FishyFishy!'s 155 bowfront fishroom/closet build
 

So I've been planning to do this for way too long. But it has finally begun.

I purchased my main display tank off kijiji, which is a 155 Gallon bowfront tank that measures 72 long, 19 deep at the ends, and bows to 26" in the middle, and 24" tall. Dual overflows. It came with a beautiful oak stand and canopy as well as a 40 gallon sump, 2 X mag 9.5 pumps and a bunch of other random equipment.

The stand and canopy unfortunately are not the color that I wanted, so the color is going to have to be changed to black. I am currently in the process of doing this as we speak.. but sanding sucks!!!

The main idea is the tank will sit in my kitchen. All of the sumps, frag tank, water storage, quarantien and equipment will be housed behind the wall, in a dual closet. So plumbing and electrical will have to be added to the closets.

The closet on the right will have a three tank sump system. One stacked on top of another. The first will be a 70 Gallon Cheato/Mangrove dual chamber river fuge. The second will be an 80 gallon, trickle style front chamber (live rock and floss), with a skimmer/reactor and return sections. The last will be a 90 Gallon filled with pure live rock, and one return section. (speaking of which... anyone willing to give me a good deal on baffling all my sumps would be killer!!! lol)

The closet on the left will house a laundry sink, 2 X 70 Gallon mixing/storage tanks, a 30 Gallon shallow frag tank, and then a 40 Gallon hospital tank.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

At the moment, I am stripping the top layer of the stand and canopy so that it can be painted. Let me tell ya... I should have purchased an electric sander!!! Sanding by hand sucks. But I guess its more DIY experience.

Here are a couple pictures of the tank and stand when it arrived in my garage:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5892.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5883.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5886.jpg


And here is a couple shots of how it is looking now, being taken apart and sanded for paint:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5901.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5902.jpg


I have 2 Gen X PCX 40 pumps, 2 X MAG 9.5's. The Gen X pumps will be temporarily used as the returns until I can upgrade to Reeflo's. My mixing stations, and the water changing systems will be supported by the Mag 9.5's.

I would really like to purchase another 6 foot 14 bulb Aquatinics Constellation light fixture, as I loved the one that I had on my 187. However I really like Metal Halides, and 3 X 250W with 14K phoenix bulbs and supplimental T5's is what I have been thinking of as of late.

I also have a bunch of live rock steaming away in a 70 gallon tank with a ETSS Reef Devil Deluxe skimmer, heater, and some big powerheads (this will all be sump rock, as the display will be dry marco rock done on acrylic rods) here is a pic of the sump rock:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...IMG_5900-1.jpg


The Sumps (third is the one with rock in it)

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5895.jpg

And the Pumps:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5897.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5898.jpg

Looks great so far! I love the stand its going to look awesome in black, I would do it up as a transparent black though so you get a lot of the wood grain in it. Do you want air sander? I can bring over a compressor and a disk sander haha you'll be done in two hours.

So if this is going in the kitchen what are you doing with the massive one that is already on that wall? Are you just transferring everything or what is going on there?

need any help with moving that behemoth let me know I'm not doing **** all until school starts!! haha

Yeah the 187 was sold, so the tank will be going in the kitchen, and the sumps and everything else will be going in the closets behind that wall in the other room. This way there is no equipment noises in the kitchen.

I sooo wish I had the air sander option earlier!! haha. My arms are sore from stripping that thing by hand.

Hahah yeah I bet they are! If can reef wasn't down for so long I could have offered it sooner :mrgreen:

I can't wait to see the new tank getting set up! what are you thinking for it....LPS, SPS...Nems waving around while your cooking up a storm?

Its definately going to be an SPS tank. Going for some nice colonies that can grow into some open space. I'll be doing a minimalist type aqua scape, as i'm filling a 90 gallon with pure live rock in the filtration section.

Here is the stand on its third coat.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5907.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5906.jpg

Still have to do one door and start the canopy.

Wow, that stand looks 100 times better. Very nice. You definitely did well on the prep, paint looks smooth.

I like where this is going! Great work on the stand!

how did u get such a smooth finish?

