# 83 Gal build thread, pic heavy



## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Thought i would start a thread for this build, i have a few threads on it already, will keep em here from now on.

Origionaly i started out with a 55 gal, a new one i got in the $1/gal sale, then i fell in love with Throph's, after getting some advice here, i decided i needed a bigger tank for them and started my search on CL.

Bought a 83 gal 60 x 16 x 20 tank off CL for $90, he wanted to sell me the stand which was junk, didnt really want it but he came down to $90 only if i took the stand( he wanted it gone ) so i got it also.

This is the tank and stand as i bought it, cant really see but the stand was rotten at the bottom, door missing, wouldnt hold a 10 gal never mind a 83.









Took all the rotten rails off the bottom junked the top and the doors, reinforced inside the skin with 2x4 and 2x3 timber and a 1" pine top, still need to make 3 doors and put one more upright in the middle at the back.









Made a top, still needs another coat of paint









Installed lights, 2x xeon's and 2x Led bars









Made a start yesterday on my DIY background, still needs work and another 14" pannel

























So lots to do, still not decided on any filtration, toss up between sump or canister, going to leave that until last.

Like to thank all here for the inspiration to do this, if i hadnt found this forum i would never have attempted any of it, also like to thank PaNiK for letting me tag along and interfere on his build thread :thumb:

Ill try to keep this one updated, and comments, good or bad are welcome


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Interesting tank size. I always look forward to seeing tank builds!


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## austings (May 12, 2012)

Looks good so far! I will be watching for updates 

What are your plans for filtration?


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

austings said:


> What are your plans for filtration?


I really havnt decided, im leaning towards a sump, but may still go with a canister, going to leave that decision until last


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Did a little more on the background, mixed red with the Drylok first 









Then mixed Black with the first mix and brushed some of that on, the right piece still need a bit more carving, its easier to see anything that dont look right when its painted









Will be putting more shading on it when this coat dries.


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

its coming along nicely, i like the gashes in your background. any plans for the seam? im wishing i would have done a better job integrating mine. next time i'll plan it out better.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Planning to do something when its in the tank to hide the seams, not sure what yet, still have 1 more piece to make, it covers the overflow so until i decide what im doing for filtration, ill leave it for now


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

where d you get the lights? what kind of resources pointed you in that direction?


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

PaNiK said:


> where d you get the lights? what kind of resources pointed you in that direction?


Lol, im redoing my kitchen and was looking for undercounter lights, at first i saw some Halogens, but they run too hot for a tank, i bought the Xeon's because they were on sale ($12) thinking if they didnt work out on the tank, i could use them as undercounter, i filled up my tank and put them in the hood, they were good but to me they looked a bit yellow, i had ordered the LED's for the kitchen so i added 2 of those and they balance out the yellow just right, i thought maby the Xeon;s would be hot but i left them on all night, they are 4" away from the acrylic top of the tank and were fine.


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Post some Pics when you get a chance, Are you going to silicone your background to the tank? Or some other method?


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Here is a pic with just the 2 Xeon's









Here with 2 xeon's and 1 led(left side) only had 1 at the time waiting for my order


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Yes im going to silicone it in, did think about magnets but they are hard to find and good strong ones are expensive


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Got the first 2 panels finished










































Pics are not good, as my tank is only 16" front to back, i tried to keep it thin, first panel is 4" at the top going down to less than 1" at the bottom, 
second panel is thicker, 6" in a few places but most of it is 2" or less.
Learned a few things, liquid cement color is much easier to work with than the powder
Drylok washes off brushes quite easy with water, dont wash them in a white porcelain sink after you have added any coloring


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Looks pretty good man!


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Some more pics

BG in the tank









The lights









Thats with them on full, they can all be dimmed


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Needing some help with my sump for my tank build

Tank is 83 gal 60 x 16 x 20

Going to use an odd shaped 25gal tank for the sump its 36 x 10 x 16

Worked out if i make the first baffle 7" wide and leave a 2" gap at the bottom it will give me just over 3 gal of space for bio balls (working on 1 gal of bio balls for every 30 gal of water)

My question, do i really need anything else? was thinking to just leave the rest of the sump open

Like this


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## austings (May 12, 2012)

I space for your heater. And Maybe a baffle before the pump. Other than that, it doesnt need to be overly complicated. You could split the bio balls and the filter pad into two different sections if you wanted too.


