DIY - Projects & Ideas • 210/60 gal Tank build + 3D Background

[metricliman]

If possible, I would raise the tower up until it is above the water level, also there is a lot of empty space above the bio media. How about a refugium or upflow algae scrubber?

[Koteckn]

My design was the sump with the holding tank on the left for fry and nuisance fish. The changes that I made are as follows:

1. I placed a 50 ppi filter sock over my outtake into the sump
2. I only use filter floss on top of the first set of sponges and on the left side of the drip tray to further polish my water.
3. I don't use the left side of the sump for anything but seeding additional rocks, driftwood and fake plants that I can use in the future to seed a tank if I need to.
4. Instead of cleaning my sump every 4-6 months, I decided to clean it every 3. This drastically helps with particles returning to the show tank from the sump. After this change, my water gets dirty during feeding but then after 20 minutes the water is crystal clear again. The water is and stays crystal clear 24/7 with this cleaning schedule.
5. Instead of having the air stone running under the biomax/drip tray, I rerouted the air tubing to a 50gal sponge filter running in the first chamber on the left for more filtration and seeding to use on other tanks. My 10" air stone is still in working order under the biomax/drip tray if I wanted to use it but I've found with the water moving through the sump and the spray bar return line, I have ample water aeration.

Everything went perfectly with my build and the sump/tank itself has been flawless so far (knock on wood).

Let me know if you have any other questions. If you decide you want to use my design, here's my thread so that you dont have to look for it all of the time. I've documented most things along my build process but if you get confused I check this site ofter during the week and sometimes during the weekend.

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=246505

Good Luck!

- H

[theboothsociety]

Yes I definitely got that idea from you. I remember reading through your entire thread. Great info!! Glad to hear everything is going good with your tank.

[theboothsociety]

I've made a list of some of the equipment I need to purchase and want to run it by you guys to see what you think, or if I should consider other things: Maybe there are some areas I can save some money since this is going to be a big expense as it is...

UV Sterilizer
Green Killing Machine UV Sterilizer 24 Watt (120gal/hr) - $55

Heaters
2x Via Aqua Titanium Heater 300W up to 80 gal - $31.95ea
(still unsure about this - my total water volume from 2 tanks and sump is approx 325 gallons) I figure I would purchase these two and supplement with heaters I already have if need be.

Sump
3 glass baffles - $15ea
2x Filter Sock holders - $24ea
Filter socks (what size should I do? seem to be 4" or 7") what micron? and how many should i buy for rotating them?
Poret Foam:
2" 13x13 20ppi - $13
2" 13x13 10ppi - $13
4" 13x13 30ppi - $26
Eggcrate

Plumbing
4x 1.5" bulkheads
2x Durso standpipes (might make my own)
Need some HELP with the rest of the plumbing!

Return pump
Mag 18 ($138) or Mag 24 ($165)
(Can I use this pump to return water to both tanks or should I do 2 seperate pumps?)

Powerheads
2x Koralia Evoluton 1400 - $50ea

Maintenance
Kent Pro-Scraper II 24"-36" - $20
Wizard Long Arm Aquarium Cleaner - $7

Control
2x CORALIFE DIGITAL POWER CENTER - $25ea
Digital Aquatics Reef Keeper Lite? - $119

Lighting
Havent even touched on lighting yet. The guy I bought the tank from has 4 7' strips of 6 10watt bulbs on each strip, some blue, some white, which he wants $200 for. They are mounted to wood, not on a heat sink panel and he said one of the transformers for the fans doesnt work.

It is a great price for what im getting, but I might just do it myself. What do you think? I kinda want to use a combo of both fluorescent and LED. Id also like to have them on timers, so LED white comes on in the afternoon, Fluorescent in evening, and moonlight LED at night. Also want to hook the powerheads to timer, so I can replicate day and night. This aquarium controller does it all, but lets see how much it will cost and how many modules I need to buy to do what I want....

[theboothsociety]

I've been wanting to implement an auto water change system, also considering an external pump.

Heres the first draft: (sorry for the iphone pics, might be hard to see.)





