FINALLY! It's my turn! Mpatient's 90g KISS (keep it simple, stupid) build.

[Joe Glass Cages]

Thanks Joe! My daughter said today she bets in 2 years, I will moving on to a larger tank. Will need to buy a bigger house, but I've got your number!

I totally get that! Maybe we should think about a trade up program.....

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

At long last I am able to say "Welcome to my build thread"! I apologize in advance for the lengthy intro, but future posts will be more pics and less gab.

I started my first saltwater tank 25 years ago (55g, canister filters, no sump) This was back when there was not a lot of information out there, and you just winged it. I was pretty successful, and quickly moved up to a 220g. Then of course life happens. With work, marriage, baby, relocating etc, it all became too much. I sold the tank, but my interest and love of the hobby remained. Fast forward 15 years, and I was back in the game. I had gone through a (amicable) divorce, my daughter was of driving age, and the time was right. I quickly discovered how much the hobby had changed, and how it can break the bank if you let it. To ease myself back into it, I purchased a new BioCube 32g. I had never done a sump, and the AIO concept was appealing. Pretty soon that tank had every upgrade possible, and I was again hooked. As a single mom. it was hard to justify the expense for a larger tank, so I decided to enjoy the one I had, learn everything I could, and started putting money aside. I made the rule that purchases would be made only when I had the cash in hand. Long story short, for the last year and a half I have been scoring items that were on sale or used from Craigslist or EBAY. Its been slow, but I am not in debt! (yet). The last piece to this puzzle was the tank which I pulled the trigger on Black Friday. Tank is custom from a local builder, and will be ready in about 4 weeks. My goal is to keep it simple with mostly LPS and softies with no SPS (don't want the stress), Although the newest (and expensive) gadgets are awesome and make things easier, I know I do not need them all to run a successful tank. The equipment I have is not top of the line, but they are solid. I can always upgrade equipment down the road. With that being said let's get this build started!

Specs:

Tank: 90g (48x18x25) custom, Euro braced, black silicon, drilled for external overflow and returns.
Stand/Canopy: DIY wood stand and canopy. (Girls with power tools rock!)
Overflow: Synergy Reef Shadow 16" External
Flow: Jebao OW-25 Wavemakers
Lighting: Viparspectra 165W (2 units)
Sump: DIY 40g breeder - (Gotta love Petco sales!)
Protein Skimmer: Reef Octopus 150INT. I got the body for free, and just needed to replace the pump (Aquatrance 2000)
Return Pump: Jebao DCT6000. I have a Jebao DC6000 as back up.
Substrate: CaribSea Hawaiin Black (I currently use it in my 32g, and love it)
Rock: Marco Reef Saver
Heaters: Eheim 150w (2 units)
I am not going to start the stand until I get the tank, so first up is to work on the sump and the aquascape. Stay tuned!



My stockpile



Tank Location : Living room recessed wall (Going to have a to find a new place for the Nativity scene!)


Ready to start on the aquascape!

Tell you what, when you have your tank warming party, there's an orange sun cup Coral from Australia small like 10 polyps, waiting for you. Just pay the shipping of $29 next day. Will cover the rest. Here's a sample picture.

It's an LPS

 

[TheWB]

There is very little room in the stand for a large reservoir, but I found a 2gal cereal container at Wal-Mart that fits perfect and has the perfect lid for quick and easy refill. Plan B: the closet where I have the phyto farm is directly behind the wall the tank is against. I can drill a small hole for the ATO tubing that leads to larger container in the closet. This house is not my forever home, so I am trying to make as few alterations as possible. Never used an ATO before, so still researching as to which brand. I don't need any bells and whistles, just solid performance. Some of the legends on here R2R recommend the autotopoff.com models, and am looking closely at those.

There are lots of good choices for ATO. I use the Tunze 3155 and it works very well. I would bet you’ll be drilling that hole sooner rather than later. With only 2 gal you’ll be refilling every other day. It’s nice if you can have a big enough reservoir so it only needs to be refilled once a week while doing maintenance and water changes. Maybe not such a big deal though if you’ve been used to manually topping off the biocube.

 

[najer]

Great work, following.

