Custom 50 gallon cube build thread! (Pics)

[taketz]

So, I figured since I should be getting my tank this Friday and I just finished building my stand, I should go ahead and start the build thread. I guess I'll go ahead and start out with the specifications of this and the equipment I'll be using...

Tank
Custom 24x24x20 Cubish tank - built by a local builder recommended by my favorite LFS. It was drilled with three holes; 2 3/4 inch and 1 1.5 inch. The two 3/4 are going to be used for the drain and the return from the sump. The 1.5 inch hole will be used for the electrical cords from my powerheads, lights, fans, and RK2 (If I decide to put it on my hood). Was a little more pricey than some of the other people I talked to (Glass Cages and a few others) but only 40 or 50 dollars more. In that case I decided to go through a trusted LFS rather than a tank builder on the other side of the country for ease of contact, a history of standing by their service, and also to support a great store.

Stand
Custom built by yours truly. I decided that since I was going to need a custom stand due to my odd sized tank and I had done some minor carpentry in the past, I should build my own stand. This had its pro's and con's which I thought would be useful to others in my same position of moderate experience.

First the Con's...
1. Like I said before, I had only done minor carpentry, so there was a good amount of doing things twice. This meant I spent a good chunk of time on this and more money that I had expected.

2. Again, due to a lack of experience, my wood couldn't be stained because of the vastly different types and the mistakes I made in choosing it. So, I was forced to paint it and it didn't come out quite as classy as some other's I've seen.

3. Isn't completely level, but I'm hoping the pink foam I will put under the tank will correct the small inconsistencies. Though to be honest, I'm pretty happy with how close to level it ended up being given how little thought I actually gave that issue.


Now the Pro's...
1. I overbuilt the heck out of it. Four 2x4's and 2 3/4 pieces of plywood hold this sucker up. Me and my other two roommates all got on it at once and even with us bouncing up and down, nit didn't budge. Thats ~600 lbs bouncing around on top of it without any movement. I think it'll be fine

2. I made the stand to my specifications. For example, I'm 6'4". I didn't want a 36" tall stand because that would mean I would have to bend down to see the actual tank from its intended viewing height. So, I built my stand a good amount taller and with the foam in place, the tank should rest at about 41". This should put it so that I only have to bend down a little to see it yet I can still reach into the water pretty far without the help of a chair.

3. Due to the desire to keep everything self contained and also the odd shape of the stand itself, building my own stand gave the me ability to build the stand to allow the pieces of equipment that I thought were most important. So, I built the stand just large enough so that a 20 gallon could be used as a sump, and due to the extra height, I built a small stand which I plan on resting both a small refugium and an tank for top-off water for my planned ATO. These, IMO, were the two most useful parts and easily accounted for additions to help the tank with stability and ease of maintenance (Added ph stability of a refugium on an opposite lighting schedule and stability plus maintenance convenience of an ATO).

Here's a picture of the small stand inside the stand I'm talking about using for the ATO and Refugium. Oh, and just as a fair warning, my picture taking abilities are mediocre at best...



4. Also, along with building the stand to accommodate my needs, I did the same with the hood. Plus, I feel that the taller hood makes the stand and hood become almost a piece of furniture in itself, which adds to the entire set-up. Not to mention, it allows for much more room in the hood which helps with cooling, possible future lighting upgrades, and allows me the possibility to mount my RK2 on the hood for convenience (And lets not forget, to show off the great looking faceplate. I would be lying if the looks weren't a major factor in my decision for a RK2 )

5. Saved a good chunk of money, with all things considered. I probably only spent $250 on materials for both the stand and the hood. With all the custom requests I would have made, I can only imagine what a builder would have charged. Plus, I'm a college kid so I had free time on my hands to do this project with.

6. Last, but oddly enough, not least, it feels good to build something like this when you've never done it before. Nice to be able to look at it and know you did it, even if it did take you twice as long as you expected

Heres a picture of the stand a hood on top of each other; I think the color ended up working better than I thought it would.



Also, you can see how instead of using doors, I just used panels with magnets to hold in the doors. Lets just say, hinges are harder than they look. It ended up working out well though, because this way I have the most room possible for getting underneath my stand.

Equipment

Lighting
PFO DE Pendant with a Phoenix 250 watt 14k Bulb on a 250 Watt Coralife Electronic Ballast
2 55 Watt PC on individual reflectors running on a Workhorse 5 ballast. Might upgrade this to T-5's down the road, but these will work fine until my CC stops smoking from my recent purchases.

