120G tank. Wtih basement sump.

J

Jackie BLue

Member
Tank is 120 with standard measurements. The stand was built out of 4x4s with 2x6 headers with 2x4s on the bottom. It was then covered in cherry from the wood shop in Sycamore. Tank is acrylic from NanoSeaCreations with a coast to coast overflow using the Herbie quiet overflow. Originally this was going to be set up in my apartment on a second floor hence the acrylic since I didn't feel like lugging glass and was concerned about weight. I moved before I got a chance to set the tank up.

I kind of planned kind of winged it. Some of what I planned worked out well and some of what I winged worked out better then what I planned.

Tank
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Sump/Basement
Hard to see with all the crap in the way but it's a reeflo hammerhead berracuda I think I could be wrong. I originally purchased the swordtail and it was too loud (could hear it from upstaris) and had a small leak. The lovely people at reeflo just sent me that pump, and didn't want the swordtail back. That level of customer service blew my mind. They could sell a rotten banana and I'd feel compelled to atleast give it a try. Between teh Sump and return is a manifold with 8 ports. Why 8 you ask, because there's no such thing as overkill when it comes to plumbing. That being said it has a pin hole leak but the water evaporates before it makes a puddle.
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Just a quick shot of the three feed lines coming from the tank and the return on the left. Went with Hard PVC because I thought it would be cheaper then spaflex.... after cuttings, fittings, glue, rage induced drinking spaflex comes out to be the better deal. If you are on the fence GET SPA FLEX they have super flexible kind that will make your live easier. Get spaflex... all together now "Don't be Cheap, Get Spaflex!!!!!"
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Side shot of the three chambered sump purchased used, made by nanoseascreatsion with a ATB 840V2 skimmer.
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top off bucket FTW!!!!
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Metal post to hold up the floor. Probably would of been fine this house is 100+ years old and built like a brick shit house, but for 40 bucks that post helps me sleep at night. Also have the BRS reactors with carbon and GFO, replaced once a month.
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Led light going through an overhaul. While I was living in my apartment my old tank was still running and would run low on H2O a lot, took the LEDs off put heat sinks in washer, replaces a bad LED and what ever was corroded due to my negligence. Both work awesome now.


Lights
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Will get current pic of tank and livestock soon.
 
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J

Jackie BLue

Member
Here is the tank today. View attachment 15305View attachment 15306View attachment 15307View attachment 15308View attachment 15309View attachment 15310View attachment 15311View attachment 15312View attachment 15313View attachment 15314

Been fighting algae started of with really bad GHA and through GFO a few water changes and pulling a ton of the crap out it has somewhat died down. If the clowns could talk they'd speak of horrors such as the marienland exploding heater of 2012 and the missing fishtank steward of 2014. How they are alive is beyond me. I'll work on getting better pictures. Next thing is possibly setting up a refugium in the basement or swapping out the LEDS for T5s so I can get some light spread on the sides of the tank where the rock shelves are.
 
icedearth15324

icedearth15324

TeamCR
Tank and setup look awesome. One day when I buy my own house I want to do something like this, or have a fish room behind the tank. Can't wait to see it grow.
 
J

Jackie BLue

Member
I'm more partial to the fishroom behind the tank. In my mind it'd be easier to plumb and u won't need a beast of a pump to run the thing. Yeah, some thought went into this. I forgot to take pictures of my dad and I running the electrical. The tank has two circuits, and using some rubber coated flexible armored cable we ran a line and put a box inside the stand. All gfci. Also have a little water mixing station that I"ll snap pictures of when I get a chance.
 
J

Jackie BLue

Member
I'm not quite sure what to do with the auto feeder. The Rhomboid pair doesn't go after the pellets nor does the mystery and those two were the main reasons I installed it. Knew it'd be a long shot getting the to eat pellets from a feeder.
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
Jackie BLue said:
I'm not quite sure what to do with the auto feeder. The Rhomboid pair doesn't go after the pellets nor does the mystery and those two were the main reasons I installed it. Knew it'd be a long shot getting the to eat pellets from a feeder.
Click to expand...
I do more than just pellets. A mix of;
OceanNutrition Prime Reef Flakes
OceanNutrition Formula Two Flakes
Julian Sprung SeaVeggies Mixed
Spectrum Pellets .5mm and 1mm

It covers all my picky eaters allowing them to pick and choose from what floats through the water column. I crumble up the flakes into pretty small peices and mix in an empty ocean nutirtion container.
 
J

Jackie BLue

Member
OK more pictures.

Origional water station was a 55 gallon drum that my dad found at work. What was in said drum you ask. Aviation Lavatory Fluid!!! If you have ever gone on a plane and flushed the toilet you know what I'm talking about. It's that cool blue water in the toilet. This drum was full of it in it's pure concentrated form. For the life of me I could not get all of it out, after HOT water, pressure washing, taking a fire hose to it at work, and bleach the smell was still there. So I tossed it and found some guy on craigslist who sells 55g dums that he converts into rain barrels. Picked up a few, and using universal seals, some pvc and a old and abused Eheim 1262 I got a nice system going. I must attest that the only brand in this hobby that has contatnly impressed me is Eheim. I have always had luck with their products and they just will not die.
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I ordered a PVC manifold online and worked up something that has plenty of room for expansion. It does have a small leak but it dried up as fast as it leaks so I'm leaving it for now.

