My new 56 gallon column super budget tank build thread, feedback welcome.

[polyppetey]

Well I thought I would post another build thread, Picrures are below. I posted several pictures before in other sections but here is the abridged complete thread. I wanted to upgrade my 12 gallon nanocube which is totally full to something larger and able to keep things like clams and SPS. After thinking about it for a few months, I decided to pull the trigger.

I wanted to see how cheaply I could put together a nice tank capable of supporting the higher light requirements of SPS and clams to name a few.

The tank is a 56 gallon marineland column tank and stand. The lights are a catalina aquarium custom fixture. I bought the whole rig from Craigslist for 350.00 I thought that was a pretty good deal. I like the height of the tank which gives me great depth even with a DSP.
Here is the tank as I bought it, no plumbing and an ugly black stand.

[polyppetey]

I sanded the stand, filled and sealed it Then I painted it white to match up with the living room. I then lined the bottom with shower pan liner to keep any overflows off the hardwood floors.
Even if I overflow my sump the liner will still hold an additional 5 gallons of water.

I started with the plenum build, I used 1 inch PVC and eggcrate.
I bent the edges of the eggcrate by heating it with a torch to be flush with the bottom of the tank so it would not be seen along the edges after the sand was in. It cost me less than 15 dollars total.
I heated 1 piece in the oven to bend it to fit along the overflow.
Ironically my other hobby gave me an idea how to get the bend to set. A rim from a 72 GT455 lemans convertable has the same radius as the overflow. I duct taped it on the inside of the rim until it cooled, perfect fit.



bent piece


Finished plenum with a stopper which I will replace when the cycle is complete, for now I am running the plenum like an undergravel filter, when it is done I will stop up the hole.

[polyppetey]

Here is the car I used to bend the pipe and a picture of my 3 year old nanocube, note the sandbed is no longer visible, most of the LR is covered as well.



The car is a one of 57 built 1972 GT Lemans convertables.
Powered by a 455 H.O.

[polyppetey]

I got 25 lbs baserock as well as 25 lbs marshall island premium rock. For the DSP I used 20 lbs aragamax select sand then placed spacers made from eggcrate under where the LR will be, I topped it with a section of leftover screen then topped it off with another 30 lbs sugar agaronite and 15 lbs slightly larger sized araronite for a total depth of @ 4.5 inches.




Here is the sump, craigslist- 15 dollars, I built the rest of it for 15 dollars, the pump is a quietone 4000 from e-bay(cheap).

I did revise the plumbing which some of you suggested when I posted a pic of it earlier, I got rid of the 90 degree bends as best I could, now there is only 1 going to the tank.
It has a small fuge on the right and I am using a media chamber from a cannister filter I got on sale for 5 dollars in case I need to run carbon or chemipure.

I did find a neat way to bend vinyl tubing too. I git a piece of rope the same ID as the tubing and forced it through the tube. Then I boiled it until the tube was supersoft. Then the tube was bent into the desired shape and run under cold water to set the bend.
The tubing did not kink at all when it was done because of the rope. Then the rope is pulled out and you have a nice clean bend.

[polyppetey]

For additional flow I built a frame around the inside of the tank and in each corner fit a hydor flow nozzle, it is powered by a quietone 5000 pump. I figure between the 2 pumps I have about 1300 GPH going through the system. I like the hydor nozzled because they give a nice random flow througout the tank and I dont have a return blowing in just one spot. When lookin at the tank the trim hides all the plumbing and most of the nozzles.
I hate seeing all the extra stuff like heaters and such in tanks, it detracts from the overall look of the tank.
I am using 2 150 watt heaters as well.



Here is the finished plumbing and sump before I took out the 90 degree bends but you get the idea. I am using 2 fitersocks for particulate removal.



I also changed the return plumbing to split it equally after some noise issues arose. I actually got too much noise from my wife about it.


Here is the filled and finished tank with the actininc lights only
4 x 24 watt.


Here it is with the dual 15000k 150 watt HQI's



Once it is done cycling I will remove the "undergravel filter setup"
and cap off the hole going to the plenum. I read it is good to do while cycling to draw bacteria and water into the depths of the plenum.

