Tank Journal Archive

[Cryxblade]

Introduction:
My children have had the usual goldfish and fighting fish that I end up seeming to always care for and with my job now letting me work from home I needed something to brighten my small office up. I read up for months and started with the idea of getting a pico tank and getting that working. After a major disaster and losing the corals and fish I had I was about to give up when a friend was getting rid of his 3 foot tank. So after some moving of furniture around the living room and lots of convincing (begging) with the my wife I've started this new tank. My aim is to go very slow and not rush things. Eventually I'd like to get a larger custom tank set up but till I have something running effectively for a few years I have to wait :)

Reefing Since:
November 2011

System Objectives:
Have a nice display tank for people to see

Type of reef:
Starting with fish and live rock then moving to some corals as time goes by and tank allowing.

Display System:

Initial Fill Date:
Proposed water fill: 5th of May
Clean-up Crew: about 5th of June
First Fish: about the 5th of July

Display Tank Dimensions:
30inch x 15inch x 18inch
Outside of the back and left of the tank have been painted black. Right side has been left clear so you can see it from the hallway

Display Lighting:
Custom LEDS in hood

Stand:
Re-enforced the existing wooden stand. Added extra bracing and trims around side. Painted black

Hood or Rimless:
Hood a work in progress. Will contain two sections top open and access tank

Sump Design:
Internal tank sump. Due to a new baby on the way (Oh look we have to make our house baby proof again) and cost limitations, I've sectioned off a 6 inch partition of the tank and made a mini-refuge section. Contains a baffle section to separate the return pump from the filtration section. Aiming to put some live rock, sand and macro-algae. The section will be hidden from display by a removable panel on the outside of the tank. The refuge will be wired with LED lighting from the hood to provide reverse cycle lighting.

Filtration:
Refuge sump section

Support systems:

NSW or ASW:
Initial fill will be with ASW for cycling and then gradually replaced with NSW

Display Water circulation:
Initially just the return pump. Aiming to get 2 or 3 3000lph/5000lph power heads before stocking tank.

Return Pump:
Aleas HM-4103 1200lph submersible pump

Skimmer:
None at this stage. Do have an Aqua-world WG-308 120l/h skimmer that I may use to help things along. It's small for the tank size but the best I have at the moment

Evaporation Top Up:
Manual

Chemical additions:
Nothing at this stage but will be considered as time goes by

Calcium Addition:
Nothing at this stage but will be considered as time goes by

Alkilinity Addition:
Nothing at this stage but will be considered as time goes by

Magnesium Addition:
Nothing at this stage but will be considered as time goes by

Prodibiotics Addition:
Nothing at this stage but will be considered as time goes by

Coral Food Addition:
Nothing at this stage but will be considered as time goes by


Planned Contents
Starting with Base rock and a few seed live rocks.
Fine sand base

Clean-up crew:
Trochus and Strom Snails
Mini-Hermits
White glove shrimp
Would like some Anemone shrimps when I get a few Anemone

Fish
Pair of Clown fish - Not sure which type just yet
Possibly a pair of Sleeper Gold Head Goby – Or similar type for sand sifting
Either a small school of Gold Line Cardinals or Blue Green Chromis

Would also love an Anemone or two but will wait for those guys

 

[Cryxblade]

The full tank and stand in position

The stand with extra bracing in the middle

Reason the left side has been painted - since the tv blocks that side

What people see as they walk past in the hallway

Full tank before putting in sump/refuge section

 

[Cryxblade]

WARNING!!!!

The following section contains images that may shock some viewers. If you are disturbed by really bad silicone jobs then please avert your eyes :D


The bulkhead and one of the baffles is made from some plastic signage I found stashed behind a cuboard. The glass for the lid of the tank had some broken peices so I used the two unbroken ones to sure up the bulkhead as each was only about 3mm thick. I then used two broken bits of glass at the base of the middle baffle which was raised to allow water through. The intake was cut out of the plastic and used some gutter guard to create a barrier. Across the top of the plastic I used some air hose that I cut open and placed over the ends to seal up the holes that go through the length of the sign material.

