Greg's 75g
 

Well, it's been over 4 months since I decided to take the plunge. I sold almost all my freshwater gear, and had to buy even more saltie stuff.
I feel I am close enough now to start my build thread.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who has been helping me:
Canreef staff and members for their posts, both questions and answers; All members who I have bought from; Sponsors who I have bought from; Myka, both for your posts and communications; neven, for your tips and tricks; My Wife for her understanding and patience; and finally, my wallet, for not caving on me when I really needed you the most :wink:

The RO/DI system is running. Gotta love the water here in the GVRD. Last week I tested the tap @ 16ppm and today it's 8ppm. I'm glad I rigged the DI to only run when I need it.

Here's the Drum. And yes, that used to be our Master Ensuite :biggrin:
I had to put a sheet of ply under the drum to clear the sink
Pretty, isn't it ? Doesn't matter, only I use this room.
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...uild/Drum2.jpg



Here's the RO/DI. I installed it inside the cabinet on full extension drawer slides. Yes, it's a whole lot of plumbing, but I can run the RO with or without the DI with the turn of 2 valves, and I can monitor the TDS 3 ways; raw, RO and DI. Plus I have 2 pressure gauges; one is raw and the other is RO.
The pressure is low in the pics as I was flushing the new filters
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ild/RO-DI3.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ild/RO-DI4.jpg


I am waiting for my new 75g Aqueon RR and Pine Stand to arrive. It will go in the Living Room here
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...nkLocation.jpg


A used 50g Aqueon for my sump. After a bulkhead leak upon pump install on Jan 30th, I chickened out and decided to put the pumps in the sump.
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/SumpTest.jpg


Here's the pedestal for the sump. A 1" x 0.125 tubing frame under the foam, and wrapped in a garbage bag as I feel it'll last longer than paint, and not stain the carpet with rust.
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...Pedestal-1.jpg



The Sump is going in my Office, with the plumbing through the wall to the Living Room above the Coax lines. It'll sit where the boxes are, perpendicular to the tanks.
Next to it's space you see the 10g ATO under the 20g New water holding tank and beside that is the 20g QT above some storage
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...mpLocation.jpg

The Sump, ATO and New water tanks will have Pink Styro under them as their stands are not true.
The 20g QT and 75g DT will not need Styro

I have;
Skimz 181
Reefkeeper Lite w/Moonlights, a Hub and 2 x PC4s
Tunze 3155 ATO
3 x 200watt Jagers, with a pair of 250watters on a Ranco for backup (only because I already had them)
Eheim 1262 for the Return
Eheim 1262 for Chiller, UV, Chaeto and Reactors
ATI 8x54w that I modded
2 x MP10wES w/home-made battery backup http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...794#post663794
2 x TLF 150 reactors
1/10HP Eco-plus chiller
15w UV
40 LBS Base rock (to start, although I may buy more)
60 LBS Caribsea Select (although I won't use it all)
15 LBS Live rock
And numerous testers/kits etc

I think, when the tank arrives, I will almost be ready to fresh-test everything.
Of course, I'll still have to plumb the tank, sump, ato, and new water.
Plus, I still have to drill the sump and new water 20g.
I'll be at it for awile yet.

This project is teaching me patience :mrgreen:

And do not forget, it take a while to cycle the tank especially if you dont have much liverock and sand. Welcome to the salt water plunge.

Msjboy
Ps...what part of burnaby are you.?

Thanks, and I'm just 8 blocks east of BCIT

I will fully 'Cook' my rock as per Myka's instructions before anything goes into my tank.
I will Not be using live sand.
I plan on starting this tank Very slow.
Live Rock first, small clean-up crew next, then one or 2 easy Corals, next more clean-up dudes and so on.
Just one critter at a time. And each critter (besides the inverts) will go in the QT before the DT (except when I get a Yellow Tang as I know they can be touchy).
I don't have a well-thought-out plan, but you get the idea.

Looks really good so far..... You already have the most important part covered ........ An obviously understanding and supportive misses:mrgreen:

love the progress so far man can't wait to see it

Love the drawer slides!

You're off to a great start having mastered the wife's tolerances and your own patience. The rest should be easier =)

How did the partner ever let you use the master bath like that?

Is that temp or permanent home for your reservoir?

My wife would slap me for even considering that ha ha ha.

Looks like someone's been on a major spending spree:wink:

Bring your wife over for a visit some time Gregg and we'll talk some more about reefing:biggrin:

BTW, all your ex-fw fish are doing great, including the Sterbai family.

Ha, ya that's a permanent spot. My wife never uses the ensuite. Just lucky I guess.

Ya you're not kidding. I already spent all the fw money.
We'll definately have to come by one of these days.

