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The 45 Gallon Decision - SPS city


phi delt reefer

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phi delt reefer

5 feet wide, 23.5" deep and 70" tall

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display fuge/sump (that little stand will hold a 20L and is removable)

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another shot;

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left door to the sump area

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cabinet for electronics/supplies/etc.

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light hood (will hold a tek light 6x39w)

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entire thing will be skinned in birch plywood

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display tank area

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Cheers;

Vince

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phi delt reefer

so after about 3 hours this is what i came up with. I dunno how people get all the plumbing into the drawings so i just used some 1.5" cylinders. Feel free to help me figure out how to make the drawing better :)

 

vincetank1.jpg

 

the overflow will be a Bean Animal. It will be hidden in the storage "tower" of the stand and the water will overflow via a 1.5cm cutout in the left wall at the top. So no ugly overflow boxes in this tank.

 

I have two 425gph nano pumps but want an MP40 now. originally my tank was supposed to be a 23 long. its evolved into this beast now! Gonna be $600 further into it then initially budgeted. Hopefully the boss is ok with some OT in the next few months.

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phi delt reefer
Moosehead green? Seriously? That is brilliant, I didn't know anyone still drank that, you must be a Maritimer!

 

 

28 for the price of a 24 sale baby :lol:

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28 for the price of a 24 sale baby :lol:

 

When you say 24 and you're referring to a case of beer, do you say a 'two-four'?

 

That's a sweet looking stand. I skinned mine in birch too. Takes stain better than anything else IMO

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phi delt reefer
When you say 24 and you're referring to a case of beer, do you say a 'two-four'?

 

That's a sweet looking stand. I skinned mine in birch too. Takes stain better than anything else IMO

 

 

"two eight for the price of a two four" :) Yes a full case. In Ontario we have these stupid promotions cause they gouge us on Beer. We pay 30 dollars for a case of domestic and 40 for a case of MGD or anything else imported. They give us four extra beers every now then to keep up quiet.

 

When you skinned yours what did you do with the nail/screw holes? did you use plugs or just filler? I have heard filler doesnt take stain to well but you can pre stain it? I am starting to wish i just bought a damn Biocube :angry:

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"two eight for the price of a two four" :) Yes a full case. In Ontario we have these stupid promotions cause they gouge us on Beer. We pay 30 dollars for a case of domestic and 40 for a case of MGD or anything else imported. They give us four extra beers every now then to keep up quiet.

 

When you skinned yours what did you do with the nail/screw holes? did you use plugs or just filler? I have heard filler doesnt take stain to well but you can pre stain it? I am starting to wish i just bought a damn Biocube :angry:

That's robbery!

 

Overflow looks good. There is always extra money needed that you didn't plan on in these kinds of projects.

 

What size tank are you doing this with?

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phi delt reefer
That's robbery!

 

Overflow looks good. There is always extra money needed that you didn't plan on in these kinds of projects.

 

What size tank are you doing this with?

 

 

roughly; 36" x 23.5" x 12"

 

its in millimeters because its more accurate - my tank area isnt a full 36" so i just took measurements all around went with the shortest distances. I still have to router my top to get it flush in some areas. This was my first real wood project - most of my DIY as a teen was helping my dad "jerry-rig" something into working with 0 consideration for what it looked like. Lets just say my Mom is happy my dad is old and can't build things on his own anymore. :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...
phi delt reefer

Thanksgiving was productive :) - ate a ton and worked on the stand some more. Painted and caulked the frame with some outdoor paint. Also made some adjustments and added a couple more finishing panels. I have three more panels to cut (right sump door is cut but we are going to mount with a piano hinge - which i still have to buy :angry: )

 

009-1.jpg

 

the left side is made of two panels, i still have to sand that filler - i am already $300 into this build so i cant keep buying full sheets of plywood for each side, lol. Plus you wont be able to see that side head on due the layout of my living room - AND its going to be stained satin black - maybe 5-6 coats. I like my black :)

008-1.jpg

 

door open - my goofy three year old saying CHEEEEEEESEEEEEEE to give a size perspective

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had to fully notch the 2x4 to get this euro hinge to sit right. Used a 2x2 to re-brace it. The top portion of the stand will only hold electronics and test kits so its not a big deal. Plus the entire box has two 1/2" panels (left and back) holding things square. Theres also a 1/4" panel up top.

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hood panel closed

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hood panel open

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heres the "holding" mechanism i used - ten bucks at HD as opposed to $30 for a mini shock

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and pose...

001-1.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Welcome to the giant over-sized stand club. :D

 

In your overflow box diagram, make sure to take into account the size of the flange on the bulkhead.

If you're using sketch-up, the trick to plumbing stuff in the diagram is, your tank walls need to have a thickness. Then box our the center of the hole from the edge of the tank wall, add the circle on the correct plane, then delete all the extra lines and extrude back into the box and it'll disappear.

 

Is Canadian thanksgiving early because the natives went north first before deciding to come to america to make friends?