How it works: I tap off the bathroom cold water line and drain, and run them through the wall to the tank. The water line goes through a sediment and carbon filter, a typical home drinking filter. Then to a safety solenoid valve, then ball valve, then pressure regulator. The piping splits, with more ball or gang valves to regulate the flow, and then into a drip emitter for each tank. Since I will be slowly dripping fresh water at a rate of 1/2-1 gal/hr, I will be doing a 15-25 gal water change per day.As water level rises in sump, it skims off the top and enters through drilled bulkhead into a reservoir plastic container. Inside the "R" Reservoir, using a float switch, when the water rises to its level, it turns on the pump that moves water to the drain. Also in the Reservoir is a safety switch that works with the solenoid valve on the water line. In an event we have another power outage, and the pump wont power on to drain the water in the reservoir, the safety switch will shut off the drip flow at the solenoid valve. Thats pretty much it. Now just need to convince my contractor to do the plumbing from the bathroom.

The next debate: rigid pvc piping or flexible?
and choosing an external pump?

[stage3-s4]

Cool Design. It seems like there is quiet a bit of soldering copper pipe with this design.I try to minimize points of failure with things of this nature. Leaky pipes in walls and such can really cause head achs. And even professionals mess things up from time to time. I think you are better of not using a reservoir and just adding a pump to your sump with a float valve. Much easier to control as well. I would without a doubt use flexible PVC over the regular stuff. With all those tees, fittings, bulkheads and stuff, It can really be a plumbing nightmare trying to cut everything to exact lengths. I also Like that the flexible stuff elevates lots of stress on the pipes since they have room to bend. Also if you use a N/C solenoid valve, you don't need to worry about power outages since when it is de-energizes it closes and will not allow any water to flow through the pipe.

[theboothsociety]

Update: My new design gets rid of the reservoir all together. I've changed the location of the tank to another bedroom, so I can position it right behind a bathroom wall, which there is already extensive plumbing work being done. I will have an access panel in the bottom of the wall, which I can hook up plumbing to a drain line and cold water line. The overflow for the sump will go directly to a drain line that instead of hooks into the bathroom, will have a its own p-trap, vent and go directly to the sewage system.

The drain line is already in place for the auto water change system with a 1.5" sewer check valve. I spoke to a few LFS about drilling my sump, they want $35 a hole and dont give any guarantees. Im thinking I should just do it myself in that case. How difficult is it? I looked at videos on youtube and it seems pretty simple, just need the right bit. Is a 1" hole a good size for the pump and drain line?

I also got this RGB LED strip light from HD for my under cabinet lighting in kitchen. [url="http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans-Indoor-Lighting-Under-Cabinet-Accent-Lighting-Under-Cabinet-Lights/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbvnbZ1z115g2/R-203227249/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#.UQCQzLRU3Hg"]http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans-Indoor-Lighting-Under-Cabinet-Accent-Lighting-Under-Cabinet-Lights/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbvnbZ1z115g2/R-203227249/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#.UQCQzLRU3Hg[/url] I got it with a dimmer controller and wireless remote. I just put it together and put it on my 40 gal tank to see how it looks and it looks pretty darn good. Theres 21 custom colors, with different combinations of white, blue, green, and red lights. They are $60 for an 8ft strip, but you also need to buy the power supply and a controller, which is pretty good in comparison to a lot of other LED options I've seen. They look pretty bright on the 40 with a nice shimmering effect, but the 210 is much higher, I will have to wait to try them out when the tank is full of water, to see if they look just as good.

Also got in my new air tight jars, i bought 12 at $2/ea. When it comes to fish food, we dont mess around over here. :becky: WE GO HARD!!

Check out the selection, more to come...

[stage3-s4]

35 Bucks a hole? That's ridiculous. You can just buy a bit on ebay for cheap and do it yourself. Its very simple to do just make sure you don't press down on the drill, let the drill do all the work. I would suggest using a cordless drill with an adjustable clutch so you can lower it so that you don't crack the glass if the bit gets stuck in the hole.

The size of the hole is determined by the size of the pump you are going to use. Most pumps have a 1" suction line, smaller ones have 3/4". If you use a 1" bulkhead you need to use a 1 3/4" glass hole saw. For a 1.5" bulkhead, you need to use 2 3/8" glasshole saw. I would say that a 1" bulkhead should do the trick. For you drain line on your water change system, I think a 1" may be over kill. a 3/4" bulkhead should be fine. It may also be easier to control. 3/4" bulkhead requires a 1 1/2" hole saw btw.

[theboothsociety]

I've decided to go with the Iwaki MD-70RLT (Japanese Motor) 1500 GPH. It has a 1" inlet and outlet. Since I need a 1 3/4" hole saw, i might just use that for both holes to save money.

