Gavin’s Reef 60 gallon breeder

[jonelder68]

Figured I’d start a build thread. I’m horrible about taking pictures as I go along (horrible at pictures in general). So anyways I’ve had a 37 gallon tank for 22 years. Left it at my parents house when I moved out 12 years ago? Luckily they live a mile away so it’s easy for me to stop by and maintain. Though I’ve been training my father over the years. He is a retired civil water treatment engineer though so that helps! Years later my oldest boy 5, youngest 2, and another boy on the way have taken a liking to “grandpas” fish tank so the wife asked why we don’t do one here??? I’ve been trying since we bought our house 11 years ago . Guess just needed kids to encourage mom! So here’s my progress so far. I’ve skipped many steps as I’ve said I’m horrible at taking photos along the way. I’m lucky to get 30 minutes here and there throughout the weekends to work on it so that’s no help! But I’ll try and do better. Will be a slow process also as I refuse to pay these crazy full prices on equipment and it’s also making the wife second guess her idea of a fish tank here . So progress broken down into stages…

 

[jonelder68]

 

[jonelder68]

Built the stand. Price of wood is stupid expensive right now!

 

[jonelder68]

Got the tank drilled for the modular marine 1200gph overflow. Waited about 2 months on it to be built and show up! But worth the wait. Brain at modular marine is awesome to deal with!

 

[jonelder68]

Got the sump stands built and Jax Racks baffle kit. Sump is a matching 60 breeder tank and using a 20L as a display type refugium. Chaeto will be first section of the 60B sump.

 

[jonelder68]

Stand got painted and shadow box made. Frosted the back glass panel with window tint. Made some model rocks and painted them up. Made one for now to see how it worked out. One photo of shadow box in dawn/dusk time and one in full day light spectrum.

 

[jonelder68]

Started on aquascaping with Marco’s rock. Think I’m happy with them for the most part…think I’ll add a little more height on the left side piece. By the time sands in I think it will be too low. Maybe raise it another 1-2”. The 60 breeders shallow height makes it challenging for aquascape I feel while still leaving height for Acro’s etc to have height to grow.

 

[jonelder68]

least enjoyable part so far plumbing . It real tries your patience! I wanted no horizontal sections on drains and while running through wall into basement it really tried my patience! Kids running around screaming while trying to plumb also didn’t help! Believe it’s mostly done for now. Need to go back and add supports/braces wherever I can still. Somehow make cover plate for pipes passing through walls also. Thanks dad for $200 BRS gift card! Bought a whopping 2 gate valves and a ball valve! Also two random return output nozzles. Prices are crazy…

 

[jonelder68]

2 Quanta light bars just showed up! Wow they are nice and a steal for the price! Luca is by far the best person I’ve ever dealt with! Super friendly and almost instant response! His lights are amazing!

This Tuesday the 2 reefi uno pro 2’s show up. Will start building a light canopy/mount once they’re here. I’ve got several car parts from fabrication projects left over. Going to attempt fabricating an adjustable height suspended canopy with some left over rod ends . We’ll see how it turns out soon!

 

[jonelder68]

Also won tons of goodies from BRS over Black Friday sales when I ordered my Marco rocks and reef octopus 150int skimmer. Including an Apex system they included 2 Mr. Chilis for my boys also! They were a big hit! Thanks to BRS and staff for such an amazing prize/gifts!

 

[jonelder68]

Small update….got a “black box” Philzon 165w aquarium light new in box off market place for $40. Running it over the 20L display/mixed refugium. Last week also got a new 100w dimmable Vivosun full spectrum ip65 rated grow light for $60 from a buddy who sells grow supplies. Going to run it over the chaeto and possible Ulva compartment in the sump.

Slow few days at work so made some mounts for them. Cut out brackets on the plasma table and got them all fabricated, hung, and mounted. Still have to get end caps but not bad for left over scraps at work .

Little concerned about light getting into skimmer and causing algae growth. Might install a piece of black acrylic as a shade/divider on top of the sump.

 

[jonelder68]

Had some time at work to cut out/fabricate some brackets for DT lights out of 316 stainless. After USPS lost my 40-20 slotted aluminum the company I ordered from finally decided to send another order a month later. Seems my fully adjustable concept worked out good! Height adjustable by changing pin locations. To get everything re-centered used some leftover heim joints at work allowing me to loosen jam nuts and turn bars to adjust lengths to compensate for the adjustable angles. Also will be nice to lift lights up out of the way for tank management and just locking them up out of the way by sliding a pin out and in. Had to order swagged tubing for the quanta bars. Waited until I got my slotted aluminum and everything mounted so I could get correct length of tube measurements. Hopefully will have them mounted by next weekend. Then onto figuring out cord management for the lights.

 

[jonelder68]

Got both Quanta bars installed and roughly adjusted. Final adjustments once it’s wet and can get some par readings. Waiting on some 3D printed tabs for the light cords and then can get them hopefully cleanly installed so can check lights off as done.

 

[Ernie Mccracken]

Really like your light install, with the angled bars.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along! Your aquascape and light setup look great!

 

[jonelder68]

Really like your light install, with the angled bars.

Thanks! After showing Luca from Quanta my set up he suggested a few changes. Bring his lights more inward to the reefi’s and only about an inch lower than the reefi’s. Also suggest mounting them flat or no more than 10 degree angle. His thoughts were at an angle water would reflect quite a bit and bounce the light output more to areas outside the tank. So ordered some shorter swedged bars and will swap them out once they show up.

 

[shakacuz]

if you were to replicate your light mount with only tslot, how would you go about it? i saw you originally ordered that but order was lost. sucks!

 

[jonelder68]

if you were to replicate your light mount with only tslot, how would you go about it? i saw you originally ordered that but order was lost. sucks!

The Black center bar is still T slot/40-20 aluminum. Yes it took a month to receive after 1st order got lost until they decided to ship a replacement. You could easily piece T slot together with there brackets etc. But just unsure how you could height/length adjustment etc. with it. That’s why I went with heim joint/swedged tubing. Plus I’m a car guy so it’s only natural for me

 

[ColoredRock]

Nice job... been looking for months on how to redo mine... Awesome Idea!

 

[jonelder68]

Here’s the updated, hopefully last version of light configuration. Plan on running it this way. Might adjust once wet and get some par measurements.