Todd's Custom 135, Sump, top off, Stand and Canopy

[Todd]

So about a year ago I moved, and had a really large living room in the place I was renting. I decided that my 33g reef with no sump was really too small for the room. Despise my financial situation at being a full time amature athlete, I upgraded to a used 70g Reef with stand, canopy, MH system and sump. This was a great system, and I learnt alot using it.

After retiring as an athlete, but before starting back to school, I started to work for a local tank manufacture. After seeing all of the nice new custom tanks going out of the shop I decided that I should have one for myself.

I knew that I wanted a 6' long tank, but I really didn't want to have a large gallon-age, so I settled on a lay-down 135. The tank Dimensions are 72'L x 24'W x 18' T. Basically a short 185, as it was going to be a room divider I wanted to be able to have the extra width to aqua-scape with.

My 70g tank was tucked into a corner of the living room, and although I enjoyed it, I really needed to make time in my day to watch the tank, as it was out of the way. The new tank I wanted in a prominent position in the house where you would see it and not be able to miss it. So it went into the very center of the largest room in the house, as a room divider. This meant that you could see it when you walked in the front door, from the living room (a couch back is against one end of the stand), the kitchen, the kitchen eating area, the sun room and the dining room (although we have no dining room table).

Being a room divider created some interesting problems - ie where to put the overflows, drains and return, and how to get the cords into the canopy without them looking horrible. All of these problems were overcome by a center overflow box. This allowed me to put 4 holes into the bottom and have them all covered so they could not be seen from the outside of the tank. It also gave me 16 feet of glass free of any unsightly overflow box, return plumbing or cords.

The goals of this tank were to have it highly automated, efficient, expandable (equipment wise) and very quiet. The profilux and an Auto feeder take care of the automation. Having one pump service my skimmer and return allows it to be quiet, along with a herbie overflow. Efficiency was mainly with regards to not having things work against each other, ie heater and fans or too many lights - again accomplished by the profilux.

Here is my equipment list:

Tank: Laydown 135g Display

Sump: 45g Baffled with cheato refugium, skimmer compartment and return chamber with probe holders

Lighting: 2 x 400w MH, 2 x 54 dimmable T5 (on a profilux)

Top up: 20g Tank with maxi-jet 1200 and profilux water level sensor and float valve to connect to RO/DI when away

Return: Reeflo Snapper (2600GPH)

Drain: Herbie Style

Skimmer: Custom Bullet Style becket skimmer (Sized at 1.5)

Flow: Additional Flow provided by Tunze 6055

Additional Equipment: Profilux with dimmable ballast, LED lighting sticks in the mail, 2 x 4" Cooling fans in canopy (profilux controlled), CF Cheato lighting, 300w Heater, Auto-Feeder with Flake and Cyclopeeze.

I have no pictures of the actual building process but I took some today of the finished product.

Tank:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_0980.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_0993.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_0981.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_0986.jpg



Sump:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_0982.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_1006.jpg

Additional Equipment, top up tank, plumbing and Overflow:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_0987.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_0990.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_0997.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_1002.jpg

[Todd]

And some more of the display:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_1007.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_1013.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_1018.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/toddkeesey/New%20Tank/IMG_1012.jpg

[SeaSerpant]

It looks really nice. What kind of livestock do you have?

[Todd]

It looks really nice. What kind of livestock do you have?

At the present I have 3 Blue / Green Chromis, 2 Maroon Clowns and a 6 line for fish. Corals include Xenia and Anthelia (which I am selling), 3 kinds of mushrooms, Cabbage coral, Kenya Tree, 4 Species of Zoo's. Other inverts include Hermits, snails and one lonely aiptaisa eating pepermint shrimp.

[Borderjumper]

Thats an awesome tank Todd and I love the way you used it as a room divider.. most cool!

