270g FOWLR and Fish Room Build (image heavy)

OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'll take you up on that ONLY if you allow me to make something for you. I've been really into segmented turnings lately...
I'd be open for a trade. I don't have a lathe, but I've always thought turning stuff would be cool. Maybe when I retire I'll have time to experiment with more artistic woodworking.

For the labels, just let me know what size and shape you need them. I've got a few different options for color combos as well. You can PM me the details when you are ready.
 
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
A few more photo updates.

The Wife found the ottomans she likes and put down a rug and new curtains.

200gBuildFish-6291.jpg


A full tank shot with some fish in it.

200gBuildFish-6293.jpg


The fish, note the color change in the Blond Naso Tang.

200gBuildFish-6299.jpg


200gBuildFish-6315.jpg


I also got the skimmer installed and tuned.

200gBuildSkimmer-221650.jpg
1627429778772.jpeg
 
Last edited:

JumboShrimp

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2018
Messages
5,806
Reaction score
8,224
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The stand is a beauty! Of course your 200 reminds me of my 150 with a whole other 50 pushed up along side... so of COURSE I'm jealous. It looked like you have screen tops-- have you seen the feeding ports available from BRS?; they install very cleanly. Love all the photos!
 

kados

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
Messages
825
Reaction score
1,160
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
A few more photo updates.

The Wife found the ottomans she likes and put down a rug and new curtains.

200gBuildFish-6291.jpg


A full tank shot with some fish in it.

200gBuildFish-6293.jpg


The fish, note the color change in the Blond Naso Tang.

200gBuildFish-6299.jpg


I also got the skimmer installed and tuned.

200gBuildSkimmer-221650.jpg
Beautiful! Love FOWLR!
 
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
And today some possible tenants arrived from @tsmaquatics for those new fishy houses...

200gBuildFish-145345.jpg


200gBuildFish-145553.jpg


200gBuildFish-145934.jpg


Meet Pinocchio the Longnose Butterfly...

200gBuildFish-155706.jpg


And an as yet unnamed Exquisite Fairy Wrasse...

200gBuildFish-160738.jpg


We also got a Melanurus Wrasse, but after about 3 mins of checking the new tank out, he disappeared under the sand. I'll try and get some big camera shots of the new guys once they settle in a little more.
 
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The stand is a beauty! Of course your 200 reminds me of my 150 with a whole other 50 pushed up along side... so of COURSE I'm jealous. It looked like you have screen tops-- have you seen the feeding ports available from BRS?; they install very cleanly. Love all the photos!
Thank you. Jealous? Says the man with twin 150g tanks! I have seen those feed ports and they are pretty cool. I actually do my feeding via the return pumps, so they are not currently on my shopping list. I'll eventually make polycarbonate covers with access doors to make it easier to feed the nori.

Can you share a link to those flat extension cords?
Sure, I got them on Amazon. I got a mix of 3, 6, and 10 footers. Once I'm done I'll have to return the unused ones, as I've spent a couple hundred dollars or so on extension cords! o_O

Beautiful! Love FOWLR!
Thank you!

Just read through your whole build! It’s so awesome! Also I love your other jeeping hobby!
Thank you! Both are fun and neither is cheap!
 
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
This past week I've been working on getting the manifold plumbed in and the UV installed off of that. My small fish room continues to provide plumbing challenges!

200gBuildFishRoom-193235.jpg


I'm not sure if it is the 1/2" plumbing or all of the head pressure on the relatively small Jebao DCP-3500 pump, but I'm not getting enough flow to the UV to combat algae (my target for the UV). I'm going to first try swapping out the pump with something larger before I order more red 3/4" PVC to re-plumb everything.

200gBuildApexFlow-.jpg


I got my pump controllers moved to their final position, but I still have clean up the cabling. I've placed an order via @Bulk Reef Supply for some Neat Aquatics RO Tubing mounts. Besides tidying up some RODI lines, I am also going to try them out for managing some of the cable mess.

200gBuildFishRoom-193306.jpg


Mean while, the tank is starting to show a little maturing. I have some Diatoms growing on the glass and rocks closest to the window.

200gBuildTank-180626.jpg


200gBuildTank-180706.jpg


And since the whole point of this thing is to do some fish watching, I managed to do some of that this week as well.

200gBuildTank-180211.jpg
 

JumboShrimp

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2018
Messages
5,806
Reaction score
8,224
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I don't know what I love more-- the new manifolds, your crystal-clear water, or the matching red & black stripe on the wall in your killer fish room. ;Smuggrin
 
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I don't know what I love more-- the new manifolds, your crystal-clear water, or the matching red & black stripe on the wall in your killer fish room. ;Smuggrin
Thank you! But the water is not quite crystal-clear yet. Hopefully the UV will help with that over the next couple of days... if the flow rate is high enough to make an impact!
 

400BA

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 20, 2021
Messages
127
Reaction score
259
Location
Oakton
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Oberst, your fish room is AMAZING! I am digging your aquas cape as well. I hadn't thought of having "spires" like you have... might have to steal a little from that design!
 
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Oberst, your fish room is AMAZING! I am digging your aquas cape as well. I hadn't thought of having "spires" like you have... might have to steal a little from that design!
Thank you! I still have a long way to go on the cable management, but I think I worked out system for all of the smaller ones. It is just going to take some time to get it all done. It involves a router, table saw, and RODI tubing. lol

Feel free to steal scape ideas all you like. I stole this from the ocean! I got the idea from watching a show about the marine life and they showed a whole area in the ocean that had all these really large spires. Those were more blunted and layered in shape, but I'm happy with my pointy ones. I think some cool spires could be made by stacking lots of foundation/shelf Marco rock on top of each other. If I ever do another scape, I think I will go that route so that I can have some larger horizontal shapes with spires on and connecting to them.
 
