My 50 gal tank log...Photo intense...

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:40 PM

All this information is from my local clubs thread, but I figure I would share it all with you...not sure if anyone is interested but I guess we will find out. Please feel free to ask any questions that you would like.

"Well it is finally coming together. I am begining to set everything in motion and starting to set up my 50gal corner pentagon tank.

All I can say is that it has cost me alot more then I had orginaly planned! I will be including a price list of everything, I know people always ask what it costs to get into something like this and no one really has a break down, so hopefully that will help.

I went with the corner pentagon, becase I got it for free! My step dad got it from a LFS who was going out of business, and never used it, so I convinced him to give it to me for free.

My real dad is incredible with building things from wood. We started the stand but only got the build the stand and hood and never really got to finish it, and he has become consumed with work and lives in hood river, so I finally said I need to finish it. The stand does not look like I had wanted it to, but I live in an apatment and lack proper tools to finish it like I wanted. I went the route of a roller and some good paint. It has turned out better then i thought...So overall I am pretty happy, hopefully my tank will look so good that no one will notice anything that might be wrong with the stand"

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:41 PM

A shot of the equitment.

The list-
-Aqua Medic 250w HQI Halide with 15k bulb-239.95
-Coralife SuperSkimmer 65-87.99
-Mag 9.5-73.99
-QuietOne 1200-20.99
-Coralife TurboTwist UV 9W-99.99
-Visi-Therm Stealth heater-20.99 (x2, an extra one if something goes wrong with the first)
-Coralife Digital Thermometer-6.99
-Coralife Power Center dual-33.99
-Some computer fans- Freebie
-Oceans Motions 4-way squirt-150.00
Total=734.79

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:41 PM

I do not have any unpainted shots of the stand...but here are some in the primer stage. It is now painted and I will get some pics of that up tomorrow....

This is what the stand is made out of its papered and 3/4", this is the same stuff they make the big road signs out of....

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:41 PM

Since I purchased a light that needs to be hung from the ceiling and I did not want to do that and my hood is enclosed on all sides, I could not hang it from the ceiling in order to make it easy to take it on and off.
here is the light...

And here is my creation to "hang" the light above the tank...

And the light hanging from it...Notice, I kept all the wire, so if in the furture I want to hang it I can...

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:42 PM

I bought the oceans motions 4-way squirt and I started to lay out how I want this pulmbed for the tank....

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:42 PM

The stand is going to be dry tonight so I can start mocking up all the plumbing for the closed loop and the drain and return from the sump...I will get pictures of all that very soon...One last shot...the tank sitting in my second shower with water making sure there are not leaks...

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:43 PM

Here is the tank and the stand and hood...Please ignore the mess of my place...I have to do everything in my front room and in an apartment its tough.

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:43 PM

OK here are the pictures of the rock, they do the rock no justice.
Here are the boxes and one of my cats, inspecting them to make sure the rock is ok to have

The rock out of the boxes

continued.

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:43 PM

There was on huge piece of rock...and here are the pictures..I am not sure if it will fit in my tank...I do not want to break it apart...so if it does not fit in my tank, I may try and sell it, because I am sure that someone who has a big tank would like a piece this big, so we will see...But it is 16x16x13.

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:44 PM

here are some more shots....

This is a shot of my old rock that I got about 2 years ago and it was way to hard to cure for that long so I just let it go, but there are some very cool pieces that I am going to use in my tank and just get some stuff to grow on them, they are cycling with the new rock I got.

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:44 PM

Ok here are a couple pics of the sump...

Wiskey · 06-08-2006, 03:45 PM

Watch that coralife timer strip! I read a thread where a couple of those caused house fires.

I would get a different timer if I were you.

HTH,
Whiskey

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:45 PM

So here is the progress of the closed loop. I had a scare last night when I plugged in my mag9.5 and nothing happened. I new the out let worked, cause I use it every morning. So I had no idea, it made no sense, so I called Rich to double check that I was not a retard and did not do something specail, he confirmed that I was not a retard and you do not have to do anything special...however I felt like a retard for calling him and asking him. Come to find out that the little "reset" switch in my second bathroom needed to be pushed, it works...so here is the progress on the the closed loop. I am almost done, I need a 45 and to glue a little bit more, then let it sit and by thursday I hope to have water in it.
Here is the back side, the far union/ball valve is the intake, the middle one is the outlet going to the oceans motions and the other is going to be my drain to my sump.

Here is what it looks like from the top

I drilled a two holes for bulkheads in the front of the tank, this gives it majority stability, I had normal holes drilled and it always wanted to lean forward...so this solved the problem.

Here is the oceansmotions close up

these are the back to pieces that I still need one more 45 for...I think I am going to put to 45's in the front to as well...this will allow alot of flow over the rocks and also all the streams will cross eachother's paths.

And here is the light on top, I am not to worried about the pipe shadowing the tank at all...

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:45 PM

I finished everything up last night, for the most part. I just need my box to cover the sump so I can mount my UV and then run that line and I will be able to fill it up with water and test if for leaks are some more pics of what I finished.
These are my extra two bulkheads that I had... There are already holes in the tank so I just attacthed them to the tank. Then one with the off with nipple, is for my vinyl UV line and the other comes from my pump in the sump. I am not sure what I want to use at the bottom of the bulk heads for those that have the water enter my tank but I will figure that out, when I go back to Lowes and home depot to take back stuff I did not use.

Here is my pump, I got from Joel at Waves, and the plumbing to run to the "T" which goes to the UV, the ball valve will allow me to get the flow that I want for the UV.

here is that same thing excpet in the sump

Same part but hooked up to the return pipe to the tank.

here is the drain from the tank going into the section with the Protien Skimmer...

Here is the waste that I ended up with. I was able to use alot of the pipe that was part of the waste and cut it and reuse it for smaller parts of the new pumbing set up.

reefgeek84 · 06-08-2006, 03:46 PM

Ok, well... I ended up getting a gen pcx-40 brand new for 80.00, I really did not have the money to spend, but my orignal intention was to buy one in the future to replace the used mak 4 that I bought...when I saw the deal I figured I might want to jump on it, so I did. Now the mak 4 I got is a back up, plus the mak 4 was really used, but still a good deal for a back up pump.
here are the pics of the pcx-40 and the mak 4...