Builderguy
Community Member
Why would anyone buy anything when the option is there to make it yourself, saving money spend twice as much, an additional 9 months on the project, and collect hundreds in tools you wont use twice in 3 years.
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Here comes the life story. I'll keep it brief, unlike recipe bloggers. Started in 2007 with a 75. Shut down in 2015. Met my wife in 2016... Little did she know of this addiction. Started a pico in 2019 and have pretty much doubled in size every 18 months. The tanks have been through 3-4 near total losses from wildfires, hurricanes, and a power outages while on vacay. So I haven't hit that stride like my 75 yet.
I have some corals that made it through hurricane Ian after coming all the way from Oregon in a bucket. Nifty!
This is another 60 cube build. You can change the channel if you want but I've got a 12 month head start on progress pix... so hopefully you won't fall asleep while "life gets in the way" of another man's fish tank. Cause I've already done that part
Alright, enough fluff. The goal for the tank is pretty simple; get some good sized and pretty sticks to grow big enough to have a decent start in a 180-250g range tank in 3-5 years, when we buy a bigger house. Currently, everything is in a 40 breeder, which will ultimately become the frag tank.
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I'll start with the plumbing, my 75 had 400 and 250SE MHs [didn't I just say I was talking about plumbing?] in 'cool tubes' oh how I regret throwing those away, I can't find them in 4" anymore! What I learned with those hot suns a guns is keeping pumps out of the water makes a HUGE difference, and can be the difference between needing a chiller and using fans.
So I want to keep my return pumps and skimmer pump out of the water. That complicated the plumbing, as I also require the tank to be resilient and serviceable by a house sitter. That means manual isolation valves to each pump in event an o-ring starts leaking. I decided to combine their output to a manifold, but making these valves more accessible, as they'll be used to service equipment.
For the skimmer I'm using my tried and true turboflotor 1000 multi. Hopefully the new pump works out. Pretty much winging it, test and adjust. Obviously I need to trim back the output.
You can see a quick release nipple over the manifold. That's for a 2 gallon bucket fuge.
I built all this in our condo, before buying this house. Finally have a garage again. I kept this project out of my rented shop, as I have a tendency to generate a TON of dust and over spray.
Stay tuned for the rockwork. That's where it gets interesting.
JUMP TO RECIPE
Here comes the life story. I'll keep it brief, unlike recipe bloggers. Started in 2007 with a 75. Shut down in 2015. Met my wife in 2016... Little did she know of this addiction. Started a pico in 2019 and have pretty much doubled in size every 18 months. The tanks have been through 3-4 near total losses from wildfires, hurricanes, and a power outages while on vacay. So I haven't hit that stride like my 75 yet.
I have some corals that made it through hurricane Ian after coming all the way from Oregon in a bucket. Nifty!
This is another 60 cube build. You can change the channel if you want but I've got a 12 month head start on progress pix... so hopefully you won't fall asleep while "life gets in the way" of another man's fish tank. Cause I've already done that part
Alright, enough fluff. The goal for the tank is pretty simple; get some good sized and pretty sticks to grow big enough to have a decent start in a 180-250g range tank in 3-5 years, when we buy a bigger house. Currently, everything is in a 40 breeder, which will ultimately become the frag tank.
***********
I'll start with the plumbing, my 75 had 400 and 250SE MHs [didn't I just say I was talking about plumbing?] in 'cool tubes' oh how I regret throwing those away, I can't find them in 4" anymore! What I learned with those hot suns a guns is keeping pumps out of the water makes a HUGE difference, and can be the difference between needing a chiller and using fans.
So I want to keep my return pumps and skimmer pump out of the water. That complicated the plumbing, as I also require the tank to be resilient and serviceable by a house sitter. That means manual isolation valves to each pump in event an o-ring starts leaking. I decided to combine their output to a manifold, but making these valves more accessible, as they'll be used to service equipment.
For the skimmer I'm using my tried and true turboflotor 1000 multi. Hopefully the new pump works out. Pretty much winging it, test and adjust. Obviously I need to trim back the output.
You can see a quick release nipple over the manifold. That's for a 2 gallon bucket fuge.
I built all this in our condo, before buying this house. Finally have a garage again. I kept this project out of my rented shop, as I have a tendency to generate a TON of dust and over spray.
Stay tuned for the rockwork. That's where it gets interesting.
What looks like a crackhead experiment turned out perfectly. I mitered the PVC, and then offset the alignment a little here and there. The trick is not using too much glue or primer. I think what's happening on the stove is obvious.
Pithos crabs have been far more helpful than emeralds with that.
And a shot of how I did the shelf with a screw to keep it strong across the grain. I use square 1gal jars for my two part. I was going to make the shelf high enough for the bucket fuge but I decided to use this shower drain flange as a shelf. Much easier and frees up a little room.
