Midnightsun Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Well this is the beginning of my new tank. Just ordered a 70g limited production Cadlights rimless. Tank measures 36" x 24" x 18" tall. Starfire 3 sides, all beveled glass, no brace or euro. Completely clean look. Herbie style silent failsafe drain. I have the fish room partially complete and will start posting pictures in the up coming weeks. Kinda neat as the room is very small and located under the stairs so it is a little different than what we are used to seeing. The stand is a mix of Granite and steel. The aquarium will be sitting on a 2" thick solid granite slab with rock face edges. Will have LED lighting showcasing the open 2" thick solid granite shelf below. Waiting for the materials to arrive as I type this. The stand is open with only a steel back to hide the plumbing which goes into the adjacent fish room. The lights? No less than an Ilumina Vertex LED 24"/200. Home made 30 gallon acylic sump 40" x 12" x 15" high. SWC160 skimmer with modified mesh wheel. 36 watt UV. Twin 100 micron mesh socks. Twin MP 10W es. Eheim Compact+ 5000 return pump. Triple Eheim 75 watt heaters. Apex lite. BRS dual reactors with gfo and rox carbon. Marine magic triple dosing pump. (cal, mg, alk) Home made acrylic dosing tanks (3). Home made RO/DI tank. Home made semi auto salt water change system in acrylic tank. Spectra Pure pro plus 90. This should be pretty darn nice when done. One thing for sure, if things go sour, it's not for lack of proper equipment. Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 well, updates?! Would love to but have not yet received my tank. Still probably a week away before I finish up in the fish room. Kinda busy at the office right now. Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted May 20, 2011 Author Share Posted May 20, 2011 I have been darn busy but here are a few shots of the aquarium and door to the fish room. Will post room shots when complete most likely this weekend. Enjoy. Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted May 20, 2011 Author Share Posted May 20, 2011 After 2 sheets of black and transparent acrylic I managed to build everything custom. Not entirely finished but should have everything operational by next weekend. As you can see the room is rather compact so it took a lot of thinking to squeeze everything in without being tight. Everything is easy access, in and out. The room actually houses my main water line in and the house sump pump so I have all the water and drain I will ever need. Here is the overall with door open. Still missing my skimmer as it is in my other tank but will fit nicly into the first compartment on the left where the heaters are located Same shot, closer up. Salt Water mixing tank and Spectra pure filter setup. RO/DI top off tank Dosing setup. Carbon & GFO reactors. Stay tuned for more updates as it becomes operational. Link to comment
Jay-sun Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 Wow this looks insane and its not even wet yet! Meticulous job with the fish room set up. Very very nice!! Keep up the great work! Jason Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 Ya all that room will be worth it. Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted May 21, 2011 Author Share Posted May 21, 2011 A few more detail shots. Custom heater holder and custom UV sterilizer holder Through wall plumbing. Pump, probe holder and level sensors. RO/DI auto top off and salt water mixing control. Link to comment
Jay-sun Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 Nice work! Could you explain how you have the RO/DI and salt water mixing set up to work? Certainly alot of thought put into this set up. Jason Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 Nice work! Could you explain how you have the RO/DI and salt water mixing set up to work? Certainly alot of thought put into this set up. Jason The RO/DI is set up to fill my small reservoir on the floor to the right. The smaller timed switch is set to go off for 15 mins every morning which basically opens a solenoid valve which in turn lets the water fill my reservoir. I have an overflow hose close to the top of the reservoir which will dump the excess water to drain. Purpose is to keep the tank full all the time without having to worry about it. Just in case my timer fails or something that does not let my tank fill for whatever reason, I have added a low level float to the reservoir to tell me something is not right. The actual top off function from reservoir to sump works just like any standard one we all use. I will most likely use my JBJ ATO and aqualifter which are now on my Nanocube. Absolutely fail safe system. Cannot overflow, if the water level gets low I get an email. As for the salt water mix station it sounds fancy but it is not. I was tired of doing the bucket and haul/rinse crap every week so I set this up to make my life easy. Water is supplied by the same solenoid as the ro/di. I position the outlet valves so water will now go to the mixing station as opposed to the ro reservoir. I now just push the small wall mounted timer switch which manually turns it to on and let the reservoir fill. Here I also have an over flow hose at the top which empties to drain when full. Off is not automatic but like I