My 120g build pix

RyanM · #1 12/25/2007, 05:40 PM

I found the pictures I took while building my setup. I had to build my tank stand in place because it couldnt be built like a regular stand. I had a step I needed to cover up and in doing so was able to make the stand larger than the tank. I had room to go with a 6 or even an 8' tank but thought the 120 was plenty big enough. WRONG!! Anyway, it is what it is. Here is how I made it.

Framed the stand out of 2x4's This is in a back pourch I finished off so no basement. The 4 main legs go all the way to the ground and rest on concrete blocks. Its covered in 3/4" oak plywood.

One by one I cut each part to fit.

RyanM · #2 12/25/2007, 05:41 PM

Couldnt wait to get the top on it.

Then stain

The bucket is my auto top off. I fill it every other day or so with lime water. Its on constant drip via float valve as needed for evaporation.

I built into the stand a full electrical panel. Breakers,outlets and switches. (note to self Build in more outlets next time.) Is kinda crawded. I could remove the panel and add more and may someday.

Skimmer is a Octopus 200. Works Great! 179$

Sump is a 30 long devided in the middle with a 3 baffle bubble trap, Over under over. The refuge behind is a 20g tall fed by a maxijet 1200 at the moment. I have plans to tee off of the return but havent gotten to it yet.

Its lit with 3x250w MH's. I run XM 250 10ks on both ends and a reeflux 10k in the middle as my dusk/dawn light. That should give you an idea of how bright my tank is with the xm's. I use a 10k 250w as my d/d light. The center reeflux 10k comes on at 10am and stays on till 2pm. It goes off and the 2 xms come on at 2pm and stay on till 8pm then they go off and the center reeflux comes on from 8pm to 10pm. I have them overlap a few minutes to give the lights time to come up to full power before the other goes off. During the 5 minutes or so that all 3 are on. WOW it is bright but I must say the combo of the xm's and the 1 reeflux really looks good. If it wasnt for the heat id run the all 3 full time.

Anything you want to see better or something I missed let me know and ill snap some more pics.

Bobtail1075 · #3 12/25/2007, 06:17 PM

How about some pics of the canopy as well? This is an awesome setup. Much better in person too.. I love the fact that stand is so much bigger than the tank. It gives so much more room under the stand for things.

Jeremy

mickela · #4 12/25/2007, 06:17 PM

sweet

Bobtail1075 · #5 12/25/2007, 06:19 PM

Do you have any pics of when you were building the electric work? I am just curious to see aybe how thatgot worked in there all hardwired in like that.

Jeremy

nwrogers · #6 12/26/2007, 09:55 AM

Very nice Ryan!! That looks really nice

drbronx · #7 12/26/2007, 04:17 PM

Nice tank set up and nice presentation.

Dave VG · #8 12/26/2007, 06:36 PM

Talk about class is that a goodwrench thro on the back of the couch. Oh ya and the tank and stand are very nice to Ryan...lol...

RyanM · #9 12/27/2007, 03:45 PM

Ill post some pics of the canapy. Soon as the lights go out ill snap them. As for the electrical pannel, no sorry I didnt take any pictures while doing it. It wasnt that hard tho. Took a piece of plywood and cut out all the openings for the switchs and outlets.
Wired them all up and left a pig tail hanging for each line in the pannel. there are 4 lines(breakers) wired to the pannel. I have 4 left not doing anything yet. once I had the baord all wired I just screwed it up. The 2x4 frame left a void just like a regular wall would. Plenty of room for the wires and stuff. If I remake it Ill snap some pics of it but if you or anyone else wants to do the same Id be glad to help..was very easy.

And yes Dave, that is a Intimidator throw on the couch. Got to love Nascar!! My 2 pasions, Reef tanks and Nascar. Life wouldnt be much fun with out them.

Bobtail1075 · #10 12/27/2007, 04:42 PM

How did you supply a main to the breaker box? Did you hard wire that breaker box to your house box? I am just wondering how you get power to the unit as a whole. This setup ROCKS.... Congrats on an amazing setup and thanks for sharing it with us.