So thats it, I have a skimmer coming next week, but everyone knows what a skimmer looks like.

I welcome any suggestions or comments as I am a noob at any tanks over 12 gallons. I hope you like it.

[reeftank250]

It looks good!! I like your rock work. How are the hydor flow nozzles working for you? I had some in my old tank and they didn't work for very long.

[polyppetey]

They work fine, I always liked arches in a tank, ti also give me some places to put LPS and less light intense livestock.

[PAZE]

Great looking tank, looks like a perfect sump for that system, good luck on the rest of the build.

Paul

[polyppetey]

No one else?? I must have done something wrong??

[anoy1nce]

I also have a 56g I just set up a few weeks ago, but I went the far from cheap route lol. What is your main focus with this tank? If you want to keep sps like your original post stated youll have to up the flow a lot. What skimmer did you order? I dig the scaping btw very nicely done.

[polyppetey]

Well, I am one of those people who like LPS more than SPS. But I could keep SPS up higher in the tank, the way my close loop works the upper layers of the tank are fairly turbulent. Lower down it is less so, perfect fro LPS. My main focus or goal is to transplant my 12 g nano, I have a little baby girl who loves watching the nano so when the wife thought a bigger tank was in order so the baby can watch it naturally I jumped at the chance!


Do you think I need more flow? My total display tank volume is about 40 gallons which gives me @ 32x flowrate.
The skimmer is an octopus 2000.

Nice to see someone else has a 56 gallon column!!

[anoy1nce]

If LPS is your goal, you've a great tank going there IMO. What fish are you going to have? That's still the topic of debate for my tank its hard to decide!

[polyppetey]

Well the fish I've been looking at are as follows, All of these won't be in the tank, this is just the preliminary research list.
Purple firefish
Fridmani pseudochromis or neon
Pink spot watchman goby
Catalina goby
2 spot goby
Yellowhead jawfish
Chalk bass
Green mandarin
Zebra barred dartfish
Marine betta
Yasha goby white ray

[anoy1nce]

Looking forward to seeing what you end up with, and when you move the 12g over!

[Peter Eichler]

Originally posted by polyppetey
Well the fish I've been looking at are as follows, All of these won't be in the tank, this is just the preliminary research list.
Purple firefish
Fridmani pseudochromis or neon
Pink spot watchman goby
Catalina goby
2 spot goby
Yellowhead jawfish
Chalk bass
Green mandarin
Zebra barred dartfish
Marine betta
Yasha goby white ray

Just a heads up on a few of the fish on your list...

Catalina gobies are not a tropical species and should be be kept in tropical conditions.

Signigobius biocellatus aka two spot gobies rarely live in captivity and if they are to have any chance need a large tank with a very establiushed sandbed full of life.

Also, I suggest thinking twice about putting a mandarin in a tank that size

The Jawfish will cause problems with the plenum setup. Btw, what made you go with a plenum setup?

Lastly, I'd suggest a fridmani over a neon pseudochromis since they're typically less agressive and also stay smaller.

All that said... I like the choice of the 56 column and look forward to seeing your progress.

[Rjukan]

Hey man, thats a really nice setup. I bought my tank/stand/light on CL for about the same price a few years ago. Buying used is great.

That nanocube looks amazing!! Its going to give the 56g a great jump start once you have it ready to go. There is a lot of stuff in that nano, I hope it all makes the transition smoothly. Makes me nervous thinking about it lol.

Would be nice to see some pics of the whole setup, Im interested to see how you finished the stand. Is the CL up top obtrusive when looking at the tank from a lower angle? Im considering something like that for future tanks.

Looks like you did a great job with the sump, the silicone on the baffles looks near perfect. And I like that guard you have on top, what is it? Would like to see a pic inside the cabinet up top, whats the filter and valve hose on the right for?

Nice car, I like the front on that LeMans over any others but Im not a convertable guy. Is that a limited series from the manufacturer or a shop/dealer? I also have a limited car, just not as limited and in worse condition even tho its 20 years newer

Great start though, will be looking forward to more updates.

