Free Reef - World Citizen

[World Citizen]

Free Reef!​

Which is chosen beceause the tank will be free of walls. It's placed in the center of my livingroom and won't touch any walls. Since we needed to chose a name, this came up. The Free Reef.

So there is no backwall at any of the sides. Not even like with a peninsula on the short end. I am going to make an overflow in the middle of the tank and the returns will also be in the center colum. The challange is going to be hiding the pumps, but I have a few idea's on that.

It's going to be a mixed reef with as much open space as I can create. I don't want to much rock. Only the center colum will be covered in stone.

Fish are not the focus, but sure there are going to be some. A few of my fish in a smaller tank are going to move over, and maybe i'll add something later.

I still need to build a lot. The desing is not finished but I am going to start building the things that are definitive. I have to think hard about the pluming desing, but the idea is solid. Just the small details will change. I got a stand which I am going to mod to my likings and i'll document everything here.

I'll explain every step in detail and every part will get covered on why I want to do it.
In escense I want one sump for tech like and a second sump for algea or frags.
Both sumps will able to be partialy pulled out. I don't like it to do maintenance all the way in the back of the stand, so pulling them out would be helpfull.

In the display tank everything will come up and down in the center colum.

Pluming design is up for changes.

If you have feedback or you see me doing something stupid, please let me know. You can be harsh and short in answers, I don't mind. I hope to have enough experience to pull this of, but I am also learning everyday.

 

[World Citizen]

Chapters

- Drilling The Tank

- Cleaning Cabinet

- Pull Out Sump

 

[World Citizen]

I needed to drill the tank!

That was a first for me, but after searching and learning... I did it and it worked!
I chose to support the tank with a wooden board to minimize blowout and this seemed to work although not perfect. There is still some small blowout, but nothing bad.

We drilled 3 overflow holes for Bean Animal, and 1 return hole.

We made a guide

Placed it in the center

Drilled it

​

And here is the result

 

[bnord]

what I know from my Dutch friends is a tendency towards attention and precision.

seems to be the case here

veel geluk

 

[World Citizen]

@bnord :) Dankjewel!

I could pick up a free cabinet from someone.
Ussualy I don't like these cabinets, and rather weld my own frame and finish it with nice wood. But this cabinet was looking nice, is big enough and it will save me a lot of time, work and money. I don't think I am going to regret it, but if so.. it would be a perfect opertunity to go bigger.

The cabinet was fine, but it had a glued foam underlayment which needed to go due to my plans.

This was the underlayment

I first removed it by pulling and sticking a putty knive underneath. After that I used nail plosih remover to clean the stains. I was kind of dizzy due to the fumes, but it worked.

And eventually it looked like this. You can still see some stains, but thats not a problem.

 

[World Citizen]

I started to build the pull out sumps. These are a kind of drawers I want to pull out.

I make them from MDF and support them with Spruce. It needs some tender lover afterwards so it won't bulge when water hits it, but thats fine.

I need to build 3 of these type of stands, and this is how I do it.

We need to start with measurements and cutting the wood.

I work with Glue, Tacker and sander

We glue everything with lots of glue.

And clamp it so it will stick

I sealed every edge with sealer. I didn't do this on other stands I made, but wanted to test this out. Water cant get in the corners this way.

And all the Tacker holes are filled with filler.

MDF is not waterproof, so I used a special sealer to seal the edges. Normaly I use a bit of woodglue with water, but I wanted to be Pro and bought a "edge sealer".

And the result is this "drawer".

And the drawer can be pulled out.
Painting it will be done in a different update!

 

[bnord]

great looking - like the waterproofing. - will not need it but its there

 

[World Citizen]

great looking - like the waterproofing. - will not need it but its there

Will not need it! Will not need it! Will not need it!.
Lets just hope that helps. :)

I bought the TechSump, and that was the first mistake in this build. I have thrown away 29.95 euro on a mistake.
I bought a 60x30x30 as but I was a bit to positive about the size. 60cm is exactly the space I have, so the glass is touching the stand. I cant fit a magnet or probeholder or doselineholder between it.

So, I went back and bought the 50x30x30. Thats perfect.

I drilled 2 holes in it, and I was happy to see that went fine. I was in doubt due to the 4mm thick glass, but everything went well and the holes are in.

So I got 2 drains from this Tech sump toward the other sump.

 

[World Citizen]

I broke a rib.

I needed to drill holes in the new top deck and during the drilling I put my full weight on the drill. Halfway it went "SNAP".. and that was my rib :). It hurts but isn't to bad. I have had broken ribs before so I know you can't do anything about it.

The worst thing was getting a hiccup today. Oh man that hurts :D

But,
The top deck that came with the stand had a hole in it I could not use. So the Top Deck neede to be replaced.
I bought a melamine plate and needed to finish the edges.
We do this with ege band and an iron.

We also need some holes in it so I took the 130mm drill.

We end up with this new top plate and all the correct holes!

It needs some finishing, but I am happy with the start!

