29G to 65G upgrade, pic heavy

[kookie_guy]

looks like I forgot to post on here too, lol. This is about a year old now. I really should take some new pics, but I just have no time lately. Anyhow, here's the copy and paste from 3reef.....



So my wife finally gave me the green light to upgrade. I currently have a 29G biocube that's been very good to me for nearly 2 years now. It's been very stable (knock on wood), and I am super happy with it. My fish are growing like on roids, and are starting to bump into eachother. First a few pics of my current tank.

General tank shot. In the front you can see my convict blenny. This guy was purchased about 6 months ago, measuring about 2". In that short time, he's grown to about 6"+. Crazy. And I know, I shouldn't have a tang, but my mom really wanted it.


Another tank shot. See the purple xenia? It started out as a 1" tall single piece. This stuff is like a weed once it takes off.


My true percula clowns with their RBTA. All very happy together. The RBTA is VERY small right now. When the MH light is on, it towers over my big leather. The clowns lay eggs on a regular basis.


My green goby wanted to say hi. He's the first fish I ever purchased, so he's been with me since day 1.


This is my finger leather. It started out as a little frag from my buddy's tank, and has really taken off.


And finally, my yellow tang and spotted dwarf puffer. The puffer has thankfully stayed away from my corals (knock on wood again) and is good with the other fish, except he likes to go after the convict blenny now and then.


Now the new tank. Here's the stand for it. I went with just a standard tube stand, and I will be doing a custom wood skin around it.


I don't like how low these stands are, so I made a riser stand out of some bosch extrusion. Also with feet which will really help in leveling the tank. Brings it up to a nice eye level.


This will be the sump. It's a 29G tall tank. This will hold the skimmer and return pump, along with the heater, and carbon filtration. Still working on the sump design.


This is the 5.5G tank that will be the refugium. I will be drilling 2 holes in the side of it, and it will sit just above the sump tank, spilling into the return section.


Here's my skimmer. It's the coralife 220G model. This thing is a monster, lol. Rated for 220, I think it should work ok for the 65.


And last but not least, the display tank. It's a 65G tall (36x18x24) with a corner overflow, and black silicone. I had the blue background applied to it at big als. Very nice tank. For those interested, it's a Perfecto.



That's all I have for now. This will likely be about a month long build up as time is limited, so I fit it in as I can. I am picking up a shipment from the US next week which will include lighting, so I will post more about that when it all comes home.

Comments (positive and negative) are welcome, as they will help me with setting it all up properly.

[kookie_guy]

here are a couple better shots of the RBTA.

[kookie_guy]

Got some more updates.....

Got the lights in, go to the link below to see the review..
http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-lig...tml#post747618













Here's my 5.5gal refugium tank after drilling it.


Same tank getting ready for vinegar and steam cleaning.


29gal sump tank undergoing water test after being vinegar and steam cleaned.


My living room is the storage room now for all the parts. LOL. Wife is not too happy, but ya. Still waiting for another plumbing order and I can put it all together.




A few display tank shots. This is not cleaned yet, so please ignore the big streaks on the glass.



This shows where the fuge will sit, and spill down into the sump.


And finally, I've started harvesting my purple xenia. Will be selling it to LFS for store credit that I can use on the new tank. I know, my sand is nasty, it's getting a good cleaning today.




That's all for now. In the next week I hope to start assembly.

[kookie_guy]

While waiting for my glass to be cut, I started working on the electrical panel. The board will sit in the frame of the stand, and will have a separate side door to access it.

Starting installation. The single box on the right will be the main kill switch. This will kill all power going to everything. The 2 double boxes will have 2 switches each. Main Pump, Protein Skimmer, Powerheads, Heater. As you can see in the last pic, the wiring goes through the board, where I will have GFI's for each of the items. All the remaining space will be eaten up by lighing control, ballasts, and power supply to run my moon lights and cooling fans.

[kookie_guy]

Finally making some more progress.....

Here's the electrical panel nearly complete. On the first shot, I still have to add my coralife power center that's in use on my BC29, and the 12vdc power supply for the cooling fans and moon lights. The other 2 timers you see are going to be for the MH lights. I didn't use the ones on the power center because I want to control them separately. I will turn on the left MH, then both, then only the right, and then both off. Kinda trying to do a sunrise/sunset type of deal. On the second pic, I have to add the ballasts for the lighting, and the control box for my moon lights and cooling fans.



Then I got to my drain and return plumbing that's in the display tank. Glued it all together. The PVC primer is some nasty stuff to work with. Very runny and stains like no tomorrow. Here are some shots of the plumbing.





