My unique 7 foot tank

iplayhockey1919 · Jan 8, 2019

Hi everyone, and thanks for stopping by. I got a unique tank build for you all to read about. I will limit my humor to the amount of gallons in my new tank and then subtract that by the width of the tank.

A little background on me and this hobby and the acquisition of the new/old tank. I have been in the hobby for about 6 years and have had success with keeping reef friendly fish along with softies. I have had 3 different tanks (75g x 2, 90g current) and was lucky enough to score a 120g from a local fish store.

Equipment List
Acrylic tank 7’ x 30” x 14”
Cement Blocks 8 x 8 x 16 (32, 8 columns total with 4 bricks)
Wood frame (2 x 6) with 1/2" pressure treated plywood

Temporary equipment
Coralife Super Protein Skimmer
UV Sterilizer
LED light (3’ and 4’ fixture)
Rubbermaid 32g sump

After I break down my 90g tank
Photon 48 version 1
Nyos Quantum (160)
Custom Model F Sump
UV Sterilizer
Bio pellet reactor
Neotherm heater

Livestock
4 Clowns
Cardinalfish
6 line wrasse
Sunrise dottyback
Royal dottyback
Powder Blue tang
Carpet Anemone (currently in my failed refugium)

Corals
2 Toadstool leather
2 Hand leather
Folded Brain coral
Gorgonian
Duncan

A few months ago I posted about a LFS selling my XL One Spot Fox Face for 150 and not offering to give me any credit (I disagree with his choice but I feel if he doesn’t want to support his local customers I won’t support him). After that, I went to another store further away to get some frozen silversides. While I was there, I overheard a conversation about them moving. I took that opportunity to ask them if they were going to be selling any of the acrylic aquariums and they said yes.

After a few convincing conversations with my wife, I ended up getting a 6’ by 30” tank (about 90g). A few days later I got a call from the owner who said that they wanted to hold on to the 6’ tanks and instead offered me a 7’ by 30” tank. As most of you are probably thinking...I asked my wife if she was ok with the upgrade. As long as the price was the same, she didn’t care. Now the difficult part was trying to find out when it was ready to be picked up and I had to wait the entire month of December.

One of the hurdles for this tank has been that cost need to remain minimal as possible. So looking at options on how to achieve that I had two options which worked for me: build a stand or use cement blocks. I went with the cement blocks because it provided me with a look that I like and gave me the freedom to work under the tank if I chose to.

Thankfully I had my father-in-law help me move the bricks into the basement before I got the tank. I officially don’t ever want to move any bricks again! Once the bricks were in place I was able to get the frame on and actually had a blast going crazy with the electric drill.

I was able to get the tank on the frame and began plumbing. The behind the tank photos show what a quick plumbing job looks like. My main goal was to get a water test completed before I left for the night. The top of the tank has 3 holes for 1/2" pipe for the return once I get that set up.

Once I got the water in, I noticed that the hand tight rule didn’t work to well and had to use some tool force on the bulkheads. As of today no more leaks have been found.

The next step will be to get the sump up and running and still trying to figure out what type of sand I should put in the tank. I will be definitely going with a shallow bed as I only have about 14” for the height. In the mindset of keeping this project at minimal expense, I leave near the ocean in Massachusetts and get some sand and mud when it is at low tide.

dantimdad · Jan 8, 2019

I like the dimensions of the tank.

That's about 150 gallons.

Welcome aboard!

SPR1968 · Jan 8, 2019

Well this is a great build thread so far and thanks for sharing all the pictures, very nice indeed!

And welcome to R2R as well!

reacclimating 2 the hobby · Jan 8, 2019

I like the looks of where this is going... following along and keep the pictures rolling

iplayhockey1919 · Jan 9, 2019

I have been debating what the next steps will be due to college classes starting up next week, electrical work needing to be done, finishing the plumbing and hang the lighting. As you can see behind the tank is a freezer that has been there for quite a while and I am not sure how many watts it is using and anything else on that circuit. My goal is to set myself up with 2 or 3, 20 Amp breakers for the electrical needs for the future as well. I am thinking about just adding a sub-panel to lesson any possible issues to the main panel.

Plumbing is my more immediate task at hand mostly due to running out of supplies and making a quick fix to do the water test. Thankfully, no leaks found yet! During the leak test I noticed that my temporary sump was losing ground on the battle to fight the water because the pump wasn’t able to keep up the drain water. The pump I am using is lifeguard one pro for 758 gph.

I have a unique setup with this tank and can use some thoughts and ideas to figure this out. I have 3 – 1” drains, 2 have ball valves connected to them and the 3rd is open flow. The 2 at the ends of the tank are on the bottom and drain downward, the 3rd drain is about 6” inches up the back side. I am considering doing a Bean drain system but not sure it would work with this setup or if I need to modify for the needs of the tank. Another option would be to use only 1 drain and limit that so my pump won’t have to try so hard to keep up.

iplayhockey1919 · Jan 9, 2019

dantimdad said:
I like the dimensions of the tank.

That's about 150 gallons.

Welcome aboard!

