The Reef Central Corner Club Thread

[boret]

Originally posted by gerryo
I'll be building my own light hood after I get my tank, just so that I will have accurate dimensions. I will be stealing ideas from boret, Misled, and Hookup for the hood and this will be the last time EVER that I will use Oak for anything. It is absolutely horrendous to work with. It's been a learning experience. lol. I guess everything in reefing is -- but building in wood is not reefing ???

Stealing??? You better pay up the copyright royalties with some frags!!!

[Misled]

Originally posted by boret
Stealing??? You better pay up the copyright royalties with some frags!!!

X2

[reefscape15]

HAHA!!!! Looks like you did a great job Gerryo. Nice and simple design. It looks like i'll have pretty steady work around where I live for about 2 years for the same manufacturer, Corning Inc., and hopefully at some point I can save up for the next time I get layed off for a canopy build and some upgrades. I have enough aluminum sheeting to make my own "Lumen Bright" style reflector and T-5 individual reflectors, and have all the PVC and connections to plumb in my sump whenever that shows up. Acrylic is waiting to be sized and cut to my old 20gal tank for sump use, and it looks like I'll be shopping for a new skimmer soon.

I was planning on going WAY oversized with a Gen II Vertex IN-250. I figured to just slightly oversize my skimmer and go with the Gen II Vertex IN-100 which will save me a little money. I figure I'll most likely always keep my 54gal running, and if I want a bigger tank later on, I can use the 54 as a propagation tank or something, so I'd need another skimmer down the road anyways.

Installing some different LED's in my canopy (once I build it) is another project I've been wanting to do. I really like the idea of using the automotive type LED's like Boret has done, and it seems like you could very easily spotlight certain areas of the tank if you wanted.

I'm sure by the time I get around to doing all this, that there will be 100 more things that I'd like to do with my tank, but for now, these are the things I'm hoping to start working on with extra time on the weekends and such

[M. L. Fish]

Nice work Gerryo. Stand looks great.

[gerryo]

Thanx for the cudos, and the encouragement everybody.

[watson_barrett]

http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.ph...0&#entry272256

[reefscape15]

Nice looking tank watson! It looks pretty mature, and you have a lot of nice corals in there. What are you running for lighting/flow/filtration?

[McLovit]

I just pick up this tank/stand/sump and a couple of average pumps for very reasonable . It's an acrylic corner tank with minor scratches in the lower 1/5 th of the tank. Looks very sandable. The Acrylic black stand and hood are only temporary, until i can build a custom frame.

My first question is the overflow box. It is kinda loose but could easily be reattached. Any suggestions on what welds are better and marine safe? I have read that Weld-On is a good choice?

[IMG][/IMG]

I also got a basic wet/dry sump with the purchase, which i intend to use a protein skimmer/refug, etc. Should i modify that sump to add a third or possibly 4th chamber with the black acrylic stand, that i could cut up? Has anyone done that before?? Any suggestions on design for the corner problems. The tank is 30", but might make a stand slightly bigger.

[IMG][/IMG]


Thanx to all who help out. I am green but love projects. Hoping this one will keep me out of trouble!

McL

[Misled]

Weld on would work fine for putting the overflow back together.

On the sump/wetdry, remove the drip tray and put your skimmer on the eggcrate. I don't think there's enough room for a fuge in that, but you can set something, (depending on room), alongside it for that. Put it in the stand and see what kind of room you have left for a small bucket or container.

[federalie]

What's up everyone...I too have a corner tank. I am new to the hobby and reef central. I just happen to come across this thread while browsing the forum. My knowledge is basically nonexistant when it comes to this hobby. So I am looking forward to learning as much as I can from you guys.
I have had my 125g reef tank for about 10 months. I would post a couple of pictures but I am on the road for work and I can't figure out how to pull them off of my damn phone.
Anyway, I have a question about wavemaking koralias. Do you think it is worth spending an extra $300 on the wavemaker? Or should I just go with two powerheads and forget about the wavemaker?

[reefscape15]

Honestly a wavemaker is not a necessity. You can't achieve the "wave" effect on the top of the water which seems to be the big thing now without the use of a wavemaker. I personally don't see the benefit of having the wave on the top of the water aside from visual perspective. However, you can achieve a random flow pattern pretty readily without the use of any wavemaking devices. If you have 2 or more powerheads/sump returns, you can aim them so that their outputs cross at some point in your tank. The two sources of flow colliding will create lots of turbulance in the water, giving you small bursts of randomized flow

[McLovit]

Originally posted by Misled
Weld on would work fine for putting the overflow back together.

