TanksNStuff's 75G to 120G Upgrade

[TanksNStuff]

Also note that the back will be up against a half wall. That's why the bottom section is just finished white. I saved money that way with less oak. From the back, all you will see is from the tank up.

I'm debating on whether I'm going to paint or cover the glass for the overflow chamber. Any suggestions?

Oh yea... I also have to add a shelf and chair molding around the top of the stand. I'm going to wait until after I move it in place so it doesn't get damaged during install.

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[redfishbluefish]

Looking good George. I was scratching my head on the half piece of oak on the back until you explained the half-wall thing.

I'm debating on whether I'm going to paint or cover the glass for the overflow chamber. Any suggestions?

I vote for a 1/16 piece of black plexi (or clear, painted black), held in place with some sticky-tack. This way you can easily take it off to find that missing wrasse that jumped into the overflow.

 

[Raffle King]

Looks great George can't wait to see it finish

 

[Empire]

Nice work george

 

[jgraz]

I would go with Paul's recommendation on the overflow. You def don't want to paint it though. I did on mine and scraped it off a few days later. Go with the black plexi or if you want it thinner go with the static cling black backgrounds found in most pet stores. I would also make some kind of cover for the overflow as well. That was a huge help with keeping fish and snails out of the overfow, as welll as keeping algea growth to nothing.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Thanks for the compliments and suggestions gang.

I think I may go for the black plexiglass to cover the overflow. And I like the suggestion to cover the overflow to prevent jumpers and algae too. I can just oversize the black plexi piece and then cut it to do both jobs.

 

[jgraz]

Not sure of the brand tank. With corner overflow I'm guessing either marineland or deepblue. I'm pretty sure they both make overflow covers. I had an aqueon tank and found the cover on eBay. Well made and I think it cost me like $10 shipped.

 

[MatteZ]

Thanks for the compliments and suggestions gang.

I think I may go for the black plexiglass to cover the overflow. And I like the suggestion to cover the overflow to prevent jumpers and algae too. I can just oversize the black plexi piece and then cut it to do both jobs.

I have a giant sheet of .25 inch black plexi. text me the dimensions and i will cut you what you need for the overflow cover.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Cool, thanks Matt. I'll send it tomorrow.

 

[TanksNStuff]

It's been a while in the making, but this upgrade is finally happening Tomorrow! I've been taking a few pics of the rest of the build along the way, but just haven't gotten around to posting the updates. When it's all done, I'll post a bunch of stuff for you all. Stay tuned!

PS, if anyone wants to stop by to help me and Raffle King, feel free join in on the chaos. Start time is 9 am and I'll have some donuts and coffee/tea to get us going and will take care of lunch if it goes that long. I'm guessing it will. Dance

 

[Raffle King]

I think Danny coming and I trying to get Mattz to come

 

[TanksNStuff]

Cool, more the merrier. I was hoping for Terri's aqua sculpting expertise so that makes things much harder without her.

 

[NikkiT]

Good luck Gorge!

 

[Raffle King]

I have everything in the truck and ready to go this should be easy.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Good luck!!

 

[Tommyboynj]

No pics yet... geez

 

[TanksNStuff]

It was a really looooong day, but the tank is all up and running very successfully. I can't express how much I appreciated the help from Tony, Terri, and Daniel. Without you guys, this would have taken me another year to finish, LOL. Anytime you guys need help with something, please don't hesitate to ask me first.

I was going to post a pic or two of the progress, but I'm about to pass out so all you guys get tonight is a quick update (sorry). I think I spent the last 3 hours just cleaning up all the tanks/buckets/totes/etc. in the driveway and I don't have the energy to get the camera out and upload the pics. Honestly, I didn't even take that many today because we were so busy. I'll get a bunch tomorrow though and definitely post em up.

As I said, the tank is up and running, but it is not completed. I have my controller still setup the way it used to be for the old tank, so I'll need to reprogram it in the next couple days for all the new stuff. Also, the wiring looks like a rats nest because I just wanted to plug things in to get it going and make sure there were no leaks and no problems.

I've added a UV sterilizer to the manifold and that worked great!. Still to hookup though are 2 dosing pumps for alk/Cal. I'll be removing my GFO/Carbon reactor pump from the controller, splitting it into 2 separate reactors and both will now be run off of my manifold instead. As of right now, I just took that offline because I have parts coming in Monday and figured I'd just wait and put it online when I can separate them. I think some of you will enjoy seeing my manifold. I put it right at my small side cabinet door so when I take it off, I have easy access to all the valves, and I added a port for my water changes. I also had just enough room to put my ATO container under that so that will be easy to fill up when needed too.

I have a rough idea in my mind on how I'll mount all of my controller and electrical stuff in my tall side cabinet, so depending on which cords reach where, I'll likely have to reconfigure some of the power ports for the controller and name them as what they will now be controlling. Also, since all my control stuff is outside of my stand, I need to get some wire to extend some of the float switches for the ATO control.

