Tank Build

Over the past two years I've slowly been gathering all the ingredients to launch a new tank.   I have an old 58 Oceanic that was laying around, it's not reef ready but I got an overflow from a friend in clinton.   I built a sump out of a 20 gallon,  Covey sold me a hand me down super skimmer and  I replaced the pump with a new Gen-X needle wheel pump.  I built a closed loop with a sqwd powered by a mag 9.5 and The return is pumped out by a mag 5.  I ordered an Aquatinics TX-5 from premium aquatics (on back order).  Also some directional u-tubes and a 300 watt titanium heater from drsfostersmith.com.
Also I have about 75 lbs of southdown,  I got some when the Colorado reef guy was making a trip from back east and dropping of southdown to anybody that wanted some along the I-80 corridor. And I have about 60 lbs of live rock, I got about half of it from vvolfe1.
So the time has come to put it all together, I have a 4 day weekend.   I need to pick up a few valves, connectors and 3/4" PVC.   And I should have it all fired up (sans lighting)by late saturday.   The crunch is on because Travis has a monti cap frag for me and he is moving in two weeks. J/K

 

Posted By slovan on 11/22/2007 8:21 AM
Nice! I can't wait to see your tank come together Al. Post lots of pics when you get going.
What will you be using for flow? Also, what kind of bulbs(brand and type) did you go with for the fixture?
I'm going with a closed loop using a sqwd powered by a mag 9.5, I'll have directional u-tube mounts on both sides.  For the immediate future I'll be using Aquaz bulbs that are coming free with light.  The fixture is an aquactincs TX5 it is very popular at this time, and is on back order.  I plan to swap out the bulbs and go with ATI Blue Plus, UVL Super Actinic, UVL Aquasun, ATI Blue Plus and a ATI Aquablue.  I may choose to go with some other variation, it should be fun to play with lighting config.  Also, I'm going to get a piece of plexiglas and paint it a dark/light blue scheme and mount it to the back of the tank, I've seen this done on a few threads and it turned out well for people who did it.

 

Well the controller is undecided, I might check with einstein and covey because its always good to get recommendations.  I plan on trying some sps,  but I would love to get some zoos. ricordia and some cool lps on the bottom.  I'm going for some bright colors in the tank, it will probably cost a bit, I want it to become a premier tank and share my resources with some other club members.  I was truly inspired by the last tank tour, they were all great tanks with beautiful coral's and I want to create something that will have really awsome coral's like you have and do it so it reflects something like I've seen on reefcentral and on my many dives into the pacific.   Pictures will be forthcoming as I begin this little adventure.  It's easy to build a tank, it's another thing to grow a reef.

 

The 9.5 on the closed loop should provide good flow.  We'll see, if not I'll try something else.

 

Posted By covey on 11/22/2007 10:07 PM
Good to see everything get rolling. If you need any help give me a call. I am off Saturday.
Thanks, I'll give you a call, I should have it pretty much done by then.

 

Thank's Eins,  So far everything is coming along, Drsfostersmith.com didn't get some of my stuff sent off, so I'll rig up some temporary fix to check out the equipment.  I'll let you know if I run into any issues that are beyond my abilities.

 

The works coming along, I ran into some hiccups however.  Orders from foster and smith never arrived as planned, probably due to the holiday.  And I rethought some of the configurations, I decided to scrap the closed loop and go with 2 hydor koralia's on a wavemaker, it should make the tank look less cluttered, they have been ordered along with sump inlet assembly.  I got the idea sump inlet assembly from Einstein's tank, a great way to remove particles coming in from the overflow.  I also ordered an American DJ PC-100A 8-Switch ON/OFF Power Center to control the equipment. All the stuff should be here sometime next week.  The lights are still on back order and will hopefully be coming soon.  I'm going to fill it today with fresh water to test for leaks, I'll post some pics a little later.

 

Testing the skimmer and running some diluted vinegar through it to remove the deposits.

 

Posted By slovan on 11/24/2007 5:05 PM
Looking good Al. Is the Gen-x pump stock or mesh modded?
It's mess modded, It works pretty good.

 

Well I filled it up with fw and am running a test.  I damn near flooded the basement twice, first I turned the hose on full blast and it popped out of the sump.  Next I forgot to put the cap back on the protein skimmer and it went all over.  For once I'm glad the wife is out shopping.  The mag 5 couldn't keep up with the overflow, so I had to dial it in a bit.  Modified durso, was to high, so I tried to shorten it with my chop saw and it cracked, so I just put the cut pvc piece back in an put a cap on it and it's work well, not to noisy.  Here's a pic of the business end.

 

Posted By slovan on 11/24/2007 5:57 PM
New setups always require a little bit of tweaking to get it to run right.
Looking at your sump, is the water level always going to vary in the return pump side? It looks water from the left drops over the top of it and into the return pump area.
Right now everything is remaining constant, it doing pretty good.  I'll have few tweak to do, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.  I can't wait for the other toys to arrive so I can get it setup like a reef.

 

When I cut the power to the pumps there is no issue with the hang on overflow box, but the return side starts siphoning back in the the sump.  I there some kind of check valve I can get or should I just keep the flow high for surface agitation.