akito
New Member
Hi all, figured I would create a build thread to document my experience and hopefully gain some insights from others along way!
So a bit of history.... I have had a 29g freshwater tank for the last 15-20 years. Had this when I was still living with my parents in my early 20's. At some point I had bought a 75g with the hope to get into saltwater, but started out as a cichlid tank. This tank was active for probably 10years in my parents basement. Once I moved out the maintence became a bit much for my dad and we slowly got rid of all the fish in it and it has been sitting empty probably for the last 5 years.
The 29g moved with me to my house into the home office. When covid hit, my wife took over the office and I was banished to the basement office/theatre room. Initially the home office had two desks (one for each of us) and finally this year we decided I had no need for the desk in that office. The office has now officially become my wifes and she put a lounger in and asked me to move the tank. I decided that if i'm moving/getting rid of it I would finally get the 75g up and going as a reef tank. The 29g would become the sump.
The fish that were in the 29g were put into my brothers fw tank. It was fun finding all the guppy fry hiding all over the place.
As of right now, i'm at the point that I have got the water in the tank. I will document my build process with the pictures below up to this point and will go live from there.
I decided to build the stand from the plans found here built from 2x4's. Skinned with pine. The most expensive wood part were the trim pieces. $32cdn for a 7 foot piece!
My wife decided on the colour of the stain based on some of the other furniture in the room.
Used a router to smooth the edges as required and then stained and then used polycrylic. Once we brought the finished unit upstairs the dark colour made the unit look quite large. In hindsight we probably would have gone with a lighter colour...too late!
For some reason I didn't take any pictures of the tank as I was working on it. First step I took once I brought it from my parents house was to fill it up with water and make sure it wasn't leaking. It had been sitting in outside storage for the last year or so, and I wasn't sure if the canadian winters had done a number on the silicone. Lo and behold there was a slow leak... so I stripped all the silicone from the inside and resealed it. After about a week of leaving it to cure I re-tested it and it is now holding water great.
I purchased an eshops overflow that included the hole saw bit. Since this tank is rimmed, I wasn't a big fan of where the supplied template lined up with the actual water level. I wanted to not be able to see the water line, so I moved the template up a bit while still making sure that the overflow would not contact the rim.
I then painted the back outside wall of the tank. I used krylon flat black spray paint as it was cheaper than the smallest can of latex paint available.
The 29g got cleaned up prepped for the sump. I ended up ordering glass from a local glass shop and got it all setup.
Once I got that installed I got all the plumbing completed. I ended up panting the PVC pipes to add a bit of colour under there. I did make a big boo boo... I cemented the PVC pipes and disconnects with the bulkheads for the overflow outside of the overflow box....went to install them and realised my mistake. I ended up having to cut the 1" pipe and install unions while installed as can be seen below.
I have been sourcing things from different sources. Some used on Kijiji, others new.
So far I have purchased used:
return pump : sicce 3.5
AI Hydra 26HD lights, previous owner had them hanging from the ceiling, I ended up buying RMS hardware new.
Bubble Magus Curve 7 Protein Skimmer. The motor was shot and was blowing the breaker on whatever it was plugged into. I ended up upgrading the motor with a DC powered motor.
New:
Jebao SOW 8 x2
Eshopps sock filter holder
Dry rock 70ish lbs picked up from the LFS.
Sand - carribsea argonite
RO/DI 50gpd system and an autocut off to fill my water buckets
Salt
x2 200w thermometers and an inkbird controller
Icecap ATO
I went through some different versions of the rock scape. Ended up deciding on one and used 1/4" clear acrylic rods and marine epoxy to make them work. What I didn't realize is that the rocks themselves don't stick to the epoxy all that well. Read on another post after that using gel CA on the rock side and sandwiching the epoxy in would have been better. Some of the rock work came apart when moving it in to the tank. I did end up using some gel CA to secure some finicky pieces, but I figure if I change my mind then I can still take apart the rocks.
I also rinsed out all my sand in buckets to get rid as much of the sediment and floating junk as possible. Used the basement shower, two buckets and a kitchen strainer (don't tell the wife!) Once satisfied I re-rinsed it with RODI water.
I ended up cutting down my eggcrate to the areas just where the rock is sitting so that any CUC have easy access to the whole sand bed.
I purchased a 32g brute rubbermade garbage can to mix water in. I was using a 5gallon marked @ 4 gallons to generate my RODI and then pouring it into the large container. I then marked the outside of the brute so I would know in the future how much water I was making/mixing etc. Once full to 28g I poured in salt and mixed it with an old powerhead. I don't really have the space in the laundry room for 2 32gallon cans so i'm sticking with one for now.
It took me 3 days to get the water generated (had to go to the office one day and juggle the rest of life). It takes around 2hrs to generate 4g of water.
I filled up the brute and mixed in my salt and then used a pump to pump it to another 5g bucket and lugged it upstairs to fill up the tank and sump. I measured out 76g in total water going into both. I made sure to leave enough space in the return chamber so that if the power goes out, whatever comes back down the return pipes won't overflow the sump.
Last night the tank was finally filled:
I did find that even after mixing for a bit that the water was cloudy. Once I woke up in the AM everything is clear.
Next step is the cycle... I bought microbacter7 and dr tims ammonia. Will start that later today.
The above process has been about a month. I still need to clean up and figure out my power setup. Will be cabling everything to the left side of the stand where I installed removable door (did on both sides). I may get some peg board and cut it to size to be able to mount things. Still thinking on that. Also need to sort out my ATO container. Will start with a bucket, but long term need to get something that will fit in the remaining space in the stand. I saw someone else incorporate sliding shelves in their stand and may do that for food/test kits etc.
