Colin's 150g Tank Build
 

Hello all,

Well it's time to start my build thread...about time eh Kien? Lol

The tank I'm building is 72x24x20 with a 48x12x17 sump, overflow style tank. Yes this tank is very much like Kien's, his tank is gorgeous and I'll be lucky to have half the tank he has. I'd like to take the time right off the bat to thank everyone who has been involved in this tank build already, but a huge thanks to Dez and Kien so far as their knowledge and help has made all the difference already....thanks guys!
I had the tank and sump professionally built but will be doing everything else myself.
How this all came about. Well that's easy, I already have a 90 gallon salt water tank, I've had my ups and downs, but have always wanted to go bigger. Well the perfect chance came about when I decided to finish my basement. Note that it's a work in progress right now, but it's getting there. I decided to use the tank as a bit of a wall divider within the entertainment area of my basement. Where I wanted to build the tank into the wall on one side there was a pole support in the way, but I decided to put the tank here anyways because I thought it was the best spot to get three full side views. How was I going to build the tank in the wall with the pole in the way...well I'm not the biggest handy man out there and didn't feel like moving the pole, so I'm leaving the pole here and making a fake wall/area away from the wall. Not totally the look I was looking for, but am happy with the decision i made. The basement was only framed when I started this project and as it stands now, it has the dry wall, basically finished, it's almost all painted and the flooring is ordered and is suppose to arrive next Thursday. I have the tank stand built and this weekend I will be working on the rest of the finishing of the stand, though I'm hoping to have it finished, I know the pull away doors for the stand will probably not get finished as I'm not exactly set on the look I want for them.
I will attach some photos when I can figure out how to do so from my iPad.
Thank you all for viewing my first ever tank build thread and any suggestions or comments are always welcomed.


Now after reading that first post I made a long time ago, note the tank is done, but I have a few fans on here that still wanted to see my full tank build, so I'm giving it another go and hopefully everyone will enjoy what I've done with my build. Suggestions or comments are still always welcome, and for those who have been waiting a long time for this, thanks for waiting!

Cheers to everyone that has helped me over these long months, there are a lot of you and as much as I am proud of my tank so far, its because of all your help, I've made it this far.

Or so now for some pictures, starting from the start. I'll post more pictures of the build as I have time.

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/a885501a.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/0c61815e.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/6177bbbd.jpg

looks good so far!

It was like yesterday I remember building that stand, and after all the hard work that was going around the tank with all the drywalling, flooring, painting, etc. It was finally time to get back to working a little bit more on the stand. These next pictures show the progress of the room behind the tank, but more importantly the progress that was getting made on the stand. I bought the counter top from ikea, it was the perfect length for the tank.

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/2b7cdf61.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/c6971d12.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/0c218cb7.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/79e22a4f.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/578d0bf1.jpg

Thank you.

Looks like your stand is a mm low on the right :lol: according to the level.

:pop2:

We fixed that before we got the tank on there, dead level now.

Just curious, if that's the tanks permanent home where is the power coming from?

Oh, just read over the first post and got to the part of the tank being finished. I guess that question is answered.

Lol good question. I had a guy come in and put in extra plugs on the other side of the wall. My electrical runs through holes I have drilled in the wall. More pics to come in awhile, I'll try to get some of the electrical.

Next we worked on the room some more, and then drywalled around the tank.

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/aeb32eaf.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/3ba40b85.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/99c84178.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/9b9c776d.jpg
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/2c7aa1b2.jpg

And the tank is waiting.

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/9195e325.jpg


And put up the drop down ceiling.

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/...d/03a10370.jpg

Your build is coming along nicely! Can't wait to see it all set up! The suspense is killing me!!

Lol you are one hilarious fellow. How's that popcorn?

Running low, need more kernels. I actually really like how you finished the stand right up to the wall. Gives it that nice finished look instead of my ghetto approach :lol: Sometimes I wish I had done that.

I was originally going to build it right into the wall, but I didn't want to move the steel house support in the wall, so I decided I'd build the wall out to the tank :biggrin: I actually haven't finished that part of the build yet. I'm going to finish the wall up to the bottom of the overflow, but going to cut it in half, so I can remove that piece of 'wall' if I need to get to the overflow lines. I'll make sure to get pictures of this as I build this part.

Well I'm sorry all, I haven't been around or had enough time to keep up on this build, so I'll change it to an update on how things are going with my tank. It's been running for a year or longer now and things have been up and down, but really great lately, I think I'm finally through all the tough work of getting a tank up and running and having it stable and controllable. I may even be at the point of having to trim up some corals and putting them up for sale or trade. I've attached some photos below, I hope you enjoy them. And yes I know I need a fancy camera, but that will come in the future.

