Heifinator's 60g Shallow - PICS (NEW PHOTOS NOV 6th 2013)

[heifinator]

Finished the stand and moved it into the house.

 

 

Making my first hardwood skin. First time making pocket holes and using clamps like this. Was an experience.

 

 

 

While the skin pieces dried I put the floor in the stand using a jigsaw and some exact measurements. Took some beating but it fit nice and snug!

 

 

 

Painted the skin 100% with a gloss white polyurethaine deck / floor paint. Holy crap this stuff takes forever to dry. Three days later its still tacky.

 

 

 

Assembling the skin to slide onto the frame.

 

 

 

It lives!

 

 

 

Put on some pre-stain, I had never used this before but thought I would try it. It really helped bring the grain out.

 

 

 

Sedona red stain applied, removed quickly so it wasn't to dark. Nice and light.

 

 

 

Close up of the skin work. I was very careful when I measured so that I wouldn't be sanding a lot. I was going to add trim but I like how clean it looks without.

 

 

 

Finally, skin is on. I made it really tight, had to beat it on the frame with a rubber mallet. At this point I am deciding if I will add doors or not. I really like the contrast.

 

 

 

 

I silicone'd the bottom of the stand so water couldn't get between the frame and the skin.

 

 

 

Inside the stand (top)

 

This weekend will be sump building, putting the tank on the stand, and maybe plumbing.

 

Next week my makers heatsink will be in and I will be rebuilding my fixture.

[rb1685]

Really nice looking stand. Unless you plan to organize everything like Urbaneks, I'd add doors. I think an open sump area would detract from the overall aesthetic of such a purdy tank. Just my opinion of course.

[Cintax]

Very nice stand.

[heifinator]

Thanks.

 

Putting baffles in the sump today and maybe getting the tank on the stand. Will post pics!

[saltwatercoral]

Setup is looking real promising! Can't wait to see this wet!

[heifinator]

Got the baffles and sock tray in the sump. I also got the tank on the stand!!!!!!!

 

Working on plumbing some tonight / tomorrow. Will post pics later.

[heifinator]

Here is your obligatory pictures post.

 

I bought some composite shims to level the tank. This system sits in a sudo-finished basement and the floor is not level because of that (has a slight decline for drainage to the unfinished side of the basement).

 

Also, please ignore the horrible couch, it is going away soon =)

 

Stand in place, yoga mat down, and hole for bulkheads cut.

 

 

 

Tank. On. Stand

 

 

 

Bulkheads in, pvc adaptors in, and little LED light fixture in.

 

 

 

Sump complete. I am plumbing the drains in a way that will allow socks to be replaced easily during WC's. I always keep sumps simple. If I decide to keep a fuge I will separate the skimmer and pumps from it with eggcrate. I find these kind of sumps the easiest to clean, maintain, and add equipment to.

 

 

 

 

 

Main 1" drain is installed. I put a union near the sock so the sock can be removed easily. Notice the wonderful under cabinet lighting!

 

 

 

 

Dry fitting the return line. This all got painted with krylon fusion after this picture. Also, the back of the tank is now painted with enamel (rolled on) looks great! I placed the return near the overflow box so that my screen top will not need another big hole in it. I am keeping a blue jawfish so no holes in the top!

 

 

 

 

 

1.5" emergency drain is installed. That should be sufficient lol...

 

 

[heifinator]

The light is together.

 

I ended up destroying a couple LEDs when I removed them from my old fixture. So I am running it with a couple LED's bypassed, will have to take it apart and resolder when I get the new leds in.

 

I am also short quite a few optics.

 

Word of warning, I got some optics from REEFLEDLIGHTS a while back, they are the cylindrical optics that are like little cans.

 

Don't get them, they are nearly impossible to get on if the solder has already been applied, and if you apply them before soldering you end up melting the edges. I ended up having to break the shell off and get the standard shaped optic out of the center and then gently epoxy them to the emitter. Probably reducing the PAR output on the fixture, and the lifespan of the lights.

 

They are working, and appear to be doing their jobs so oh well. I have access to a par meter and will check to ensure it didn't gimp my output, I guess that's what really matters!

