RDNanoguy's 165 gal Reef Upgrade
 

Thought I would start a thread for my new tank build.

Well the time has come to move again and since I'm moving I may as well get a bigger tank! I'm currently running a 110 gal 72" x 18" x 18" Tank which has been rnning for approximately 12 months. It has been a good tank but it has a few flaws that I would like to remedy since I have to tear it down to move it.

Here is waht it currently looks like:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...orn/110Gal.jpg

There are few problems I would like to address in this new build:

1. The Tank is not wide enough to accomodate a deep looking aquascape. No matter how I laid out the reef structure it always looked like towers of rock that the fish swim around like a race track.

2. Flow pattern. Again the flow tends to go around the reef in circles moving the substrate and detrius into the corners. (the wavebox helped alliviate this somewhat.)

3. Complex piping/too many pumps. I went with a bean animal style overflow setup which i now believe is overly complex. Plus this tank is currently running on 4 pumps which add alot of heat into the water: 2 Ehiem 1260 returns, 1 Tunze running the reactor mainfold, and 1 Tunze running the calcium reactor.

4. All the equipment doesn't fit in the stand.

5. Tank is a little loud.

6. Waterchanges are a pain in the a**!

Now to solve these faults I've devised a new plan for this new tank:

1. Tank is wider. The new tank will be 72"L x 24"W x 20"T and will be equipped with an external overflow box with 2 x 1.5" drains for a Herbie setup. Also the tank will eurobraced and will have Starfire glass on 3 sides. Returns will be 2 x 1" through the Eurobrace.

2. Flow will be provided by 4 Tunze 6055's on a 7095 controller and 2 Nano Waveboxes in a push/pull steup.

3. Sump will be moved to the basement of the new house. This will be accomplished with 1.5" Spaflex though the wall down through the studplate.
I will construct a large bench down there for the sump and all the equipment to sit on.

4. Reduce the pumps to 2. 1 pressure rated pump to handle the return duties and 1 to run a manifold to all the various reactors etc.

5. Build a dedicated integrated water change system which will be incorperated into a new sump design. (more on this later)

So after all that the tank has been ordered and will arrive on thursday so I spent the weekend fabbing a new wider stand:

Frame of the stand
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...ild/bench1.jpg

Skinning the top and back with 1/2" Plywood
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...ild/Bench2.jpg

Sealing the wood with Killz Oil based sealer
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...ild/Bench3.jpg

The stand will be skirted with a Cherry ply and doors to match my dining set.

More to follow!

i like it looks great simple and sexy love the lights too RD:biggrin:

Thanks Asmodeus! I quite like the lights too. They are the 120 watt led by blueline. 55 2watt bridgelux LEDs per fixture. They are really simple but man are they bright! The corals and clam like them alot. Probably gonna add one more and turn them the other way to cove the width of the tank better. These fixtures are a bargain @ $400.00.

Well it's been really crazy the last two weeks with the move and everything else but now it's time for an update!

The new Tank arrived the day of the move so that was brought into the new house first:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...d/DPP_0001.jpg

Here's a closeup of the external overflow:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...d/DPP_0002.jpg

Then the rest of the move took place and all the fish went into a temp tank on the kitchen island:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...d/DPP_0003.jpg

The next day I got to looking at figuring the plumbing path and ran into a problem:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...DPP_0003-1.jpg

The builder used little leftover beam cutoffs to fill in the corner right under the tank. These were joined to the closest engineered beam with joist hangers with two nails in each hanger.
I really hate crappy work and there was no way these were going to hold up a 2000 lb. tank!

My solution was to erect a new sub-beam and posts to carry the load to the basement floor as seen here:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...d/DPP_0004.jpg

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...d/DPP_0006.jpg

Then I built a bench to hold the sump and other fishy stuff:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...d/DPP_0007.jpg

More to come!

your seriously gonna have to change your user name man......not in RD anymore and sure aint no nano-guy anymore:razz:

Subscirbed! Hi Doug! You miss me? :twised:

Hey Josh! you still got that nice 165 or did you sell it?

Time for more Pics!

Cutting an access hole for the Piping:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...d/IMG_1459.jpg

All the Pipe threaded through and glued up:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...d/IMG_1460.jpg

Tank with the light bar and LED's in place and the overflow cover siliconed in:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...d/IMG_1461.jpg

Now for the fun part.... Aquascaping! I decided to go wih two mini lagoon outcrops plus an island in the middle for my GSP:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/..._1462small.jpg

And finally, the inhabitants are in!

