Time for an upgrade...55g micro-budget build

[OneDummHikk]

There is no scale to this drawing :



The dark blue would be your 55 gallon tank. The brown would be the stand. Its a U turned on its side. The light blue would be your sump. It doesn't have to be full width but it could be. The red represents where the skimmer could be. Doing it that way allows you to lower the tank for visibility while not limiting the height of the skimmer. You just have to be careful with dimensions. At 58" width, a 48 1/2" tank, and using plywood, you end up with ~7" in the clear width wise in the red area so that the skimmer you choose has to have a body on it smaller than 7" or it won't fit.

The left side would have a door that went from bottom to top if you wanted but it would have its own door to allow access to the sump and the skimmer.

The water would drain from the tank into the end of the sump where the skimmer is, the return pump would be on the other end. The water would work its way through the sump and then go straight up to the tank.

If you build the stand so that its 18 1/2" deep instead of 12 1/2" or so for a 55, the extra 6" would be where wiring and plumbing could go in and out of the tank. Then in the future, if you upgraded to a 75 or a 90, it would fit the bottom of the stand. If you designed and built it to do so, you could do it so that a 75 or a 90 reef ready tank would slide right in.

Plan for the future.

[Salty O'Shen]

thanks for the outline Hikk...i appreciate you taking the time to do that!

how much weight would you folks guess i'm going to have to support? with the DT? my calculations lead me to believe somewhere between 550-625 lbs

[Salty O'Shen]

okay, so this weekend i rounded up 2/3 of my freshwater fish and brought them to my LFS and received enough credit for a 20g L to use for my sump!!

i then went to lowe's and stocked up on building materials. i ditched the idea of building this as one whole cabinet for a couple of reasons: it would have made the whole cabinet extremely heavy and with the limited power tools and frankly expertise, i thought building two pieces would be easier.

i started on sunday afternoon after completing a moderate length list of honey-do's...here's the first pics of the framework for the stand portion:



here's a top down view:



top ply is in place and the the ply for the trough in the sump is in:


this is a close-up of the trough depth, my calculations tell me that i if i properly seal this area it'll hold 10-11 gallons (let's hope i never test it)



today i went ahead on the skin for the stand. since i'm not cabinet maker i've opted to go with pine paneling on the 3 exposed sides, the panels are 1.75 inches wide, this shows the front with doors hung to check clearance, i'll have to romve them and hinges for staining:



here's a close-up of the paneling:



so that's all for now. tomorrow i'll be finishing up the trim along the top and sides. then hopefully sealing the joints in the trough and maybe even water sealing the wood in the sump area...

running budget total: $123.21
budget for whole build: $800
remaining budget: $676.91

thoughts?

[Mizer67]

Converting from fresh? The tank has never been treated with copper, has it?

[Fat Tony]

Looks good.. I may have a deal for you on lighting in a few weeks (2x150watt DE MH retro's).. I will let you know

[Salty O'Shen]

Originally Posted by Mizer67

Converting from fresh? The tank has never been treated with copper, has it?

I did use Ich Cure 3-4 years ago. Are saying that this could be a problem?

[Salty O'Shen]

Originally Posted by Fat Tony

Looks good.. I may have a deal for you on lighting in a few weeks (2x150watt DE MH retro's).. I will let you know

Sweet, I'll be hoping to hear from you...

[Salty O'Shen]

Originally Posted by Mizer67

Converting from fresh? The tank has never been treated with copper, has it?

what do you guys think about giving the tank a thorough cleaning with vinegar and then run this Cuprisorb during the cycling?

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~action~view~idProduct~SC3271~idCategor y~FIFMCHCR~category~Copper_Removers-Chemical-Filter_Media-Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies~vendor~.html

thoughts?

[Fat Tony]

Originally Posted by Salty O'Shen

I did use Ich Cure 3-4 years ago. Are saying that this could be a problem?

Did the water turn a blueish green color when you treated with it? Does the silicone in the tank have a blueish green tint to it instead of an opaque or milky look?

If you have any doubts about it, you may not want to use that tank..55's are really relatively inexpensive and can be found used on a regular basis.. try searching the local craigs list or seeing your local store and see what they may have in the used section..

[Salty O'Shen]

finished the trim work on the stand tonight, tomorrow sealing and staining, thursday priming sump area and first coat of finish on outside. prjected completion for the stand is sunday....

[Salty O'Shen]

stand update:

sump area joints sealed, exterior stained...pics tomorrow after i get first coat of finish on...

thought i found a gold mine on craigslist yesterday, a guy getting out of the frag biz, he had 2 180's he was parting out, but everything there was junk, run hard put away dirty...even his wave runner out front looked like ka-ka.

the search continues...still have a few weeks 'til i'm setting up the lighting and sump, by the way, will i start a mini cycle if i add the sump 6-8 weeks into the new tank being set up?

[OneDummHikk]

Only if you add something in the sump that can die off and cause a minicycle. Otherwise, you are just adding more water to the system and water won't cause a minicycle.

[Salty O'Shen]

i think i might make part of the sump a refugium, but i'm going to do quit a bit more reading and searching for designs before i begin the sump, that'll probably happen after i get to my spring cleaning i gotta do in the back yard...

i'm not even certain i'll be doing that but it's a blip on my radar screen, still a bit early for me to begin building it, but i guess it's never too early to begin planning...

does anyone here run mangroves in their refuge?

any suggestions/thoughts/experiences you wanna share about them?

[OneDummHikk]

Fat Tony has mangroves in his sump. I have read a little about them but not a lot.

A 20 isn't that large but if you want to use mangroves I would put the return pump in the center, have mangroves on one end the skimmer on the other. Split the return to run to both ends of the sump. It keeps the mangroves away from the skimmer and gives them nutrient laden water rather than skimmed water.

[Fat Tony]

Follow the link in my signature to my build thread... start on page 3, the first few pages are just chatter.

I do have mangroves... I have one that is doing quite well, the other 2 not so good. They grow realllllllly slowly. they only care they require is that every once in a while you wipe the leaves off.