Wretch's 54g Aqueon RR Corner Build
 

Well I am finally getting around to setting my tank up so figured I would let everyone see what I am doing.

Started with a 54g corner tank and thats about it.

http://i.imgur.com/iKyBW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/hmq58.jpg

From there I needed a stand. With the strange location I chose and I wanted more room underneath I needed to build my own stand. I don't have any pictures of the build but I do wish i had used something besides plywood as it didn't finish that well.

http://i.imgur.com/A1dfP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/oQIxxCQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IiLjSN1.jpg

Here are some of the supplies I bought for my tank. Some of these have been changed out but this is where I started.

http://i.imgur.com/z8Fuy.jpg

Looks like you have lots of room in that stand. Coming along nicely, keep up with the pics

For some reason I didn't take any pictures of just the stand after painting or individual pieces of equipment as they came in.

I got a custom sump made from J&L Aquatics. Its 18x18x16. It fits nicely and allows enough room for a salt bucket or two beside it.

http://i.imgur.com/eTiNkyO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7tG9YAZ.jpg

As you can see in the pictures I am going to be running a vertex IN-80 protein skimmer. The way I have it setup now is not the final positions of everything. I don't like the heaters where they are but not sure where to put them right now.

My return pump is a Eheim compact + 2000.

I have been messing around with my Marco rocks trying to find a scape I liked.

http://i.imgur.com/jNO4w24.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/l9ddL1n.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2m9jpc8.jpg

I finally settled on the following formation and glued it together with epoxy. Hope I like it for a long time.

http://i.imgur.com/EeiA16D.jpg

I had purchased a light last year I am kinda regretting it now but I will live with it until it breaks or I can afford something else.

http://i.imgur.com/m1TREfq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WzIrNts.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3WtNxxi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6hW4nDh.jpg

It is a Twilight 120w LED light. Its has a custom designed light spectrum. It also has an internal 3 channel timer/dimmer. The lights seem bright enough and look good but I am kinda worried about control.

I made a light hanger out of aluminum, its a copy of another reefers design. Its not quite finished yet but it has got the light over the tank now.

http://i.imgur.com/QO5idSF.jpg

I am not sure if I want to lower the light. I am open to any suggestions other might have about it. Right now I think it is about 9" or 10" above the tank.

Well its finally that time, to check if the tank leaks. I got my ro/di hooked up to the bathroom sink and am filling the sump.

http://i.imgur.com/WRvrcbh.jpg

So far everything seems to be good. No leaks in the sump and I have started pumping water into the display tank.

http://i.imgur.com/KSDEmdT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/PraAQJM.jpg

Damn I didn't really think about how long filling 60+ gallons of tanks was going to take. Oh well a late night it will be. Sorry for the glare in the pictures couldn't get rid of it. Stupid iPhone.

Great start! Do you have any pics of building the aluminium light hanger or a better profile picture of it?

indeed this is coming along nicely !

I don't have any close ups of it but I will take some for you. If you do a search for thedoogan reef you will find were I got the idea from. Its just a piece of 6061T6 aluminum flat bar 0.375 x 2", with 2 smaller piece of the same aluminum flat bar but 0.250 x .75".I drilled holes into the two smaller pieces to match my light then drilled them to attach to the large bar.

Here are the pictures of the light hanger. As I say its not finished yet I just wanted it attached and what not so I could get water in the tank. Still have to shorten the bolts and clean it up a little.

http://i.imgur.com/36lEYAM.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/e1MjDsG.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JKUbuT1.jpg

Hope this helps.

Thanks wretch. I was curious if the aluminium bar had been bent at 90 degrees or if you had 2 pieces jointed together to make a 90 degree elbow.

That hanger looks really slick. If you have the equipment, you could always take a cutoff wheel to the tops of the bolts holding the fixture to your aluminium hanger and cut them off just above the fastening nuts. A hacksaw would work equally well but would just take a bit more elbow grease to get the job done.

Cutting with a cut off wheel would only take a min total for them all.
If you bring it over, I could do it in nothing flat.
Pm me

Thanks for the offer I want to change the nuts out then I will cut the excess bolt off. I just haven't got there yet.

Well the leak test was going well until I noticed the tiniest of leaks just above my gate valve. When I tried to tighten it up I twisted the bulkhead and made things much worse.

Sump filled great. Holds all the back flow of water from the display tank plus the overflow is drained as well.

http://i.imgur.com/TPvGX5P.jpg

Display tank with empty overflow due to leaking bulkhead.

http://i.imgur.com/o8pQSIh.jpg

Damn bulkhead leak. I can't access it at the moment without draining the tank. I don't know if I should drain the tank or try and cut a bigger hole on the bottom of the stand so I can access the nut without draining.

http://i.imgur.com/rhdwFcN.jpg

PITA either way I guess.

acorn nuts....
 

Cutting the bolts off and using acorn nuts will finish them off nicely.

