dward0487's 30 Gallon AIO Micro Reef Project

[dward0487]

Hey guys! This is my first post on the forum, and I thought I'd start off with my micro reef project. I don't have much experience with saltwater aquariums, other than running one with my father a few years back. Since then, I've been doing a lot of research and learning a lot about the hobby.

 

My wife and I decided that it was time to take the plunge, and it just so happened that Petco was having its "dollar per gallon" sale, so we picked up a 40 gallon breeder tank (36"x18"x16" LxDxH). I live in an apartment and I don't have a ton of space, so this size tank should be a little more forgiving on water parameters (which I plan to keep tightly regulated), while giving me enough space to keep a decent amount of fish and corals without taking up half my living room! Rather than going with an external sump, which would just eat up more space, I've decided to go with an internal sump behind a full-length false wall, making it an AIO tank. So, I drafted up a plan for the sump section, which is about 6" deep. This gives me a 13 gallon sump, with a 30 gallon display tank. I've divided the sump up into an overflow/media section, a skimmer section, and a return section. Here is the plan (although it has been changed slightly from what is shown in this design, as you'll see in my next few posts):

 

 

The water will flow from the display tank through the overflow teeth, through a mechanical filter, and then over some filter bags filled with carbon and GFO. I'm going to create a media "tower" out of eggcrate and plastic rods so that I can lift the tower out of the sump and easily replace the media when necessary. I went with an "under-over-under" design for the baffles/bubble traps, which works a little better for my setup. The water is then skimmed by a Tunze Comline DOC 9004 skimmer and heated by an Eheim Jager 100W heater, then passed on to the return section, where it will be returned to the display tank by a Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5 pump.

 

I went with 1/4" black acrylic for the back wall, and I will be painting the back 6 inches of the display tank sides with black latex paint to hide the sump section. I've done a lot of research on the efficacy of bonding acrylic to glass, and I'm going with E6100 adhesive for this job, as I have read that it does an excellent job of bonding these two materials.

 

I had the acrylic cut by Marc from Melev's Reef, who lives quite close to me. He did an excellent job, and it looks really slick! I highly recommend his services to anyone who needs them. I'll post a few photos (as well as descriptions of the changes I've made) in a little while.

[dward0487]

Here's a view of the tank on its stand. I chose an Aquatic Fundamentals 50/65 gallon stand for this tank, because it was the only affordable stand that would fit in the space I picked out for the aquarium. I got it on sale from Petco, and assembled it in about 20-25 minutes. As you can see, it fits perfectly and really matches the decor of the room:

 

 

I leak tested the tank, and the seams look fine, so it's ready to go!

 

I picked up about 45 pounds of rock from Dallas North Aquarium for $1.89/lb. It's nice and porous, and has plenty of holes. It seems like good quality rock, with a great color. Once I got home, I broke out the chisel and mocked up the rock work for the tank. Here's what I came up with:

 

 

I think it looks pretty interesting. Let me know what you guys think!

[dward0487]

Alright, so here are a few shots of the acrylic work. There was a slight miscommunication and the panel turned out to be a mirror image of what I designed, but having the overflow on the right of the tank is just as good as having it on the left. I decided to have the hole for the bulkhead moved to the return side of the wall so that I could run a single return nozzle instead of cluttering up the tank with a Y-split. I will simply direct the flow in the direction of the overflow teeth. The dimensions of the return pump section were slimmed down a bit to account for the width of the acrylic baffles. Also, I won't be using a check valve in the sump section because there's no purpose for it. Here are a few shots of the back wall (with the protective paper still on it) mocked up in the tank:

Marc did a great job on the overflow teeth. Here's a closeup of them:

Here's a shot of how the baffles look from behind the tank. Everything looks great:

I went ahead and had a cover cut for the sump section, so people walking by would not be able to see into the sump. The cover includes a small cutout where I can route my cords from the equipment. Here's a shot of the cover:

[CatfishSoupFTW]

looks goood ! following

[dward0487]

