34, 90 and now a 40, what a story.

[mch1984]

So I took my dive into salt water (had fresh water for years) about 6 months ago. I bought a used 34 gallon red sea 130d. I put it all together and realized the light that came with was broken. Not knowing any better I ordered a light I though would work, and that was the start of headaches. I wont get into all of it, but after upgrading lights again it still wasn't enough. I was fixing to add more lighting when I basically said forget it, I'm going bigger. Besides the lights, I had skimmer headaches and the serious lack of expansion headaches that come from an all in one tank. Please understand I am not knocking all in one aquariums. I have seen some stunning all in one nano tanks. For me though, I don't like it.

So I began perusing the for sale pages and came across a planet aquarium 90 gallon. The owner bought as a impulse buy and had never done anything with it. So its still dry and brand new with a good price. So here comes my upgrade. I will warn you that it won't be the fastest build but I will be updating every chance I get. Below is the old and the new tank.

Will try to keep these updated
Equipment list:
40 gallon custom built cube



Fish Stocking list:
Blue spot toby
yellow tang (i know, he's a baby right now)
Cardinal
clown
Engineer goby

Inverts

 

[Shep]

Cant wait to see it up and running! thoughts on stock list?

 

[mch1984]

Me too! Well I currently have 2 ocelarius clowns, two Banggai cardinals, a lawnmower blenny (my favorite), and a melanarus wrasse. Plus I have a pistol shrimp, two peppermints and some other clean up crew. Before anybody says it, It's overstocked and I recognize that. I've learned on that point, a bad habit picked up from my freshwater. I now understand that a lot of those are probably the absolute most common beginner fish ever. But animals come to our house to stay and so they will too.

As far as what will be joining the current residents, not 100% sure yet. My wifes favorite fish a FoxFace LO, and from what I've read this should be a good home for one. I open to comments on that please, like most things I've seen it go back and forth. Contemplating an eel but undecided on that as well. So I guess the short answer is I don't know yet lol.

 

[mch1984]

I actually picked the tank up about a week ago. I can actually give one update already. I posted on r2r about black backgrounds. I was debating between what way I wanted to go about it. I ended up going a dark windown tint. If it last then I will be super excited, because I like the way it turned out. Something about looks super clean to me.

 

[mch1984]

So I go to pick my sump up this Sunday, about a 2 hour drive from home. Its a used ADV-200 eshops sump, barely used all of 2 months. I have a fellow hobbyist in the town it's located at to pick it up for me. He said this thing doesn't even look like it was used for 2 months. It was a great price so I couldn't resist getting it. I found a ton of reviews on the R series from eshopps but not the ADV series. What I did find was positive except a few small annoyances people had. Anybody in R2R have one they can comment about? I'm sure it will be up to par with most of eshopps products, so I'm not worried about it.

 

[mch1984]

So how many run GCFI? I am going to have two 4 plug outlets installed on their own breaker in a couple of weeks. I'll probably go GCFI, but want to know everyone's thoughts. I know the safety factor and I know there are some risk running them in terms of the entire tank shutting down. Just want to know what everybody thinks about it, thanks.

 

[mch1984]

I noticed on Facebook where somebody lined the entire inside of their stand in vinyle. It would be entirely astetics. Anybody ever do that? How well did it stick with the humidity?

 

[mch1984]

I’m trying to make the plumbing and sump area look good. The tank came with some purple plumbing so I decided to go with that color scheme. This may sound stupid but I have decided on a various 4 for my return. Is there a safe paint or coating I could use on the red accents of the various?

 

[mch1984]

So I went and picked up my sump today. It was sold as lightly used but you can’t tell, this thing is pristine. The biggest complaint I read about this sump was there was access to the entry point of the water. I can see where the complaints come from. I don’t think it would ever be a problem unless a Fish went on a trip into the sump. In this case I will have to get creative with it. Let’s just hope that never happens. I had to remove the center brace to get it in but that wasn’t a big deal.

 

[john.m.cole3]

GFCI and a ground probe or Finnex heaters have ground probes already in them. I would run my return pump on a regular outlet so that if the GFCI trips and comes back on while you're away, at least the return pump would kick back on therefor extending your tank's survivability.

 

[mch1984]

I actually considered that option. Have one plug GCFI and one none. I think I’ll have to use that idea.

 

[mch1984]

Ok, so I figured out that if I move my sump 6" to the right I can have a completely straight drop into the sump on the main drain with no 90's or 45's. I will still have enough room on one side for ato reservoir and one side for future dosing containers and other equipment. I can't imagine a down side to this but if there is please let me know, I'm open to suggestions. Below are my diagrams for plumbing, I don't have any of the fancy software so I used paint. I hope all can understand them and again any input is much appreciated. I guess I should mention I'm doing a herbie style drain for this. One is sump layout, one is the over flow plumbing layout and one is what I'm thinking for the plumbing layout. thanks

 

[JoshH]

A completely straight drop into the sump on your main line isn't entirely necessary for drainage purposes. So don't feel like you need to center your sump and work around that for ideal drainage Following along, looks like a great build! And I don't know of a 100% safe paint for your Varios, I'm in the same boat, I'd like to order a Varios but the red sticks out like a sore thumb on my blue scheme. I think krylon fusion spray might be our best bet but obviously no one will guarantee it's safe

 

[mch1984]

I was thinking krylon fusion as well, everything I've read is that it's completely inert after curing for a full week. With that being said I guess it's still a chance. I'm going to keep doing some research, at this point I just refuse to be defeated lol.

I could make it work in the orginal plan but all in all it makes the plumbing easier. I'll do a couple of more drawings to see other options but as of now I think it's my best bet. We are going to do some redecorating in the bedroom before I fill the tank so it will be a couple of weeks before I get the plumbing done. It will give me time to looks things over before I do. Thanks for following, still fairly new on the salty side of things. I'm sure I'll be asking for lots of advise.

 

[john.m.cole3]

I've used krylon fusion for 15 months in a tank with no apparent problems. +1 to the long cure time

 

[JoshH]

I've used krylon fusion for 15 months in a tank with no apparent problems. +1 to the long cure time

Awesome to know, thanks!

 

[mch1984]

Thats good to hear, I'll be on hunt for some purple krylon. I had trouble finding it on amazon but I'll do some digging, I'm sure I can find it. I'm determined to be color coordinated lol. I may not be when I get dressed in the morning but my tank will be.

 

[JoshH]

I may not be when I get dressed in the morning but my tank will be.

Tanks all that matters

Home depot should have tons of purple krylon

 

[mch1984]

Tanks all that matters

Home depot should have tons of purple krylon

I'll check it out, I'm going to need it for the the gate and ball valves too. I'm sure I'll find other things I can highlight with the purple.

 

[mch1984]

Does anybody know of a company that builds custom stuff like ATO reservoirs and dosing containers? I'll be doing some DIY at first on the ATO to get it started but will eventually upgrade to a nicer one. Be cool to find somebody to build me an acrylic with a Purple top.

I guess I could do a small aquarium and special order some purple acrylic for the top of it.