Flubber
New Member
Hey everyone, figured i'd make a build thread for my first proper reef tank. I've spent countless hours enjoying and learning from other threads, so i guess mine might be usefull as well.
I've had planted freshwater tanks before, and rather than buying all new equipment, i decided to try and re-use as much of my old equipment as possible.
Equipment
Plumbing
A fair word of warning for those that know what they're doing when it comes to DIY, and get squeemish when they see shoddy work: i don't really know what i'm doing. My solution for getting a functioning overflow resembles the aftermath of giving a toddler a glue gun, too much sugar, and a beer or two. The issue is that i'm not brave enough to drill my own tank, can't find anyone nearby that could easily do it, and i don't think drilling a tank with such thin glass (5mm) is wise anyways. That made me cosnider a siphon overflow. The idea scared the hell out of me, but apparently they've been used with succes. I couldn't find any affordable HOB overflows, and shipping one in would have given me a major headache with metric/imperial fitting sizes, so i decided to build my own. This video was very helpfull. I bought some 125mm PVC pipe, and sawed it lenghtwise into (more or less...) 4 equal parts. Easier said than done with just a tiny hacksaw insert because the saw itself didn't fit. Kept going sideways, but with a lot of filing and cursing i managed to get some quarter pipes for in the back corners of the tank. Sawed and filed some teeth into it, liberally applied some allegedly aquarium-safe silicone, and placed them in the tank. Writing it down in a few sentences does not do the frustration justice, especially since i wasn't expecting it to actually work, but i digress.
Next, i made a u-tube, with one end going almost all the way down to the bottom of the overflow. I figured the further i could get the intake of the u-tube from the surface, the less bubbles would make it into the tube. Ignore the "top"written on what's clearly the bottom, please just pretend i'm Australian.
Time to fill the dang thing up and see if the physics actually held up. I was still wildly skeptical.
To my honest surprise, it worked. I easily made a siphon by inserting some air hose into the tubes and sucking the air out. Any water that flowed into the overflow equalized witth the water level in the outer container, and overflowed down the drain pipe. I was pleasantly surprised to find that i could angle the outer end of the drain hose in such a way that the setup was very quite as well. I left this setup to run for a while, seeing if it held up over time, and i found no issues when running it for a few days. It still felt sketchy, but i've tried to build in some safety:
Hardscape
I figured making my hardscape with dry rock would be easiest, and try to seed it with some live rock later. I ordered a box of 20kg ARKA MyReef 'small', which is way overkill, but it was quite cheap and i'd rather have enough pieces to choose from. To protect the glass from rocks, i added some eggcrate that will be buried by the sand later. The eggcratet is only 7mm high or so, which might help if i decide to get a goby/shrimp pair later. I tried using Aquaforest Stonefix for scaping, but when mixing according to the instructions it was way too thin, and making it thicker caused it to harden at inoppurtune times. It also didn't look great, and was difficult to work with in my opinion. I quickly abandoned the cement and switched to superglue+baking soda. Very tedious, but eventually managed to get a scape going i was quite happy with.
Quite happy with how it turned out! I've tried to create a little cave that something like a goby/shrimp pair could hide in, a tiny arch, enough space for potential fish to swim, and some space in the front left for a tiny zoa/ric garden if needed. Added about 2.5cm "CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade" sand, after rinsing it a million times, with a little more in the back.
Sump
Added some leftover rock in the sump, figured it wouldn't hurt. Drilled holes in a plastic container and added a small leftover pump so i could make an easy refugium. Could also double as a place to dump carbon/GFO if i'll ever need that, otherwise i'll just chuck it in the main area of the sump. Skimmer and ATO are added later. Pipes aren't visible in this image, but they are flexible-ish so i can "easily" take them out and put them back in, and move them around equipment. Temperature probe also added later.
Filling
The basic setup was done, so i could finally start adding some salt water. I've got a cheap RO filter (Aqua Medic Easy Line 300), which i think is fine for now. Our tap water is pretty dang clean as is, so i'm not too bothered about getting some hyper-deluxe 9-stage turbopressure megablaster RODI unit just yet. I'm using AS Instant Ocean, which seems pretty basic and reliable. Created a 35PPT NaCL reference solution, and found i had to add 42g of salt per litre of water to get it up to 35ppt, which seems to be what others have found as well. Filled the bad boy up, started the filter, and started the cycle! added a Fluval Aquaclear 50 for a day or two to get the water to go clear, think/know the sand wasn't fully rinsed yet. Lights are just so i can see the tank, and are on just for show.
Next steps
I'll update this thread once the cycle is done-ish, my lights have arrived, more equipment is in, and the first poor corals will test the waters (which might be the case already, but i just don't have time to write it up yet
). Stay tuned!
I've had planted freshwater tanks before, and rather than buying all new equipment, i decided to try and re-use as much of my old equipment as possible.
Equipment
- The display tank is my old Dennerle 55L Scaper's tank (14.5G). Besides some minor scratches it's still in good shape. It's not one of those fancy ultra-white glass tanks, but it'll do.
- The sump will be my old Dennerle 30L Cube. Despite my setup being quite small, i really wanted a sump. It's totally unneccesary, not even that much more convenient, but i like tinkering with equipment, or at least i think i do, so a sump there shall be. Not the greatest shape for a sump, but it sort of fits in the old wooden cabinet i already have (thriftstore TV/radio stand originally i think).
- Lighting will be done with a Noo-Psyche K7 mini. Not the best, but i've heard good things about them, and i am trying to keep costs down (so i can splurge on other stuff).
- DIY refugium insert using some plastic containers, an amazon growth light, and hope. probably not needed, but i just can't help growing plants.