Straight up sanding. I used 3 grits. I also use a fan in my garage when I'm painting, so that dust dosn't stick to the wet paint.

Update 09/15/2011
 

Progress report for today. Finished the stand and doors. Painted the back of the tank with Krylon Fusion paint. I thought that it would be pretty dark, but it actually turned out to be a nice light blue. I really like the finished product.

Now I have to get the hardware on the doors and mount them back on the stand. Should be done by tonight.

THEN I have to start sanding the canopy... I really am not looking forward to sanding this thing. The stand was bad enough.

Pics:

First coat of paint on the glass:
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5935.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5937.jpg

I always leave the back of the overflows clear so that I can see through to the plumbing. You never know what might be in there that you'll have to see. It also makes the assembly proccess a heck of a lot easier.

Finished product:
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5940.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...a/IMG_5941.jpg

Looks like it's coming along nicely, I like the blue background :thumb:

Ya, I like the blue too. I'm doing blue on my new tank. I haven't had a blue tank in a decade at least. I was actually considering white too...hmm.

white is in interesting one! Haven't seen that yet.

NEW UPDATE 11/08/2011

Tank is in the house now with the stand. The canopy has to be modified now because I decided to go Metal Halides instead of T5's. So the canopy isn't tall enough for my monster fixture. I will have to modify it.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1108-00338.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1108-00339.jpg

Actinic's Only

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1108-00340.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1108-00342.jpg

I also have got a couple more things for the tank. I got a used Euro-Reef RS250 Protein skimmer (this thing is huge!). I also got a Schuran Jetstream 1 calcium reactor with C02 tank.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1108-00346.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1108-00347.jpg

My temporary light fixture was purchased as well from Black Phantom during his tank shutdown. Its a 3 X 250W halides with PFO ballasts, and 4 X 65W Actinic PC's with workhorse ballasts. This will change eventually, as I will retro T5's instead of PC's.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1108-00348.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1108-00349.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1108-00351.jpg

So now I still need to get my sumps drilled and baffled (which is harder than one thought to find someone to do this for me...)

And then I start plumbing the tank through the wall! Yay!!

Lookin good!!! is that fixture a DIY or is that the way it was made somewhere?

I know its not DIY, but the fixture looks pretty old. I'm going to use pendants anyways, so that fixture will eventually be garbage.

Here's the frag tank in the fishroom. It's housing some live rock that I couldn't fit in the 70 Gallon holding tank.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...08-00343-1.jpg

Wowzers Mr. Fishy! what pendants you going with? how are you doing on rock by the way? I got some over here that is doing nothing, you can have it for a beer or two if you want, I think there is about 20ish lbs here.

Road trip to Red Deer Mike, I would drill them & put in baffles for ya :biggrin:

What size holes you need drilled? You're welcome to borrow my bits if I have the size you're looking for.

I need from 3/4" bulkhead holes up to 1.5" bulkhead holes

Sweet Yeah I'll take you up on that. I have to go buy a bunch of dry rock from Red Coral soon here and i'll start the aquascape. I'm going for three islands for a minimalist type look in the display, so the fish have lots of swimming room. Thats why I decided on the three sump idea, so that I could have tonnes of biological filtration that didn't have to come from rock in the display.

I might just take you up on that Greg! Do you have lots of glass lying around to make the baffles?

Nice build.

Just wondering, is it ok for metal halides to be that close to the water?

I have bits for 1", 1.5" and 2" bulkheads. You could go with 1" bulkheads and step it down to 3/4" pipe if you want (I say just go with 1" but that's just me). Anyhow if that works just send me a PM.

It will be raised about 4" off the surface when the canopy is on. It's just sitting there for testing.

I do has some glass just not sure how much.

So I need some advice on my overflow setup. This thing came stock with 1 X 3/4" bulkhead and 1 X 1" bulkhead in each overflow. So it was a Durso setup and the 3/4" was probably for a return line.

So with the difference in the hole size, should I just go with the Durso setup? I've had them before and just find them a little noisey. However it did come with a brand new set of durso pipes I can use. I would love to do a herbie, but with the different sized holes, It would be sketchy to have a 1" main and a 3/4" emergency...no?

