Doug's 58 Gallon Reset

[dough]

As many of you know, I've been in this hobby for a long time, well since 1995. My tank has gone from the Wal-Mart 10 gallon to the present day 58 gallon. Due to size limitations I'm limited to a 36" wide tank, or a corner tank.

A tank reset has been a long time in coming. My objectives are pretty straight forward. With some of the new set ups on RC it seems to me that less is more in rock work and corals.

Wife Freindly!
Change the plumbing/overflow
Taller stand making it easier to see the tank and add more room under the tank!
The tank needs new sand
Get rid of the "Rock" wall look and open up some spaces
Down size the coral farm that I have
Rethink the sump and refug set-up
Rewire the electrical for easy access
Get rid of the canopy
Change fish selection although I gave my mom and dad my 7 year old pair of yellow gobies the other day and I miss seeing them. Wow 7 years!!!!

Step one was to buy a new Oceanic 58 gallon tank from Sammy at AquaBuys. It was not reef ready but does have the starfire front glass. The overflow on the RR is just too big IMO for such a small tank.

Next was to decide on a stand design. After reading through http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1355576">http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1355576</a> and [IMG]http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1169964">http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1169964</a> I came up with a design. Sorry for the lack of build pictures. But the stand was pretty much made with a Skill Saw, Miter Saw and Kregs "Pocket Hole" jig. So here is the stand as of tonight. The outside has been stained Red Mahogany as has the first coating of Spar Varnish. Only two more coatings to go.

[IMG]http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii102/drouner/Build2.jpg alt="" />

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I can say the the pocket holes are very strong, but I did use wood glue just in case. The stand is probably overbuilt but.....


Next up the overflow choice and drilling the tank! Joe pay attention...

I do need to thank Joe/Sailfish for his patience and suggestions during this process. A shut also goes out to Brandon as well. Thanks guys!

 

[sailfish]

Hey Looking Good!

You been holding out on us with the carpenter skills.

You my miss your gobies but your sps don't besides you can still visit them.

Joe

 

[dough]

Pretty much from the beginning I've stuck to the "Hang on the Back" equipment. Well, the current version has evolved and I now have a sump and over flow box. I've never liked the idea of having a "U" overflow box as it adds another possibility in the "What if category". I don't run an aqua lifter, so from time to time it does develop a bubble in the tube which restricts flow, and the tank has come very close to overflowing because of this. The simple solution is to add an aqua lifter to it but to me it is one more plug to plug in somewhere.

I've always liked the Calfo or Horizontal overflow concept. I had a one built last spring (08) to fit my reset. Told you that this has been in the planning stages for some time. If I had the money for a custom tank I would have gone with the outside overflow box. Much cleaner look and does take up any tank space. But when it came time to decide about installing it I just felt it took up too much space in the tank. 4" of space in only 18" wide tank is some real estate. So after several e-mails to the Glass Holes guys http://www.glass-holes.com">http://www.glass-holes.com</a>, I went with their 700 gph over flow kit. I received it within 3 days and was impressed with the whole experience. Still debating the Calfo vs. GH box, I finally just went with the GH. We'll see. The kit comes with the hole saw, the box and template and of course some candy I guess to get you through the 15 minutes of drilling the hole. I've drilled holes in my current tank before for a CL system with a Dremel and this was sooooo much easier. Lindsey, one of my twin daughters manned the water spray bottle for me.

[IMG]http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii102/drouner/Build6.jpg alt="" />

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And I painted the back using Krylon Black. It took about 4 coats.

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Next up is to finish the stand and light hanging system. Since I can't drill holes in the ceiling, I'm going with this set-up: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2009-04/diy/index.php">http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2009-04/diy/index.php</a>

I should have the tank water tested in the next day or so. I'm working to have the tank transitioned over on Friday.

 

[dough]

Forgot this picture

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[realfish]

dough;342410 wrote:
Next up is to finish the stand and light hanging system. Since I can't drill holes in the ceiling, I'm going with this set-up: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2009-04/diy/index.php">http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2009-04/diy/index.php</a>

[/QUOTE]

That's a cool idea. Thought about something like that myself, but never would have thought of conduit.

 

[zesty]

Looks Great Doug, nothing like your own hard labour to appreciate at the end, as well as having a great story to share!

 

[weaglereefer]

Nice looking stand!

 

[dough]

Thanks everyone for the complements

au01st;342441 wrote: Nice looking stand!

I wanted to go with a "table" look if you will.

 

[mockery]

I really like the calfo overflow! That is a definite for my next tank. How does ts to attach to the glass?

 

[dough]

Mockery;342455 wrote: I really like the calfo overflow! That is a definite for my next tank. How does ts to attach to the glass?

I was going to silicone it in. I had an acrylic overflow box siliconed in for years on my old setup. Never had the silicone fail between the glass and the box.

