First Reef! Planning and Building My 140 Tall (in-wall)

[Brom]

Still have some trimming left to do but this is close to the final display side of the tank. I framed fairly heavily around the tank to allow for hangers for a plexiglass barrier to stand in front of the tank as it faces the kids' playroom (as you can see haha). Wife and I opted for some cheap-ish "wood" paneling that matches the columns in our basement, and I framed with pocket screws such that I can take the entire wall apart from the display side. I also went relatively light on the adhesive and nails for less dust/elbow grease potentially required to bring the wall down and keep the tank up should I ever need or want to. I am quite relieved to be done with the pocket router about 1-1/2" from the tank!

Some day I envision doing or hiring some custom cabinetry around the tank but we might have our forever home before I get that sort of ambition. For now anyway my pandemic lockdown, DIY, form plus function, budget, slow, and seat of the pants wall solution will do!

My next tasks are to get my 40b sump baffles done, scape, and plumbing. I also have to finish the shelves inside the fishroom and the stand for the eventual separate and above-DT fuge.

 

[Brom]

a lot of tall tank owners recommend front access (top access panel) for maintenance.
I didn't & so far it hasn't been an issue, but it would make coral placement easier at the front lower areas, depending on your scape design.

so I'm not familiar with the tank you are looking at... the overflow... back glass or side glass? and the return?

It took me a long time but I really did take this into consideration and finally finished the wall, so thanks again!

 

[Brom]

Lots of progress the past few weeks! I'm going to do a post for each general update.

I originally intended to massacre a craigs list free 29g tank with a crack in one of the panes for baffles. I probably could've done a little more research before dismantling the tank to save more glass, but I did manage to get 3 of the 4 baffles I wanted cut. Being stuck needing one of the baffles regardless, I called around for a quote and was surprised to get a quote for all 4 for around 50 bucks. This way they were all new plate glass too. Turned out too that they had them done for me the same afternoon. I bought a couple of the cheap grinding stones for my dremel and with some 3 in 1 oil polished out all the corners and edges over the course of a few hours. I went with the gmacreef guide suggesting leaving 1/8" clearance on either side for the baffles but I do think I will try to do it a bit tighter the next time I try this. I found it took a lot of silicone (and also I have never done this before). I had an idea to try some 5/8 airline tubing to silicone down into the bubble trap but I definitely didn't get full coverage on the inside seams. This probably isn't the prettiest silicone job but it all held up just fine to a leak and flow test. And if you didn't notice, I made my bubble trap just a tad bigger than I originally marked for on the fly--be sure to account for glass thickness and your hand/tools getting into it if you have the space.

 

[Brom]

I still plan to plumb it for mixing and circulation and perhaps even tank filling, but I got all of the nuts and bolts of my water change station done, including some needed RODI setup work. I got a lot of helpful feedback on this thread I posted on the matter. Turns out I blew out my DI resin, but I also ended up needing a booster pump. I now can easily fill both of my 32 brutes in a day if necessary. I have a float switch and booster pump with a pressure switch, but I also cut for a uniseal at the highest water mark in my RODI brute with a little 1" drain that feeds right into the utility sink on the left for full redundancy. I still need to grab another sheet of pegboard, I left the nailers for the pegboard unpainted (heh, mostly) because there are pencil notes for all of the many utilities in that wall. I'm currently debating routing the RO waste back through that wall to my laundry room (with a floor drain) to collect for my prairie and other gardening endeavours.

It's in full disarray in this shot in between the sump baffle project and plumbing but I also mostly finished up the workbench and quick shelves. Still need to paint the rest if I ever get around to it. This used to be my office and the router and modem are here to stay for now. And now looking at this I remember again I should finish that window someday. But that can be done after the tank is up and running

And rounding out the room is the larger shelf and stand built around the now-defunct home sump that I'm keeping for a true emergency. My refugium will eventually be at the front of this stand with other storage space to be customized as I see the need. You can also see where I will eventually hang a cabinet for electric hookups and maybe someday a controller and other goodies.