Well, its been about 4 days and I can still smell the adhesive in the tank... All the seams are dry and firm to the touch, and the instructions said to allow 24-72 hours for a full cure, but it's pretty clear to me that this is going to require some more time. I want everything to be cured up by the 1-week mark, which means Saturday. I thought perhaps the fumes were denser than air (and thus not escaping the tank), or maybe the small space in the sump section wasn't allowing adequate airflow, so I decided to rig up a fan on top of the tank to help it along. Here's a picture, as I don't have anything else to share right now (pardon the mess on the bar):

I might paint the sides tomorrow. I've already got them taped off (just past the seams). Once the seams are fully cured, I'll be leak-testing with tap water, and then I'll drain that, dry it out, and add my sand, rock, and saltwater to begin cycling the tank. I'll also be using some BioSpira to hopefully have the tank fully cycled in about 2 or 3 weeks. Once my nitrite levels are at 0, I'm going to add my first fish (probably a clown).

[dward0487]

So, I got my equipment in yesterday (all except my LED lighting), and I immediately got to work building my translucent screen for the top of the display tank. Here's a shot of the frame after I cut it down to size:



And here it is with the translucent mesh installed. I think it looks pretty good!



The mesh looks more opaque than it really is. It should not affect my light penetration in any noticeable way. And now I won't have to worry about gobies and other jumpers hopping out of my tank!

Here are a few shots of the new equipment:





I've got my 100W Eheim Jager for the tank, a 50W Jager for water changes, a Maxi-Jet 400 (also for water changes), my lignite carbon and high-capacity GFO for the filter section of the sump, my 2 Hydor Koralia Evolution 600 powerheads with the wave controller, the Tunze Osmolator Nano ATO, my Loc Line and flare fitting for the return, a length of tubing and a 90-degree elbow for the return pump, my 1/2" bulkhead, a Red Sea Marine Care test kit, the Tunze Comline DOC 9004 skimmer (with magnets), my Sicce Syncra 1.5 return pump, and some media bags with drawstrings for the carbon and GFO.

 

This is Day 6, and the seam lines seem to be completely set up and firm (and have been for quite some time now), but I can still smell that faint adhesive odor when I hold my head over the sump section. I'm not sure if that means the adhesive still hasn't fully cured, or if it's just the smell of the new adhesive simply being in the tank. I'm wondering if the smell will disappear if I fill the tank with water for leak testing and then drain the water back out. Any thoughts?

[Addinali]

Good bulid will be following

[dward0487]

I'm currently in the process of filling up the tank with RO/DI water so I can run some carbon in it for about 2 days to flush out any toxins that might be in the tank from the adhesive. I have two small, slow leaks: one in each bottom corner, where the adhesive meets the silicone. I figured this would happen, as these two substances don't bond together well, if at all. However, I'm confident that the leaks are slow enough that the flow of water through the sump should make them insignificant. Actually, it's likely that my sand bed will plug up the corners and there may be no leaks at all. I decided to simply hang my bag of carbon in the intake section of the sump by suspending it from a rod placed across the top lip of the tank. This should do until I can fabricate the media "tower". Here's a shot of the tank partially full of water (the black spots near the lower edge are the reflections of my couch cushions on the glass!):

Once I get it completely full, I'm going to plug in the pump and see how it runs. I should get an idea of how quiet it will be this way. I'm not going to bother with putting the powerheads or skimmer in during this "detox" step, because there's no real point. In the meantime, I'm going to make water, mix in my salt, and get it heating/circulating. In 2 days, I should be able to start putting in my sand bed, rock work, and saltwater to get this thing cycling! It looks like I'm in for another fun shopping trip to the LFS!

As far as lighting is concerned, I'm probably going to go with 2 Reefbrite XHO lights (one white and one blue). I know I want LEDs, and I like the low profile of the tank-mounted XHOs. I was considering a Maxspect Razor, but the tank mounting brackets that come with it set the light about 6.5" off the top of the tank, and that wouldn't fit in my space as well as the XHOs would... I know the Razor is a better light, but I also know that many people use Reefbrites and love them. If I cut the mounting legs for the Razor down to a reasonable size, I likely wouldn't get the proper light coverage for my tank, given the lenses they have on the Razor. I know my wife wouldn't be thrilled about having a light fixture that sits above the edge of the bar the way the Razor would... It's a shame. If any of you know of a reputable LED light that has a low tank-mounted profile (something like 2 or 3 inches off the top of the upper rim of the tank), please let me know! Otherwise, it looks like I'll be a Reefbrite guy!

