Neptunes first tank: 125DT 55Sump

[King_Neptune]

To catch you up on the project:

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=349033

Ill start seeding it hear as well.

 

[seattle989]

is it past the freshwater stage then?

 

[King_Neptune]

no. tomarrow I am working on a stand design...i don't like the old stand, and want to build a new one. Once I have the stand finished the sump will be nice and dry...takes 7 days for silicone to reach max strength. So i didn't want to get it wet till after the weekend.

Then Ill do the plumbing and have a freshwater test for about a month while I finish the foam wall, and collect the rest of the equipment....skimmer,pumps, meters ect. once I am ready with all my materials...ill move it down to graham where it will be perminantly setup.

 

[Brewmaster1]

What is this secrete OF?

 

[King_Neptune]

What is this secrete OF?

Ill post it sometime next week. After the stand is made and all the plumbing is in place. It may be an overflow that has been tried and failed...but then again it may be something unbelievably awesome!! Its s simple cheap design, and that's all I want to say, the suspense is good^^

 

[King_Neptune]

Ill post it sometime next week. After the stand is made and all the plumbing is in place. It may be an overflow that has been tried and failed...but then again it may be something unbelievably awesome!! Its s simple cheap design, and that's all I want to say, the suspense is good^^

hears an update on the project:

The center brace I picked up 3 peices of acrylic at lowes. each is 6x24 and 3/8th thick. I'm going to heat them and fold them over the lip of the tank in three places to add lateral support. I will then glue them in place with a welding bond epoxy. That will solve the bowing problem once and for all.

Drilled all my rock a few days ago. today I hung them and began to foam them. I put on salt to add a porous effect to the foam, it will turn out nice.Ill rinse it out when it all hardens.

I ran out of foam, im going to have to go buy 5 more cans. I am a little dismayed that it will end up costing my $120
in foam, but I did it becuase it was the special UV pond foam that is fish safe. I simply thought it was worth paying double for that security.

I am going to cut out the "Tower" I just think it will look gaudy....and it would take 4-5 cans to fill out anyways.

 

[King_Neptune]

update:

I finished putting on the foam. covered it in salt and let it sit for a few hours to harden. Then I took it outside and rinsed it off. A few zip ties still show...but that's not a big deal. Ill simply touch up with the foam.

The camera didn't show the porousness effect of the salt, but it did come out pretty nice. If I had to do it all over again...I would have packed it a little with my hands...instead of just sprinkling it on. That would have made the dimples a little deeper. But in the end, it still gave a nice looking rocky effect up close.

When I put on epoxy and sand later tonight it will really blend all the colors a lot smoother. And after the tank settles in with Coraline and Algae ect the colors will blend evin further. Add coral and other life to that mix, and you will not know its a foam wall.

 

[King_Neptune]

Brought it inside after it dried off. Did some spot touches where any holes were seen. Tried to build a tunnel for the fish...fell under its own weight, I should have used something like a 2liter or to make a mold. Oh well not that big of a deal. mostly Ill have LR in front anyways.They can hide behind that. The big blob turned out ot be kinda cool. made it look like a lava flow. I might keep it. I packed some salt on it to see how it will look when it dries.

Hear is a close up of the pourous looking effect the salt does.hard to get it to focus, but you can make out the dimples.
Before:

After:

Then I put it up on a stand and shaved of the excess on the back. I used a steak knife and it came off pretty easy. about 20-30 min effort in all and it was trimmed proper.

Once it all hardens a few more hours, Ill rinse it off and place it in the tank for final trimming on the bulkheads. Then I'll epoxy and sand it.

 

[King_Neptune]

Done!!

sorta.
Going to let it dry till morning. Then Ill flip it and let the sand land on newspaper. Then I'll use the last 2 packs of epoxy to do some touch up spotting.

 

[Bosco83]

Cool idea I am very interested to see how it turns out when you are all done.