Well I managed to cut an ugly hole around my bulkheads and get them tightened up. Looks ugly as sin but it will work. I got some more pvc to move my gate valve down it was really tight to the back of the stand at its current height.

http://i.imgur.com/LhXHt2B.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8LtYBMe.jpg

Damn dremmel left a lot to be desired but it worked in a tight space.

Well after butchering my stand to get access to the bulkheads, I got the leak fixed and added a down pipe before my gate valve so it was easier to install.

http://i.imgur.com/O2iAHFc.jpg

Tank and sump are full. No leaks to be found. Herbie is pretty much dialled in. I am still tweaking it a little here and there but I could probably just leave it alone. It is very quiet.

http://i.imgur.com/zxkbADw.jpg

Tank is just about up to temperature. I can add my salt tomorrow if everything stays stable over night.

http://i.imgur.com/dTvoEQZ.jpg

Blah. The fun of setting up a new tank. Finally got temp to settle in and salinity right on. Then my 1 day old ATO stops working. It seemed to be working well for the day it was hooked up. I unplugged it once to fill the ATO bucket after using some of the water to balance my salinity. When I plugged it back in damn thing did nothing :sad: Tried all sort of plugging combinations and checked the pump but nothing did anything. Email sent to the store I bought it from hope to hear something tomorrow but who knows.

Here it is in its box nice and new.
http://i.imgur.com/UUK9HiH.jpg?1

Here it is in the sump about half way down on the right with the green light, working fine just after I added my sand.
http://i.imgur.com/yqomuic.jpg

Well I heard back from the retailer I bought my ATO from and they passed my email onto the head tech at the manufacturer. I guess I am just waiting for monday for them to get back to me.

In the meantime I had a cycling tank so I went and did a little shopping. Needed tests and picked up some bacteria supplements as well.

http://i.imgur.com/2Ky1qhD.jpg

My tank had finally cleared up after adding the sand then I made it half way cloudy again trying to even it out.

http://i.imgur.com/r9wJFHp.jpg

Just took my first ammonia readings and they were NH3 0.4 and NH4 5. Do I need more NH3 for my cycle? or is it good to go as is?

Going to add the bio-spira now and see how it goes.

That smart ATO is the one that broke? I was looking at these and they seem simple and easy to use, U should do a review on it once you get it running

Yes its the Smart ATO that isn't working. It is very simple so not really sure what could go wrong or how you would fix it without replacing it. Just waiting to hear from the manufactures tech.

Did you wash that sand before adding?
Seems maybe its very fine

I didn't wash it cause it was live sand. Fiji Pink.

I'm liking where this is going.

Well with the cycle well under way and the bio-spira added I thought I would run all the tests to see were I was.

Yesterday ammonia was NH3 0.4 and NH4 5.
Today after bio-spira it was NH3 0.0 and NH4 0.12.(well somewhere between .10 and .15)
Calcium - 360
Magnesium - 1200
Alk - 7
Nitrites - 1
Nitrates - 6

Using instant ocean salt.

Here is a picture of what the tank looks like now.

http://i.imgur.com/mzX5x4L.jpg

Well after testing my tank for the last few days I have come to the conclusion that I don't like seachem test kits. Much Prefer the salifert test kits. Not sure either test kit is overly repeatable though.

I also have come to the conclusion that an ATO is a necessity not a optional piece of equipment. Makes me wish mine actually worked.

It seems like my ammonia is almost all gone now just waiting on nitrites to go away and nitrates to lower.

Started dosing microbacter7 as well today.

Well its been 8 days since I started my cycle and it seems as if I am done. I started off by bumping ammonia to 5ppm by adding pure ammonia. Then I added a bottle of bio-spira and then 48 hours after that I started adding microbacter7 daily as per directions. Now my readings are as follows.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 1

It seems in my rush to get my display tank setup I managed to skip the part of quarantine tank. So I just rushed and put one together.

10g tank
Glass top(no jumpers getting out)
100w heater
Marineland penguin 100(kinda noisy for a little power filter) filled with sponge
sponge filter and air pump
small powerhead
thermometer
Will add some pvc elbows when I find them

http://i.imgur.com/CsMjd35.jpg?1

Have added ammonia to 5ppm to get cycle started.
Temperature set to 78. stable at 77.9
Salinity at 1.026
Added a bottle of bio-spira.

Anyone think another sponge filter would be good for a permanent QT tank? or enough bio filtration as is for a 10g tank?

Time for a little update.

Display tank is completely cycled and I have added a small cleanup crew. I have the light on full time for the first time and once again I am not happy. The light is supposed to have 3 channels but it seems like all the lights come on all the time no matter how set. The lights do appear to ramp up and down but I can't split the colours and the moonlights don't come on. Also seem to get a crazy disco effect because of the water movement. This seems to be turning out to have been a live and learn purchase. I guess I will run it till it dies as I am not sending it back to china.

The quarantine tank is just about done its cycle as well. Ammonia and nitrite are at 0 just waiting for nitrate to come down from 2ppm. In the process of deciding on what fish will be first. I have a terrible case of indecision.

