Freelamp944
Community Member
Hello everyone!
Just to recap my meet and greet post, I got my first tank for free from my brother-in-law. He got the tank from a coworker who had it in storage for years and just wanted to get rid of it. Here is a picture from back in late April when I first picked it up.
Its a little hard to tell in the picture, but the finish on the stand was in pretty bad shape. Also, it didn't match any of the other furniture in our house, so we decided to paint it black. The next issue was the tank was not drilled for an overflow. I ended up taking it to my lfs to get drilled, but if I had to do it again I would probably drill it myself. In order to save some work, I almost painted the inside black as well. After doing some work in it, I'm very happy I went with white. It makes it so much easier to see everything. Here it is after painting the stand, back of the tank, and the tank's trim.
I didn't paint the top rim of the tank, because I didn't want to risk paint flaking off into the tank when putting on or removing the canopy. The tank did come with a glass cover but it already had multiple chips in it. We also have 3 cats so I wanted something solid on top. A canopy was definitely the way to go. I decided to build my own due to price and ability to match the stand. I used 1x2 pine to to build the frame and then aspen edge glued boards to create the body around it. There is an L shaped door for access, mounted with SOSS #204 invisible hinges. The boards have to be mortised to install the hinges, but with the router jig they sell its surprisingly easy. To match the stand trim I put 3 half round trim pieces against each other. This is my first furniture type project and I'm really happy with the results. Here is a few shots of the build process. The close up is of the mortise that the hinges sit in.
I still need to fill all the nail holes and paint it to match. Here's some pictures of it on the tank as well as one of the overly curious cats!
Unfortunately, the door on the stand makes it difficult to fit most sumps into the stand. I could fit a 20g long in there, but like many of you, I dream of one day having a mandarin. In order to maximize my refugium volume, I used a 10g and a 15g. The 10g has just enough room for a skimmer and return section. Then I have a T on the return with one side going to the tank and one side going to a manifold and the 15 gallon. I originally wanted to drill the tanks to connect them. I quickly learned that drilling thin glass is very difficult. After cracking my first 10 gallon, I decided to go with a siphon method instead. I made 5 1in siphon tubes between the tanks with PVC. Just one of them should keep up with the flow I want, but I'm really trying to minimize the risk of losing the siphon. I also made sure the return section can be emptied before overflowing the refugium. It does still get uncomfortably close to overflowing, so I'm also planning on adding a duel float switch setup. This would kill the return pump in a siphon failure before anything got close to overflowing. If the siphon does not prove to be reliable, I may rework the whole sump at some point.
I made sure to leave enough volume in the sump to handle and backflow from the tank. To be extra careful I also plumbed in a reverse check valve. For anyone not familiar with that method, its basically a check valve that runs from the return pump above the tank and lets air into the line when the pump shuts off. It makes it really easy to just unscrew the valve for cleaning without taking apart any other plumbing.
I still need to do cable management and see if I can mount a filter sock somehow. The overflow I'm using is the eshopps eclipse with a bean animal setup. Here is a shot of how it looks right now.
I also picked up some rock off a facebook group. I put it in bleach for a week and then completely dried it in the sun. Next, I rinsed and let it dry 3 more times. Then, I left it in a brute trash can full of ro/di with prime. Finally, I let it completely dry out again. I feel like its pretty clean at this point, but I'm still going to monitor the water for chlorine. I've been working on some aquascaping. I feels like I'm finally getting close to filling the tank. Here's what I have so far.
The rock on the white box in the background is aesthetically pretty different from the other rocks so I'm probably not going to use it. I weighed everything that is set up in the picture and its about 88lbs.
I still have a ways to go, but I'm slowly getting there. I also have a 1 month old baby, so he is a bigger focus right now. This forum has been a huge help with getting this far! I'll keep posting updates as things progress and try to answer any questions you guys have!
Just to recap my meet and greet post, I got my first tank for free from my brother-in-law. He got the tank from a coworker who had it in storage for years and just wanted to get rid of it. Here is a picture from back in late April when I first picked it up.
Its a little hard to tell in the picture, but the finish on the stand was in pretty bad shape. Also, it didn't match any of the other furniture in our house, so we decided to paint it black. The next issue was the tank was not drilled for an overflow. I ended up taking it to my lfs to get drilled, but if I had to do it again I would probably drill it myself. In order to save some work, I almost painted the inside black as well. After doing some work in it, I'm very happy I went with white. It makes it so much easier to see everything. Here it is after painting the stand, back of the tank, and the tank's trim.
I didn't paint the top rim of the tank, because I didn't want to risk paint flaking off into the tank when putting on or removing the canopy. The tank did come with a glass cover but it already had multiple chips in it. We also have 3 cats so I wanted something solid on top. A canopy was definitely the way to go. I decided to build my own due to price and ability to match the stand. I used 1x2 pine to to build the frame and then aspen edge glued boards to create the body around it. There is an L shaped door for access, mounted with SOSS #204 invisible hinges. The boards have to be mortised to install the hinges, but with the router jig they sell its surprisingly easy. To match the stand trim I put 3 half round trim pieces against each other. This is my first furniture type project and I'm really happy with the results. Here is a few shots of the build process. The close up is of the mortise that the hinges sit in.
I still need to fill all the nail holes and paint it to match. Here's some pictures of it on the tank as well as one of the overly curious cats!
Unfortunately, the door on the stand makes it difficult to fit most sumps into the stand. I could fit a 20g long in there, but like many of you, I dream of one day having a mandarin. In order to maximize my refugium volume, I used a 10g and a 15g. The 10g has just enough room for a skimmer and return section. Then I have a T on the return with one side going to the tank and one side going to a manifold and the 15 gallon. I originally wanted to drill the tanks to connect them. I quickly learned that drilling thin glass is very difficult. After cracking my first 10 gallon, I decided to go with a siphon method instead. I made 5 1in siphon tubes between the tanks with PVC. Just one of them should keep up with the flow I want, but I'm really trying to minimize the risk of losing the siphon. I also made sure the return section can be emptied before overflowing the refugium. It does still get uncomfortably close to overflowing, so I'm also planning on adding a duel float switch setup. This would kill the return pump in a siphon failure before anything got close to overflowing. If the siphon does not prove to be reliable, I may rework the whole sump at some point.
I made sure to leave enough volume in the sump to handle and backflow from the tank. To be extra careful I also plumbed in a reverse check valve. For anyone not familiar with that method, its basically a check valve that runs from the return pump above the tank and lets air into the line when the pump shuts off. It makes it really easy to just unscrew the valve for cleaning without taking apart any other plumbing.
I still need to do cable management and see if I can mount a filter sock somehow. The overflow I'm using is the eshopps eclipse with a bean animal setup. Here is a shot of how it looks right now.
I also picked up some rock off a facebook group. I put it in bleach for a week and then completely dried it in the sun. Next, I rinsed and let it dry 3 more times. Then, I left it in a brute trash can full of ro/di with prime. Finally, I let it completely dry out again. I feel like its pretty clean at this point, but I'm still going to monitor the water for chlorine. I've been working on some aquascaping. I feels like I'm finally getting close to filling the tank. Here's what I have so far.
The rock on the white box in the background is aesthetically pretty different from the other rocks so I'm probably not going to use it. I weighed everything that is set up in the picture and its about 88lbs.
I still have a ways to go, but I'm slowly getting there. I also have a 1 month old baby, so he is a bigger focus right now. This forum has been a huge help with getting this far! I'll keep posting updates as things progress and try to answer any questions you guys have!
