My 90g Oceanic TECH build

If it wasn't for my fish and corals I would love to sit back and take my sweet time re-building a tank from scratch. All the little details your installing now are going to make this whole setup much easier to maintain once you get it running. I love how you have your pump for your skimmer OUT of the water. How does that work? Did you plumb your return pump that way also? Ive been thinking of somehow adding a fuge to my sump, im currently using an in tank (in my display) refugium. I see that your fuge is in the second chamber with a sponge preventing any stray chaeto from making its way out of the chamber and clogging things up, doesnt this prevent pods from escaping also?
 
Dave, thanks! The pumps are running fantastic and I'm guessing my temps are a few degrees lower as a result of how I plumbed things. Like I said earlier in my posts, I sure wish I had a single larger pump running things, but I did install unions and checks for each pump to allow for quick cleaning and / or replacement if needed. I purchased a full setup on craigslist and the guy that I got it from was using (3) mag 9.5's that were in great shape,so I just couldn't justify spending 250 or so on a new pump (yet!)

As far as the fuge goes, the 36" eshopps sump had actually 2 chambers in it (sump was included in craigslist deal), but I really wanted a fuge. I actually broke the side of the sump pretty bad and found an acrylic shop in Rockford that cut me the exact size pieces I needed to repair the broken side and to make a corner (2 pieces of acrylic) entry point for the drains. I drilled 5/8" holes around the same height as the overflow where the sponge is located, holes were placed around both pieces and welded them in place. I then drilled a hole for the intake of the skimmer in this chamber, so it was fresh overflow water. this feeds back to the skimmer and then back into the fuge area. The fuge area was created by closing in the intake area. I was concerned that the sponge would prevent pods, but WOW....I did not add any pods to the tank, only the fuge and in the last 3 days I have a billion pods on the glass and I'm sure other surfaces. Last night I even saw some larger pods, so they are making their way into the tank!

I'm pretty anal about things too, when I clean the sponge, I first put some water in a 5 gallon bucket (from the tank) and then stand the sponge in there for about 30 minutes and slowly clean it or wipe it until (hopefully) all the larger pods are in the bucket. I catch 2-3 each cleaning, so it's paying off haha. I'm sure I will stop this process once the population has more adults. (I purchased some adults from IPSF.com)

I'm extremely happy with the setup at this point, especially the overflow. With it being slightly restricted, forcing a direct siphon (Herbie style), I have absolutely ZERO bubbles in my sump, NONE. I have never had a tank in my years of saltwater, that was so quiet and clean. The only salt creep I see is around the cup of my skimmer!!!

I just viewed your build too Dave, beautiful tank! I think the biggest difference is the real estate I have in my stand. I oversized my stand build so I could have that extra room. My builds in the past were always sooo cramped in the stand. Being able to move around under the hood is amazing.
 
Never finished but I'm giving you some time to grow your sticks (though your setup is pretty much FR ready right now)

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta
 
Thanks man, lots of great advice from these forums and even more PATIENCE!!! I lack patience, this has been quite a test! I really appreciate that compliment though. Thank you! ;)
 
Reeflogic said:
Dave, thanks! The pumps are running fantastic and I'm guessing my temps are a few degrees lower as a result of how I plumbed things. Like I said earlier in my posts, I sure wish I had a single larger pump running things, but I did install unions and checks for each pump to allow for quick cleaning and / or replacement if needed. I purchased a full setup on craigslist and the guy that I got it from was using (3) mag 9.5's that were in great shape,so I just couldn't justify spending 250 or so on a new pump (yet!)

As far as the fuge goes, the 36" eshopps sump had actually 2 chambers in it (sump was included in craigslist deal), but I really wanted a fuge. I actually broke the side of the sump pretty bad and found an acrylic shop in Rockford that cut me the exact size pieces I needed to repair the broken side and to make a corner (2 pieces of acrylic) entry point for the drains. I drilled 5/8" holes around the same height as the overflow where the sponge is located, holes were placed around both pieces and welded them in place. I then drilled a hole for the intake of the skimmer in this chamber, so it was fresh overflow water. this feeds back to the skimmer and then back into the fuge area. The fuge area was created by closing in the intake area. I was concerned that the sponge would prevent pods, but WOW....I did not add any pods to the tank, only the fuge and in the last 3 days I have a billion pods on the glass and I'm sure other surfaces. Last night I even saw some larger pods, so they are making their way into the tank!

