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So I'm Building Stuff Again. 150g Plus Fish Room. (1 Viewer)

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Cody

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the theme on just your post made me think my screen was broken. Is that stand rated for earthquakes or wut?
Huh?

And of course my stands are rated for earthquakes. I build up to California code which means I don’t use products that are known to cause cancer either such as wood, screws, and paint.
 
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Hmm. The post had this weird water theme before. I don’t see it anymore
Pics or it didn’t happen! Mwahaha

Maybe you’re drinking too much or not enough
 
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What booster pump are you running on your RODI? I need to buy one.
The 8800 model something or another from BRS. I had it for 5+ years and then the motor started acting up on me a month or two ago. I originally got the kit for $100 on a Black Friday sale so I’d say it’s worth it. The replacement pump alone is now about $100.
 
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So I realized it's been a while since I updated but didn't realize it's been almost a year! 2023 has gone by too fast. I've been busy with work and a lot of projects around the house, but here's where I'm at. I've gotten a lot done this past month and am excited to finally be done with construction!

Alright, let's see. Where was I when I last left off? Ah! Putting up the temporary location of the trough and plumbing!



This was the original design but I ended up changing it. I drilled this tank to drain out the side that I didn't have to worry about holes in the bottom. It makes me nervous when an entire system hinges on a $0.01 rubber bulkhead gasket not leaking. Having said that, drilling fiberglass troughs is tough. There tends to be some bowing that you don't experience with a glass tank. These troughs don't settle into their final place until they're full of water, and then it's tough to drill. So when I went to put this overflow in, I ended up with some leaking. I ended up making some singular module so that they could bend and seal as the trough flexes. I think I'll probably drill the bottom of the next one just because it will be quieter and easier to plumb. I also should have gone with 1" pvc instead of 3/4". It would have been quieter.

Photo Dec 02 2022, 7 46 47 PM.jpg

Photo Dec 02 2022, 8 46 47 PM.jpg


What I ended up going with. I just put and elbow and a pipe shooting up for the middle emergency overflow.

Photo Dec 27 2022, 9 51 51 PM.jpg


Filling it up. I filled it with tab water first to test for leaks. Now the saltwater.

Photo Jan 15 2023, 10 49 54 PM.jpg


Full and no leaks!

Photo Jan 24 2023, 8 38 10 PM.jpg
 
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Next, I had to build a floating canopy. I'm using four Vipraspectras down the middle with T5s on either side. The canopy is 8' long and the longest bulbs I could get are 5', so I started by staggering them. The plan was to potentially add two 3' bulbs to make it even all the way across, but I ended up measuring the PAR, and it was actually pretty solid across the board, so I let it ride for now. The lights are hung about 18" off the water so I could crank the Vipras and get nice, even PAR.

Photo Jan 22 2023, 12 46 43 PM.jpg

Photo Jan 24 2023, 9 22 45 PM.jpg

Photo Jan 25 2023, 2 56 18 PM.jpg

Photo Jan 25 2023, 2 56 30 PM.jpg

Photo Jan 25 2023, 4 22 23 PM.jpg
 
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Hanging it was a little difficult to do alone, but I made this nice little stand to hold the lights at the right height, then used turnbuckles to tighten the cables and make it perfectly level.

Photo Feb 02 2023, 11 42 18 PM.jpg

Photo Feb 03 2023, 5 37 11 PM.jpg

For the sumpp, I just have a 40 breeder with a baffle to keep the water level stable in the sump and to make an area for the top off to work. I will plumb in a 60 breeder for water volume once the the trough is in its final resting place. I also got a good deal on a LifeReef skimmer from one of our members here on MARSH (@air_run ), and it ended up being cheaper and easier than making my own, so I went with it!

Photo Feb 06 2023, 5 41 37 PM.jpg

I have some black eggcrate to make racks out of. You'll see a black thing under the rack. That's a Tunze Stream 3, and holy crap do they move some water! You could easily get away with running one in a tank this size. It can dang near push water out of the trough and has a lot of control/settings. I put it under the rack because the flow would be too much with anything directly in front of it.

Photo Mar 02 2023, 7 17 07 PM.jpg




I have a lot more to update and will start posting a little at a time. It's a lot to type out so I'll do it in batches. Stay tuned!
 
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Those T5s probably provide enough PAR without the LEDs - that tub is nice!!!
 
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Those T5s probably provide enough PAR without the LEDs - that tub is nice!!!
They do pretty well but probably not enough on their own. They’re mounted very high, after all. I think the PAR is pretty even acros the middle 2/3rds of the tank at about 250-275 and dips down to maybe 180 in the lowest spots in the corners. Over all, very happy with the vipraspectras mounted high.

