Cass' Aquamaxx 22 Long

[cassianoyoung]

13 hours ago, MockandRoll said:

Wow. Great build. I really liked the video.  What is your ATO plan? Keep the updates coming. Following  

Thanks @MockandRoll In my previous system (90G) I had a DIY ATO which worked extremely well: 

• Over the course of a month, I took daily measurements of water evaporation and averaged into 2 day increments (don't remember the number right now).
• Calculated how much water per minute the Tom Aqua Lifter Pump puts out (do not trust the manufactures rate as conditions WILL vary based on many different aspects) by running a several tests of 10 minutes each and took an overall average.
• Hooked up Aqua Lifter pump to a float valve regulated 5G bucket that was connected to my RODI system in my furnace room sitting right on top of the drain (just in case) and to a Digital timer (digital because I needed on and off by the minute) which came on every other day and put 95% of the evaporated amount of water back into the tank.

I remember some folks bashing me a bit on the idea that evaporation rates might change etc... But as always I have about 4 gallons of headspace in my sump (after power outage maximum fill due to overflow without return scenario) to ensure I have enough time to make any adjustments.

 

Conclusion: Since I was putting 5-10% less than the evaporation amount, if I left the tank alone for 6 weeks (I tested it  ) about a gallon of water would be missing. However I always checked my fill line in the return section of the sump during my weekly water changes. So For the 3 years that I had the tank this system worked out flawlessly. Even when I took a 4 week family vacation and left the tank by itself with a neighbor just coming in to feed the fish and corals and dumping in mineral supplement.

 

It seems more complicated that it really is. In reality to set this up all you need is a 5G bucket, a super cheap aqua lifter pump ($18), a digital timer, and some 1/4 inch tubing.

 

I will be doing it again for this system. When the time comes I will make sure to do a video to explain my setup.

Cheers,

[Indiana Reefin]

Bad ass!! 

I love it. Really nice work! 

[cassianoyoung]

OK Friends! This is it for the equipment build for now. As mentioned in the last post I will eventually build a DIY ATO. But my kids have been really patient with me for the past 2 weeks waiting for good old Nemo. So tomorrow we will pay a visit to him at the LFS and get some live rock to start to prepare his home with a nice and long nitrogen cycle.

 

Thanks for the feedback on the skimmer folks. I love the build quality and size of the Tunze 9001. It will work out perfectly for my system. Had to say goodbye to the incredibly well built and heavy duty Vertex Omega 130. Sent back before I got too tempted to get it wet in the sum.

 

Here is a VIDEO of the final setup inside my entry way room!!

 

 

 

Below a panoramic of the current sump setup and the nicely tucked away little 9001.

 

cheers,

[teenyreef]

Looks fantastic! Great call on painting the inside of the cabinet white. 

[cassianoyoung]

@MockandRoll and @Indiana Reefin Here is I decided to go ahead and build the DIY ATO system as per the comments above in the thread. Below are the pictures of the setup (tucked it away in the corner and ran a 1/4" line across to keep the tank area nice and neat. The math for my setup ended up being 11 minutes to fill up one quart of RO water (which is close to my daily evaporation). This might vary a minute or two throughout the year as the seasons change and the temperature inside the house fluctuate a bit, but it is as simple as adding or subtracting time from the timer. I tested for the past two days and it is working perfectly. What I currently have is the pump on 6 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at night. Working like a champ!!

 

Cheers,

Cass

 

[thedon986]

You need to be fermenting beer in there!!!!  I love my Speidel.

[cassianoyoung]

29 minutes ago, thedon986 said:

You need to be fermenting beer in there!!!!  I love my Speidel.

Hahaha, I do too. I have a few of them. I use to ferment apple juice. Good stuff!

[cassianoyoung]

Time to Rock Out!

 

Got 20 Lbs of Pukani from BRS in yesterday, hammered and chiseled for a bit and put together a simple aquascape with a lot of room for corals, and of course had to have "Nemo's house" as requested by the kids, so built a small arch. 

 

Using Seachem Matrix in combination with Seachem Stability to get the process started. Soaked a piece of fish in the water for 3 days to get the Ammonia going before the rocks got in with the idea to start feeding the bottled bacteria from Stability to get them ready for the crap from the rocks.  Ammonia readings are at  3.0 ppm and should get the process started. ATO has been working flawlessly and keeping the water level in the return section perfectly on point at all times.