Filtration
Euro-reef RS5-2 - which I am planning on modifying into a recirculating skimmer with a direct feed line from the overflow. Since I have two Sedra pumps, does anyone know if it would be too much for the body to have two recirculating pumps? I'm definitely game to put them both on there if they'll increase the skimming ability.
Refugium - Is not purchased and/or decided upon but a trip to Walmart of Target should be all it takes to find a small container suitable. Some chaeto, a minijet, and a cheap light should do it.
20 Gallon sump with two compartments - One for skimmer and one for the return pump/feed to and return from refugium/ float valve.
Live Rock - Roughly 50 lb's of old, dry live rock from my reek tank I tore down almost 2 years ago. Rock is a mixture of tonga, fiji, and whatever unique shapes I could find when I had my old tank. I put in a piece of live rock I purchased from a LFS, threw in my skimmer, a heater, powerhead, and let the rock cook. Been cooking for over 4 weeks now, and the water is getting consistently clearer. I expect once I finally move it over into the the tank, the high flow will finish taking out all of the detritus out of the nooks and crannies. I am planning on having a fairly open Aquascaping design, so I'm waiting to see how the rock I have works until I buy more.
Substrate - Haven't decided yet on BB with Starboard, True BB, Starboard with VSSB so that the starboard never loses its white color, and just your average SSB. However, I won't be going DSB due to the small size of my tank and the comparative straightforwardness of a BB setup.

Here's a picture of the LR cooking with the skimmer off for some reason.



Controller
Reefkeeper 2 - Soon to arrive and I will also purchase the lab grade ph probe shortly. Once I did the math on the wavemaker, light timers, ph and temp probes, it made sense to just bite the bullet all at once and not only get all of those major functions, but a multitude of others too. Plus, it looks just so darn nifty.

Tank Flow
2 Tunze 6045 nano-streams - to run on the Wavemaker function of the RK2.
1 Modded Maxijet - to also run on the Wavemaker function of the RK2.
NOTE: Since I was obviously looking for high flow in my set-up and I didn't really want powerheads taking up precious room in my relatively small tank, I looked into using a closed loop for most of my flow. I actually went so far as to buy a used OM SSquirt from a local reefer (Which is for sale for a very reasonable price to interested parties ). After looking at the effect even a very efficient pump would have on my monthly electric bill, I decided on using powerheads instead, even though I'm not a fan of them in the tank. However, I will not that the new Nano-Streams are incredibly small and I imagine will be hardly noticeable against the black background and overflow.

Picture of the Lighting and Tunze's anxiously waiting for the tank to be up and running.



Equipment still needed
RO/DI unit - which I will likely purchase from my favorite LFS seeing as how its a very good unit and only $10 or so more than what I can find it for online. So, supporting the local businesses is worth that to me, plus I'm not very patient so...
Fans - Will go to a computer supply store soon once I finish setting up my hood and get some real quiet computer fans to run on the temp function of the RK2
Float Valve - Am planning on using the Kent floating kind unless I hear some horror stories about it. Seems easier and more logical that wiring multiple float switches. Anyone know if there is any issues with that and running diluted kalk through it with your top-off water?
Tubs/Buckets - Can always use more of these...

Thats it for right now. Hope it wasn't so long that I lost to many of you, I just figured I might as well add in the reasons for me choosing the way I did so that others setting up a new tank could take that into account. Oh, and don't worry, there will be more updates and pics once I get my tank, RK2, and start with the plumbing...

[frederickk]

Nice start!

[Creade]

Sounds Good.
Good plan on not skimping on solid equipment.

Im sitting around waiting for my Tech Tank to arrive.
I suppose Ill be writing a new one of these soon!

[taketz]

Nice start!

Thanks, I'm getting really excited at how well its all coming out. Its not my first reef tank by a long shot, but its by far the most thought out and planned one.

Sounds Good.
Good plan on not skimping on solid equipment.

Yep, gonna try to do it right. Luckily I had alot of the equipment left over from my old tank. (The ER, MH, PC's, Live Rock, Powerheads)

Im sitting around waiting for my Tech Tank to arrive.
I suppose Ill be writing a new one of these soon!

Yep. I sometimes think setting up the actual tank is just as fun as actually having it set up!

Which brings me to two questions, one of which I stated in my thesis of a tank build thread. ..

Is the Euro-Reef RS5-2 (Smallest ER) big enough to put two of the stock sedra's on it if they're recirculating?

Also, its recommended on the ER site that the skimmer turnover is over 1-1.5x for the recirculating models. Now, should I have a bypass so that my sump has more flow, or is that a viable amount of turnover since I will be having so much flow in my tank?

Thanks!

[taketz]

Bump for an answer...

[Ritten]

I really like the color of your stand. P.S. Have you been taking road signs?

[Shekki]

You'll love the RK2. Very easy to use. I'd get some extra outlets if I could do it over. 8 seems like a lot, but it's not even close!

For top off, I'd get the JBJ. I used the Kent float switches connected to my ro/di unit and it caused the ro/di to make squealing noises due to the constant switching on and off.

3/4" drain sounds a little small for that size tank.

Cubes rule.

[taketz]

I really like the color of your stand.

Thanks. Its a little darker than the pictures show.

P.S. Have you been taking road signs?

You saw nothing...

You'll love the RK2. Very easy to use. I'd get some extra outlets if I could do it over. 8 seems like a lot, but it's not even close!

Hrmm, well I might look into buying an extra 4 sockets then.

For top off, I'd get the JBJ. I used the Kent float switches connected to my ro/di unit and it caused the ro/di to make squealing noises due to the constant switching on and off.

Really? Well then, I might end up just snagging some of those regular float switches then. Plus, I like the idea of making my own personal flood alarm like this one they show here.DIY Overflow Alarm.

