6 feet of reef

[patback]

It's been a long time since I started or even posted in a reef journal. Life's been crazy. Lost 100 lbs, am on family leave again for the 2nd time in 2 years and have two kids under two. I'm also still trying to finish up a major home renovation so I figured "hey, now is as good of a time as any to start a tank almost 10 times bigger than anything I've ever had before. 

I picked up a used 125 gallon with a homemade stand that is uhh, not great looking.  I got it home today and immediately picked up some plywood and trim to refinish it. 

Dude was super cool and threw in a  LOT of extras. 

Equipment will be updated once I know exactly what will be going on.

For now the return pump is 1 of 2 deepblue triton4's

Light is a pacific sun pandora s2

I'm not sure what else will be used. I never had anything close to this size so equipment will probably change alot. Main tank flow will be some sort of combination of jebao wp's, maxspect gyres, koralias and vortechs. 

The end plan is a mixed reef leaning towards easier corals most likely and finally some open water swimming fish. 

I'll update this first post as things come to fruition, but for now I just want to keep some sort of update going for my own records. 

[WV Reefer]

7 hours ago, patback said:

It's been a long time since I started or even posted in a reef journal. Life's been crazy. Lost 100 lbs, am on family leave again for the 2nd time in 2 years and have two kids under two. I'm also still trying to finish up a major home renovation so I figured "hey, now is as good of a time as any to start a tank almost 10 times bigger than anything I've ever had before. 

I picked up a used 125 gallon with a homemade stand that is uhh, not great looking.  I got it home today and immediately picked up some plywood and trim to refinish it. 

Dude was super cool and threw in a  LOT of extras. 

Equipment will be updated once I know exactly what will be going on.

For now the return pump is 1 of 2 deepblue triton4's

Light is a pacific sun pandora s2

I'm not sure what else will be used. I never had anything close to this size so equipment will probably change alot. Main tank flow will be some sort of combination of jebao wp's, maxspect gyres, koralias and vortechs. 

The end plan is a mixed reef leaning towards easier corals most likely and finally some open water swimming fish. 

I'll update this first post as things come to fruition, but for now I just want to keep some sort of update going for my own records. 

[mitten_reef]

That’s a cool idea to have as a room divider.  You’re gonna wrap the corners from the tv room side with some black sticker?

[patback]

28 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

That’s a cool idea to have as a room divider.  You’re gonna wrap the corners from the tv room side with some black sticker?

Exactly. I kind of wish it was center drilled to better hide it, but the 2 blacked out corners won't bother me once it's covered. For the price I got everything for, beggars can't be choosers. Lol. 

I had to wear the wife down over the course of a year to get a tank behind the couch instead of a console table.  We also were interested in putting this one where the long table in the blue rooms picture is, but the tank is 72" and we only have 71 3/4" on that wall before the door way starts. It would have been nice because the garage is on the other side of the wall and we could have easily ran dedicated circuits for everything as well as plumbed a sump in the garage. 

[patback]

Last night all the gaps that were in the base of the stand were filled with expanding foam. Today I trimmed it down and caulked over them just to TRY to not let my floor get destroyed.

My wife apparently was up all night with the baby and she couldn't wake me up, so I'm letting her sleep in today and once she gets up, I want to get this thing skinned. 

I bought some trim to not really match, but atleast look cohesive with all of our other furniture without taking a long hard look at it. 

This is the furniture detail of the rest of my house

 

and this is the closest trim that i was able to get at home depot

 

side by side you can tell its not the same, but across the room I don't think the details will stick out that much. 

[Orangutran]

Love tanks that are room dividers! It's going to look awesome!

 

Congrats with the two little ones!

[patback]

I ran out of Brad nails, so to be continued. Good amount of work done on the stand though. I started painting the inside of the stand with appliance epoxy spraypaint for a nice white, durable paint inside. Well, 1 small section smelt so bad that the wife took the kids to her sisters until the smell goes away. So I have a partially painted inside and a fully stained outside. Need to finish the top trim, pick up another peice of moulding, finish the doors, base and the 2 faux doors.  Door will have magnets to hold it, but it honestly holds very well by itself. Don't know how it will handle humidity though. 

 

Oh yeah, broke the room divider too. Floor is discontinued, so hopefully I can figure something out. 

[FISHnChix]

8 minutes ago, patback said:

I ran out of Brad nails, so to be continued. Good amount of work done on the stand though. I started painting the inside of the stand with appliance epoxy spraypaint for a nice white, durable paint inside. Well, 1 small section smelt so bad that the wife took the kids to her sisters until the smell goes away. So I have a partially painted inside and a fully stained outside. Need to finish the top trim, pick up another peice of moulding, finish the doors, base and the 2 faux doors.  Door will have magnets to hold it, but it honestly holds very well by itself. Don't know how it will handle humidity though. 

 

Oh yeah, broke the room divider too. Floor is discontinued, so hopefully I can figure something out. 

Looking good. Dunno how you have this much time on your hands wirh two little ones!!👏👏

[patback]

7 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

Looking good. Dunno how you have this much time on your hands wirh two little ones!!👏👏

The big one is literally the best kid in the world. The little one sleeps 95% of the day. It's only at night that she screams bloody murder for hours on end, so as long as I don't sleep, it's like being on vacation from work. 

