Schreiber
Leviathan
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2016
- Messages
- 468
- Reaction score
- 593
- Location
- Knoxville
- What state or country do you live in
- Tennessee
I've finally got my first job & my own place. I've always said my first thing I would get is a saltwater tank & I've followed through!!
I was able to get a great deal on most of it from Craigslist. The stand had some minor cosmetic damage that I fixed & one of the light bars is missing a ground plug.... but it works. One thing I didn't have is a way to install my sump. The tank wasn't drilled at all, so I researched overflow boxes.
After much deliberation, I decided there wasn't an overflow box on the market I trusted enough to install, since I was going to be setting my tank up on carpeted floor. (My only non-carpeted areas are the kitchen & bathroom, so I didn't really have a choice.) I decided to take some cues from BeanAnimal's design, but add my own ideas to it. I've already got to put it through 2 power outages (Who knew Tennessee was a Rainforest?) & it's held up perfectly. Starts right back up every time, no flooding issues, & best of all, it was CHEAP!!! I borrowed the drill bit from @BlueDevil & bought all the materials I needed for about $50.
First step was drilling the actual holes. The first one was a pain, took about half an hour. I had no idea how much pressure to use or what angle to go at. But once I got the hang of it, the second & third holes took less than 10 minutes.
Next, I installed my "bulkheads". They were simply 2" adapters-a male & a female, as well as a gasket for each I cut to size. In the tank, I used a reducer to bring the size down to 3/4" & stuck a bit of pic inside to attach the overflow to.
Now that I had this in place, I started arranging the live rock on a towel. I made sure to go quick, so I lost as little life on them as possible. Again, I got most of the rock on Craigslist from a guy tearing down his tank. $2 a pound, can't beat that!!
Finally, I installed the overflow & piping to the sump, & filled it with water!
All together, my system cost less than $500 because of the amazing deals I got. It's got 2 T5 fixtures, each with a 10k & an actinic bulb. My DIY skimmer, a 20 gallon sump, a protein skimmer, a UV sterilizer, 2 heaters, about 60 pounds of live rock, & 20 pounds of live sand. Just added some hermits in a few days ago & they're doing well!
This evening, I may upload pictures of the entire process. I left spots for them, but my file sizes were too big to upload.
I was able to get a great deal on most of it from Craigslist. The stand had some minor cosmetic damage that I fixed & one of the light bars is missing a ground plug.... but it works. One thing I didn't have is a way to install my sump. The tank wasn't drilled at all, so I researched overflow boxes.
After much deliberation, I decided there wasn't an overflow box on the market I trusted enough to install, since I was going to be setting my tank up on carpeted floor. (My only non-carpeted areas are the kitchen & bathroom, so I didn't really have a choice.) I decided to take some cues from BeanAnimal's design, but add my own ideas to it. I've already got to put it through 2 power outages (Who knew Tennessee was a Rainforest?) & it's held up perfectly. Starts right back up every time, no flooding issues, & best of all, it was CHEAP!!! I borrowed the drill bit from @BlueDevil & bought all the materials I needed for about $50.
First step was drilling the actual holes. The first one was a pain, took about half an hour. I had no idea how much pressure to use or what angle to go at. But once I got the hang of it, the second & third holes took less than 10 minutes.
Next, I installed my "bulkheads". They were simply 2" adapters-a male & a female, as well as a gasket for each I cut to size. In the tank, I used a reducer to bring the size down to 3/4" & stuck a bit of pic inside to attach the overflow to.
Now that I had this in place, I started arranging the live rock on a towel. I made sure to go quick, so I lost as little life on them as possible. Again, I got most of the rock on Craigslist from a guy tearing down his tank. $2 a pound, can't beat that!!
Finally, I installed the overflow & piping to the sump, & filled it with water!
All together, my system cost less than $500 because of the amazing deals I got. It's got 2 T5 fixtures, each with a 10k & an actinic bulb. My DIY skimmer, a 20 gallon sump, a protein skimmer, a UV sterilizer, 2 heaters, about 60 pounds of live rock, & 20 pounds of live sand. Just added some hermits in a few days ago & they're doing well!
This evening, I may upload pictures of the entire process. I left spots for them, but my file sizes were too big to upload.
I've got some ordered & on their way. I'll be replacing those, as well as the PVC bar. I don't like how much room it's taking up. I'll probably just replace it with three standpipes at different heights, with the middle one having a small bar to maintain siphon.