I'm pretty anal about things too, when I clean the sponge, I first put some water in a 5 gallon bucket (from the tank) and then stand the sponge in there for about 30 minutes and slowly clean it or wipe it until (hopefully) all the larger pods are in the bucket. I catch 2-3 each cleaning, so it's paying off haha. I'm sure I will stop this process once the population has more adults. (I purchased some adults from IPSF.com)

I'm extremely happy with the setup at this point, especially the overflow. With it being slightly restricted, forcing a direct siphon (Herbie style), I have absolutely ZERO bubbles in my sump, NONE. I have never had a tank in my years of saltwater, that was so quiet and clean. The only salt creep I see is around the cup of my skimmer!!!

I just viewed your build too Dave, beautiful tank! I think the biggest difference is the real estate I have in my stand. I oversized my stand build so I could have that extra room. My builds in the past were always sooo cramped in the stand. Being able to move around under the hood is amazing.
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Ive had this 57g for almost 10 months now. Just in the past 2 months did I completely take it down and set it up again. One of the biggest problems for me was that this was my FIRST tank with a sump, I was doing AIO's before this so I had no experience to base my purchases off. I ended up buying a stand because of how well it resembled a piece of nice furniture and failed to realize that the tiny door in the center of the tank was going to be a nightmare when it came to accessing the inside.

Furthermore, the sump I have does not maximize space inside my tank and forces me to cram a skimmer, heater, BRS media reactor, ATO, return pump, and filter sock into such a small area. Sadly, the only reason I bought this sump was because it was the only one the LFS had to fit this stand LOL amateur mistake! Now, I cant event get the sump out without removing the top of the stand!!

My next big purchase, for this tank, is going to be buying an entirely new stand and sump, within the next month. I talked to Brett at zero edge aquarium and he quoted me at about $750 for a stand and sump that would take up the entire floorspace of my stand. We talked about having 3 chambers. A return pump in the center with my overflow dropping water into the chamber on the right (with a skimmer) and the chamber on the left (a fugue). Both the left and right chamber would overflow into the center and get plumber back up into the display. I like this idea, but would rather look for a cheaper option for the stand, which is going to cost me $450 of that $750.

I like how your did your plumbing because as you may have noticed, im getting so much water movement that I had to move all of my control units except my ATO controller out of my sump because my MP10s control panels and my RKL were getting caked with salt.

- Dave
 
Been there, done that Dave!! My last reef setups were from 2005-2008, I then transferred to South Carolina (for work) and had to sale off everything. I promised myself to do things different the next go round. It took some mad skills to convince my wife to let me dump a ton of cash into this hobby again, but even she now realizes that it was money well spent. An oversized stand is so key to your happiness. I can't wait to see what you end up doing, you will thank yourself later! $450.00 seems pretty pricey for a stand, but if it's a high end, quality build, it could very well be worth it. I built mine and of course, I had sold off most of my power tools prior to the SC move a few years back, so I had to load up the Menard's card lol... I spent $500.00 easy on tools and lumber, but I now have the capability to build future stuffs!

If I didn't have to buy tools, I probably would have spent around $200.00 for lumber, stainless steel screws, primer / paint, etc. So if you look at it that way, spending $450.00 to save you the time and / or headache of DIY, could very well be worth it, especially if it's a nice quality build. One thing I did is make the depth approximately 6" deeper than the tank. I finished the area behind the tank and it's barely noticeable, but those extra 6" underneath are AWESOME!!!! OHH, I forgot... I spent another 100 bucks or so last week for some pocket hole jigs and euro-hinge guide / jig, to build my doors. I'm going to have a 6" x 3/4" border and order some custom glass inserts. So I guess I spent $300.00 or so for my cabinet in all.

I think your fuge build sounds very legit, I wish I had a way to slow the flow down a bit, much like you will have. I ended up putting chaeto and the red macro that i received from IPSF.com in an old container I had laying around. I built it up on stilts and the rim has slits, so the flow comes out much slower, but it's rather ugly.

