Custom Cabinet for 90g Reef (Build Thread)

[RumLad]

What temp do you usually run your house, in general? Your fully enclosed tank shouldn't fluctuate that much, should it? The rating is designed to raise the tank temp XX many degrees above ambient.
Seeing as you have those two mega heaters installed above the tank, I forget, are you running a chiller on the tank? If so, can you balance chilling with heating?
I think a couple of stealth heaters would be sufficient to maintain your temps., if needed.

[SuperAWE]

Very nice build. I just read this thread from the beginning and your write-ups were very good and inspiring! Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing everything in place and running!

[RedEDGE2k1]

Originally posted by RumLad
Seeing as you have those two mega heaters installed above the tank, I forget, are you running a chiller on the tank?

I would stop short of calling the 250w halides "mega heaters" in my case, considering they are a full 12" above the water line, with an additional 10" or so of air space from the bulbs to the top of the cabinet enclosure. Compared to most mass-manufactured "large" canopies, my design leaves an large amount of air space above the tank, not to mention the back is completely open (where the tank sits). At this point, I'm not even considering fans anymore. However, there's plenty of room to integrate them later, if needed.

That being said, we keep our thermostat between 68°F (night) and 72°F (day). During these winter months, I'm sure I will need at least one 250w heater to keep the water temp above 80°F all night while the halides are turned off, and our AC is only maintaining 68°F.

I can't sleep if I'm warm!

[RedEDGE2k1]

Things are coming together...I'm making an appointment to look at some live rock/live sand from a tank breakdown here in Atlanta. Also, this morning I ordered a 100gpd RO/DI unit from Premium Aquatics, along with the VorTech wireless wave driver upgrade, 2x250w Visi-Therm Stealth heaters to replace the non-fully-submersible Jagers I returned, and a shiny new Mag-Float.

Speaking of a magnet cleaner, I remember three years ago in college when everyone thought it was the coolest invention ever. Don't mind the real reef rocks flown half way around the world, or the automatic evaporation water top-off system, or the marine-biotope-in-a-box sitting in the living room. Nope, let's all admire a felt pad glued to a magnet.

Financial update, for anyone curious has to how much a setup like this costs (and it's not even finished!).

The cabinet build (materials only) has been surprisingly cheap. Start to finish, $962. And I say that's cheap, because compare my end result "furniture" to the mass-produced oak "fish tank stands" you find in stores selling for $600.

I bought $634 worth of tools to get to where I am now. Keep in mind I started with nothing in my garage....so for most people, this expense will be much, much less.

$2,545 on the tank itself thus far. This includes the tank and anything connected to it directly or indirectly (RO/DI unit, sump, plumbing, lights, pumps, etc).

Grand Total = $4,141.97

The only large expense remaining before I can start the ammonia cycle process is ~135lbs of live rock.

[xcuter]

damn u are skilled awesome

[gary faulkner]

SuperAWE

[welcome]

[RedEDGE2k1]

I really expected this step to be one of the easiest, but I was wrong. I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure this out.

So....I'm trying to plumb my Eheim 1262 return pump to the bulkheads that came with the Perfecto "Corner-flo" tank's overflow kit.

The bulkheads are "slip x thread", meaning the standpipe slips into the top, and the drain/return connections are meant to be screwed onto the bulkhead threads underneath the tank.

The bulkheads are black, but there is no label identifying them as either Sch 40 or Sch 80. How do I figure out what they are?

From measuring as well as trial-fitting different sized threaded pipe at Home Depot, the bulkhead threads appear to be 1-1/4". However, using my hands only, I cannot get PVC pipe to thread onto the bulkhead more than 3/4 of a turn or so before the connection is incredibly tight and won't go any further. Am I doing something wrong? Is it supposed to be this tight so quickly? I can hand-tighten typical PVC connections almost half-way up the threads before it starts to get tight...that's definitely not the case with the bulkheads. If I use a wrench to make them tighter, I'm worried I might strip the bulkhead threads or worse, crack the $400 aquarium under stress.

Am I doing something wrong?

I'm beginning to think it might be easier and more convenient to just use a 1-1/4" flexible coupling with clamps, to connect the bulkheads to rigid 1-1/4" pipe.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[grisha]

man awesome thread...im coming around the project identical to yours ...
and already have newb question! where did you order your doors?

[mlrtime99]

Grisha... page one of this "awesome thread" has your answer, not a "newb" question just lazy.

[Blackacid]

I've enjoyed reading this. Looking forward to a populated FTS.

[RedEDGE2k1]

Originally posted by grisha
where did you order your doors?

http://www.advantagecabinetdoors.com/

Got the four doors and two false drawer fronts for $154.50 plus $40 shipping.

Great, great doors. High quality, custom made to my specs.

[SuperAWE]

You can hold up a very short short piece of schedule 80 pipe to the threaded end of the bulkhead. Make sure it is same piping size as the bulkhead (1", 1-1/4", 1-1/2" etc)

If you can look from above, down into the bulkhead towards the SCH80 piece you will see one of the following:

1) The bulkhead inside diameter is the same as the SCH80 pipe.
**You have SCH80**

2) The bulkhead inside diameter is larger and you can see the outer ring edge of the SCH80 pipe.
**You have SCH40 bulkhead**

Of course a Micrometer would make it more precise...