RyanM · #11 12/27/2007, 05:07 PM

Yes I ran a 220v 50 amp line from my main box to the tanks pannel. Then just wired each leg from the pannel to the outlets. I have 8 total breakers in the pannel but only used 4. I have plans to make a few more outlets someday.

RyanM · #12 12/28/2007, 01:40 AM

Thanks for the nice comments to. It took me a while to do it all. Little bit every day and it gets done. This is my 3rd tank. Each one gets better than the last, well you hope it does anyway. I tryed to make this one as foolproof as I could.

I use a 5 gallon bucket for my top off instead of running a direct line from my r/o unit for safety reasons. If my float gets stuck open, only 5 gallons can get dumped in. I havent had it happen but I dont think it would be to big of a catastrophy only being 5 gallons. Ive read posts where their auto top off stuck and flooded thier tank with fresh unsalted water thus lowering the salinity WAY low.Like the zoo

Even crash the tank. So 5g at a time is a safety thing.
I even wrapped the float in eggcrate just so my return pump that is sitting right next to the float couldnt be bumped or vibrate over and hold it open.

I run a fluval 404 with carbon 24/7 chamged once a month.
The refuge is lit with 2x55w pc's on 24/7 as well.

If you look in the 1st sump picture you can see the blue filter material I run over my baffles as my mechanical filter. I cut a long piece and sink it in the sump so that just the top is draped over the baffles. All the water must go thru this filter to return to the tank. Every day all I have to do is pull it up an inch and the crap is out of the water and a new area of the filter is there. Kinda hard to explain but works VERY well. Once ive pulled the filter all the way up day by day till it cant be pulled up any more I clean it, let it dry then put it back. I have 2 on rotation. Lasts about a week.
I just started to use pollyfill the kind that comes in a big sheet Instead of the blue. I fold it up so its about 4 layers think and place that where the blue usually is. It cloged up really fast for the first few days but now it has scrubbed my water so clean it dosnt clog as fast and im pulling it up every day same as the blue filter except the pollyfill really scrubs EVERYTHING out. My water is super clear. Its IMO the best way to run a filter. The stuff is removed from the water every day so no nitrate factory and only takes a second a day to lift. Once a week cleaning.

All the water in my sump is circulated thru the sump several times before returning to the tank. I think this is a huge plus in this setup. The water enters the sumps first chamber that has my skimmer and my pump for the refuge. The water is returned here
as well from both of them,skimmer and fuge and can be sucked back up by either of them again and again. What water does make it past goes thru my pollyfill/bluefilter material then the bubble trap to the return side of my sump. There is where I pull my fluval from and that is returned back to the first section of my sump to have to go thru the skimmer or fuge or again thru the fluval. Its a never ending circle for some of the water. What does make its way to the return has been going round and round thru the sump several times. I like the setup very much and cant think of anything major that i would change.

Dave VG · #13 12/28/2007, 10:10 AM

Could you get a better pic of the top off system Ryan.

RyanM · #14 12/28/2007, 02:24 PM

Its realy pretty simple.

The valve is not just siliconed on. The valve has female ends on it. On the inside of the bucket is a threaded 3/4" to 1/2" reducer that sticks thru the hole in the bucket. The valve is then screwed on. Cant be broke off or fall out. It can leak thats why I sisliconed it.

Had to drill a hole for the float.

I like the float actually and have no complaints so far. I have never had to clean it yet but I do check it regularly. Its design makes it hard to mess up unless its held open or shut by other forces. Hence the eggcrate.

Here is the valve I got from Dr F and S Works great so far. Been going non stop for 5 months never had to mess with it yet.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...t%20valve&Np=1

Got all the fittings from HD. the 1/4" line is loopped and long enough for me to be able to remove the bucket. Fill it and replace it with out having to diconnect it. VERY Simple and effective.