Thanks. I'm actually quite proud of the epiphany about the slides as I didn't want to have to lug water upstairs all the time from the laundry room.
My wife is great, plus she likes sw fish a lot.
I hope the rest is easy-ish, but I know I'm going to have a hard time going slow :smile:

Haha and I see uniseals on the counter too now that I'm looking closer. so there's going to be piping involved there too? I can't wait to show this to my (much) better half :lol:

Yup, some plumbing, but nothing like you are thinking.
The plan is to have an RO shut-off float, with an overflow above it for emergencies. That will spill into the sink.
The other uniseal will just be for a drain tap (ball valve). I may put a barb on it down the road but would need about 60' of hose to reach the tanks.
I was considering just a garden hose but ... what are everyone's ideas on a garden hose?
Maybe I should just bite the bullet and by vinyl?

Welp, I almost pooched the sump drilling holes ...

I bought the glass for the bubble trap, chaeto tank, and a skimmer stand.
I asked for an x-tra piece to practice drilling.
I drilled 3 holes in the practice piece, the last of which turned out OK, and proceeded to drill the chaeto hole, thinking this would be the next least valuable piece to destroy.
It turned out alright, so I then drilled the bottom of the 20g new water holding tank.
Let me tell you, drilling 1/4" vs a 20g is no comparison. I was planning on drilling the 20 only part way from the outside, and then match the hole up on the inside in the hopes of having a clean hole.
Well, before I knew it, I was all the way through the 20. And it chipped like I had used an axe. So, strike one. At least the gasket covers the chips.
I then proceeded to drill the sump.
This I took my time with, carefully planning where I want my holes in relation to drainage and pump placement, and where the bubble trap would be. I also didn't want any 'chip-out' this time.
I succesfully drilled the first of two holes, and decided to take a break so as not to rush the whole procedure. Basically, I felt really confident that I was making progress, but felt I should slow down so I wouldn't make any mistakes.
So, after spending a few minutes on Canreef with a beer, I went back to it.
I did everything the same as the first sump hole ...
Nicely taped jig, dam with enough water, circling the bit around, then ...
OMGWTF am I doing
I had placed the jig on the wrong side of the tape :frusty:
See, I had placed the tape on the outside of the sump, with the arc showing me where to drill, and I was drilling from the inside out. The arc was not visible through the tape, hence the dumbass move.
Thankfully, I only went in about 1/16", and can put a plate over it. Plus, it's on the inside, so it'll be strong enough.
But what really bothers me is the lack of attention ...
I wanted everything to be just right :twised:

Now I have this partially drilled hole visible from the outside of the sump, which is in plain view on the floor of my office.

So the sump isn't turning out half bad, even with the near-miss on the drilling. I moved the baffle positions a slight bit and one of them intersects the bad hole ... problem solved. The silicone is curing, so there won't be any pics yet as I want to clean up all the finger prints and such.
I did have a couple small setbacks today ...
-I have to order another piece for the light mod, so that's on hold.
-I tried to find a way to mount a filter sock in the sump, but it's not going to happen.
Plowing along with the blinders on, thinking I want as much return pump volume as possible, I didn't take the time to think about where I might mount a filter sock next to the skimmer. I bought 7" rimmed socks to swap one a week or so, but I just cannot make a bracket due to my shortsightedness. I may be able to use the socks, but think I am going to have to use a filter bag slipped up the outlet pipes. Oh well, not a big deal.
The rest of the RO/DI shipment should be here Thurs or Fri so at least I might be able to start making water by the end of the weekend.
And the tank/stand may be here next week so I can start cutting the wall apart for the plumbing/electrical.

That 55g pail is heavy...
 

Hi,

You blue pail is going to be heavy and may cave in the stand over time if left full..,at 55g, it is about 800lb.
Let us know your progress... Maybe we can have a burnaby tour when setup by spring...i count about 6 member including me within the upper deer lake / your area.
Brw, howvmuch rock is being put in.
Regs
Msjboy

Hiya yourself
I'm starting off with 40lbs of base and somewhere around 25-30lbs of LR. Haven't bought the LR yet, but it's almost time.
As for the drum, your math is a bit off. 55g x 10lbs (which is very generous) is only 550lbs. Freshwater, on average, only weighs 8.34lbs/g @ 32F. You are saying the water weighs 14.55lbs :surprise: That is a closer estimation for a loaded aquarium.
Because of the not yet pictured emergency overflow, there will only ever be 40g at a time in my 45g drum, so less than 350lbs. If you look close enough at the picture, you'll see I braced the counter with 2 x 6s and the drum sits on a piece of 3/4" ply. It would easily hold double what I'm asking it to do.
But thanks for the concern :mrgreen: , it never hurts to point things out

EDIT:
OOPS, it is a 55g Drum
55*8.34=458.7 so it potentially could weigh 460lbs. But the build is still strong enough

Got the drum finished and updated the pic in the first post

You were very careful with the primer. The plumbing looks so clean maybe the wife won't even notice the barrel? :mrgreen:

If you've got matching 2x6 or whatever on the other side of the barrel (hard to see) that thing will hold a bunch of those barrels.

