Supertanker
Community Member
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2019
- Messages
- 38
- Reaction score
- 102
- Location
- Nokomis, FL
- What state or country do you live in
- Florida
Okay so I took on this 125ga corner tank since my brother wanted to actually sell it off and down size (he had it set up fresh water with Oscars and such). Best provenance I have is it was a custom tank, intended to be marine, manufactured by Tenecor. I figured..."what the heck," right? I'm a veterinarian, I can set it up in my office, and maybe I can put that way-back-when BS in zoology to work. Of course I know absolutely nothing about the process, art, hobby. Well, now I do (a little, because I've basically watched Ryan at BRS on youtube to the point where he's like a family member). I feel guilty telling my sixteen-year-old he's wasting quality life moments sitting there watching youtube all day, since I have become him. Anyway, here's the base:
So its a monumental challenge in many ways. 125ga acrylic tank. Was set up fresh water, so I cleaned it, buffed it best I could, and reveneered the base with rosewood (thanks to my son helping with that). That wasn't an optional job (no pics on it BTW, I'm not a good documentarian but that can change): the cabinet was made out of, basically,MDF. I'm no woodworker but if I were to construct a base cabinet that was constantly at risk of contacting water, MDF would not be my choice. Nonetheless, we (my son, Ben, and I) cut away, filled, re-structured, then re-veneered the thing. Appearance: OK. Nothing special but attractive. I coated the entire inside with white elastomeric roof coating. I assume I could fill it with water and the wood will be protected. But the space challenge is crazy. Dimensions limited me to a 30ga sump. The only one I could find was one by H2Pro. It's okay. It fits, and has four chambers: overflow is with two socks (I'm running a herbie into it as I had two holes in the DT overflow and couldn't drill a third for a BA) into a smallish chamber (#2)where I have my skimmer. That's also H2Pro (which from what I can tell is essentially Coral Box, we'll see how this performs). The skimmer, I believe, was planned by the manufacturer to go in the middle chamber (#3) but I'm going to have a refugium there, then finally the return. I plumbed the return through and outside the cabinet, since there's just no extra room underneath.
I used all 1" reinforced vinyl inside the cabinet, and 1" blue PVC outside with unions everywhere. I also have a check valve in my return line, the obligatory gate valve in the herbie main averflow, and a Spears ball valve in the return (no pic).
As far as other equipment I have:
Kessil H380 light for the fuge
ZetlightZT 680 for the DT
Neptune Cor-15 pump
Two Neptune WAV heads
Neptune APEX controller
Finnex titanium heater
For the DT I went all Carib Sea dry rock as I would like to be as eco-friendly as I can and also avoid parasites.
I made my first RO/DI water today and started filling.
I aquascaped it yesterday, and as anyone can see I have no restraint. While I can make 150ga of water a day, I have to stay with about 30 per day since I'm not here all the time, and I have to wheel it down the hall to the tank.
I'm planning to start carefully...softies and maybe some zoanthids. I'm going to Reef-a-Palooza in Orlando in a few weeks, but I will be looking only; I'm many weeks, even months from adding fauna. So here we go...
Oh, I actually have a question (be patient): My Finnex heaters clearly say they need to be horizontal for the thermostats to function properly. I have little choice but to put them vertically in my overflow, since the sump is too small. My DT could house them but they would be a bear to reach behind the rock and because the thing is so tall and deep. Anybody have an opinion on running them (I actually have two, but won't have both in at the same time) vertically? I've seen the typical reviews of fried fish, etc. for pretty much every single heater. These will also, bear in mind, be ultimately controlled from the on-fail by the APEX (I hope).
So its a monumental challenge in many ways. 125ga acrylic tank. Was set up fresh water, so I cleaned it, buffed it best I could, and reveneered the base with rosewood (thanks to my son helping with that). That wasn't an optional job (no pics on it BTW, I'm not a good documentarian but that can change): the cabinet was made out of, basically,MDF. I'm no woodworker but if I were to construct a base cabinet that was constantly at risk of contacting water, MDF would not be my choice. Nonetheless, we (my son, Ben, and I) cut away, filled, re-structured, then re-veneered the thing. Appearance: OK. Nothing special but attractive. I coated the entire inside with white elastomeric roof coating. I assume I could fill it with water and the wood will be protected. But the space challenge is crazy. Dimensions limited me to a 30ga sump. The only one I could find was one by H2Pro. It's okay. It fits, and has four chambers: overflow is with two socks (I'm running a herbie into it as I had two holes in the DT overflow and couldn't drill a third for a BA) into a smallish chamber (#2)where I have my skimmer. That's also H2Pro (which from what I can tell is essentially Coral Box, we'll see how this performs). The skimmer, I believe, was planned by the manufacturer to go in the middle chamber (#3) but I'm going to have a refugium there, then finally the return. I plumbed the return through and outside the cabinet, since there's just no extra room underneath.
I used all 1" reinforced vinyl inside the cabinet, and 1" blue PVC outside with unions everywhere. I also have a check valve in my return line, the obligatory gate valve in the herbie main averflow, and a Spears ball valve in the return (no pic).
As far as other equipment I have:
Kessil H380 light for the fuge
ZetlightZT 680 for the DT
Neptune Cor-15 pump
Two Neptune WAV heads
Neptune APEX controller
Finnex titanium heater
For the DT I went all Carib Sea dry rock as I would like to be as eco-friendly as I can and also avoid parasites.
I made my first RO/DI water today and started filling.
I aquascaped it yesterday, and as anyone can see I have no restraint. While I can make 150ga of water a day, I have to stay with about 30 per day since I'm not here all the time, and I have to wheel it down the hall to the tank.
I'm planning to start carefully...softies and maybe some zoanthids. I'm going to Reef-a-Palooza in Orlando in a few weeks, but I will be looking only; I'm many weeks, even months from adding fauna. So here we go...
Oh, I actually have a question (be patient): My Finnex heaters clearly say they need to be horizontal for the thermostats to function properly. I have little choice but to put them vertically in my overflow, since the sump is too small. My DT could house them but they would be a bear to reach behind the rock and because the thing is so tall and deep. Anybody have an opinion on running them (I actually have two, but won't have both in at the same time) vertically? I've seen the typical reviews of fried fish, etc. for pretty much every single heater. These will also, bear in mind, be ultimately controlled from the on-fail by the APEX (I hope).
