Jamie's 13G Custom

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Hey everyone! Im new to the site as a member but I've been lurking in the background here for a while just seeing what ideas were out there and generally just enjoying the hobby we all love!

...A little background on me though is in order, Im 23 years old I work in northern Alberta in the oilfield. I have built a number of tanks in the past ranging from fluvial specs that I've modified to 300g monsters for family friends with full blown fish rooms, but i have to say that my heart lies in custom one off mind boggling builds that push my head to find new ways of building things. That perspective was the foundation for the build that I'm curing working on now, so far this tank is close to 2 years in making and I'm so close to being finished so i figured that id catch everyone up here on what I've been doing and see what the general consensus is!

So with out further a due welcome to my 13.3G Mr. Aqua Custom Bow front




Let me introduce you to the four-walled beauty that will hopefully house a masterpiece and bring to life the inner working and creations of my imagination.
This is my new Mr. Aqua 13.3 gallon bowfront. She measures in at 23'1/2" long by 11'3/8" tall, by 9'1/2" at the outside edge and 11'1/2" at the middle of the bowfront


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My plans for this tank are fairly extensive so ill break it all up like this.


The Display Tank
- Cut and drilled to accommodate an external overflow and single return
- Drilled for a second addition to the back wall of the tank that will house a tunze pump and controller (a wave box if you will)


The Sump
- 4 chambers, 1st will be the inflow and bubble trap to the filter sock, 2nd skimmer and reactor, 3rd Macro algea / live rock rubble, 4th return pump.
- And lastly a separate ATO box and pump


The Scape
- The scape will be dry rock and foam creating a bunch of negative space in the front of the tank, it will cover almost the full back of the tank and then reach out of the water over the back of the tank and up to a separate pond that will be fed on the return line and act as a waterfall down to the rest of the tank.


The Equipment


Lights
-Display Tank = Kessil A360w
-Sump = Panorama Strips, or Tunze LED Strip


Pumps
-Return, Tunze Silence 1073.05
-Tunze 6202.200 Massacred Nano Wavebox
-DT, if needed EcoTech MP10


Skimmer
-BubbleMagus NAC 3.5


Reactors
-BRS Deluxe Reactors


Controller
-Neptune Systems APEX
-PM2 Salinity Monitor/Control
-WEM Wireless Expansion Module (For EcoTech if needed)
-Breakout Box (DIY Breakout Box)


Auto Top Off
-Tunze ATO
 
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Drill baby Drill, Let'er eat!!

First thing I did with the tank - much like i do with most things! Modified the heck out of it!!


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Heres to hoping

Next came the wave box. I hadn't seen on done this way before on such a small tank so I was taking a bit of a gamble to see if it would work. Before I drilled the tank however I used the actual Tunze wave box in a couple of different orientation in the tank to see what would happen but because of its size and the size of the tank, having the wave box facing the glass did not produce a substantial wave at all... that being said I crossed my fingers and hoped that in moving the box to the outside would have a positive effect


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Proof Of Concept

Here is a video of the wave box in action, enjoy!!


[video=youtube;lWhgEZJQ6cQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWhgEZJQ6cQ&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
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Time for Flow

Then it was time to get the return line drilled, and the over flow cut. I was a little hesitant of the overflow in the first place simply because of its location, it gives the wave a place to spill over into and therefore takes some of the energy out of the wave, but after seeing how big the wave was when it was contained i figured that having a place to spill over into might not be a bad idea


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Plumb it

Next it was time for the real fun in my opinion to start. I drilled three more holes for my bean animal overflow and then started piecing together plumbing parts until i had my three pipes then i decided to start hacking apart 3 brand new overflow pipes to make them smaller to accommodate the already small overflow box


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Then it was onto the black acrylic background I was going to use to keep everything looking neat and tidy in the tank, the glass plugs were just all the cuttings from the tank - so far haha

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Clean it up and test it out

The only thing left to do at that point was a little bit of detail work


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Then i couldn't wait any longer, and the minute i had finished my overflow I got it wet! Just to see how it would work and let me tell you, it went just swimmingly!! take a look




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[video=youtube;d28d7SK5pW8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d28d7SK5pW8&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
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Just when everything seemed to be looking up and heading in the right direction I had a moment of complete stupidity, in which i assumed that plumbing everything in rigid PVC and attaching it firmly would be a great plan - much like you'd do with any other tank build, but this time because everything is so light and able to move (including the desk top) eventually that movement will translate into parts binding and causing tension that will find a way to be released, and in my case the weak link here was the glass - which really is to bad because that plumbing was immaculate haha


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Then catastrophe struck - it blew out both the overflow as well as cracked the back of the tank from rim to bottom right threw the hole for the return line

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So it was off to fix my mistakes!!