The only down side that I can think of with the the horizontal, is if your stand/tank is not prefectly level your going to get more flow on one end. Does that matter, could be an issue somewheres down the line.

 

[purplegorilla]

very nice Dough

 

[dough]

ankur1113;342594 wrote: Looking good Doug.. I wish you could go bigger in size since you have good coral collection. How is that chalice.

Both are doing great. The pink one has 4x the frag size. The watermelon is doing good, but it's a slow grower and it maybe do to the fact that it is in less light.

 

[ryanh487]

Big D;348150 wrote: <span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS">Allright... we need more pics! I've seen it in person, it looks awesome! </span>

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS">Where's the pics?... </span>






<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS">D</span>

+1!

any improvements on the sps's reaction to the t5 switchover?

 

[dough]

By requests, here a few more. I'll take some more this afternoon.

Again thanks to X-El-Presidente Gray for all his help. I would have never completed the change over in 8 hours!

Check off list leading up to Brandon's arrival:

All electrical disconnected and removed
Remove hood
Disconnect Calcium reactor
50 gallons of saltwater made up
25 gallon of R/O standing by
6-5 gallon clean bucks
50 gallon bins from Brandon delivered by El Presidente Raj
60# of Indo Pacific sand ready
LR ready from Sailfish
Find fish nets
tarps to cover floor
towels
move office desk
On and on and one
Worry


I know I should have taken more pictures during the build but as stated above I'll take quite a few more this afternoon to show final set-up. Once this switch over gets going there is not a lot of time to stop and take pictures. All though Brandon jumped right in and earned his keep for a few hours.

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Brandon releasing my anthias which was actually the only casualty of the move.

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Brandon removing the snails etc out of the sand bed. The sand was 100% shot. There was virtually no texture/grit left to the sand when we removed it. I'm guessing most of the reasons for my algae etc was due to the sand being shot. The sand had plenty of worms. We used a dust pan to remove pretty much all of the sand.

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The empty tank that now belongs to Ryan.

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[sailfish]

Looks like fun.

I guess you are going to make me come up there before I get to see the end result.

Joe

 

[dough]

Keeping with my plan of having an open aquascaped tank, the new step-up has 12 pieces of rock including the Mag-Rock on the back wall. The aquascaping has one large structure, a small island on the left (2 rocks) and the Mag-Rock on the back wall to give the tank some depth. I like the mag-Rock as it is light and the magnets are strong. The rock is easily moved to help with cleaning the back wall. The rock structure is held together using KZ Speedglue which turns out to be a fast setting mortar of some kind and works under water. I also used it to attach frag and SPS corals such as much large stag-horn without any detrimental affects to the coral's tissue. You can pick the Speedglue up from Chris at Einstein's. Unlike epoxy, the Speedglue really blends in with the rock color.

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The doors will be added last -----

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I've been running a Fauna Marin 6 lamp T5 set-up since the end of last summer. Not to get into the pros and cons of T5's, I do like the flexibility of using a multitude of lamps on the market to get the color you're looking for. But I do miss the shimmer of the MH. I've been thinking about adding some LEDs to see if that will give me some shimmer. LED's just seem like future of reef tank lighting. I find this lamp interested, and have considered modding my fixture to add one or two. http://www.reefbuilders.com/2009/04/14/sunbrite-lighting-system-rethinking-implement-aquarium-leds/">http://www.reefbuilders.com/2009/04/14/sunbrite-lighting-system-rethinking-implement-aquarium-leds/</a>

Okay I'm drifting OT. Here is a another front shot with the fixture and my hangers.

[IMG]http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii102/drouner/Build15.jpg alt="" />

Along with the reset, I've bought all new lamps. Current Lamp set-up is Front - Back:
Fuji Purple
ATI Blue +
AquaScience 22K
ATI Blue +
ATI Aqua Blue
Ati Blue +

Greens seemed to be washed out though, so I'm still switching lamps. Ryan, several SPS have started to color back up.

Close up of the Sunlight "Sun Lift". I need to put some end caps on the hanger just to add that final touch. It's on my knock out list.

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Another FTS

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[sailfish]

Looks good! You need to show case those chalices.

That ugly orange plate in front looks out of place just give it to me.

Joe

 

[dough]

sailfish;348226 wrote: Looks good! You need to show case those chalices.

That ugly orange plate in front looks out of place just give it to me.

Joe

You can have the plate and Watermelon Chalice behind it. NOT!

 

[skriz]

Looks great Doug. I can't believe you actually got that lazy bumb ex-pres do some work!

 

[dough]

Skriz;348679 wrote: Looks great Doug. I can't believe you actually got that lazy bumb ex-pres do some work!

I know! There must be a catch in there somewhere that he's not diclosed yet....