Rollermonkey's First Upgrade

[rollermonkey]

All right, I'm gonna straight up copy/paste the stuff I've already done up to this point...

As soon as we bought the house, I knew the upgrade was going to go right here, between the kitchen and the family room.

I ordered the tank April 1st and picked it up on May 14th.

The tank is 36"x24" and 20" deep, so a hair under 70 gallons if filled to the brim. The corner return was pre-drilled, and the tank sat on a shelf in my garage wrapped in saran wrap until August.


The equipment list, as planned:


Lighting: 2x Kessil A360W ^
Moonlights from Neptune Systems via the Apex
Movement: 2x Vortech MP10wES (one will be from the BC) + split return
Return: Reef Octopus DC-3500* should be perfect at my static head and plumbing to get me a bit over 800GPH at max setting, so I can then dial it back a bit.
Filtration:
Skimmer (RLSS R6-i) ^
Triple OBD reactors, for biopellets, carbon and GFO ^
Macros in the fuge / bad crab timeout section.
Controller: Apex Lite* (from the BC)
ATO: Tunze 3155* (from the BC)
(*Starred items are already on hand, items marked ^ have been ordered.)


Stocking Plan:


Fish:
(From the BC)
Ocellaris Clownfish pair
1X Blue Assessor
1X Helfrichi Firefish
(New Additions)
1X Flame Hawkfish (maybe)
1X Purple Tilefish
1X Coral Beauty Dwarf OR Flame Angel
Red Velvet Fairy Wrasse pair
1X herbivorous blenny such as a Black Combtooth, Starry or Lawnmower

I want a Comet, but apparently they think fish are food, not friends, so it will have to wait, maybe until the NEXT upgrade.




Corals...

I pretty much plan to go with 100% Reef Goddess corals. I like the blues, greens and purples mostly, so:

Miami Vice Zoanthids
Radioactive Dragon Eye Zoanthids
Caribbean Dream Leptastrea
Aussie Duncans
Purple Capricornis
Turqoise Discomas Mushrooms
Birds of Paradise Birdsnest
Ultra Toxic montipora deliculata
Strawberry Star Gonipora
Aquamarine Vermiculata

(Not a coral, but I want, nontheless: Ultra Blue Layercake Sponge)


I've gotten a new 20H from Petco for my QT in place of the Mr. Aqua 7.5 cube, and I'll be using an AC50 with inTank media basket for filtration on that and a PAR38 in an IKEA lamp for lighting. I already have multiple heaters and whatnot, so the QT is ready to go.


I put my deposit down for a stand and hood at the start of July and picked it up in August.


Upon arrival:

Feeding "flap"

and opening lid for maintenance

Next, I had to carefully move the BC a couple feet so I could slide the new tank into position once it's plumbed and completely ready to get wet. The left door will be blocked by the BC stand until the cycle is finished and I can break down the cube, so it has to be completely set up before I can fill it.


Then we planned out the sump in early August:

The tank finally was placed on the stand August 26th when my father-in-law helped me carry it up from the garage.
(Nice of him to help while on visiting from Japan, huh?)

I plumbed the top of the herbie overflow and the top of the return while waiting for the sump to be built. (I may take out some of the loc-line, there's probably too much.)

I ordered 100 pounds of base rock from Reef Cleaners, and I worked my way through the boxes, rinsing it all and drying it out. I haven't decided on substrate yet, only that the sand bed will be much less than the 3-inches I started with in the BC, probably 1 - 1.5 inches, two max.


I picked up the sump at the beginning of October. Eurobracing was added so the ATO reservoir across the front can't bow out, but it also acts as a cover to keep contaminants out of the top-off water.

It's a tight squeeze, but I think it looks fantastic:

Next I assembled all of the remaining plumbing components that use teflon tape instead of PVC cement, and later I connected those hard pipe sections with flexible PVC pipe when I got pipe hangers.


The skimmer has been ordered, and I'm waiting for it to get out of back-ordered status. The only thing left to get before the underneath is done, water-wise, is the reactors. Those were ordered, last month but there was some sort of SNAFU, so they won't be ready on November 2nd, like I'd hoped.


I used some pieces of cardboard to make a mock up of the tank bottom, back and one side. That way, I could muck about trying to assemble the scape without being on a stepladder and working upside-down in the tank. I've epoxied most of it together outside the tank, and I'm just about ready to complete the final build in the tank itself.


I've ordered my Kessils, and they should be here next week, Tuesday. I've drawn up my plan to mount them, and will fabricate that mechanism after they get here so I can be sure to get the measurements exactly right for what I have planned.