After all this fun is completed, I have to figure out what fish to add since they will have a lot of room for swimming activities.

iplayhockey1919 · Jan 16, 2019

Over this passed weekend, I was decided to re-due the plumbing because I came to the realization that once at full capacity of water, I would have no way of stopping from over flowing the sump. I also had a KISS moment and that I should use the Durso method to help control the flow into the sump in the event of a power failure.

The first and second pictures show the plumbing cleaner and easier to maintain then previously created. Also with the second picture, you can see I had to get creative with the piping. This is because the lid covering part of the tank overlapped with drain pipe.

The last picture is the nice clean look with a little light and if you notice, I opted to leave the return coming from the back of the tank up and to the middle. My plan was to try to put 3/4" PVC through the pre-drilled holes on the top but realized that was going to take more work then I wanted to put into it for now.

count krunk · Jan 16, 2019

with 3 drains, I would do a bean animal drain setup for sure. It is, IMO, the GOAT of drain systems

iplayhockey1919 · Jan 16, 2019

yungreefer2410 said:
with 3 drains, I would do a bean animal drain setup for sure. It is, IMO, the GOAT of drain systems

Believe me, I am going to head in that direction at some point. Just with the time frame and keeping the cost and ideas down to a simple level, (and keeping the wife happy), this was my temporary fix.

iplayhockey1919 · Feb 1, 2019

I am sure, like everyone in the midwest to the northeast...this polar vortex is affecting unfinished basements? I bought a 300W heater from the Eheim brand and then got another one because the first wasn't able to maintain the temperature. I "re-calibrated" it and it looks like to have shut down and the water temp fell from 74.5 to 71.8. After I put the second heater in, the temp is now 77.3.

Having the heating issue is one thing but I know that the other issue I am fighting is the cold basement and having the sump on the cement floor. I have a couple of ideas that I would like to run past everyone to see if an easy solution is possible.

One idea I have is to get the sump of the ground, yes for the obvious reasons that I should have thought about before setting it up.

In the second picture, I have a rubbermaid roughneck 54 gallon tote. I would like to use this possibly as a sump but very nervous about it not being able to support the water or crack (I have had it for about 6 years). The second part to this sump idea is to create a crate or crib for it and add insulation to the bottom and sides to help with the cool air. I would build a frame like we do for a tank stand and then secure it.

The other sump idea is to go to a tractor supply store and buy a 50 gallon water storage unit for livestock. I would still plan on building it up like a crib and insulate it.

Other ideas that I have and talked with a few fish folks about:
Using electric heaters to maintain a stable environment for the heat.
Using electric blanket to heat the sump
Run new HVAC to the basement
Tap in the hot water line, run flexible pipe into water and then back into the tank (I really like this idea and may move forward with it down the road).

The last picture is the main culprit to my heating issues for the basement.

As always, advice and help is always welcomed.

iplayhockey1919 · Mar 13, 2019

Its been a while since I was able to update this post, so hope you like what you see.

As life gets in the way of this hobby, my time working on the tank has been limited the past month and half. Having 4 days off in February really allowed me to move forward with my plans of getting the fish, corals and rock into the tank. The first two to head over was the clown fish that liked to bite me anytime I put my hand in the old tank.

At that time, it was only the two of them with a small number of snails to clean up the tank and not let algae take over. During this time, it was also very cold up in MA due to the polar vortex coming down from Canada, which prompted me to buy a second heater for the tank. I also learned that if you work on putting a lid on the tank and insulation around the sump, the water stays warmer and wont suffer the heat loss...who knew.

After a few nervous days of checking in on the clowns, it was finally move day for the others. The move day turned out to be a snowy, cold day so it made everything a little more challenging. I got the corals and fish into the tank without any problems and after the shock of moving into a new home, the powder blue tang is enjoying the amount of swimming space he has.

The 3rd photo above shows a 4" PVC tee with my carpet anemone inside. My hope was that he would take to that and enjoy but naturally, he didn't and has had some issues this past week. Here is the link https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/carpet-anemone-help.567123/

Current picture of the anemone

As you can see in the photo below, I have an usual setup with two different lights and a difference in the tank life. The reason for the lights is that the corals are used to the photon 48 V1 and the anemone is used to a constant light on it as it used to be in the sump. The 7 foot tank also presented me with a challenge of how to manage the lighting. The result is to use two LED lights side by side. Recently, I have lowered the light on the right to be even with the other light and hopefully wont add to much light to the other side.

I added a UV Sterilizer and bio pellet reactor to the mix in some what of a hurry. Both are connect to the pump that feeds it, the UV is hanging on its own and the reactor is hanging on the inside of the sump. Yes, I need to fix this but it works for the moment.

This last picture is one that caught my eye as I was walking by. I have this coral for about 4 months and haven't seen him swell up this much. It is for reasons like this that I can stare at this tank for hours.

So whats next? During this process I had to order another return pump because my died (it was only used for water changes). I took that opportunity to change out the return pipe to fit into the 3/4" holes at the top of the tank lid. I tried using all 3 but soon realized that water pressure from a pump can only go so high before it cant support the middle section. The return is now just at the ends of the tank and flowing in that way.

I actually never thought I say these words; for now I am satisfied with the tank and don't want to change anything with it.