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...psd4c47137.jpg

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...ps402e7e35.jpg

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...ps938a430a.jpg

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...psb7223bd5.jpg

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3c834725.jpg

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2c204118.jpg

Looks great Colin, wow! Are those AI SOLs over your tank?

Phenomenal! Your tank looks fantastic.


More photos?

Hey Kien, thanks, I'm starting to be super pleased! Yes those are AI SOL's over my tank. Seem to be growing my SPS nicely too. These pictures area little bit older, the corals are quite a bit larger now.

Thank you I appreciate that. I'll try to get some more photos this weekend, I actually think I have a free weekend to do things like that lol Stay tuned.

Love the setup and how the corals look some pretty awesome pictures of coral and fish you got there

Cool. My light fixture is acting wonky on me these days. I'm hoping I just need new T5 bulbs but it may end up being a bigger problem. If so, I'll be on the hunt for a new light setup..

Thanks I appreciate that! I'll get some more photos hopefully this weekend.

Well I hope new T5 bulbs work for you, but I must say I love my lights and they are growing both LPS and SPS great in my tank. They were easy to program and easy to figure out the levels the lights needed to be at, but like all the threads have said, start low and increase slowly, I had a few SPS burn at the start because I was to high, but they are coming back now after many months of staying white.

Looking very good there, if you dont mind sharing your light intensity very curious to see whats working for you. I used to have 4 SOLS over my 72x30x22 tank and I went back to T5s (60" 8x80w ATI) and sometimes I regret it but sometimes I don't...lol I miss the pop out .

Sure I can no problem! Personally I love these LED lights and I've never had a major problem with them. Here is what I'm using for my light schedule, I've been thinking about changing the length of on time, but right now everything is working so why change right?

8:00am w0b04r04 10min ramp
9:30am w03b07r07 10min ramp
10:30am w20b27r25 10min ramp
11:30am w45b35r30 14min ramp
4:00pm w50b40r43 10min ramp
8:00pm w20b33r22 10min ramp
8:30pm w08b30r30 5min ramp
10:00pm w0b10r10 5min ramp
11:00pm w0b0r0 10min ramp

I've had these setting for a long time now, at least 6 months and the corals love it...I am slowly moving my 4:00pm white intensity up, I'd like to get it to around 60, but I'm doing this very slowly.

Anymore questions please let me know.

Awesome settings on ai sol Colin, I had similar settings when I ran my ai sols. I would also increased my peak period by 2 % every few week and I use my sunset millie as a indicator. if it starts to bleach then I know my intensity is to wrong but if it keeps getting hotter then I keep going:-). I got to 64% before I switched my lighting to ati led powermodule.

~Tony

Thanks Tony! I increased 5% today, we'll see what happens. I know I can increase to the fact that my corals are all growing straight up towards the lights instead of branching out, if I notice some bleaching I'll lower it back down. I think it's one thing I enjoy about LEDs, you can play with the settings as little or as much as your want.

Get a sunset millie! They love light and flow and have amazing polyp extension when happy. Making it a perfect cardinal for my tank, if it's not doing well or happy then ill know something things wrong with my tank.

~Tony

Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep my eyes open for one.

Tank is looking great Colin.

Fine looking set up. First time I've read thru your build thread. Question regarding the stand skinning. Wondering how the drywall is holding up? Is it normal drywall or the water resistant kind typically used in bathrooms & damp areas? What kind of finish/paint did you apply? Most folks seem to go with plywood to skin their stands, so I'm curious for any info regarding your decision to use dry wall. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for taking the time to answer I do love AI SOLs too got good experiences with them.

Thanks buddy. Working on a frag tank at the moment, probably an 1/8 of the tank yo're building.

Thank you! My drywall is holding up just fine, not a single problem yet. I used mostly the water resistant kind only because I had a bunch left over from my bathroom, but in spots I used the regular drywall and it's holding up great. I don't typically drip a ton of water anywhere, so I'm sure that helps. As for plywood, I put a white water proof coat within the stand for extra water protection. I haven't noticed any problems in there either. For paint I used regular wall paint, nothing special. The only thing I do is wipe up the water drops when I see them. I hope this helped answer your questions.

Your welcome. My high time light setting is slowly going up, going to get to 65% or so, but it'll take some time as going slow is very important.

Just a quick FTS.

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...ps165ea06f.jpg