A Golden Reef Tank

[halmus]

Thanks Jaybo. I'm a big believer in DIY. I make a lot of mistakes but learn from them long the way.

I've take a lot of inspiration from reading build threads of some of the people in the hobby internationally over the last decade or so. I'm just putting my own spin on the build.

 

[halmus]

On a side note, did anyone catch what I wrote in a few posts above, " The fudge is almost done."??? Auto correct does some weird things! I don't even know what I was trying to post there.

...The "fuge" is almost done. I took me a bit to figure that out. Well the fuge (refugium) is done. The fudge hasn't even started cooking.

I'll post up some pics this week. I've started plumbing. That will be another long process. I want to do it right which means backtracking when I discover I didn't route certain lines correctly the first time.

 

[halmus]

I built a dual sump system for the QT side. Basically two separate sumps in one package. One side for coral QT on for fish QT. I don't plan on using chemicals in the fish side like copper or anything to medicate so I'm not worried about them being this close together.

If I get to the point where I need to medicate, I can set up a hospital tank but I've never done that in the past. I am not as focused on high end fish as I am coral. So, I just want to get the fish fat and happy before introducing to my display.

The coral QT tank is about 24" x 30" x 12". It's made from 1" thick acrylic I bought from a contractor that was hired to rip out a fish tank in a business. He didn't know what it was worth or what to do with it.

 

[halmus]

The last major acrylic projects: drip owns for skimmers and a FWTO tank. The tank will sit on a top shelf somewhere and gravity feed lines to keep the tanks topped off with FW.

It holds about 50 g.

My stash of pipe. I'll probably need more of certain dia but I won't know until I start really digging into the project.

 

[halmus]

Autocorrect on this phone is killing me.

 

[spieszak]

I asked about a floor drain waaay up there ^^ because I think most kitchens/bathrooms should have one, let alone fish rooms. I want one in my kitchen! Life would be easier if after the nieces and nephews made cookies, or gingerbread houses that I could just hose the damn thing down. If I ever build new, I will have one. I may never use it, but just having it there would make me happy.

 

[Krish]

Subbed!

This is a wicked build!! Tagging along for sure !

 

[halmus]

I asked about a floor drain waaay up there ^^ because I think most kitchens/bathrooms should have one, let alone fish rooms. I want one in my kitchen! Life would be easier if after the nieces and nephews made cookies, or gingerbread houses that I could just hose the damn thing down. If I ever build new, I will have one. I may never use it, but just having it there would make me happy.

I totally agree. If possible, floor drains are a huge benefit to a reefing area.

An industrial kitchen would be awesome as well. I like to cook but hate the cleaning process. If I could just get out a hose and spray it down? Instead I have a dog to take care of the large food items.

 

[halmus]

Subbed!

This is a wicked build!! Tagging along for sure !

Thanks Krish.

I'm working on/planning out the two elements of this build that I'm less confident in. Plumbing and rockwork. My skills are a little lacking on both. I'm trying to spend extra time on every fitting priming, glueing, and holding for 30 secs minimum so that I don't have any failures. There are a lot of lines to run!

It turns out that while the finished product is going to be really user friendly and easy to service, the initial build time is insane.

Yesterday was a killer day plumbing. I made some real boneheaded mistakes like plumbing a section with a union but forgetting to slip in that loose threaded flange that locks the two sides of the union together. Newb mistake.

If I was was my boss on this job I would have been threatening to fire myself yesterday.

 

[halmus]

Two weekends of plumbing, and this is all I have to show for it. Many of the support brackets are only temporary as I build out everything. I'll go back and remove unneeded support later or make more permanent solutions that look good.

I little disclaimer, I would have layed out everything much differently if the sink was on the far wall where I originally wanted it. Since things ended up where they are, I have some plumbing lines that are going to be running across the floor where I need to walk to access reactors, the back side of tanks, and the skimmer. I'm going to be building an elevated platform over all of that. (The grating is sitting in the garage already). That grating will be removable so I can service the lines.