And finally, I started working on the sump. Glass took longer to cut than I was expecting. Anyhow, first pic shows assembly of the first chambers, second and third shows the first chambers in the sump, and the last pic shows the last of 3 baffles going in.





That's it for now. I should have quite a bit more done by this weekend.

[kookie_guy]

More progress.

The biocube has now been moved out a few feet from the wall, and the 65G is in it's final resting place. I've nearly finished all the plumbing, just waiting for it to cure now. I got the sand and rock from a local supplier of marcorocks.com. The sand is SUPER fine. Took a few good rinses to get it nice and clear. The rock (dry rock) is some of the most beautiful rock I've seen. I was able to pick and choose which rocks I wanted. I grabbed about 75lbs. The sump is also all complete.

Now some pics.....

Sump with the skimmer in place.


Here you can see the riser I made for the skimmer and the pump support platform. Basically glass panes on acrylic supports.


Pics of the rock. The pictures don't really show the beauty of it. Once I rinse it and get it wet, the pics will look better.



This is a snug fit in the frame. It's to prevent spills out of the sump. It can also hold a bit of water if the sump overflows for any reason.


Tank in it's final resting place. You can see the biocube in the middle of the kitchen now. lol. Gonna be there til I'm ready to do the transfer.


Shot of the sump and refugium under the tank.


Pic of the tank.


I lined the bottom with eggcrate. I don't want the rock sitting on bare glass.


I've also put all my sand in after rinsing it for several hours. It was too late so no pics. Will take some with sand and post them sometime tomorrow.

If all goes well, I will have water in it this coming weekend.

[kookie_guy]

here's a pic of the tank with sand in it

[kookie_guy]

Made some good progress, and also took a step back. I totally goofed on the return plumbing. I put my check valve right on top of my return pump, but I have tees above it. So if I don't break siphon up top in a power outage, the water will still flow back through the tee. So that needs some reworking to put the check valve right under the bulkhead.

Anyhoo, here are the progress pics....

Here is the ghetto canopy I made to hold the lights for the time being. I will be getting a custom one made, but not right away. This will do for now. The black box up top just brings all the fan/LED wires together.


The MH module of the fishneedit lights gets pretty warm, and people have reported the plastic warping on the sides. So I cut the grills, and mounted some fans that will blow air across the bulbs


Here's what it looks like


A few angles and top down shots of the aquascape. I used epoxy in key places to tie the rock together after my wife and I were happy with the results. We have a wall going up the overflow wil A LOT of little caves. Plus an island that has caves coming in/out from every side, and 2 little rock islands.






Filling RO water and checking for leaks as I go.





Some pics with the lights on. My wife's camera is terrible, so you can't really see the light output all that well. Let me tell you, these things are BRIGHT!




And finally finished all the electrical and cleaned it up. The 24vdc power supply stays on all the time, and runs the MH cooling fans and night LED's. One supply for both. I have 2 120v relays run by the timer that select when to fire the LED's and fans.



And finally, the T5 ballasts. Didn't want to extend the wiring, so just made a mount for them.


Plumbing should be done by end of this weekend. Hopefully she'll be up and doing a test run by Wednesday. I was also fortunate enough to score 2 controllable koralia 3's with the wavemaker 2 for $210 shipped, so that's what I'll be using for powerheads.

[kookie_guy]

Here are some long overdue updates....

Here's the sump. I have a lexan cover over the right side to stop bubbles from splasing salt all over the place.


Another shot. Yes the water is over the max, it's feeding time so the return pump is off. You can also see my refugium.


Skimmer working like a champ. It's the 220 model coralife.


Here's the frag rack I made. The tunze cleaner magnet was WAYYYY too strong, so I epoxied some eggcrate to it, and I have a nice frag rack. With the strong magnet I can really load this up.


Scored a used wavemaker 2.


Mounted under the tank on a custom extrusion shelf.


Bought a few nice coral pieces. They are in the 29G tank for the time being. The first has beautiful purple tips. The second one is more red than the pic shows. Also got an aussi hammer coral, but no pic.



This is the smaller island on the right side. Made from marco rocks. The brain coral is not doing too well.


This is the wall on the left, going up the overflow. Also marco rocks.


Bridge piece from my 29G tank.


Shot from the left side.


From the right side.


Marco rocks are starting to show nice coraline growth after about 2 months.


Full tank shot.


And finally my clowns still in the 29G along with they anemone. The are the last ones left to go in the big tank.



That's all for now.

[kookie_guy]

So that's all I have from other forums. I'll update soon. On another note, the monti pictured above (and below) has more than tripled in size within 1 year. Incredible growth. I broke a few pieces during the move to the big tank, glued em on frag plugs, and they took off like crazy. Sold them to big als for store credit.

Here's the original size again.