I'm also having trouble with the layout of the sumps as well. I was going to stack them one on top of another, but now it's not looking like I will have the room to stack them all. So I think I'm going to have to re-design the whole thing :-(

I don't think that is a problem at all. It depends on how much flow you are going to drop through those drains. Keep in mind that you have 2 primary and 2 emergency drains. Realistically, I doubt you will have a blockage in BOTH primaries at the same time. Also, the primaries don't tend to just stop dead suddenly, they are more likely to just block slightly, transferring only a portion of flow to the emergency drains.

Leave the emergency drains as straight pipes so you'll hear them if they become active.

Finally, just test it after. Block a drain and see what happens!

Finally an update!
 

So a bunch of progress has been made. I have shut down all of my other random tanks. The fish room has been cleared out. And I also got a new FOWLR system for the back fishroom wall! I also finished the canopy of the reef tank, and found a 155 gallon sump to join the reef system..

I purchased the FOWLR from the famous 'kein'. I was eyeing his tank for ages. When it came up for same I bought it up. Came with tank, stand, some rock, and some fishies! I've added a sump, a light, and a skimmer.

So this is the system as it sits now in my fishroom:

Equipment -

131 Gallon Eurobraced 60"L X 18"D X 28"H
Black stand with removable front panels
70 Gallon temporary sump - getting new one built with baffles
8 X 54W T5 Aqua Medic Ocean Light with a 50/50 combo of KZ Blues and New gens
SWC Extreme MiniS skimmer
TLF Carbon Reactor with regular carbon
Mag 9.5 Return Pump
2 X Tunze Nano Wavebox w/ controller
1 X Tunze 6095 powerhead
1 X Koralia # 3 pointed at surface
Tunze ATO

Livestock -

100 Lbs live rock in display, 40lbs in sump
Lots of blue clove polyps
Blue mushrooms
Green Paly's
GSP's

Emperor Angel
Passer Angel (King Angel)
Flame Angel
Hoevens Wrasse (Melanurus)
Solon Fairy Wrasse
Female Pencil Wrasse
Flame Hawkfish
Mated Pair of Clowns
Mated Pair of Yellow Damsels
Talbot's Damsel
12" Snowflake Eel
10 Large Turbo Snails
10 Astraea Snails

Here are some crappy pics (nice ones to come asap)

Aqua scaping isn't done, and the tank is being cleaned tonight. I just piled all the rock up in there for now.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0528-00219.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0527-00202.jpg

This skimmer is a monster! This was 40 minutes after I plugged it in! checked back today and there is an inch of dark brown crap in it. Great purchase.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0527-00204.jpg

Emperor Angel

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0524-00197.jpg

Passer Angel

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0524-00198.jpg

Snowflake Moray Eel

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0524-00199.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0524-00190.jpg

man that kein guy is so awesome.. i wish I could be awesome like him.

Anyway, looking good! Say hi to Jared for me and tell him sorry about his finger.

Holy Crap Mike!!! I sell you some stuff and it takes 5 minutes for you to set it up on your tank. I think you need something else in your life.:lol: Looking Good!!!

Awesome fishes!! Looks great!

Yeah I can't wait until I get my SLR back though! I've been taking pics with the blackberry camera way too long.

Also can't wait to aquascape it. I have some neat ideas.

Here is a comparison of the skimmate from the SWC now (24 hours in)
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ga/photo20.jpg

Hahahaha I got him to read this and he looked at his fingers and hung his head in shame hahahahaha

And here is a couple better pics from the ipad lol. More accurate color.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ga/photo11.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ga/photo13.jpg

I have never been a fan of a halfmoon tank, but your tank really does change my view about it. And the stand looks amazing with a different finished coat on it. All I can say is WOW :biggrin:

Why thanks!

Here is a picture of it with the canopy on it (Crappy blackberry phone pic:twised:)

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...28-00227-1.jpg

The Eel ate today!! WHOOHOOO!!!! I think he's gonna be just fine.

Thanks again for the great deal!