On the sump/wetdry, remove the drip tray and put your skimmer on the eggcrate. I don't think there's enough room for a fuge in that, but you can set something, (depending on room), alongside it for that. Put it in the stand and see what kind of room you have left for a small bucket or container.

I have decide to piece out that acylic stand and add two more chambers onto the sump to allow for a filter bag area/skimmer/fug and return chamber! But i am gonna w8 until i have the stand built in order to make it fit nice and snug! I am thinking I'll make it fit in the corner running along both back walls. That should leave room for external pump and ATO! This whole process is addicting, i think i need to see a therapist!

[watson_barrett]

Originally posted by reefscape15
Nice looking tank watson! It looks pretty mature, and you have a lot of nice corals in there. What are you running for lighting/flow/filtration?

Thanks, this tank has been up since oct. 07. Some of the rock can out of my previous set-up that was started back in summer of 06.

Flow: 3 K4's & 2 K3's

Return: Mag 9.5

Lighting: 1 400w 14k aqua connect running through Lumen Bright Mini
2x39w T5's (giesman true antic bulbs)
4 moonlights (2 of those small sets, i forget who makes them)

Skimmer: Euro Reef RS135

Fish:

Juvi Empor
Hippo
2 nemos
divided leopard wrasse
engineer gobbie
straw psuedo
pschadelic manderin
2 blue chromis
1 female anthia lyre
1 male anthia lyre
1 female barrlets

[reefscape15]

Can you post a front tank shot on this site? It takes my comp, and anyone else without road runner forever to download. Thanks!

[Misled]

K, for a bump and to show I still have a tank, and for McLovit to see my sump and fuge, here's a pic.



Fuge is to the right of the sump and is made with a different container set inside the sump. This allows more volumn in the fuge than would be possible in just the sump since the water level can reach the top of the container and not overflow in a power outage.

[boret]

What about a FTS Misled?

[Misled]

I'll get one later when the lights come on. Not really much to see right now. A guy in our local club has 12 frags sitting waiting for me to pick them up. Just waiting for the company to get me my money.

[vickreyreef]

those with a 92G- what return pump are you using? mine is on the fritz and i want to be sure to have a back up on hand...I see that watson-barrett is using a mag 9.5..is that the route I should go? i have a 20G sump as well.

[boret]

I used to have a 9.5 as well and it worked great. I recently re-did my plumbing so now I use a Reeflo Dart that feeds several things including the return. I am probably moving about the same amount of water through the return as I did with the Mag. About 800 gph. From what I have gathered here and in other forums you don't want to move water too fast through your return, otherwise you don't give the skimmer a chance to take the nasties off the water column. 700 to 900 gph seems to work great in my case, and it seems to work pretty good for Watson as well. Make sure you don't confuse the GPH of water movement inside of the tank (provided mainly through the use of powerheads, close loops, etc...) and the GPH of the return.

[vickreyreef]

thanks for replying ...I should mention I am moving it all through a chiller as well...would the pump still work for me?

[BackSpin]

Sorry its been awhile not much to update I have received my sump and skimmer from Jeff at LifeReef wow what a guy he stands behind what he builds and is a work of art. Tank will be finaled this week and build will start next week.





Sump has probe and float switch rack built in



Sump is almost 4 feet long and holds right at about 30 gallons
Skimmer is run by a Mag 9.5 and has 3 seprate reactors that are feed from main pump.

[boret]

backspin that sump looks sick!!! Very nice!

vickreyreef the chiller will limit the output quite a bit. Depending on the tolerances maybe the input from the 9.5 is too much and the output not enough for your tank. My 1/10hp chiller needs between a min of 300 to a max of 600 gph. A 9.5 straight into it won't do. I used a 500 gph pump for sometime and the output of the chiller was maybe 200gph. If you split the 9.5 it could work.
Also, I failed to mention that the most important thing to consider when thinking about a return pump is to make sure your overflow will handle the GPH.
In RR tanks the corner overflows are limited to a max 600gph unless you use both pipes as overflows. So keep that in mind and use a pump that is rated 15-20% below the max that the overflow will handle.

[BackSpin]

Boret, Thanks it just barely fits and will need a little modification but overall I am happy to have went that way I was on the fence about getting it. I am working on my plumbing now manifolds and such, will keep you up to date, Thanks and you are right about RR overflows I will be using a Blueline 40hdx or a 55x not sure if I am going to add a seprate fuge, but will probaly only use one drain and pull a full syhon and keep one for backup and kinda risky but have some time to figure these things out.

[Misled]

Originally posted by boret
What about a FTS Misled?

[boret]

How much calcium are you adding to that tank?? You have very nice coraline covering everything! When are you going to start adding more corals? BTW love the ghetto frag rack