That's pretty much where I am as of October 29th. I'm still going to college full time, so everything is progressing excruciatingly slowly. Even if I fill the tank before I have the 2nd MP10, I'm looking at late-November for initial fill, at the earliest, but more likely early December. I probably won't have the rest of the components and be ready to move inhabitants from the BC before February 1st.


Incidentally, due to the BC having had bryopsis, bubble algae and currently has GHA and cyano, no rock, sand or corals will be moving to the new tank. I will actually be QTing my own fish, nems and shrimp before transfer or obtaining any new inhabitants.


More pictures next post...

 

[rollermonkey]

I'm 100% finished with the plumbing, barring any unusual requirements from my skimmer or reactors.

Current project:

- Complete the scape.
I've used 14 tubes of JB Water Weld epoxy thus far and I've got six more on hand. I suspect I may actually need one or two more tubes on top of that, too.


Upcoming Projects:

- Lighting
Specifically creating the mounting for it and making the openings in the hood to allow the light to shine through. I really want to get creative with this, and figure out a way to suspend the Kessils over the hood, yet allow them to fold down when the maintenance lid is open.

- Wiring channel.
I'm going to buy a section of 4" ABS pipe (maybe 5") and drill 2" or 3" holes in it ever 6 inches or so. I'll mount one section to the back wall of the stand and a shorter one to the right side. If I do one on the left, it will be very, very short. All wires will run through this pipe, and out the side holes as necessary to the appropriate equipment.


I hope to order my new MP10 @ December 1st. Somewhere in there, I need to decide on sand and get that here, too.


Hopefully, this year for the First Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...


Diatoms.
:mrgreen:[/quote]

 

[rollermonkey]

The plumbing of the sump:












The tie-off is because this bend is opposite of the shape-memory of the pipe and it wants to twist towards the back. Hopefully, this will go away, and I'll be able to cut the string before I get everything finished.

 

[rollermonkey]

Using a couple ideas from elsewhere, I built a full-sized mockup of my tank bottom, overflow and back, then marked the back out into thirds. (I also drew my estimated sand depth.) This incorporates good photography framing practices, which hopefully makes for a more dynamic end result. This way, I don't have to climb up and down a step-stool a hundred times while reaching into the tank and tweaking the rocks. This way, I can also do most of the epoxy work before moving it into the tank to finish.


Anyways, I had a couple ideas in my head, but as I started putting things together, one became readily apparent that it would be easier to accomplish:


So, here's the aquascape...


Left oblique:

Straight on (kitchen side):

Right oblique:

I dunno. even though it's a bit of a rock wall, I still kinda like it. As much as I'd like to do one of those arrangements with a big, cavernous ledge across 2/3 of the tank with lots of negative space underneath, I didn't really get the pieces to do that without extensive drilling for a massive internal support structure.


I'm nearly done epoxying the smaller pieces into larger composite chunks, soon I'll move those into the actual tank and finish gluing them together.

 

[seancc317]

Following your journey. Looks like it will be a good one

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Well done so far!

 

[Spendley]

I (day)dream about my first upgrade and hope it can only go as smooth as yours seems to have so far. Looking great and clean. Following along to see progress, hope you've got water in tank by the new year!

 

[rollermonkey]

All rocks are in the glass box.


I got all of the rock upstairs and into the tank, and got it positioned and locked in almost exactly the same as when it was down at my desk where I was working on it the past several days. I've got four more places that I want to epoxy together to make sure nothing can get knocked off the top. I have four more tubes of epoxy on hand right now, but that will probably be just enough to finish the rocks. After that, I'll be ready to attach the barnacle clusters, and I think that I'll be able to do that with a single tube of epoxy, since they are so light.


Anyways, one of the principle ideas for what I wanted to accomplish with the scape was open swimming lanes from right to left, a clear line of sight through the tank into the family room below, and to use as much rock as possible without it looking like a big rockpile.


I think I got the sightline part accomplished pretty well:









An overall shot from the kitchen:







From the family room:







From the right side:







And the left (this side will be closest to a wall):







And a couple close-ups:


A cave I made on the right side of the tank (It's actually over 5 inches deep and 2 or three inches in diameter all the way back.):







The only real arch I was able to make from the pieces I got:







And showing some of the openings through the main structure:







So, I still need to add sand, obviously. I haven't decided the specifics of what brands and flavors I'll use, but I'm going to keep it at 2 inches deep or just below.


I ordered 100 pounds of base rock from John at Reefcleaners.org and when it arrived, each box was 53 pounds. I know the cardboard boxes didn't weigh three pounds, but for the sake of calculation, I'll say they were. By weighing what's left over, I'm getting that the rock in the DT is about 56.2 pounds. (Plus whatever the fudge factor is from the empty boxes not weighing three pounds each.) So, if I put 9 pounds into the refugium, that would give me one pound per gallon of display area.