The return simply is made using right angle and a t-piece garden sprinkler connectors and some plastic tubing to connect it all together.

The main bulkhead for the sump section

Showing how the return line will look. This will allow flow down the back of the tank and around the middle and can be adjusted

Baffles in place.

Showing position pump will return from

View of the intake and return

Next.
Once the silicone is all set over the next week I can do another water test of the tank. I'll be siliconing in a breeder box I have on the other side of the intake section to allow filter wool to act as a mechanical filter and also a place to stash the carbon. Will also work more on the hood setup for the tank as well.

 

[Sarg]

:welcome Nice little DIY setup. You know you will get the bug it is very contagious and in the aquarium community refered to as upgradeitis ;)

You've already gone from nano to 3 foot next logical step is 6 foot :p

 

[daveH]

Great bit of DYI work. Nothing beats the satisfaction of putting something together with some improvisation and ingenuity. Good on you mate - hope it all keeps going well. Keep posting pics of your progress.

 

[MTG]

:welcome you may have problems with pressure on that weir section. what exactly is it made out off? i have a feeling the tank full of water will cause it to bow and squash.
your like macgyver but with silicon :P

 

[Cryxblade]

I did have an option to take a 6ft tank but the family argued that having the TV was more important space wise

Thanks. I would have used gaffa tape but that just screams tacky :)

I was worried about the pressure as well which is why I'm going to do a water test on things once it's all cured properly. The plastic is corflute and is about 6mm thick.

This is what it looks like. Found it from another site.

To give it extra strength I cut the board so the chanels run vertically. This would give a little more bracing strength. If I find that it's bowing a little more than expected I have enough board I can add another panel with the chanels running horizontally on the display tanks side to give it that little extra strength if needed.

 

[MTG]

we can only hope i have a feeling it will give way tho! maybe it wont i guess we will see. any reason why you didn't use acrylic or glass?

 

[daveH]

I did have an option to take a 6ft tank but the family argued that having the TV was more important space wise

Thanks. I would have used gaffa tape but that just screams tacky :)

I was worried about the pressure as well which is why I'm going to do a water test on things once it's all cured properly. The plastic is corflute and is about 6mm thick.

This is what it looks like. Found it from another site.

To give it extra strength I cut the board so the chanels run vertically. This would give a little more bracing strength. If I find that it's bowing a little more than expected I have enough board I can add another panel with the chanels running horizontally on the display tanks side to give it that little extra strength if needed.

Definately MacGyver :)

 

[Cryxblade]

I did this at 1am after a brain killing day at work so wasn't thinking too clearly or logically. The glass panels I have on the fuge side are about 3mm and wouldn't have been strong enough on their own. If it fails I'll get some glass cut to size and try again.

 

[MTG]

we will see what happens wont we. the piece of glass for the bubble trap etc should strengthen it a little.

 

[Cryxblade]

It seems that working on my tank is a great way to relax when I get stressed from work.

I'd already knocked up a simple frame for my hood. The idea is to have to sections that lift up and allow access to the tank. There is a middle divider section that will contain the power switches and some intake and extraction fans. Found a heap of old computer fans laying around so figured I'd use those.

The basic frame

Each of the lid sections will be on hinges and contain lights, exhaust fan and a glass pane to keep most of the water out of the electronics. I managed to score a bunch of cheap A3 photo frames while wandering around K-Mart the other day and thought I could use the glass in my hoods. Even though the glass is only 2mm thick I don't see it taking any stress with my idea for mounting it. If it turns out the glass does indeed fail then I'll simply replace it with either thicker glass or acrylic.

The process of cutting the glass to size. A rather freaky feeling breaking glass on purpose.

I'm using some mirror mounting brackets to mount the glass on the frames. I added some more trim to allow the glass to mount easily. I'll be using some plastic pads on the glass to give it some shock absorbancy against the timber and to stop movement. This will also allow air to flow through and out the exhaust fan.

My first attempt ended in a chunk being taken out of the glass. However after checking the size it fit perfectly into the tank against my bulk head. Should help give it a little more strength on the lower half against the water pressure.

