Frenchy's 12g Long Build
 

So Ive finally after 7 months in the Mid East returned home on friday :celeb2:, and its time to start building the tank. I was out of the hobby for about 6 years and now that life is going so great its time to get back in.

I was inspired by eschulist's 12g long office tank, his tank is pristine. Im super stoked to get back into the hobby, its been a long time coming. Well lucky me I bought all most all of the supplies during deployment and sent them home, only to come home to house of goodies.:fun4:

My goal is to do a closed loop system and have 1" overflows on each side of the tank as well as 1/2" returns on each side( alternating on both sides) . I want that clean look with nothing on the back or inside the tank. Should look very nice.

Well here is the Gear so far:

Lighting:
Marineland 24-36" LED fixture w/intergrated timer

Tank:
Mr Aqua 12g Long

Pump/Filtration:
10g Sump Tank
Ehiem 1260
CAD Nano Reactor
Kent Marine Doser 1400ml ( to be used as Top Off )
Aquamaxx GFO/Carbon w/Filter bags
2x 1" Bulkheads
2x 1/2" Bulkheads
Coralife Digital Thermometer
Aquatop Heater 100 watt
Black vinyl housing
4" Filter sock

Heres the photos of the goodies I got.
http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_1351.jpg

The weekend plan is to start the drilling process( hope for the best :rolleyes:), and hopefully the stand arrives and get that drilled as well. Also as a side note the tank by Mr. Aqua is outstanding, its flawless. More photos to follow.

looks like a good equipment list. does the marineland light say "aquatic plant"? hope you didnt get the freshwater light that has the built in timer, unless you want a very warm white tank. looking forward to seeing it up and running.

drilling is actually easy,, biggest helpful hint I can give is, do not push on the drill when drilling into the glass. just let the weight of the drill push the bit down while its cutting threw the glass....

Holy cow didn't notice the light...am sending it back now and replacing with reef light. Great catch buddy.

Thanks for the drilling tip, I'm only worried everything goes good til I hit the last drill haha.

bummer about the light but good thing you found it now and not after your tank was cycled and ready to rock. and like said above, let gravity do the work when drilling glass and also use plumbers putty to build a water dam around the drilling area.

Cant wait to see it all setup

Alright weekend update:

The stand got here this week and its awesome. Absolute perfect fit, still wondering if I should add support. It says it can hold 250lbs so we will see.

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_1365.jpg

I drilled the holes for the tubing on both sides, and also hung my Kent Doser ( being used for auto top off ).

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...DSC_1368-1.jpg

Just about finished marking off the holes to be drilled, noticed I have wrong size bit for 1 inch bulkhead. I think I need a 1 1/2 inch bit. None the less, I went out and bought the 10g sump tank and finished putting together the bulkheads. I am installing them backwards if you say that, their pretty universal so. I trimmed the bulkheads down a bit due to there length.

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_1363.jpg

Opened up my Heater I bought, and noticed this nice crack. Son of a..

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_1371.jpg

So drilling will resume this week when the new drill bit gets here, Home Depot and Lowes didnt have 1 1/2". Off to order another Heater.

Had a lighting question for you guys and gals, I have a 24" Led light with 24 LED's 19 white and 5 blue, with the tank being 36" in length but only about 10" deep tank, if I hang that light about a foot off the water would that be good parameters? Now I know it's not long enough but with light being higher would it be good on the sides? Strength wise...

First of all... Welcome home brother!:beer: Glad your back in one piece. Secondly I'll be tagging along for the build.

Glad you're back man, I recently got back as well. Curious as to where you were maybe we saw each other @ some point. Anyway builds looking good so far. Is this going to be sps dominated or mixed? I realize the tanks footprint is very narrow, do you plan on sawing rock to get that perfect aquascape? Oh yeah and my sgt major would have my *** if I didn't give you the obligatory "IF YOU AIN'T CAV YOU AIN'T ****" banter. Anyway I look forward to new progress brother!

kool... waiting for more pics and updates..... :)

Thanks for the welcome back y'all, feels great. @ISAF I was in Qatar for most deployment and was in Kuwait for few weeks , a couple of places I can't talk about either haha. Great deployment just missed the wifey and my puppy.

As of now I'm dealing with the light issue if any has any advice I'd be all ears... Don't know if I should return the 24" for 36"?

@ISAF I'm going for 3 sep islands and have a well mixed tank when it comes to corals. Looking for good color on each rock, some month and frogspawn maybe some hammer , colony of colorful polyps. Haven't decided on rock, i like LR but aqua scape gives ya extra flexibility but LR cycles faster and helps tank. Well see..

Welcome home, I served with 10th Mountain myself. Looking forward to seeing this build unravel. Merica.

man I would look into rapid led. Their 36" heatsink looks nice above the tank. 18 leds, mix and match your color. Its what I will do when I build my 12 long. I will be running 8rb 2b 2r 2g 3cw 1nw. Will be done on 3 nano drivers they sale. With my blues on 1 channel, my white on 1 channel and the colors on 1 channel. Glad to hear you made it home safe. Much respect!

Drilling a lot harder than it looks... Maybe if I used a template to hold the bit. One hole done, started the second but drill died.

Rapid LED has great heat sinks. Take a look.

12B 1st Engineer!

I forgot to add 11B here!

19D here, I didn't think you 11 series were smart enough to run a tank other then a Bradley ;)

Also your rocks cape / coral placement ideas sound awesome, if I had this tank i would definitely go with kessil 150's or a rapid led setup.

I'm a 25v combat camera in USASOC... Love it .

If you aint cav.....( I was in a RSTA unit for a bit )
But its funny you mention the Kessil, I have a 20 long with a Kessil 150....

Great little lights that pack a par punch. I am not a fan of the manual which Is why I purchased 2 sol blues, have you thought about 2 AI nanos?

After weekend update: Well I drilled the return holes on the weekend while I waited for the other drill bit to come.

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_1373.jpg
http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_1380.jpg

All in all, Buy the better drill bits the smaller one I had absolutely sucked and it showed, but the big bit went great and smooth. Just stoked to be done drilling.
I installed the bulkheads with just a think layer of silicone between the gasket and glass.

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_1377.jpg

I ran/cut the hose's and just about mocked up the sump, still have to run and get glass dividers for the sump. Also need to by some clamps or hooks for the sock filters.

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_1379.jpg

At the end of the day the progress is coming along great. Should be water tested with whole system by the weekend, after we make trip to get live sand and live rock. Also hanging the light is a to do as well.

What light have you decided on? Makes a big play in how you hang

I'm staying with marine land 24" led light, might go to the 36" if light don't reach ends of tank well.