Brian

 

[slim_jim989]

Pretty cool there neptune and it does look a little better without the tower . but its gonna look awsome in the tank when its done.

 

[King_Neptune]

Joy!!! I flipped it over and the result was better than I hoped!

Some of the glue was a little sticky, it was 30min set epoxy so still needs a few days to fully settle in. But the sand came out better than I hoped!

The next series of shots is almost complete. I'm going to touch up with the last 2 sets of epoxy and re surface any imperfections I see. And Ill blend the colors from left to right a little better, so it wont be a sudden shock from one color to the next. once its all covered in coraline ti will look smokin!!

The thing is getting heavy. Well over 50lbs now with the epoxy and sand. I debate putting it in the tank till after I move. But that could be months away.

I would like to do as much as I can hear and now, and disassemble it and move it to my new home and begin cycling there.

 

[King_Neptune]

This series shows the "Lava Bulge" It looks a lot like lava that seeped out of the ground, I like the effect it gave. You can really tell the porousness effect of the salt in these shots...

 

[King_Neptune]

Just some more shots...

All in all it came out great. The total cost of this beast was about $200-$220. Worth every penny! This will reduce the need for alot of live rock as beneficial bacteria loves to soak into the foam.

I have read from several people who do this that don't have any LR in their DT, just in the sump.
They say the filtration is better than their systems with LR in both sump and DT.

Ill put LR to decorate the bottom, but I wont need to do the "Great wall of china look". Ill probably start with a 50lb purchase of fiji hear on SWF.com. It seems to be the best deal around. If I feel I need more...then Ill add as time goes on.

 

[King_Neptune]

Ok, I touched up on the bald spots. I'll flip in in a few hours to see the results. I heated the glue a little in some boiling water. this made application go MUCH faster as it was a more liquid form, however this also set the glue faster. I had to do it in smaller patches. Another downside is it was more runny and therefore you had to put the sand on it asap, before it ran off the mound you wanted to glue.

If I had to do it all over again...I wouldn't heat the glue as long...I would still heat it...but I would let it be a little more stiff.

I added the yellow sand to the opposite side. I like the color better than the white colored sand. Plus it had a lot of crushed pieces of shell and other coral bits in it.

 

[King_Neptune]

Ok I flipped it and the looks are promising. I used the last batch of epoxy for a third round. I touched up almost all the bald spots and also re did the spots that came out shiny from glue that dried before I sanded it. I'll post some pics of the final produce in a couple hours when I'm happy it's dried off good.

Altogether I used 10 packs of epoxy at $11 each. 20lbs of sand at .27lb, 7 cans of foam $11 each(I could have done this with 4 no problem if I used the Great stuff brand throughout), $18 for egg crate. 30lbs of Base rock $45, $5 for salt. It was a little higher than my initial estimate of $220, it came out to just over $258.

Worth it when you consider I get a great background, that provides pleasing looks, and lots of space to mount corals, plus a fantastic addition of filtration!

Its also worth noting that I put the posxy in boiling water for about half the time, it cameout with the consistancy of honey at room temperature. This is just right for aplication. Not too runny, and just fine to apply fast, w/out bonding too rapidly.

 

[King_Neptune]

ok the final product:

Hear is a closeup, shows some of the snail shells I glued into place.

This shows the grit and sand up close.

All together this came out better than I hoped. I still debate if Ill put it in my tank before or after the move. It weighs at least 50lbs. And a 125 gal tank is hard enough to move on its own.

 

[seattle989]

not gonna drill the tank? that alot of aqua to rely on a hob overflow

 

[King_Neptune]

not gonna drill the tank? that alot of aqua to rely on a hob overflow

It is drilled. The link i put at the top of this thread included all the previous work. There are two 1.5" bulkheads.

 

[King_Neptune]

Its been a while since I updated:



Aquarium Room Before:

Durring:

After:

Saltwater Mixing room still under construction in back:

Some Picts of stand during construction: