good full tank shots that will make your wife want to start up yours again, haha.

[aclos3]

By the way. I am a college student who is barely employed, so everything here has been DIYed as much as possible to save money.

The light was a christmas present, the sps all came from coral frags off our (my dad and I) 125g reef. You get the idea... its a budget reef!

[mr9iron]

aclos3, that is a nice setup. Thanks for taking the time to post your specs. Can you tell me more about your ATO?

[aclos3]

Well, it really is pretty simple, and CHEAP!

I found the float switch by ebaying the term "float switch" and finding one aquarium safe. I think it cost about $6 plus shipping.

The relay is you standard variety dual pole dual throw 12v dc, 120volt ac. Following a wiring diagram online (sorry, I can't remember the address), I took the two wires off the float switch and wired one of them to the appropriate pole on the relay (I just crimped on wire clips that fit the metal nodes on the relay, no soldering needed).

Next I took the 9v transformer (9v and 12v will both work), cut off the end, stripped the wires back and attached one to the other float switch wire and the other to the relay.

Then I took a 12 foot extension cord (the standard indoor/outdoor type), cut into ONE of the wires, stripped both ends (leaving the other wire in the cord completely intact and still inside its sheathing), and attached them to the appropriate poles on the relay.

I plugged a powerhead into the extension cord. The powerhead is clamped to the vinyl tubing and sits inside the 10g rubbermaid freshwater tub. The float switch (as you can see on the right hand side of the sump picture... white colored thing on the side glass), keeps the level perfectly constant in the sump. I hear the relay click on about every hour or so for just a couple seconds to add a little water.

This setup has been running well for about 2 months now, and my salinity is a lot more constant. I was terrible about remembering to keep my water topped off on my own, so my swings were actually quite large.

[Phong33]

You can see the details of my 29g in this thread http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1034941

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask as I'll be happy to answer them.

[vsnsofadrgn]

i have some pics of my 29 but it wont take my format. can anyone help me get my pics on rc???

[Phong33]

Load it up onto photobucket.com then copy and paste the [IMG] code below the photo.

[mikellini]

here's mine

[mikellini]

oops this better work



man photobucket is slow i have more pics but they are refusing to load in a timely fashion and i'm going to bed ;D

[mikellini]

[GSMguy]

[kase]

this was mine

[kase]

for the specs
29 aga. overflow box(650gph) mag 7, 10g sump with cpr bakpak2 skimmer, fuge. light was a 175MH haminton ballast and bulb14K.
then i upgraded to 250 icecap eletronic ballast with 14k ushio bulb.
tank was 1.5 years old in pic. a few weeks after a moved.

then i sold her. got a offer too good to past up for the whole thing from a fellow reefer. 2 mth later he crash the tank and lost everthing in it.

yes that's a yellow tang in a 29G...

[mikellini]

what's with the overflow? Did u DIY it or did it come with the tank? Looks nice, I might be interested...

[mr9iron]

Wow, what a response. Thanks for all of the great posts and keep them coming.

Aclos3, thanks for the description on the float switch plus other good pics.

Phong- thanks for the link to the thread, nice looking tank.

mikellini- beautiful tank!

Kase- man your tank is an inspiration for sure.

[mikellini]

Here are a couple more pics, finally with the photobucket thing!

[mikellini]

The clown hosts in those zoos no problem, I was thinking about getting a frogspawn or torch but she loves it just how it is

[mr9iron]

GSMguy, I love the anemone, give me some tank specs.

Mikellini- Great pics of the fish.

[DarkXerox]

I have my whole tank build thread from last year till now in my "red house" link. I'm too lazy to post pics again

[kase]

thanks, but i seen some way better 29g's then mine every was from here...
what are your plans for a stand and canopy...custom or MFG one?

we're all here to share ideas and help each out.. right??
good luck with your build.

[mntropical]

Here's mine. I just set this one up at the end of December, so it's a work in progress.

This is the link to the whole album with pics of the whole process from day 1.


Tank shot at 5 weeks.


And the Peppermint shrimp. One of these is going into a different tank after I get a Mantis out of there.

[ctreefer]

here's a link to my thread from last year. I've since replaced my closed loop with 2 nano streams, but all else is the same.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=746716

[vsnsofadrgn]

after some problems tryin to post pics, here we are. my 29 gal. i have since added a sand bed and a sump. a new skimmer and mh lighting will be here wednesday (YAY!!). what do you think?

[mr9iron]

Originally posted by kase
thanks, but i seen some way better 29g's then mine every was from here...
what are your plans for a stand and canopy...custom or MFG one?

we're all here to share ideas and help each out.. right??
good luck with your build.

We already have a beautiful oak stand and canopy that were built by oceanic. I want to light the tank with either a 250 mh and electronic ballast or go all T5. That's up in the air for now. I will have a DIY sump with a closed loop and I was considering a ASM mini G skimmer. I want to go barebottom with this tank. More ideas to come.

Darkxerox- nice tank, thanks for the post. I'm looking to borrow any idea I can. BTW love the RBTA.

vnsofdragn- I think you got a good start there. Post more info if you get the chance. I.E. lighting, flow, skimmer etc.

mntropical- Looks good.

Ctreefer- I'm love your tank. I'm thinking T5 will be the way to go. Do you think the T5 provides enough light for sps?

What are you guys doing for ATO? Do you dose kalkwasser or a CA reactor?