3/4" drain sounds a little small for that size tank.

I'm not planning on having much flow run through the sump, maybe 200-250 GPH tops.

Cubes rule.

Of course but that goes without saying...

[taketz]

Just saw this nice sale and thought I would go ahead and pass it on to other interested parties.

JBJ Aquacontroller $69

The DIY equivalent from Aquahub costs $50 bucks. Methinks this is a pretty good deal, especially considering I don't know how much confidence I would have in my DIY Top-off.

[sytanek]

Could you pm info for who built your tank?

[flasher1]

good to see its getting finished. I have a 50g cube with similar dimensions. I use a 3/4" drain and it works flawlessly with a mag 7.

Have you purchased the sump for it??? I found it quite difficult to fit my sump underneath the stand. Let me know if you want to see my setup to help you visualize what you are going to do or modify your plans to better th tank.

[lusenut2]

Ok that was funny Ritten. I didnt even notice the road signs. lol Im normally quick about that stuff. That was funny.

[taketz]

Have you purchased the sump for it??? I found it quite difficult to fit my sump underneath the stand. Let me know if you want to see my setup to help you visualize what you are going to do or modify your plans to better th tank.

Thats one of the reasons I built my own stand. I built it specifically so that a 20 gallon high could find inside to use as a sump.

[taketz]

Just a quick update...

I've almost completely finished my stand and my tank should be here soon. My next projects are to build by sump, ATO, and also finish my hood.

However, I have gotten a few more goodies since my last update!

My new RO/DI unit!



And my Reefkeeper2!



Should have my actual tank this week so look forward to those updates!

[AngeloM3]

Nice start... your almost ready for water!!!

You asked a question earlier about modding your ER to have dual recirc. And I'm really not sure... I dont think you could do two recirc on it... but your better off asking in the Euro-Reef Club thread.
Did you end up going with the JBJ Top Off system or the Aquahub one?
I'll be taggin along

[taketz]

Wow, how did I not even think about posting in that thread with my question

Thanks for the incredibly obvious yet completely overlooked idea.

As for the ATO, I'm checking out some options with dosing pumps and the RK2 with a different idea. I'm thinking about maybe having a dosing pump run off of my PH function of my RK2 and seeing if there is a way to wire in a float-switch which will automatically turn off the doser if the water level reaches a certain height. I'm hoping there is as this would be a good way to combat the nightly PH swings as more Kalk/water mix would be added at night.

~

[AngeloM3]

Originally posted by taketz

Thanks for the incredibly obvious yet completely overlooked idea.

Hey no problem.... we've all been there. I remember someone mentioning in the EuroReef thread that they did a recirc mod on their skimmer and it actually was putting to much air into the skimmer.... it ended up just overflowing even with the gate valve completely open.

I'd like to see if you can tie in your auto-topoff with the controller. Only reason I went with the JBJ is.... 1) I already have a aqua lifter pump for dosing B) I like the function of the JBJ where you can have two sensors in the sump. That way incase the "low level" on gets stuck with salt creep.... you have the "high level" one that would still shut it off.

[taketz]

AngeloM3

I've seen the Aqualifter at a LFS and I even thought about using it for dosing given its slow flow rates. I just thought that the insides of the machine would likely get clogged if I were using Kalkwater. Do you have any experience with using it for dosing?

I would like to look into a cheaper alternative than a dosing pump if its possible to work.

[AngeloM3]

I've never used it for dosing Kalk.... just plain ol RO/DI water.

[taketz]

Hrmm...I'm just worried it would clog up pretty easily.

[taketz]

Not much else to note as of right now, but just thought I'd add that the tank is supposed to be in this week and Sea in the City, the store I'm purchasing through, worked out a deal for a free sump for me due to the long time I've had to wait for this tank even though its no real fault of theirs.

Gotta love good Customer Service

Though to be fair, they know all of that and more will easily be spent there filling the sucker up

[AngeloM3]

Oh nice... anything free is a good thing! Any idea what size?

I cant decide on either a 30g or 38g for my 90g display.

[taketz]

Woot! Got off the phone with the store and the tank came in late tonight. They called me ten minutes after they closed and offered to stay open for me if I wanted to pick it up tonight (gotta love the Customer Service), but its not as if I could to anything worthwhile tonight so I decided to wait until tomorrow morning. Though, I'd be lieing if I said I didn't think about picking it up tonight, just to look at it.

As for the sump, its a custom size at 22x10x16 so almost 20 gallons, which is fine for me. Plus, its hard to get a decent sized sump underneath a small cube like mine.

[costa13]

Nice, I will be looking for pics of it tomorrow.

[taketz]

Well, I know its been a few days since the last update, but I've been working on getting this thing all set-up and done so forgive me.

Here are some pics, keep in mind its not fully against the wall yet but is close to its final position.

From the Front.



From the Side.



The Inside of the sump.



Inside the Hood.



Now, this is nowhere near being completely set up, the wiring isn't yet done being cleaned up, and theres no water running through it till saturday, but I thought I'd make the post anyways to show I'm actually doing something