Minion's 65 gallon full DIY build

[M I N I O N]

Oh JOY!!!! I accidently found the tank I was originally looking for..... The most amazing tank I have ever seen:

http://www.oregonreef.com

Beware... You WILL want an 850 gallon tank.

[fish.freak]

Im a t5 fan!

[Deuter]

You know what, the link you just posted (http://www.oregonreef.com) He does have probably the most beautiful tank I have ever seen in my opinion also! However he doesn't even use T5's. Which goes show you that T5's really are not as important as the MH's. It also goes to show that both have equal qualifing aspects that give both types of lighting a respectable reputation for aquiring beautiful lighting to the reef tank. So it comes down to in allot of cases personal prefrences! While also keeping in mind what types of animals will be in the tank as most reef animals do better under MH's. I'm a fan of T5's, and MH's and a little bit for the VHO's. However I decided to get the best of both worlds and get T5's and MH's together. So I decided to get 3 T5 blue 1 T5 white. and 2x 150w MH's over my 65g. Perfect in my opinion! However I believe and my personal research has shown that the MH's are much healthier light and being the most superior light of all reef tank lighting! So I think they are a must. Keep in mind however I'm new to this hobby take my opinions with a grain of salt (I'm only 19) and keep researching, we never stop learning!

-Deuter

[Deuter]

Also I just noticed something else interesting (with both really great reef tanks presented above) I'd like to point out at is that the parameters such as the Calcium are high compared to most hobbyiest. Most reefers Ca may vary these guys keep their tank Ca at the limit! 420ppm! In the future this will be imperative for my tank, as with most problems persist when Ca is low. The high Ca may also be why they're corals and in particular they SPS corals are so vibrant in color! While also this may add to the large size as they have all the nessasary Ca to grow at rapid rates because the SPS's are under perfect lighting and perfect perameters in essence of the Ca. Just a thought...

[fish.freak]

All t5s

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-10/totm/index.phpPaul Whitby's (pwhitby) Reef Aquarium

[DarthOcellaris]

I keep my Ca near 450 most of the time. I keep my Alk near 11dkh. It's when it drops to 400/8 -ish that my coraline stops growing and I can tell a general difference in the happiness of all the corals.

[M I N I O N]

You guys sure are helpful with this!!! I am heavilly considering going with all T5s instead MH + T5s. I am reading some awesome reviews and by the looks of it, it should be MH all the way in deeper water or if you want SPS on the bottom. I am going to be doing neither.... The heat factor is compelling enough but we'll see where this goes. Lighting is getting taken care of next on the list after skimmer/ca reactor construction, which BTW I got in my black acrylic today!!!! I still need to get my 4' x 8' sheet of clear acrylic to do the sump with. I am desparately trying to find it for under $120 a sheet (1/4") somewhere closer than New Jersey.

[M I N I O N]

I just wanted to let you guys know I got a decent amount of work done on my sump. I picked up a bunch of 3/8" acrylic from piedmont plastics in beltsville, md durring lunch yesterday and man was that place awesome! I highly recomend checking their webset and looking for a location near you.
There are getting back to me on tubing prices so I may end up changing the design of my skimmer and calcium reactor. I will have lots of pictures soon of the progress.

[jenajet]

Originally Posted by M I N I O N

Oh JOY!!!! I accidently found the tank I was originally looking for..... The most amazing tank I have ever seen:

http://www.oregonreef.com

Beware... You WILL want an 850 gallon tank.

HaHa....That's Steve's system. His cold water setup is our tank of the month.

[M I N I O N]

^^^^ If you check the TOTM thread out, I had found that out a few days ago and posted in there. My post resembles that of a little kid talking to his favorite sports star. It's funny what high levels of envy do to the brain!

I would like to get some input on needle wheel skimmers. I have been trying to tinker my designs of the whole system to reduce heat/noise and using a pair of oceanrunner 2700s instead ofa huge iwaki pump would do a lot for me there. The skimmer will be roughly 24" tall total. Would a dual needle wheel pump skimmer 8-10" in diameter be a better idea than the dual beckett?

[M I N I O N]

Ok, I let almost two weeks go by without a good update. I was waiting for some things to show up but I was also staying late at work to make sure my last paycheck could get me some more equiptment.
Due to heat, I have decided to stick to all T5 bulbs, 10 in total. I am going with four ATI Aquablue specials on an icecap ballast, four ATI Blue plus on another icecap ballast and two ATI Pro color bulbs on a standard ballast.
For flow, I am going to start with two tunze nanostream 6045 pumps plus the return from my sump. That should put me at 45 x volume per hour. If there is any doubt that this will be enough, closed loop will be plumbed.
The skimmer design has changed thanks to the logic that has been beaten into me. I have decided that a needle-wheel design would be much better.... and I started building it!!!! The main chamber is 10"x10"x17" with a 9" diameter, 7" tall collection cup bringing the skimmer to 24" tall. It will be driven off of two Oceanrunner 2700 pumps with venturis. The skimmer is going to be fed dirrectly from the overflows which should mean for some nasty foam!
So far I have the basic structure of the skimmer built. I have the tubing to make a round skimmer but decided to make it square to hold more volume instead. The guy that owns my local fish store has built some fairly large skimmers and showed me the good stuff to use when building. His advice was as good as gold and I love the way it has come out so far. All of the walls are 1/4" thick besides for the back wall which is 3/8" thick. It is going to be holding the two pumps. Tomorrow I will water test the box and see how it holds. If I can find some nylon screws and a nice size o-ring I make get cracking on the twist-off top tomorrow as well; the sump walls will be a deffinate though!

Here are some pitures to give you the idea of SIZE compaired to the tank, you can also see the lower piece of acrylic has been cut for the base of the sump (still has paper on it)
:


I absolutely love coral but everybody else likes the fish. Hopefully all the colorful acros will change their minds. Just in case, this skimmer should be more than enough for me to add a couple extra fish that aren't in the original plan should the occasion arise.

Gimme feedback and I'll give you more pictures and a DIY skimmer how-to!

[fish.freak]

10 F-in T5s holy shhnikes minion!!!
Square skimmer and full stand size sump this is going to to be one sweet tank.
I have been thinking about bumping up to the 65t my self since I have a 36" tank already.
Keep the pics coming!!!

[Fat Tony]

10 bulbs on a 65... wow, i think that is wayyyy overkill. at most 8 would do, and 6 is enough. looks like it's gonna be a nice tank though...congrats..

[M I N I O N]

I would agree that 10 bulbs would normally be overkill, but the color bulbs don't have near the PAR that the rest of the bulbs have. They are pretty much just to make the pinks, yellows and greens pop out a little more. In this case, it will be about the same for the critters as if I was only running 8, which at on 39 watts a piece and only 33ish inches long, I don't think that is bad for all of the acros that will be kept in the tank.

Fish.Freak... Go for it! I love the size of my tank. :-)

Thanks fo the comments guys.

[fish.freak]

im broke. selling my nano to pay dentist.