[Todd]

I am looking forward to expanding its contents. I was happy (well, less hesitant) to put money into the tank and equipment because I know that I will have it for a long long time. But I may be moving this year (may be to a new city), and I am hesitant to spend money on livestock when I may have to sell it in the medium / near future.

[SeaSerpant]

If you will end up selling it i wouldn't buy any livestock unless you can sell it for more than you bought it for.

[Matt]

Nice work. I particularly like the idea of having an addiitonal bulkhead in the overflow for electrical conduit. That should be standard on all new builds!

[Todd]

Nice work. I particularly like the idea of having an addiitonal bulkhead in the overflow for electrical conduit. That should be standard on all new builds!

It does make for a really nice clean set up. I dislike the look of return plumbing up the outside or having cords hanging around untidy.

Its a really large hole - I think I have a 3" bulkhead in there, and I am finding it hard to get cords through too. Although I do have alot of cords running up there, I will end up with 9 cords through there:

1 for 2 fans (spliced together up top)
2 for the MH bulbs
1 for Auto Feeder
1 For tunze powerhead
1 for Auto feeder
1 for T5 bulbs
1 for auto feeder
1 (or 2, not sure yet) for LED effect lighting (sunrise/set, moon lights and lightning on the profilux)

[untamed]

Nice. Good creativity to solve the problems associated with a four sided display! You've got to figure out what to do with that power cord that feeds the entire thing....

[Todd]

Nice. Good creativity to solve the problems associated with a four sided display! You've got to figure out what to do with that power cord that feeds the entire thing....

yeah, that's a temporary thing - I agree its ugly and dosen't fit with the rest of the tank. I bought one of those wiremold cord holders that lays flat on the ground and prevents tripping on the cord, and was going to run it along the wall across the kitchen doorway and then across to underneath the tank. But I didn't buy enough, so that will happen next week. I am also planning on making another extension cord on another outlet (which is also on a different breaker) with a UPS backup for my powerheads and auto feeder on it. So a temperature decrease would be the major issues for a short term power outage. But my 2008 fish budget was spent in 2007 so that may have to wait until I am no longer a student.

When I am no longer renting, I will try to get a few GFCI outlets coming up from the floor right into the stand, on a dedicated breaker.

[wetcoast]

Nicely done - nice touches added into it. I've got the same dimensions that I am just finishing my leak tests on and waiting for the RO machine to pump out more so I can start getting going - your thread hasn't helped with my anxiousness :)

[banditpowdercoat]

That tank is awesome, I am jealous. Like the 4th bulkhead fro the wiring. Nice touch.

[Todd]

Finally got my LED light sticks for the profilux yesterday. I have only been waiting about 4 months...

They are really neat, operate as a few different things.

1. Moonlights. Do both deep blue, blue /white and white colors for different times of the lunar phase. The profilux does a full lunar cycle built into the software, also the moonlights can simulate cloud cover.

2. Red / Yellow lights. Operates on a different channel from the other lights, and adds color to sunset / sunrise. Gives a really cool effect to sunset, as the dimmable T5's dim, the reds come upto 100% and then the reds quickly fade to 0% after the t5's reach 0% then the moonlights come up.

3. Lightening - A the touch of a button, on a programed time, or randomly, a storm can pass over the tank. The t5's dim to a preset amount (I chose 80%), lightening comes up and the intensity increases, flashes get closer toghter as the storm reaches its apex, then the storm rolls off, lightening gets less frequent and less intense as the t5's come back upto 100%. Also one of the sticks works as flash 1, the other as flash 2, so they can fire independantly or together to change intensity.

One thing that I am a little dissapointed about is the fact that the sticks can't work downsteam of each other. I thought (for some reason) that I could plug one into the other, but they both need to be pluged into the profilux. Thus I need to get another splitter cable for the main computer so that I can plug my tunze back in.

Overall, really neat, well built little units.

[Delphinus]

Wow the sunset/sunrise feature sounds really cool! Wish I could see that in action... :)