 

[World Citizen]

SO, I can't sneeze, kough or have a hikup... but painting PVC is fine :)
I planned to do this later, but due to the circumstances, I started it.

I could have bought colored PVC, but I wanted something else.
My dad's hobby is old Alfa Romeo Cars, and he has a baby blue Guillia Super. So I did a baby blue PVC on my own hobby to honor him.

I started with the return.

First we need to sand everything

Then we put on a primer

And then comes the paint.
- Ice Blue for the pipes
- Ice Green for the bends and sorts

And at last the varnish

And the result!

Parts that touch water will not be painted.

 

[World Citizen]

I needed to make a extra baffle in the sump. I want (from Left to Right) Algea, frags, pump.

So.

Is had the sump and a piece of glass.

Got some tools to cut the glass.

Made the cut.

And broke the glass

I taped the sump so I have no spill of silicone.

I taped in the glass

I glued 1 side.

I removed the tape on that side. After 1 hour I glued the other side and removed the tape.

The result is a extra baffle with not that much gleu :)

 

[World Citizen]

The drawers for the sumps are ready. They where already build, but I have now painted them en made some wheel underneath them.

This is the closed state.

This is open

These are the wheeles they ride on.

For the left sump I needed to make a little step up.

Which results in this. Tubes will go true the cutout in the middle.

 

[World Citizen]

I needed to make space for electronics. In my other aquarium I have a whole cabinet with alle electronics lined up nicely, but I have noticed I never touch them. I controll everything with the Apex so there is no use in touching the returnpumpcontroller or temp controller. The things work and thats about it.

So I dicided to tuck them away in this aquarium. I used a deadspace in the top of the aquarium stand.

I took a board and finished it with melamine.

I added some hinges.

And stuck it in top of the stand. This picture is closed state.

When open it folds down and electronics are visible (not yet)
Everything is tucked away in that deadspot.

 

[World Citizen]

The PVC is done. Maybe I need to tweak something when water is going true it, but thats no problem. Only the last little outflow pipes need to be glued, but I'll do this when the freshwater test is done.

The top blukhead is used for waterchange or as bypass for the rollerfilter. The bottem 2 pipes are the passtrue from the first sump to the second sump.

THe 2 pipes end up in the second sump.

On the far right end sits the returnpimp.

The 2 extra pipes for the Herbie drain end up in the second sump. The will get a little endpipe on the unions, but that will be done when the freshwatertest is done.

 

[World Citizen]

The overflow is done including standpipes. It can be tweaked when the leaktesting will b done, but this should be it.

I used old Acryl plates which are used in balconies. It's scratched, but that doesn't matter.

I cut the 4 sides

It cleaned it with alcohol and glued it with aquariumglue.

I first glued the edges, and then did the traditional in corner line.

Here the bottom is glued, and the top is loose.

I bought a wier and glued that with superglue

I cut the pipes to length
- 1e left full drain
- 2e left drip drain
- 3e left return
- 4e left emergency

Result. (Return will be cut to length)

 

[World Citizen]

2 small things.

I made a shelf on the backside for the dosing container and for a osmosis container. The dosing units are going to be mounted on the backwall, and the containers will be placed on the shelf. On the right side there will be an osmosis containter. Water wil dripp in the tank via a floatswitch, and the osmosis container will be filled automaticly.

And I made a few outlets for the Skimmer/ Clarisea/ UV. These outlets are individually connected to the Apex power strip so I can switch them.

 

[World Citizen]

It took a while and I had to fix a few things here and there, but it think al the Tech is in. I made a few adjustments but I feel like I am where I want to be.

I am currently running the first leak test. The testing consist of a few stages, so I hope to be done at the end of the weekend. The first test seems to be ok.

For now I am done with

- Dosingpumps.
- Apex, heater, Sensorsmodules, 1Link module en EB powersupply
- Probes and dosinghoses
- Lightning, current, network and alarm

Photo with tech hatch closed.

Photo with tech hatch open.

 

[World Citizen]

The lights are in. I went for the XR30 G5 Pro's.

I made a frame against the ceiling.

And I made a box wich houses the powerbricks and kabels. It slides over the frame and is fastned with screws.
I need to find little plugs to hide the screws and need to fix the power cable and smoke detector.

And I made a oops. I did a powertest while the heater was connected and dry.
The thing started to smoke like crazy!

 

[World Citizen]

Yes, we have salt water and the heater is running! I strarted glueing the rocks to the overflowbox, but am a bit short on rocks. I'll find them the next few weeks and will fill in the holes.

I had a great time (not) trying to fix a leak. One glued connection was leaking due to a mismatch in PVC. It seems not everyone agrees on what 40mm is exactly.

And for the fun it was the worst possible PVC connection in the whole setup. It took me 2 hours to get it out... but it's done.
Her is the bugger.

 

[World Citizen]

I started the fishing.

I want to catch the fish in the old tank so I can quarantaine them. I want to do this without disturbing the old tank so I bought a Aqua Medic Fishtrap.
Last night I placed is, and this morning there was trust (hehehe). The first 2 fishes are catched.