Ron Reefman's new 90g build

[Ron Reefman]

If you can share any picks that would be great. I friend of mine runs these on a 65 Mustang he built just for these events. I always wanted to run a SCCA car but never did. I did as of last year though run my '15 Mustang GT/PP frequently at HPDE and closed track events. Felt it was safer to get the need for speed at a proper place than being stupid on the street. So still got to wrench on the car as I wanted to yet keep it comfortable enough for a daily driver or wife and I long distance road trips.

Sounds like a blast and have a great time!

Is your friend going to be at the Runoffs? I'd look him up and take some photos. I start a thread in the lounge once I get to the track and I'll post photos. I'll also post a link here so you can find it easily.

I completely agree with your finding a safe way to get that need for speed out of your system. That's why I started in the first place. When I was in my late teens I did way too much drag racing on Woodward Ave in Detroit. Every Fri & Sat night the place was crazy with kids drag racing. I had a 1967 Nova with a 375 hp 327.

Cool! Following!

Glad to have you along for the ride Daniel!

I am following too. I forgot to write it! I love your tanks, and I am enjoying this journey too. I will have some questions for you about visiting the keys in the spring of 2021.

Ask questions. I'm retired and I love sharing what I can. Snorkeling in the Keys is a trip we do 3 or 4 times a year now. We love it and it's so easy to do. In fact next year we are going to the British Virgin Islands and doing a snorkeling week on a 65 foot live aboard catamaran that only has 4 customer cabins (and they each have a private head!).

 

[c.poindexter]

Looking forward to the build. I like the mat before the tanks.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Looking forward to the build. I like the mat before the tanks.

Thanks. It's just an inexpensive mat I found on the internet.

The build goes on hold for a week while I'm away and then I'll have 10 days to get a bit more done (I need to build a new top for the stand). Then it's another trip and away for another week. Being retired can be fairly hard work if you do it right!

 

[Jeto2004]

Looking forward to see this build! Any pictures of the new tank?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Looking forward to see this build! Any pictures of the new tank?

This is where it's at right now. I'll let it cure for the next 10 days as I'll be out of town as a working photographer!

 

[Jeto2004]

This is where it's at right now. I'll let it cure for the next 10 days as I'll be out of town as a working photographer!

Looking really sharp!!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks. I'm thinking I'll do something to make the entire back glass white. I don't know if that's a thin sheet of acrylic or FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic) or even paint (not likely). The trick is I don't want the back getting so thick that I have a hard time keeping a magnet attached bake there. I'm considering a wavemaker or even a gyre on either side of the overflow. The glass is already 3/8" thick.

 

[Katrina71]

Loving the new build. I was thinking about making our back glass frosted. Watching to see what you do.

 

[fishface NJ]

I always enjoy your builds. This one looks slick

 

[C. Eymann]

Thanks. I'm thinking I'll do something to make the entire back glass white. I don't know if that's a thin sheet of acrylic or FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic) or even paint (not likely). The trick is I don't want the back getting so thick that I have a hard time keeping a magnet attached bake there. I'm considering a wavemaker or even a gyre on either side of the overflow. The glass is already 3/8" thick.

Have a sign company /shop near by? you could have them cut you a sheet of decal material in the color of your choosing, no mess of painting and completely reversible.

 

[fishface NJ]

This is where it's at right now. I'll let it cure for the next 10 days as I'll be out of town as a working photographer!

Ron,
Are you by chance the Ron who lived near Fort Myers that use to post on Pro4um?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ron,
Are you by chance the Ron who lived near Fort Myers that use to post on Pro4um?

@fishface NJ , no, that wasn't me.

Sorry for the long time away from this thread. But I did a week long photo shoot at the SCCA Runoffs (the National Championships for amateur sports car racing) at Virginia International Raceway.

A couple of my favorite shots:

The start of the Spec Racer class (I raced in this class for 4 seasons back in the late 1980's).

This is a friend of mine who wrenched on my race car back when he was in his late teens and I was in my mid 30's. He's in his early 50's now and that makes me...

