My 38 gallon tank

Discussion in 'Show Off Your Fish Tanks!' started by Reeron, Jun 30, 2008.

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  1. Reeron

    Reeron Blue Ringed Angel

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2008
    Messages:
    1,550
    Location:
    Kingston, NY
    Hello. New to 3reef (but not saltwater tanks) so I thought I would post some picks for everyone (well, mostly for Luna ;D ). Been keeping saltwater tanks for 7 1/2 years now. My last fishies just passed away in May :cry: (2 tank-raised Oc clowns), so I decided to re-do my tanks. I've been waiting for 3+ years for the 2 clowns to pass so I could re-do the tanks, so I guess that could be considered a good thing (how long they lasted, with me patiently waiting to re-do the tank, not them dying). Here goes......

    June 12th and into the early hours of the 13th:

    Note to self: Don't start a major task at 11pm, unless you don't like sleep.

    Took both powersweep 212's from this tank and put them in my other tank (20 gallon, also with no livestock, just live rock and substrate), replacing the airpump and airstone on the undergravel filter with them (more on that in a moment :angry: ).Threw out Whisper power-filter on 20 gallon and replaced with skilter 250 (I know it's not that great, but the whisper died and this was an immediate replacement until I can afford a better one). Drained 38 gallon tank. Happily (did a little jig) threw out undergravel filter and crushed Florida coral (will never, ever, listen to either LFS again). That undergravel filter was a nitrate factory (GHA up the wazoo, partially my fault as I didn't keep up on the tank, as much as necessary, the last year and a half), and will not be missed. The 20 gallon will suffer the same happy fate once I get the money saved to re-do it (for now it's holding 45 lbs of live rock. 30 from the main tank, and the 15 that it normally has). Scraped algae off of glass (also had already removed many, many handfuls of GHA from substrate- BYE BYE undergravel filter!). Thoroughly rinsed tank and let it dry. Took Seaclone 100 skimmer apart and thoroughly cleaned it, as well as Whisper Power-filter 2 (which will go into storage once the sump/fuge is up and running). Put them back together (separately of course ;) ).

    June 14th:

    Poured 40 lbs of Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand into tank (actually placed, not poured :p ). Filled tank with saltwater and added 2 Koralia 1's......

    Taken at 1 am on June 15th:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/Reeron/52c0e889.jpg

    Taken at 1:30pm on June 15th:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/Reeron/1908249d.jpg

    Taken at 11:42am on June 16th:
    Finally, it's clear. YAY!
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/Reeron/ab03916c.jpg

    Later that day (4:40pm), I placed one piece of live rock in the tank to help with cycling of the tank. Sorry Luna, no pic :(

    June 21st:

    Getting bored, so after reading everything I could find about sumps/fuges for the last 3 weeks, I've decided to build my first. It will be a sump/algae scraper (cheato and 1.5 inches of live sand, no DSB). I had a 10 gallon tank lying around (sure glad I didn't listen to the wife and throw it away when we moved into the new house on 1-26-06), so that will be used. It's a little small, but it's all that will fit inside my tank stand. The wife said I could do anything I wanted :cheesy:, as long as it fits under the tank. So, 10 gallons it is.

    Sump with first divider (will be used to hold live rock rubble and some filter floss (hopefully it will be my only mechanical filtration)) and first part of bubble trap installed:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/Reeron/1ecc41a5.jpg

    Same tank with eggcrate installed so you can see where the filter floss and live rock rubble will go:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/Reeron/30efdbaf.jpg

    Semi-dark picture (forgot to raise the flash) showing a left-over piece of filter floss installed (not actually large enough to use- just for illustrative purposes):
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/Reeron/b8ceee28.jpg

    June 27th:
    Added 2 more pieces of live rock (forgot to take picture of second piece when it was added on June 19th- sorry Luna :-/ ), bringing the total to 4 pieces in the tank. The first piece on the left was piece number one. The 3rd from the left is piece number two:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/Reeron/09e6a54d.jpg

    The piece on the right has a small colony of polyps on it (6):
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/Reeron/954ad37b.jpg

    A close up of the polyps:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk351/Reeron/db19bd26.jpg

    PS- can anyone id what kind they are? I would say brown button polyps, but that seems a little too obvious. The 20 gallon has another piece of live rock, with another small colony of polyps on it (8 I believe), that will also go back into the 38 gallon. I'm taking my time, so the other 7 pieces of live rock will go back in over the next 3 weeks.

    Tomorrow the pump for sump arrives, as well as all of the plumbing for it. And the overflow box. More pics will come, but not tomorrow (it's my 8 year anniversary tomorrow). Hopefully Wednesday night......

    Next week (hopefully) I'll have saved enough money to finally purchase the new light fixture. It will be a 36" Current Sundial 4x39w T5ho fixture. Enough for my needs.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2008
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  3. missionsix

    missionsix Super Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
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    5,734
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    Bend,Oregon - USA
    Welcome to 3reef reeron! A new beginning ahead? Looks good so far. Apparently you've seen the LUNA before, while searching the site. Keep this thread going and see your tank growing.
    Casemissionsix
     
  4. Ash and Mike

    Ash and Mike Astrea Snail

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    Alaska
  5. nemo1991

    nemo1991 Millepora

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    rocklin
    welcome! lookin good!
     
