Andy's 50 Gallon Mixed reef

[andymcl82]

I finally have the chance to upgrade from my 29g Biocube. Due to the possibility of moving in the near future I couldn't go too much bigger but definitely a substantial upgrade for me. Basically a doubling of useable tank space.

Tank: Marineland 50g Breeder (back plasti dipped black)
Sump: 20g Long
Return: Reef Octopus VarioS-2 Controllable DC Pump (792 GPH)
Skimmer: RLSS R6-I
Light: 36" ATI Sunpower 6x39
Flow: Gyre 130 (I have two jebao rw4s but i doubt I will need them)
Overflow: Eshopps Eclipse Slim Overflow Large, running a herbie style drain
+Tons of small parts I just ordered on BRS (Shout out to them, I probably wouldn't be able to do this without all their instructional videos)

I'll continue to use Red Sea Coral Care/3 Part dosing on a doser, have an Avast Marine ATO, and will control everything with my current Apex.

Thinking of doing a DIY sump. If I get lazy or it's not cost effective Modular Marine sells a real nice looking kit.

http://modularmarine.com/collection...20-gal-l-protien-skimmer-sump-aquarium-filter

As far as tank stand, I'm still looking. I want to get a metal stand that I can just stick some painted wood panels on myself. So far the most promising and inexpensive is the Petco Brooklyn 40 gallon Breeder but it is currently out of stock. I thought about building one with T slot aluminum but that would cost way more than just buying a premade one.

I'll be switching over from a diy led on my biocube to the t5 setup for better sps growth. However I am very seriously thinking of retrofitting the majority of my blue leds from my biocube into the ATI fixture. I'd do this by removing the two center bulbs and, to my knowledge, I should be able to rewire the ballasts so that instead of the usual: "Plug one" turns on bulbs 2 and 5, and "Plug 2" turns on 1, 3, 4 and 6. I could do: Plug two turns on 1, 2, 5 and 6. I'm not familiar on how T5 ballasts work but, if I could I would wire 1 and 6 to Plug one and 2 and 5 to plug 2 (Hopefully someone can chime in and help me with that). I would use the the following heat sink cut between like 24" and 30". Leds would be mounted with thermal adhesive stickers so no screws or drilling which makes it simple and the leds are solderless. I think I could get away with mounting the heatsink with just two bolts but worst case is 4. Less holes I have to drill in the ATI the better.

http://www.heatsinkusa.com/3-500-wide-extruded-aluminum-heatsink/

Let me know what you guys think

 

[Ocelaris]

Rewiring the t5 fixture is going to be difficult. It definitely can be done, but they operate very differently. T5 use a high voltage ac power and capacitor to start the bulbs, where as leds take low voltage DC. You may need relays and other electronic knowledge to make it happen. I would try to keep them separate personally.

Do you already have an led setup? If not why not try and add a led strip, there are quite a few out there pre-made. I'd stick with pre-made units unless you're decently electronically savvy.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Following! Looking forward to seeing this one set up.

 

[andymcl82]

I have a DIY LED upgrade from Rapid Led. By "rewire" I didn't mean actually rewire anything in the ATI. More so rearrange how the t5s are hooking up to the ballasts. The LEDs would be powered by the Led drivers I currently use for my biocube

 

[Ocelaris]

Ahh, I gotcha, yeah, you basically have 2 ballasts in the ATI fixture, one which fires 2 bulbs and one which fires 4. You should be able to just move the wires around. I'd just take pictures before you move anything in case you ever want to revert.

 

[andymcl82]

Are the ballasts the same thing or is one ballast specifically designed to light two bulbs and the other is specifically designed to light four bulbs?

 

[andymcl82]

Received my over flow, return and a lot of the plumbing stuff today. I think I'll drill the tank tonight and I'll post pics of it. I'm gona do the overflow in the center and the return on the left side

 

[andymcl82]

Drilling the tank was pretty scary but it went pretty smoothly. Would be way easier to clean all the glass off if I could just take it outside and hose it off. The eshopps slim overflow looks fantastic

I had to attach the drilling template a quarter inch onto the black surrounding rim or else the inner black box part wouldn't sit as flush to the inner black tank trim.

Also, if you plan on painting your tank with plasti dip (peel-able rubber paint) don't paint it until after you drill because it gets pulled up a bit and glass powder gets underneath.

 

[Ocelaris]

Are the ballasts the same thing or is one ballast specifically designed to light two bulbs and the other is specifically designed to light four bulbs?

Probably two different types, but it will be pretty easy to tell when you have it apart. The wiring is usually pretty straight forward. Often a common return, but I'd Google t5 ho ballast wiring and familiarize yourself with the diagrams. Drop me a pm if you want more specific instructions. I've built every kind of light for aquariums and wired my entire house, high and low voltage.

Those floor tiles are awesome! We literally had the exact same ones in our basement from this house when we bought them.

You're braver than I with the drilling, but looks great! Really regret not drilling my tank and doing an over flow like yours.

 

[andymcl82]

Skimmer and return sitting in what is soon to be the sump

 

[andymcl82]

Everything is moving very slowly unfortunately.

I think I'm going to go with the Tropic Eden Tonga Pink substate. I currently have Arag Alive Fiji Pink but I like the look of a smaller grain substrate. Tonga Pink is a little smaller, but not quite sugar grain sized. Hopefully it doesn't blow around too much. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything on people actually using it as it seems to be Tropic Edens newest sized flake.

 

[andymcl82]

After pulling apart the ATI fixture I decided that I didn't want to mess with the wiring so I'm just going to put two 31x1 inch heatsinks in the spots where the two bulbs would normally come on. So I will have a dimmable string of UV and royal blue leds, a dimmable string of a couple more royal blue leds and blue leds, and 2 blue + and 2 coral + T5 bulbs which come on last

 

[andymcl82]

The skimmer barely fits in the stand with enough room to pull the collection cup off

 

[andymcl82]

I also got a DIY screen kit from Bulk Reef Supply and a gourmet food defroster. The screen looks great. The framing was a little off black colored when I got it so I just spray painted it black.

 

[andymcl82]

Tap water test. Sump isn't really done I haven't received the baffles and sock holders yet. The thing holding the returns is actually the cutting guide for the overflow.

I need to silicone a piece of acrylic inside to over flow so that the water runs about a third of an inch higher in the tank. Then it will be just under the black trim.

 

[sneub]

Looking good, following

 

[andymcl82]

Siliconed a strip of glass inside of the overflow. I should have smoothed/rounded the top edge of the glass so the water would flow a little more smoothly. Right now it makes a little bit of a waterfall sound. Other than that everything is looking good

 

[andymcl82]

These heats skinks are no joke haha. And quite inexpensive. Like $25 shipped if I'm remembering correctly

Tank in its current now "full" state. Much better looking than the gap IMO.

 

[andymcl82]

Got the rocks today. I like using the single side cuts and double side cuts. Makes for easy stacking especially in a small tank.

I think this is gona be the final scape. Left side is lps and zoas. Right will be mostly sps.

I need a rock for the right middle side of the right island to fill in that gap.

The top rock of the left side is "floating" on some ruble. I think it looks pretty good and less stacked.

This is only about 25 pounds of rock. I am definitely going with less is more. Plus I'm pretty sure my skimmer is rated for 100+ gallons so I'm sure I'm good filtration wise.

 

[andymcl82]

60 pounds of tonga special pink

I will do a size comparison with the arag alive Fiji pink I have in my other tank. I couldn't really find anything about this specific tropic eden flake size so I'm hoping it doesn't blow around too much. I think that having the taller island on the far side from the gyre will help from pushing all the sand to the left.