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The latest little project to get finished on the tank has been the @AVAST Marine Plank Auto Feeder. Back when I ordered the Plank, I did not know exactly how wide the bracing on my sump was going to be and the bracket for the Plank was not quite long enough to work. Even with so much time between when I ordered it and when I finally got around to setting it up, @ctenophore hooked me up by sending out longer bracket free of charge. All I had to do was return the short one. Talk about great customer service!

With the correct sized bracket, I was able to test fit the Plank on my sump to see exactly where it would need to be to dispense food so that both of my return pumps would pick it up and broadcast feed from both ends of the tank.

This required me to cut the return section cover on the sump and make a longer tube for the Plank. In hindsight, I should have used my router to cut the opening out of the sump cover. I would have gotten a cleaner cut in the corner vs what I got with the jig saw.

200gBuildFishRoom-115121.jpg


200gBuildFishRoom-181633.jpg


I received programing help from @SuncrestReef to setup my rather complicated feeding program. Since you never want to test an auto feed on your tank, I set mine up on the counter to test how much food my program would actually feed to the tank over the course of a day.

1628853762212.jpeg


With everything modified and tested, it was time to mount it to the tank and let it do its thing while I'm at work or on trips.

200gBuildFishroom-210439.jpg
 

400BA

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 20, 2021
Messages
127
Reaction score
259
Location
Oakton
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So nice!! Please let us know what you think of the feeder. I need to make some decisions on a feeder as well and value your opinion.
 
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So nice!! Please let us know what you think of the feeder. I need to make some decisions on a feeder as well and value your opinion.

I've been using the Apex auto feeder for about 4 years. I still have it and I still bought the Plank. That should give you some insight on thoughts on the two ;) The Apex feeder is very loud, a pain in the butt to refill and never really feeds the same amount. It also does not handle mixed food sizes very well.

I've only been running the Plank for a week or two, but so far it has not had any of those issues. It is so quite (although it is in my fish room) I can't even tell when it is running. Refilling it is as simple as lifting the top off and adding the food. Speaking of food, it is very consistent on how much it dispenses each time it runs and it handles mixed sizes very well. The only draw back to the Plank is that it is fairly large.

You have an amazing system! I love your filtration setup.

Thank you very much!
 

ReefChef19

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 27, 2019
Messages
285
Reaction score
194
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The RODI goodies I ordered from BRS came in today:

200gBuild-Equip-1.jpg


Once the larger reservoirs show up I'll get to installing all of this and moving my current RODI to the new location... provided I get some heat into the fish room so things don't freeze!

And since I've not posted any other pics the other equipment I have already received, here they are.

Floor jacks to re-enforce the floor under the tank.
200gBuild-Equip-2.jpg


2x 300w titanium heaters (I'm wondering if these are going to be big enough for the tank) and some cheap Amazon power heads/pumps for various flow needs in the sump.
200gBuild-Equip-3.jpg


I'm going to give the Jebao return pumps a try. A local reefing buddy of mine runs dual 18000 pumps on his 360g tank and has liked them so far. My initial plan was to run dual COR 20 pumps, but I needed to lower the start up costs on this build some and this change saved me a ton of cash. I will still probably swap these out for the CORs later on and regulate these guys to backup duties.
200gBuild-Equip-4.jpg


For flow inside the tank, I'm going with an IceCap 3k and a 4k controlled by the Apex. This should be enough flow for a FOWLR tank.
200gBuild-Equip-5.jpg


Since the Wife hates algae in the tank, a large-ish UV sterilizer is going on the tank as part of the algae management system. It is a 55w light with 3" tubing for increased contact time.
200gBuild-Equip-6.jpg


Some Apex flow sensors and a FMM to help monitor and dial things in.
200gBuild-Equip-7.jpg


And finally the exhaust fan to help control temps and humidity. It has a controller that will turn it on and off based on temp and/or humidity. The flaps close when the fan is not on.
200gBuild-Equip-8.jpg

Great build thus far, I just came across it! I am thinking of doing a 8x8 room in my garage for my next build. Are you just going to have the fan exhaust into your garage? What is your plan for heating and cooling, if your garage isn't climate controlled already. Thanks
 
OP
OP
Oberst Hajj

Oberst Hajj

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
978
Reaction score
852
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks @ReefChef19 ! I just have the fan exhausting to my garage. We get enough air exchange by using the garage door a couple times a day. My garage is insulated (including the doors) and I also insulated the fish room walls inside the garage. So far this summer I've only seen my fish room get up to 75°. That said, here in CO we rarely see outside temps above 90° and there is still a pass through hole between my fish room and the house proper. That means some of our house's AC gets pulled into the fish room. Once I get the canopy built and installed on top of the tank, that window will be closed off for the most part.

My real concern is what temp the fish room will stay at during the winter. If it drops too low, I will install a passive vent into my heated/cooled crawl space on the opposite wall of the fish room fan. That way the fan would pull air out of the crawl space, across the fish room and up and out the fan into the garage. There is not a thermostat in the crawl space, so it should not effect our utility bill.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 72 38.1%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 63 33.3%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.2%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 14.8%
  • Other.

    Votes: 1 0.5%
Back
Top