And then my wife and I took a trip to Moab, Utah with a group called the Road Scholars (a great travel group). We were 16 people with 3 guides. Two are professional photographers with good knowledge of the area and one guide who has intimate local knowledge and is an accomplished amateur photographer. My wife and I shot over 10,000 photos at Arches and Canyonland National Parks and Dead Horse State Park.

And here are a couple of my favorites from there:

Mesa Arch about 30 minutes after sunrise. The orange on the underside of the arch is reflected light from the red/orange rocks 500' below the arch on the other side. The sun is actually up behind the arch to the left.

This is Balanced Rock at sunset with a fairly rare and dramatic cloud formation behind it. Even our pro photographer guides were taking shots of this because it's so rare to have cloudy skies in the high desert around Moab.

OK, enough about my fun travels. BTW there are many more photos from these trips in threads posted in the Lounge Forum.


So now I'm back to work on my new 90g tank. The adhesive silicone has had 3 weeks or more to cure. So I moved the tank out to the driveway for a water test. Always a scary time for an amateur DIY tank builder! Well, the tank did fine, but I had a small leak in the overflow wall. I emptied the tank and put a bead of silicone up the inside of the 2 seams in the acrylic wall that were bonded with acrylic adhesive. I just didn't get the cut surface of the side wall quite smooth enough and there was one pin hole size leak into the area behind the wall.

Yesterday morning I ran another test and it has been holding for 24 hours. But this morning it's raining. So I couldn't see a leak even if there was one. And the rain has raised the water level so it's overflowing at the weir wall and spilling out the holes in the glass bottom. I expect to leave the tank full for 1 or 2 more days anyway.

Over the next few days I will start a new countertop for the stand (2 reinforced kitchen cabinets). The current version is only 25" from front to back for a 24" tank. The new tank is 30" so I'll make the new top 31" x 72". This will be 9" longer than the current top. I will open up the space between the 2 cabinets so I can fit a bit bigger auto top off reservoir and a small chiller. I'll also make a cover or door from leftover cabinet material to close off the center opening. The current 20g ATO reservoir is in the right side cabinet and the sump/refugium is in the left side cabinet. This is what the current stand looks like.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

@fishface NJ , no, that wasn't me.

Sorry for the long time away from this thread. But I did a week long photo shoot at the SCCA Runoffs (the National Championships for amateur sports car racing) at Virginia International Raceway.

A couple of my favorite shots:

The start of the Spec Racer class (I raced in this class for 4 seasons back in the late 1980's).

This is a friend of mine who wrenched on my race car back when he was in his late teens and I was in my mid 30's. He's in his early 50's now and that makes me...

And then my wife and I took a trip to Moab, Utah with a group called the Road Scholars (a great travel group). We were 16 people with 3 guides. Two are professional photographers with good knowledge of the area and one guide who has intimate local knowledge and is an accomplished amateur photographer. My wife and I shot over 10,000 photos at Arches and Canyonland National Parks and Dead Horse State Park.

And here are a couple of my favorites from there:

Mesa Arch about 30 minutes after sunrise. The orange on the underside of the arch is reflected light from the red/orange rocks 500' below the arch on the other side. The sun is actually up behind the arch to the left.

This is Balanced Rock at sunset with a fairly rare and dramatic cloud formation behind it. Even our pro photographer guides were taking shots of this because it's so rare to have cloudy skies in the high desert around Moab.

OK, enough about my fun travels. BTW there are many more photos from these trips in threads posted in the Lounge Forum.


So now I'm back to work on my new 90g tank. The adhesive silicone has had 3 weeks or more to cure. So I moved the tank out to the driveway for a water test. Always a scary time for an amateur DIY tank builder! Well, the tank did fine, but I had a small leak in the overflow wall. I emptied the tank and put a bead of silicone up the inside of the 2 seams in the acrylic wall that were bonded with acrylic adhesive. I just didn't get the cut surface of the side wall quite smooth enough and there was one pin hole size leak into the area behind the wall.

Yesterday morning I ran another test and it has been holding for 24 hours. But this morning it's raining. So I couldn't see a leak even if there was one. And the rain has raised the water level so it's overflowing at the weir wall and spilling out the holes in the glass bottom. I expect to leave the tank full for 1 or 2 more days anyway.