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A undershot of where the hole was made using one a handheld oscilating cutter, and the piece that was removed.

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Last but not least a shot of the outlets in the basement and a double box in the tank stand.

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T

#theMatrix

Active member
Similiar as josh.
My auto feeder has diff dry foods. Pellets diff flakes and dry planktons.

I made a diy food ring so the food that floats doesnt go down the overflow. Works great.
 
icedearth15324

icedearth15324

TeamCR
jrpark22000 said:
I do more than just pellets. A mix of;
OceanNutrition Prime Reef Flakes
OceanNutrition Formula Two Flakes
Julian Sprung SeaVeggies Mixed
Spectrum Pellets .5mm and 1mm

It covers all my picky eaters allowing them to pick and choose from what floats through the water column. I crumble up the flakes into pretty small peices and mix in an empty ocean nutirtion container.
Click to expand...
I definitely have to second the Spectrum pellets, I think they have a finicky eater formula as well. I've gotten everything except my puffer to eat the spectrum pellets. And that includes a copperband butterfly that I no longer have, my mandarin, my flame wrasse, and pretty much everything else.
 
J

Jackie BLue

Member
I've been toying around with the idea of a ATS. Looking online at some of them and they are more expensive then I can responsibly afford. If I only had a premade one where all I had to do was drill the holes for the drains and spray bar.

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Why hello Sump I've had sitting on a shelf since 2006 nice to see you. Let me introduce you to Mr. Table Saw.

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And what project wouldn't be complete without a hitch.

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I had a lip on one of my cuts that had extended beyond the table of the saw. The blade grabbed the material and kicked it back, the lip caught and broke a chunk off. What was going to be super awesome and glue free is no longer. It's probably for the best since now it's forced me to slow down and I can not think of better ways to do things while the glue ships.

Here are the lights I am planning on using.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012C4QJ06?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01

The goal is to make a shelf that sits on top of the refugium section of my current sump and plump this off of my manifold.
 
T

#theMatrix

Active member
Nice. I'm ready for results.
Kind of getting the look of the ats that is in a acrylic box and a slot where the pvc sits on and water falls in..the acrylic box has a bulk head hole drilled at the bottom so it drains back into the sump inside the sump.


Make sense?

EDIT. Added fotos

This one here. Where the red box is your pendants would be on the acrylic box.


This one you can see where your manifold can be plumbed to the top and the drain back into the sump in your basement.



Some ideas to play with till your glue gets there
 
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J

Jackie BLue

Member
That's exactly what I'm going for. I even have a lid I can cut for this thing. I didn't want it to be a humidifier for my basement in the summer.
 
J

Jackie BLue

Member
Progress update...
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Main goal right now is to figure out the best way to secure the spraybar up top of the unit. My original idea was to cut out channels and have it rest on the unit and let gravity hold it in. Then paranoia got the best of me and I played the "what if" game. I don't want it to get knocked over somehow and have water go all over and drain my tank. I'd like some simple way to secure it to the acrylic and yet be easily removed for cleaning .
 
anarchy

anarchy

Active member
Jackie BLue said:
Progress update...
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Main goal right now is to figure out the best way to secure the spraybar up top of the unit. My original idea was to cut out channels and have it rest on the unit and let gravity hold it in. Then paranoia got the best of me and I played the "what if" game. I don't want it to get knocked over somehow and have water go all over and drain my tank. I'd like some simple way to secure it to the acrylic and yet be easily removed for cleaning .
Click to expand...
1" bulkhead with threads would allow you to unscrew it and it stay sealed

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
J

Jackie BLue

Member
Ya I figured a bulkhead would be teh way to go. But I got impatient and wanted it up and running. I'll probably switch to a bulkhead at some point. I did get it up and running this afternoon. Here's what I have.

I Have a union attached to the "spray bar" so it can be easlly removed for cleaning.
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Here's the screen all roughed up.
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Shot of the plumbing.
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EL Light
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I took this time to fix a small leak I had on the manifold. Which seems to of worked. However I now have a tiny leak where I plumbed the ATS into the manifold. So that's a wash pretty much. Now I'm going to find out the flow rate I need.
It's somewhat noisy but it's in a basement so who cares. Any tips and tricks or areas of improvement would be appreciated.
 
T

#theMatrix

Active member
Looks like great progress. If you need more canvas for the screen i got them at wallmart. I think you can place the light pendant closer because you now how the acrylic in place wich wasnt acounted for prior. As is, its just a one sided ats which still contribute to algae growth but two pendants would work best given you have the room for it.
 
J

Jackie BLue

Member
I do have another light and was going to hang it up but I figured that was a good stopping point before I just started hacking stuff together. I'm trying to find out how close I should place these lights. From what I understand there's almost no Par loss due to the acrylic. I have some dry spots on my sheet and I don't know if it's because it's not hanging flat or I have a flow issue. I"m super lazy and don't want to measure out what my ideal GPH is. I want instant results, so much so that I've checked on this dumb thing four times today and been disappointed to see no algae.

Thank you again Matrix for this screen, by that gift alone without I'd not have gotten started on this as soon as I did.
 
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