 

Cheers,

 

Below is a video update:

 

[samnaz]

On 8/12/2017 at 8:33 AM, cassianoyoung said:

@samnaz I absolutely recommend that you do that. It only takes a minute to take the top off and another 10 to wrap up the outside (if you want it black --which I prefer). I had another One of these stands for my 75 and 90 setup many years ago and I think they are very nice and sturdy stand. But by no means they are water proof. Also after a couple of years of water changes, splashes, etc the original black inside gets loaded with salt (which doesn't really show on a white inside) and if you are not careful to wipe up all the time the MDF will get water in it and swell up. So get a couple of White Rustoleum Protective Enamel (IMO the glossy one is nicer and might a bit more water repellent) and a roll of painters tape and got to town.

 

Remember to apply A LOT of tape in all of the areas where you want to stay black, including about 1/2 inside of the door and don't forget to cover both of the open edges on the front/side so that the spray does not bleed through it.

 

you can also use a roll instead, it would give you thicker coats, but a bit messier. I used two whole cans with three different coats while letting it dry for about an hour in between them.

 

I hope this helps.

cheers,

 

I'm giving this a go today, thanks talking me into it... It's totally worth the time an effort, I can tell it's gunna look so much better. Thanks again  

 

One question though. Think it's ok if I spray over the screws? I can't get them out.

[cassianoyoung]

On 8/26/2017 at 5:16 PM, samnaz said:

I'm giving this a go today, thanks talking me into it... It's totally worth the time an effort, I can tell it's gunna look so much better. Thanks again  

 

One question though. Think it's ok if I spray over the screws? I can't get them out.

@samnaz absolutely! I actually made sure to spray some estar over the screws. The Rustoleum is a rust preventing paint. So definitely great for the sump area.  Raises the look you get the water repellent function both on the wood and metal parts. Make sure to have a thick layer on the seams as well! Cheers!

[cassianoyoung]

Since it has been a month since my last update (who wants to see a empty tank cycling anyways  ). Many many changes since then. I cycled it for 4 weeks using just the detritus and dead material from the Pukani Rock and A LOT of sachem stability. Now I am almost fully stocked with fish and about half way there with Corals. Levels are all very stable and corals seem extremely happy. I will have a more detailed update and some videos once I get some time. Here are some iPhone pictures:

 

Cheers,

Cass

 

[samnaz]

I was just wondering about this tank. It's looking beautiful! Coming along nicely. Looking forward to the detailed updates/vids.

[MockandRoll]

Tank looks great. I am always scared about quickly stocking a tank with corals right after cycling. Guess if you can keep parameters stable it should all work out. 

[TatorTaco]

Tank looks really good.  It's nice to see how much time and effort you put in to making this stand out.  As much as I planned my tank, it seems like I nothing really worked out how I wanted to from the get-go.  Oh well.  

 

The corals you have are pretty good sized for frags.  Did you purchase them online, from a local reefer, etc? My LFS sells itty bitty frags for $$$. 

[cassianoyoung]

Here it we have a quick video of the current setup. I know some folks might think this is too soon for corals and all of these fishes, but I am quite diligent about my stuff and have been maintaining/checking parameters every 3-5 days to establish the consumption of minerals and monitor nutrient levels. Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate have all been at zero since the completion of the cycle. I used a whole lot of Seachem Stability (two bottles) to get my bacteria growing and also had a 300w grow light in my sump to ensure the cheato took as much of the nutrients out of the tank as possible, and I must say that was the case. I trimmed in half twice and I only had the detritus from the Pukani rock and a hunk of salmon in the filter sock as source of nutrients for bacteria growth and establishment.

 

The insane overload of light in the refugium during cycle is something that I will use in any new setup from now on. The sump was NASTY with diatoms while there is yet to be a sign of any nuance algae in my display (with exception of a 1"x1" section which doesn't get any flow - as seen right under the hammer coral in the video image below). I had some Grow Lights laying around from my other hobby (Mars Hydro), so I decided to try for a while, and it sure worked. I have since downgraded the light to a 150W UFO light that I got from eBay for 29$. I will post an update of my DIY reflector that I built using a flower pot and it is working extremely well. (Forget the Kessil H360 - so not worth $300).

 

So in my display I have 2x Kessil A160 running at 75% intensity (about 30W each) and in the refugium a UFO LED at 150W. a little over double the intensity, but that has proven to leave no chance for algae to grow in the main display since the Cheato is consuming all of the nutrients.

 

Updates on the equipment and additional DIY  stuff coming soon.

I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,

Cass

 

 

[cassianoyoung]

Update!!

4 months later!

 Here it is:

 

[teenyreef]

Looks great! I just got caught up and saw your post about the refugium light and DIY reflector. Did you make a thread about it?

[Hishman]

Great tank. I created something similar before I stumbled upon yours

 

[Hobbs]

I absolutely love your build, I wanna do something similar! Anything you would recommend doing differently?