I'm also going to be building two smaller "covers" for each side of my tank, one will just cover the left side of the chiller and allow me to set something decorative on top of it and on the right side I have the 6 gallon blue reservoir with the ATO pump velcro'd, that I will cover as well and sit a plant or something on it. So at that point everything will be hidden.

When you do your return, will you be able to set up a "herbie style" drain? I highly recommend you incorporate it in your build any way you can, if it's feasible. You will thank yourself a million times over. The durso stand will almost always have gurgling and bubbles and Herbie or beananimal's design wont, or shouldn't. Then you could potentially be able to put all your equipment back under the hood and out of sight! It's the number one, hands down, best thing I did for my tank.

I'm following your build, look forward to your changes and of course, you grinning ear to ear afterwards! ;)
 
Reeflogic said:
Been there, done that Dave!! My last reef setups were from 2005-2008, I then transferred to South Carolina (for work) and had to sale off everything. I promised myself to do things different the next go round. It took some mad skills to convince my wife to let me dump a ton of cash into this hobby again, but even she now realizes that it was money well spent. An oversized stand is so key to your happiness. I can't wait to see what you end up doing, you will thank yourself later! $450.00 seems pretty pricey for a stand, but if it's a high end, quality build, it could very well be worth it. I built mine and of course, I had sold off most of my power tools prior to the SC move a few years back, so I had to load up the Menard's card lol... I spent $500.00 easy on tools and lumber, but I now have the capability to build future stuffs!

If I didn't have to buy tools, I probably would have spent around $200.00 for lumber, stainless steel screws, primer / paint, etc. So if you look at it that way, spending $450.00 to save you the time and / or headache of DIY, could very well be worth it, especially if it's a nice quality build. One thing I did is make the depth approximately 6" deeper than the tank. I finished the area behind the tank and it's barely noticeable, but those extra 6" underneath are AWESOME!!!! OHH, I forgot... I spent another 100 bucks or so last week for some pocket hole jigs and euro-hinge guide / jig, to build my doors. I'm going to have a 6" x 3/4" border and order some custom glass inserts. So I guess I spent $300.00 or so for my cabinet in all.

I think your fuge build sounds very legit, I wish I had a way to slow the flow down a bit, much like you will have. I ended up putting chaeto and the red macro that i received from IPSF.com in an old container I had laying around. I built it up on stilts and the rim has slits, so the flow comes out much slower, but it's rather ugly.

I'm also going to be building two smaller "covers" for each side of my tank, one will just cover the left side of the chiller and allow me to set something decorative on top of it and on the right side I have the 6 gallon blue reservoir with the ATO pump velcro'd, that I will cover as well and sit a plant or something on it. So at that point everything will be hidden.

When you do your return, will you be able to set up a "herbie style" drain? I highly recommend you incorporate it in your build any way you can, if it's feasible. You will thank yourself a million times over. The durso stand will almost always have gurgling and bubbles and Herbie or beananimal's design wont, or shouldn't. Then you could potentially be able to put all your equipment back under the hood and out of sight! It's the number one, hands down, best thing I did for my tank.

I'm following your build, look forward to your changes and of course, you grinning ear to ear afterwards! ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for following! The durso actually isnt my biggest problem and I am fairly new to the "herbie style" of drain and def need to do alot more research on it. The vibrations are what drive me absolutely nuts. My overflow pump, skimmer pump, and mj1200 for the BRS media reactor can drive me nuts sometimes. They make a humming noise that forces me to figet around with them until I find a sweet spot only for it to comeback a few days later. I tried cutting up a filter sponge and cramming it underneath both the skimmer and the return pump to cut back on no vibration but the skimmer is still very loud sometimes. I enjoy the sound of running water but the humming is driving me insane.

When I upgrade I am def going to take tips like that into consideration with my new design. My plan is to setup the new stand and sump and then drain the water in my tank real fast and swap out the stands very fast to for as little stress as possible for the tank inhabitants.

Also, if you ever find yourself itching to build another stand you have your first customer right here.
 
