Westeri's Tank

[Westeri]

Tank is somewhat in planning/build stages.  I started trying some hardscape layout while the rock is dry so that I have plenty of time to work with it and try different formations.  The tank is a 180 gallon, pre-drilled with bulkheads about 8 inches from either end on the back wall, and the bulkheads are about 10 inches wide.  The hardscape layout is on some cardboard that is about the size of the tank, to try out various layouts.  I did mark my overflow bulkheads on the cardboard so I could allow space around them, but I don't have anything there to physically represent them or give an idea of their impact upon the aquascaping.

First picture below is my initial hardscape layout seen from about 45 to 60 degrees above the head on front view.  Below that is the same rock work but from front view.  I put a yardstick in the pictures for scale.  Tank water height will be around 23 inches.  The tallest rock will be about 14.5 inches.  That will leave about 9 inches between the rock and water surface for corals and fish that want to swim above the corals.

I would like to ensure that I have good water flow through the hardscape.



The following picture (I hope) gives a better idea of the space above the hardscape for fish and corals.  I believe the top of the image is around 25 inches, so water height will be about 1.5 to 2 inches below that.  Hmm, those rocks on the far left almost look like some sort of animal.




Any suggestions regarding the hardscape are welcome, and thank you.

[bbtm64]

I would suggest using epoxy on the smaller rocks that are stacked on the larger ones. That way the currents or fish can't knock them off. You could also drill them and use short pieces of PVC instead of the epoxy. Just a suggestion. 

I like how you have it laid out. I still move mine around some to help with flow.

[Westeri]

I would suggest using epoxy on the smaller rocks that are stacked on the larger ones. That way the currents or fish can't knock them off. You could also drill them and use short pieces of PVC instead of the epoxy. Just a suggestion. 

Would silicone also work to bind the rocks together?  Also, I have read about using eggcrate under the base rocks to help prevent burrowing animals from toppling rocks and possibly to keep pressure points from being created between rocks and glass.   Something I should look into, or not really needed?

[bbtm64]

silicone would work also. it'd also make it easier to get them apart if you decide later to move things around.
the eggcrate is a good idea. it depends on how deep you make your sand also. if its deep enough, you really don't have to worry about stress points between the rock and the glass. the sand bed will spread the weight out enough.

my sand is about 2" deep and I have around 60 pounds of rock. I've had some smaller pieces fall over but none of the big ones.

[joncat24]

Would silicone also work to bind the rocks together?  Also, I have read about using eggcrate under the base rocks to help prevent burrowing animals from toppling rocks and possibly to keep pressure points from being created between rocks and glass.   Something I should look into, or not really needed?

I tried the silicone on some dry pukani rock. It seemed ok for a while, then some nastiness began happening around the area. Can't really explain it, but I took it out.
I would stick to epoxy and acrylic rods if I were you.

[Westeri]

Ok, applied some marine aquarium safe 2 part putty/epoxy and of course, made a couple of changes to the layout, primarily the center section.  After prepping the left and right sides, just didn't like how the center seemed to break the sight lines that the left and right had formed. 

hardscape from front:


hardscape from front above:


from front left above:


and from front right above:


After all that, lets hope the fish like it.

Now to place those rocks into bins etc and see if I can start to establish a bacterial colony on them.

[joncat24]

Looks great!! is that the ecosaver rock from BRS??

[Travis8896]

Looks like a good start but I guarantee u will change it in some way once you get going lol I'm pretty sure everyone has

[Westeri]

Looks great!! is that the ecosaver rock from BRS??

Thank you, and yes that is the reef saver rock from BRS.

Looks like a good start but I guarantee u will change it in some way once you get going lol I'm pretty sure everyone has

Let's see, it has changed at least three times so far and it hasn't even made it into the tank yet.  I don't think I will place any wagers on your being mistaken.

[Travis8896]

Lol when I put the rock in my tank I waited a couple days and only changed the landscape like 6 times 

[Westeri]

Ok,  I have started trying to plan out my plumbing, and have a fairly basic initial diagram.  Granted at this stage it doesn't show any check valves, unions, or most other valves that would be in the system.  I think of it as more of a high level diagram to get the basic flow and denote the location of various pieces of equipment.



