MattB's new 125g

[EBR]

Working on an update, but in the mean time, I have a question...

 

I'm now planning how to aquascape, and am thinking about using a PVC structure to support some of the rock off the floor of the tank. I've seen others do it as well, but am wondering about the ends of the PVC -- do you leave them open (thus letting small critters in there), or cap them off (not sure if there is a disadvantage?)?

 

Thanks.

Matt

[EBR]

Well, the lights are not ready yet, so it isn't time for the big move, but it's getting close. In the meantime, I'm playing around with some aquascaping ideas. I plan to have a larger island on the right side, some beach front in the middle, and then a smaller island on the left side, closer to where you can walk by.

 

For the big island, however, I definitely want to avoid a poop trap by just piling up a bunch of rock -- a cave would be good with a hidden powerhead blowing through to keep any crud from building up. So with yet another trip to HD, and a few minutes of cutting ...

 

cleaning the pieces:

 

assembly:

 

and in the tank. The really white rocks are ones that had been sitting in my basement for over a year (from when I downsized the 55g) and were as funky as funk can get, but nothing that 15 minutes, bleach, and a garden hose couldn't clean up. The other rock is from the current 55g:

 

and looking a bit to the left, you can see where I'm hoping to keep it open enough to let water flow through:

 

Trouble is, I've never made one of these kind of structures before. Has anyone else? Two questions:

 

A) There's plenty more rock in the 55g, but I am not so sure how to best hide the front of the structure, other than searching for that perfectly curved piece of LR to lay across the top. Any other ideas?

 

B) glue or not glue?

 

And a bonus -- this was taken this morning before the lights came on, and it was really the first time (in a long time) that I noticed how much this frogspawn has grown. When I got it last summer, it was just a single head on a stick -- now it's got four distinct branches, three of which are getting ready to split themselves!

 

Matt

[EBR]

Bump.

Any thoughts on how to handle the PVC sub-structure in previous post?

Thanks.

Matt

[zotzer]

I don't know how you'd hang rocks over the sides to completely cover the pipe. How about spraying it with pond foam and/or use some epoxy and cover it with substrate?

 

Tracy

[EBR]

OK, so it's been since the beginning of October since I've updated here. Good news, October saw a lot of progress on the tank, while November... not so much. But with Thanksgiving, a company cruise, and a trip to the Sea Aquarium in Curacao, there wasn't much time for the tank. December was pretty good, too. Everything has been moved from the 55g to the 125g, and the old one is cleaned and sitting in the garage. So, let's rewind back to October:

 

For top offs, it's just a 5g bucket plumbed into the DI water supply from the basement. Flip a switch at the tank, and new water fills it up. Top off sensor take it from there -- I decided to go with the Tsunami AT1:

 

 

Then came the task of tuning the sump -- figuring out the levels on either side, what is "normal" and marking on the side of the sump when I should panic. Once again, hats off to Jeff/NAGA for thinking of stuff I never considered: there is enough head room on the sump to accept the entire 5g of top off water (say, if the TO pump sticks on) with the return pump off. Now, I truly don't know if you (Jeff) planned for this, but it sure did work out!

 

But just to be sure, and even though the inside of the stand has two coats of exterior door paint, I wanted a little extra protection against water getting into the stand. After draining the tank and sump of the garden hose water (and man, having the sump plumbed right into the sewer is SWEET), I lifted the sump and tucked in $3 worth of shower pan liner (I didn't take a picture, but the corners are just folded up making a nice 4" tall drip pan between the sump and the stand:

 

 

It then took 2 days to fill the thing with DI salt water from the basement:

 

 

And a whole lot of electrical and plumbing to get things just right. Could always use some 6' extension cords. Along the lines of "measure twice, cut once" I wish I had put the electrical outlet closer to the middle of the tank location (I didn't because the old tank was in the way, but in hindissght, I wish I moved the tank out of the way -- oh well).

 

And the first bit of skimmate:

 

And trying to get a handle on the electrical:

 

 

And the skimmate after one day (no fish, no corals -- just some funky live rock that I pulled out of the 55g last year:

 

Next... canopy progress.