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Cabinet Conversion

The next thing to do was decide where to put the sump, I took an ikea filing cabinet and start to strip everything out of it and turn the drawer fronts into a door, after that i drilled out the top of the cabinet to accommodate my future no flexible pvc plumbing


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Then it was off to paint!
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Cabinet Conversion Part II

Next I dry fitted the sump into the cabinet to see what kind of space i was going to be working with and when I first saw it, I was floored with just how little room I actually had and knowing the long list of gear i wanted to incorporate into the tank, but I was also excited to start dreaming up ideas for it too. its a standard 15g tank that when all is said and done will hold an additional 7-9 gallons bringing my total to about 20g


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Then I started working on venting the sump stand, I did so with the help of these two computer fans that run extremely quite and pump a lot of air, I mounted them to the back of a floor heater vent, and then wired them up to a USB end that I eventually changed out to a female waterproof plug

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Then i wired them up rather crudely to a USB to make sure everything worked and was blowing the right way


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Then i got them all secured and wire tucked away, now they are ready for the transplant into the sump cabinet


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I then moved on to the beginning stages of the plumbing that would send water down from the tank to the sump


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Finally back together

I finally finished re-drilling the tank and getting it all put back together which took a lot longer then I had anticipated because the summer was now over and I was back up north working, but with it now all done i cleaned it up with better caulking lines and decided to take some pictures


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And here is my shop foreman!


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Mount Up!

Finding a way to mount all of my electronics was a bit of a brain teaser, i wanted them hidden away yet still protected and i couldn't move then to far away from the tank. So i bent up some aluminum to make a tray for all my controllers and switches, I modified the tracks that the original drawers for the filing cabinet to make a sliding panel that will pull out of the cabinet to let me have access to everything on the panel.


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I also got my probes plumbed into my return line on the downside that will feed my fuge, i also finished that line as well too. Believe it or not getting them to fit took me close to an hour and a half!!


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Sump Time

The sump came next, I got all the glass for the sump ready and siliconed in place


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Then i got it put inside the cabinet and started putting my equipment in and sizing things up


1. Back right corner is the Tunze ATO


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2. Right infront of the ATO chamber is the return pump, and to the right of the return and ATO is the fuge


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3. Next came the skimmer


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4. Then right at the front is the down pipes that feed the whole sump


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5. the only thing i had left to do is to cut a piece of acrylic to sit just on the other side of the tubes to hold my filter sock, then its water time!!




While i had the sump out i took the chance to wire in my GFCI plug and then cut up an extension cord to wire the whole box to one single plug that i can plug into an existing outlet under my desk


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Rocks!

Now as far as the scape is concerned, ill give you the short version. I built one scape then deeded i didn't like it and broke it all up and created something different again only to find myself unsatisfied and busted it again to finally create the scape that I have today that I am in love with

started with this

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and through the use of the internet I turned it into this!

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now don't worry there are plenty more pictures of it that ill post as well but not till a little later on down the road
 
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Details

With the scape at a place of contentment with me, I turned my attention the the sump once again and started to clean it up, I wrapped up the wires and secured it all so that it didn't turn into a rats nest


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Make Some Water

So then I got the RO/DI system done and installed and its now making some sweet pure water!


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On the way in...

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On the way out…


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Get Creative

Now that that was out of the way I turned my attention to protecting all the electronics inside my sump cabinet. I started out by rearranging the panel a little bit then planning out the back plate that would hold all of the cords so they didn't stick out over the sump


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Then once I was done that I started into the wiring again, I had some wires that were bugging me and it just didn't quite look perfect so i went ahead and started to hack apart the wiring and then once i had a big mess of copper and plastic insulation i pulled out the soldering iron and got to work making it all function again

This is the UBS that connects the APEX to the Energy Bar 8 - shhhh dont tell apex i think its a warranty issue :)

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then i tossed some shrink wrap on it to make it look pretty and then put it back in. You can see i also did that with the internet cable between the APEX and the Netgear Wireless receiver


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Then i thought hey! lets get some light inside this box! so i started wiring up some LED strips that i picked up, the only problem is there is only one output on the controller box and i don't want to run one continuous strip all over the place, so im going to have to do some fancy wiring to get about 3-4 separate strips wired the way i want them to and all controlled with a magnetic on/off switch connected to the door of the cabinet :) as i said pretty spiffy


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I finished out the box and reinstalled it in the cabinet and ill show you that in just a minute but first i need to show you the other stuff
 
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Details still

I pulled all of the plumbing out of the sump and starting to clean it up as well

First on the return manifold


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Then on all three of the overflow drains


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by the time it was all said and done it looked like this inside the sump

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Final assembly

This is what everything looks like today, I got the enclosure for the electronics all done and its extremely tight inside the sump cabinet, if you thought it was tight before then you should see it now


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there are still a few small details i have to get sorted out and if you look close the reactor needs carbon and the lines connected but I cant do that till i get the parts i orders (two little fishies reactor entender kit to make the output a nice downward tube instead of just a piece of curved hose, and I need to get or make a refugium light and get it hooked up and the fans need a power cord made up but thats all stuff for when i get back, right now its running and functional


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this is the power center all wrapped up and nicely sealed behind the acrylic door


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and with the tray pulled out i can open the door and get to everything i need to adjust or work on and then close back up


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WATER!!! as i you can see its all working and getting cycled but when i get back there are some final details i have to work out, unfortunately the plumbing handles all the increased water flow perfectly, i say unfortunately because there isn't enough back pressure in the line to feed the water fall, so im going to have to add a ball valve to the return line to increase the water pressure to get the water up to the waterfall but thats easy enough to do. Lastly i need to take the background out and get all the exposed rock covered in epoxy and sand to make it look like rock again but other then that and the light im pretty much laughing!!
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 44 47.3%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 49 52.7%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 21 22.6%
  • None.

    Votes: 25 26.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 9.7%
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