Another great High Tech build, I love these. You guys make me sick with you're clean Tanks... LOL.. Nice job man looks awesome.. I agree with herbie Spring 2015 featured Tank :thumb:
 
DAS212 said:
Thanks for following! The durso actually isnt my biggest problem and I am fairly new to the "herbie style" of drain and def need to do alot more research on it. The vibrations are what drive me absolutely nuts. My overflow pump, skimmer pump, and mj1200 for the BRS media reactor can drive me nuts sometimes. They make a humming noise that forces me to figet around with them until I find a sweet spot only for it to comeback a few days later. I tried cutting up a filter sponge and cramming it underneath both the skimmer and the return pump to cut back on no vibration but the skimmer is still very loud sometimes. I enjoy the sound of running water but the humming is driving me insane.

When I upgrade I am def going to take tips like that into consideration with my new design. My plan is to setup the new stand and sump and then drain the water in my tank real fast and swap out the stands very fast to for as little stress as possible for the tank inhabitants.

Also, if you ever find yourself itching to build another stand you have your first customer right here.
Click to expand...

The dreaded hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! I have my fuge and tank on a 1/2" sheet of the pink foam insulation and each pump is sitting on (2) cut pieces of that interlocking floor mat stuff used for children's play rooms. It did reduce the humming quite a bit, but it's still there. 3 mag 9.5's is hard to get super quiet. I did read that hard plumbing these pumps increases their humming and I can attest that this is very true. the two pumps that are located on the short side of the sump are fairly quiet, the one that feeds my skimmer and has the longer plumbing run makes a hum that was driving me nuts as well. I was messing around one day and figured out if I apply pressure to the middle of the 3/4" pipe, the humming is reduced. So I placed my 2 part bottles which were full and not being used yet, on the pipe and voila...it lowered it down to tolerable levels. Like you said...found that sweet spot, haha. Again, this is why I wish I had a single pump, but who knows, maybe one larger pump would produce the same noise as 3 smaller ones...

We are currently looking to buy a house somewhere closer in to Chicago, since moving back from SC, we are renting and I soooo wanted to drill through the floor, into the basement and have my sump and everything down below. So maybe when we move I can make that happen.

Funny thing about building a stand, soon as I finished mine, I got slammed with work! Hence the reason the doors are still not finished ;) If you haven't completed your new setup by the time I get moved in closer to you, maybe we could work on building you one. I definitely learned a few things on my build that would benefit the next one, and I have all my tools still, haha.

P.S. Frankie, thanks man!!!
 
You have inspired me to write up a design plan and build my own stand. Chances are I will end up with a couple hundred dollar fancy piece of firewood, but I guess that's how you learn. I don't have a big *** saw so I'm going to have the Home Depot people pre cut the wood
 
DAS212 said:
You have inspired me to write up a design plan and build my own stand. Chances are I will end up with a couple hundred dollar fancy piece of firewood, but I guess that's how you learn. I don't have a big *** saw so I'm going to have the Home Depot people pre cut the wood
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That's awesome Dave, you will love your tank even more with a little blood and sweat into that stand!! I based my build on this very simple diagram:

http://freshwatercichlids.com/do-it-yourself-aquarium-stand

Menard's has some pre-cut selections of wood, you might try there too. I became a huge fan of Menard's during this build! They seem to carry more of the stuff I actually needed! Cant wait to see your plans!

Nice new avatar KeishaKornbread!! You crack me up man haha.
 
nice setup Doug, I would only caution the placement of your ecotech controllers. Not sure you are using the velcro they provide, but I've had the glue fail and the controller fall, luckily mine are on top of the light fixture, so they fell about 5 inches to a piece of plywood over the tank to which my lights are attached. I'd be careful of them falling and going into the sump, but I can't tell how much room you have.
 
My velcro's are stuck like Chuck! But you're right, thank you for bringing it to my attention. I will add a zip-tie collar near them for plan B, should the tape fail! Awesome tip. Thanks!!
 
Reeflogic said:
My velcro's are stuck like Chuck! But you're right, thank you for bringing it to my attention. I will add a zip-tie collar near them for plan B, should the tape fail! Awesome tip. Thanks!!
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yeah, the velcro didn't give out on mine, the glue did!, definately secure them with a zip tie or something.
 
gig said:
yeah, the velcro didn't give out on mine, the glue did!, definately secure them with a zip tie or something.
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mine too. The glue is really freaking sticky, but they fall off after about 2 days. (I'll be using that power strip trick on them once I get off my but)
 
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