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

I can't think of anything else you would need in there, except maybe another baffle after the bio balls if you planned on keeping any amount of them submerged consistently. I opted for for all trickle no submerged in mine.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Thanks guys, bought the glass today, going with your suggestions and will put another baffle in so i will have somewhere to put the heater and maby some plants, was thinking about 6" high about 12" away from the pump side of the tank, that will give me room to put 2" of ceramic rings on top of the bottom egg crate and still keep most of the bio balls not submerged.


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

sweet, cant wait to see it. good on you for doing your background first. this 7 day wait time for the drylok to cure is killing me!


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

PaNiK said:


> sweet, cant wait to see it. good on you for doing your background first. this 7 day wait time for the drylok to cure is killing me!


Now i def decided on a sump, i still have 1 panel on my BG to make so ill still have to wait lol, need to save a few $ for the Trophs anyway so no big hurry, 
Got the main baffle in, should have taken more notice of your thread, like you i didnt tape, = MESS lol, good it wont be seen


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

what kind of overflow are you going to go with? I've been reading a few things about PVC overflows, im kicking around the idea of trying one on my 75gallon. You know anything about those?


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Im not going with an overflow, going to just go with a Durso in the main tank, thats why i need a lot of room in the sump lol, iv looked at a lot of HOB overflows but dont really know much about them


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Got the sump finished, ended up putting a bubble trap in, still need to put the ceramic rings in, Instead of using legs under the bio bulkhead, i got the glass guy to make me 4 1" wide pieces and siliconed them 2 at the top, 2 at the bottom for the eggcrate to rest on.










Now for the plumbing


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## austings (May 12, 2012)

Looks good so far. Cant wait to see more pics!


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Kinda run into a problem, i got all the fittings for my plumbing and made up my Durso standpipe, problem is the intake will be 4" down from the top of the tank, Durso states that the water level in the tank will come half way up the 90 on the intake which would put my water level in the tank 3" down from the top. not only would that make the tank level too low, but it would be right at the maximum overflow for my sump should the siphon break. Remember i have an acrylic and it has an acrylic top.

So im thinking i have 2 options
1, drill a hole in my acrylic top so the standpipe can extend above the top, would have to be about a 1 1/2" hole
2, Make an overflow box inside the tank.

Dont really want to drill the tank, but if i have to i will, i dont mind making a overflow box but my question is, i would have to silicone it to the tank, how well would the silicone stick to the acrylic?

Also any other ideas would be very welcome


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## austings (May 12, 2012)

If I understand correctly, The tank has an acrylic top, and you want to cut a section out so that the stand pipe will come over the top of the tank. I dont think I would do this, that could impair the structural integrity of the tank. I would build an overflow box. Since the tank is acrylic, I would make the box out of acrylic. You could then attack it using an acrylic cement, such as weld on.

Im not sure how well silicone will hold the overflow box to the tank. I don't think it works. Maybe someone with more experience will chime in.


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Is venting the major principal behind the durso? What if you tried modding it so the vent was outside the tank? Like this

oops wrong copy paste


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Something like this


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

No thats not the problem, here is the problem









3" from the top will make the water level in the tank too low

here is the Durso









Been thinking, either way i will have to cut the tank top, if i went with an overflow it would be completely blocked and i would have no way of doing any maintenance on it.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

1 more question, do you think the Rio Hyperflow 17 would work ok on my setup?


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

i was talking about moving the cap outside of the tank


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

PaNiK said:


> i was talking about moving the cap outside of the tank


Ah i see what you mean but that wouldnt help much, the cap i have is only 1/4" higher than the fitting, you can see it on the pic


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## jkcichlid (Mar 15, 2012)

Would it not work to have the cap and vent outside the tank? Replace the tee with a 90. Use place the tee just after the bulkhead and run a short chunk of pipe up above the waterline and cap it there.
Could have the waterlevel about 3/4" from the top this way


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

how to the reef guys plumb theirs? yours with the hole in the middle of the tank isnt the first *** seen.