 

[Brom]

Plumbing! I randomly have done a bit of 'plumbing' in the manner of making PVC T-mazes for turtle hatchlings during my MS work (lol) so I have at least done the basics once before. I took some time doing my best to plan for my desires in the setup, including overtuning for the option to bump my turnover WAY up for the size of the tank, and a refugium overflowing into the display. In doing this, I paid a bit extra for my Modular Marine overflow and 1-1/2" drain setup. It actually had to also be customized to fit the Custom Aquariums trim, but that only gave me more space to plumb the drains. Anyway, I was super impressed with this overflow. It is sleek and functional. I like the covers for the external and internal boxes, and even the decal happens to match my black/white theme that has sort of taken on. More important than anything though, they have been exceptional in answering all questions for planning the design but even more so once I had the box and started plumbing. I am very impressed with the customer service of Modular Marine, I think most emails I ever sent were answered within an hour at all random times of the day.

BeAn. I took a lot of advice from this great video, including the standoffs to mount and secure all of my plumbing.

I had to trim the bulkheads coming from the weir to fit all of the drains. In the final route for my plumbing, in hindsight it would've been slightly more helpful to have been able to put the emergency drain on either the right or left side, but the durso and siphon wouldn't fit otherwise with the drain bulkhead configuration. Next time I will see if it's possible to split those up more. It was also quite a challenge to get the highest practical emergency drain standpipe under that acrylic brace but I got it and leak test here went well too. All notes for my next design and not at all a knock on MM--this thing is top notch.

 

[Brom]

This shows what I mean by having the emergency on one side or the other. I could've done this a little tighter with the durso running higher up on the stand, but I do think it will serve its purpose just fine. The electric tape is a note for where I still need to glue once I am happy with final tinkerings. I plan to rig my socks to hang off of the durso and siphon valves (ball and gate, respectively). In this picture you can see the secondary return line, which feeds off my 2nd return pump. That pump will run this return, the manifold, and eventually the refugium behind the tank.

I took a lot of time measuring my stand and sump clearance and skimmer specs to do the first baffle in my sump where the returns feed and the skimmer will run. When the skimmer is sitting on its stand for optimal water height, the lid for the cup perfectly comes off with maybe 1/2" clearance and the full cup has even a bit more clearance as it doesn't need to raise as high. In these pictures it is simply sitting on the bottom of the chamber, but I can take off the lid, cup, and remove the entire skimmer while it is on its stand (haha-you can see the makeshift one in background) with all plumbing bolted on so we are good on clearance so far! Standoffs as described in that Exotic Marine systems video linked above are great to work with. I used a metal cutting wheel on my dremel to cut the 3/8" steel bar.

The manifold was actually the first thing I glued up because my sump baffles were curing while the sump itself was on the work bench and I didn't want to move it for a few days. One thing I overlooked in my stand design was the restriction from the gussets in this corner, which ultimately restricted my manifold to this as the maximum height while still allowing for a union there and space to install the standoff hangers. If I end up running equipment that doesn't fit in this middle chamber with the manifold, I still have a fair amount of space in the stand on the return side of the sump but we will just see how it goes!

That's where I'm at for now, I still need to plumb the main return and the barb and T for the secondary return but other than that plumbing is basically wrapped up and I am on to rockscaping with some EMarco and reef saver that's been cycling since January.

 

[Brom]

I have an entire slew of updates to write for this tank. As I write this interim update; I have the original rocks (just about 1 year old wet) scaped and in the tank (around the skirts of the tank) with space for a tall central branching tower, said tower now created with new rock and curing, a brittle star, one cleaner shrimp, a young/mated ocellaris pair QT'd and in display, a LMB and a CB coming up on 48 days QT, and 2 mushroom R. florida frags popping in the display!

 

[lavoisier]

You forgot pics!!

 

[Brom]

You forgot pics!!

Ha sorry about that, I guess by 'interim' I really meant 'lazy'.

 

[Brom]

All is progressing slow and steady and patient for this build. Since my written but not photographed update, I have introduced the central tower rockwork for the tank. I think the below scape picture's contrast of the age of the prior rockscape and the new piece actually make the dimensions more legible than I can ever really seem to capture. Also, it's becoming clear that I am going to have to get the wife and her fancy camera into photographing the tank, as my iphone7+ isn't really cutting it! In my attempts to 'show' this to my work/fish buddy I've realized how difficult it is to capture dimension in a rockscape via photography.