Also today the LED lights I'm planning to use showed up. They're a 12v RGB chain of lights that I found on ebay. My son wnated to test them out under the glass frame so here's two shots we took.

 

[Cryxblade]

Fueled by my glass cutting skills I decided to use the bits I had left over from trimming the hood glass to make a filter catch for my refuge intake. Figured I might need the breeder box at some stage. Still needs a little more silicone to secure it properly before I stick it into place in the tank. I used the breeder box to hold things upright while it all set and was using it as a size comparison

 

[mscott]

Next step 3x18x18, the arguement i used "Its only 4ish inches wider, not a big deal" :) worked a charm.
All looking good mate, Altho magic's probly going too have something to say about those lights when he finds out haha.
cheers

 

[firebird]

Shoring up your bulkhead with glass is a good idea as silicone won't stick plastic to glass in the long term

 

[Cryxblade]

Next step 3x18x18, the arguement i used "Its only 4ish inches wider, not a big deal" :) worked a charm.
All looking good mate, Altho magic's probly going too have something to say about those lights when he finds out haha.
cheers

Yeah I know the LEDs aren't suitable for corals. The main aim was to get some sort of lighting in the tank which was low voltage incase the kids do something silly (which I doubt they will but you never know. I did find a lego figure tied to a sinker in the goldfish tank a few weeks ago) I'll then put a nice list together for xmas since people are always complaining they never know what to get me.

Shoring up your bulkhead with glass is a good idea as silicone won't stick plastic to glass in the long term

The pressure of the water has been bugging me a little but it's been a case of using what I have since money is on the thin side at the moment. I think with the 3mm sheets at the back and 2mm on the front it should help shore things up if they stop sticking to the corflute. Can only see what happens I suppose.

I also scored a 20L tank from a friend today who was doing some clearing of his shed. I'll be doing things properly this time and use that tanks as a quarantine tank which will be in my office so I can keep tabs on it. I'll also be looking at getting my 8L pico tank back up and running once the main tank is going. Given the lack of lighting in my office I'm thinking sun coral for the pico. We shall see what happens.

 

[Cryxblade]

It's amazing how long a week actually is when you have to wait for something. While I was waiting for the silicone to cure properly I got to thinking about the water flow around the tank. While it seemed sensible to have the water come straight out of the pump area into the tank I thought it might be nice to have water flowing at the other end of the tank. This would also help make heating the tank more effective too as the water could be spread around the tank. After finding a spare power head I set to work wiring in a rear return pipe. I considered a spray bar set up but ended up working on a three way outlet instead. While the water flow from the bottom pipe has more pressure than the very top, it would allow water to spread in different directions and at different strengths. Instead of just having the water jet out of the ends of the return pipes I used some heat and pliers to crimp the ends closed a little to give a wider spray at a slightly higher pressure.

Now we're up to the nervous part. The water test. So far all seems to be working fine and the flow is rather good. The skimmer I have fits into the pump section but I'm not sure it'll be useful as the cup is a pain to remove and it is only rated to 12l\h.

My next step is to leave this for a while and let the water just flow around the tank. I'm also going to experiment with making my own base rock and then use the tank to fix the PH levels of the rock at the same time. Saves wasting water and lets me get a feel for what I'm looking for display wise before I commit to it.

 

[daveH]

How's the setup going? Haven't heard form you for a while. Is everything working out for you?
Post some new pics ifyou can.

 

[Cryxblade]

It's getting there slowly due to some family complications taking up my free time.

The water test has worked well. The bulkhead seems to handle the pressure fine and the flow from the pumps is getting around the tank nicely. Do need to get a few power heads to really get the flow moving around the tank. I'm just in the process at the moment of adding sand, rock and salt to the tank. Once all the dust settles I can see if the layout is what I want then I'll post a few more progress shots.

I'm also almost done with my light hood and will be throwing some of those pics up as well soon as I finish putting the tops on and painting the whole thing. :)

 

[daveH]

How were you planning to mix your salt water?