Join in my 90g build! Pic EXTREME!!!!
 

I am pretty excited to get this tank going as it has been in the works for a long time now. Any comments are very welcome.

I will be glueing my plumbing today so please point out any potential problems.


Here is a full tanks shot. I started this thread a little late as I am half way through my build.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P1010754.jpg

I think am going to do something a little different with the stand and attach 1/2 inch oak plywood with magnets. I hope it looks good! we will see.


Here is a shot of what I am working on now, the plumbing. I will be glueing it today if all goes as planned.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P1010751.jpg

I was thinking of adding a 90 degree elbow on the end of the output so the water shoots to the left of the sump. This will allow more time for bubbles to disapate.

Here is a shot of the output from the sump to tank. This is gong to be tweaked a bit. I have a 6" loc line ( a bendable pipe ) that I do not want completly submerged. I also need some of the pipe to be submerged so I can drill some anti-siphon holes. Not sure how that is going to work yet.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P1010755.jpg

I hope you will stick around for the ride! More to come soon!

I always seem to forget about something when I am planning so I did a google sketch up of my canopy.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...andmhforrc.png

My actual reflectors are quite a bit longer and wider. This drawing is pretty much to scale besides the metal halides. To keep my VHO Actinics bellow the reflector they had to be lowered, but this dosn't leave much room to get a hand in the tank. I am thingking of mounting them from the bottom of the canopy.

This is all the stuff sitting in my closet that I am itching to get hooked up and running!

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P1010757.jpg

My dog on a car ride.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P7080503.jpg

Looks great so far! What size is your return pump?
On your hood, have you thought about hinging the front ? you could mount the front T5\VHO to it and it would just swing up and away when getting into the tank?
Great idea about using magnets on the wood cover!!

Hey crzy

I am running mag 7 which is 700 gph and about 400 gph at 5'. That is a great idea about the having the lights swing up with the hood. I was trying to steer away from that because of all the wiring but I think it might work.

looks like a good start however having your return pump hard plumbed like that is gonna cause alot of vibrations. it is best to use vinal tubing off the mag then connect it to the pvc.

I never would have thought of that. Thanks Kau. I think I am gong to try and use the hard pipe fist and see how it goes. Now I know how to fix it if it is a problem though!

Looking Good so Far, Tagging Along.

As long as there is slight pressure on the pump it will not vibrate, if the pipe is a little too short and the pump is not firm against the sump you will get vibration

Your set-up is looking great so far!

Thanks guys. I am pretty sure there will be slight presure on the pump from the plumbing.

I am just about to put a few dabs of silicone under the pump to reduce vibration.

can't wait to see this up and running

I thought that picture with your dog on it looked familiar. Where in BC? i feel like i have been there haha.

I can't tell from the pics, but would you mind telling us what size the sump is?

fish - This bad boy should be up and running pretty quick now. My favorite lfs is out of aragonite though, I hope the other stores sell it.

Mike- I am from Kamloops BC. You might recognize the sage brush that is in the back ground of that pic with my dog.

rj - The sump is a 30g. I am really glad that I got this size because the skimmer takes up quite a bit of space.

More pics comming tonight!

which ER skimmer is that?

How is FIVE pictures "pic extreme"? That is false advertising man! :)

relax - that skimmer is the euro-reef rs 135.
Mc- ha ha sorry man, more pics are comming right now!

I didn't get to glueing the plumbing today, I realized that I needed to do afew things before it was done.

I did silicone some black acrylic over my glass overflow. Looks alot better then the glass.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P1010778.jpg

I was worried that I would get silicone everywhere in the display, but it came out pretty nice.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P1010777.jpg

If you remember the silicone job on my sump you will understand why I was worried about getting silicone in the display.

I also mounted my powerheads today.
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P1010772.jpg

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P1010773.jpg

I am gong to connect the two poweheads using a tunze single controller.

When I mounted the powerheads I discovered that the hangers come over the side of the tank a fair bit. This is going to be a problem because the hangers will be in they way of my canopy. The only solution I can come up with is to cut the canopy a bit so it slides over.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/P1010775.jpg

I think this thing is gong to be running in no time! I better start making ro/di water soon!

Looking great so far!

You could get the magnet holders for the Tunze's so you won't have to worry about changing your canopy plans and you could move around. I am using them on my 6101's and they work great.

Planning bare-bottom?

Get the magnetic holders for those powerheads.. canopy problem solved! :D

What magnet are you planning on using for your stand?
i just welded up a stand for my 65 in progress and i was just going to bolt the plywood to the steel but i love your idea so much more
(I'd be able to get into the stand in the front and both sides

What magnet are you planning on using for your stand?
i just welded up a stand for my 65 in progress and i was just going to bolt the plywood to the steel but i love your idea so much more
(I'd be able to get into the stand in the front and both sides)

Hey guys. I would love to get the magnet holders, but the lfs that sells stuff like tunze is far away and I would have to have them shipped. I think I might order them though, they look pretty handy.

coral nut- I am planning on doing a deep sand bed, but I am going to start with about 2 inches of fine aragonite because I am cheap, and I don't want to pay.

Twz- I saw circle magnets that werer about 1 inch across and about a 1/4 inch deep at my local hardware store. Package said they would hold 10 kg which should be more then enough. I was going to drill a hole in the wood and glue the magnet in. This way you can have full access to under your tank! I have to addmit that this was not my idea. I found a thread here on rc where someone did this.

Sooo.. When I first built my tank and stand a few years ago I took a good 2 months to build my stand. Part of my design was that the entire bottom was caulked / painted / and coated with 3 coats of spar urethane. Some might say that was excessive but I didn't want a sump overflow or such to ruin my nice stand.

Fast forward 2 years and I sping a leak ( small one ) in my return plumbing to the sump. It goes unnoticed for awhile ( my sump is now in a room behind the tank ) until one day I open my stand and find a nice pool with about 4 galons of water in it. The sealed nature of my stand did collectively save my carpet..

So why do I bring this lovely story up? In looking at your design up there. your sump is sitting directly on the carpet? If thats your plan you should be aware, one day., far far into the future you might regret it.

lfjewett- Close, it is some sort of vinyl flooring. I am taking every precation I can think of to prevent a flood, but if it does flood I am hoping it will all drain into the appartment bellow me. Just kidding.

I am pretty paranoid of having a flood so I trying to take precautions. I will make it so that my intake from my overflow to sump wont get clogged with anything and I wont put so much water in my sump that it will overflow when the power is off. Also I am going to drill afew holes in the input line to the display to break a siphon if the power goes out.

One of the easiest things to forget over time, is to keep the siphon-break holes clean. They do clog rather easily.