The room looks like a hurricane hit it right now. Plumbing parts and tools everywhere.

I'm running two Dolphin Amp Master pumps for return. I've always had dual matching return pumps on my tanks for redundancy. I'm doing the same here. *One pump will be return and refugium feed. The other will be return and feed water to the frag tanks while they're online.

I can turn either off at any point and keep water flowing to the tank. The lines running to the inputs of the pumps are 2" dia. I know they're a little further away from the sump than preferable, but I wanted them out of the way under that counter. *So, the 90 deg turn was necessary. Hopefully, with the large diameter pipe, the turn won't be a big deal.

 

[N1Husker]

Looking good! You look so organized.

 

[Krish]

Thanks Krish.

I'm working on/planning out the two elements of this build that I'm less confident in. Plumbing and rockwork. My skills are a little lacking on both. I'm trying to spend extra time on every fitting priming, glueing, and holding for 30 secs minimum so that I don't have any failures. There are a lot of lines to run!

It turns out that while the finished product is going to be really user friendly and easy to service, the initial build time is insane.

Yesterday was a killer day plumbing. I made some real boneheaded mistakes like plumbing a section with a union but forgetting to slip in that loose threaded flange that locks the two sides of the union together. Newb mistake.

If I was was my boss on this job I would have been threatening to fire myself yesterday.

We've all had those days lol. I've made my fair share of newbie mistakes

 

[halmus]

We've all had those days lol. I've made my fair share of newbie mistakes

Thanks. I know I'm not alone.

I think I need to add more fans in the room to circulate air. I have the vent fan on but I still am getting a lot of fumes from the glue and primer. Its possible the fumes are getting to me. I felt like crap all weekend and didn't sleep well.

I need to do something different next weekend.

 

[JRBear5658]

I have to say this build looks like a lot of fun... I am hoping in the next year to start a build similar to yours. I am definitely tagging on to learn and get inspired.

 

[NanaReefer]

I'm exhausted! Lol

 

[halmus]

I have to say this build looks like a lot of fun... I am hoping in the next year to start a build similar to yours. I am definitely tagging on to learn and get inspired.

I'm glad to have you following.

I'll post up update photos after this weekend. I hope to be done plumbing a few major systems by this weekend.

If I'm lucky, all I will have left is the QT system, the water mixing station, and the FWTO system.

I'm pretty sure I still won't even get that far. Furniture is arriving tomorrow and I have to do taxes. So, no, I probably won't get that far.

I did a water test on the frag system.

I have to go back and make overflow boxes in those bare frag tanks. I tried running just standpipes in those and didn't like the results. By adding overflow boxes, I can keep the water level high when the pump turns off (or fails) and still allow maximum drainage. Having the pipes high enough in the frag tanks to not drain a significant amount of the frag tank with no water running meant that I couldn't get a full siphon on the emergency pipe with the pumps on.

I'm exhausted! Lol

Yes. My feelings exactly.

 

[halmus]

I made some of the first braces that will hold the plumbing secure along the sumps.

 

[halmus]

One of the return lines splits off and will supply a couple hundred GPH to the sump that supports the frag system.

 

[halmus]

As a reference for the last picture above, the bottom 1 1/2" line feeds the Vortec that supports the frag system. That vortec feeds the two frag tanks, two reactors, and the skimmer. It might be a lot to ask of a single pump but I'm not planning on running a huge amount of water through the frag tanks, just a lot of internal circulation for each tank.

The second line from the bottom is the feed line that comes from the main system. It also won't run an enormous amount of flow through the sump, just enough to keep the frag system water well mixed with the main.

The top line is the return from the skimmer.

 

[halmus]

The skimmer for the frag system. RO 2000 (I think). I still need to buy a fitting from HD to attach the feed line via a flexible hose. That is controlled by the gate valve that's sitting open.