Fireman's 20 gallon frag AIO

Firemanreefkeeper · Apr 27, 2019

I like to build and learn as I go. I've built 4 tank stands and the setups that go along with them. 2 for myself and 2 for friends. I also have a lot of extra stuff laying around, extra pumps, extra filters ECT. You name it I probably have it somewhere in my garage.
I've got an old 20 gallon long aqueon tank I used to use for growing brine shrimp. My plan is to turn that into an all in one frag tank. I've got some acrylic sheets that I'm going to cut and use Weldon 16 to join them together to make the filter section at one end creating a peninsula tank. I'm going to use a filter sock, a tunze combline skimmer (I picked that up from my friend who was throwing it away. He was mad at his tank and threw everything away. That's also where I got one of my tanks for a build.) I have a 327gph pump and a sunblaze 24 t5 fixture that I can use. The only thing I need to get is wood for a stand and that's covered as Lowe's is running a text to win thing today and I got 100$ for texting. I ordered the acrylic weld yesterday so once that comes in I'll get started on that. I posted pic of my drawing. I'm not an artist so don't beat me up on that. Tell me what you think and let me know if I need anything else.
I plan on putting frags I'm going to sell or trade in it and any incoming frags into it for observation. I'm going to keep a 6 line wrasse in there for pest control and nutrients for the coral.

Firemanreefkeeper · Apr 28, 2019

Slow day at the fire station so I was able to build the stand. All it needs is a coat of clear and a handle. Now I'm waiting for the acrylic weld to come in so I can attempt making the filter section.

Firemanreefkeeper · May 4, 2019

I cut the acrylic, making sure I measured 3 times instead of the standard 2, then started using the weld to put the parts in place. I learned quickly it dries a lot faster than the instructions said and it sticks to everything including fingers. I had to make a few jigs to hold the parts before moving onto the next one.

Once the parts were glued I let it rest over night then made sure everything would still fit.

Today I used aquarium glue to put the box in place. It's not the neatest but my hands weren't small enough to fit inside the chambers to glue it cleanly. I have to let it dry for a few days before I water test it to make sure it actually works since I've never actually made anything like this before. After that I'll take it in and set it up.

Firemanreefkeeper · May 8, 2019

Sea trials have begun. Everything seems to be flowing right. The water level was a little higher than I wanted but it was the only way to stop the waterfall into the return chamber. I might go back and cut the baffle down some. Knowing me it will be more work than it's worth though.
Once it passes this I'll be setting it up and using it for its intended purpose.

Firemanreefkeeper · May 12, 2019

Not that anyone cares but I got the frag tank up and running. I took some frags out of my big tank and have them in there under observation. I'm trying to keep the vertimid snails and aiptasia out of my new tank so this is where they will be spending months before transferring to their permanent home in my 80 gallon. What I don't use will be traded at my LFS for salt and frag plugs.

OutsideBrian · May 12, 2019

That’s really ingenious. First time I have seen someone build their own Aio and I like it!

Firemanreefkeeper · May 26, 2019

I added my favorite coral, WWC rainbow crush acan, to my frag tank in preparation for the eventual shutdown of my 75. I had to remove 2 vertimid snails from it. I hate those things. I also added an ATO to keep things steady. I removed the skimmer. It was making micro bubbles and I don't have any fish in the tank so there is no nitrate being produced and phosphates are measuring about 5ppb. My next step is to figure out how to use kalkwaser so I can add the acros I want to keep into the tank.
On a side note, if this whole frag thing fails I can sell trocus snails. I put 4 in there to start and they have been busy multiplying. I have 20 to 30 little ones in there doing the jobs the big ones can't reach.