 

TL:DR Don't buy crappy optics...

 

The makers heatsink is awesome, and OCW's are much better than individual exotic emitters, color is really good.

[Herbie]

Nice Tank, thats a beauty! I really like those dimensions. Somewhere between a frag tank and a display tank. You going for an SPS dominant tank? That tank screams SPS ! Nice job on the stand. I am making one myself, and yours is giving me some inspiration.

On the "herbie" overflow.........it will be way easier to adjust and live with if you adjust the water so there is the slightest trickle of water going down the emergency drain. You wont hear any noise from it, and since you have the emergency dumping into a filter sock, it will work out perfect. Try to use longer filter socks so the end of the main drain can be longer and under the water level in the sump. It will be quieter, and will help keep the "herbie" overflow adjustments more consistant.

If it were my tank, I would get 2 seaswirls for your pump return plumbing. I would put them right in the center of the area between the center overflow and the side of the tank x2. It will make the return plumbing way easy, and give that rotational output that the seaswirls are so good at.

I like the tank, nice progress so far. I will be following this one.

If you have any questions about getting that overflow working smoothly, let me know.

 

Later,

Herbie

[heifinator]

I really hope your the herbie that the herbie overflow is named after, cause I would lol.

 

I already plumbed the tank for a herbie overflow, I will try your advice to have the back up trickle since its bigger than the main anyways.

 

I already plumbed the return over the back of the tank and split into 2 locline, I will post it. The return is pretty low turn over so I didn't want to go with anything crazy.

 

It will be SPS dominated top 75%. Bottom 25% will be clams, rics, acans, and zoas. A couple LPS (Duncain and large hammer).

 

Also going to have a Blue spotted jawfish as the feature fish.

 

Not sure if you have much stand building experience but I would be glad to share any info if you need it! I plan on keeping it doorless for now and have a display sump area.

 

Both the drains already dump into socks and the pipes are under the water line.

 

Thanks for the kind words!

 

Nice Tank, thats a beauty! I really like those dimensions. Somewhere between a frag tank and a display tank. You going for an SPS dominant tank? That tank screams SPS ! Nice job on the stand. I am making one myself, and yours is giving me some inspiration.

On the "herbie" overflow.........it will be way easier to adjust and live with if you adjust the water so there is the slightest trickle of water going down the emergency drain. You wont hear any noise from it, and since you have the emergency dumping into a filter sock, it will work out perfect. Try to use longer filter socks so the end of the main drain can be longer and under the water level in the sump. It will be quieter, and will help keep the "herbie" overflow adjustments more consistant.

If it were my tank, I would get 2 seaswirls for your pump return plumbing. I would put them right in the center of the area between the center overflow and the side of the tank x2. It will make the return plumbing way easy, and give that rotational output that the seaswirls are so good at.

I like the tank, nice progress so far. I will be following this one.

If you have any questions about getting that overflow working smoothly, let me know.

 

Later,

Herbie

[Herbie]

I really hope your the herbie that the herbie overflow is named after, cause I would lol.

 

Yep, that would be me. I am still around.............just in the shadows, lol.

I am on RC mostly, but I am setting up a new nano tank, and stopped by to check out some of the build threads for some ideas. Really liked your build so far.

Check out those seaswirls.........they really make the return plumbing easy. They have a siphon break built in which is a must. So make sure you figure that into your return plumbing if you dont want to go for a seaswirl !

 

Later, good luck wih the build.

 

Herbie

[heifinator]

Yep, that would be me. I am still around.............just in the shadows, lol.

I am on RC mostly, but I am setting up a new nano tank, and stopped by to check out some of the build threads for some ideas. Really liked your build so far.

Check out those seaswirls.........they really make the return plumbing easy. They have a siphon break built in which is a must. So make sure you figure that into your return plumbing if you dont want to go for a seaswirl !

 

Later, good luck wih the build.

 

Herbie

 

The return line has 3 holes drilled in it just below water level. Tested and no overflows!

