Two Cats and Two tanks build up Meow!

[Mudbeaver]

A bit about me , just retired at 51 i had enough!! My doctor said i was stressed out so i'm taking the year OFF. Semi retired i should say because i don't think i can stay put. Because my trade, Chef onships; i couldn't have a permanent saltwater tank . This time i gave myself a retirement gift. I'm having a custom made system from Concept Aquariums from Calgary. A starfire 150 G reef tank and a 75 G display refugium . This next picture was my old 65 G tank the one i lost in a blow out because of the stand a few years ago.









Now going semi retired, staying home i'll do catering for the elderly. Cooking home and delivering for sceniors. I'll have plenty of time to care for those tanks and those living in it. And I have care takers with me.



Lulu and Theo on the right and the tank is going to be in their play room, Meow!




I started with a concept of two tank on top of each other like so



But then i discovered that the floor where i live, in a condo ; second floor couldn't take the load. I had a civil engineer survey the building plans and we came up with a new configuration. Sorry for the rough sketch, i can't draw well with sketch up so i used a simpler program.








The floor plan that I've obtain from the city archives shows the floors to be reinforced concrete 6 inches thick, OUFFF. That's a relief!! My tanks are now side by sides in a reverse "L" shape position with the 72 inch long 6 feet 21" high Rimless , 28" from the floor on one side and the display refugium , Rimless on a custom steel stand 6 feet high on the other side dumping by gravity into the reef tank. The sump will be under the reef. Now since the fuge is no longer on top of the main reef tank I've scale down to a 48x18x21 =75G starphire display tank and the stand being that high i'll have a shelf with my QT on it and my controllers. In the corner will be the RO tank and mixing tank.

[Mudbeaver]

I'm redoing the fishroom ; the cat room, actually the computer room, the multifunction room! This is the dam room! By the way the white tape is where the Reef tank will be.




I'm doing the floor in Italian terracotta where carpet use to be. Salt water and carpet don't mix.



Never done this before so no complaint please! Besides these are hand made cost a bundle and are not the same to start with; so the guy at the store told me not to try to get them straight or i'd go crazy.





The inspector's here!




The jumping, climbing pole




Details of this beautifull Italian tile, cost 10k for the whole condo.





On the level




It was a left over of a line because they were having trouble selling it. It was too crooked, too many complaints from consumers. People are used to straight lines here in America, in Europe they know about these hand made tiles and rustic looks. So they were getting rid of the stock so they had only so much of certain kind. So i didn't have enough of one size to do the whole condo, so i bought all size and mix and match on the floor to make a sort of mozaïc with different sizes.

[Mudbeaver]

Part of the play room not finished yet






How am I suppose to do any work in that room with these guy climbing all around me!





An extension of the play room

[Mudbeaver]

Got my plans from Concept Aquariums from Calgary, great guy Denny. Very professional and full of options and designs.

My Reef tank first draft;



Reef stand; 2" rods powder coated , the 60G sump will go underneath




My refugium first draft




Refugium stand first draft

[Mudbeaver]

Concept Aquarium being very professional and interested in your project asked you about your project and what you want to do. Mine is to basically fusing an old filtering based system of refugium and reef tank with new the technology of powerfull skimming machines. So Concept redesigned the tanks like so for me.


The refugium has a C2C because its feeding by gravity the reef tank and at the same time dumping into the sump, its a split herbie drain.



My refugium stand had its shelf too hight to put my QT so they put in at 30" instead, ideal for my controllers as well.



The main reef tank they put a C2C, a weird because since i have ceramic panels covering the backwall i'll have less cutting to do, less lost space better plumbing room to redirect my pipes toward the sump and no salt creep on them. Plus if something happens is easier to work from behind too than underneath.

[james30ct]

Should be a really nice system. What kind of livestock do you plan on going with?

[Mudbeaver]

Originally Posted by james30ct

Should be a really nice system. What kind of livestock do you plan on going with?

Thanks,

Well i i'd like a shoaling fish at least one, so Chromis, i know but i red something about putting them with more agressive fish so they stay put and don't do their usually self killing routines.

At least one tang i'll go easy , its my firs big system and first tang so yellow.

I want an anemone so 2 clowns i love the picasso type.

For contrast i was thinking anthias but they seem complicated i'll see. The jury is still out on those.

[Mudbeaver]

Ive added one refinement to my design all on my own lol. i've asked if they could make me a wavebox. outside my tank. After all the wavebox is a box emptied by a powerhead. So here's the plan.









They'll black out the glass to avoid algae growth and voila, the box cost $20 for me, i just add a pump and i'm done.

[Mudbeaver]

Well today i got a sample choice of sump options from Concept Aquariums they want me to choose, wow, some of that stuff is unknown to me.








Kina simple here




That seem to come out of a James bond movie, lol








Pretty good options there.

[Mudbeaver]

I have a little dilema; Ok a little more precision on my delima, this is the two tanks the refugium is higher than the reeftank and by gravity will be feeding the reef with pods and rotifers. Now how to connect the two without having the junk from the seahorses and the anglers in the refugium ( two very messy species) going into the reef. I came up with kinda solution what do you think. Its a pipe just below the waterline in the fuge going well below the waterline in the reef tank ; to the middlle of the reef tank actually . The water pressure of the reef tank should stop the water from draining the fuge right? any thought.



The refugium skimmed water from the C2C will go through the Herbie drain and directly to the sump and not to the reef tank. So no junk will go in the reef just the pods and rotifers.Make sense?



