My first 50g, lots of pictures

Sam2000001 · 05/19/2009, 12:40 AM

Hey guys! I'm still somewhat new, been a lurker for some time now, rarely posted, except questions that I've had. Over the past few weeks I have been working on bringing a somewhat used tank back to life. Tank size is 50g. The silicone seals were in some nasty condition and I decided to take the time and redo them. Here is a before and after shot, this was my first time using silicone on anything, well, I did practice on some cardboard first...

BEFORE
AFTER(sorry, camera wouldn't focus on the seals)

Once that was taken care of I wanted to redo the sump. The tank came with a wet/dry sump, however, it was only 2 chambers with 1 baffle and I wanted a place for a refuge so it was decided to make my own sump and redo the entire plumbing for it (Actually, there was originally no plumbing for it, just a flex tube). The plan was to make a 3 chamber sump with the Refuge and Drainage on the outsides and the return in the center

Found a good deal for a 20g long at Petsmart and snatched it up!

After measuring and marking

Glass baffles were used instead of acrylic. This glass was somewhat sharp and one of my friends suggested that we line it with some extra 1/4inch tubing to protect any hands that venture in the sump. Great idea!!

Here is the finished sump design with protective tubing on the glass baffles. No need to be pretty here when siliconing, in fact, it was almost impossible to be neat or clean when the baffles were in. I was happy to discover that there were no leaks once it dried! The device hanging on the tank is a scrap piece of acrylic we got for free at home depot that we melted and shaped to eventually hold the ATO device.

Now for the plumbing. A good buddy of mine really helped me in this field because I really knew nothing of what I should be thinking of in terms of plumbing. After a long, but fun, day of guy shopping, I can reveal the finished product. After this picture was taken I tweaked the placement a little, rotating the return pump counter-clockwise 90degrees to be as far away from the skimmer as possible to reduce bubbles.

Using the rock that came with the tank (note: Not live rock, long past dead fiji stuff) we managed to get a good first revision aquascaping done. This tank will be viewed on three sides and I knew I wanted some swim-throughs so we did our best to make it look nice.

After a few nights of aquascaping revisions (and with revisions I mean, sticking my hand in to move one piece and knocking 4 other pieces over) I have this:

I love this piece, I call it the bridge. Hope that one day some tank inhabitant will like it too.

The rock I got was already dead, but didn't seem to have anything to rot off it or cause a cycle. I think everything was dried and gone, so I added some bacteria to seed a cycle.

This is day 3 that the tank has been cycling, and it seems I have a little bit of algae growth on the top of one of my rocks.

I have been trying to find some more info on what will happen during the cycle, but is this algae growth a good or bad thing? At the moment, there are no tank inhabitants, I just wanted to let the rock come back to life and sit for a bit. Oh yea, and I am supplying my tank with RO/DI water.

Thanks for reading! I will keep updating!

Goal: Eventual reef tank
Lighting: 2 96watt PC Lights (1 10k, and 1 dual 420/460 actinic)

atwinparadox2 · 05/19/2009, 07:00 AM

You will have an algae bloom during the cycle, you can add a clean up crew to handle it. Nice scaping, I like the bridge rock, as you named it. Could be a nice place for some Zoanthid frags to be places to cover it all up. Good build so far!

imcosmokramer · 05/19/2009, 08:24 AM

nice aquascaping. I like the piller on the left.

Sugar Magnolia · 05/19/2009, 08:31 AM

Looks good so far. Did you epoxy those smaller rocks together to form the pillar?

chasekwe · 05/19/2009, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sugar Magnolia
Looks good so far. Did you epoxy those smaller rocks together to form the pillar?

If you didn't I'd suggest you do.

Looks great btw.

Sam2000001 · 05/19/2009, 09:48 AM

Thanks guys!

@atwin: Cool, once the parameters are good some definitely will be taking a trip in. And Zoanthids is something that I really want in this tank.

@sugar: We tried using aqua mend for the rocks but that stuff just didn't work. So as it stands now (no pun intended) the rocks are just sitting freely by themselves. I'm going to have to have a delicate hand when placing things in this tank. Thankfully the rocks are sitting on the glass and not just on the sand bed.

Sam2000001 · 05/20/2009, 01:05 AM

Whoops, I found that edit button. Sorry for the double post! And as it turns out I can't edit my last post.

Any good recommendations on epoxy to use?