said it simply flows to drain when full. When full, I am ready to throw in my salt and here is the cool part. The outlet below the reservoir is where the heater and small korilia pump are plugged into. This outlet is controlled by the other large switch so I just turn that on and it mixes and heats. To do a water change I simply open the valve at the bottom side of the sump and let drain to a level mark I have on the sump which equates to the same amount of water in the mixing tank and then close the valve. I now open the mixing tank valve on the under side of the tank and let it drain to sump. Easy, no fuss, no lugging, no connecting stuff up, no spills. The solenoid valve is the blue thing mounted under the stairs. You can also see the 2 small blue valves which let me choose where I want the RO water to go. Here you can see the various valves on the sump and under side of the mixing tank. Link to comment
Jay-sun Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Thank you for the reply and explanation. Great job with the planning on the entire set up. I was wondering exactly how the timer was going to work and now it all makes sense. Sure does look like you have simplified your water changes to come. Nice job!! Looking forward to more updates and pictures. Jason Link to comment
steely185 Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Looks great. Very detailed and very clean. Look forward to seeing it progress. Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 We have water. :D No surprises, no leaks, text book. Herbie overflow is perfect and works as advertised. Dead silent. About 800 gph yet dead calm in the sump. Yep, it is actually running in the picture. Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 Nice setup! Thanks, I'm darn proud of it. Just added live rock to the sump today and now the long wait begins to cycle things. It will take a little longer but patience is the key in this hobby. I have 25 lbs of BRS Pukani Dry Eco Aquarium Live Rock in the aquarium and 25 lbs of live rock in the sump center section. Also added live sand to the bottom. I figure a couple of months if I want no issues before I start transferring at least the fish from the other tank. Gonna be a long wait. Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted May 25, 2011 Author Share Posted May 25, 2011 Water is slowly clearing up. 25lbs of BRS Pukani rock. Argonite live sand. 25 lbs of LFS well cured live rock in sump. Link to comment
Arkayology Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 I would add a fish or two after 2 or 3 weeks if I were you. Nothing gets cycles going like fish poop. Link to comment
d9hp Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Impressive work....I especially love the fish room and all the black. Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted May 27, 2011 Author Share Posted May 27, 2011 Impressive work....I especially love the fish room and all the black. Thanks, The black was my choice for bottom and back of all acrylic tanks I built. Main reason was to hide all the power cords stuffed behind, second reason was overall looks. It did come out quite nice. Link to comment
TMG Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 This is simply stunning! I love your fish room. Couldn't be more well planned. I'm so amazed. I'm really looking forward to seeing this tank with fish and corals. What are your plans with livestock? If you have any Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted May 28, 2011 Author Share Posted May 28, 2011 This is simply stunning! I love your fish room. Couldn't be more well planned. I'm so amazed. I'm really looking forward to seeing this tank with fish and corals. What are your plans with livestock? If you have any Hmmm, very good question. I will transfer livestock from my existing Nano 28 which is reef and then build from there. I love reefs and the challenge behind them. Wife and family want pretty fish. Let's see what kind of a compromise we can come up with. I think the stocking will be unplanned. More like, wow, that's a nice piece/fish let's get it. Link to comment
TMG Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 Hmmm, very good question. I will transfer livestock from my existing Nano 28 which is reef and then build from there. I love reefs and the challenge behind them. Wife and family want pretty fish. Let's see what kind of a compromise we can come up with. I think the stocking will be unplanned. More like, wow, that's a nice piece/fish let's get it. Pretty much the same thing I'm going with. I can't wait to see this tank stocked! Link to comment
Midnightsun Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Here are a couple more updates. I got rid of the RO/DI reservoir and programed my Apex to control the solenoid valve on the RO/DI setup. I installed an email alarm with high water float just in case of failure and also added an overflow tube which dumps directly to drain just to take care of Murphy. Pic of overall fish room with SWC 160 installed. Pretty much done with all the equipment and connections. Finally!! Added a few fish to help the cycle along. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 A banji cardnial would macth the sand nicely. Link to comment
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