 

[Katrina71]

Your build is amazing! Hi five to another chick with power tools! I'm so excited to see what you do with her!!! Btw, if you live close to GC, we might bump into each other one day. I'd like that. If you ever have plans to come to Knoxville, maybe we could have lunch?

 

[mpatient]

There are lots of good choices for ATO. I use the Tunze 3155 and it works very well. I would bet you’ll be drilling that hole sooner rather than later. With only 2 gal you’ll be refilling every other day. It’s nice if you can have a big enough reservoir so it only needs to be refilled once a week while doing maintenance and water changes. Maybe not such a big deal though if you’ve been used to manually topping off the biocube.

I completely agree that the 2g may not be enough, but I am very much used to topping off manually. We will see how it goes, and if it is a total PIA I am fully prepared to drill that hole.

 

[ScubaShane]

This build is not at all simple.

 

[mpatient]

Good morning! I wanted to bring you all up to speed with my progress. I actually completed this last Sunday, but as you probably have heard, Nashville and the surrounding areas was hit with a horrendous tornado this past Tuesday. We were incredibly blessed to be out of harms way, but the devastation just 7 miles from us is unbelievable. The past week has been helping friends with clean up and collection of donated items. It was really cool to see the outpouring support our LFS and local reefers to those affected with offers of use of generators, battery back ups, and temporary housing for livestock. I love my city and community!

So, I finished the stand in two including paint and adding hardware. I happy to say the only items purchased were nails for my pin nailer, and one 10' piece of molding. I have been scoring old furniture (mostly free) , reparing, refinishing and reselling for years. This is primarily how I have funded this tank. I have a stockpile of paints, finishes, salvaged hardware, and wood and this was my source for the finish work.

I was going with a rustic / aged looked that goes along with the decor of my home. Top grade pine was used for the majority, with some poplar thrown in because it was the right size and I had it on hand. It was finished with a gray Annie Sloan chalk paint, one coat of matte poly, then one coat of brown glaze that was then wiped off, and finally 3 more coats of matte poly. It seems like a lot of steps, but the dry time for these is very short . The whole thing was painted including dry time was about 24 hours. The color is a tad grayer than than pics depicts, and looks better in person. The corner ties were pulled off an old trunk I refinished years ago, and forgot I had.

The tank is going back up on the stand for good today and I will begin work on the plumbing. I am pretty sure I will have this puppy up and running by next weekend! I intend to let the tank and cycled rock run for about week before adding any livestock to let it go through any mini cycle and work out any kinks. While that is doing its thing, I will work on the canopy and doors. So close!!

 

[mpatient]

This build is not at all simple.

LOL. Depends on your definition of simple. Totally get the phyto farm may look complex, but I ran this same set up for years, and it takes about 20 minutes of my time per week. If I had not already had everything, I would have not set one up. I kind of treat it as a side hobby as it is more of an agricultural endeavor and get the same enjoyment as I do when I plant and harvest tomatoes every summer.

Now just because the set up is basic, does not mean I won't pay attention to detail. I am an accountant by trade, and by nature, all the pieces and parts need to be neat and organized in a pretty little package.

 

[mpatient]

And so it begins!! First time plumbing a tank, but I love puzzles, and that is basically what plumbing is.

Chose purple pipes (Geaux Tigers!) and white fittings. White because if I am missing a part, I can run to Ace Hardware 2.5 miles away and not lose time waiting for shipping. Sidenote: Home Depot has the best pricing per foot on colored pipe. You have to order online, but it does not take much to get to free shipping.

It will be a simple Bean Animal setup with 2 drains going to skimmer section, and the emergency going to the refugium. I have a single return pipe leading to the return pump. That's it. Simple and does the job. It is my goal to have it fitted and glued by tonight, and fill it with tap water tomorrow to flush out and test equipment and look for leaks. My hope is to have it filled with RODI/Salt by Sunday evening.

 

[Silent]

You can always spray paint the white fittings or pipe if there is something you could not get in grey or purple. Krylon fusion seems to be a reef safe brand. Just an FYI.

 

[count krunk]

Tigers fan eh? Awesome! I got to watch them win the championship on a carnival Cruise, was awesome.

