57g Illuminata build

[Oneway]

So after many years tankless a coworker failed miserably at launching a 13.5 evo and gave me everything he had bought. Thinking I could control my addiction and a toy nano would suffice i also failed at not wanting more, hence the beginning of my 57g build.
A great deal popped on CL and I'm the new owner of a oceanic 57g, a crappy stand with a 12 inch wide door, what the heck, a prime 16 hd, and 2 sumps. Both sumps are 2nd gen eshopps , an r100 and an r200.
In the planning stages for the last few days, stand first, drill tank and than my favorite part, plumbing!!
I'll be asking questions as some things have changed over the last decade, like what the heck is dry live rock? What trickery is this?

Time to get busy.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Welcome to R2R!

I think the more acceptable term is dry rock, or base rock. It's rock that was once live, but is no longer. Its cheap, and there is no worry about introducing pests into your system. You have to cycle it for awhile to get it to populate, and chances are it will leech phosphates sooner or later. Some people swear by it. I prefer a mix of actual live rock and base, specifically for the cost.

To me live rock can't be beat. So far I haven't gotten any bad pests from it, but know tons that have. Cost is extremely prohibitive too. We're talking anywhere from 1-3 dollars for base rock per lb and 7-12 dollars per pound of live. For alot of people that's over a grand for rock only. A healthy mixture then becomes attractive

 

[Oneway]

Haha thank you. Yes I'm up to speed on whats being passed as rock and the prices. What I meant to say was eco rock or whatever man-made purple conglomeration they want to sell at the same price or more as real liverock. I walked into the lfs and asked for rock and the employee said sure we do and pointed at a box on the shelf, hehe
I've had 1000s of pounds of real rock in the past and other than bristleworms and an occasional mantis being unwelcome and the crabs with attitudes thats as bad as It got. The diversity and pot luck is part of the fun.
Perhaps telling everyone how horrible monsters will come in to their tank via liverock steers the industry to a much more profitable alternative.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Sorry, I'm a bit daft. I agree. I'd rather take the diversity and get surprises than be safe

 

[Oneway]

Busy weekend!

Stand dismantled and rebuilt, added 10" to the base for hight. Changed front door opening to something much wider and lastly painted inside white and outside black.

 

[Oneway]

Planned to have everything plumbed by today but Amazon lost my bulkhead order which def put a wrench in things.
That said I went ahead and drilled the tank and painted the back.
I have all the fittings minus bulkheads, a jebao 6500 return, 2 aquaillumination nero 5 wavemakers, eshopps r200 sump, and 2 prime 16hd leds, all I need for now is a skimmer but haven't decided which one.

 

[Oneway]

Better closer warmer. Plumbing done, routing electrical now.

 

[Oneway]

Rocks, water, skimmer breaking in. Everything seems solid and silent.

 

[Oneway]

Well not enough room under the hood and to cluttered for my liking so I decided to build a cabinet to house my controllers and ato/awc and dosing. Here goes......

 

[Oneway]

And a bit better. Things left still to wire but its clean ish....

 

[Oneway]

I decided rather than buy an ato/awc overpriced box id go the DIY way and cut a third off an old sump. Need to clean and paint the back and add a center piece along with lid.

 

[Oneway]

Finished reservoir..

 

[Oneway]

And fuge is up and running for a few weeks, skimmer finally breaking in.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looks great!! Following