:razz: Thanks. Good thing she only uses the main commode :wink:
It was actually Primer/Cement recommended by the Irrigation guy. It's an ugly grey and it's quite messy. It leaves a big skin on the inside. I'll grab some primer and clear cement today.
The 2x setup is 2 studs under a header and yes, on each side. Really, REALLY hard to get a good pic in that room. I had the camera against the jamb. It's even a 28" door, which I had to take off to squeeze the drum in.

With Quagmire's voice in mind ... aalllriight
The RO/DI is finished. I updated the pics
The filters are currently flushing and then I'll start making water. And not the yellow kind :smile:
Looks like I'll be able to buy some live rock next week
I'm pretty sure I have come up with a solution for mounting the sump socks and hope to work on that this weekend. I grabbed some plex today just in case
Wow, so much left to do. I've still got to finish the light mod, get comfortable mixing salt, pre-set 8 heaters, bah, you guys don't need to hear all this. You know what's involved
At least these are things we LIKE to do :wink:
Maybe the tank and stand will arrive next week too so I can get on the plumbing and house wiring. I still have to cut a hole to the sump in my office

I finally got the fixture mod finished. I'm just having troubles linking the pictures to the mod. I haven't had this issue before. ??? WT ???

Fixture pics up !!!

Thanks for askin' ...
Nope, all I've done is link the light mod. It took me 2 days with the wiring, and the burning of a ballast, and the crushing of a new ballast, and then the figuring out how to make the 2nd new ballast fit. So, no, there's been no build progress :sad: :mrgreen:
Sucks to be me.
I hope to make some progress over the next couple of days, in between the job hunting.
I want to next tackle cleaning up our rec-room to make room so I can pull down all the suspended tiles and run some wiring. This will get me much further along as I will know 'exactly' where I can cut the wall for the plumbing and electrical.

I'm gettin' close to buying Live rocks, but I can't find any close to home
Come on guys, .....
Sell me some rocks in GVRD

Monday was a whole lot of fun. I got to be the first one to ruin our new carpet Woohoo :frusty:
I was plumbing the pumps from the sump in my office and some spa flex was not co-operating. So I decided to spin a bulkhead that had been tight for over a week. Next I water tested it. Not the brightest thing to do in the middle of the night. I should have just waited 'till Tuesday and bought a new bulkhead as I knew the gasket would leak.
Long story short, I had to pull all the gear out of my office and roll the carpet & underlay back. I ran a blower fan for 2 days and just now finished putting the carpet back. Plus I washed every towel we own as I used them all sopping up the leak.
Thankfully it was only RO water.
I have also decided to NOT run my pumps external. Call me a chicken, but even while I was installing new bulkheads today, I was having issues with the whole shebang, so I ran out and bought some glass squares to cover the bulkhead holes. The silicone is drying now and I will test the sump on Sunday.
There is enough room in the sump for both Eheims and that is the new plan.

Lets sum up my booboos thus far;
-Blown ballast
-Destroyed ballast
-Soaked new carpet and underlay, which now will not sit as flat as new
-Wasted 2 bulkheads, and have 2 more I shouldn't have bought

On the plus side, I finally bought some Live Rock. Timing wasn't on my side and I ended up buying it from J&L instead of a member. I picked through 2 160g Rubbermaids and only bought 14lbs, but it will do for a start. It's going to cure while I put things back into perspective. Too bad I didn't buy some 2 months ago, but ce la vie.
Like the wife says, 'What's the rush?'
Maybe this rock won't need to cure ... I'll find out soon enough. It has been sitting @ J&L for quite some time already.
So, to end ...
It's official, I'm a Dad again. I have so far spotted 6 brittle stars and a very shy crab.

Ummmm........... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh..............hmmmmmmmmm........... ........


We need more pics!!!

You wanna see flood pics, go watch 2012 :mrgreen:
There's nothin' to document at the moment, but I will definately put 'em up when there's something worth lookin' at
As for the stars and crab, there's no way I could get you pics of them in the rubbermaid. They are, for lack of a more manly word, teensy :wink:

OK, OK, pics
Last weekend I managed to get 2 circuits for the tank and sump run, and a third for the office AC. The tank outlet is not visible as it is on the other side of the wall, but you can just make out the back of the stand.
What you see here is the 20A for the AC and my guitar amp on the left, and on the right is one of the 2 15A circuits I ran. This one is split between a regular and surge outlet. The surge is for things such as the RKL and ATO. The other duplex is for simpler things like the pumps and some ( lots ) of GFCIs. I am only surge protecting the solid state stuff.
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ld/Outlets.jpg

