Zeek's 120 (1 Viewer)

[zeek]

As the tittle, I am ready to share my new project, I had to build a whole addition room to the house to be able to get my tank the stand was built and placed next to the wall so its an in wall tank slash divides the kitchen and the new room that was added onto the house. The stand was also built with dimensions to fit a 180, for now the remaining space is a shelf and when I'm ready to update it can be removed and a new 180 will fit perfect into the wall used.


I got Two small concerns, 2 issues on the build at this point.

1. The old returns were removed and I drilled and installed (or working on it) a bean style overflow with a built in overflow box. So old holes on the bottom?

I placed some acrylic and siliconed it about a week ago, the whole bottom is siliconed and pankaked in, its holding really tight but recently I read that silicone doesn't bond with acrylic so now Im wondering if I should take it off and re-do it with glass or should it hold? It is in place rather well, I can peel the layers that are on top of the silicone slightly but the piece of acrylic itself did glue to the glass very well I cannot lift it and a small water test showed no leaks, take it or leave it?

2. When getting the stand in place we hit a corner and a trim cracked, only the side not the bottom of it, I epoxied it and its very solid in place now but again before filling this thing up with ~120g of water sand/rock I just wanted to hear your opinions. I am on the fence about it maybe I just need to be told its going to be ok.

I am ready to fill it up, and I think It will hold but I wanted to ask for some comfort I guess, It does bother me a bit sometime and just need a bit of encouragement, I really want to see this done, I have worked on this for about 6 months now and want this to be done right.

Thanks for your help guys and pictures to follow.

 

[zeek]

The top is mounted on a rail to the roof and slides sideways completely, the space is limited, 13" so I wanted as much access as possible and a 10" door up there was just too small to get up there and work, so thats what I came up with hehe. Also both sides of the stand can be opened for easy access to the sump without hinges, they have the magnet push to open cabinet hardware on them so they can just be pushed in and removed. As you can see it's still a work in progress, the room itself still has some work to be done but tank comes first

I'm going with a NAC6 http://www.bubble-magus.com/en/productShow.asp?id=959 for a skimmer, sump is at this moment awaiting the baffles to be put in, its a 40 breeded thanks to petco's 1$ a gallon sale and the return will be handled by a RIO 20HF more pictures of sump/plumbing as I work on it so stay tuned!

Thanks guys, comments,suggestions appreciated!

-Zeek

 

[Tnconcept]

Sorry, if I remember correctly acrylic and glass is a no no bond..why not use a glass piece to pancake it? Looking good so far! Like the new overflow!

 

[TexanReef]

Looking good, Zeek.

Yeah, if you can use glass instead of acrylic, I'd consider doing so -- especially if the tank is dry and the area is still easily accessible. Your silicon job will probably be OK but I've had real trouble trying to get a feel-good bond between acrylic and silicone.

And I've some scrap pieces of glass that will work if you're out this direction again (not that scrap glass is expensive...)

As for the bracing? I dunno. Have a picture?

 

[Jamie9169]

Hello Zeek. Glad to see you have your big project off and running. Instead of covering the holes up with glass or acrylic, you could put capped bulk heads in them. That way if at a later date you wanted to add in a closed loop, or whatever, you could uncap them and use the holes. Build looking good.

 

[flexrac]

Hello Zeek. Glad to see you have your big project off and running. Instead of covering the holes up with glass or acrylic, you could put capped bulk heads in them. That way if at a later date you wanted to add in a closed loop, or whatever, you could uncap them and use the holes. Build looking good.

this, or like other said, use glass and rtv sillicone. use the sillicone to adhere them together and then seal the edges as well, so sand don't get underneath the glass. everything else looks good.

 

[tektite]

Use uniseals instead of bulkheads, and put slip pvc plugs in them. That'll give you the most compact way to seal off the holes while keeping them accessible for the future just in case.

 

[TexanReef]

Oh, I like the idea of capping them off as opposed to covering them and making them useless.

 

[TiAg]

Man that is going to be sick. Can't wait to see the next set of pics!

