bfreeskier

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Hey, long time member but I never felt I hand anything that I was particularly proud of. I've kept the same Biocube 32 for 9 years with success, but I never was able to do more with it due to the size limitations of the tank. Back in late Jan, I got the go-ahead to upgrade the tank, I still wasn't able to do a 120+ gallon tank as I had wanted, so the 24x24x32 SCA 80 was the largest tank for space. So I ordered the tank with the upgraded stand, and boom, Co-vid hit, and slowed down the whole process. The benefit of it though I was able to take my time with the build, had researched, and plan endlessly to make the most out of this build. Below is some of my progress.



Started with Water station in the garage. And plumbed it for AWC with a DOS placed in the garage above the tank so I don’t have to hear it at night.
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The Water change station is run from a KASA Wifi Power strip.







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Tank and stand arrived 4 months after I ordered it, Steve from SCA was very communicative about the delay and which was understandable due to the LA Lockdown orders. The “Upgraded” Stand arrived a little rough, I sanded, sealed place another layer of stain and several layers of clear coat to bring it to life.
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It might all fit....

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Plumbing was done by watching BRS videos and inspiration from here.
UV Plumbed vertically from the return and up into a Manifold and then into the tank. Again space limitations made the process tricky.

I Built out a cabinet to house the Vortech, and Vectra Controllers, and the APEX. Space was super tight. I utilized a magnetic pegboard with magnetic loops for cord management.
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Used AC infinity cabinet cooling system off Amazon to place positive pressure into the electronic side of the cabinet with an exhaust fan on the opposite end of the stand.
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Thankfully the Fan of the electronic side is accessible and can be removed to access the power supplies.


Lighting I’m using the Kessil A30x with the wifi dongle and Aqualife 24” T5 hybrid combo. I like the coverage so far and I made the fixture as clean as possible.
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Got the tank up and running placed in the house, Wifey helped with aquascape, I wanted her to have some by into the project as well. It was a fun project to do together.
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I placed another DOS and Trident in a TV stand around the corner from the tank.
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Finally up and running, currently starting the cycle, hopefully, will be sped up with marine pure block and ball that have been in the Biocube for several years.
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The old and new!!
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Thanks for the read if anyone made it this far and thanks for this community for leading me on the pathway to success!
 

austibella

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awesome work.. I wish I had someone to build me a water station I am so tired of hauling water to make saltwater . the only way I could have it done is from the garage and pipe up the ceiling then down the wall then to the tank. life would be much easier, with automatic water changes .
 
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bfreeskier

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awesome work.. I wish I had someone to build me a water station I am so tired of hauling water to make saltwater . the only way I could have it done is from the garage and pipe up the ceiling then down the wall then to the tank. life would be much easier, with automatic water changes .

That's pretty much how I plumbed from the water change station in my garage to the tank. I did 3 1/4" RO tubings through a piece of 1" conduit to the back of my refrigerator and the looped around to my tank. I did the conduit in case the RO tubing had a leak, water will flow through the conduit to a leak detector placed at both ends of the conduit and tubing.
 

austibella

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That's pretty much how I plumbed from the water change station in my garage to the tank. I did 3 1/4" RO tubings through a piece of 1" conduit to the back of my refrigerator and the looped around to my tank. I did the conduit in case the RO tubing had a leak, water will flow through the conduit to a leak detector placed at both ends of the conduit and tubing.
T.Y. I had talked to a plumber but he wanted so much to do it. and they don't like to do anything that involve a fish tank. and I would not want him to go near my tank if he doesn't know how. guess I will call tampa aquarium to see what they would charge. they redid all my plumbing in my 180 tank years ago when I upgraded underneath . now I want a 350 tank. fish are getting to big and there are so many more corals I want. but I need to water station first. these 30 gallon water changes are killing me...L.O.L.
 
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bfreeskier

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Well, it looks like I'm entering the ugly phase. Brown algae popping up all over the rocks. My water parameters are looking good, I think using the Several years old Marine pure block and balls from my other tank helped just start things along. I also tried to cure my live rock. I had it all of the rock for this tank in a Burte Can with a heater and pump with water from my biocube when I did a weekly water change. I have 6 rose bubble tip anemone in the Biocube and I'm wondering when I should be safe to move them over? I'm sure once I start placing new corals in the tank I will remove them but does anyone have any recommendations on how long I should wait to place them in this new setup.
 

infinite0180

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Hey,

check this out:


also, what did you use to cut the lid for the filter sock section? I would like to cut mine to fit around the Klir as well!
 
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bfreeskier

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any updates on this build?
Hey, yeah it’s growing out nicely. I moved, thankfully the move didn’t cause any livestock death. I’ve been working on trying to increase my PH, added a Co2 scrubber off of my skimmer. I I’m still getting a decent joyous day/night swing even with a reverse refiugum photo period. I might just have to route some tubing outside. Here’s some pics. Normally I would never put something plastic in the tank but my Daughter love the Groot Goniopora head. (I kinda like it too) Thanks for checking in!
 

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