This is all copied from another forum and is the progress from about a month now. I had to remove some pics (mainly of the lights from fishneedit.com) because they were oversized, and I didn't feel like going through them to change them.


So my wife finally gave me the green light to upgrade. I currently have a 29G biocube that's been very good to me for nearly 2 years now. It's been very stable (knock on wood), and I am super happy with it. My fish are growing like on roids, and are starting to bump into eachother. I have 6 fish (I know it's more than I should) including a yellow tang (I know I know). First a few pics of my current tank.

General tank shot. In the front you can see my convict blenny. This guy was purchased about 6 months ago, measuring about 2". In that short time, he's grown to about 6"+. Crazy. And I know, I shouldn't have a tang, but my mom really wanted it.


Another tank shot. See the purple xenia? It started out as a 1" tall single piece. This stuff is like a weed once it takes off.


My true percula clowns with their RBTA. All very happy together. The RBTA is VERY small right now. When the MH light is on, it towers over my big leather. The clowns lay eggs on a regular basis.


My green goby wanted to say hi. He's the first fish I ever purchased, so he's been with me since day 1.


This is my finger leather. It started out as a little frag from my buddy's tank, and has really taken off.


And finally, my yellow tang and spotted dwarf puffer. The puffer has thankfully stayed away from my corals (knock on wood again) and is good with the other fish, except he likes to go after the convict blenny now and then.


Now the new tank. Here's the stand for it. I went with just a standard tube stand, and I will be doing a custom wood skin around it.


I don't like how low these stands are, so I made a riser stand out of some bosch extrusion. Also with feet which will really help in leveling the tank. Brings it up to a nice eye level.


This will be the sump. It's a 29G tall tank. This will hold the skimmer and return pump, along with the heaters, and carbon filtration.


This is the 5.5G tank that will be the refugium. I will be drilling 2 holes in the side of it, and it will sit just above the sump tank, spilling into the return section.


Here's my skimmer. It's the coralife 220G model. This thing is a monster, lol. Rated for 220, I think it should work ok for the 65.


And last but not least, the display tank. It's a 65G tall (36x18x24) with a corner overflow, and black silicone. I had the blue background applied to it at big als. Very nice tank. For those interested, it's a Perfecto.



here are a couple better shots of the RBTA.




While waiting for my glass to be cut, I started working on the electrical panel. The board will sit in the frame of the stand, and will have a separate side door to access it. The single box on the right will be the main kill switch. This will kill all power going to everything. The 2 double boxes will have 2 switches each. Main Pump, Protein Skimmer, Powerheads, Heater. The wiring goes through the board, where I have GFI's for each of the items. All the remaining space will be eaten up by lighing control, ballasts, and power supply to run my moon lights and cooling fans.







Then I got to my drain and return plumbing that's in the display tank. Glued it all together. The PVC primer is some nasty stuff to work with. Very runny and stains like no tomorrow. Here are some shots of the plumbing. I messed up the drain pipe by putting the U backwards. Not really a big deal, just gotta redrill the small hole and move the tube.





I started working on the sump. Glass took longer to cut than I was expecting. Anyhow, first pic shows assembly of the first chambers, second and third shows the first chambers in the sump, and the last pic shows the last of 3 baffles going in.





The biocube has now been moved out a few feet from the wall, and the 65G is in it's final resting place. I've nearly finished all the plumbing, just waiting for it to cure now. I got the sand and rock from a local supplier of marcorocks.com. The sand is SUPER fine. Took a few good rinses to get it nice and clear. The rock (dry rock) is some of the most beautiful rock I've seen. I was able to pick and choose which rocks I wanted. I grabbed about 75lbs. The sump is also all complete.

Sump with the skimmer in place.


Here you can see the riser I made for the skimmer and the pump support platform. Basically glass panes on acrylic supports.


Pics of the rock. The pictures don't really show the beauty of it. Once I rinse it and get it wet, the pics will look better.



This is a snug fit in the frame. It's to prevent spills out of the sump. It can also hold a bit of water if the sump overflows for any reason.


Tank in it's final resting place. You can see the biocube in the middle of the kitchen now. lol. Gonna be there til I'm ready to do the transfer.


Shot of the sump and refugium under the tank.


Pic of the tank.


I lined the bottom with eggcrate. I don't want the rock sitting on bare glass.


I've also put all my sand in after rinsing it for several hours.


That's it for now. This weekend I will try to get it as complete as possible.

Wow great build so far, very clean!

Great pics! The 29 G is AMAZING!!! It's overstocked a little i think though. They all look happy. LOVE the Engineer Goby! That's a pretty nice puffer and goby as welL! GREAT TANK!
I can't wati until the 65 G is up and running! The tank looks nice. More pics must be on their way!

WOW!,thats all i can say(well not really).
great tank, i dont no y but the begingin were u get all the equipment is allways my favirot part
love th 29g and cant wait for the tranfer

Made some good progress, and also took a step back. I totally goofed on the return plumbing. I put my check valve right on top of my return pump, but I have tees above it. So if I don't break siphon up top in a power outage, the water will still flow back through the tee. So that needs some reworking to put the check valve right under the bulkhead.

Anyhoo, here are the progress pics....

Here is the ghetto canopy I made to hold the lights for the time being. I will be getting a custom one made, but not right away. This will do for now. The black box up top just brings all the fan/LED wires together.


The MH module of the fishneedit lights gets pretty warm, and people have reported the plastic warping on the sides. So I cut the grills, and mounted some fans that will blow air across the bulbs


Here's what it looks like


A few angles and top down shots of the aquascape. I used epoxy in key places to tie the rock together after my wife and I were happy with the results. We have a wall going up the overflow wil A LOT of little caves. Plus an island that has caves coming in/out from every side, and 2 little rock islands.