My loving wife got me a saltwaterfish coupon for valentines day and I opted to purchase my QT'ing lawnmower blenny and coral beauty with that coupon. To push the envelope to free shipping I basically paid the same $ for "one" R. florida mushroom frag for my first feeler frag. Turns out they shipped me two of them, and after a CoralRX dip both heads have really started to extrude during the blue photoperiods on my lights. For now they are glued to free-standing rubble in the bottom left of my rockscape (cleaner shrimp Jacques in the background).

Speaking of my rockscape, I very generally intend to do a few things as far as coral placement go; however I am very open to input and taking my time:

The lower right front shelf and smaller protruding rock attached will likely be a zoa garden area. This described part of the rockscape is separate from the inverted upward extending and taller tower behind it on the right of the tank.

For the back right part of the tank I am thinking Euphyllia and maybe a nem on the back extending rock if it will agree with me. If not maybe some nice lower light sps.

The lower left where the two mushroom frags are now I anticipate more softies and LPS. I still need to think about what will end up on the rockwork and what will end up on the bare bottom. I like the idea of encrusting corals or potentially zoas covering my bottom pane. The little skull-looking rock center left will hopefully be where I can hopefully get a big showy BTA or hammer or something with flow and extension off of that cool rock piece.

That skull-looking piece and the shelf to the left of it are together a separate rock piece from the tall tower in the back left. I am hoping for some gradual LPS to SPS hierarchy in this tower depending on lighting and final manicuring. I did my best on this tower in particular to maximize not only front pane viewing of the rock piece but also light use from a top-down perspective. I still owe a good lids off top down shot of the scape to this thread (and a post on the lids I made), but with this picture you can sort of see the lights and shadows as they hit the scape (with the relatively newer central rock piece obviously looking brighter).

And finally, the central rock piece that I recently (Nov 2020) built and cured before adding it to the system. For most of the tank's 'wet' life of 2020 the rockscape sat as-is without this new piece. Not super-relevant for this post, but I do actually need to move that tower a few inches to the left, but the day I put it in I opted to not move it around too much and the brittle star has since moved into the rock right in front of the tower. No need to rush it for now.

For this tower I wanted to add a lot of base/low level weight so I could extend two arms for high light sps into the voids of the existing rockscape structures. Again this concept will be much better demonstrated with a good top-down shot of the scape; but just know that both of the older structures on the R and L of the tank are sort of opposite-facing C's with intended voids pointing towards the center of the tank so I could build some sort of tower with arms extending into those areas without shadowing prime rockscape surface below. I'm interested to see how this all works out for different colonies and shading and growth etc.

The rock tower starts as a medium foundation e marco rock from BRS with a couple of larger rocks epoxy'd together with a fiberglass driveway rod inserted through them with cyanoacrylate. The lower-front shelf protruding from the central tower (brighter white shelf behind) is also extended from the lower foundation with a fiberglass rod in drilled holes. I really like this method of rockscaping and plan to use it more extensively in the future. The foundation piece is separate from the large rock where the two arms extend from-these pieces meet together with drilled holes and fiberglass rods as well.

 

[Brom]

Still slowly plugging along! I added a frogspawn that opened right up but started to retract and I found some vermitids. I went nuts with the superglue and haven't seen anything sprout back up, but I do know that I am probably in for a vermitid battle now.

The CB and LMB are in the tank and happy. The LMB is a chonk and definitely my favorite so far. I've noticed the CB likes to patrol around with the clowns, hope they keep him in line when it comes to coral nipping but time will tell. Happily, I've got little spots of corraline popping up here and there from the snails and mushrooms!

I'm having some issues dialing my skimmer in to a point where it doesn't switch on its own to wet skimming and pulling clear water into the head. I'm partway through gluing acrylic sheets to the plywood that the tank stands on, just so that if the skimmer goes nuts I'm not slowly rotting out that plywood.