So, waste water starts from the 180, goes through the red lines to the primary sump.  Then a pump (purple-ish box) takes water via the orange line before the skimmer in section S2 to the refugium, where hopefully the macro algae and rock further cleans the water returning it to the secondary sump via the yellow line.  The Green lines then take the water from the sumps back up to the main tank (or transfer between the two sumps if there is a flow imbalance).  The water from the second sump is also passed through a UV-Sterilizer that is in parallel with a gate valve.  I figure at normal operation the gate will be closed passing all the water through the UV and killing stray alga and perhaps some bacteria, but when needed, I can open the gate to reduce the flow rate through the UV to kill protozoans.  Since the filtration of the main tank should turn water over close to 5 times an hour, even with the gate open, the UV should see around 200->250 gallons per hour.

I am planning on two ~500 gallons/hour pumps to return water to the main tank.  That way I have some redundancy so I can take one offline while performing maintenance, or if a pump fails, I should still have close to 2x/hour filtration.

I figure I should be able to place heaters in sections S4 and S5.  Currently I am not sure what to do with section S3, or where the output from dosing pumps should go. I would appreciate suggestions regarding those items.  Also, does anyone see some issue with this flow plan?

[Westeri]

Ok, the base stand for the aquarium is assembled, some minor tweaks to make yet, but thought I would post some pictures.  There is some glare, hopefully not too bad of a picture though.



The top trim that hides the aquarium trim (and perhaps some sand) is removable so it won't impede placing the tank on the stand.



The front image shows some of the detail work at the base of the stand.



And of course, a picture showing the interior/floorboards of the stand.

[Bucknutz]

that stand is sharp Westeri. Great job!

[lazylivin]

Beautiful stand, did you make that?

[joncat24]

Gorgeous stand!

[Westeri]

Thank you everyone

Beautiful stand, did you make that?

Yes I did, next week I get to start work on the canopy.

[lazylivin]

Are you a cabinet builder? It is the nicest stand I have seen. Where do you get your wood, is it all solid oak or did you veneer?

[Westeri]

I work with computers for a living, this is my first piece of furniture I have made.  Most of the stand is solid red oak with the exceptions being the floor boards and panels in the doors and on the ends of the stand.  Those used some furniture grade plywood in which one side is red oak.  The finish is Empire Red stain dye with a gloss poly acrylic coating added to help protect from moisture.  My wood came from Lowes and from The Hardwood Store in Enon, OH.

[lazylivin]

Pretty nice job for a first timer.

[Steve]

Very nice, good ideal about the removable trim because you will get some build up and the should make cleaning nice and easy, great job!

[Westeri]

After a bit of a delay, a flurry of progress has been made.  First, I acquired an aquarium controller and have now mounted the power bars and the main controller module for the controller.  In the first shot below, you can see the four power bars for the 180 gallon tank.  The main controller module for the Apex is about 3 feet to the right of the aquarium where it should be safe from water. 



Four may be overkill for now, but I wanted to make sure I could spread out devices such as my pumps that leak current so that I will hopefully experience fewer false trips of the GFCI.  The base circuit is a 20 Amp circuit that has an arc fault circuit breaker.  I then created the little shelters that have a splash guard to help protect the power bars from water.  This lid of the shelter is on a hinge so that it can be raised out of the way if needed (See below).



The Power Bar is plugged into a GFCI outlet that points to the outside so that it is easy to access in the advent that one does trip.  That GFCI outlet is what is actually plugged into the wall outlet.  The outlets should also still be fairly accessible from within the stand.



The fifth power bar of the system is over with the stand for the 90 gallon refugium.  I still have some work to do (mainly the doors) before this stand is completed.

[Westeri]

In a continuation of my flurry of activity, I now have my sump.  Thank you Chris for your work on this.

As shown below, water will enter on the left, then flow into two 4"x14" socks.  The next chamber will house the skimmer and a heater.  Water depth in this section is planned to be about 7.5 inches.  The final section on the far right will house the probes and the bulkheads for the pumps sending water to the 90 and 180 gallon aquariums.



The following shows part of the sump and the tray that will hold the external pumps.  The skimmer section is positioned to be accessed from center door of the stand.



Below is a better shot showing the alignment of the sump and the pump tray.



Then last but not least, the position of the sump has the socks just accessible from the left door of the stand.

[Westeri]

And the last of my recent activity, I now have my skimmer as well.  It is a Doc Tunze 9415



Here is a shot of it sitting in the sump, picture taken through the center door of the stand.



As can be seen below, it does pretty much fill this chamber of the sump.

[bbtm64]

Impressive setup!

[matt78goins]

Really nice work on everything so far.  Can't wait to see some more.