But..your fittings should all work together as long as they are all industry standard thread fittings.

[grisha]

wow thank you veru much

[cannarella]

Dustin, are you trying to thread on to the outside of the bulkhead? On a bulkhead weather it is threaded or slip, the connections are female. You don't thread pipe on the threads that keep the bulkhead in place.

For the Sch 40 vs 80 question, a Sch 80 is massively thick. Here is a link to Savko's site where you can see the difference.

http://www.savko.com/partlist.asp?pgid=2

[RedEDGE2k1]

Indeed I was. Got my question answered through a seperate thread a day or two ago, I didn't know the PVC slips inside the bulkhead. Felt pretty dumb when I was told it doesn't thread onto the retaining ring threads!

[cannarella]

No porblem. So when you going to get some H2O in it?

[RedEDGE2k1]

I'm hooking up my RO/DI unit today after work, plumbing/testing the tank tomorrow, and moving the cabinet/tank into the living room on Friday evening. Saturday I'll add sand + water and go live rock hunting. Sunday I'm going to the Falcons game, so I'll be drunk. Probably outta not touch the tank that day.

[cannarella]

Use hose water if you can get away with it. It will fill much faster. I know the watering ban may make that difficult to do, but if you do it in the garage with the door closed and the hose going under it you should be able to get away with it. Now dumping it afterwards will be tricky. just put the hose in the yard and do it late at night or hope it rains and just syphon it to the driveway.

I am going to be cleaning the 100 gal stock tank I was using for a temp setup in the dark tonight so the water police don't get me...

[RedEDGE2k1]

Oh I'm definitely testing the plumbing with tap water from the garden hose. Lucky me -- our hose bibb is inside the garage. So I can just keep the garage door down, and play all I want.

Obviously, I'm going to use the RO/DI water to fill the tank once the cabinet/tank is in my living room. I need to buy a couple bags of sand, now that I think of it....I dread that process, last time my tank was cloudy for days from all the sand silt during filling.

[RedEDGE2k1]

Oh I'm definitely testing the plumbing with tap water from the garden hose. Lucky me -- our hose bibb is inside the garage. So I can just keep the garage door down, and play all I want.

Obviously, I'm going to use the RO/DI water to fill the tank once the cabinet/tank is in my living room. I need to buy a couple bags of sand, now that I think of it....I dread that process, last time my tank was cloudy for days from all the sand silt during filling.

[RumLad]

Are you using the plastic / plate / saucer / cup method?

I've seen it used on a few tanks and keeps the cloudiness to a very manageable level.


Just don't stir it all up with powerheads the next day!

[RedEDGE2k1]

I'll give it a shot, I've read about it on Melev's thread, but never actually tried it.

[RedEDGE2k1]

Back to putting the finishing touches on the cabinet...

I rigged up some mounts to attach the moonlights to the metal halide mogul bases. I measured and cut some 3/4" oak stock to fit in the mogul base standoff bracket, and screwed the moonlight mounts to the wood blocks.



I then predrilled through the mogul base bracket and into the wood blocks, making a clean hole for the screws to go into. Notice I installed the blocks at an angle -- this is because the individual LEDs themselves are angled to cover a wide area. I don't want the blue light shining on the insides of the cabinet, so I angled the mounting blocks slightly to direct the light more towards the middle of the tank.



As a safety measure, I drilled two additional holes in the block and ran a zip-tie through and around the moonlight unit. This will hold it secure in its bracket, preventing it from popping out for whatever reason. And of course, I primed/painted the oak blocks to match the cabinet.



These moonlights are MUCH brighter than I expected. The ad on Marine depot says one LED can cover 3 feet of tank length, and since my 90g tank is 4' wide, I bought the dual set. I think one would have been plenty for my tank, and would have worked perfectly without any mounting blocks (just attach it to the plywood, right between the metal halide reflectors). But oh well, it's no big deal. Maybe the water will block/reflect a lot of the light.



In other news...my Premium Reef Supply 100gpd RO/DI unit arrived today from Premium Aquatics. It was a breeze to install, just mount it to the wall and screw on the filters/canisters.



It was easy to install, but didn't work worth a crap when I turned on the water. The drain line was just dripping, and the "good water" line was flowing like a river. I timed it filling a gallon jug, and it was producing a gallon of "good" water every 90 seconds. Obviously, this wasn't right. After asking for help on the Atlanta Reef Club website as well as here on RC, several people pointed out the problem -- the manufacturer connected the drain line to the wrong outlet. Take a look at the picture above; the yellow line (waste) coming out of the RO membrane (top canister) was in the wrong place. The waste/RO lines were flip-flopped from where they were supposed to be. So I switched them with each other, and the unit then worked flawlessly. One gallon of pure clean water in 18 minutes, and one gallon of waste water in 4 minutes. That's close to the 4:1 ratio I've read about, so I'm satisfied.

[RumLad]

What are you doing with the 4 gallons of perfectly good "waste" water?

Given that your fair city is in a severe water restriction period, how do you justify this?

[Stroid]

Really great build I would love to come by and check it out some day. I am from the ARC.