Jason's $100 charity reef build.

[jason the filter freak]

I'll start the history and add pictures when i get home(doing this from my phone). This is going to be and adventure full of mods, unique rigging, and a shoe string budget. [his will be a learning experience for me, Jae (You'll learn more about him later), and hopefully the WAMAS family. I look forward to getting input and teaching the club some of the tricks that I've come up with over time.

 

Here is what we've got thus far.

 

55 gallon tank (with broken center brace) and wood stand. Cost: Traded for Long Spine Urchin that I rescued off of craigslist.

12 Acrylic Sump. Cost: Part of $50 package purchased from CMAS member

Mag 12 Pump with unglodly plumming. Cost: Part of $50 package purchased from CMAS member

Berlin Turbo skimmer. Cost: Part of $50 package purchased from CMAS member

Mag 5 Pump. Cost: Rescued from trash at work (broken Impeller, I'm gonna have to ghetto this)

SCWD. Cost: Recieved from Antonio before he left WAMAS

MJ1200. Cost: Recieved from Wombat when he left WAMAS for purchasing other items

Slightly Damaged overflow box. Cost: Donation from Bob (Lanman)

Canopy with 4 NO T8 bulbs (50/50, Actinic, 10,000k, and 6700k). Cost $20 from CMAS member

1x2" x 8'. Cost: $3 at Home Depot

1x2" x scraps from scrap bin at home deopt x 3 @ $.50 a piece. Cost: $1.50

Misc screws and staples. Cost: Free from my dads work shop.

Misc 3/4" and 1" pvc and pvc parts laying around from christina's tank build. Cost: Free

Random items from Home Depot and Lowes. Cost 11.35

 

Total Cost to date: $85.85

Edited July 20, 2008 by jason the filter freak

[HowardofNOVA]

Jason, use your time more wisely!

Unless your using used plywood, box of silicone and blowing air through a straw, I'll be the pessimist and say you need to try something different?

[Leishman]

a box of salt is 34% of your budget

[phisigs79]

i dont think it can be done unless its a small nano thats skimmer less and has cheap lighting.

[flowerseller]

Neat experiment Jason.

 

Can you be the guest speaker at the frag fest.

My offer still stands to pay the years WAMAS membership fee if the mermaid wears a mermaid costume to the event .

[jason the filter freak]

Jae 9 pardon me i can't spell his full name and can barely pronounce it. History: I met.Jae while taking a class at Laurel College center. He was quiet. wasn't doing very well, and sat mostly by himself. We ended up friends and we would study together at my house since he was walking distance from me. He moved to th US from India when he was young along with his family.They didn't have much then and he still doesnLt have much now. He is working and is now going to school for nuclear medicine as a matter of fact he'l be starting his clinical rotation this fall. Every time he would come ove he would be fascinated with my tank. A 55 gallon I had bought from Chris (phisigs79) at the time (yes the one that leaked and almost drove me from the hobby)

 

so i told him i could help him build one if he could come up with $100 cash and after a year and a half of wait we're off. i plan to update the top post with a log of cost to date. By the way the tank will be a standard starter tank... yep 55 gallons.

 

note: it's Jae not jae 9. i hope i can live up to my word to him and tthe culbs expections of crazy diy guy. and get this done before fall semester starts up.

[flowerseller]

So I'll start off and pay a year membership to WAMAS for him.

He DOES NOT have to wear a mermaid costume to the FF like your girlfriend does.

 

If he's a FREE student then I'll offer the membership value in supplies I might have or can buy from the FF on the 27th

[st9z]

i'm tagging along to this...maybe i can learn 1 or 2 things about being conservative

[jason the filter freak]

Work so far, reparing the center brace.

Broken Brace

Cutting Acrylic to make a brace for the brace

Using 2 pieces of sandwiched 1/8" acrylic.

Using weldon 3 to glue the two pieces together.

The weldon 3 wouldn't bond the brace to the brace so I whipped out my tube of handi bond super glue

Holding the brace together while the glue dries.

 

Tomorrow I'm going to use nylon screws to reienforce this set up.

Edited February 3, 2009 by jason the filter freak

[mexicanjavafish]

is your inbox full?