My plan going forward is to start organizing all the electronics tomorrow and get them mounted on the back board. Then I'll start moving corals around and sticking them in their final home. (By the way, two thumbs up on the Tropic Eden Reef Flakes sand. It was a little cloudy when it was first put in, but not too bad at all and after a couple hours my water cleared up pretty good. ) But, since it was a little cloudy when we put corals in and they were sitting in tubs all day and closed up... we couldn't tell what we were placing where. Later on, I moved a couple rocks just because some of the corals were covered or upside down, but didn't have time to really put them in good spots. That will happen tomorrow in the day time.

Oh, all my fish, anemones, shrimp, and starfish are in a 24g nano cube for the time being. I've had that running for about 2 months and did a couple water changes with tank water during that time, so I figured that would be the safest bet for them during the transition. Much better than sitting in tubs with all the corals. They went right in there during the breakdown and will probably stay in there for a couple days until I get the rock work and corals all set in their final places.

OK, about to pass out. Tune in tomorrow for a better update!

PS: When you do see the pics tomorrow, please ignore the missing door on the tall side cabinet. I'm waiting on the oak to be cut and grooved for the luwan insert (sort of making it like a picture frame... it will appear as all the other doors you will see.) That should be put together, stained, and sealed in the next week or two I hope. If not, my wife is going to be on my butt.

 

[Raffle King]

George great work on the stand, everything work out well with the tank enjoy.

 

[TanksNStuff]

OK, I brought my camera to work with me today so I could upload all my build pics and share with you guys... but I just realized that I saved a bunch of them to my home computer to make room on my sd card in the camera. So, all I have to share right now is the pics I took in the last week or two. Fear not though, you will enjoy them I'm sure.

First off, here are a couple shots of what has held me up the longest on this build... the front and side door. I knew that I needed them to be completely removable, not a swing open door (because I have a couch right next to the front of the tank). I just couldn't decide on whether to use magnets, "z" picture hangers, plastic door closers, etc. Then one day, my buddy Mike (the one that cut all my oak for me) suggested that I just make them with a channel on the back that sets inside the opening of the oak trim already on there. Then, he even topped that good idea by suggesting I use felt material to protect the wood from wear from scraping.

So I got my picture frame style doors made up (3/4" oak trim, grooved center to let the 1/4" luwan board inset inside).

And then I added a 1x2 channel to the back of them, that is meant to just squeeze tightly into the 2x4 frame of the stand where the oak boards trim around the openings.

On the bigger front door, I also added diagonal cross braces to keep it from flexing (got that idea from Mattez's door).

As you can see, I stained/sealed the fronts and just used Killz latex on the back of them. I did this for 2 reasons: I was running out of sealer and didn't want to take another trip to Lowes and I figured it would be better protection from all the moisture from the sump.

Then, I went shopping for some felt. But, while I was at the craft store, I stumbled upon something I thought would work even better! I found this 1/8" foam sheet that was like 12x18 inches. I cut this down into 3/4" strips (thickness of the edge of the 1x2 that it was going to be applied to) and used a special foam glue (probably the same as Elmers, but for a couple bucks I splurged) to apply it to the Killz painted 1x2 inner frame.

Hard to tell, but if you look close, you can see the thin layer of foam around the corner. One thing I forgot to mention, when I made the inner frame, I didn't have the foam yet and thought I was going to just sand it down a bit all the way around. I ended up marking 1/8" lines all the way around the outer edge and used a dremel tool with a wood blade to shave off the 1/8" all the way around. It would have taken me another month to do that with a sander tool. And I had to dry fit the foam around the 4 corners to test as I was cutting as I went along. It was a pain in the rear end, doing all that, but the nice snug fit I got from this method was worth it. I'll take some pics later of the doors in place so you can so you can see what I mean. An added benefit of the foam (I think) is it should help keep the noise down from inside the stand.

Going to cut this post before it gets too long. Will add more in a few minutes.

 

[TanksNStuff]

OK, the next idea is something that I think you all will enjoy. With my plan to house all my electronics in the tall side cabinet, naturally I had to drill holes between it and the canopy and stand. But I was trying to come up with something to help keep moisture out of the cabinet as much as possible. Walking through the plumbing section of Lowes... these are what I found:

When it was all done and in place, I just cut Cross slits in the rubber to let the wiring pass through.

It's not 100% sealed, but when all the wiring is complete, I plan to push the flaps close and maybe tape them closed on the cabinet side. Pretty neat idea, huh?

Since I teased you with a shot of my sump in place, may as well show you a couple shots of the plumbing...

Drain on the left, return on the right:

The other side of that valve in the pic above.

The braided tube is coming from my new Waveline DC6000 return pump, then connects to the manifold (I got a lil sloppy with the primer.) I designed the outlets of the manifold so that the valves can all be accessed by the side door. The first port is 3/4" and goes to the UV "IN" (the UV "OUT" will just be a short tube discharging into the return section). The second port is another 3/4" and will be used for my water changes. I'll add a short tube so I can easily fill up my buckets. The 3rd and 4th ports are going to be for carbon and GFO reactors. My parts to split my dual reactor got delivered today, so I'll work on getting that online tonight. After the 4th port, I have a 90 and a union fitting with a valve after that (in case I ever need to take it apart or do maintenance.)

Here is a shot of the new return pump and the flow meter that will go in-line between the manifold and UV filter.

OK... next post will be some FTS's and stuff to give you an idea of what the finish product (will) look like.