- Filtration (but actually a glorified return pump) with an Oase Biomaster 250 filled with some rock rubble, a sponge, and a bunch of Seachem matrix.
- Tunze Osmolator Nano 3152 to keep the tank filled and salinity stable. Also just too lazy to top off manually every day.
- Tunze Doc 9004 skimmer. Wasn't sure wether i wanted one, but it was heavily discounted so in it goes, even if just for some gas exhange.
- Two 75W heaters i had laying around, controlled by a temperature probe. One fitted in the filter, one in the sump.
Plumbing
A fair word of warning for those that know what they're doing when it comes to DIY, and get squeemish when they see shoddy work: i don't really know what i'm doing. My solution for getting a functioning overflow resembles the aftermath of giving a toddler a glue gun, too much sugar, and a beer or two. The issue is that i'm not brave enough to drill my own tank, can't find anyone nearby that could easily do it, and i don't think drilling a tank with such thin glass (5mm) is wise anyways. That made me cosnider a siphon overflow. The idea scared the hell out of me, but apparently they've been used with succes. I couldn't find any affordable HOB overflows, and shipping one in would have given me a major headache with metric/imperial fitting sizes, so i decided to build my own. This video was very helpfull. I bought some 125mm PVC pipe, and sawed it lenghtwise into (more or less...) 4 equal parts. Easier said than done with just a tiny hacksaw insert because the saw itself didn't fit. Kept going sideways, but with a lot of filing and cursing i managed to get some quarter pipes for in the back corners of the tank. Sawed and filed some teeth into it, liberally applied some allegedly aquarium-safe silicone, and placed them in the tank. Writing it down in a few sentences does not do the frustration justice, especially since i wasn't expecting it to actually work, but i digress.
Next, i made a u-tube, with one end going almost all the way down to the bottom of the overflow. I figured the further i could get the intake of the u-tube from the surface, the less bubbles would make it into the tube. Ignore the "top"written on what's clearly the bottom, please just pretend i'm Australian.
Time to fill the dang thing up and see if the physics actually held up. I was still wildly skeptical.
To my honest surprise, it worked. I easily made a siphon by inserting some air hose into the tubes and sucking the air out. Any water that flowed into the overflow equalized witth the water level in the outer container, and overflowed down the drain pipe. I was pleasantly surprised to find that i could angle the outer end of the drain hose in such a way that the setup was very quite as well. I left this setup to run for a while, seeing if it held up over time, and i found no issues when running it for a few days. It still felt sketchy, but i've tried to build in some safety:
- Each overflow can handle all the flow of the return pump (~600L/h) on it's own, with some headway. If one gets clogged, the other can pick up the slack.
- The intake of the return pump is placed just under the water line. If both overflows are broken, the DT has ~4L of buffer volume, while the return pump will only drain ~1L from the sump before it starts sucking only air. The downside to this is that this mechanism is completely negated by the ATO, but i will only have the ato run for 5 minutes twice a day, when i'm likely to be home. NJot perfect, but at least if the overflows break when i'm not there, the tank won't overflow.
- A socket with a leak alarm will be fitted somewhere at the top of one of the overflows, shutting off power to the return pump if water rises to that level. Tested this already, and while it works, it is a bit sensitive to droplets forming/splashing on it, so i need a better solution for this. currently not implemented, but will be implemented soon.
Hardscape
I figured making my hardscape with dry rock would be easiest, and try to seed it with some live rock later. I ordered a box of 20kg ARKA MyReef 'small', which is way overkill, but it was quite cheap and i'd rather have enough pieces to choose from. To protect the glass from rocks, i added some eggcrate that will be buried by the sand later. The eggcratet is only 7mm high or so, which might help if i decide to get a goby/shrimp pair later. I tried using Aquaforest Stonefix for scaping, but when mixing according to the instructions it was way too thin, and making it thicker caused it to harden at inoppurtune times. It also didn't look great, and was difficult to work with in my opinion. I quickly abandoned the cement and switched to superglue+baking soda. Very tedious, but eventually managed to get a scape going i was quite happy with.
Quite happy with how it turned out! I've tried to create a little cave that something like a goby/shrimp pair could hide in, a tiny arch, enough space for potential fish to swim, and some space in the front left for a tiny zoa/ric garden if needed. Added about 2.5cm "CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade" sand, after rinsing it a million times, with a little more in the back.
Sump
Added some leftover rock in the sump, figured it wouldn't hurt. Drilled holes in a plastic container and added a small leftover pump so i could make an easy refugium. Could also double as a place to dump carbon/GFO if i'll ever need that, otherwise i'll just chuck it in the main area of the sump. Skimmer and ATO are added later. Pipes aren't visible in this image, but they are flexible-ish so i can "easily" take them out and put them back in, and move them around equipment. Temperature probe also added later.
Filling
The basic setup was done, so i could finally start adding some salt water. I've got a cheap RO filter (Aqua Medic Easy Line 300), which i think is fine for now. Our tap water is pretty dang clean as is, so i'm not too bothered about getting some hyper-deluxe 9-stage turbopressure megablaster RODI unit just yet. I'm using AS Instant Ocean, which seems pretty basic and reliable. Created a 35PPT NaCL reference solution, and found i had to add 42g of salt per litre of water to get it up to 35ppt, which seems to be what others have found as well. Filled the bad boy up, started the filter, and started the cycle! added a Fluval Aquaclear 50 for a day or two to get the water to go clear, think/know the sand wasn't fully rinsed yet. Lights are just so i can see the tank, and are on just for show.
Next steps
I'll update this thread once the cycle is done-ish, my lights have arrived, more equipment is in, and the first poor corals will test the waters (which might be the case already, but i just don't have time to write it up yet
). Stay tuned!