RyanM · #15 12/28/2007, 02:36 PM

In the last 2 fills of my lime water bucket I have started to add vineger. I am very timid whenit comes to adding new stuff to my tank so I am starting off slow. The first time I only added 5ml to a full 5 gallons. This last time actually just today I add 25 ml of vineger to the full 5 gallons. My nitrates are undetectable by my test kit. IMO Nitrate test kits are the worst next to mag tests. So I am not sure what its really doing to my nitrates but am trying to see what effect its having on my calc lvls. Its way to early for any report as I did start off with hardly a drop of vinager but Ill keep slowly adding to the amount till I get to the recomended amount for maximum calcium absorbtion in the water. That amount Ive read is around 12ml per liter of lime water. Im at 25% of those numbers now. Ill keep up with posting my results.

nwrogers · #16 12/28/2007, 04:15 PM

That is very cool Ryan! I like it!!! Gave me some ideas for my next project

fatrip · #17 12/28/2007, 04:20 PM

ryan, just wondering why you are adding vinigar to the lime water? just had time to skim through and didnt see in the above thread anything about you having ph issue's. just wondering. thanks

RyanM · #18 12/28/2007, 04:29 PM

Vinegar raises the amount of calcium that can be held in suspention in the lime water. At full dosage ie. 12ml per liter of lime water the amount of calcium will be increase 36% With all this Dow flake mess going on I want to see if lime water alone has what it takes to maintain my calc lvls alone with no or at least alot less of the calc part of the 2 part being needed.
Beside the arguable extra bonus of being a nitrate reducer. Like I said tho. My nitrates arent the problem.
Here is the link to the artical.

http://web.archive.org/web/200304181...io/default.asp

fatrip · #19 12/28/2007, 04:55 PM

very interesting thanks ryan. i only new vinigar to lower the ph of the lime water for a constant use. cool beans. thanks

RyanM · #20 12/28/2007, 05:02 PM

You are quite welcome.

RyanM · #21 12/28/2007, 08:07 PM

Math error, im only around 13% of saturation not 25%
5 gallons = 19 liters x 12ml = 228ml
I only dosed 25ml

13% is around 5% boost in calc. I think

Dave VG · #22 12/28/2007, 08:08 PM

Thank you Ryan nice setup. I think that would work on my sump. Would give me some sense of security against flooding as you stated. But would I really have to drill a hole in the my sump? I was thinking on putting a piece of egg crate in the sump similar to you but not drilling the sump but mounting the valve on the egg crate inside it. Not sure if there would be cons to doing it this way.

RyanM · #23 12/28/2007, 08:27 PM

I dont see why you couldnt, just drop the water line over the side of the tank instead of thru it. Mount the float on the eggcrate or even a scrap piece of plexiglass with a hole drilled in it. Then silicone that inside the tank. I think the plexiglass would be a little stiffer.

Dave VG · #24 12/29/2007, 05:54 AM

I think i'm going to try it. Thing that sucks is i don't have room for a 5 gal so i guess i'll have to use a 2 1/2 gal pail i have. How long does the 5 gal last for you??

RyanM · #25 12/29/2007, 10:47 AM

It depends on the temp and humidity of my room. Id say on average 3 days on a 150 gallon setup. I have plans to add a 40gallon brute as my top off some day. Thing thats nice about it is that the 1/4" line is small and can be run from anywhere. You dont have a closet near by you could hide a bucket? I have room on the other side of the wall my tank is on to set a 40g top off tank and ill run the 1/4" line thru the wall. I could have that done with my setup now in 5 minutes. Drill 1 little hole. Just dont need 40gallon at this time and the room isnt heated behind my tank so it would freeze. This summer Ill close that room off and go with the 40. 40g of lime water would last me quite a while. But I would only use it if I went away for a week like in April Im going away. Ill use the 40 so my tank sittwer doesnt have to mess with it. The 5 is safe and works great so Ill always use it as my main.