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/..._1466small.jpg

Here's the 3 Amigos waiting for their lunch:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/..._1469small.jpg

More about the sump build coming up! :)

Looks good, I like how you did the aquascape.

ya dude sweet job on the aquascaping very clean looking, always a fan of the less rock look

Yeah i sold the big guy. i went through a year there where i moved three times and it was getting way to hard to move it. I miss it alot but meh oh well. saving hardware right now for a tank up grade of my own.

Bummer. That was a nice tank too. How big are you gonna go this time? Need a tank? I got lots. Haha..

Funny because it's the same amount of rock that was in the old tank minus some small rubble bits. Amazing how much difference 6" wider makes to aquascaping makes! :razz:

Im going with a 36x20x20 starphire eurobraced tank.....probably gonna get Dave at concept to build it, he just doesnt know yet haha. Im trying stick with a tank that is small enough for me to move in the future yet big enough to make me happy, and im pulling all the stops on this tank. Gonna get everything i ever wanted in a system.:biggrin:

Make it 24 wide. You won't regret it. That would be a great size.

its 36 wide by 20x20 lol

my current tank is 24 wide as you might remember.

So you are going view it through the short end? That's kinda crazy but it might be cool.

Haha yeah i f'd up there. Got everything all switched around. 36Lx20Wx20H is the dimensions. i see where you are coming from with a 24" W. it would be cool....ill have to think on that.

Tragedy Strikes!
 

What a terrible Easter weekend I've had!

Woke up on friday morning and went to feed the gang. Bluey (Powder Blue Tang) wasn't acting like himself, he was just hanging around one of the powerheads and notreally joining in on the morning Chum Storm (PE Mysis).
I had a goood look at him but I couldn't see anything amiss. I made a note to check again later. When I returned he was breathing fast and sitting on the bottom so I quickly scooped him out and isolated him in a 10 gal of tank water with an airstone. An hour later he was dead. :(

Checked all the other fish which all looked fine, doing thier normal things, eating, etc. To be safe I added a good dose of Prime, checked all my param's, and cleaned the filter socks and added some fresh carbon. Then it was off to my mothers for Easter Dinner.

So I got back home this afternoon, went to check the tank only to find with horror that Everyone had been struck with the dreaded Marine Velvet! NOOOOO!!!! All the fish were covered to various degrees. some were still acting ok but alot were hanging around the cleaner shrimp hoping to get some relief.

I have moved all the fish to a 55 gal I had lying around, gave each fish a freshwater dip, and started copper treatment. Fingers crossed!

:sad:

Crappy news!! Hope that works out for you. What kind of filtration have you got on the treatment tank? I lost half my fish from a poorly planned treatment tank...

Hospital tank is set up as follows:

55 gal tank 50% tank water 50% new aged SW
Filtration is a magnum HOB cannister filled with filter floss and
A sponge filter I keep in my sump for emergencies.
200 watt heater set to 82'.
Also I've got a remora nano HOB skimmer on there, not to skim really just to oxygenate the water more.
A few chunks of dry Marco rock as hiding places.

Currently I'm mixing more SW so I can do small daily water changes too.

Filter is a good start. I had none, so NH3 went through the roof and added the final blow to kill most of the fish.

velvet
 

That sucks.....Good luck with it

dude!.....sorry to hear:sad:

Man thats rough! Sorry to hear that. Good luck fixin all the fishies.

Tank is looking great as well! Hopefully everything turns out ok.

Well a bit of an update.

Day 2 of copper treatment and no deaths! The fish looked a little better today and they all ate some food. Mixed up a custom nutritional mush for them consisting of seafood chunks nori algae wafers selcon and garlic.

Total deaths so far:

Powder Blue Tang (aka Bluey)
2 domino damsels

I will be keeping the fish in quarantine for 8 weeks to let all the cysts in the display die off. It looks so quiet!

that part really sucks. I'm at week 5 now...

Brad are you doing 8 weeks too? That seems be the concensus from what I've read but some say 10?

I read 42 days somewhere, 8 weeks was being safe. Not sure where I found that though.

Just ran a couple of searches, most sites list 6-8 weeks, 8 giving a better chance of clearing it from the tank. Higher temps speed up the process, but might be harmful to corals.

Well some bad news... lost another fish.

Today it was my Flame Angel. That brings the death toll to 4. :cry:

Did a 5 gal waterchange and added a little more copper to the tank.

Fingers crossed cuz I'm running out of fish! :sad::sad:

Are you measuring copper?

:cry:
+1 to measuring copper. A seachem kit is cheap enough

that sucks man, I am sorry to hear.. hopefully you can rid your tank of the problem. :( poor buggers

Yes I am testing for copper. Just had add a little to replenish what I removed.