Edited December 24, 2007 by EBR

[EBR]

Knowing that I wanted to have this 125g up and running (and the 55g outta here) for the holidays, I knew that I would not have enough time to sand, stain, and finish the canopy. But to move everything over, I needed lights -- so I compromised and slapped together a temporary canopy of the same size and height to hold the lights and fans.

 

First, measure/cut the top that will eventually be used in the real canopy:

 

Take that, add the lights, and build the temporary canopy to fit. Fitting the top with the lights:

 

 

 

With the electrical partition of the stand being at one end, I had to extend one of the two the power harnesses:

 

add some shrink tubing to each:

 

 

and one final layer of shrink tubing to make it nice:

 

Lights:

 

 

So now that I knew the footprint of the top, put together the canopy in about an hour:

 

 

cut out the front doors:

 

attach the ballasts and harness...

 

And why not break off the ground wire off the darn harness (not both, thankfully) for fun! ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!

 

I was so irritated at my luck. I searched on line for Molex extraction tool of the right size -- and found it -- but it was $20 bucks. A whole new harness costs $25. I just couldn't make myself go that way -- there had to be a way to fix this. More on that later.

 

Next: I learn first hand how messy Weld-On 16 can be.

[EBR]

Almost forgot -- here's the tank with the temporary canopy in place:

 

and inside:

 

 

and behind:

 

 

So I spent all this time getting the SW and FW from the basement to be delivered behind the tank -- time to now make the final connections to the sump. So I needed three value-added attachments for the sump: 1) a way to hold the Tsumnami top-off sensor at the right level (without the less-than-reliable suction cups it comes with), 2) a mounting bracket for the SW hose to attach to, and 3) a bracket of some sort to hold the drain in the right position relative to the sump. I had some scraps already, so after a little cutting and drilling:

 

the top off sensor:

 

the SW supply bracket (the hose is not attached yet):

 

and the drain bracket:

Edited December 24, 2007 by EBR

[zotzer]

That is some beautiful work. Can't wait to see how this all comes together once it's "alive".

 

Tracy

[NAGA]

Matt,

 

very clean looking setup!!! Looks like everything fits just right and it shows how well you planned this out. If I can make a suggestion though and please don't take it as critisizm but, I noticed you have your plumbing running over the sump. It looks like it could inhibit some freedom of access a bit. You might want to consider keeping the pipes towards the back and perhaps run the drain into the back of the sump. That way you have less clutter above the sump.

 

perhaps I am seeing this wrong but, from what I saw it's something that grabbed me when I looked at the photo's

[EBR]

Next on the list was to straighten out the electrical area. The DJ strips are awesome, but they don't allow for timers very well, and since I don't have a controller (uh, yet), I needed a way to mount them out of the way. It's nice having the walls of the stand be 1 1/2" thick, so I can really mount anything anywhere without worrying about a screw poking through the finished side. These pocket hole screws are perfect for hanging the power strips:

 

 

making a template does wonders toward lining everything up:

 

 

 

Next was the kill switch. With a couple of 4 year olds running around, I wanted some insurance they (or any other kids) didn't flip the switch that supplied either the SW (overflow the sump) or the FW (overflow the top off bucket) from the basement. A DPST switch did the trick, with each side of the switch controlling one supply. Here's the mark on the power cord when I measured it at the tank:

 

Cut, strip, solder, and shrink tube the grounds and neutrals:

 

 

 

 

Add connectors to the hot leads and tie it all up neatly:

 

 

Repeat for the other supply:

 

Attach the switch and heat shrink the connections:

 

 

And finally, a way to mount it in the electrical compartment -- bust out the scraps of acrylic again:

 

 

 

 

 

While I was at it, the Wave Controller was really getting in the way at the bottom of the stand, so one more piece of acrylic later, there's a shelf:

 

 

Next: repair the Icecap harness that has the broken ground wire.

[NAGA]

Those sure don't look like working hands

[bigJPDC]

really incredible attention to detail - love all the DIY genius here.

jp

[MOT]

Gorgeous! You gots skills! What are the specs on that t5 lighting?

