Cilyjr's 180 in wall

[cilyjr]

This isn't a new build thread as it's been up and running since March of 2010 but I figured I'd post here to get one of those "build thread contributor" things . Also I'm thinking it might be a place to put up monthly FTS updates.

The tank is an upgrade from a 90 g which was an upgrade from a 46g. The tank is built in the wall in a finished room in the basement

Here's some basic info and equipment. As it stands now. I've changed a lot over 8 years.
180 display
75 sump
20l frag tank

Neptune systems apex classic (2x eb8, vdm, wxm)

3x lumenmax elite with 250w radium aquastarblue bulbs. With lumatek adjustable ballasts.

2x sol blues for supplemental "fun" effects.

Asm g3 skimmer heavily modded over the years. Now a recirc skimmer fed off main drain from dt. Also gate modded and Venturi modded.

2x ecotech mp40qd with battery backup for flow

Danner Mag 18 return. I've used others in the past and a few dc pumps (both cheapo and middle of the road) but the mag 18 just won't quit!

I use a precision marine cr622 calcium reactor with diy 2nd chamber and a carbon doser electronic co2 regulator and kalkwasser dosed with a masterflex peristaltic pump for alkalinity and calcium supplementation. All are controlled by the apex.

There's roughly 300-350 LR in the system. As I've added and subtracted many times over the years I'm not exactly sure.

I also plumbed in a 5 g bucket with a grow light for chaetomorpha. I tied an algae scrubber and a fancier reactor but in the end found the bucket to be the easiest to deal with (pic later).

 

[DLHDesign]

Looks great!

 

[cilyjr]

I bought the tank used for 200 dollars it was almost new (sticker on bottom said 2009) it was not drilled so I had to do that and build an overflow box. I wish I had gone coast to coast but I went with a more "standard" design at the time.

 

[cilyjr]

Here's the 90 in the spot. I had to take it down and set up on the other side of the room to demo the wall and put the 180 in.

Some demo!

Putting the stand. 2x4 and 2x6 constructed.

 

[cilyjr]

I do regret not pushing it out into the room some to have some side viewing but to move it now would be more work than I'm willing to take on.

 

[cilyjr]

A friend at the time who had a 300 built in made a suggestion to me. He said his worst mistake was not having frontal access to the tank. I heeded that advice and made doors so I could get in from the front also my lighting rack is on sliders and can be moved either foward into the finished room for rear access or back into the fish room for access from the front. This was the best advice and I am glad everyday I built this!

My lights have gone from 3 metal halide to 4x sol blue led back to mh. Then 2 of the sol blues added to have sunrise/sunset/moonlight. The picture is of the current setup. I took one with the rack slightly slid out to demonstrate. If I clear the cables it will fully extend past the tank in either direction

 

[cilyjr]

A quick side note. I absolutely hate light bleed through hoods so to solve this I stapled a strip of black felt around the doors.

The doors I built from scratch. That was my 1st experience on what an amazingly huge pain making cabinetry from nothing is. Kudos to those who make a living out of it. The 2 doors alone took a day.

 

[cilyjr]

Here's some behind the scenes. Again this is as it is now as opposed to 1st setup. A couple of years ago I decided I wanted to change many things one of which was getting the sump out of the corner it made it difficult to work on the tank from the back on that side. Another big change was I wanted to add a manifold from the return to run my reactors. I had three or four pumps in the sump at any given time back then to run various equipment. Now everything runs off of the mag 18.

This pic is circa 2011 therest are today.

Today

 

[cilyjr]

Sump.

My slightly shady electrical. It's 2 dedicated 20amp gfci circuits in 3 4 gang boxes. Left is 1 circuit and right is the other. So tripping one does not kill the entire system. I've plugged each eb8 into different circuits so if 1 trips the apex will alert me. I never got around to getting covers (9 years now still on the to do list) but I figure the door does the job.

Here's my apex control panel. I bought a tablet for full time apex use as I don't like the stock display unit that comes with it.

I wanted to build an island in the back room to work on but the space did not allow for it. so I made this workbench on wheels from some scraps it tucks into the corner where the electrical is when not in use.

 

[cilyjr]

I'll post more tomorrow. Thanks for looking!

 

[cilyjr]

Looks great!

Thanks. I didn't see you pop in. I must been in the middle of posting the 2nd installment

 

[cilyjr]

In 2012 I thought I would try led. At the time the AI sol lights were about the best you could get. I went all in and got 4 for my display and 1 for my frag tank. I got it all setup with 2 t5 lamps and thought I was satisfied.

