The ultimate DIY reef tank

Kalen · Nov 10, 2014

Miami_reefer said:
I almost went blind researching different things on this dam iPad :neutral: the last thing I want if to have 60 gal of water on my floor lol, youre right tho Kalen, the real test will be holding all that in over time. Time will tell. I'll let you know for sure about the tank. Its being stored in broward tho, just letting you know.

I really hate to say something like that especially in this hobby after someone has put so much time and money into a custom build to have it fail. That would be the worst. Has never happened to be thankfully. However every it's the truth and the truth can suck at times.

IanWR · Nov 10, 2014

Miami_reefer said:
I made a bible trap after the return section...

I love autocorrect. This one actually made my laugh out loud! I couldn't help wonder what a bible trap would do, if that's a good or a bad thing, and if I ought to figure out how to make one. Thanks for the inadvertent humour.

As for your build, looks great so far. I have to admit, I thought an "ultimate" DIY would also involve making your own skimmer, reactors, lights, rocks... but I nitpick. Great work on the stand, I look forward to seeing this come together.

Deep_Six Corals · Nov 11, 2014

Kalen I hear ya. But I'm confident. The tank looks great. I feel good about it
IanWR LOL my posts are FULL of grammatical errors, I do this all on an iPad or cellphone, I intend for it to be spelled correctly but autocorrect feels it knows what it's doing. I wish I could build all stuff myself, trust me I would. I considered some DIY leds but I decided I just wanted to spend the money on something nice and programable. To tell you the truth I just wanna get this thing home and wet already. I still have to paint the top of the stand and I don't even want to wait for it to dry, that's how much I'm itching to have it running lol

Deep_Six Corals · Nov 11, 2014

Plumbing is all done and ready to go! Just have to put some finishing touches on the stand and it's coming home. So close I can taste it.
The drain from gl*******s is 1 1/2 inch all the way down. The returns are 3/4" vinyl tubing fed by a mag 9.5. I'm expecting around 700gph out of the heads.

Kalen · Nov 11, 2014

That looks nice. Nice sump. I still have to build mine. Not sure about what either miami reefer

Deep_Six Corals · Nov 12, 2014

Well she's home! Hauled it in, set it up and started working on some hard scaping. Now I have to bend some metal tubing to hang my lighting from. I'll be ordering the reef breeders photon 48 next week. She's getting wet this weekend to start cycling.

Rjramos · Nov 13, 2014

Nice! I like it!

zesty · Nov 13, 2014

Miami_reefer said:
Plumbing is all done and ready to go! Just have to put some finishing touches on the stand and it's coming home. So close I can taste it.
The drain from gl*******s is 1 1/2 inch all the way down. The returns are 3/4" vinyl tubing fed by a mag 9.5. I'm expecting around 700gph out of the heads.

May I make one suggestion? Flip your tee 90Â°, so your return line is going to the down port of your tee, then it splits evenly thru your tee. As I see it right now, you are going to get more flow to the skimmer side return vs your non-skimmer side return.

Flow will always take he path of least resistance.

:bigsmile:

Deep_Six Corals · Nov 13, 2014

Rjramos thanks man! The wifey is complaining about the color of the stand. I kinda of agree. Gonna have to make a mess and home and sand it some, then try maybe a brownish Stain see if I can get a grey born color going to match the furniture .
zesty you're right! I didn't even think about that. I'll flip it tonight when I get home. Seems like the best option thank you

hatfielj · Nov 13, 2014

Nice work! Not many hobbyists have the guts to do what you did! You should definitely be proud. Looks great

Rjramos · Nov 13, 2014

And 1 more thing. Clamp all your hose and barb connections!

zesty · Nov 13, 2014

Miami_reefer said:
@zesty you're right! I didn't even think about that. I'll flip it tonight when I get home. Seems like the best option thank you

Anytime! Good luck with the build, but you are off to a SOLID start! Can't wait to see it thru

Scubafrog · Nov 13, 2014

Very nice DIY!

rayn · Nov 13, 2014

Awesome first tank! Looks like you planned out well.

Deep_Six Corals · Nov 16, 2014

Well I got her wet this weekend. Been making modifications to the inside of the stand and setting up power supplies. She hols 68 gallons of water. One thing I did notice is there is way too much flow through the whole system. I ordered a 3/4 barbed ball valve to slow the return flow. Also ordered a 3/4 barbed check valve. Realized my sump fills too much when there would be a power outage(pulled the plugs). Here some pics!

surfnsalt · Nov 16, 2014

Nice. Following

Kalen · Nov 16, 2014

Nice. It's a good feeling to finally get her wet.. I'm happy for you.

IanWR · Nov 16, 2014

Do yourself a favour and do not put a check valve in. Just move your return loclines up higher so less water flows to the sump when the return is off. Check valves can fail, and murphy's laws ays it will happen when you're out of town for the night.

Rjramos · Nov 17, 2014

IanWR said:
Do yourself a favour and do not put a check valve in. Just move your return loclines up higher so less water flows to the sump when the return is off. Check valves can fail, and murphy's laws ays it will happen when you're out of town for the night.

I agree, check valves can't be trusted. Just place one of your returns nozzles near the surface. When the pump goes off and the water in the main display drops this nozzle will expose and break the siphon. If you are gonna use loc-line for your returns this is even easier to do.

flounder · Nov 20, 2014

Looking Good. In the return chamber of the sump where the water enters from the tank, it looks like a nice splash zone, I can't help but see those 3 powerstrips so close by. Or is the photo not showing the depth?