 

I originally was going to do an overflow box but I really like how you did your overflows.  I might have missed it reading through your article, but I had a couple questions.

Typically the water level stops around the height of the overflow, but it seems like yours goes much over it.  If one of your overflows gets clogged, are you worried the tank will overflow?  Would you have preferred to drill them higher?

 

Thanks!

[cassianoyoung]

On 2/13/2018 at 5:32 PM, Hobbs said:

I absolutely love your build, I wanna do something similar! Anything you would recommend doing differently?

 

I originally was going to do an overflow box but I really like how you did your overflows.  I might have missed it reading through your article, but I had a couple questions.

Typically the water level stops around the height of the overflow, but it seems like yours goes much over it.  If one of your overflows gets clogged, are you worried the tank will overflow?  Would you have preferred to drill them higher?

 

Thanks!

Hi Hobbs,

The water level inside of the 90 degrees elbows are actually much lower than the water level on the tank (you can see that on the pictures below). The reason why I put the elbows on it was because I wanted to raise the level up as I believe it looks much nicer than a whole inch plus of air on the top. I drilled as high as I believe to be safe (risk to break your tank with the vibration of the saw if you get too close to the edge) which is about 1" from the top. when I take the elbows out the water level drops about 3/4" to almost the the middle of the hole on the screen. I run my pump at 75% and even at 100% the water line on the display barely goes up, and that is due to the fact that I have holes on the elbows all the way up to the top. 

I did the "clog test in various scenarios.

1. Completely blocked the center overflow = barely saw a change in water level of the tank, but the water level inside of both elbows increased by 1/4"

2. With the middle completely blocked I partially blocked the left side by applying wrapping plastic on 75% of the overflow elbow = the water level on both elbows increased another 1/4" (which still had about 1/4" below the water level of the tank.

So the water level inside of the elbows rises before the level on the display. I would say that the holes behind the elbows are operating at around 30-40% capacity. So plenty of room to drain more water.

In summary at 75% or less I do believe that one of my overflows alone (with no elbow) could likely handle all of the flow. Also, the screens that I used would be VERY hard to be clogged, and that is because aside from the front holes, they have holes all around on the sides so I would need a very large dead fish, or an extremely large snail, or a piece of algae that would completely cover two of them (almost impossible to happen) that is what I went with 3 x 1"  even though 2 x would be more than enough as you can see on both of  @Scorched's setup. Finally, in the unlikely  event that all 3 overflows get completely clogged, the amount of water in the return section of my sump is not enough to overflow my display tank, so the pump will just pump air (tested that as well by blocking the overflow inside of the sump). I personally don't like the overflow boxes, but there is nothing wrong with them.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

 

The only thing that I would have done differently would be to use a 40G instead of a 22G, but then it would not be a nano anymore

 

Oh, one more thing. This setup is not quiet. I really enjoy the water noise in the room where the tank is setup, but some folks hate it. 

 

 

[cassianoyoung]

Some pics from tonight!

[cassianoyoung]

Here is a video update after 6 months! Chugging along quite nicely!

 

 

[cassianoyoung]

On 12/6/2017 at 9:25 PM, teenyreef said:

Looks great! I just got caught up and saw your post about the refugium light and DIY reflector. Did you make a thread about it?

Hi @teenyreef I recorded a video but ended up never posting it. As you can see in some of my videos (including the most recent one), I got a UFO LED light from Ebay at about $25 (got the idea from Mike Lemming (youtube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qghzL3LMUPU). But as you can see on his video, the light Leakes EVERYWHERE in the tank which IMO can be very messy, but at the same time also as seen on his video this light is a BEAST it grow cheato like crazy! So to address the light leakage I bought a large flower pot at Home Depot (one where the bottom would match the size of the light), but out the bottom and attached the light to it ensuring that the vent intakes are unobstructed for good ventilation. I then got some reflective sticker material that I used to build a play mirror for my daughter and covered the inside of the flower pot with it. In all honestly because the light is so close to the water, I didn't really need to do that, but I had the material laying around. Highly recommend this light. I was toying with the idea of getting a Kessil H380, but could not justify the cost. So far so great.

I hope this helps, if you have any more questions please let me know.

Cheers,

Cass

 

[Hobbs]

Thanks @cassianoyoung for getting back, it seems like everything I was worried about you extensively tested.  Super cool set up, I can’t wait to start my build. I’m moving in a couple months so I have to wait a bit to start buying stuff.  Your FTS is gorgeous and your SPS seem to be loving your light set up! Glad your extensive prep work is paying off 

[ramona]

Just found your post. Very nice built.

How is the tank doing, any updates?