Jose's 45 Starfire Tank

[Jf2381]

So all my friends keep asking "when are you getting off your lazy a$$ and finishing the tank?" so I decided to finish it. I have been taking my time for a while and I finally got tired of my little 10g tank.

I will post some progress shots as I complete tasks.

When I bought it, it looked like this.

I wasn't happy with the plain stand so I made a few mods.

And I decided to cover the nice euro brace with an ugly canopy.

Frame

It's starting to take shape.

Done...Well almost.

I have to apply a few more coats of paint on the canopy. Tonight I plan on setting up the sump and start the plumbing and wiring of the lights.

Hope you guys like.

 

[Subliminal]

Looking good, man!

I like the tank...nice dimensions...rr...sweet!

 

[camz28]

Jose is looking good , keep us updated .

 

[Jf2381]

Thanks Ralph.

Sump came in today

 

[Phyl]

Looks great, and with the sump in place water should be imminent (drums fingers). Looking forward to the rest of the build in progress.

 

[Jf2381]

The last updates until after the holidays will be wired lighting, setting up the equipment, start of cycling the marco rocks and plumbing.
I'm still waiting on my 1.25" bulkhead to come in and them I can start the plumbing.

 

[Phyl]

Make sure you have at least a week before you plan on having people in the house for the cycling Marco rock. Two would be better. We were going to start ours just before Thanksgiving and decided to wait until after the holiday. SOOOO glad we did. That first week in my (whole) house was STINKY! And that was with the rock in the basement with a towel against the door keeping (trying anyway) the stink downstairs!

Agressive water changes may help this though.

 

[Jf2381]

I plan on following Jim's (house of laughter) advice and do full water changes once or twice a week.
I remember the smell like it was yesterday from the first time I ever cycled rocks. Not a good smell.

 

[Jf2381]

Phyl,

I started cycling the marco rocks today and OMG within an hr you could smell the stink throught out the house.
Wow I can't believe the order how bad it smells.

 

[Phyl]

Whew... that smell is so fresh in my mind I can nearly smell it just thinking about it! The worst of it should be over by now, huh?

 

[Jf2381]

Whew... that smell is so fresh in my mind I can nearly smell it just thinking about it! The worst of it should be over by now, huh?

I cycled the marco rocks with some live rock I was cooking so I got lucky and the smell was gone within 36 hours. By the time I got home the second day the I had to put my nose by the water to smell anything.
The ammonia is at 0.50, Nitrite at 0.50 and Mitrate at 40 PPM. I used an Aquatic Pharmaceuticals test kit.

 

[Jf2381]

Some updates shots

Update time.

I wanted to have the tank running by now but I have been ordering a lot of my parts online and because of this my setup date keeps getting pushed back.
Now I'm waiting on sleeves and quick connects for my wiring , and fans.

Some updates for now.

Here I'm dry fitting pvc to make sure I measured right.

Here the PVC has been glued and painted grey, I also drilled the sump and added the bulkheads.

Testing for leaks. So far so good.

Front shot

Surface movement

External Overflow

Sump

No micro bubbles in the main tank. I pretty happy because that was my biggest concern.

 

[Jf2381]

I think I got the real thing very close to my sketch...what do you think?

 

[Hawkeye]

that is some serious plumbing - nice! If it were me there'd be like purple pvc stuff everywhere lol.

 

[Phyl]

Psst.. you can use the clear PVC primer for reef related plumbing. The purple is only necessary for housing code.

You did a great job matching the drawing, Jose!

 

[Jf2381]

Thanks guys.

I used the clear stuff. I stopped using the purple stuff after I had to replace a few ceramic tiles because of it.

 

[JRWOHLER]

That is a super plumbing job. Fantastic that you kept to your plan and it worked out so well. Certainly looks efficient. If I get the chance to setup something I will certainly keep it in mind.

 

[Jf2381]

The only problem I'm having is the gurgling noise when the water goes into the sump. At first the pipes where under water and I cut/drilled a bunch of slits and holes to disperse the water/air and hopefully avoid the gurgling noise but that didn’t work. Then I cut the PVC right above the water level and all that did was give me the water fall effect. Next thing I’m going to try is add some elbows to have he water shoot out across the surface of the water. If that doesn’t work I’ll have to stick with filter socks, which I was trying to avoid.

With this plumbing design it gives me the flow I want. It creates enough movement in the display that I think I will not need power heads. I might restrict the flow just a bit to give the water some more contact time with the macro algae. I will know for sure once the rocks are in there.

 

[JohnS_323]

Nice job Jose. It really looks neat and clean.

For the noise, try putting a 90* elbow right at the water line in your sump so that half of it is underwater and half is above. That worked really well for us in a couple of places. The other thing we found (which seems to be counter-intuitive and people often disagree with) is that the HIGHER the flow through the system, the quieter it is. Whenever we start getting noise in our 65, we know the pump is clogged or something else is restricting flow. The closer we get to the max of the overflows, the quieter it gets.

 

[Jf2381]

Nice job Jose. It really looks neat and clean.

For the noise, try putting a 90* elbow right at the water line in your sump so that half of it is underwater and half is above. That worked really well for us in a couple of places. The other thing we found (which seems to be counter-intuitive and people often disagree with) is that the HIGHER the flow through the system, the quieter it is. Whenever we start getting noise in our 65, we know the pump is clogged or something else is restricting flow. The closer we get to the max of the overflows, the quieter it gets.

Thanks john.

The 90' degree did not work. They minimized the noise but instead of sounding like Niagra falls they sound like the Paterson falls. I also notice that if I restrict one of the overflows the noise is not as loud. I'm going to play with the dursos a bit before I try the next mod.
Now the other noisy piece is the blueline 40. I remove the fan cover and it was louder, then I removed the fan all that did was eliminate the fan noise and made the humming more audible. LOL
I have a velocity T3 and it's very quiet, I'll probably replace the blueline with a velocity T2.
Other than that I got most of my wiring done.