Next is a shot of what the base rock might end up looking like.
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00793.jpg

And this last shot is of my puny Live Rock purchase. Do you see the stars and crab? Ya, I thought you could :mrgreen:
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00796.jpg

Happy to finally have critters again. I see amphipods, brittle stars, at least 3 different types of crabs and a worm that sorta looks like a Baseodiscus hemprichii, except it's center red line is thicker, and the outer white is thinner, if that makes sense. It tried to have sex with the heater, until that came on. Then it curled up really fast to be blown away by the powerhead. I thought it was dead at first, but it hooked onto the edge of the rubbermaid and carried on.
The rubbermaid got a 100% WC today.
I've had no ammonia since thursday, nor nitrites, and the nitrates are well below 5ppm ( almost unreadable ). Plus no Phos.
Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to put the rock in the tank in the next couple of weeks.
Tomorrow I'll carry on re-testing the sump and put it into place. Then I'll consider plumbing the overflow, or maybe run some more wiring.
There's enough left to do that I won't run out of projects.

No luck re-testing the sump yet as it's been too cool outside.
With my wife's help, I got the backdrop finished up. It's a sheet of black nylon ($6 Fabricland) and some industrial velcro to 4 corners. I haven't decided yet whether I will be cleaning the back glass, or let coraline cover it.
I cut the eggcrate for the tops and overflow
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...owEggcrate.jpg

Nice!

Well the sump is finally re-tested.
Pics of it and the pedestal have been updated.
The original 2 x 4 pedestal I designed was too tall as I assumed the stand would be 2" taller than it is, so now it's 1" square tubing. Plus, with the pumps now going in the sump, I didn't need a base for them.
I hope to put it in place tonight so I can start plumbing/wiring.

Definately have some kind of a shrimp in my rubbermaid rocks as I just found a molt about 1/4" in length. 2 crabs have died. One the day after I brought the rock home, and the other when I put too much RO in and hit 30ppt. Oops. but I still see 3 more. And lots of brittle stars. They may be Ophiomastix variabilis'

Got the sump in place. Had enough time, before the sick wife fell asleep in the livingroom, to level it and mount the board for all the wiring/boxes/panels/powerbars.
I did get the Jager heaters mounted.

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00813.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00810.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00812.jpg


Can't do much else tonight unless I move the wife to the bed.
She's sick, sleeping in front of the TV, and I am going to leave her alone.
Nobody ever made a wise choice poking any kind of sleeping predator .... especially when they are sick/cranky :mrgreen:
Hope you like, use, learn from my idea of the heaters location.

I finally got some time to start plumbing the tank to the sump. I started with the return line to make sure I wouldn't have to move the tank again and think I'll be happy with it. Of course I hate the 'over-the-back' look, but we don't see the pipes from our seated area.
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00816.jpg

So I moved on to the drains.
I feel for those of you that have to do ALL of your plumbing inside the cabinet. Man, getting the lines to leave the stand just right is a chore/pain on the ol' bod, nevermind all of you having to deal with a sump in the way and such.
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00817.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00818.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00819.jpg

I'm moving along well, taking my time to get everything just the way I want it, and I run out of 90s.
I was hoping to test the overflow bulkheads tonight, and the plumbing running tomorrow. NOT :smile:
And to add for all of us who deal with shipping stuff ...
I waited 4 weeks for new Vortech motor bearings. I e-mailed the supplier today and they are re-shipping. Not a set back, but just a typical reefer's shipping woes.

Forgot to mention I changed the non-surge outlet in post 30 ( bottom right of pic ) with another surge duplex.
This is because I have decided to get a Reefkeeper Elite. I'm waiting on a package price. I'll run the Lite on the QT and won't need a cheap surge/powerbar.
Once I started adding up all the goodies that will be plugged in, it only made sense to go with the Elite so I may have everything on the controller ( minus the backup heaters and Vortechs ). This way, when it fails, EVERYTHING will fail and I won't have to try to figure out what caused the crash :mrgreen:

Things look nice and clean great work. Really love the army of heaters in the baffled area that's a great idea and use of space.

So weird looking through the bottom of the tank into the sump!

Thanks. I saw lots of good ideas on the web, but never saw verticle heaters. I don't want them to eventually leak. They'll never be dry and the accessory pump will keep them active during WC. You'll see when I'm done.
The heaters are;
1-3-5 200w on the Reefkeeper
2-4 250w on the Ranco
Can't wait to get water running.
And, ya, I know what you meant, but HELLO, there is no sump under the stand. It has helped with the plumbing not having styro blocking my view.
No bare bottom here either, so no worries about weird reflections.
I don't know what I'll do with the cabinet space, besides food and salt buckets. I have enough space under the 20QT for all the test gear and so on. Maybe I should set up a curing tank, or better yet, a FRAG tank. Oooooo, the wife will hate that little money pit :lol: