jent
Active Member
I have been waiting to start this thread for a while. I know a lot of the beginning steps to setting up a tank can be pretty boring to watch. I have some free time today and thought I would get through some of the setup on my new build....hang with me a bit as I give you a little history about me, and what thoughts guided this build.
First about me. I have been in the hobby for a LONG time (over 15 years). I progressed from a 30gal -> 46gal bow front -> 120gal -> 180gal. During each move I had a different level of income, different lighting, and learned a lot about what I do and do not want from an aquarium.
I ended up having to sell the 180gal due to finances about 2 years ago, and have been out of the hobby since then. I have always missed it greatly, and the fact that I sold EVERYTHING made it very hard to start back up. Over the last 6+ months I have been slowly buying things and getting set back up.
A few key concepts I have learned from my past experience is that:
* Do it right the first time, it can be hard to fix things later
* Lighting is expensive!
* Controllers are amazing, and can save your butt (learned that one the hard way)
* Front to back space in the aquarium allows for the most interesting aquascapes
Thinking about "lighting is expensive" and my desire to create interesting aquascapes, I reflected about my past tanks. I realized that my 120gal was my favorite tank to date. 2 feet wide provided a lot of space for interesting rock work, and it was not nearly as expensive as my old 180gal was.
I decided I wanted something that was as wide as possible, but was sized so that I could light it with less than 200 LED watts, while still keeping heavy light SPS, clams, etc.
As I started looking at aquariums, I decided I also wanted at least 18in of height on the tank, I was not confident I could make a shallow aquarium work well. With those constraints (and with the additional financial constraint) I arrived at two primary possibilities. SC Aquariums 66gal (which measures 32in x 24in x 20in). And Marineland's 93gal 30in x 30in x 24in. The Marineland was very tempting with the 30in width, but ultimately I was not confident I could light it like I wanted (and the 24in depth only would further work against that). If the Marineland came with a taller stand, and was only 20in tall, I probably would have gone that direction.
I researched SCA's tank's throughly before purchase. I knew the bulkheads would be metric, and I knew I would have to expand the smaller one to fit the 3/4in bulkhead I wanted. I also knew the stand was cheap MDF, and of low quality, yet this was the only thing I was disappointed in just how low quality the stand was. In retrospect I kind of wish I had made my own stand (but I have a history of being terrible with wood working).
The stand came with no instructions, and I took photos of it step by step in case others need help (which I wont post here unless requested). Though even without the instructions I was able to think about things long enough and figure out the best way to install it.
Before I got to that, I decided I wanted to do what I could to protect the fragile MDF for the long run. The first step was painting the exposed edges with 4 coats of a thick enamel paint.
(sorry for the initial photos being low quality from my phone...future photos will be from my Canon 50D).
This took the exposed MDF edges from looking like this:
To this:
I then assembled the stand (which I will avoid the step by step photos). Once assembled I reinforced with a few extra brackets, just to be 100% sure it's stable. I then got some sealant and sealed all the cracks/corners. In this photo you can see it's white, but once it dried it became clear.
I don't have good photos of it, but I then sprayed the entire inside of the stand with Rustoleums "Never Wet". Which is a hydrophobic paint. In retrospect I am not sure how much this will or will not help. In a few spots it already appears to be rubbing off.
I wanted the sump to be in a white area, so that detritus and other junk in it can be easily seen. I was not confident in painting the glossy coating of the stand, so instead of using their black foam to put the sump on, I instead cut some of the thin foam pieces they packed the stand with to make a background and base. So far I am happy with this. I then installed a small ikea light to the top of the stand to help light the inside of the stand/sump area.
Right now the tank has finished it's leak test, filled and running with fresh RO. Later today I will post photos of the plumbing.
As a teaser for what to expect with this build:
* This will be my first bare bottom aquarium. I have a sheet of black HDPE that will arrive on Monday. I have already cured the rock in another aquarium (which will become my QT tank after most the rock is moved into the new tank), and even have some corals in with the rock at this point.
Major equipment which you can not see yet, but will be shown later:
* The lighting will be provided by a 160 watt LED maxspect razor
* The controller will be a neptune apex, which will control everything, including the stand light (turned on when the door opens), the ATO, return pump, skimmer, internal circulation pumps, heater, and more (I want to have this pretty automated)
* There will be two reactors, one for GAC and one for GFO, both feed off a manifold from the return pump.