Shortly after (a few weeks) coral started to die. Different species did different things. Some would bleach at first while some would rtn while my fish seemed fine. It took a little time to find that a heater in the tank had broken but was still functioning. Basically as far as I can tell the exposed copper in the heater would be a point for electrolysis to dissolve copper ions into the water.

It was a big setback (not to mention it just sucked) but it gave me an opportunity to watch coral grow from frags with the Sol lights (I gave them 4 years to prove themselves before ditching them to go back to halide, more on that later).

Pre heater break (the monti confusa in the center was about 13 inches in diameter)

A few months post disaster after everything was cleaned out.

 

[cilyjr]

And I kept on for about 4 years with no where near the success I had had previously. Thing would live and grow but not really "thrive" the way I felt they had before.
Eventually I became frustrated and did a major remodel then a return to metal halide shortly after the remodel.
The major goals of the remodel:
1. Move the sump for easier access to both tank and sump
2. Move the electrical to a more convent spot.
3. add a sink to that room (previously on the far side of basement).
4. manifold to run equipment from 1 pump
5. Easier to maintain mixing bucket and ro/di reservoir
6 major display clean up and rework.(I'll make a separate post on the goals for this)

So t took everything down and all livestock had to live in a hodgepodge of tanks and 100 gallon stock tank I borrowed. It's pretty scary having all your stuff living like this for 2 weeks. I lost a powder blue tang that tried to swim into a pump that I stupidly forgot to put a guard on.

 

[cilyjr]

Back room rebuild. Sump and frag tank moved over and new shelf to hold built. The 75 sump sits on 2x6 so its high enough to be able to siphon detritus.

Return pump manifold to run reactors. Currently it runs my algae reactor (aka 5 g bucket), ca reactor, uv, with 1 blank for whatever i need in a pinch

New drain plumbing with a split to feed the recirc skimmer

 

[cilyjr]

For the display. I replaced the center braces with clear acrylic to eliminate shadows and built new screens. To do this I placed a bar clamp across the aquarium near where the brace is then cut out the black one leaving about an inch and a half to drill holes then I used 3/8 acrylic strips and acrylic screws to hold it in place.

The screen frames are made from 3/8 acrylic strips with holes drilled for 316 stainless screws to use as anchors for the screen. Under mh the screening can become brittle over time and needs replacing. It needed to be easy for me so I'll have no excuses to not do it. The screen is easily stretched to the anchor screws then can be trimmed. Replacement takes about 10 mins. Also the acrylic frames were made to accommodate cutouts for my autofeeder and over the top return.

 

[cilyjr]

I wanted to change the display as well.

Replace sand with a more coarse product to help eliminate sand storms due to circulation pumps getting more powerful. I went with a mix of tropic Eden mesoflakes (2.5mm size) and reeflakes(3.0 size).
https://premiumaquatics.com/products/tropic-eden-reefflakes-aragonite-sand-30lb.html


I also wanted to cover the overflow with a foam "rockwall". But I wanted to do just the overflow not the entire tank. I also wanted to designed to be able to be removed some day in case I decide to remove it. So step 1 was to build an acrylic cover that would fit over the overflow. Once completed I could start with the foam. I used greatstuff foam insulation and west system 105 and 205 hardner. For anyone thinking of attempting it is important not to underestimate the buoyancy of the foam so be sure to weight with a lot of rock.

In the process the pc pipe is for an arch.

Installed

 

[cilyjr]

My semi basic water reservoir/ salt mixing buckets. They are 32 gallon lldpe containers so they are fine for storage (I did some plastics research years ago here's a link for those interested fresh water storage & salt water mixing - looking to expand knowledge). The top gets fresh water only and gravity feeds the top off. There is also a hose if I need fresh RO for any reason. Notice the clear tube with a little white floater in it. That was because it's hard to see in to see how much water is in there so I built that to check at a glance. You can also see the little blue ball valve which goes to top off and the large ball for fresh ro hose.

Under that is the salt bucket it's got a 700gph pump that will mix for me and there's a heater in there when I need it. The pump has a pipe that leads to the sump so I can pump in water change water with the turn of a ball valve. My return pump also has a ball valve to pump old water directly into the sink. So I don't lift buckets anymore.

 

[cilyjr]

Oh here's the display with all the sand and rock shortly after the refill. I still had the sol blues at this point but was looking to return to mh.

 

[rmiles54]

Great stuff. Looking good. Progression over the years seems to have been well planned. Cabinet doors look good too, definitely a challenge. Looking forward to updates and to see how the foam spray looks as it matures.

 

[Tokash23]

interesting idea with the spray foam it came out great