110g Mixed Reef V2
 

Its happened again. My reef tank is growing. I started my salty life with a wee 20g, that only took about 7 months for me to upgrade to a 68g. And now the 68g will soon be upgraded to a 110g(72"lx20"tx18"d). This build will be almost entirely a diy project. The tanks I will be using were built and the equipment will and has been purchased, but the rest of the build I will do my self. The 110g I have had for three years running as a fresh water setup. First with cichlids then as a big community tank. Heres what I have and am planning to do. 110g display with a 55g sump/ refugium. The 110 was not drilled and did not have an overflow. The display will have dual corner overflows with 1" herbie style standpipes drilled through the bottom. The returns are 2, 3/4" drilled through the back, fueled by a Quietone 6000. This journal will be pic intensive, so here is a few shots of the "birth" of my new baby. Sorry if some of them are a bit blurry, but I was still shakin from drilling the tank myself (with Zylumn/Kevins help and encouragement...thanks again Kev btw).First time drilling glass.

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I got the sump finished tonight. Well... I finished it yesterday , but I leak tested the baffles tonight and....IT HOLDS WATER :biggrin:. Cutting the glass for the baffles actually proved to be way harder than drilling the tank. I just could'nt get the glass to break cleanly on my scribe. So I broke out the trusty beltsander to grind down the wonky cuts.The following pics show the sump and a couple of the goodies to go in it. The layout is; skimmer/drain section on the left, return pump section in the middle, and drain/refugium section on the right.If you guys see any issues with this design PLEASE let me know. This is my first sump and I wanna get it right. The return pump is a quiet one 6000, and the skimmer is a euro-reef rs135.I need to do the overflow box inside the tank, but I think I will leave the cutting of that glass to the experts. 3/16" glass was hard enough, never mind the 3/8" glass I will need for the overflow. Then after that is the plumbing. I am a carpenter by trade so wood is really my thing. But I am learning lots and I think I have a handle on how the plumbing needs to be.

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cool

Great job so far!

Thanks Tony. Seems like a small project compared to what you've got in the works.

Great job on the sump. Looks like its coming together.
Kevin

Thanks Kev(again). Its been kinda slow going lately as I am in the process of moving at the end of the month. I've been sneaking away from my packing duties every once in a awhile to get my plumbing parts together. I think I've finally got what I need. I ordered a few things from B.C. because a buddy was making a huge plumbing order and said I could piggy back on his order to save shipping. I got the stuff from him last week and figured out right away that I needed to go back( again) to the plumbing store. I am still waiting on the gate valves from a different order(picking them up tomorrow). But I thought I would share what I did today. Here is what the stack of parts for the return look like.

Before.

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After.

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The return goes from the 1" output of the pump to a ball valve by 1" flexible tubing. Then is reduced to 3/4" hard pvc . First a check valve, then a "T", then a ball valve for each return, bulkheads and finally through the locline.

More pics

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Its movin right along.

Looks great so far http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/ima...ons/icon14.gif I really like your sump set-up. So how quiet is your Quiet One and do you like it? Curious as I have a 6000 on order for my 120 build and not a 100% sure it was the right choice or not.

Francis "Alberta-newb"

Seems quiet enough...I've only tested it in the bathtub so far.I just siliconed in the overflows last night, so I will leak test the overflows and the return system either tonight or tomorrow night.

i really like that sump. it'll be cool to see pictures of it running when you test the plumbing

will post some more pics soon. Moving day tomorrow...keep your fingers toes and legs crossed for me:neutral:

Big updates. I moved last week and managed to get the tank ready so I could just move the contents of the 68g directly into the 110g. Its been running for a week now with NO glitches. The move went well and I didnt lose anything. Will post some pics of the rest of the build now and will post some of the tank with the livestock in it after I tweek a few things and clean the glass this w/e.

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Heres a few more shots of the up and running sump. Its been a week and a half now since the move and it looks as thought all the live stock has survived the move. I have one "small" thing to work out. My wee tiny ocellaris clown is the only fish in the tank that is small enough to fit through the eggcrate strainer at the top of the overflow. He is batting 100% so far. Every morning I have to rescue his dumbass from the overflow box. Gonna have to try and figure something out...cause he sure isnt. Im gonna take some aquascaping pics tonight, after it gets dark.

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Gutter guard from Home Depot or Rona or whatever, and zap strap it onto the overflow eggcrate...

