First ever Saltwater, 90g
 

Hello guys,

I am fairly new to the forum, first post on canreef. But I have been cruising around learning as much as I can. I have been running a 90g planted Freshwater community tank for just over a year now and have really enjoyed the heck out of it. I find myself very distracted by the tank and find myself running behind on just about everything else cause I get caught staring for hours. So I have decided to try my hand at at saltwater, with this build I am mainly trying to learn as much as I can about the workng of keeping a reef tank. This is because a goal of mine a few years down the road it to have a fairly large tank (350+g).

So I went out and picked up a 90g tank /w a stand from one of the long time members on the forum (kwirky, I am sure I will still be learning through your previous posts on this forum and thanks for the tank.. Solid Stand!!) Also I picked up a new 40g on my way home from for the sump. Ive read, and read, then I read some more. Joined 20000+ forums HA (And seem to receive email form most.. great). Exams just finished for me yesterday so I have some free time to work on the tank, weather allowing. I am planning on getting the 90g drilled at either riverfront or big als here in Calgary and DIY sump. Im just trying to decide how to run the overflow, to herbie or not to herbie that is the question. Im not interested in the gained flow rate as I am planning two drains in both back corners. But I might like the idea of how quite I hear the herbie is. I dont have any other friends on the hobby so I am not overly sure how loud the overflow will be in the first place (Any comments on this topic would be great!). The other thing im trying to work out is whether to drill for the return line or just run it over the top of the tank, I haven't been able to find much on the net about that. Ill use my education to deduce that drilling the tank would lower the hight I have to pump my water which will decrease the head pressure, but realisticly the extra foot could just be tackled by a bigger pump with the money I saved on drilling the two holes. I also imagine that people are doing it for athstetic reasons. So plumbing ideas or tips would be great.

I will continue to post with progress and picture eventually when there is something to take a picture of :) Thanks in advance for all the comments and help I have already received or I am sure will receive.

Thanks
Tyson

First of all welcome to becoming an official poster.

I wouldnt plumb a tank any other way except with a herbie. Very quite and easy to adjust. If you looking for ideas, check out the first couple pages of my tank journal thread. http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=40669 Oh yeah*whispers* "we drill tanks too":biggrin:

Hello and thanks,

I can honestly say that I was up till about 3am last night going through your tank build journal, and it looks great. I dont know if I would find the noise bothersome, but quick and easy adjustments sound fantastic. I knew people would find this out sooner or later but I have never been to Red Coral, nor do I even know where it is. I know... Im ashamed hah. Maybe I will try and swing by there sometime today, with all this new found free time the world is my oyster.

Well Ive made it by RC and hung out for a while, Kevin is great. He helped me out with a few things design wise and totally got me amped for the new tank. Picked up a Sedra 9000 for my return while I was there, so all the pieces are starting to somewhat fall into place. Got all the materials to finish off the stand so I have been plugging away in the garage. Again I will post pictures when there is something to look at :)

Again thanks for all the help Kevin!

Nice to meet you at RC today... Excited to see how this tank comes along. I'd also recommend the herbie overflow.. Mine is deadly silent, the only noise I can hear from my tank is the Closed Loop pump, but after awhile I don't even notice it anymore..

Good Luck with the build!

Can't wait to see some pics in this thread!!! Welcome to CanReef! And I'm glad you made it to RC...they are good guys there. :)

Except for that Doug....he's a little on the wacky side if you ask me :wink:

I resemble that remark and am comfortable with my wackyness.:silly:

It was nice to meet you as well Josh. The stands coming along nicely, got my glass for the sump baffles today. Ill post some pics of that when its done.

Welcome to the forum! and welcome to the world of salt water addiction!

Brad

Okay, Im waiting for some things to dry so I figured I would post some pictures for everyone. The stand is almost done, one more coat of stain on the trim should do it.
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...79-0.jpg?rev=0
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...83-0.jpg?rev=0

I also did one of the baffles for the sump. I only did the one because I have never built anything like this that needs to be water tight. So I just wanted to make sure before I did them all, and at least in my mind had to re-do them all. But It held... surprise.
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...84-0.jpg?rev=0

I also wanted to add a picture of my 90g planted freshwater community tank!
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...74-0.jpg?rev=0

Thanks!

Finished the stand and baffles in the sump, planning on leak testing it later tonight. I'm also hoping to head into RC tomorrow to drop my tank off to be drilled. Hopefully by next weekend I have water cycling through the tank... wouldn't that be exciting!

Mmmm starbucks..

What type of rubber did you use on the stand? I am looking for something to line the sump area of my stand for my large, looks like pretty good stuff you used.

Just found it at Home Depot, in the flooring section. I think it was 30 bucks for a 27inch wide by 5 feet or so long.

Product placement?

Thanks for all the greetings to the forum people, mucho appreciative. And an even bigger thanks for turning me towards RC, Kevin has been awesome. The guy knows his stuff, which is very helpful to a guy like me (Knows very little). Im sure ill make it up there one day on the weekend to meet Doug. Speaking of RC I dropped my tank off there today to be drilled, and decided that it would be in everyones best interest if I let them build the overflow as well. The overflow will be visible in the display tank, my silicone job on the sump will not thankfully. Ill get some more pictures up when I get the tank home and set up.