[theboothsociety]

So i started on the background. Im anxious to start carving...

Heres what I've done so far: I've layered mostly 1" pink insulation foam and a few 1.5" pieces. Siliconed together with GE Silicone 1 Window & Door.

The background consists of 7 pieces. A center piece which might have to be cut in half to fit into the tank. 2 overflow pieces which will have cutouts for the water to flow through them at the bottom, middle and top. 2 corner pieces which will have notches to run return lines through and 2 side wall pieces which will house koralia 1400 powerheads on each side of the tank. Each piece interlocks with the one next to it.







Here I had to notch out the top to accomodate for the glass support across the top of the tank.


Below you can see how they interlock.




Since I took these pics, I've added a few more random pieces on the center section and side walls for protruding rocks and needed a little more space to fit in the powerheads.

The only thing I dont like is the different depths between the center piece and the overflow pieces, so once I carve out the center piece I will add extra overlapping pieces on the overflow sections to blend them together seamlessly.

[DanniGirl]

Now comes the fun part....

[theboothsociety]

Yes! the fun part it is. I just want to say thank you to DanniGirl for her help and knowledge with the 3D background, and everyone else from this forum who has been a big help in setting up this tank so far. I hope that documenting the process will help others in the future. The BG is looking good, Ill post some progress pics soon.

Updated design of the auto water change system with materials list:



Please let me know if there is anything you would change. I probably went a little overboard with the plumbing, but I designed it to be able to disconnect piping here and there if I ever want to change anything in the future. Also for maintenance and cleaning purposes.

Water flows into durso standpipes through 1.5" bulkheads then into a straight rigid pvc with a union connected to flex pvc. 3 Drain lines run into the sump, each on its own filter sock. Through the 55 gal sump and media and out through a 1" hole with strainer, then union ball valve to the Iwaki 1500gph pump. The Iwaki pumps water through a union check valve, then ball check valve. This way I can disconnect the pump for maintenance and the check valves will prevent back flow during power outages. Then we go to flex pvc that leads to a 3 way splitter or manifold to split the return line 3 ways. On each return line is a gate valve to be able to control the pressure for each return line. Then flex pvc into the bulkheads.

Behind the tank is a cold water line and drain line with check valve. The cold water line first has a union ball valve, then is piped into a carbon and sediment filter to remove chlorine. After that is a union which allows me to disconnect the filters, then a gate valve to control pressure and then a 25psi pressure regulator. Then the water needs to split 3 ways again, each with its own ball valve, leading to 3 drip emitters. 1 for each side of the 210 and 1 for the 60. They will be set at 1/2 gal per hour. When water rises in the sump, it overflows through a strainer and through a 1" bulkhead drilled in the sump. After the bulkhead is a union to rigid pvc with a ball check valve, then a home depot 1.5" check valve into the sewage drain.

Rough Plumbing List:
(1) 1" ball check valve (pump out)
(1) 1' union ball valve (pump in)
(1) 1" union check valve (pump out)
(2) 3 way splitter
(3) 1" gate valves for returns
(2) 1" bulkheads (sump)
(2) 1" strainers (sump)
(1) 1.5" ball check valve (water change drain)
(2) 1" union
(1) gate valve for c/w line
(3) unions for drain lines from tanks
(1) union ball valve for c/w line
(1) pressure regulator 25psi
(3) ball valves for drip system
(3) drip emitters
Bulkheads for tanks
Flex PVC
Rigid PVC
(3) DIY Durso Standpipes
Drip tubing

[austings]

This thread is awesome. makes me wish I didnt live in an apartment on the second floor.

Can you tell me where you bought the jars of fish food? The price you paid is really cheap, you can PM me.

[theboothsociety]

jarstore.com

[theboothsociety]

4 Day progress on the background: (only working on it a few hours a night so this process may take awhile - ill post pics as I go)

These are the tools I used. Clay carving set from Michaels and File Set from Home Depot. + kitchen knifes. I've found the best are the small files with the red handles. I've done most of this using those and the kitchen knifes.


This is just the center piece, only 6 more pieces to go.

Day 1:


Day2:


Day 3:


Day 4:


Still a little more work to do on it with texturing, but pretty happy with the way its coming out. Im going for a lace rock kind of texture. What do you think for my first attempt at a BG?