[EBR]

Those sure don't look like working hands

I don't see why you feel the need to be mean, Jeff. After all, I don't go around and point out to others that you're a Dallas fan.

;-)

 

Gorgeous! You gots skills! What are the specs on that t5 lighting?

Actually, I got these lights from Johan last summer when he sold off his tank, so I'm not sure how much time the bulbs have been used. The daylights and actinics are on separate circuits, each (60") with an Icecap 660 -- there are now 2 daylights and 3 actinics, although I think I'll try them the other way around when it's time to change them out. Johan had three of each, but the 125 is only wide enough to accommodate 5 bulbs. I think I like it better with 5 anyway, all of the corals seems to be really happy and don't shout "bright light!"

 

Matt

 

 

really incredible attention to detail - love all the DIY genius here.

jp

Thanks -- I appreciate it.

Matt

[EBR]

By this time, we're entering November and took some vacation time including the Curacao Sea Aquarium. I'll post pictures of that separately, but let me off this -- a face that only a mother could love:

 

Moving on, it was finally time to fix the harness for the actinics once and for all. Turns out that the extraction tool for this connector has two flat prongs that straddle either side of the pin -- these then push in the locking tabs that keep the metal pin within the plastic housing. Not wanting to spend the $25 bucks for the tools, I set out to fashion my own for this one-time use.

 

I had a scrap of aluminum gutter in the garage and tried to cut thin strips, but it proved too soft:

 

So then I figured some more stainless-like would be good -- enter this brush (I've got a box of 100 or so for glue-ups:

 

flatten it out and cut two strips:

 

Insert each on either side of the stuck pin:

 

 

And gentle push the other side of the pin -- voila'. Not a great picture, but you can see where the pin is part-way out of the plastic housing:

 

After that, just a new crimp and a touch of solder, and it went back together just like new :-)

 

While i was at it, I extended the power cord for one of the canopy fans that is on the far side of the tank from the electrical panel:

 

 

The tank has been running like that, with full working lights and live rock ever since. And two week ago on the 9th, everything from the 55g got moved to the 125g! I don't have pictures of the whole process, but it went quite well. The water in the 125g has been running for a couple of months by then, so I took the time tweak them and make sure the temp and pH were the same between the two tanks. Beyond that, I just treated it like a big water change (thanks again, Jeff -- good advice). I just drained about half of the 125g, then moved water, rocks, and corals over one at a time, and topped off with some freshly mixed DI SW. It's been two weeks since, and no casualties. I also plan to re'scape a little bit. There will be a main island on the right side, some open area in the middle for the hammers and leather, and then a smaller island on the left -- right now, everything is sort of spread out:

 

And just this past weekend, I stood up the kalk stirrer, again from Johan. Giving it a good cleaning, since it's been sitting around the basement and garage for a while:

 

And now in service:

 

Even though I've been dosing Ca ( as I was with the 55g), I think the Ca and Alk are pretty low right now, so I'm hoping the kalk with brings these back in line so I can get some good growth. Yesterday the Ca was at about 370, and the alk was just under 6 dKH.

 

That about sums it all up. It's been really nice sitting in the fish room these past two weeks, just watching what is now a clean, easy to maintain tank. I learned a lot from the 55g, including what NOT to do to make life easier. From water changes that took 1 1/2 hours to 15 minutes (that includes the time to mix up the next batch of SW -- Yow!). Once I get the Ca and alk where they should be, I'll be really happy.

 

Now to finish the darn canopy and doors!

Matt

[YHSublime]

I'm bumping this build, I feel like I just finished and unfinished story!

[fscbishop]

Super nice build

[fscbishop]

I silenced my over flow with gutter guard zip ties to make a screen to keep fish,snails out then capped it with a sink plug and it's super quiet

[fscbishop]

here is some pics of my overflow 

 

[EBR]

I'm bumping this build, I feel like I just finished and unfinished story!

 

(after a brief hiatus from WAMAS, I'm looking forward to re-engaging...)

 

Wow.  Funny how I was just thinking over the holidays, darn, I need to renew my membership since I let it lapse last year.  Thanks for the nudge!