As for my broken Smart ATO I am now dealing with the manufacture. I was sent a new power supply but that didn't do anything so I am waiting to see where this goes.

I am now in the market for my first corals. Zoas, palys and some LPS are on the menu. I will be going to look at some coral tomorrow and hopefully get some frags. Will I be all fragged out before the frag swap?

Well I got my first corals today. I would like to thank member Ryanerickson for allowing me come by and see his tank and for giving me a great deal on some frags. He also hooked me up with some coral rx as well, so thanks to him again.

Temperature acclimating frags
http://i.imgur.com/1uSWJZd.jpg?1

Frags in Tank(Sunny Ds, Magicians, Green Paly, Hammer)
http://i.imgur.com/D3aY21R.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/oyNOHBa.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/2uSHc0W.jpg?1

The nice blue/purple light is from of a piece of junk twilight 120w led fixture. It seems while I was out getting my first frags the damn white channel blew out. So now I am down 2 channels(whites and moonlights). Not a very happy camper right now. Hoping I can mess with it tomorrow but its not looking good. Going to get some pictures when everything opens back up but the damn light makes it hard to get good ones.

Well my 2 wp10s arrived last week from Nick at Reef Supply Canada. I was kinda surprised at the size, as they were so small. I am replacing 2 hydor koralia evolution 750s. I am currently running them on else mode at full speed. Below is a size comparison of the two powerheads.

http://i.imgur.com/FBq84M1.jpg

I finally got my ATO situation wrapped up. Ray from GoReef was a great help. I am currently awaiting the arrival of a new control unit from Coralvue. It just cleared customs so it should be here soon.

Here is a Pic of my two clowns I got from Timbits at the frag swap. One is a regular Ocellaris Clown and one is an Extreme Misbar Ocellaris Clown. Currently in my quarantine tank.

http://i.imgur.com/lwGYdMJ.jpg

This is a picture of my tank right now. Slowly filling in.

http://i.imgur.com/w1Brt2y.jpg

Lookin good Joe!! :mrgreen: following along

Well I haven't posted anything on this tank for a long time but then nothing was really happening. Went through a bit of algae and still dealing with some diatoms but finally have water conditions where I want them. I hope.

Just picked up a couple fish from Oceanic Corals.

http://i.imgur.com/m0tEvD2.jpg

Was hard to get a good picture of the coral beauty its is much brighter in person.

http://i.imgur.com/VQ3G9Vq.jpg

These should be the last fish I add. Time to start filling in all the naked rock work.

Well thought I would post a few tank shots. I will have some equipment updates to come soon.

Full tank shot.

http://i.imgur.com/ZhKyZg9.jpg

Right side of tank.

http://i.imgur.com/niO44Ah.jpg

Left side of tank.

http://i.imgur.com/7zCGeto.jpg

Back of tank from the right.

http://i.imgur.com/irUwowb.jpg

Ahhhh, so this is your tank! I was trying to remember it yesterday. Awesome build and looking good! Nice to meet you buds!

Good stuff Joe! Keep em pictures coming. :biggrin:

Powerhead
 

Hi,

I have a 92 gal corner tank situated in a corner of our front landing (too noisy for anywhere else).

I am wondering how you attached your powerheads. I can only use the old max-jets with suction cups because there is no access to the outsides of the corner walls of glass. The old maxi-jets have been discontinued and the new ones don't work at all. So, I don't know what to do to replace my Maxi's and they are getting older and noisier.

AquaAddict

I wish I could be of some help but if you look at my first post my tank doesn't sit in a tight corner. So I am able to get down the sides and use magnets.

Looks awesome I love reef raft builds :mrgreen:

NSW for water changes? :pp

lol. Thanks. When I bought the tank they called it an Aqueon Reef Ready (RR) hadn't even heard of Reef Raft yet. :redface:

Awesome scape. Can't wait to see it fill in. Tagging along!

So I started to add some SPS to my tank and I figured I better get a doser cause I am kinda lazy and dont want to manual dose. I ordered a Jebao doser from fish-street last Monday and and it arrived last Thursday. I was also getting tired of using a 5 gallon bucket as my ATO reservoir. So I took a 10 gallon fish tank and fit it under the stand instead of the bucket. The tank didn't fit so I used to 2x4s to raise the tank and it fit perfect.

http://i.imgur.com/P5j6Xn5.jpg

I finally got time to set the doser up today and everything seem to work great. I calibrated all 4 pumps and they all seem to be spot on. I programmed the first 2 pumps for Calcium and Alkalinity as I had them on hand. They are set to dose 12 times a day. Calcium will dose on all the odd hours and alkalinity on all the even hours.

http://i.imgur.com/5xJIxki.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/RZwk6IM.jpg

The magnesium bottle is empty as I didn't have any magnesium chloride or sulphate on hand. I have to run out and get some as I am a little low after a water change. Magnesium at 1260.

Here is what my tank area looks like now. Only blue lights are on in the photo.

http://i.imgur.com/cvYIuHh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Oao103M.jpg

Now I just need to acquire a few more SPS frags. :biggrin: