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.

[Bucknutz]

I commend you for your patience sir. Awesome job!

[Twizted1]

It's so pretty! Love the look of new equipment. Looks good. You are starting your tank the way I wish I would have.

[itsalifestyle]

nice looks great

[lazylivin]

The sump is like a piece of artwork.

[Travis8896]

I can't wait to see this completed its going to look amazing!!

[Mussin]

Very we'll put together!

[Marine_freak]

One of the nicer builds I have seen...... Stand is awesome, the sump is very nice looking, and to top it off with a tunze 9415 is killer .... I run a 9410 on my 57 gallon. 

[Westeri]

I have now started my plumbing work and just recently realized that I had overlooked valves for reactors.  Thought I would post the question here asking besides a pair of reactors, and of course the usual drains, pumps and returns, for what else should I consider putting in plumbing connections?

Figure it is better to install now before there is water in the system.

[chromiumlux]

Very nice build! Tagging along.

[cbenner]

Looks great Roy,
I can't wait to see how that big sump performs! 


Happy Reefing!

[Westeri]

As I stated earlier, I have started the plumbing work.  Kind of taking it a little slowly, but I have almost completed the first path between sump and the left return of the tank.  First shot shows the connection to the barb of the return bulkhead.



Next are a couple of pictures of the UV Sterilizer and bypass/flow reducer for the sterilizer.







Finally, the initial plumbing of the pumps.



Now, if I could just avoid getting that excess cleaner on my nice white pipes.   

[Bucknutz]

Looking pretty cool Westeri. I can't wait to see it running.

[Twizted1]

Man I wish I had your patients. Looks sweet. What's your eta on getting it wet?

[Westeri]

My first instinct is to say February.  But knowing my track record, and that I need to complete some woodworking as well, I should probably guess March.

[Westeri]

Progress update:

The plumbing for the right overflow drain has been installed now.



As well as the left overflow drain.



A top view of both overflows connecting to the sump.



I had originally planned to connect the near drain to the closest sump input, but the valve was too large for that to work.  Also, this resulted in making it easy to keep the right overflow drain from interfering with the center section of the sump very much.

[Westeri]

I then resumed work on plumbing my returns.  I first started the return path for the 90 gallon.





It isn't finished, but I did enough of it so that I could plumb the next return without worry about path interference etc.  So, here is the right return plumbing.



Then I finally completed the path for the left return.



So, that now leaves me to complete the return plumbing to the 90 gallon, and the drains from the 90 gallon.  So, maybe next weekend all the plumbing will be complete.

[Bucknutz]

What are you using the three pumps for?

[cbenner]

What are you using the three pumps for?

Each return on the 180 and one for the display fuge I would expect.

Redundancy!

[Westeri]

Each return on the 180 and one for the display fuge I would expect.

Redundancy!

Correct.  The rear most pump goes to the 90 gallon refugium.   The center pump goes to the right hand return of the 180.  Finally the near pump goes to the UV sterilizer and then the left return of the 180.

I decided to be cautious and spend a little extra money each year on electricity and have dual pumps on the main tank so that it can continue even if it experiences a pump failure.

[Bucknutz]

I think my next build will be copy of yours. 

[Westeri]

Been a little behind in updating about my progress.

So first, I completed the floorboard for the refugium stand.



Now that the minor item is out of the way, I also built, stained, coated with polyacrylic the floating shelf/sofit for my drain pipes that will run from the refugium to the main display.





I may have gone a little overboard with the screws, but at least it should stay up on the wall. 

[Westeri]

I have also now completed my plumbing.  I took a page from Mr. Brenner and included a manifold.



And of course, something I have been waiting, and waiting for . . .



Granted at the time that was taken, it was just the 180 with water.  Below is a front shot



I did get my altered overflow box (Thank you Chris) last Sunday.  I eagerly installed it.



Then proceeded to wait 48 hours before water testing the overflow box to make sure it won't leak and drain the top of the tank.  Which brings us up to current.  Will be letting this sit for about 20 or so hours to make sure the seal is holding. 

[lazylivin]

Another beautiful executed step in your build. Very nicely done

[Twizted1]

Man what a super build. Wow!

[matt78goins]

Tank is looking awesome.  When I do my next tank I want it that well planned out and executed.

[Westeri]

So I got my tanks filled with saltwater, and now decided it was time to get some rock into the tanks and out of the brute cans that have been taking up part of my living room for the last few months.  I also decided, that I would like to try to keep the rock up off the glass so that sand bed critters could better get under the big rocks to clean/keep the area aerobic.

I decided to go with some PVC frames, such as the simple U shape shown below.  I figured the 1/2 inch interior diameter PVC would probably provide close to an inch gap under the rock and that would hopefully be sufficient.



In that picture the pipe at that time was just dry fitted to check if it would work and was the right size.  I then glued up the U shape except for the two end caps.  I then used some of my sand as filler to weight down the PVC.  I read about some people drilling their PVC to avoid anaerobic areas, but I figured if the PVC was glued up like I would for my plumbing, it should be water tight and shouldn't become an anaerobic area in the pipe.  Of course, the story I read about someone finding a six foot worm living in his PVC framework he had for his aquascape may also have encouraged me to keep it sealed.



Having read about flow currents (and tank inhabitants) moving sand, and desiring to not have PVC showing in my tank; I decided to "paint" most of the PVC structure with silicone and then coat it with some of the same sand I would be using in my tank, hoping to camouflage it somewhat should it become exposed.



Once it cured for a few hours (wasn't really worried about the silicone becoming water tight), went and tried it out in my tank.



As can be seen in the reflection, the bottom of the PVC is not coated.  Now, to do this for the rest of my rocks, hmm, those cans may be in my living room yet for a while longer.

[Twizted1]

Looks good. I'll have to wait and see how it looks with sand.

[Westeri]

It is a little cloudy at the moment when this picture was taken, but here is the current aquascape of the refugium. 



No guarantees that it won't change, and I still need to do the main tank.

[Westeri]

The main thing I accomplished this weekend (most of the aquascaping for the refugium was accomplished previously, I just hadn't posted about it and occasional tweak how it looks) was to install an additional EB8 bar into the Laundry room where my RO/DI unit is located and connect it to my current Apex aquabus.  To this power bar I connected the BRS 3 liter/hour peristaltic pump which I also installed this weekend.



So hopefully I will be able to keep my salinity on an even keel and replace water lost to evaporation, which will also replace my daily manual top off of the tank water.  Well, I won't be able to check my conductivity until I actually get my conductivity probe (it is currently on backorder).  I will then have to tweak the program for how long the pump should run.  Currently it is set to run for 60 minutes which should add about 8/10ths of a gallon of RO/DI to the main system.  I have been told that the peristaltic pumps are low load items and I should place them on the relay switch outlet of the EB8 so that they will properly turn on and off.  Of course, since it is on a relay switch outlet I don't want to turn it on/off any more than I have to so I don't create unnecessary wear and tear on the EB8 outlet.

You may notice two aquabus cables in that previous picture.  To help reduce concern about an unknown leak occurring from the RO/DI system (which has happened once) or from the ATO pump I also installed a Neptune Systems ALD module and have currently hooked up a single solid surface probe to it.  I may add a second probe later since I have a fairly decent footprint within my laundry room.



I also went into my Apex settings and setup email alerts.  Not a big leap forward for tank accomplishments this weekend, but I did make a little bit of progress.  Still deciding on 1 or 2 circulation pumps for the refugium, I am leaning toward just one pump.

[bbtm64]

That looks awesome!

[Twizted1]

Your fuge looks better than my dt. I'm so jealous.

[Westeri]

Your fuge looks better than my dt. I'm so jealous.

Thank you, but it isn't a fair comparison.  After all, my refugium hasn't even been up and running for a month yet and it has no life other than the expected microbial life (or I hope it is there).

Here is a clearer picture from this morning.

[Twizted1]

I really like the right side. You did a great jig on the aquascape.

[Westeri]

I am debating tweaking the left side some more.

But I did have a question.  As I get my rock into its "final" positions I think I want to check my flow.   Does anyone know of some smaller type items I could place in the tank (that float in water as opposed to surface floating or sinking to bottom) to see how the flow is?

[Twizted1]

Not sure what would be best for a tank with nothing in it. I did it when I fed. Just used a turnkey blaster to blast mysis in spots to see where it blew. You need something g that will float to the service when you do e so you can get it out of the tank.

[Westeri]

Well, I played around a bit more with the refugium, it now looks like:



Whether I am ready for it or not, life is starting in the refugium, looks like I have started getting some diatom algae?.  Anyway, guess I will have to go ahead and order some of my refugium cleanup crew soon.  Need to check my water parameters first.  Hadn't bothered with it since I was still playing with the rockscape, but I guess mother nature isn't waiting for me and my slow cautious pace, lol.

I have initially gotten the rock for the main tank out of its containers and into the tank as well,  Though a full shot from front doesn't really seem to do the rock much justice.



I am a little concerned that some of those rocks are a little too tall. I need to have some vertical room for coral growth and still allow a clear space for water flow.  Currently trying to compensate by having the high points toward the midline of the tank and then the circulation pumps before and behind that point.  I have also been experimenting with my Apex controlling the Jebao pumps.

[Twizted1]

That looks great. I think you have plenty of room. And I'd a coral starts reaching the waters surface, they start growing out instead of up. Also when they start getting to tall, just trim them down and frag them up and sell them.
In my opinion your aquascape and tank build as a whole rock! No pun intended.

[Bucknutz]

Heck of a job Roy. Looks fantastic.

[Westeri]

With what I believe to be diatom growth starting in my Refugium, I decided it was time to start acquiring a cleanup crew for it.  This is the first installment of what I acquired; sandbed clams.  I definitely took pictures now, as I don't expect to see them again unless I go digging up the sandbed.