[YBeNormal]

I read a similar thread a couple of years ago where some dude in India was setting up a budget reef tank. His skimmer was two or three 2-liter coke bottles, an MJ and an air stone and worked great. He ended up creating a real nice setup for next to nothing--well under $100 if I recall correctly.

[jason the filter freak]

today i plan on tackling the sump plumming and fixing the broken mag 5. maybe painting the tank

[MLazar]

today i plan on tackling the sump plumming and fixing the broken mag 5. maybe painting the tank

 

Jason,

 

This project is awesome and we'll be tagging along. When the time is right I'm sure we can contribute a frag.

 

 

Chip - I think you're wonderful................... or at the very least, a very kind man.

 

 

Maureen

[jason the filter freak]

More work done! I glued the impeller together and attempted to get a new shaft... I found one from a newer version of a MAG 3 but it's too long. So I tried cutting it... tried being operative word. Hacksaw wouldn't cut it, neither would a carbide disk on a dremel. It finally broke though due to vibrations from the dremmel.

 

 

So that didn't work and the pump won't run with the broken impeller but for a few seconds.

 

So WET TESTING! Sump sat out all night and no leaks, though there is a small crack that concerned me. I had my lovely assistant christina spread a ton of Weldon on over the crack and I'm going to spread silicone on the inside of the sump over the hairline crack as well.

 

 

Filling the sump with water once sump was in place.

 

See this complete 180 bend... thats the ungodly plumbing I was talking about... oh well it works out! (Though probably a bit of flow loss.)

 

 

Flip the pump on a even with a broken shaf it runs long enough for leak test! HUZZA!

 

 

Found an old boogie board in the attic, going to use it to sit the sump on, I'll cut it to size of the sump.

 

Plans for tomorrow. Work on intank plumbing, work on making eductors, and complete stand doors.

Edited February 3, 2009 by jason the filter freak

[ctenophore]

I wish I had seen this thread while I was in FL last week. I have so much old but useful stuff down there it's ridiculous. Jason let me know what you still need and I'll see if I can get some sent up here. I have about 7 old skimmers, all of which work (in varying degrees of the term) but may need minor repair. Lights, small heaters, filters of various types, etc. 18 years worth of stuff.

 

Also have plenty of starter corals for when you get it up and running. You have an open invitation to any of this stuff live or dry.

[jason the filter freak]

Today I got the frames for the front and side of the tank stand done. I'm going to try somethign new that I had wanted to try on my 65 and have never seen done before. I'm going to wrap these frames in cloth for 3 reasons

1. All the panels will bee super light weight and easy to move.

2. They will allow the tank to "breath" keeping it cooler.

3. They're going to look darn cool

 

 

The frames are held together with staples and a screw for each corner/joint. The frames are then held in place on the stand with magnet clips because I had some lying around. Having pannels that can come off instead of doors that swing and need hinges and a point of attachment will be way more convient and give greater access.

Full shot of the front frame for the pannel.

 

Screw + staples for more stability and to save money from haveing to buy L brackets.

 

 

I also finished up the center brace repairs.

I'm using nylon screws to avoid rusting.

 

5 screws and 5 nuts donated by the machine shop where my dad works, I'll explain later on what the 5th one will be used for.

 

 

Repair complete!

 

Also began work on eductors home made DIY by yours truely of course. Wow these were way harder to make than I though, and still aren't quite complete.

 

 

Using one of my favorite tools, heat gun. I have 3 second degree burns so far. The idea is to heat the PVC then slowly crank down the hose clamp in the middle in order to pinch the tube evenly. This will be 2 vector nozzels for 2 eductors.

 

Eventually the hose clamps were doing more crushing than smooth pinching so I moved to something smaller, wire tie.

 

I tempered the piece by dropping it in room tempature water while it was still hot. This was done to rapidly cool it down so it would keep it's shape and not sag.

 

If you attempt to make these I would reccomend cutting at this stage with a hacksaw and not a power tool or PVC cutters. It took me about 30 - 45 minutes to get this far and didn't want to get and uneven cut or shatter the PVC.

 

 

I used a dremmel to clean up the nozzel once it was cut.

