reefwars 55g natural seawater custom build from scratch:*check out the new rockscape*

[reefwars]

so after all that here i am again starting another build, i sold off all my stuff and kept some little things here and there to start another tank.some hard times seen me have to move back home and knowing i probably would pay out the azzzzz for a tank here on the rock i decided to take some glass home with me and build my own tank from scratch

the tank i have choosen to build is a 55 gallon cube 23.5" all around it is drilled for a herbie using 1 1/2" and 1" plumbing.the tank is all polished and beveled edges.it will have a diy stand which i will build and i will also be building a diy sump from a large bin(keeping my eyes out for something that will fit)the sump will be pretty basic and pretty much just a giant refuge.not sure if im going to run a skimmer ...short term ..no long term....yes.i have kept my halides and my ballast good for 3 x 250w halides and 4x 54w t5's so ill add some later for my frag tanks right from the same ballastthe tank will eventualy run full zeo but that will be down the road once we mature a bit and get stocked

i was able to buy 5 pieces of glass which i wrapped like no tomorrow lol the glass was 24" x 24" x 12mm i had one of the pieces cut to fit for the bottom and drilled in three places in the bottom for a herbie style silent overflow. i placed the glass into two packages one with 3 panes and another with 2 panes and a piece of black acrylic....wrapped in bubble wrap then in 1" styrofaom...bubble wrapped again lol and covered in cardboard.....then put wrapping plastic around like you wouldnt believe lol by taking it on the plane with me i didnt have to pay for shipping


glad to say it all made it down no problems at all...........


not so glad to say i broke it when fitting it together dry here at home...knoched a fine chunk off the corner


so i went and got a replacement piece which was half the cost of what i payed for everything in the first place and after getting it i realized i gave him the wrong measurements.......i had origionally planned the tank a different way and gave the guy those measurements instead of the new measurements i had made that day just a great start eh lol my own fault for reading him the measurements and not looking at the drawing ...grrr



sooooooo now i have a new project two pieces of glass need to have 1" taken off them in order to keep my cube shape......i wont settle for an uneven cube lol so it was off to the workroom and to set up the wet saw and with a little luck i would just cut it off


glad to say it worked like a charm and was just as smooth as what the glass guy had cut for my bottom piece .....whew that was a relief lol


so today i started putting the puzzle together and with some alcohol(not the drinking kind lol) some tape,level,square,clamps,paper i got to building my cube....glad to say it all worked out great and the tank is now in one piece waiting for the silicone to cure.......two weeks to be safe before i touch it again or think about adding water

i will be installing a coast to coast overflow with privacy glass so as not to see the plumbing and i have the returns being split into two via loc-lines which i took home with me retrn is 600gph

i also decided to take live rock home with me as its 11.99/lb here on the rock so i have about 35-45 lbs and will be buying another 50lbs from eco reefer i have it curing now in a bucket as each individual piece spent 12 hrs wrapped it wet newpaper and then wrapped in bubble wrap and wrapping plastic then boxed and shipped down....also free from the plane all the rock came from my zoa tank and was full of life when i sent it so alot should have been preserved


ill be using natural seawater for this tank and constantly checking to see what needs to be dosed as ive heard its not very consistent im living in a very remote location where sewers or anything man made isnt an issue....pure ocean here baby!!!!!! plus im only about 200 ft from the water lol


not sure what im going to stock just yet obviousy if you know me it will be a zoa dominated cube plus some other goodies



theres a phase two to this tank which is the fragtanks and yes i said tanks lol once i choose what skimmer i will run i will be running 4 x fragtanks none of them huge but most likey in the 40g breeder range.....ill have to make them too as it seems the prices here are out of whack lol but once i get my cube running and matured a bit ill be building some frag tanks in a bookcase style fashion one over the other and it will sit beside my cube......the basement its in is unfinished and we are talking about doing a fishroom so im not 100% certain of how im going to do this but if i go the fishroom route then it will be alot easier to plumb with alot of crap out of the way


ill be adding some pics in abit as soon as they upload to show where i am in the build and i have a video as well of me and my friend cutting the glass through the wet saw if anyone wants to see how simple it is


cheers guys and tell me what you think?? pics very very soon

[fishoholic]

Sounds like you've had an interesting adventure so far, can't wait to see pic.'s of your new set up. Hope all is well with you BTW now that you've moved you should change location in your user profile

[paddyob]

Question...

So knowing that sea water varies around the world... are you actually sure that it is suitable for tropical species of fish? Our ocean water seems very different from say... Australia/Hawaii... so just curious. I have never heard of this in Canada... only in warmer climates.

Pics yet?

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by paddyob

Question...

So knowing that sea water varies around the world... are you actually sure that it is suitable for tropical species of fish? Our ocean water seems very different from say... Australia/Hawaii... so just curious. I have never heard of this in Canada... only in warmer climates.

Pics yet?

theres quite a few on this side doing it by this side i mean atlantic ocean, from what i gather salinity is a little low as my water was only at 1.020 and alot of stuff may need to be dosed but ill soon know enough, so far ive only tested for phosphates and amonia .i have some rock curing now in a bucket and ill actually do a full on test here soon but i figure ill have to add a little bit of everything....salt here is very expensive and the savings of not buying it is worth it to dose for the sake of 5-10g a week


im going to have to use the small skimmer i have now(just a crappy wei-pro to skim my sea water before i use it in my tank....probably gonna use prime as well......good idea anyone??


for the first while ill be testing all new water constantly for everything untill i can get an idea of what is real low or high

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

Sounds like you've had an interesting adventure so far, can't wait to see pic.'s of your new set up. Hope all is well with you BTW now that you've moved you should change location in your user profile

thanks laurie glad to say i survived the flight...barely lol worst flight ever lol

im happy with the new build so far but it seems like ive got my work cut out for me as theres not a whole lot of places to get the things i need



thanks for the profile tip ill be changing here right away lol but i did get my sig shortened to the point where its not crashing the canreef forumn anymore because of its size lol

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by paddyob

Question...

So knowing that sea water varies around the world... are you actually sure that it is suitable for tropical species of fish? Our ocean water seems very different from say... Australia/Hawaii... so just curious. I have never heard of this in Canada... only in warmer climates.

Pics yet?

pics are being uploaded to photobucket right now should be done soon and the video will be on tomorrow as youtube is sooooo slow on uploading vids lol


thanks for the interest guys miss you all

[Flash]

YAY!!! DENNY!!! glad you're back!!! PICS DAMNIT

[Skimmerking]

So change your location to NEWFOUNDLAND, don't pretend that you are in ALberta shame on you

[Rogue951]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

So change your location to NEWFOUNDLAND, don't pretend that you are in ALberta shame on you

I was just going to say, where the hell is there ocean in alberta?!?!....
I almost felt like an american for a second.
That was distressing.....

[Wayne]

Awesome news Denny! To bad for the airline for cracking your glass especially how well you packaged it. I guess it could have been worse though

Good luck with the sea water, can you just order salt for cheaper? Set up some sort of group buy maybe...