[patback]

Stand is finally refinished. Need to install magnets and decorative roping on the sides. 

Oh. And knobs. 

[mitten_reef]

3 hours ago, patback said:

Oh. And knobs. 

fake knobs....

[WV Reefer]

4 hours ago, patback said:

Stand is finally refinished. Need to install magnets and decorative roping on the sides. 

Oh. And knobs. 

Looks nice so far. 

[patback]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

fake knobs....

Yup. Just to help pull it off. 

I put some weak magnets on for now that I want to replace eventually. It holds it but not well enough for my liking.  I put a cleat on the bottom of the door to make sure it never swings out backwards and plan on adding a small braided cable to the door on a hook to prevent it from ever dropping on a kid. 

I'm starting to get plumbing stuff together but can't glue anything until I got a day that the babies won't be around. Don't want them breathing the vapor in.  Bulkheads are in now and plan on gluing baffles into the 55 gallon sump tonight if babies allow it. 

[patback]

40 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Looks nice so far. 

Thanks. 🙂

it's not perfect but it is the best stand I've built so far and it was all done with garbage antique tools. Lol

I wish I built the frame myself as well. The existing one is definitly stong, but not 100%square. Kind of regret not completely building it myself. 

[patback]

Going to try out a few different waterproof enclosures. I plan on making my own ATO relay as well as Maybe some other automation in the future. 

[patback]

I went to grab my extra vortechs I've had in a bag for the past few years and the dry sides got something on them that made the rubber all sticky and i don't trust the gasket for the wire anymore, so those are out the window. Went to buy a new maxspect gyre head to double up on the controller and not only is the xf230 discontinued, but it's also 289.00. Wtf... I remember getting it for 100 bucks when it first came out. I can use the koralias for now once everything is up and running with the one gyre but I would really like a true synced up controller. I need to look into if the new powerheads are compatible with the old controller. 

For the price of glass I was thinking of buying a second 55 gallon tank and cutting it apart. It'd save 100 bucks to make the baffles, but then I decided #### it, I'll buy one of the pre-made acrylic baffle kits sold on ebay. Hopefully I like it, if not I'll sell it and buy something different down the road. 

[spectra]

The baffle kits are not bad. I used one on a 40 breeder in my 100 build.......... its still running 6 years later in its new home.....

 

Not sure what you like but I used black aquarium sealant to put it together........ only 10 to 12 on amazon for a tube. 

 

But are you running a petco dollar sump ? if so going to be clear......... I didnt like the clear so had to get a custom 40 breeder with black sealant..........,..,,. yeah my ocd side.......... 

[FISHnChix]

No app but that's novelty imo

[patback]

1 hour ago, spectra said:

The baffle kits are not bad. I used one on a 40 breeder in my 100 build.......... its still running 6 years later in its new home.....

 

Not sure what you like but I used black aquarium sealant to put it together........ only 10 to 12 on amazon for a tube. 

 

But are you running a petco dollar sump ? if so going to be clear......... I didnt like the clear so had to get a custom 40 breeder with black sealant..........,..,,. yeah my ocd side.......... 

Yeah it wasn't the dollar per gallon sale but it was 50% off so it came to like 70 bucks. I was weary on the baffles because acrylic doesn't like to bond to silicone, but it seems like they keep selling them and I haven't seen bad reviews. Did you have any issues with sealing them up?  I was thinking of siliconing small glass strips next to them to use as a sort of stop. 

[spectra]

11 minutes ago, patback said:

Yeah it wasn't the dollar per gallon sale but it was 50% off so it came to like 70 bucks. I was weary on the baffles because acrylic doesn't like to bond to silicone, but it seems like they keep selling them and I haven't seen bad reviews. Did you have any issues with sealing them up?  I was thinking of siliconing small glass strips next to them to use as a sort of stop. 

no issues at all. I think there are pics in my 100 build if you go look. 
 

I did use strips that I think came with mine on one baffle set up as I knew it would take a lot of pressure. 
 

I also ran a fuge and glued that part in first so I could get silicone on both sides. When doing the return things are tight and good luck getting silicone on both sides. 

[patback]

1 hour ago, FISHnChix said:

No app but that's novelty imo

The guy I got the tank from was telling me if he were to set it back up, this is what he would go with. 

[FISHnChix]

22 minutes ago, patback said:

The guy I got the tank from was telling me if he were to set it back up, this is what he would go with. 

Here's the thing it's all made in China. Sure some are slightly better but not that much. Only reason I would ever go with the pricey mp10 style pumps is there is a dry side and keeps shit out of the tank..

[spectra]

1 minute ago, FISHnChix said:

Here's the thing it's all made in China. Sure some are slightly better but not that much. Only reason I would ever go with the pricey mp10 style pumps is there is a dry side and keeps shit out of the tank..

That’s what I hated about certain pumps….. loved the 40s I had….

[FISHnChix]

6 minutes ago, spectra said:

That’s what I hated about certain pumps….. loved the 40s I had….

Yea like the one I posted bc of price and the flow settings.  Plus the two sides can be adjusted up and down. Makes for some good flow patterns 

[patback]

Hmm... think there is a correlation as to why the fans are loud and 1 won't spin?