Anyone think I should aim for a higher quantity?

 

[rockinzebra457]

what brands is the tank?

 

[rollermonkey]

This would make me laugh if I wasn't so frustrated by this build. Look back at the dates. You'll see I'm already past 5 months since I picked up the tank. My skimmer is on backorder, my reactors weren't even started yet, despite ordering them a month ago, and every thing I do takes me at least five times as long as it would anyone else between the three year old jumping on my head every five minutes and all the homework from being a full-time college student majoring in engineering.

I (day)dream about my first upgrade and hope it can only go as smooth as yours seems to have so far. Looking great and clean. Following along to see progress, hope you've got water in tank by the new year!

 

[rollermonkey]

Why can't I find the edit button?

This is the correct picture for the view from the family room:

 

[rollermonkey]

Oceans By Design is an LFS in Tukwila, WA. They made my tank, sump and reactors. I also got the stand built through a furniture builder they contract with.

The tanks and sumps they are putting out are pretty sweet.

what brands is the tank?

 

[AJsTank]

Cool tank man. Looks very clean. I like that sump

 

[TJ's Reef]

Great looking system and was able to check them out while under construction at OBD. Eric did a fine job on the Tank and Sump with built in ATO reservoir, looking forward to seeing it up and running.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Smigul]

Nice Update! looking forward for your project.

 

[rollermonkey]

Everything about this build has been good news/bad news:

I picked up the dry sand I'm using for the bulk of my substrate, and they happened to have one of the two types of live sand I'll be mixing in.

Then I was informed that I have $2300 worth of repairs to do to my car.

Good thing my lights and skimmer are already paid for, otherwise November would be a near-total bust for the build.

 

[mfinn]

Great looking build so far.

 

[rollermonkey]

Ooh! Look what the Reef Fairy (disguised as a UPS delivery guy) brought me today!

 

[rollermonkey]

Slow progress is still progress...


Hung the kessils:
I made sort of a little swingset to hang the lights from.





Later I tested the lights to see how they looked.


Room lights on, Kessils at 25%, even blue/white mix:





Room lights off, whites only at 25%:





Room lights off, blue only at 25%:





As seen from my eye level, the lights are barely visible on top of the hood:





Looking down into the hood shows the holes I cut and how the lights are mounted.





Them lights look good, if you ask me.


Next, I addressed organization of my cables and wires. I took a 5-foot section of 3" ABS pipe, cut it into three sections and used a hole saw to cut openings 2.5" across and spaced 5" center to center:





Those will get attached to the insides of the stand and all wires will run through them and out the nearest opening to the gear as appropriate.




This week, I picked up my reactor set from OBD.


Left to right, Biopellet, GFO, Carbon:





They fit snug as a bug in a rug into the notches in the eurobracing:





I'll have to modify the biopellet outlet after I get the skimmer in there, but this will do until that gets here next week. Oh, I was able to cut the tie-off for the flex-PVC tonight and it stayed right where I want it, no heat-gun required.


...and I was able to wedge this part of my wire management system approximately into place to better show how it works. I've actually drilled small holes into the back of the pipe and will be using plath screws to hold it into place. I think I will mount my EB-8's right above this pipe.





Lastly, I got the two jumbo-sized (20-gallon) Vittle Vaults for my mixing station from Petco. $15 coupon, $5 in Petco rewards and free shipping brought the total down to about $80 which is about MSRP for just one!

 

[rollermonkey]

I ordered my skimmer on Oct. 5th. Three days later, they called me to say it was out of stock. A month later, a different vendor got the same skimmer in, but I gave the original place a week before I cancelled the order and re-ordered it from the second place. According to UPS, it will be here on Wednesday.

So, I should rinse my dry sand this weekend and place that down. I'm waiting for the skimmer to get here before I mount the pipes for the wiring, just to make sure there's no clearance issues.

I've got to get one last item before I can finally slide the tank into position and fill it: One MP10. When the tank is cycled, I'm going to QT my own fish, for one week each to make sure that I don't transfer any GHA, GBA or bryopsis spores into the new tank. (Particularly want to make sure about the bryopsis, I had a magnesium resistant strain.) The four maximinis are moving over, as are the two shrimp. (Assuming I find the pistol still alive, as I haven't been hearing it snap lately.)

Once I've break down the old biocube that MP10, plus the Apex and Tunze ATO will all get moved over to the new tank. The few surviving corals and the CUC are living on borrowed time.