Thanks again all

Tyson

Got the tank back from RC and it looks great. Ran into a hiccup with the plumbing though. Couldn't find 1 1/2 inch pvc at either rona or home depot, which is the size of the overflow. Was able to find all that was needed in ABS plastic but I didnt know if that would work. Everything in my minds says that it should work fine for the overflow because its not running pressurized. But i have not seen pictures of anyone using it for any of their plumbing. Would ABS pipe work?

Thanks.

ABS will be fine. Most dont use it because the selection of fittings is pretty lacking

Slight Update, half plumbed up...

Kevin at RC did a great job on the overflow
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...98-0.jpg?rev=0
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...03-0.jpg?rev=0

Return
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...04-0.jpg?rev=0
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...05-0.jpg?rev=0
And the pump
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...06-0.jpg?rev=0

If anyone sees any better ways of doing any of this let me know.

Thanks

Looks good mang....you are planning on plumbing that emergency drain down a bit farther?

Looks good so far, it was nice to meet you at RC the other day. Where have i been i thought it was May/09 not Feb/07..... mus be that crack we were talking about :lol:. I agree with fishytime you might want to shave your emergency drain a bit and bring it further down

I was looking at the emergency drain under the tank....but your right the emergency looks a titch tall in the overflow.

Yes the emergency will be down further both in the overflow and underneath. Its just all somewhat dry fit together. Like we were joking at the store yesterday i was short a couple pieces to run the plumbing for the overflow beneath. So Ill see you today sometime haha. I was going to ask you Doug, where did you get your strainers? JL?

RC sells the strainers not sure what sizes they have but i saw a few yesterday.

hey blom looks good man!! i am in the process of a diy sump and overflow my self on my 72g. my question for you is what kind of silicone did you use when you tried your baffles???:razz:

I used "All-Glass Aquarium Silicone". Brand name is All Glass. I picked it up at Red Coral, pretty sure they had a few tubes left. I know that there are some other options from GE and a few other brands. Im pretty sure you can find the info of different types that people have used on here. I liked this stuff, worked fine.

you know, I've used All kinda of Silicone. My present overflow is siliconed in with Permatex RTV black from Lordco. No ill effects or nothing.

So close to filling the tank, just having to wait for some help lifting the tank onto the stand. Only 4 more feet... all this and im sidelined by a height less than me (Not much less i'll add). Oh well, Pretty happy with how the plumbing worked out. The gate valves make the plumbing look like it was designed for a tank volume 10 times the size I have, which I enjoy greatly. hmm excited about gate valves, not good. I got the bulkheads screwed in there pretty good, didnt want to run the risk of cracking the glass. Theres some good compression on the rubber gaskets, figured thats what I was looking for.

Im not working atm....shoot me a pm if you want and I will come and help you lift the tank.

Thanks for the offer, got er up there this morning. Going to plumb it up this afternoon and get some H2O. Seems bigger than my other 90g for some reason.

Less chat, more pics!! :mrgreen:

+1

Haha awesome... okay
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...08-0.jpg?rev=0
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...09-0.jpg?rev=0

Need a few things before Im willing to fill it. But damn close... Hopefully later on this evening.

wooo! Look at the size of that sump...think of all the junk you can put in there! Trust me, it'll happen. Everytime I try to get a large sump and leave is spacious, reactors and the like just seem to find their way in there...trust me, it'll happen.

I can only imagine, Ive already been looking at the digital aquatics controllers, completely overkill for my needs right now. But very cool none the less, so its been added to an already very long wish list.

Wish number 1: WATER!!!

That being said I better motivate myself to go to Rona (AGAIN!) to pick up the rest of my needed plumbing.

LOL @ Rona comment...

I made soo many trips to Rona and Home Depot for plumbing parts.. And not due to any lack of planning, as I always had a large list of pieces to pick up, but some were not in stock, others I didn't realize I would want in the end.

Overflow looks good.

I never thought I would use a controller/monitor system. I thought there were so many other things I could use the $300+ for. And then I thought about it. It monitors everything I normally test for, so no need for test kit clutter or time spent (lets face it, it takes me damn near an hour to test my tank), it looks fancy (which is a big plus :rolleyes: ) and it makes the whole keeping reef tanks a little easier in my mind. Which is while I'll be putting one on my next system.

Which controller are you looking at that monitors Mag, Ca, Alk?? Certainly not Aquacontroller Jr/3/3 Pro...:wink:

I agree, Rona needs to stock parts evenly over all of their stores. had to go to 3 said stores just to find a 90 PVC elbow. Loitered around RC for a while today, picked up Salt and an RO/DI unit. That being said im looking for a sponsor to to pick up the tab on my system.... Really.... No takers. Figured there would be an outcry of help hah.

On a side note how are those Donairs, smell good. Maybe next time!

Well Ill snap some more pictures once I get some water in it tonight for a test run. Then Ill have some time to figure out how to plumb in the RO unit.

And thats how you make an $800 water re locater. err, well sort of. A smarter man than I probably did it without any pipe leaks. I guess thats why you fill it with tap water, cause man would I have been ****ed if I filled this up over 2 days with RO and found it leaked. Oh well, kind of saw it happening. Im going to rethink my downstairs plumbing.

PICTURES:
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...15-0.jpg?rev=0
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...12-0.jpg?rev=0
Thats one full tank!
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...13-0.jpg?rev=1
And now the Leaks :cry:
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...14-0.jpg?rev=0
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/c/6/...16-0.jpg?rev=0

Well at least I know what has to be fixed, then Im off to the races.