I just finished plumbing my bean animal drain this morning. I am only using one gate valve on the main drain.

 

[mpatient]

Tigers fan eh? Awesome! I got to watch them win the championship on a carnival Cruise, was awesome.

I just finished plumbing my bean animal drain this morning. I am only using one gate valve on the main drain.

The second is going on the return, but I should not use it often. I had it on hand, so might as well use it. Have a ball valve too, but they always disappoint!

 

[count krunk]

I have a DC pump for return so not needed.

 

[mpatient]

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

I have been MIA from this build thread; however, I have made much progress, and encountered some disasters on the way. I confess I was not as diligent in my picture taking during the last weeks, but there are enough to see the progress.

In my last post, I was getting ready to begin to plumb the tank. I was very nervous about this as I had never done it before. Turns out, it was super easy, and took me about 2 hours total from start to finish. It helped that I was going for simple, and had my beloved miter saw making quick work of the pvc cuts. Filled her up with tap water and NO LEAKS!

I filled her up again with saltwater, added Fritzyme, and let it run for 2 days. Thank goodness I had taken photos of the scape before it went into the cycle bins. I had completely forgotten how the pieces went together. Add my 2 ocellaris clownfish, and tested water for a week with no mini cycle, so in went the rest of my motley crew of inhabitants.

2 ocellaris clownfish
1 Midas blenny
1 Banggai Cardinal
1 Brittle Starfish
1 Pom Pom crab

Ignore the canopy. I am going in a different direction and it has been dismantled. Below is my current temporary solution.

Thus begins the disaster portion of this build.

Everything was going just swimmingly (pun intended), when the uglies started. Thought they were diatoms, but nooooooo, it was GHA, and it took over quick. Tested nitrates, and they were out the roof. I am 100% convinced this was due to me overfeeding. I had cut way back just a few days before the outbreak, but it was too late.

I added a big clean up crew form Reef Cleaners, dosed with carbon, and added a giant wad of cheato to my refugium. Over the next few days, nitrates went down to acceptable levels. The CUC was working hard, but it was too much to handle. I removed some of the rocks, and scrubbed the GHA off, and began manually removing sections at a time from the remaining rock and substrate. It was still too much to handle.

LFS is doing curbside service during the lock down, so yesterday I called to see if they had a Lawnmower blenny. They did not, but had a fat sea hare that I could return for store credit when he was done doing his job. They were not kidding, this guy is fat, and is plowing through this stuff. He is gross looking, but yet fascinating to watch. Still overrun, but I expect over the next couple of weeks, I will see a huge improvement. Ahh, the joys of a new tank, but I know this will pass with some patience.

Then DISASTER!!! This morning, I opened the cabinet, and here is what I saw.

After several expletives, I immediately turned everything off, and pumped out the sump. That crack is through and through, and I cannot believe it did not dump water on the floor. I know exactly where it started. There was a minuscule chip in the seam that I had dismissed as cosmetic months ago. Nope, nope, nope. It is exactly where the crack started.

To add insult to to injury, in my haste to keep 30 gallons from going on the floor, I manhandled my skimmer and the flimsy acrylic pump connection broke off. More expletives. Fortunately I had acrylic weld on hand, and it is back on and curing. The skimmer will go back in tomorrow.

So here is my temporary solution. My Halloween decorations are now on the floor, but this was an emergency!

Always trying to find the silver lining here are the positives that have come out of this.

1. Petco is having their tank sale, so my new 40B is ordered for curbside pick up for $50.
2. I can cut down my drain pipes because there were too long from the start.
3. I can now put the shower liner underneath the sump. Regretted not doing it the first time.

I will rebuild the sump tomorrow, but will need to let it cure for at least a week, will also finish the doors and start back working on the canopy.

Hopefully by that time, the GHA will be under control and I won't be embarrassed to post a FTS!

 

[emilio365]

The progression of you tank has been awesome !!
That’s amaizing that the Sump didn’t leak. On my current build once I was finished with the baffles on my Sump I noticed there was a small chip on the back panel, I thought about using it but decided to just get a new tank for it and not risk it. Im glad I did.