Finally!! My official build thread!!

[Jasontkd]

Ok, so the time has finally arrived. Since November, when I tragically broke my 50 gallon reef during a move, I have been slowly gathering parts in order to set up a new tank. I am still a few things away, but I couldn't wait anymore. So, here it is:

The Plan:
29 gallon All glass (drilled with 2 One inch drains)
20ish gallon sump (still not decided)
Stand (reinforced pre-fabricated cabinet meant for kitchens or bathrooms)
PFO mini pendant 150 watt DE MH with 2 x 24 watt T-5's
Flow (still up int the air, but thinking 2 6025 tunze, or 2 #2 koralias or something else)
Mag 5 return (possibly on SCWD)
CSS 220 skimmer with fishing line mod
Reefkeeper 2 (when I can afford it)
Nano chiller from Nanotuners.com
25-30 LR from marcorocks.com
Will be mixed reef SPS dominant
Probably a 2-3" Sand Bed
Condering RDSB in refugium if there is room in sump
Nano CA reactor once there is a need

I think that is all, but if I forgot anything, I am sure someone will bring it to my attention

So, now the good stuff. Here is what I have so far.


Pre-fabricated cabinet for kitchen or Bathroom, reinforced.


Left side


Doors open. As you can see I have removed the back panel to allow heat and moisture to escape

[Jasontkd]

Top


More top


Looking down


Back removed


This is a box I built to hold my lights. It is already stained.


Rock from marcorocks.com curing. It have a couple lbs of LR in with it. Right now Nitrites are high, but coming down, and Nitrates are rising.


Here is the rock. I wish I would have taken pictures earlier, but what you don't see is I have already set all this out, drilled it, and attached it with acrylic rod.


Here you can see my CSS 220 with fishing line MOD and some gross skimmate. and I have started Adding some light from my PFO mini pendant.


Here is the counter top I am going to use for the top of the stand.

More to come. I am going to paint and seal the inside with white paint.

Comments welcome.

[Tynan Rasmus]

nice, thats one solid lookin stand.

[JY13131]

Looking good!!!!

[Jasontkd]

thanks. and the pre-fab cabinets have a nicer outside than I could raft myself

[motorslave]

very cool! Looks like you are taking your time and thinking ahead! Since you are going to go SPS as your primary, have you considered drilling the 29 for a simple CLS? This would remove equipment from in the tank, reduce possible heat issues from having extra pumps in there and really give you a cleaner look. Being that its a 29 this will give you the whole tank to aquascape! You could even do a CLS without drilling, just have the intake in the tank and have a return on each corner at the top. This would give you some great flow and you wouldnt have to have a huge pump. Remeber that a RSB in the sump will fill with detritus fairly quickly as the sump tends to collect alot of gunk.
Looks like youre well on your way to a great tank! Take your time and over plan!
Good job!

[Jasontkd]

I have considered a CLS, and am totally open to the idea. One draw back that I see is the wattage difference. The tunze's and koralias used very little wattage, where other pumps (in comparison) use a lot of wattage. I just like to save energy where I can. However, flow is kind of up in the air right now (especially since I can't find the 6025's anywhere right now). So, any suggestions on CLS and set-ups would be awesome.

[MIO]

nice build, should be fun!!!

[motorslave]

Well, with a CLS for a 29 you wouldnt need a big pump and you would only need one. If you did go with a CLS drilling would be ideal for keeping the tank clear inside. You could incorporate a spraybar behind the rock and also have flow at different locations and do so with a simple easy to do design. Being that you will have a relatively small volume, keeping the detritus from settling in the sand bed will go a long way to keeping the whole system healthy for a long time. A spraybar at mide level in the column behind the rock would help to also keep the rock cleaner, heck, you could just have a spray bar in the back, use a SCWD on the return and you would have a really effective flow pattern that would work for you very well! You would have one pump, nothing in the tank and with the right design your maintenence would be helped alot by the flow. In a small volume of water any little issue of nutrient saturation becomes a problem and when it hits critical mass the end result would more than likely happen before you had time to react and fix it.
If you look at pumps on some of the vendor sites, many of them have the wattage they use so you can compare energy usage between options.
if you want some ideas PM me and Ill give you a hand!

[Jasontkd]

How would you drill all the holes? Having broken one tank in the past, I am really worried about keeping the tank stucturally sound. Plus, I would like to have as few pipes coming out the back of the tank as possible. What size pump were you thinking? If running a spraybar and a SCWD, it would need to be fairly big in order to keep the tank clean and keep SPS.

[motorslave]

Run the scwd off of the return, and have the two returns after it come over the top and provide flow for the upper and mid water column. If you did a CLS you could use one intake and one hole for the spraybar.
Use diamond hole saws. Do a search on drilling tanks here and youll find a bunch of info. If you still have questions on the drilling PM Geoff hes done it tons of times. Let me mess around on paint and Ill get a schematic drawn up for you. Probably not tonight but by tomorow. Ill post it here for you then you can see if it is something you may want to do and you may get some different ideas from it!

[Jasontkd]

great, thanks. I am pretty familiar with drilling a tank, I am just wanting to make sure the structure of the tank isn't compromised.

[motorslave]

PM Geoff, hed be the best resource on that kind of stuff, hes the DIY king!

[Jasontkd]

aslo, i am trying to figure out what to put inside the stand as a bottom. I know I could just use wood and paint it like everything else(which would be easy), but I was thinking. Could I use some sort of Cutting board material, cut it to size and use caulk to seal it to the wood. I just think it would make clean up of little spills really easy. However, I don't know that this option is cost effective, or worth the time

[motorslave]

Dont forget an ATO!