Over the next few days I will start a new countertop for the stand (2 reinforced kitchen cabinets). The current version is only 25" from front to back for a 24" tank. The new tank is 30" so I'll make the new top 31" x 72". This will be 9" longer than the current top. I will open up the space between the 2 cabinets so I can fit a bit bigger auto top off reservoir and a small chiller. I'll also make a cover or door from leftover cabinet material to close off the center opening. The current 20g ATO reservoir is in the right side cabinet and the sump/refugium is in the left side cabinet. This is what the current stand looks like.

The new tank looks super nice Ron!

 

[Peace River]

Nice work all the way around Ron!!!

 

[CasaReefer]

Racing and Reefing... The Man Knows How To Live... Great Work.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Excellent work Ron, looks very good! Bravo!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the comments and welcome questions and criticizes as well.

I can't wait to get this set up with all the stuff from the current 40g and 16g tanks. And have more room for a few more RFA's!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Yesterday I started testing the flow through the unusual weir I made (holes instead of teeth). I have a 900 to 1000 gph flow rate right now. I'm going to open up some of the holes more and maybe even drill some in the sides of the weir (that wasn't my original plan). I'd like to get more flow here as I think I'm going to have 2 return pumps and I'd like to keep in-tank wavemakers to a minimum. Flow thru the fuge and sump will be from one drain and a second drain may be set up as a closed loop or some variation of a closed loop.

More testing and some modifications over the next couple of days.

I've got 2 holding tanks (a 40g breeder and a 20g) set up in my reef room (a spare bedroom). The 20g is full of water and running. The 40g is about half full and I'll make more RO/DI water as soon as I use some of the reject water and have room to store more.

I hope to start moving corals and critters to the holding tanks by early this week.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I started moving things from my little 16g 'overstock' tank to a 'holding' tank in the reef room last night. I had bought a UV flashlight (used to find dog or cat pee?!?!). It was less than $10 online. It works great at finding small corals and anemones that fluoresce in the tank. I found a small multi colored RFA hiding under a big clump of calcareous algae. I had no idea it was there. ;Jawdrop

Today I'll finish moving livestock from that tank and get it torn down and cleaned. Then the real work begins. moving everything from a very full 40g tank to the holding tank. ;Wideyed

 

[Ron Reefman]

The 16g 'extra' tank is now gone and clean. Everything moved to a 20g holding tank. I was surprised by some of the critters that were alive in the tank. Two chitons, three emerald crabs, 4 serpent stars and two small red feather dusters. These were all things I put in the tank, but almost never saw them again. So a happy surprised to see them again and still alive!

I did put the HOB filter and the little skimmer on the 40g breeder holding tank in the reef room. This morning I removed all the anemones from the sand and started pulling apart rocks in the 40g cube. Most of the smaller stuff I could get loose is moved. But there are 8 to 10 big chunks left in the cube. I don't think most of them are really big rocks, just 2 or 3 slightly smaller rocks held together buy corals! That's tomorrows project.

Oh, one huge deal that surprised the heck out of me. I had a Hollywood Stunner that I grew out from just 4 mouths as a frag that was less than a 1/4" in diameter. I glued it to a big magnet and hung it on the side of the cube. This morning it was about 20" wide, it hung down 6" from the magnet and out 5" from the glass and had grown 5" flat up the glass side. I was sure it would break into pieces when I tried to move it. At the very least the fan of flat coral above the magnet and stuck to the glass would break off.

I removed the outer magnet and started to try and gently wiggle the coral from side to side parallel with the side glass. I was totally shocked then the entire coral came loose and in mint perfect condition! I even carried it to the reef room and hung it on the end glass of the 40g breeder holding tank without even a chip off the fragile growing edge! The 40g cube has a big clean spot where the Stunner was and there is no sign that any coral adhered to the glass!

This is the Hollywood Stunner.

And this is the current look of the 40g breeder and the 20g tank with everything I've moved so far. Note the sea cucumber up at the water surface at the left end of the 20g tank. ;Happy