65g Tall In-wall build

[toddc76]

Hello all,

So I have been trolling these forums for quite a few years and value the information on these forums with the highest reverence, you guys are great. I have had a marine tank in the past with varied success, but I would call the whole experience noobish, I tried to cut a lot of corners and paid the price. So, after a 3 year break from catastrophic loss I have decided to jump in once again. This time around I have more time, information, skill (hopefully) and money to work on the project.

I am lucky enough to have the space in my finished basement to build it into the wall with a nice wet room behind it. As I type this We have framed the wall and build the stand that the tank will sit on. I still have some drywall and HVAC issues to button up.

I would like to keep a few fish in my tank but most Zoo's and soft corals. I have a request to have a few Anemones but I understand the lighting demand from them. I plan on starting to order some of the dry goods this week would appreciate any input anyone might have.

Here is my plan as it stands:
-65g Tall 36"x18"x24" Tank
-35-55g Sump with Ref
-Nova Extreme T-5 Fixtures w/Lunar Lights (4 bulb) 2 Actinic's and 2 daylights
-Coralife Super Skimmer Needle Wheel- 125g Or a G2 (have not decided)
-Pan World 50PX-X Magnetic Water Pump (main pump for Ref)
-(2) Hydor THEO Heater 200 Watt
-Captive Purity Refractometer with Calibration Dial
- Filter Guys RO/DI
- I am still shopping around for Live Rock and Live sand

I could use a recommendation on a good broad test kit, I plan on purchasing electronic, but that will have to be down the road in a few months.

I plan on drilling the back center of the tank and installing a overflow there that will flow into the sump. The pump I picked out seems to have enough flow and will provide almost a 20x turnover. I will be building a Refugium that will house a DSB and some Macro. I am considering modding some Maxi Jets to add some more flow in the tank if need be. That is about as far as I have gotten so far, but tag along, I plan on providing pictures of the whole event.

-Todd

PS- Pictures to follow shortly

30 Seconds and a sawzall:


Stand almost built and in place.


Stand done and drywall going in:


Tank in place:

[Criminal#58369]

Lookin good, looking forward to seeing more progress

[fish 511]

Looks really good so far. Sounds like you will have way more success this time!! Also, try to make the pictures smaller, hard to look at!

[toddc76]

Reposting pictures, that will teach me to screw around with stuff.

Also, I have a question concerning the overflow and drilling. I have no problem drilling the tank, I am quite comfortable with power tools and such so that is not the problem. But, I am curious of the benefit of drilling the tank vs. a purchased overflow.

BTW, I mudded the wall lastnight before bed and will throw up a second coat this evening. I also ordered the RO/DI lastnight, I figure that will be the catalyst to get me started on running some plumbing into the wet room.

Thanks,
Todd

30 Seconds and a sawzall:


Stand Almost built and in place:


Drywall going up:


Tank in place:

[toddc76]

Just thought I would post a quick update, the wall is all buttoned up and looks great. We will be working on some Maple trim to go around it to "frame" it on friday.

On another note, most of my dry-goods should be here over the next 3 days. Everything except the Hydror PH, which I don't really need at the moment anyways. So the weekend will be spent working in the soon-to-be wet room on getting the RO/DI installed and plumbed, a sink, drain, and hot cold water. I will also be pulling a 40-amp 208v sub-panel into the wet room with GFCI's and the whole nine yards. This way I am prepared for anything that comes my way.

Thanks for reading.

[Zestay]

to each thier own but. id make some gourgous window frame type thing to cover up the black plastic there. and it could add to the look of your tank / match existing house hold tables / chairs

[toddc76]

There is some existing wood work 180 degrees from that wall in the same room. It is our office in the finished basement so there indeed is going to be a frame around the tank covering the black. But good call my friend.

[toddc76]

Got a shipment of loot today.



In this picture is:
(1) Pan World 50px-x Magnetic pump
(1) 1" Check Valve
(1) Marine Depot Refractometer
(1) Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Marine test kit
(2) Hydor Theo 200watt Heaters
(1) AquaController Jr
(1) DC8 Outlet Block for the AC-Jr

[zma21]

I have that test kit. Works very well.

[toddc76]

I chose that kit on the reccomendation of Travis in the "Build your Own" thread.

[BurntOutReefer]

just curious....how you planning on the heat from lights exiting out? Is that what the vent in you pictures for?...with a squirrel cage fan?

[toddc76]

Burnt, I will answer your question a bit later this evening with a picture. The top and back of the tank are open to the wet room.

I have another question for you folks, I am currently working to design my overflow. Now, if I go punch in 1000 GPH into the overflow calc on the main page it says I need 17" of overflow. This seems like a lot to me, there will also be inlets under the water line at the mid-point and low points in the water column. Wouldn't this drastically lower the the linear inches of overflow I would need?

Thanks for any advice here.

[toddc76]

Hello again all,

Its amazing how hard you can work and not feel like you are making much progress. Here is where we stand at the moment.

The Tank is drilled and an bulkhead isntalled:



Installed a new sink with hot/cold water and a drain with a pump:


We finished up some of the finish work on the now closed up wall:


Rear picture of the tank taken from inside the wet-room:


I did also manage to install to the RO/DI and give that a test and everything seems to be fine. Tomorrow while stranded at home with the snow I am going to try to build the overflow, we will see how that goes.