[heifinator]

My stuff from LEDgroupbuy came. I don't have many build pictures cause my phone died. But taking the LEDs off my old sink sucked. Its all done now but here is the stuffs.

 

 

 

 

First crappy FTS. Wiring not complete in sump or on light.

 

 

 

 

Aquascape Shots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Full sump shot (not complete)

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the light driver box. 5 inventronics drivers, some share plugs. The 2 RB channels share a pot.

 

[JDigital]

I told ya, you'd be wet before me.

 

Looks great.. What model Tunze is that?

[heifinator]

I told ya, you'd be wet before me.

 

Looks great.. What model Tunze is that?

 

Its a 6025 with the flow mod done. I have 2 of them, one will go on each side of the back wall. I will be upgrading one to a mp10 probably. Its hard to justify the cost when they will be on the back wall anyways.

 

I have played with ecotech pumps a lot and I like them but they are 5x as much as a tunze 6025. I will probably get one though to add some variability to the flow.

 

Plus when I make my screen top it is going to fit inside the rim of the tank so the wires from the tunze will mess it up!

[heifinator]

Got my sand. Marco rocks fine.

 

Awesome stuff, best sand I've ever seen. Rinsed it the best I could and added it to the tank (with water). Needless to say, MASSIVE SANDSTORM

 

Running my reactor with a lot of carbon and socks to pull some of the junk out, hope it will clear up soon!!!!

[heifinator]

The storm settled mid day saturday and I stirred it all back up again to remove the rest of the junk. Most of it is gone. I will need to clean out my sump to get rid of all the dust that has collected on the bottom but no big deal!

 

Had some live rock from my old tank in this system for a few days. Sunday I transferred over my livestock from my 40b.

 

Here is a good story for those that care.

 

My 40b had a brook outbreak about 5 weeks ago. All the fish except my mandarin were removed and treated and now live in a QT.

 

The mandarin only eats pods and I wanted to test something that has been debated for a while. Everyone knows mandarins are particularly resistant to parasites, especially brook. But its always been assumed that mandarins can still maintain the life-cycle of the parasite if they are left in a "fallow" system.

 

I have a hard time believing that if one parasite penetrates the slime coat, that the entire life cycle will continue. So, I am going to test it!

 

So, I left my mandarin in my 40b alone for 5 weeks. Some of the rock from that system is now in my new system, cause I am a bold and stupid person

 

The mandarin got 1 quick formaldahyde bath just to be safe, and then was plopped in this new system with some live rock (in the DT) to give him some lunch.

 

I plan on adding back in my clowns first and monitoring them VERY closely. If they get brook they will be treated again and the mandarin will then be removed and QT'd as well, sadly he will likely die.

 

This was a risk I was willing to take as it will do three things

 

1. Gives the mandarin a chance to live

2. Saves me the trouble of buying new LR

3. Tests whether mandarins can be left in tanks and break the lifecycle of brook.

 

Anyways, in happier news, I will post pictures of the finished build today!

[thirdchild]

Awesome build! I look forward to the pics

 

For my two cents, I'd have done the same thing to save the mandarin. Good luck with your gamble.

[heifinator]

The sand has settled and my 40b is now dead. Everything from that tank has been moved into this new system. Brought a good chunk of live rock over ~20lbs to ensure there would be no cycle (only 1 fish).

 

I am now going to let the system stabilize for a couple weeks then start stocking slowly. First of course I will be adding a couple clowns to test my brook experiment, formaldehyde baths and QT tank are standing by!

 

We wouldn't want to hurt any fish.

 

Incoming photo dump with my first cell phone macro shots! I gotta get my camera fixed...None of these have been color corrected so pardon the blue overload!

 

 

 

I am digging the open sump, I plan on getting an apex soon so I will be cleaning up the cords some more then. Right now they are all bundled with velcro wire straps. The sump lights are on a timer, they turn on and off with the tank lights. They run at 20% unless I flip a switch when I need to work on something, then they go to 100%.

 

 

 

First FTS - Going to clean it up and frame it better for the OP.