05/19/2009, 12:40 AM	#1
Sam2000001 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Orlando Posts: 103	My first 50g, lots of pictures Hey guys! I'm still somewhat new, been a lurker for some time now, rarely posted, except questions that I've had. Over the past few weeks I have been working on bringing a somewhat used tank back to life. Tank size is 50g. The silicone seals were in some nasty condition and I decided to take the time and redo them. Here is a before and after shot, this was my first time using silicone on anything, well, I did practice on some cardboard first... BEFORE AFTER(sorry, camera wouldn't focus on the seals) Once that was taken care of I wanted to redo the sump. The tank came with a wet/dry sump, however, it was only 2 chambers with 1 baffle and I wanted a place for a refuge so it was decided to make my own sump and redo the entire plumbing for it (Actually, there was originally no plumbing for it, just a flex tube). The plan was to make a 3 chamber sump with the Refuge and Drainage on the outsides and the return in the center Found a good deal for a 20g long at Petsmart and snatched it up! After measuring and marking Glass baffles were used instead of acrylic. This glass was somewhat sharp and one of my friends suggested that we line it with some extra 1/4inch tubing to protect any hands that venture in the sump. Great idea!! Here is the finished sump design with protective tubing on the glass baffles. No need to be pretty here when siliconing, in fact, it was almost impossible to be neat or clean when the baffles were in. I was happy to discover that there were no leaks once it dried! The device hanging on the tank is a scrap piece of acrylic we got for free at home depot that we melted and shaped to eventually hold the ATO device. Now for the plumbing. A good buddy of mine really helped me in this field because I really knew nothing of what I should be thinking of in terms of plumbing. After a long, but fun, day of guy shopping, I can reveal the finished product. After this picture was taken I tweaked the placement a little, rotating the return pump counter-clockwise 90degrees to be as far away from the skimmer as possible to reduce bubbles. Using the rock that came with the tank (note: Not live rock, long past dead fiji stuff) we managed to get a good first revision aquascaping done. This tank will be viewed on three sides and I knew I wanted some swim-throughs so we did our best to make it look nice. After a few nights of aquascaping revisions (and with revisions I mean, sticking my hand in to move one piece and knocking 4 other pieces over) I have this: I love this piece, I call it the bridge. Hope that one day some tank inhabitant will like it too. The rock I got was already dead, but didn't seem to have anything to rot off it or cause a cycle. I think everything was dried and gone, so I added some bacteria to seed a cycle. This is day 3 that the tank has been cycling, and it seems I have a little bit of algae growth on the top of one of my rocks. I have been trying to find some more info on what will happen during the cycle, but is this algae growth a good or bad thing? At the moment, there are no tank inhabitants, I just wanted to let the rock come back to life and sit for a bit. Oh yea, and I am supplying my tank with RO/DI water. Thanks for reading! I will keep updating! Goal: Eventual reef tank Lighting: 2 96watt PC Lights (1 10k, and 1 dual 420/460 actinic)

05/19/2009, 07:00 AM	#2
atwinparadox2 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Kingston, PA Posts: 782	You will have an algae bloom during the cycle, you can add a clean up crew to handle it. Nice scaping, I like the bridge rock, as you named it. Could be a nice place for some Zoanthid frags to be places to cover it all up. Good build so far! __________________ \| begin each day as if it were on purpose \| when in doubt, remove all doubt \| Current Tank Info: \| 90 Gallon Main display, 2/175 MH, 2 actinic, 20 sump w/20 fuge, about to dabble with a algae scrub screen \|\| 75 in the works \|\|

05/19/2009, 08:24 AM	#3
imcosmokramer Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Cleveland, OH Posts: 1,709	nice aquascaping. I like the piller on the left. __________________ You can agree with me, or you can be wrong. You pick.

05/19/2009, 08:31 AM	#4
Sugar Magnolia Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Northern VA Posts: 17,691	Looks good so far. Did you epoxy those smaller rocks together to form the pillar? __________________ Adrienne The only thing to fear is fear itself....and spiders.

05/19/2009, 09:48 AM	#6
Sam2000001 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Orlando Posts: 103	Thanks guys! @atwin: Cool, once the parameters are good some definitely will be taking a trip in. And Zoanthids is something that I really want in this tank. @sugar: We tried using aqua mend for the rocks but that stuff just didn't work. So as it stands now (no pun intended) the rocks are just sitting freely by themselves. I'm going to have to have a delicate hand when placing things in this tank. Thankfully the rocks are sitting on the glass and not just on the sand bed.

05/20/2009, 01:05 AM	#7
Sam2000001 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Orlando Posts: 103	Whoops, I found that edit button. Sorry for the double post! And as it turns out I can't edit my last post. Any good recommendations on epoxy to use?