Filling RO water and checking for leaks as I go.





Some pics with the lights on. My wife's camera is terrible, so you can't really see the light output all that well. Let me tell you, these things are BRIGHT!




And finally finished all the electrical and cleaned it up. The 24vdc power supply stays on all the time, and runs the MH cooling fans and night LED's. One supply for both. I have 2 120v relays run by the timer that select when to fire the LED's and fans.



And finally, the T5 ballasts. Didn't want to extend the wiring, so just made a mount for them.


Plumbing should be done by end of this weekend. Hopefully she'll be up and doing a test run by Wednesday.

looking real good, where did you get that rock from ?

From a local supplier of marcorocks.com. I can't get them up here to Canada from the US, so luckily he has a supplier that's about a 2 hour drive for me. Beautiful rock, and the fact that it came out of an ancient dry reef is nice too. I like to minimize the impact on the natural environment.

Marco rocks are awesome. Dude this a fantastic build. Very comprehensive and it really shows your craftsmanship.

Where did you learn to do all of that? Next reef tank I set up...hopefully in a few years when I save money to get a house I would love to integrate a system that cleanly.

Great build and awesome write up. Looks like a very well planned out tank.

Countless hours of reading on here and 3reef, and thank you.




Thank you very much.

Here are some long overdue updates....

Here's the sump. I have a lexan cover over the right side to stop bubbles from splasing salt all over the place.


Another shot. Yes the water is over the max, it's feeding time so the return pump is off. You can also see my refugium.


Skimmer working like a champ. It's the 220 model coralife.


Here's the frag rack I made. The tunze cleaner magnet was WAYYYY too strong, so I epoxied some eggcrate to it, and I have a nice frag rack. With the strong magnet I can really load this up.


Scored a used wavemaker 2.


Mounted under the tank on a custom extrusion shelf.


Bought a few nice coral pieces. They are in the 29G tank for the time being. The first has beautiful purple tips. The second one is more red than the pic shows. Also got an aussi hammer coral, but no pic.



This is the smaller island on the right side. Made from marco rocks. The brain coral is not doing too well.


This is the wall on the left, going up the overflow. Also marco rocks.


Bridge piece from my 29G tank.


Shot from the left side.


From the right side.


Marco rocks are starting to show nice coraline growth after about 2 months.


Full tank shot.


And finally my clowns still in the 29G along with they anemone. The are the last ones left to go in the big tank.



That's all for now.

Very awesome man. I just ordered a 65g Perfecto with overflow like your yesterday. I am upgrading from a BC14. How much light does your fixture throw into the room? I am thinking of a Coralife 2x150w HQI fixture over mine with maybe a pair of actinic T5s for supliment. Do you think actinics would be needed with 14k current bulbs?

I like actinics because it lets you simulate the dusk/dawn effect. Mine is a 14K bulb as well, and I wish I would have gone with the 20k. My biocube (with the 20k) looks a lot more crisp and clear. When I change the bulbs, I'll be going with 20k.

I have the fishneedit fixture. Right now it throws A LOT of light into the room. The setup is temporary. I will be building a canopy for the lights, so that should take care of the light escaping.

Gorgeous Build fellow Ontarian!!!!! Very detailed!!! That is some intense electrical work!

Finally some LOOOOOONG overdue updates..... Don't have pics of ALL the corals and fish, but you get the idea.



Pic of my monti with actinics. I know, I'm not a professional photographer, lol.





The circled red is what the monti started as about 1 year ago. Crazy how fast it's grown, and it's been fragged already too.





Some shots of my 2 frogspawns.









My torch.





Coraline growth on the dry rock from marco rocks





This started as a 4 head frag. Now it's so crowded there's no room. lol. There's at least 20 heads on there now. Tang posed with it for pic.





Finger leather. Started out as just 1 of those fingers, lol, now it's a monster.





My true percs with their RBTA.













Flame hawk fish.





My watchman goby. This guy has been with me since day 1.





LOL! You know it's dinner time when....





And finally, a couple FTS.







That's it that's all folks.

Very nice tank. Healthy looking fish and corals.

The tank really turned into something great

Do you still have the Engineer Goby?

Unfortunately I lost him. He got into a pretty bad scrap with someone in the tank. When I saw him in the morning, the whole end of his tail was eaten off, to the point where you could see his bones. It was only a matter of time til he gave up.

Aww man that stinks

wow i just read this whole thread.... beautiful build and everything is so clean. I love that monti, it looks awesome, and im glad you gave that awesome yellow tank a larger home ...anyways you get an A++ (and a golden star sticker)

wow i just read this whole thread.... beautiful build and everything is so clean. I love that monti, it looks awesome, and im glad you gave that awesome yellow tank a larger home ...anyways you get an A++ (and a golden star sticker)

wow i just read this whole thread.... beautiful build and everything is so clean. I love that monti, it looks awesome, and im glad you gave that awesome yellow tank a larger home ...anyways you get an A++ (and a golden star sticker)

Tanks looking awsome,

I love what you did with your return,

I might just have to steal that idea.

I agree, it really turned out great. Your first aquascape just happened to work out fantastic. I wish it were always that easy!

Great tank build!! Soooo..........when are going to get the green light for a 120 gallon tank

Thanks for the all the positive comments everyone.

lol, I wanted to go bigger, but 36" is all I could fit where it is. So I got the biggest 36" tank I could. My house doesn't really have a great place to put a bigger tank. I already have the green light from my wife to go signicantly bigger, but I'll have to wait til our next house in a few years. Hopefully we'll have it built to our specs, so you better believe there'll be a fish room, lol. My plans are 300+ gallons, custom built by Miracles. They are local to me. Been to the shop, and some of the tanks they are working on right now are absolutely rediculous.