What follows are some pictures of one of the clams proceeding to bury itself.  I apologize, I didn't think to have my tripod out and ready so these pictures aren't all the best.  I possess a few more pictures, but in the interest of brevity went with the following.  The clam went through a couple of cycles in which the right side of the clam tilted up and back down, then the clam listed way up and rapidly sank beneath the sand.

[Twizted1]

Very cool.

[Bucknutz]

It's alive.

[Mussin]

Where  do you get those?

[Westeri]

Where  do you get those?

I got the sandbed clams from Indo Pacific Sea Farms

[Westeri]

For the next installment, mini-stars






I then did manage to get a couple of quick pictures before they too disappeared from view.

[ReeferMadness]

Those are so fricken cute I wish they'd stay out!

Sent from my ADR8995 using Tapatalk 2

[Twizted1]

Lookin good Roy.

[Blazinreef]

That's awesome.  Did you buy a package from ipsf or individual stuff??

[Westeri]

I bought a few packages.  Refugium startup, Live sand activator, reef worms, and a couple of stand alone items such as mini - stars and sandbed clams.

[Westeri]

And now for the next set of pictures, first up, Spaghetti Worms



Then what should be a reef safe bristleworm



On to something a bit more pleasant to view;



too small to get a good view?



I also got some Nerite and Strombus snails





And finally for today:



Guess he doesn't like his new home, although, the only confirmed escapees have been a couple of snails.

[bbtm64]

That's very cool.
I had some of the clams for awhile but I don't think they got fed enough and died off. They're really cool to watch bury themselves.

[Westeri]

I am in the home stretch now of what I received last Friday.

IPSF sent me two freebie corals (I guess due to the size of my order) which I wasn't entirely sure I was actually ready to receive.  I have placed them into my refugium for now, as it is the only thank with a light operating at this time.  The first picture is focused upon what I believe to be a variety of Small Pipe Caulastrea.



I haven't figured out what the coral behind the Caulastrea is.  Though it did come with a couple of featherdusters.



Next is just a fun shot that I did, it doesn't really add any information.



The following is a shot of the Refugium from last Saturday timeframe.  This shows my Yellow and Red Gracilaria that I received.



and now from Thursday.

[lazylivin]

And let there be life

[Travis8896]

Looks nice!!

[Westeri]

Thank you,

I like the trick the yellow gracilaria pulled on me.

[Westeri]

I got my coral quarantine tank setup now.  I have moved the two coral freebies I received with my clean up crew order to that tank.  May be a little late if there is anything problematic on those two corals, but at least I can start the proper practice.   Probably should get a hermit for that tank to remove any algae from future acquisitions, and a snail.

The reef amphipods seem to be increasing in numbers and are fairly easy to find some now in the tank.  I also seem to be getting a population of copepods in the refugium as well.

I haven't noticed either spreading to the main tank yet, though I suspect a few must have.  May just not be enough light until I get my main lights up and running.

[chromiumlux]

Looking Good!

[Westeri]

So, as I work on my canopy, I have put together a list of fish I am thinking of putting into my tank.  The list is also in 'add to the tank' order.  Hopefully keeping the ones with greater aggressive tendency (or requiring a more mature tank) to the end.

2 Orange Butterflyfish (chaetodon kleini)
3 Labout's Fairy Wrasse (cirrhilabrus laboutei)
2 Orange stripe Prawn Goby (amblyeleotris randalli)
1 Green Mandarin
1 Macneill's Assessor basslet (assessor macneilli)
4 Yellow Tangs
1 cleaner common wrasse


I do plan on including some inverts such as cleaner shrimp,
Green feather starfish, perhaps Trapezia Pocillopora (Trapezia sp).

[Westeri]

Happy to report that I finally spotted some amphipods in the main tank yesterday.   Granted they may have been there previously.   Given the difficulty in spotting them, I would say they are a small population.   At least compared to finding them in my refugium.   But I take it as a good sign.  Hopefully in about 4 weeks it will be as easy to spot them in the main tank as they currently are in the refugium.

[Wall_Tank]

Happy to report that I finally spotted some amphipods in the main tank yesterday.   Granted they may have been there previously.   Given the difficulty in spotting them, I would say they are a small population.   At least compared to finding them in my refugium.   But I take it as a good sign.  Hopefully in about 4 weeks it will be as easy to spot them in the main tank as they currently are in the refugium.

Do a transplant from your fuge to your main tank.   They do make it, but your circulation pump kills a good portion of them in between.

[Westeri]

I may try that, but there is no pump between the fuge and main tank.  There is a gravity overflow that delivers water to the main tank from refugium.

But a transplant would probably help spread them faster.

[Wall_Tank]

Then that is fine.....I missed that you had a gravity fed fuge.

[Twizted1]

Would love to see your system in person some time.

[Westeri]

Would love to see your system in person some time.

I will keep that in mind for when I "finish" my system.

[Westeri]

Well, my first two fish have survived their first week in QT.  Just around 5 more weeks to go.

[Twizted1]

Very nice. They both look good.

[chromiumlux]

Any updates on this build?

[Westeri]

Been kind of lazy the last couple of months on this.  Still need to complete my canopy.