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SmallFry's 75 Gallon (Reef Eventually) Build
This has been in the works for a long time, piggybacking on the log for my 27 gallon FOWLR. Now it's all plumbed and I've got some water in it albeit fresh to finish curing my diy rocks. I figure it's about time to give it its own journal, so here goes...
For the early parts of this build, see the late parts of my other journal. http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=49642 A long time ago I experimented with making some diy rocks for the new tank. I did it mostly because I wanted to have lots of shelf type rocks. I've been trying to cure it for a good while now, on and off as I was in two minds as to whether to use it. About a couple of months ago I decided to use it and started curing it in earnest. Progress has been slow, partly I think because the biggest Rubbermaid I had was not able to hold much water as well as the rock. To try and speed things up, I'm giving it some more volume of water, like the whole tank full of it.. And as a bonus I get an extended water test to iron out any kinks too. Anyway - pictures!! The whole thing.. http://www.mts.net/~sempers/whole_setup.jpg The plumbing... http://www.mts.net/~sempers/plumbing.jpg The sump... http://www.mts.net/~sempers/sump.jpg It's pretty basic, no baffles, though I may add some later if I get problems with microbubbles from the skimmer (Euro Reef RS100) and I hope to get some sort of a refugium set up eventually. Another idea I had is to use some of the spare space in the external overflow for a couple of mangroves, but that's a way off yet. And finally a close up of the aquascape... http://www.mts.net/~sempers/aquascape1.jpg I was surprised that they only come to 55lbs now, they weighed a ton when I started curing - there must've been a lot of salt in there. On the plus side they must be really porous! :biggrin: Now if only the pH will come down! I have a back up plan if it doesn't, I'm going to get some of those Eco Reefer rocks - Skimmer King got some for his new build and they look really nice.. |
i have mangroves that i can sell ya if you want them . the tank is looking great buddy.
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Finally! I went and did it! Just hit the button on an order for the LEDs and drivers for my new light.
It's going to be 24 XP-E royal blue (60 degree optics), 24 XP-G cool white (65 degree optics) and the PWM dimmable meanwell drivers which I'll be controlling with an arduino. I'm going to build my own heat sink for them, which should be interesting... |
On the move again...!
Well, if you ever needed convincing that there are a million things that can seriously delay your build...
Things were all on track, I had my LEDs and all I needed to do was build the light, then this happened.... http://www.mts.net/~sempers/Canoe_stems_on_1.jpg http://www.mts.net/~sempers/stems_shaped_close.jpg http://www.mts.net/~sempers/done1.jpg http://www.mts.net/~sempers/floats.jpg And as if that wasn't enough we bought this http://www.mts.net/~sempers/airstream1.jpg which turned out to need a whole new subfloor and ended up like this... http://www.mts.net/~sempers/frame_primed.jpg Which has delayed things just a little..... But finally I got around to building the light.. http://www.mts.net/~sempers/light1.jpg http://www.mts.net/~sempers/light1.jpg http://www.mts.net/~sempers/light1.jpg The LEDs have optics on them now too, but I don't have any photos of that, but they're quite bright. Speaking of the heatsinks, I built my own from a couple of different sizes of U channel bolted together. I drilled a lot of holes and filed them together with a rat-tail file to create slots for convective cooling. I did this to try and get the heatsinks to help cool themselves rather than having a big stagnant lump of hot air stuck on top that needs a fan to move it. It seems to work. I'm currently driving them at 700mA on the cool white and royal blues. The heatsinks are just warm with no fans running - the fixture is totally silent which sadly cannot be said for my return pump :neutral:.. http://www.mts.net/~sempers/tank1.jpg http://www.mts.net/~sempers/skimmer1.jpg On the plus side I now have the chance to get my 2 year old, but unused Euro-Reef RS100 going. Am impressed - there's no livestock, but it's still finding something to skim out. Not sure what though.. I've now got a couple of pounds of live rock in there to get things started and I'm dosing it with Stability to help get things established a little quicker.. I'm hoping to start moving some of the fish over from the 27 as soon as possible.. |
Stocking Complete
Its taken a while but I now have all the livestock I want in the tank - well nowhere close to all I want, but all I think I'm going to have. I may add some more snails etc to clean up the sand, but that's it..
So far the list is Royal Gramma Carpenters? Flasher wrasse Ruby headed fairy wrasse (yep, the Skimmer King got me hooked on wrasses) Both are in hiding right now - I'm hoping that it's just because they're annoyed about having to share the tank with the new arrivals who zip around the tank quite a bit.. Coral Beauty Kole Tang Two Cleaner Shrimp Rock Boring Urchin Three Nassarius Four Turbo Snails One big spiky snail that I have yet to identify Small but getting larger frag of Green Star Polyps I'll try to get some decent photos up but I'm having difficulties getting things to focus properly with my camera. It's almost like the auto focus is off, but it's about ten years old so I guess I can't complain too much..:biggrin: |
Tank looks great...but that canoe is AMAZING!!!!
you obviously have some mad carpentry skills. |
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Busy guy! tank looks great! Would love to see what you do with your trailer. We had a '57 converted bus we wanted to redo...no place to do the work.... |
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The trailer has changed a bit since that photo, new floor and all the inner skins have been taken off and reinsulated. It will be going back to its original layout except for a tweak or two at the front. I'm going to strip and rebuild or repair the original furniture where I can and invent the rest..:biggrin: I'm really lucky that the in-laws have a farm where I'm able to keep it while I work on it. That size of project would have been impossible otherwise.. Once I'm done with that I get to finish the basement and replace the kitchen... :biggrin: |
That canoe is a work of art! Great craftsmanship SmallFry.
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