Having said that, I’m going to experiment with them in the following week. The biggest issue the vipraspectras have is that the lowest setting you can put either channel on is 10% and the whites are just too bright. Even with the lights higher, it’s hard to crank the blues without roasting your corals. So, I’m going to replace half of the white diodes with blue and royal blue diodes. Looks pretty easy to do and will allow me to get a much bluer spectrum without toasting anything.
 
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How about a diffusing plate. It’ll dim some of the light and help with disco ball
Nah they do find without messing with that. Vipraspectras really don't have any disco effect that I can ntice, and I'm pretty particular about that.
 
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Looks nice, what are you planning to grow out?
ALL the things! I have started thinking about the space I'll have in the new and improved fish room lately and what I'll grow/keep with it. I think the plan will change as my interest does. For instance, I recently decided that I'm going to do a seahorse tank because I've always wanted those. The whole room is really just a sandbox for me to try whatever I want.
 
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Alright, so I'm sure I missed a few steps along the way because I always seem to get sidetracked with other projects, but here's best i can figure where I left off from the last post.

The trough settled over the course of maybe 6 months and I moved over a lot from the old fish room. I don't have pictures from that time because frankly, I don't like taking pictures of when things die. Some large colonies of LPS lost a lot of heads in the transition and it sucked. Moving colonies is hard, unless you're going to an already established large system. The colonies are thirsty and it throws both the system they left and the system they go to into instability. It happens. Here is the final demolition of the old fish room.

Photo Aug 29 2023, 3 56 46 PM.jpg

Photo Aug 30 2023, 8 48 00 PM.jpg

Photo Aug 30 2023, 9 38 06 PM.jpg
 
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By the way, if you're ever trying to get dug in nails out of wood then this thing is a god send. It's called a Cat's Paw Nail Puller and it's the bees knees. I originally thought that I had framed the walls using screws so that I could disassemble it easily, but turns out I used a framing gun. This tool made removing nails in studs a quick task.

Photo Aug 30 2023, 9 54 17 PM.jpg

Always wear protective gear when dealing with demolition. You don't have to have bad allergies like me to appreciate not breathing in all the crap.

Photo Sep 07 2023, 4 31 01 PM.jpg


At this point, I had a big problem on my hand. I originally anchored the base boards to the slab with 1/2" concrete wedge anchors. Anybody that knows anything about those knows that once they go in, they don't come out. So, I had to cut them and smooth them over. I needed to wait until the weather was nice so that I could open up the door and windows to let the metals air out. As y'all know, this summer was brutal, so a good amount of time held up the project so that temperatures would come below 100.

Finally, the time was right and it was time to move. I had my angle grinder plugged in, the Metallica on the headphones, and I stated unscrewing the top 2x4s on the base boards to get ready for the furry of metal on metal. As I start doing so, the base boards start rocking. I grabbed the wood with my hand and rocked it freely. Yeah. I just lightly pulled out all the wedge bolts with my free hand. I delayed the project for a couple months because I thought I had to grind them down. Nope. I thought I had driven them deep. Turns out, I did something wrong and got them in just enough to secure the walls against sheer force. My poor workmanship saved the day and embarrassed me (made me happy) in the end.

Photo Sep 10 2023, 9 34 34 PM.jpg

Photo Sep 11 2023, 12 35 29 AM.jpg
 
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After many tarps over tanks, open doors, and open windows, the walls were cleared and ready for my favorite part of the project: drywall work. There was some mold built up behind the older tanks on the wall, which had resulted from improper air control during the winter months. You need a dehumidifier or things get out of hand. Luckily, that mold had all grown on joint compound and was easily removed. I also had to remove and patch the hole in the ceiling where the old light had been.

Photo Sep 11 2023, 12 35 21 AM.jpg

Photo Sep 18 2023, 8 06 10 PM.jpg

Photo Sep 18 2023, 8 06 15 PM.jpg

Overhead sanding sucks, although I got a nice palm sander from Harbor Freight that ran off both my air tank and shop vac to really reduce the amount of dust put in the air. I highly recommend it. Although, the below pic was from sanding with my face less than a foot away from the action. Not the smartest.

Photo Oct 06 2023, 3 25 00 PM.png

Photo Sep 14 2023, 12 56 18 PM.jpg


Photo Sep 20 2023, 12 51 18 PM.jpg

Photo Sep 20 2023, 1 11 28 PM.jpg

Photo Sep 20 2023, 1 49 05 PM.jpg

Photo Sep 20 2023, 7 44 53 PM.jpg
 
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