Thanks for the tip Tony. Will give that a try.

Heres what the tank looks like now, unless Ive changed it again:wink:. I used the same double overhang theme from the 68g. I really only used two of the original pieces from the 68g overhang on these new ones. These ones are more massive than the last and and I was able to put the pillar in that I didnt have room for previously.

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Looks nice!

Looks great Doug! Hopefully my move and transfer goes as smooth as yours. Doug, from around the corner.

Hey thanks Doug,(great name btw) let me know if you need any help with the move. That makes three successful moves for this tank so far. The fishy gods must be happy with me or something.

I snapped a few top down pics of some recent additions. I also added a bi-color blenny. I was really missing the one I had before. Hopefully this one doesnt decide to carpet surf.

Purple monti cap I got from Danny Z at the frag swap.
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Tri-color acro also from Danny Z.
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Purple tort frag from Snappy at the swap.
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And another purpleish, so far un-identified acro I got from El Guappo(Mike) for helping him frag some stuff up.
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Doug,
Your new tank looks good, lots of potential. I new you'd eventually take the plunge to a bigger tank. Just a point of interest, if you put the "tan birdnest" into a lower light area (partly shaded) it will turn a cool green colour.:biggrin:
That tricolour acro is A.nana & the frag from Mike looks like it's probably A.tenuis. The piece from me is A.tortousa (aka Cali Tort):wink:

reply
 

Looks good Doug. I'll have to snap some shots of the frags your gave me, expecially the ric. Florida. It's a different color than my other one, almost red in comparison.

ah good choice. i have a euroreef as well, wondering why i ever bothered with seaclones, prisms and coralife skimmers.

looks good man.. you are catching up to me, i better get some more frags in my tank!! :P

Thanks for the comp and the IDs Greg. Guess Im gonna need to try harder to remember these names, with the new job and all.

Where did you find your gate valves and that cool check valve? (yes I said cool....:redface::lol:)

The gate valves and the check valves came from either OA or J&L.Not sure because I piggy backed on an order that Kevin made, to save on shipping.Seems kinda silly that we here in Alberta have to get plumbing parts from BC.... but a little birdie told me that could soon be changing:wink:

Wow, looking great. I'm watching your thread closely for inspiration on my own 120 build. Nice aquascaping!

Francis

Thanks A-newb. I was really trying to avoid the fruit stand look. Its not that hard to do with a pvc substructure. It took quite a while for me to do it though. I worked on it over a weekend , not steady because I had to keep the g/f happy with some yard work.

Catching up? Didnt know I was behind:wink: Thanks Joel.

For all the pic thirsty peeps out there here a few pics from a week or two ago, a couple weeks after the tank was both moved( as in houses) and transfered into a new tank. I was quite surprised how quickly things seemed to settle in.

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Saw this tank tonight in person, and Wow! the pics really don't do it justice.. haha.

Thanks again for letting me peak at ur plumbing setup and tank Doug!

Hey not a problem J. And thanks for the comps. Like I said Im excited to see what you do with your tank.

A couple of the nicer RC colonies I brought home from the shop. The A. Lovely came with two acro crabs. One is the bandit looking one that you get pics of if you google acro crabs. The other looks different. So not sure if its an acro crab or not.It sure hasnt left the A. Lovely it came on. Gonna try and see if I can get a shot of it.Keep in mind these just spent 4 days in a bag in the dark, so obviously not fully colored back up yet.

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Nice scores. :) AFAIK acro crabs nearly always have that raccoon/bandit look to them. I once got a colony that had an "acro crab" that was more of a "gorilla crab" (think that was the actual common name, not sure now). Thing got huge before I was able to catch it (only took a few weeks to go from teeny-tiny to .. not-so-teeny-tiny) and he did seem to irritate the corals to the point that the tissue died in the spots he was living in. Not the most destructive crab I ever had but not the most benign either. So just keep an eye on it I guess. It might be OK for all I know but thought I'd share my experience with it. Forewarned is forearmed or whatever it is they say.. :)

I decide not to risk the little crab and got him out before he ventured from the acro. He is in a container in my sump waiting for a ride to the sump of "nasties" we have at the store. Been asked for a updated fts so heres what the tank looks like today.

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Diggin' the aquascaping. :cool:

The aquascaping is wonderful but i forsee problems for you in the future with those monti caps so high up in the tank, They grow remarkably fast and they are going to shade everything underneath