[dward0487]

One more post tonight because I thought this was cool... Here's the way I fill this tank:

The bar makes a perfect place to set my 20-gallon trashcan. Water changes on this bad boy are going to be a breeze! I can siphon out of the tank by placing the can on the floor, and I'll only need to lift about 7 or 8 gallons of water up onto the bar to siphon the new water into the tank. I love it!

[dward0487]

Well, here is the tank, filled with water (I have it set a little far out from the wall so I could observe the flow through the sump and install components more easily).



I have installed all the equipment, and routed the cables in a way that works for now, at least. I'll tidy it up a bit more later. I mounted the Reefbrite White XHO, and it looks great! I think I'll wait until the next paycheck rolls around to grab the blue XHO, seeing as how I won't need either of them until I'm done cycling the tank.

Here's a shot of the media tower I built out of eggcrate:



It fits in the intake section really nicely:



I originally included a little handle at the top for easy removal, but I found that the top section of the tower interfered with the water flowing over the teeth and made an undesirable noise, so I ended up removing the top section of eggcrate. Everything is great now!

The sump cover looks pretty darn slick on this thing. It gives the tank a nice clean appearance, and the cables fit perfectly through the hole at the back:



I'm pretty pleased with the way it's turning out! I'm going to be making water tonight, and I might either fill it with saltwater so it can start cycling late tonight or tomorrow afternoon. I'm also going to be painting this thing to black out the sump section on the sides.

I have noticed one thing, though... My Sicce Syncra 1.5 return pump seems to be making a slight buzzing noise that I didn't notice before. It doesn't really seem like the noise is coming from the pump itself, but actually seems to come from the bulkhead/return elbow area, or perhaps the Loc Line... Anyone else experienced this? The pump is on the suction cup feet, not touching any walls, and it's connected to the elbow with vinyl tubing. The bulkhead is nice and tight, as is the Loc Line... I'm not sure what's causing the buzzing sound. It's pretty faint, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't making that sound earlier in the day. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!

[Jackstone]

Looks great! Good job.

 

You're giving me some ideas for a spare 30 gallon I've had laying around for a while.

 

No idea on the pump. I struggled with a Cobalt MJ1200 that everyone raves about. Ended up giving up on it and going back to the stock Innovative Marine pump that's totally silent (but flows less).

[dward0487]

It turns out that the pump noise was just a fluke, I guess. I turned the pump off, waited a few seconds, turned it back on, and it started running silently. Maybe the impeller got a little "off" somehow. Anyway, it's time for the next installment!

 

Well, the time has finally come... Here she is, all set up and cycling!

The water is a little cloudy from the sand, but it's getting clearer every minute! Other than that, everything looks great! I am actually considering adding a bit more sand, as I think it looks a little thin... I have my carbon and GFO running in the media tower, but I'm not currently running my skimmer. Between the live sand and the Bio-Spira I poured into the tank, I'm hoping for a pretty quick cycle. Fingers crossed! I checked and double-checked the salinity of the water with my refractometer, using a target value of 1.026 (35 ppm). The paint turned out really nice on the sump section:

So, the build is finally done (or at least it will be when I buy that second XHO, haha). Now it's just a matter of waiting for the bacteria to do their thing, and finding some neat fish and corals for it. Here are a few parting shots of the tank:

[dward0487]

Here's a new shot of the tank (you can see my raw shrimp that I'm using to cycle the tank -- it appears to have cooked up nicely in the water):

 

 

I think the cloudiness was actually more of a bacterial bloom from the Bio Spira and live sand than floating particulate... It's still clearing, but it's getting better by the day! My temperature is holding steady at 78 degrees, and my salinity is 1.026, with the ATO working properly. I'm a little concerned about the pH (which currently reads 7.8), but I think it might come up as the tank continues to cycle. So far, so good!

[bengeo0403]

I have a few questions. Is your tank still running ?

[njgl_torres]

hi

 

what kind or type of glue did u used ?

 

thanks