 

 

Dress code is casual, still in my pajamas (I think this was around 8 am)

 

 

I'm working with christina (mexicanjavafish) she it putting a lot of time into this project and is learning a lot. I am still learning a lot as well, but don't make nearly as many mistakes as I did early on in my DIY adventures.

 

 

 

 

Much more got completed I just don't have time to upload all the pix, for I have to go to work in the morning.

[gmubeach]

Wow 100 dollar reef tank I missed this forum, but I have a question whats the point? What if the guy gets his "FISH" and needs to "BUY" something and can't afford it....Its an interesting concept though... alot of projects start off as fun and end up becoming world changing like the plastic 30 dollar computer or the alpha smart which saved my life:)

[jason the filter freak]

Well if he buys fish at the rate anything like i do which is once every i dunno 5-6 months he'll be alright. All the fish I've bought I've bought with money converted from loose change i throw in a jar.

 

The point it to show what can be done with less. No vortecs, no AC III's, no RO/DI, not metal halides, etc. Skip all the extremely expensive items we use and build where we don't have to buy and that gets us where? Hopefully with a pretty decent tank, thats what I'm hoping for.

[L8 2 RISE]

If you don't have an RO/DI what are you going to do for water?

[jason the filter freak]

If you don't have an RO/DI what are you going to do for water?

good ol' tap water like on my other 3 tanks of course

[L8 2 RISE]

Do you have to do anything to the water? Like declorinate it or something? or do you just put it straight in? This is the first I've heard of this, what are the disadvantages of doing it?

[YBeNormal]

If the city only treats with chlorine (becoming more and more rare), you can aerate the water overnight and the chlorine will dissipate. Most cities are beginning to switch to chloramine now though or at least switch to chloramine periodically. Worse yet, cities rarely advise their customers that they are switching between the two treatment methods. Chloramine is much more stable than chlorine and does not dissipate as quickly so aeration alone is not a sufficient treatment method. Also, a by product of the breakdown of chloramine is ammonia, something you really don't want to add to your tank. Use of Prime or similar products would be highly recommended if unfiltered tap water is used.

 

Your RO/DI unit also removes other contaminants such as phosphates and heavy metals. While the concentrations of these compounds may be very small in unfiltered tap water and there may be no immediate effects of using tap water, the compounds will build up over time as water is evaporated (leaving the compounds behind) and more is added with each top off. This is one eample of a condition referred to as "old tank syndrom" and may eventually result in GHA outbreaks or levels of copper that are toxic to inverts (among other potential issues).

[jason the filter freak]

I think with the chloramine push as bob points out I'll consider using prime or the like considering that it's dirt cheap. How ever I will say that I've been using tap water on my tank DIRECTLY (no dechlorination no aeration etc.) and have been keeping fish, inverts, softies, and some LPS well for 3 years.

 

.

 

 

 

 

IN OTHER NEWS " This battle station is now fully operational."

 

 

Albeit it needs a few finishing touches. Pics comming soon!

[jason the filter freak]

Here it is the updates!

 

 

I chose a Mag 12 pump as the closed loop pump mainly because it's what could be affored and what was laying around. But for all they're draw backs they're a reliable pump that can take abuse and unlike other external pumps are covered in metal parts that can rust. The pump sits on an elevated suspended stand at teh back of the stand.

 

 

The plat form is covered with foam padding seen here, hot glued to the stand that the pump sits on. This will reduce the vibration noise from the pump considerably.

 

 

This bushing (i think thats what it is) was GLUED into the pump and had a cut off piece of PVC in it... I'd have to replace the whole volute(front of the pump) to rectify the situation. Or do something I'm no supposed to of course, I glued a 1 inch joiner over the the part, used lots of cement and hoped for a good seal.

 

 

Here you can see the seal i acheieved, (between the white pvc and purple (covered in primer) pvc) it worked great! The pump has been running (test running with water) for 48 hrs and there are no leaks.

 

 

NEWBIE TIP: For those of you doing PVC plumbing I highly encourage you to get the righ stuff. Cleaner (in yellow), cement (in red, you can find it in other colors too), and primer in purple.