Firemanreefkeeper · Jul 3, 2019

It's a little bitter sweet this week. I shut down my 75 gallon tank and threw all my eggs, well coral, into one basket. I'll keep observing them to make sure they are pest free before they make the move to my new 80. Plus, the 80 isn't ready to sustain coral yet.
I've been doing 4 gallon water changes once a week and test randomly during the week. The numbers are good, although the nutrients are always low. The only thing of concern was the alk drops from 8.4 to 7.4 in 24 hours. I was stuck on what to do. I've never done kalk and figured now isn't the time to learn. I've always used BRS dosing pumps on timers that go on and off at set times. They say they dose 1.1ml a minute but I've tested and tested them and depending on where they are in the cycle I would get somewhere between 1.5 and 2.2ml per minute. And to top that off, my calcium timer failed and it wasn't dosing calcium for who knows how long before I shut down my 75 gallon tank. So..... I bought the Kamoer X1 micro pump to give it a go. So far so good. I test the alk randomly and it's always 8.2 to 8.4 so I know it's working. It's simple to use, just tell it how much total alk you want it to dose and it divides it up throughout the day and does the rest. You can't beat that. No more calculating the total then dividing it up and deciding when it should dose and how long. And it was half the cost of my old doser and timer.
I had to move some powerheads around to create a more broken flow so the acros don't get beat on from one side all day long. I've got it so the left pulses for an hour then the right pulses for a hour while the left is off. I've also been rotating my frags around so they sit in a different spot in a different direction once a week. They don't seem to mind, always full poly extension and the acans are puffed up and full.
I put a 6 line wrasse in the tank a few weeks ago. He's finally getting used to me and comes to the front glass when he sees me in hopes that he will get fed. Other than that he patrols all day long.
For now I'll keep inspecting, observing and testing until I feel my new tank can sustain life other than fish and hermits.

Firemanreefkeeper · Jul 7, 2019

8 hours of work to fix that. When I had originally built this I intended for the water to be below the level it currently runs at. Unfortunately, the water would waterfall over the last baffle and push bubbles down to the return pump where they would get sucked up and pushed into the tank as micro bubbles. I had to raise the water level to get that to stop. I probably could have used a sponge but that's one more thing to clean in an already time consuming tank. Anyway, by raising the water level it put the overflow teeth under the surface of the water allowing an oily slick to form on top of the water. I fixed that by using a HOB filter but that wasn't my intent in the beginning.
Today I emptied the tank into a spare 10 gallon tank, used my heater and a powerhead to stir the water. I put my frags, snails, hermits, and poor razz, my wrasse, in there while I worked on fixing the problem. I say poor because he was not happy about being moved twice today. And he got woke up at the crack of dawn too. I took the rocks and put them into a 5 gallon bucket before dumping the remaining water out.
The tank went outside where I used my dremil tool to cut the teeth higher. Once finished I had to clean the acrylic dust off of everything inside the tank then I rinsed it off with RO water before bringing it back in. I cleaned the pump and powerheads too while they were out. Since I had the rocks out and I've been fighting aiptasia and vertimid snails I thoroughly inspected every single rock. I found one single little aiptasia that was burned with the laser. No vertimid snails, knock on wood, and I hope it stays that way.
The tank part took about an hour, the rock inspection took about 3. Then I had to inspect the frags which took about another hour. After that, everything had to go back into the tank. I had to re-pile the rocks under the frag rack making sure the rack would fit over it, move the frags back onto the rack, catch the snails and hermits, and last but not least, catch razz again and he was mad.
I used new water to refill the tank then started it back up. Overflow works as intended now. The only setback, a minor one, the tank was unplugged for a long time so I had to reconnect to the doser and tell it to dose again. I take it as a lesson learned going forward that if the tank is without power for a while, then I'll have to talk to the doser. But at that point, I'll have more to be worried about then a doser not dosing.

Firemanreefkeeper · Aug 4, 2019

I modified my aquatic life t5 led hybrid light today. It normally measures 18 inches across but my frag tank is only 12 across so I made new brackets with a 1 inch space in between for my reef Bright leds. Now I have a 36 inch fixture with 4 bulbs instead of 24 inches with 2 bulbs. I already noticed an increase in alkalinity consumption as a result of more light. I've been working on dialing that in with the doser.
This will probably be the last week with this tank. I've got a different frag tank I'm going to set up I just have to modify the stand a little. The light was just the start.