So a bit of history.... I have had a 29g freshwater tank for the last 15-20 years. Had this when I was still living with my parents in my early 20's. At some point I had bought a 75g with the hope to get into saltwater, but started out as a cichlid tank. This tank was active for probably 10years in my parents basement. Once I moved out the maintence became a bit much for my dad and we slowly got rid of all the fish in it and it has been sitting empty probably for the last 5 years.
The 29g moved with me to my house into the home office. When covid hit, my wife took over the office and I was banished to the basement office/theatre room. Initially the home office had two desks (one for each of us) and finally this year we decided I had no need for the desk in that office. The office has now officially become my wifes and she put a lounger in and asked me to move the tank. I decided that if i'm moving/getting rid of it I would finally get the 75g up and going as a reef tank. The 29g would become the sump.
The fish that were in the 29g were put into my brothers fw tank. It was fun finding all the guppy fry hiding all over the place.
As of right now, i'm at the point that I have got the water in the tank. I will document my build process with the pictures below up to this point and will go live from there.
I decided to build the stand from the plans found here built from 2x4's. Skinned with pine. The most expensive wood part were the trim pieces. $32cdn for a 7 foot piece!
My wife decided on the colour of the stain based on some of the other furniture in the room.
Used a router to smooth the edges as required and then stained and then used polycrylic. Once we brought the finished unit upstairs the dark colour made the unit look quite large. In hindsight we probably would have gone with a lighter colour...too late!
For some reason I didn't take any pictures of the tank as I was working on it. First step I took once I brought it from my parents house was to fill it up with water and make sure it wasn't leaking. It had been sitting in outside storage for the last year or so, and I wasn't sure if the canadian winters had done a number on the silicone. Lo and behold there was a slow leak... so I stripped all the silicone from the inside and resealed it. After about a week of leaving it to cure I re-tested it and it is now holding water great.
I purchased an eshops overflow that included the hole saw bit. Since this tank is rimmed, I wasn't a big fan of where the supplied template lined up with the actual water level. I wanted to not be able to see the water line, so I moved the template up a bit while still making sure that the overflow would not contact the rim.
I then painted the back outside wall of the tank. I used krylon flat black spray paint as it was cheaper than the smallest can of latex paint available.
The 29g got cleaned up prepped for the sump. I ended up ordering glass from a local glass shop and got it all setup.
Once I got that installed I got all the plumbing completed. I ended up panting the PVC pipes to add a bit of colour under there. I did make a big boo boo... I cemented the PVC pipes and disconnects with the bulkheads for the overflow outside of the overflow box....went to install them and realised my mistake. I ended up having to cut the 1" pipe and install unions while installed as can be seen below.
I have been sourcing things from different sources. Some used on Kijiji, others new.
So far I have purchased used:
return pump : sicce 3.5
AI Hydra 26HD lights, previous owner had them hanging from the ceiling, I ended up buying RMS hardware new.
Bubble Magus Curve 7 Protein Skimmer. The motor was shot and was blowing the breaker on whatever it was plugged into. I ended up upgrading the motor with a DC powered motor.
New:
Jebao SOW 8 x2
Eshopps sock filter holder
Dry rock 70ish lbs picked up from the LFS.
Sand - carribsea argonite
RO/DI 50gpd system and an autocut off to fill my water buckets
Salt
x2 200w thermometers and an inkbird controller
Icecap ATO
I went through some different versions of the rock scape. Ended up deciding on one and used 1/4" clear acrylic rods and marine epoxy to make them work. What I didn't realize is that the rocks themselves don't stick to the epoxy all that well. Read on another post after that using gel CA on the rock side and sandwiching the epoxy in would have been better. Some of the rock work came apart when moving it in to the tank. I did end up using some gel CA to secure some finicky pieces, but I figure if I change my mind then I can still take apart the rocks.
I also rinsed out all my sand in buckets to get rid as much of the sediment and floating junk as possible. Used the basement shower, two buckets and a kitchen strainer (don't tell the wife!) Once satisfied I re-rinsed it with RODI water.
I ended up cutting down my eggcrate to the areas just where the rock is sitting so that any CUC have easy access to the whole sand bed.
I purchased a 32g brute rubbermade garbage can to mix water in. I was using a 5gallon marked @ 4 gallons to generate my RODI and then pouring it into the large container. I then marked the outside of the brute so I would know in the future how much water I was making/mixing etc. Once full to 28g I poured in salt and mixed it with an old powerhead. I don't really have the space in the laundry room for 2 32gallon cans so i'm sticking with one for now.
It took me 3 days to get the water generated (had to go to the office one day and juggle the rest of life). It takes around 2hrs to generate 4g of water.
I filled up the brute and mixed in my salt and then used a pump to pump it to another 5g bucket and lugged it upstairs to fill up the tank and sump. I measured out 76g in total water going into both. I made sure to leave enough space in the return chamber so that if the power goes out, whatever comes back down the return pipes won't overflow the sump.
Last night the tank was finally filled:
I did find that even after mixing for a bit that the water was cloudy. Once I woke up in the AM everything is clear.
Next step is the cycle... I bought microbacter7 and dr tims ammonia. Will start that later today.
The above process has been about a month. I still need to clean up and figure out my power setup. Will be cabling everything to the left side of the stand where I installed removable door (did on both sides). I may get some peg board and cut it to size to be able to mount things. Still thinking on that. Also need to sort out my ATO container. Will start with a bucket, but long term need to get something that will fit in the remaining space in the stand. I saw someone else incorporate sliding shelves in their stand and may do that for food/test kits etc.
