SCA 90 Gallon - 100% Custom

Okinawa_reefer

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What's up guys. It's finally time I begin my build thread. I've been slowly working on this tank for the past 5 months now. With work, family, and school I've not had the time to put in a lot of work into the build like I would have wished. That said, I just recently finished my college courses and now have my weekends back!

I bought the tank used off of Craigslist. I was looking for a 120, but the dimensions of this 90 gallon fit my spot just perfectly, and I really enjoyed that it's rimless. So I decided to go ahead and pick it up. Here's a picture of the tank when I brought it home. Note* to the right of the tank is an Ikea cabinet that I purchased so that I can put all of my electronics in.

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After a bit of time, I decided that the stand was just plain boring. So I ventured to spruce it up a bit. I completely disassembled it, added several pieces of trim, and then made the decision to paint it white. This now means, that I wasted my money on the black Ikea cabinet and need to make another trip to Indy Ikea to purchase the same cabinet, but in white.

Now on to the sump...When I bought the tank on CL, it came with a Trigger cube sump. I really enjoyed the form factor and how it still left a bit of room in the stand for other pieces of equipment. That said, I was really sold on the rollermats versus having to change out the filter socks every so often. So I purchased a ClariSea Roller Filter and used an reciprocating saw to retro fit the roller filter. I completely cut out the filter sock section and then spent hours sanding down all of the remaining edges of acrylic. After sanding, I then bought an acrylic polishing kit to try and hide as much as I could. I think it came out pretty decent. Just thinking about how much effort that took, I wish I would have just bought a new sump with the roller mat already built in LOL. Here's some photos of that process:
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After completely destroying the sump to make it fit the roller mat, and after several weeks working on the stand this is what I've come up with. Don't pay attention to the dirty/dusty tank. I haven't had time to clean it yet!
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Ok, so on to plumbing...I've gained inspiration from several reefers on this forum through all of their amazing plumbing skills and I wanted to follow suit. Just to name a couple, @Broadfield & @Eight both have amazing build threads with very detailed walkthroughs on how they went about their plumbing. Aside from the labor that I put into the plumbing, I would not have come out with such an amazing end result without those two build threads, amongst others as well. So, here's some photos of my sump area that's all plumbed, and has most of my equipment in place. Don't mind the lack of cable management; nothing other than the sump lights are plugged in as I still need to build the control panels (and buy the new cabinet).
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And here's a short video clip of the sump area. If you made it this far through my post, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next step; aquascaping!
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Okinawa_reefer

Okinawa_reefer

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Is it going to be difficult getting your CO2 tank out of there to refill?

Slightly. In order to take it out, I actually have to pull the ATO container out. I've left ample slack in all of the wires and tubing to allow me to slide it forward without needing to unplug anything. Not the best case scenario, but sometimes you've got to work with what you got!
 
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Okinawa_reefer

Okinawa_reefer

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Plumbing looks great! Like seeing the Avast CaRx that is going to be used as well. Following along!

Thank you for the kind words. I was on the hunt for a CaRx and was initially going to order one from Geo’s Reef, but then came across the thread for the Avast Marine reactor that was recently revamped. They had a sale for the initial orders so I decided to jump on it. I tested it with tap water in my sink and was pretty impressed. It’s going to be a while before I have a need for it, so now it just sits there holding it’s place, patiently waiting to be filled with media and saltwater lol.
 
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Okinawa_reefer

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Here’s my attempt at a NSA. I know the lighting isn’t the greatest. And my garage is a mess. I need to use the marco mortar on all of the joints. That’ll have to wait for another day. When I get that part done I’ll do some new photos of the scape in the tank.

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Okinawa_reefer

Okinawa_reefer

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Tank was filled with water approximately three weeks ago. I’ve elected to use the Microbacter dry rock starter kit to do a fish less cycle. I dosed the ammonia and. XLM last Monday. I’m also using my Seneye to monitor the ammonia in the tank. Currently sitting at 0.052 ppm ammonia.

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Okinawa_reefer

Okinawa_reefer

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As the tank continues to cycle, I’ve been working on my apex cabinet. I put a lot of thought into this to try and make the best use of the small space I’ve given myself in an ikea Besta cabinet. I wanted to make sure that the display side is organized and practical. As you can see I haven’t moved over many of the controllers yet as I ran out of time today, but thought I’d share my progress anyway. Despite how much planning I did, I think I’m still going to have a heck of a time organizing all of the cables on the inside.

The Besta cabinet opens to the left, and the display portion drops down to reveal where all of my cables, ecotech battery backup, and apex modules will be mounted.

Be happy to hear your thoughts!

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Milkman420

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What type of material did you use to hang your controllers and power bars to. I just purchased a besta cabinet as well but went with the double high one but want to know what material to buy to make the false backing like that. I know I need the pig tails and the wire grommets just not sure what the board is called or is it an electronic board from marine depot or like that
 
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Okinawa_reefer

Okinawa_reefer

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What type of material did you use to hang your controllers and power bars to. I just purchased a besta cabinet as well but went with the double high one but want to know what material to buy to make the false backing like that. I know I need the pig tails and the wire grommets just not sure what the board is called or is it an electronic board from marine depot or like that

I essentially built a cabinet inside the cabinet. Reason being is that the back of the ikea cabinet is that super thin cardboard stuff and I wanted to be able to mount equipment to all sides. I used 1/2” plywood for the most of the cabinet. The front drop down piece is 1/2” MDF that I had laying around from another project. I used mdf for the drop down since it is on display and plywood would have been somewhat difficult to make super smooth cuts

Beautiful setup
Thanks man! Really appreciate the kind words!
 
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Okinawa_reefer

Okinawa_reefer

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Great build and I am following. I am looking to upgrade to this same SCA 90 and appreciate all the possibilities you are showing!
I appreciate the follow! The tanks is ever so close to completing it's cycle. I have some fish that have gone through QT and are just patiently waiting to be put into the tank!
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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