Stay tuned for more photos later today!
First about me. I have been in the hobby for a LONG time (over 15 years). I progressed from a 30gal -> 46gal bow front -> 120gal -> 180gal. During each move I had a different level of income, different lighting, and learned a lot about what I do and do not want from an aquarium.
I ended up having to sell the 180gal due to finances about 2 years ago, and have been out of the hobby since then. I have always missed it greatly, and the fact that I sold EVERYTHING made it very hard to start back up. Over the last 6+ months I have been slowly buying things and getting set back up.
A few key concepts I have learned from my past experience is that:
* Do it right the first time, it can be hard to fix things later
* Lighting is expensive!
* Controllers are amazing, and can save your butt (learned that one the hard way)
* Front to back space in the aquarium allows for the most interesting aquascapes
Thinking about "lighting is expensive" and my desire to create interesting aquascapes, I reflected about my past tanks. I realized that my 120gal was my favorite tank to date. 2 feet wide provided a lot of space for interesting rock work, and it was not nearly as expensive as my old 180gal was.
I decided I wanted something that was as wide as possible, but was sized so that I could light it with less than 200 LED watts, while still keeping heavy light SPS, clams, etc.
As I started looking at aquariums, I decided I also wanted at least 18in of height on the tank, I was not confident I could make a shallow aquarium work well. With those constraints (and with the additional financial constraint) I arrived at two primary possibilities. SC Aquariums 66gal (which measures 32in x 24in x 20in). And Marineland's 93gal 30in x 30in x 24in. The Marineland was very tempting with the 30in width, but ultimately I was not confident I could light it like I wanted (and the 24in depth only would further work against that). If the Marineland came with a taller stand, and was only 20in tall, I probably would have gone that direction.
I researched SCA's tank's throughly before purchase. I knew the bulkheads would be metric, and I knew I would have to expand the smaller one to fit the 3/4in bulkhead I wanted. I also knew the stand was cheap MDF, and of low quality, yet this was the only thing I was disappointed in just how low quality the stand was. In retrospect I kind of wish I had made my own stand (but I have a history of being terrible with wood working).
The stand came with no instructions, and I took photos of it step by step in case others need help (which I wont post here unless requested). Though even without the instructions I was able to think about things long enough and figure out the best way to install it.
Before I got to that, I decided I wanted to do what I could to protect the fragile MDF for the long run. The first step was painting the exposed edges with 4 coats of a thick enamel paint.
(sorry for the initial photos being low quality from my phone...future photos will be from my Canon 50D).
This took the exposed MDF edges from looking like this:
To this:
I then assembled the stand (which I will avoid the step by step photos). Once assembled I reinforced with a few extra brackets, just to be 100% sure it's stable. I then got some sealant and sealed all the cracks/corners. In this photo you can see it's white, but once it dried it became clear.
I don't have good photos of it, but I then sprayed the entire inside of the stand with Rustoleums "Never Wet". Which is a hydrophobic paint. In retrospect I am not sure how much this will or will not help. In a few spots it already appears to be rubbing off.
I wanted the sump to be in a white area, so that detritus and other junk in it can be easily seen. I was not confident in painting the glossy coating of the stand, so instead of using their black foam to put the sump on, I instead cut some of the thin foam pieces they packed the stand with to make a background and base. So far I am happy with this. I then installed a small ikea light to the top of the stand to help light the inside of the stand/sump area.
Right now the tank has finished it's leak test, filled and running with fresh RO. Later today I will post photos of the plumbing.
As a teaser for what to expect with this build:
* This will be my first bare bottom aquarium. I have a sheet of black HDPE that will arrive on Monday. I have already cured the rock in another aquarium (which will become my QT tank after most the rock is moved into the new tank), and even have some corals in with the rock at this point.
Major equipment which you can not see yet, but will be shown later:
* The lighting will be provided by a 160 watt LED maxspect razor
* The controller will be a neptune apex, which will control everything, including the stand light (turned on when the door opens), the ATO, return pump, skimmer, internal circulation pumps, heater, and more (I want to have this pretty automated)
* There will be two reactors, one for GAC and one for GFO, both feed off a manifold from the return pump.
Stay tuned for more photos later today!