  6. JupiterSailfish

    JupiterSailfish Peppermint Shrimp

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    Florida
  7. baugherb

    baugherb Giant Squid

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    southington, ohio
    Welcome to 3Reef>>>>> Looks good... Your off to a great start...
     
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  9. BaxterS80

    BaxterS80 Pajama Cardinal

    Joined:
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    Welcome to 3reef!!!!!!!!! Tank looks as if it is off to a good start...
     
  10. Chubby

    Chubby Astrea Snail

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    Location:
    Miami
    Welcome to 3Reef.
    Looking good so far.
    Chubbs
     
  11. R34dawn

    R34dawn Ocellaris Clown

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2008
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    Location:
    Garden Creek,VA
    Howdy! and welcome to 3Reef nice setup, I really like your sump,!
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2008
  12. Reeron

    Reeron Blue Ringed Angel

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2008
    Messages:
    1,550
    Location:
    Kingston, NY
    Some new pics:

    July 3rd:

    Here's my third attempt at glueing a 1 inch pvc pipe onto my overflow box.

    First atempt: Glued it all together, but had the retaining nut off of the bulkhead fitting (nut wouldn't fit over the elbow at the end). :oops:

    Second attempt: Cut the pipe in the middle, glued it together with a coupler, but AGAIN, forgot to put the nut on the bulkhead. :dunce:

    Third attempt is the picture you see below:

    [​IMG]
    :victory:





    July 4th:

    Here's a picture of the inside of my tank stand. I had to "hack out" part of the back, otherwise I couldn't get the 10 gallon sump inside the stand. I had to put it in on an angle, then rotate it into position.

    [​IMG]

    Next up, fixing my mess of wires inside the tank stand. Luckily, the stand has a natural lip in it, so the surge protector rests right on it. Two screws keep it from falling, but allow me to remove it if needed.

    [​IMG]

    All pumps plugged into it. During feeding I can turn them all off at once. Nice and easy :).

    [​IMG]

    1 inch ball valve (with flexible tubing- otherwise I couldn't fit the sump in if I used all pvc without using a union connection). Since the tank is filled, and is too close to the wall, I couldn't use the union connection without draining the tank and moving it (The window sill barely allows the 1 inch pvc pipe to squeeze between it and the tank). The end of the flexible tubing is lined up with the centerline of the part of the sump where the filter floss will go.

    [​IMG]

    New picture of sump. Upon further thought, I realized 2 things.
    1) The center section of the sump (where my sand and Cheato will go) was too small. I moved the bubble trap 3 inches to the left, increasing the center section from 7 inches to 10 inches. :2thumbsup
    You can still see the magic marker lines from the original measurements (black lines on the back of tank). I left them on so you could see how much larger the middle section is now. The original reasoning was to have a large pump return area so I didn't have to worry about topping off the system every day (the pump return area is where water evaporation shows up, lowering the water-level in that area as water evaporates). That's no longer relevant, as I will be using an auto top-off system in the future, allowing me to increase the middle section's volume by about 30%. Using an auto top-off system is always a better idea than losing valuable sump volume (trying to be lazy and not top off my system everyday).
    2) I forgot to silicone in the 3rd baffle on the bubble trap :p. I will try it with just two baffles, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be pulling out the sump and glueing in the 3rd baffle somewhere down the road. Oh well, life's a learning experience (so is this hobby).

    [​IMG]

    Picture of the sump inside the tank stand (also shows my 3 gallon water reservoir on the right). Price of garbage can (ahem: water reservoir): $2.00 at Walmart. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I'll get the auto top-off system hooked up to that 3 gallon water reservoir. The system loses about 1/2 gallon of water per day (evaporation), so the 3 gallon reservoir (usable volume is 2.5 gallons as once the water-level gets below 1.5 inches, the water pump will suck air and not water) will allow me to go about 5 days between fill-ups. If I go on a vacation of more than 4 days (typically 7 days), my sister-in-law will only have to fill the reservoir once. This will make everyone happy :).
    Dark gray blob on the left side of the sump is the return pump. Quiet one 1200 pump (296 gph rating) will have about 180-190 gph actual at 42 inches of head height. That will hopefully be enough volume of water for the cheato, otherwise I have a Powersweep 212 (80-125 gph rating) that I'll use to get the cheato "rolling". I know there a few veterans of this website that will cringe at this setup, but with the space I have available (wife won't allow anything outside of the tank stand), it's the best I can do. I don't have enough space to do a seperate sump and refugium, so I compromised and did a sump/ algae scraper. Not as good as a seperate sump and fuge, but better than nothing at all.

    [​IMG]

    Since the 1 inch ball valve was blocking the view of the 3/4 inch ball valve, here's a closeup:

    [​IMG]

    Later, I'll have some more pictures.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2008