Or would it be better to feed over the reef water line to avoid syphon...i'm lost here. any help thanks for your time.

[Mudbeaver]

Well i figured it out with some help , this is my new plumbing and i think its right this time.




Some has suggested to prolong the feeding pipe from the fuge to the reef into the sand to give the pods and rotifers a fighting chance to get to the bottom and multiply , but they'll be droped in front of a Tunze powerhead 6095 or the glass wavebox i'm having made so every time this thing flushes..... from that.



Thank for those who helped.

[Mudbeaver]

A bit of tweeking here and there, got me thinking about the reef feeding, using a 1/2" flex from the fuge about 1" under the water line to avoid skimming the surface of my fuge into my reef. So thats the new fuge sketch with a hole on its left side.






And i chose this sump model, simple, the drains dumps in the first section, fills it and drips into the socks, goes into the equipment section, the skimmer pick it up and then it moves to the pump section, room for 3 pumps in there.

[Mudbeaver]

I got new rock for my sculpture, flat shelves from Marco's rock and i have some more comming this friday the 13....ya i know. Plus lots of goodies, for the sculpting, rods and mortar, diamond drill bits , some macro algae are also comming for my little tank i've started for the refugium, the live rock i have in there will help jumpstart the big system so a combination of live rock, well secured, i've taken precautions, to irradicate potential pest and with the dry rock, sculpture and my ceramic walls , i'll start the system on a good foot hopefully.


















All those and the ones comming will be drilled and set with rods and mortar into a specific sculpture , i'm taking my time on this because i don't want to have to restack those rock in 18 months time because i don't like the way they look anymore. Plus tonight i'm getting my Vertex RO/DI unit so i can get that organized and set up right for the upcomming tanks in 2 1/2 weeks time Yippee!

[Mudbeaver]

I just came back from picking up my stuff from the UPS store, and my sand is sooooooooooooo cool!!!!! Very pretty,Tropic Eden Tonga miniflakes and flakes. With these pinkish pebbles really nice stuff i can't tank the guy enough who suggested that to me. i can't even remember now who did either lol and from which sites lol. When i set up everything i'll have a shot of it for now its stays in its bag, its not live sand no. I have to rinse it before using it.Cost me $ 410.00

[Mudbeaver]

Here are some of my goodies for my sculptures.

My Nylon rods to hold my rocks in place

http://www.marcorocks.com/aquascape-supplies/3-8-16-nylon-thread-rod-24-includes-10-pk-nuts-10-pk-washers/

The mortar to stick the rock permanently and to strengthen the sculpture.

http://www.marcorocks.com/aquascape-supplies/e-marco-400/

The diamond coated hole saw to make those holes i need for a pvc rod

http://www.marcorocks.com/aquascape-supplies/7-8-diamond-coated-hole-saw-qty-1/

I'm all set to do the sculpture as soon as all the rock are here

[M.phenax]

My cats are jealous of your cats playroom. They can watch fish tv all day but now, my cats are complaining they don't have a shelf wall or climbing poles ;D thanks

[chartwell]

I love the look of the tile, and great job making an entertaining environment for the kittens! Oh, and the aquarium build looks good too ;-)

Susan

[Mudbeaver]

Originally Posted by M.phenax

My cats are jealous of your cats playroom. They can watch fish tv all day but now, my cats are complaining they don't have a shelf wall or climbing poles ;D thanks

Well just this week i bought a new bed for them, they were affraid of it didn't want to go in it, but they jumped in the bag it came in without looking.....you want to strangle them when they do that lol....$50 the bed, 10cent the bag, no one knows how to torture better than a cat lol.

Originally Posted by chartwell

I love the look of the tile, and great job making an entertaining environment for the kittens! Oh, and the aquarium build looks good too ;-)

Susan

Thanks , it was the first time i've ever done a floor and an engineer making the floor strenght survey said it was a good job for someone who had never done this type of work, so, ya i'm happy with it. As for the sculpture i'l have pictures and a video when the time comes. Got to wait for the tanks first. I have to do it as the same time as the ceramic backwall so i can have a better notion of dimention of the thing in the tank. Plus right now the condo is in a real mess, got to clean up a bit. and finish the rest of it before doing that sculpture. So stay tune for the rest. I'll be using the nylons, the rock, foam, pvc, egg crates, i'll be making a stalactite as well.

[Mudbeaver]

Finally got an ETA my 3 tanks are ready and they're waiting on the 2 stand to be finish with the coated powder coatings and i should get those babies the end of next week. $ 4 500, not bad for 2 starfire tanks, 2 steel stands powder coated and the 60g sump custom made. So september 27 is party time!!!

[HUNTER1]

My Bengal cat favorite view

[Mudbeaver]

Originally Posted by HUNTER1

My Bengal cat favorite view

Wow those cats are cool, whats his name?Nice tank by the way!

[HUNTER1]

Originally Posted by Mudbeaver

Wow those cats are cool, whats his name?

Thanks, his name is Hunter. He loves to watch the fish but doesn't bothers them. I put a step stool for him so he can watch them, just enough to balance himself. I still don't trust him.

[Mudbeaver]

Originally Posted by HUNTER1

Thanks, his name is Hunter. He loves to watch the fish but doesn't bothers them. I put a step stool for him so he can watch them, just enough to balance himself. I still don't trust him.

Yes i don't blame you lol i have my two and boy i'm worried with all the acces they're going to have lol

[reret10]

My cat never bothers my tank and My sump is open and ground leval.

[johnike]

Someone say Bengal?
Otis sez hi, he likes to perch on the skimmer cup.