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phi delt reefer
Welcome to the giant over-sized stand club. :D

 

In your overflow box diagram, make sure to take into account the size of the flange on the bulkhead.

If you're using sketch-up, the trick to plumbing stuff in the diagram is, your tank walls need to have a thickness. Then box our the center of the hole from the edge of the tank wall, add the circle on the correct plane, then delete all the extra lines and extrude back into the box and it'll disappear.

 

Is Canadian thanksgiving early because the natives went north first before deciding to come to america to make friends?

 

Yeah the sketch up stuff was fun for a bit. I used to be wicked at auto-cad in highschool but its been years and I never actually owned the software - just used it at school. Right now I am trying to see if I make my overflow box bigger to hold a couple Koralia 1400's so just the tips stick out into the tank. I saw some guy do it on RC with some TUNZE pumps and it looks pretty sweet. Plus I would save about 300 dollars vs a new MP40.

 

I going to run this setup skimmerless :). Lets see how long that lasts - but i have seen some really nice tanks on here doing it that way so i wanna give it a try.

 

I got my;

heater (jager)

RKL (with extra power bar)

eheim 1250 return pump

23 long and 20 long tanks (dont know which to use as sump as of yet)

6x39w tek light (new bulbs on their way from reefgeek - 4 Blue Plus, 1 Aquablue Special, 1 PurplePlus)

brs dual media reactor

Rox carbon

all the necessary test kits (seachem and salifert)

dry rock and sand

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What you could do, is a little secret of mine. Drill for a 1.5" bulkhead, glue a pipe above the waterline and stick your wires through the hole. Then you can hide your power-heads in the rockwork. My old tank photos had 5x MJ+Mods and you can't really see any of them.

 

I'm kind of meh on the Tek lights. They tend to build up heat and the T5 performance suffers because of it. See if you can jam a little fan in there or something. There's an old RC thread on T5 performance vs temps and the results were very telling (if you can find it of course).

 

Skimmers are totally overrated. I've had 500$ skimmers and 100$ skimmers and the BEST of them pretty much worked as a water polisher at BEST. That old addage still applies too... you can't polish a turd. You can have sps quality water without a skimmer.

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phi delt reefer
What you could do, is a little secret of mine. Drill for a 1.5" bulkhead, glue a pipe above the waterline and stick your wires through the hole. Then you can hide your power-heads in the rockwork. My old tank photos had 5x MJ+Mods and you can't really see any of them.

 

I dont really get what you mean here - I'll have a look to see if i can find your old tank photos. Picture is worth a thousand words right ?

 

I'm kind of meh on the Tek lights. They tend to build up heat and the T5 performance suffers because of it. See if you can jam a little fan in there or something. There's an old RC thread on T5 performance vs temps and the results were very telling (if you can find it of course).

 

I was going to do my own LET retrofit from Reefgeek. I read that RC thread so that seemed like the best option. I got the Teklight for 175 with some used bulbs for cycling the tank. In Canada it retails for 300+ 15% tax so I got it for less than half :). I already have the light taken apart - I am going to swap out the ballasts to get some PAR back and do a fan mod while cutting slits near the label end of the bulbs to cool them down somewhat. Also going to cool the ballasts with little motherboard fans cause the whole thing will be hidden in my canopy.

 

We're on the same page :)

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phi delt reefer
Example Pic

 

The tallest pipe in the picture is where the wires go.

 

Example Pic 2

 

Gotcha - I'm not to worried about the wires cause they will be hidden quite easily. I am looking to the hide the entire powerhead under the overflow box so its in the closet with all the equipment. I only want the the front third of the Koralia 1400 sticking out of the left tank wall. I gotta find a pick of that dudes tank - the idea is brilliant.

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  • 1 month later...
phi delt reefer

Placed my deposit on my 45gallon tank. 36" x 23.5" x 12" - 10mm glass, black silicone. Should be ready next week.

vincetankfinalleftside2.jpg

 

Also - completed my border run last Wednesday so I brought home some goodies...

 

Picked up this one in a group buy I started on R2R - pm if your interested its still going on till the end of this month ;) .

 

XTREMEEEEEEEEE!

 

SWC150 BMK - good for 100g heavily stocked.

 

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VOGA Wine bottles to be used as dosing containers in the future

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BRS group buy stuff...

 

biopellets/ROX carbon/netting for future screen

 

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BRS Dual Reactor

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sump tank full of other stuff (

couple maxi-jet 1200s

RO fittings to break out the BRS Reactor

couple 2x39w t5ho ballasts

RKL w 2 PC4s

2 Koralia Nanos 425

Salifert/SeaChem test kits

Eheim 1250 return pump

Jager 150w heater

Odyssea Pump and Heater for salt mixing

ATI bulbs ( 4 B+, 1 AB Special, 1 GE6500, 1 ATI Purple Plus)

P1010095.jpg

 

 

already had this (running the old bulbs it came with) Tek Light 6x39w

083.jpg

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