Bloke's 36g Build Thread

[Bloke]

I bought a 36 corner from Sea Dreams and decided that the AGA stand was overly pricey for...well, garbage. I had to build a stand for it. AGA wanted $250 for their black particle board stand. I spent $80 at Lowe's and made this out of Red Oak. There are a few changes I should've made, but in the end, I am very happy. BTW - bending 1/8" oak wasn't tough with Gorilla Glue, a nail gun, and clamps.

 

[Bloke]

The contractor left the stain he used on the wood finish for the house, so I used it hoping to get the right tone... It took about 3 coats of stain and 4 coats of spar-urethane before I thought it matched the wood around the fireplace. Since the stand was going to be sitting in the living room, matching the home decor was important to my wife!

 

[dailydriven911]

Nice job on the stand and canopy looks better than the aga one imo...

 

[Bloke]

Thanks! I can't stand those AGA stands. I canot believe they get that much money for them!

Since AGA does not make a tank this small reef-ready, I drilled two holes for 1" bulkhead drains in the back corner of the tank and two 3/4" fittings for the return. I plan on running a Mag7 for the return line and might upgrade to a larger pump if I run a UV. I have a spare Coralife 9w Turbotwist I can plumb if needed.

 

[Bloke]

Not much beats Krylon Fusion - that stuff rocks! Here the tank is empty sitting in the living room. You can see the stand color matches the other wood fairly well. Thankfully! It's easier to get her to agree if things still look pretty!

 

[Bloke]

50lbs of rock for this thing along with Reef Crystals salt. I used a new 15g tank for the sump and drilled it for an auto top-off coming directly from the RODI unit in the basement.

I am not sure what I think of the aquascaping. It's not that easy trying to scape a corner tank. Here's the sump plumbed in. Hindsight is definitely 20/20. There are MANY things I would do differently should I have the ability to replumb this tank. I would build and entirely NEW sump out of acryllic, but this does the job.

 

[Bloke]

So this was Day 1. That would have been April 20, 2007.

I am quickly approaching the first anniversary of this tank.

 

[Bloke]

I originally thought about a 150w HQI 14k with 2x36w PC actinics for this tank, but thought that it would generate more heat than asingle 250w SE 15k with no actinic supplementation. The higher kelvin bulb would give me a little more blue so there would be no need for the PC actinics.

To combat any heat issues, two Sunon fans were installed into the canopy. The fans really produce a large amount of air flow and consequently evaporation increases.

 

[Bloke]

Since I was setting up a reactor on my other tank I figured I would see about one for this system. I did not want to spend the same money so I looked for something cheaper and was happy with what I found.

I end up and bought a ViaAqua ACRO-Cal reactor. The thing was only $35 and I still had plenty of ARM to fill its chamber. It came with a bubble counter as well as 1/4" hosing. I was originally planning on using a gravity feed for it so there was not need for a feed pump, but more on that in a second. All I needed to buy was a CO2 cylinder as well as a regulator. I could have bought another 5lb bottle, but I would not have room for something that big in this little cabinet. So I bought a 20oz paintball cylinder instead. Red Sea actually sells a 20z bottle MUCH cheaper than you could buy one from Dick's or Sports Authority. In addition, Red Sea also makes a regulator for the paintball style cylinders.

Here is the reactor set up and running. It's been stable for a few weeks now. Up front you can see the reactor - water enters in from the yellow line where it is mixed with the CO2. The blue valve controls the effluent while the white valve is the bleed valve. Behind it you can see the 20oz CO2 bottle with the Red Sea regulator. The interesting thing about this regulator is that the needle valve & bubble counter are completely independent.

Now, I tried to use a syphon to keep this thing primed, but in trying to run such a slow effluent return, it was pretty difficult. I could have used another small pump, but I figured I would just tap into my return pump since I was only needing a tiny bit of flow. So I went to HD and bought a threaded reducer which I then reduced to a 1/4" Gest fitting. From there I wanted to be able to regulate the flow a little better than could be provided by such large ball valve so I bought a small 1/4" valve. With both the large and small valves closed at about 90% it works like a charm!

 

[Bloke]

I must admit... I was a little skeptical at first, but it's probably the best $50 I've ever spent. I went through and entire 20oz of CO2 a little faster than I thought, but I had orignally set the bubble count at 10bpm. Currently, I run it at about 6 bpm. But with a 20oz bottle, I appreciate that. One refill (Dick's Sporting Goods for $3.99) will usually last me a month. I would love to have something larger which did not require such frequent fillings, but space is limited.

I think the tank looks great and has been doing very well over the past year. Growth seems to be really taking off, finally and I hope by the end of April (1 year mark), it will look even better.

Here is the tank as of April 30, 2007

Here is the tank as of February 19, 2008

 

[trido]

Very nice work on everything.

 

[Bloke]

Thanks! The corals in the tank are starting to really react to the stability provided by the reactor. I hope that by mid-summer I can have the matureity that I am looking for!

 

[Krish]

Looks great!! You did a great job on it all