 

[zeek]

Chugging along, got my glass cut and baffles installed for my sump and my water reservoir is also in place now and ready for water! I replaced the acrylic for glas.. IT WAS HARD to get it off but once you could lift a side it did peel right off, so I'm REALLY happy I changed my mind and it's done and drying now, I should have water in this tank as soon as thats done, finished all the plumbing now that sump is done and in place and drying, my RO is starting to fill up two trashcans so I can start gathering up the water for when this silicon is ready!!!! IM SOOO EXITED right now lol

Thanks for all the comments guys I can't wait to see this finished but still lots to go.

ok back to work, staining and painting the inside of the sump and lining for tonite, more pictures to come at the end of the day.

-Zeek

 

[zeek]

K sorry took a few days, just been real busy but here they are... All plumbing is done, sump is done and im wiring lights as im taking these pics and I decided to reseal the tank too! its done, except in some places I couldn't clean the old silicone as good as I wished to so I have a bit of streaking in some parts but not too visible. I also replaced the acrylic covering the wholes with glass, Im doing a water test tonight at 50% and if that holds I'm filling 'er up tomorrow or saturday at the latest.

Oh yeah I got it stained too

Lights! Camera! .... water?

That hose on the side is currently there just to keep the water moving around in the sump, I got all the inside painted and the bottom lined with shower liner.

Plumbing

My hole patch work

 

[Tnconcept]

Looking great! I dig the led fixture!

 

[Diesel]

What kind of return pump you have for this system??

 

[zeek]

Thanks those kessil's are AWESOME can't wait to show you guys the shimmer they put out, I am going with a RIO Hyperflow 20 at my 4 1/2 ft head should be in the 1k gph range

 

[zeek]

All done! Full of saltwater and running! My bean doesn't seem to be silent tho, I mean its silet, no gurgling and no loud noises but I can hear the water waterfall in the open channel quite a bit, not louder then my pump but just wondering if something isn't working right, it's claimed to be completely silent but I read on Beans thread sometimes the pipe itself has inperfections inside and can create water running noises, we'll see pictures up tomorrow when the cloudyness goes away

 

[zeek]

Pics! cycling, 0 amonia, 3 nitrites and 80 nitrates... almost there! I added rock to the sump from my established tank and some algae. Skimmer still hasn't arrived, hopefully tomorrow, it's supposed to be here by wednesday at the latest but I remain hopeful

The shimmer from this lights is UNREAL, like nothing I've seen before, It's very comparable to MH but these seem more intense IMO anyway, and pictures just don't capture it as well(not to mention I take real bad ones)

Front

Back

Side

Sump

Diatoms! wooot!

I need to say that this tank was brand new, until recently I did NOT add anything from an existing set-up, The rock was clean and dried for months that I had and the rest came from the ADG x-mas party you guys saw how dry that stuff was, I did not add from my existing set-up until today when ammonia and nitrites are almost un-existand 1 week from starting the cycle, I'm amazed, I did use caribsea aragonite live sand and a bottle of Bio-spira rated to treat 70 gals I figured it couldn't hurt the process.

Why did I not seed it from my 14 month old tank you might ask?

Recent Outbreak of red-slime algae. B.. A.. D...

I will be setting up a quarantine tank, My current tank has recently developed (or caught) red slime algae and last thing I want to do is bring that over as a new tank and start off with it, I've worked really hard on this set-up to have a bad start

Any suggestions as to how or what I should do to prevent bringing it over will be appreciated and how I ended up with it in the first place? I haven't added anything new but a few fish in the last 6 months or more and this just showed up in the last month or so and its building up over my SPS very badly and on my algae in the sump, I rinsed out the algae I moved over very thoroughly and I also have a Phosphate reactor I will be running with Biopellets.


To do:

wait for cycle, skimmer and biopellet reactor to arrive, I also have an avast magnetic float switch(thanks felix) and a switch float top off kit for my RO water/reservoir. Also a hefty order of bio-pellets and dosing for my top off water, I plan on keeping this tank as healthy as possible as it will be my final tank for a Looooong time. These should arrive shortly over this next week.

 

[Tnconcept]

Good scape work there!