[polyppetey]

Thanks for the great advice on the fish Peter, like I said it was a preliminary list, my wife picked out most of the fish, as it is she hates all my hobbies so I am thrilled she is showing some interest.
Believe me I will research the heck out of any fish I will get, and definitely not get anything before the tank is ready.
I will strike the catalina from the list, believe it or not I had a 2 spot goby in my nano for close to 1.5 years.

To answer your plenum question, I researched the heck out of that too and the pro's seemed to weigh out the con's. One problem I had with the tank was its depth so I thought a DSB would be ideal here especially since my sump capacity is limited.
I read about 20 pages on WWM about the plenums, if it does not work out I can always remove it down the road. One reason I placed the screen on the bottom 1.5 inches of the DSB was just to keep fish like the jawfish out of the "murky depths".

Again thank you for your considerate input.

Rjukan if you would like any detailed pics I can e-mail them to you.
As far as the stand goes, I have lots of auto body experience from restoring the car, that being said I simply sanded the whole stand smooth as I could, filled all the defects, sealed and repainted. A fairly simple process, a lot can be done with a cheaper stand cosmetically, it just takes a little effort and time.
The Cl is visible when looking up at it but I much prefer it to IMO ugly powerheads, it cost about 7 dollars to build it, if I change my mind it is no big deal.

The guard on top of the baffle is a piece of plexiglass I drilled to keep cheato in my fuge and away from my return pump. The hose going off to the right is what fills the little fuge I built and the filter part is a media holderr I got on sale that you put carbon in for a cannister filter. The baffles were actually easy, I used a piece of round dowel to get the silicon in between the glass panes, alot easier than I thought it would be.

As for the car it is one of 100 or so GT Lemans sport converts built in 72, less than 15 came with a 455. It is powered by a 455 H.O. engine mildly built @ 450-475 H.P. It is mostly all stock with the exception of the suspension, exhaust and the trans-am scoop. I used to race it but now I am older I like to go for those drives to no where. For me it is the tank all winter and the car all summer.

[hottuna]

I would not have put those long pieces of pvc going across as supports ....on mine I allways use small pieces 1.25 x 1" pvc glued sporadically to support the load and still allow waterflow...I have been building plenums on and off for 15 yrs...

[polyppetey]

All the PVC is cross drilled with 1/2 inch holes for the flow, it is plenty strong for my application, only 50-60 lbs LR and the sand.
The PVC if you look closer still allows flow as it is in a maze pattern, but then again in a DSB flow is irrelevant right??

[anoy1nce]

Have you moved the nano over yet?

[polyppetey]

Originally posted by anoy1nce
Have you moved the nano over yet?

I've moved over all the zoas and the palys.

I am trying to stabilize the alk and ph before moving over my frogspawn and candycane coral. I still have to get my feather duster in and some other palythoa.

I keep adding the Kent superbuffer every day but the alk won't go higher than 7 DKH and the PH is stopped at 7.9-8.


On a plus note I have about 8-10 frags of nice palys and zoas for a future swap. I have some nice hunter green ones with peach centers, they look pretty cool. I have noticed quite a color change in some of them under the new lights, I had some ugly brown ones which have since developed a bright yellow skirt and lightened up in the center. I don't know their fancy names but still I am quite pleased.

I also got a yellow watchman goby and a bicolor blenny to start.

How is your tank coming??

[anoy1nce]

Glad to hear it! Well its fully cycled, have snails, shrimp, a frogspawn and plate coral in there but thats all for now, getting fish this week then a camera lol.

[polyppetey]

The fish are the hard part for me, I am trying to go with more smaller fish than 3-4 larger ones. I figured I would start with the goby and blenny. I think a pair of clownfish are next.

[anoy1nce]

Yea its hard for me to decide on fish too, im really stuck on a pair of GSM clowns atm but unsure what to put with them.

[polyppetey]

I am partial to the picasso clowns or the true perculas. What are GSM clowns?