Thanks everyone for the great comments. I’ll do my best to keep the thread going and the pictures coming as I make progress. I’m entering the boring stage of the build, which is cycling. So I’ll share some more about the build that people might find interesting.
Water Change Automation:
I must admit that in the past I have been lazy when it comes to water changes, fully acknowledging the importance, with no real excuse except that I hate the mess that’s associated with. Getting the salt water reservoirs ready and up to the same temperature and salinity, filling jugs/buckets as you siphon the tank, dumping it, pouring in the new water, etc. I’ve always found it a burden and a mess. No matter how hard I try there’s always a bit of spilling here and there, not to mention the exhausting task of having to lug that water around.
I setup this system to overcome some of those annoyances. 1) I setup the tank in an office that is directly underneath the utility room in the basement which means my freshwater and saltwater barrels are not far away. 2) I outfitted the wall behind the tank with an access panel that contains piping for some common functions; a) a 1/2” pipe for the ATO, b) 1” pipe that pumps from the saltwater barrel when doing water changes, c) a 1 1/2” pipe that acts as a drain for syphoning waste water and d) a hole through the studs which allow me to string extension cords to the ATO and “refill pump” in the basement that I can control form the APEX controller/tablet while on the main level.
The idea behind this setup is so that I can put one end of a syphon hose into the drain and not have to worry about disposing of the waste water. The return line in the tank is T’ed off with ball valves so that I can pump directly from the basement, into the display after a water change and control the basement pump with the APEX/tablet. I might even add another cord that goes to the basement to turn on/off a circulation pump to get the saltwater up to temperature when preparing for a water change, so that I don’t even have to go downstairs – we’ll see.
Black Painted Background:
This is more or less a tip of mine, if you are interested in doing a black background on your tank. Some people use acrylic paint and others vinyl to achieve a black background. I however have found that the spray on truck bed liner works wonders for me. I love this stuff. It created a thick salt resistant coating that is nice and even and doesn’t scratch easily. I ended up spraying the bottom of the tank with this stuff as well, not knowing whether I would go bare bottom or not at the time. When you coat the bottom with the stuff it eliminates the mirror effect of the bare bottom glass and looks quite sharp.
Cabinet Doors:
I love the high gloss look of the RedSea tanks and I wanted to accomplish something similar on a budget. What I ended up using were door panels from IKEA. I know what you’re thinking – IKEA? The first thing that comes to mind is saw dust that will double in size the instant they get humid or wet. However, this isn’t the case with these particular doors. They have a high gloss white finish (Also available in black, grey and red I think) with what appears to be an epoxy like enamel. I used these doors on my last build and love the look of them. Although I went with white this time around, because the black doors were impossible to keep clean with saltwater dribbles that occasionally happen. The doors are directly mounted to the metal stand – which means it is important to get the post spacing exactly right for the euro hinges. Here are the links to the door and drawer panel that I used (I bought them for half the price at IKEA in the states):
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/50178468/
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/10178470/
I will be building the removable side panels from high quality plywood and painting them to match. This weekend’s project?
e-Macro 400:
It’s my first time using this stuff to aquascape my rock, so I wasn’t sure how well it would work. I have to say that I absolutely love this stuff. I was hesitant about how strong the bound would be, but to my surprise, after cementing about 60lbs of rock together I was able to pick-up the entire structure by the top rock and everything holds without any hesitation. I suppose the only drawback is that you’re pretty well stuck to the rockwork you build, so you better love what you create because it’s not coming apart easily. On the other hand the opportunities are endless and quite an appealing option to turn boring dry BRS reef saver rock into something interesting.
http://www.marcorocks.com/aquascape-supplies/e-marco-400/
Dry Rock:
After dealing with pests (crabs, snails, flatworms, nascence algae) during my last two builds, I vowed that I would never use live rock again.
Next Steps:
I actually still waiting for the sump to be finished. Luckily I was able to design the plumbing in a way that’s allowed me to fill the tank up and get the rock/sandbed cycling. I hope I get the sump this week so I can wrap things up.
So now I wait.
. I just filled it with water tonight (too cloudy to take any meaningful picture yet) and so far I'm really happy with the quality of the build.
