cdrewferd
Active Member
I'm just going to copy and paste from another forum for this first entry. I've been working on this build since the middle of August.
Well, figured I might as well start a build thread and start documenting the things that are going on with the build. This was going to be a really slow build, but amazingly the wife requested that it be sped up. Was pretty happy about that.
Anyway, tank is a 4'x2'x2' dual overflow all glass. Got the tank and a bunch of equipment for an amazing price from a member here who had to move. Here's some pics as of now.
While building the stand figured I should use the tank for something, lol.
Got the stand fully built and put it where the wife thought it should go. I told her it would be too big but she wanted to try.
As you can see the standis tall, 40", and my 2.5 yr old decided it was a great place for a fort. This lasted about a week before the wife agreed that it was to big and needed to move.
So I took it outside, but the tank on and filled with vinegar water to clean the tank up.
Soaked it for a couple days and scrubbed it down. Got 99% of the coraline off to give me a nice clean slate.
I then started messing with a rock scape. At first I thought about doing 2 pillars in front of the overflows, but couldn't come up with anything. I did get this though:
Lots of room for corals, but not many hiding places for fish. Since I want a lot of fish I had to rethink the design.
With the wifes help we were able to come up with this:
I really like this design as it still feels open, isn't touching any glass, has lots of hiding spots and lots of space for corals. I'm sure it might get tweaked a bit, but this is what I'm going with. I picked up some mortar from Erika and will be making this permanent soon.
Now that I had a scape I had to get some other stuff done.
I got to work on the basics of the canopy and had everything sitting together in the garage to see just how big it was going to be.
Built the basics of the doors and got them routed.
While this was going on I had Brian put the baffles in my 40 breeder sump.
Now I had an electrical problem. No electrical was on this wall so I had to run it fresh.
All done.
I need a pump to run this thing. Originally I had decided on a Water Blaster HY12500 as it's got a lot to run. I kept hearing good things about Reeflo and their Blow Hole series pumps. I emailed them to see if the BH1450 would be enough for me and they agreed that it wouldn't. They did offer to let me get in on the beta testing phase of their new Blow Hole pump though, the 2700.
This thing is really small. Hope it's as much pump as they say it's going to be.
During all this time I've had the rock curing in a stock tank on my back porch. It hasn't been at 70+ degrees, but it's something.
After lots of reading and asking people that have it, I decided to go with black sand. I have a black sand in my nano and love it. I ordered extra so I wouldn't run out and have to order more.
Well, figured I might as well start a build thread and start documenting the things that are going on with the build. This was going to be a really slow build, but amazingly the wife requested that it be sped up. Was pretty happy about that.
Anyway, tank is a 4'x2'x2' dual overflow all glass. Got the tank and a bunch of equipment for an amazing price from a member here who had to move. Here's some pics as of now.
While building the stand figured I should use the tank for something, lol.
Got the stand fully built and put it where the wife thought it should go. I told her it would be too big but she wanted to try.
As you can see the standis tall, 40", and my 2.5 yr old decided it was a great place for a fort. This lasted about a week before the wife agreed that it was to big and needed to move.
So I took it outside, but the tank on and filled with vinegar water to clean the tank up.
Soaked it for a couple days and scrubbed it down. Got 99% of the coraline off to give me a nice clean slate.
I then started messing with a rock scape. At first I thought about doing 2 pillars in front of the overflows, but couldn't come up with anything. I did get this though:
Lots of room for corals, but not many hiding places for fish. Since I want a lot of fish I had to rethink the design.
With the wifes help we were able to come up with this:
I really like this design as it still feels open, isn't touching any glass, has lots of hiding spots and lots of space for corals. I'm sure it might get tweaked a bit, but this is what I'm going with. I picked up some mortar from Erika and will be making this permanent soon.
Now that I had a scape I had to get some other stuff done.
I got to work on the basics of the canopy and had everything sitting together in the garage to see just how big it was going to be.
Built the basics of the doors and got them routed.
While this was going on I had Brian put the baffles in my 40 breeder sump.
Now I had an electrical problem. No electrical was on this wall so I had to run it fresh.
All done.
I need a pump to run this thing. Originally I had decided on a Water Blaster HY12500 as it's got a lot to run. I kept hearing good things about Reeflo and their Blow Hole series pumps. I emailed them to see if the BH1450 would be enough for me and they agreed that it wouldn't. They did offer to let me get in on the beta testing phase of their new Blow Hole pump though, the 2700.
This thing is really small. Hope it's as much pump as they say it's going to be.
During all this time I've had the rock curing in a stock tank on my back porch. It hasn't been at 70+ degrees, but it's something.
After lots of reading and asking people that have it, I decided to go with black sand. I have a black sand in my nano and love it. I ordered extra so I wouldn't run out and have to order more.