 

Yes you can use all in one cements and achieve a good seal but it's better to not risk it. I've NEVER HAD A GLUED JOINT LEAK ON ME while using all 3 points at every glued joint.

 

NEWBIE TIP: When using primer give it a full 20-40 seconds to dry before applying the cement otherwise you're likely to get primer on your cement brush, the primer then gets into the cement can when you put the brush back and eventually too much primer will cause your cement to harden and will ruin it.

 

 

NEWBIE TIP: When building PVC projects cut everything and fit it together, mock it up, first make sure it's where you want it. Before glueing joints mark the pvc at the joint with a sharpie (see above). What this will allow you to do it know the exact depth to shove the two pieces together. Some times being percise isn't so important, but in the case of the joints above the width of the gap with the blue sharpie on either side was of utmost importance.

 

 

NEWBIE TIP: As with the last tip sometimes not only the distance between the two joints is important, while in mock up mark all joints that will be joined with a Tee, 90, 45 etc. with a cross like this. This way when you glue the joints you know how to orient the pieces with out question. Often glueing a joint at the wrong angle ruins an entire project or at the least makes it look sloppy.

 

NEWBIE TIP: You can go back and clean off all the sharpie if you so wish with the PVC cleaner (in the yellow jar it will come right off). Just becareful when you're preparing the joints not to erase your marks with the cleaner.

 

 

The use for this tee will be explained later but for now I can use it to prime my closed loop! The tee is at the highest point in my plumbing and i can fill all the plumbing with water to get it going. Once the tank is up and running the garden hose can be replaced with a Maxi Jet and some ID tubing.

 

 

Here is the intank view of the closed loop early on. The intake is on the left, and the two returns ( alternated by the SCWD) on the right will have two out puts each. So roughly 500-600 gph (depending on flow loss due to bends and SCWD) per pair of outlets every 15 seconds.

 

 

Here you can see the pump along with the rest of the plumbing, not the ball valves that can be used to isolate the pump for servicing with out loosing the prime in the closed loop or siphoning the tank.

 

NEWBIE TIP: It's always a good idea to have ball valves on the input and out put side of external pumps to allow them to be disconnected from your system with out causing catostrophic leaking.

 

 

Here it is all together before paint and adding under ground/sand plumbing for the bottom returns.

 

 

Painting the internal closed loop and over flow box black with Krylon fusion.

 

NEWBIE TIP: Krylon Fusion is a great reef safe paint that will bind to PVC, Acrylic, glass and many other surfaces we use in reefing. It can be bought at most craft stores but usually not at home depot or lowes.

 

NEWBIE TIP: There aren't many things that will detract more from the beauty of your reef/FOWLR tank that a piece of glaring white pvc in the the tank, do yourself a favor paint all intank plumbing to match your background before glueing it all together.

 

 

UH-OH more diy what am I going to do next? Can you guess by looking at the tools in this pic?

 

Answer: Auto Priming system for overflow as well as anti shipon break for overflow.

 

 

This was my first extremely bad idea considering I could have just cut the joint and added a threaded TEE, this is going to become the point in the system where I will be able to force water into the closed loop with a power head and id turbing, that is once ZI realized to cut the joint and add a Tee in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For whatever reason the overflow box was held on with a rusty bolt. This is where the last nylon screw comes in, to replace this.

 

So i drilled the hole out and put in the nylon screw also I painted the over flow box black to blend in with the back ground.

 

 

 

NEWBIE TIP: When paiting the tank or anything on it or around it mask off every surface on the tank which you would not want paint.

 

In this case I'm painting the back and top rim of the tank. I've masked off everything including the sides and top of the tank to prevent overspray from ending up in places I don't want it to such as on the inside of the glass.

Edited July 22, 2008 by jason the filter freak

[jason the filter freak]

Beginning work on the front and side pannels for the tank stand.

 

 

Cutting the frame.

 

 

Cutting and measuring cloth of the pannels.

 

 

Stapling the cloth in place.

 

All three pannels built, from the inside

 

 

All three panels from the outside

 

 

Side pannels installed

From the front with all panels installed

Edited February 3, 2009 by jason the filter freak