 

 

 

Right front corner

 

 

 

Right front corner from above

 

 

 

Return and overflow. The goal was to get the return to look as clean as possible. I am 100% happy with it.

 

 

 

Front left corner

 

 

 

Left side

 

 

 

Left sump shot

 

Full sump shot

 

 

 

Overflow and return plumbing

 

Light driver box and power

 

 

 

Right sump shot

 

 

 

Makers LED heatsink

 

 

 

Above tank shot

 

 

 

Macro of green slimer

 

 

 

Marco of blue tip acro (small frag, doesn't have blue tips yet)

[disaster999]

your drain plumbing is nicely done, but the return and the feed line to the reactors can use more work. theres too many elbows on the return line which i dont really see the need for it. also the plumbing for the return is too long, you could have easily altered the return to exit on the right side of the tank instead of the left, making the return line as straight as possible, eliminating the need for the elbows, making the pump flow more freely........but i guess flow isnt your main concern when you have a gate valve on it, at least it makes it neater.

[JDigital]

Is that sugar sand?

 

System looks really good buddy! Love the way you scaped the rocks!

 

How do you like that BRS reactor compared to TLFs?

[heifinator]

your drain plumbing is nicely done, but the return and the feed line to the reactors can use more work. theres too many elbows on the return line which i dont really see the need for it. also the plumbing for the return is too long, you could have easily altered the return to exit on the right side of the tank instead of the left, making the return line as straight as possible, eliminating the need for the elbows, making the pump flow more freely........but i guess flow isnt your main concern when you have a gate valve on it, at least it makes it neater.

 

Well, I will go through my thought process on the return.

 

I got this tank from miracles it was something a customer never picked up, so the hole drilling isn't what I would call ideal (it was 30% off lol). I didn't want to do a durso so I used the return hole as a drain. This meant an over the back return, which I wanted to be really clean and right up against the tank on both sides to prevent it from being far off the wall.

 

This meant 2 elbows (1 street) at the top of the return.

 

I am a strong believer that your return pump shouldn't be what provides your tank flow, except maybe in a nano situation. This serves no purpose except to be expensive. I wanted anywhere between 250 - 500gph through my sump which is what I got.

 

The reason the return in on the right is so that all of my power systems are near the right side of the tank. Return, heater, skimmer, ect. This way wire management was easier.

 

I put the return on the left side of the overflow due to the way I scaped the tank (I scaped it first, then considered where to put the return. Because of how far back the scape goes on the right side it didn't work well and would prevent some coral placement.

 

TL:DR Didn't care about return flow, pump is 550-700gph I want around 250-500gph.

 

Thanks for the kind words about the drains, spent a lot of time figuring that out =)

 

 

 

Is that sugar sand?

 

System looks really good buddy! Love the way you scaped the rocks!

 

How do you like that BRS reactor compared to TLFs?

 

Its marcorocks fine sand (sugar). Its the best sand I have ever had. Settled pretty quicky. Still blows around some with the power heads but that will go away as it ages.

 

Thanks, I scaped it with fiberglass rod, and 5 minute epoxy. I tried to go with a ridges kind of look, suppose to be 3 ridges =)

 

No reason to buy ungodly expensive fluidized ractors. They really are all the same thing IMHO. I have had expensive ones, but the BRS reactor is awesome.

[heifinator]

Got my order from cultivated reef. Amazing service btw.

 

These coral pictures were taken only 4 hrs after going through shipping.

 

Cat Eye Zoas

 

 

 

Super Cute Tail Spotted Blenny

 

 

 

Seng Li Monti Cap

 

 

 

Orange Millepora

 

 

 

Green Slimer

 

 

 

Red Monti Cap

 

Blue Cali Tort

 

 

 

Pink Lemonade Millepora (Tips came in bleached)

 

 

 

FTS

 

 

 

Front Right

 

Right Side

 

 

 

Right Side Top

 

 

 

Front Left

 

 

 

Left Side

 

 

 

Left Side Top

 

 

 

Full Tank & Sump Shot

[NanoTopia]

This is going to be a nice reef, can't wait to see this one progress.

[heifinator]

Thanks!