 

And you don't know how close you are to the truth with choosing the word "unfinished".  The tank still lives strong as ever.  But once I had the tank up and running, the holidays hit that year, and I just never maintained the mojo to push through and finish the darn thing (which I will attribute to the poor upkeep of this thread).  The canopy I made to match the stand sat in the garage for 4+ years unfinished while I used a temporary one I knocked together just to hold the lights.  I finally finished that last summer, but, alas, still have the doors to stain and finish (although they are built).  Real life just get in the way ;-)

 

I'll find some time to post some proper pictures to finish "the story", but here's one of the tank itself.  In general, once I stocked it (mostly from WAMAS frags :- ), I just let it grow out.  See if you recognize any of the corals from the full tank shot above.

 

 

 

 

 

The anemone has split 10 times, the green candy can that started as a single head is now the size of a volleyball, the hammer in the center has broken apart under its own weight several times over the past year (cool for a while, but now just a mess), the digitata that started as a single finger is now in front of the anemones, and the big LPS on top started out the size of a baseball, and is now got the circumference of a basketball.

 

Frags, anyone?  :-)

 

Matt

 

[smallreef]

Holy LPS batman! You could run frag fest all out of your tank,lol

But obviously life hasn't gotten in the way of your love for you tank!

I know the miscellaneous projects that's don't get done ...because they aren't that important....

Edited January 7, 2014 by smallreef

[YHSublime]

(after a brief hiatus from WAMAS, I'm looking forward to re-engaging...)

 

Wow.  Funny how I was just thinking over the holidays, darn, I need to renew my membership since I let it lapse last year.  Thanks for the nudge!

 

And you don't know how close you are to the truth with choosing the word "unfinished".  The tank still lives strong as ever.  But once I had the tank up and running, the holidays hit that year, and I just never maintained the mojo to push through and finish the darn thing (which I will attribute to the poor upkeep of this thread).  The canopy I made to match the stand sat in the garage for 4+ years unfinished while I used a temporary one I knocked together just to hold the lights.  I finally finished that last summer, but, alas, still have the doors to stain and finish (although they are built).  Real life just get in the way ;-)

 

I'll find some time to post some proper pictures to finish "the story", but here's one of the tank itself.  In general, once I stocked it (mostly from WAMAS frags :- ), I just let it grow out.  See if you recognize any of the corals from the full tank shot above.

 

The anemone has split 10 times, the green candy can that started as a single head is now the size of a volleyball, the hammer in the center has broken apart under its own weight several times over the past year (cool for a while, but now just a mess), the digitata that started as a single finger is now in front of the anemones, and the big LPS on top started out the size of a baseball, and is now got the circumference of a basketball.

 

Frags, anyone?  :-)

 

Matt

 

Was not expecting such a quick reply! Thanks for the picture updates, and glad to see the tank's at least still running, if not yet fully assembled. You did such a good job at detailing such a well put together tank I couldn't believe nobody's chased you down until now.

 

The coral growth is amazing, I don't know many people (myself included) that could just let it be! I'm impressed with your RBTA farm. I look forward to you following up with a little more detail down the line here.

[EBR]

Was not expecting such a quick reply! Thanks for the picture updates, and glad to see the tank's at least still running, if not yet fully assembled. You did such a good job at detailing such a well put together tank I couldn't believe nobody's chased you down until now.

 

The coral growth is amazing, I don't know many people (myself included) that could just let it be! I'm impressed with your RBTA farm. I look forward to you following up with a little more detail down the line here.

 

Thanks.  As for the reply, I don't take credit -- the WAMAS email notification happened  to hit while I was at my desk.

 

Holy LPS batman! You could run frag fest all out of your tank,lol

But obviously life hasn't gotten in the way of your love for you tank!

I know the miscellaneous projects that's don't get done ...because they aren't that important....

 

frag fest: no doubt.

 

projects: well said ;-)

[Origami]

Catching up. Nice job on extracting the Molex insert. I've had that happen and, when I can't find my tool to remove it, have sometimes resorted to a straw or a coffee stirrer to slide in just enough to push the retention hardware in. I understand the frustration first hand, though.

 

Nice job on the build!

[Sharkey18]

Nice!