I wandered down to the LFS in Simsbury CT to pick up a 20g Long to use as a sump and also walked out with 40 lbs of the carrib-sea live sand he just got it. But hey, he had a used 20 long he gave me for a deal so that makes up for the sand, right? I got the 20L home and also drilled it and installed the bulkhead.

As usual any comments are always welcome.

[fish 511]

Are you going to use just the 40lbs of sand? I have the same amount in my 50g show tank and was not sure if this is enough. It is about 2 inches deep and looks good, but I am not sure if it is enough to be a "deep sand bed". LMK, THANKS

[toddc76]

My plan is the use the 40lbs of sand along with some white playsand from the Orange borg store up the road. I would like a sand bed in the main tank that is around 3" deep and I am planning on building a Refugium that has a DSB in it also.

[toddc76]

Ok, opinion time.

The more I think about it the more I am considering a closed loop. If I do not go with a closed loop then I will be using the Pan World pump as my return pump from the sump. I am currently planning on using a 20g long tank as a sump for the skimmer / heaters / probes / etc. At this point I am thinking that the 20L might be too small to also hold a respectable Ref., so I think I will build a seperate Ref out of a rubbermaid bin or something until I can find a used 20g long someone wants to get rid of to use as a Ref. I will divert the drain from the tank with a few valves to divert some water over to the Ref and then drill an overflow bulkhead into the Ref tank to drain into the sump. I hope that all made sense.

So, with all of that being said is it worth creating a closed loop with the Pan World and just getting another smaller pump for the sump? What is the benefit of the CL vs a better main return pump and hiding a Hydor PH in the rockwork? I have the Hydor on order and it should be here in a few days but since I won't have any livestock for a while it does not really matter when it comes in.

I would really appreciate any opinions here. I am trying to think all of this through before I commit and and fill the tank and order the liverock.

Thanks again from the newb reefer.

[toddc76]

Bump, anyone?

[toddc76]

Ok, so here is where I stand on the build. I will provide some pictures this evening if I get a chance.

-Drilled a second 1.5" bulkhead into the tank.
-Built and installed the overflow box.
-Did all the tank plumbing
-built a return manifold with loop around the top of the tank.
-Put 40lbs live sand and 40 lbs dead sand into the tank
-Started adding water, takes some time since I can only store about 20 gallons at a time.
-Ordered 75lbs of liverock. (Fiji and Lalo mix) Will be here tomorrow.

Its been busy and has all been a lot more work than I expected. But everything seems to be coming along just great. The rock I ordered is uncured so I will let it cure in the tank for a while before going much farther.

Pictures to follow.

[toddc76]

I put the Liverock in yesterday afternoon and late lastnight I decided to check the water params. Looks like the PH is around 8.0 the SG is 1.024 and the Ammonia is off the charts. I guess that means the cycle is starting.

Is there anything else I need to be testing this early on?

Thanks for tagging along.



Pictures:

Back of tank painted and the two drains:



RO/DI, I ordered the full size DI chamber and a TDS meter.


Sand in, Tank filling:


Good shot of the overflow:


Part of the return manifold with a stand pipe lowering the noozle:


First 45 lbs box of Fuji LiveRock from Live aquaria, I am quite pleased. although fedex seemed to have forgot to put the second box of 30lbs Lalo on the plane, so that was delayed a day and I will post pictures of it tonight.


Skimmer just starting up. Having never owned one before I sm still learning about this thing. This morning I went down there to check on everything and the skimmer was running very nicely, seemed like what I would discribe as a Dry skim. the stuff in the cup was dark and smelled, but the water was looking MUCH better.


80 pounds of Sand, 40 of which is live. 45 lbs of fuji live rock. No aquascaping yet, jsut placed in there to start the cycle. This is with just the actinics on, I will take another one tonight with the 10k's on also.


Another shot of the skimmer as a whole.

[Shotcaller]

Dude - Nice freaking work!!!
Looks awesome.

[toddc76]

Thanks shotcaller. I must admit though, I totally underestimated the project. Thinking the plumbing through and cutting and glueing all those joints took forever. I will not even try to count how many times I went to HD.

The home made overflow came out awesome, but the hunt to find some local Acrylic bonding glue was a challenge.

[toddc76]

Here is the picture with the daylights on and 40 lbs of fuji AND the 30 pounds of Lalo. The Lalo rock was quite nice. I also am getting another 50lbs of Fuji dry base rock from www.marcorocks.com, It should be in today. I have heard good things and if the rock is as good as his customer service then I am sure I will be happy.

The smell coming out of the skimmer is nearly unbarable, I am getting lots of big dry bubbles and holy crap, if you get your nose to close to the vent hole on the top of the collection cup it takes a while to get that stink out of your nostrils.

[Shotcaller]

Can't wait to see more pics!

[toddc76]

So, now that I am cycling I have some time to build the fuge. I will be building a remote fuge out of a 10 gallon tank and probably using an older fluval canister (empty) to pump water over to it. I will put a DSB in and some LR rubble. At what point would consider starting to add cheato or other macro to it?

[toddc76]

So, tonight we opened up the box from MarcoRocks.com and we were very pleased. So with the rock from Marc and the all the live rock we are over 120lbs of rock in the tank. 70lbs Live and the rest dry reef base rock.

Ammonia is still through the roof and no trace of Nitrites yet. But I did not really expect there to be on Day 3. Should I be doing water changes during the cycle?

Tank is a little cloudy from moving rocks around but here is what it looks like.

Marcorocks.com rocks:



Tank Pictures:




Opinions / comments always welcomed and appreciated.