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

in re: to the pump I think its too big for your tank, thats rated higher than mine and i think its too much pump for overflow


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

jkcichlid said:


> Would it not work to have the cap and vent outside the tank? Replace the tee with a 90. Use place the tee just after the bulkhead and run a short chunk of pipe up above the waterline and cap it there.
> Could have the waterlevel about 3/4" from the top this way


MMMM good idea, would solve the problem if it would work, worth a try before i cut anything, should have my pump on sat so ill give that a try


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

PaNiK said:


> in re: to the pump I think its too big for your tank, thats rated higher than mine and i think its too much pump for overflow


The guy will have the 14 and the 17 in stock on saturday, he recomended the 17 lol


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Just re-read Durso's site, the hole is there to lessen the flow, if there was no hole it would give a full siphon, may try in on full siphon first, see how that goes using the 90 instead of the Tee as jkcichlid suggested


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

bad idea, if power goes out and air gets up there the water wont be able to push it out anywhere


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

PaNiK said:


> bad idea, if power goes out and air gets up there the water wont be able to push it out anywhere


Mm yea lol, ill give it a try with the hole then

TY guys


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Well i got the Durso all changed and put the vent on the outside
Im going to give it a test and at the same time, try and figure out the output from it so i can decide on a pump.
Need to put 2 more supports on the stand before i can fill the tank, will do that today.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

OOOOHHHH it works 

Its draining just under 400gal/hr and took just over 6 gal to break the siphon, i will have 10 gal of space in the sump so perfect.

Looks like the Rio HF14 will be just right for it.


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

and the pics are where???


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

PaNiK said:


> and the pics are where???


LOL i have em

The new Durso









The test rig









The cap has a 1/16" hole in it right now


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Lookin good man, finish it up this weekend


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

I wish i could, picking up the pump tomorrow but wont be able to work on it this weekend, im aiming to get it finished by thursday or friday.
Still need to paint the stand, make 1 more section of the background and Drylok it.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Picked up my pump today  
Went to the Sacramento Aquarium Society auction tonight, Just to have a peek really, cheap fish, very cheap used tanks, stands ect and i bought a great piece of driftwood with my fingers crossed it would fit thru the opening in my tank








Pic dont do it justice, ill try to get a better one tomorrow


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Better pic of the Driftwood, its about 18" high and 16" wide


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

That's a pretty nice lookin' piece of wood. There is an auction hosted by a cichlid club not only a few miles from me Dec 8th which I'm planning on going and checking out. I have never been to an aquatic auction before so I'll looking forward to seeing what they have. Probably have to make sure I only take a certain amount of cash with me so I don't blow it all 

Steve


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Well its test day today, finished off the sump, made some Acrylic lids for it and had to alter the height of the top ledge that holds the eggcrate, made a "splash plate" to distribute the water over the pot scrubbers, Made the spray bar and iv leveled up the tank, going to set it up with the pump later and flow test it, fingers crossed
Will get some pics and post later


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Good luck!


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Got it set up and turned on, had water rising up in the sump, took off the spraybar and pump was pumping too much, made some of the holes in the spraybar bigger, im close lol but im going to have to put a valve on the pump line to fine tune it, apart from that all seems well  
The spraybar is working well, nice strong flow


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Hey, I have an idea I'm gonna share with you. After I build my next sump I'm going to start cycling it while I work on the rest of the tank. Something you might consider.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Cycle just the sump? that would work, i have some ceramic rings in my canister i could swap out as there is also a bio wheel HOB on that tank, but i think im going to do it "fresh" Will give me the time ill need to save some $ for those expensive Tropheus


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Some pics of test
First set up








After adding the valve on pump side








I let it lose its siphon to male sure i had enough room in the sump









As someone said, its hard to balance the pump output with a ball valve, will pick up a gate valve for it
The tank is now empty, next time it sees water it will be cycling, few days yet though


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Cool glad to see the leak test went well. Looking forward to seeing it with substrate and all set up cycling.

