Reef Spotlight - October 2010 - "Dez"

[Dez]

I cut the glass for the overflow and siliconed it together

Drilled all the holes with a cordless drill

Finished overflow/wavebox

 

[Dez]

Stand concept

Stand framed (I put a robertson dril bit right through my thumb in the process of building this - yes - through the nail and out the other side)

 

[Dez]

Overflow siliconed on

No bubbles in the silicone job - should be water tight

 

[Dez]

Basement frag tank stand built and painted

Display stand painted

 

[Dez]

Access on picture frame side (This was an Ikea mirror that just happened to fit exactly that I took apart)

Just used pegs

 

[Dez]

Testing closed loop on OM 4 way

Position of outlets of closed loop, fresh water test

 

[Dez]

Wavy Sea oscillating return

Starting the plumbing - that is 2" pipe

The pump

 

[Dez]

Wavebox and Herbie plumbed

Stand lined with pond liner for waterproofing - that white vent now goes from the basement to my canopy to draw the heat/humidity from my canopy to the basement. There is a dehumidistat in the fishroom in the basement to turn on a bathroom fan venting directly outside if the humidity hits 50%

 

[Dez]

Original aquascape - never did change it

 

[Brad Syphus]

Very impressive, nice work, congratulations.

 

[revsgirl]

Gorgeous!! Congrats!

 

[Dez]

Thanks for the complements so far. I'll post more behind the scenes pics and some coral growth pics too as I find time.

Original skimmer before I had a custom extension made

75 gallon fresh water RO DI reservoir

Fan pulling humidity and hot air from Canopy upstairs into the basement fish room

With the canopy open

 

[Dez]

Added 40 gallon mixing bin

Lighting with DIY T5's

2 x 80 watt T5s and 1 x 54 Watt T5 in the middle (a set of these on either side of the halides

 

[skinz78]

Very nice!

Is there a reason you vent the fan to the fish room instead of the outside of the house?

 

[Dez]

skinz, The fish room vents straight outside via a dehumidistat. There is no way to vent it straight outside on the main floor without having visible vent pipe showing or "boxing" around it somehow - in short, it would be ugly. I'm pretty particular about esthetics. You'll notice that there are no powerheads, cords, vortechs, or any other visible hinderances in the display tank. The only plumbing you see is the return elbow from the wavy sea, however, all aquariums have to have a tiny visible pipe to get the water back into the aquarium, so I decided to live with that little bit showing.

 

[Dez]

Coral growth

Sept 09

Sept 10

 

[Dez]

Sept 09

Sept 10

 

[Dez]

Sept 2009

Sept 2010

 

[Dez]

Sept 2009

Sept 2010

 

[Joost's reef]

awesome tank! love the colored sticks