Steve


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Cool man, goes your drip plate working out? I ran into a problem with Pressure balances when I topped off from the main tank, The drip plate would back
Up and tank forever to balance out the air trapped in the bio chamber. I fixed it by adding a piece of 5/8 silicone tubing that served as an air vent.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

PaNiK said:


> Cool man, goes your drip plate working out? I ran into a problem with Pressure balances when I topped off from the main tank, The drip plate would back
> Up and tank forever to balance out the air trapped in the bio chamber. I fixed it by adding a piece of 5/8 silicone tubing that served as an air vent.


 Didnt have a prob with it. i didnt drill it where the inlet comes in, left about a 3" circle not drilled so the water would hit there and spread but mine is a little different to yours.

Made and Dryloked the last piece of my BG, maby silicone it in tomorrow.

One end of my tank had a bit of hazing, i have tried everything to get it clear, its not too bad when filled with water but i could see it.
Saw someone recommend Novus on another thread, oh man, that stuff is GREAT, took away the hazing right away


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

BG finnished


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Got the BG in, worked on the joins for 3 hrs today

Spot the joints, there are 2 of em

















The first kinda crease about 18" from the left isnt a joint though it looks like one lol


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

good job man, i cant even see them!


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Well i had the day free to work on my stand, got it all sanded, started painting and it started to rain  
Had to drag it back inside the garage, got the first coat on it, had some rustolium plastic paint so i sprayed my spraybar and a few of the pvc fittings, started to camoflage my Durso but need some more paint.
Hope its a better day tomorrow.


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Hard to tell from that angle, but from what I can see it looks like it came out great looking :thumb: When ya plan on installing it?

Steve


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Steve C said:


> Hard to tell from that angle, but from what I can see it looks like it came out great looking :thumb: When ya plan on installing it?
> 
> Steve


Oh thats it installed and siliconed in, waiting on the silicone to cure.

Material list and cost if anyone is interested

I used, 2 sheets of styro 48 x 24 x 2" $10
1 can of spray foam $5
A quart can of Drylok $8
2 tubes of GE1 silicone $12( this included using it to silicone it to the tank)
Cement coloring, red and black $10
Green food coloring $3

So total $48


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Very, very nice job on the DIY background!! What joints, I don't see them.


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Somehow I only saw the pic of it out of the tank on page 3 and didn't notice the first post on page 4 till now. Yeah looks really nice I like it. Joints don't show at all.

Steve


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

So i tried to camo the spraybar and Durso, used rustolium plastic paint, came out ok but because its gloss its very shiny i hope it will dull down after its been in the tank a while


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

One last post for a while, background with hood and lights on. Next post will be the full set up, full of water and cycling


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Color looks really nice with the lights on it :thumb:


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## PaNiK (Dec 10, 2003)

Very nice dude!


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Finaly its done, took forever to clean the PFS
Started the cycle, managed to get the ammonia dead on 2ppm, PH is 7.6 and got my KH up to 7
Will get some pics later


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

> Will get some pics later


Got those pics yet?....how bout' now?........and now? got'em yet? do'ya.. do'ya.. do'ya?  Looking forward to seeing how it looks with the substrate in it :thumb:


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

LMAO, too much sun in the room right now, glaring a lot, will get some when sun goes down


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Heres one, bad pic but you can get an idea


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Looks great :thumb: :thumb:


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Few more pics, water is still a little cloudy
























Still fine tuning the sump, hope i dont wake up to a flood tomorrow


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

I forgot you had that big piece of wood you got at the auction. That's a nice looking piece.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

This dang cycle is taking its time, only just got to 0 ammonia yesterday but it went from 3 to .5 in one day so close to finishing the ammonia part, hope the nitrite part dont take as long.


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

I think my nitrite part took around 10 days I believe. What day did you start your cycle again I forgot?


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

18 oct so 20 days to get to 0


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

That's not too bad. I think I was about 12-14 days to get ammonia to zero, then about 10 days to get the nitrite down so I was around 24/25 days for the whole thing I think. Not sure if this helped or not but I ran my temp to about 85F during my cycle.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

i think that was my problem, it was at 80, its at 85 now, changed it yesterday


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