bishop40k Posted February 22, 2015 Report Share Posted February 22, 2015 Figured I'd post this here so I have a log of my build that has currently taken me over a year to get together. A while ago I saw UaruJoey's 540g build out of a pair of 6' 125s, this got me thinking of doing a smaller one out of a pair of 75's, but never came to fruition. Looking around, I realized that I had multiple 30L's sitting around that I wasn't using. So the plan became to make a 36" shallow cube, and I got the OK from the boss (wife). The problem with this tank is, a 36" cube isn't a standard size, so almost everything has been custom, or cobbled together to make it work. Forgive the mess of a basement where I'm building all this. Here's the original sketchup design: Which originally had a pair of 20L's under it for a sump and a reservoir, but decided that a single 20L sump wasn't going to be enough room to do everything I wanted for filtration, so it became a 29g and a 20L plumbed together as such: Which gives me room for the filter socks, skimmer, chaeto chamber, a small area for rubble, return chamber and either a RDSB or a small frag area. So first order of business was building the stand, and I decided that I wanted a floating canopy above this tank: and I wanted an area for the electronics away from the sumps, a divider board was put in, and painted red for my youngest son: filter sock holder, as I didn't want the standard hang on side ones, after lots of thought and looking at other people's designs, this was done: Thought is that water from the tank will come down as 2x 1" pipes that will fit into the 3" pipe which is capped off and water flows back up onto the holder then flows down through the duda-diesel socks, if they back up and water rises water will flow through the 2x 1" pipes into the skimmer chamber. then sumps were built out of a 29g with 2 1" bulkheads on the side and a 20L: Canopy was skinned with plywood with batting and marine vinyl on it. This same process will be repeated on the stand to give it a unique look that will also hold up to spills. (wires were a temp thing and have since been replaced with beefier cable). Canopy will house a single 250w cayman sun fixture and a square of actinic leds for lighting Still working on the tank itself and getting the stand finished. The tank I'm not completely sure how I want to do the overflow, but I'm pretty sure it'll be coast to coast with a Bean overflow 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomic Posted February 22, 2015 Report Share Posted February 22, 2015 looking really good!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefNewby82 Posted February 22, 2015 Report Share Posted February 22, 2015 Looking good bishop, lots of DIY and thought has went into it! Keep up the good work and the updates. I like how you are going to integrate both tanks for your sump too...pretty good idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted February 23, 2015 Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 Looks good, who is building tank? If I were getting custom I'd do coast to coast with bean animal. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop40k Posted February 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 I'm building the tank myself. The current thought on the overflow is to do the coast to coast and use the area below it to house the RODI reservoir, akin to how Red Sea is doing it on their Max S series of tanks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop40k Posted February 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2015 Here's the current thought on the overflow system. The false wall between the tank and the rear chamber/overflow will be made out of black 1/4" acrylic with weir teeth (turned clear in pic for easier viewing): My thought is this allows me to use the dead space under the mostly coast to coast overflow to house a roughly 7 gallon reservoir of ro/di that can easily be pumped out of the chamber and into my overflow for top offs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefNewby82 Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 Very well thought out! When are you coming over to fix my set up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop40k Posted March 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2015 maybe after I get this thing built. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefNewby82 Posted March 6, 2015 Report Share Posted March 6, 2015 Haha, love the DIY and design on this...will be following Along! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefer82 Posted March 6, 2015 Report Share Posted March 6, 2015 Sounds like a pretty cool setup. One of these days when I can get something truly custom built I would like to have an internal reservoir like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop40k Posted March 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 Thanks guys. I should be getting the new base sometime this coming week. Still trying to decide how I want to do the false wall. Dont know if a piece of acrylic siliconed to sides and bottom would hold up long term or not. Plus trying to decide if I want weir with teeth, a smooth weir, or just to router a 30"x1/4" slot in the back. Obviously slot or teeth require acrylic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefNewby82 Posted March 15, 2015 Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 There was a member on here a couple of years ago that took egg crate with a backing, and used a reef safe spray adhesive - then they took crushed live rock, and made it fit in between and around the egg crate. It looked really realistic - i want to say their name "larry"...maybe you can send them a PM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefer82 Posted March 17, 2015 Report Share Posted March 17, 2015 Yeah it was Larry. He did it in his 40b's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop40k Posted March 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2015 not really looking at doing anything on the back wall, more concerned with the weir setup. By false wall I mean the wall between the overflow/reservoir and the actual display area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke33 Posted March 18, 2015 Report Share Posted March 18, 2015 Could you just do an external overflow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop40k Posted March 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 I thought about an external overflow, but I really don't want the tank very far from the wall, plus I'm digging the idea on the internal reservoir. Currently working on mounting the light in the canopy and changing the hooks in the rafters for stronger ones. I should be picking up the acrylic for the false wall early next week and then I can get started building the tank. Here is what I have decided on for the back wall, I will also be putting a lid on the overflow chamber: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop40k Posted March 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 Picked up the acrylic to do the false wall yesterday, and started siliconing glass together, so far ive got the 4 sides and one piece of the "eurobrace" attached. Need to wait for silicone to dry before putting the next piece on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop40k Posted March 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 progress so far: I'll probably put the next piece of eurobracing on later today Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapnCrunch Posted March 25, 2015 Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 Looks like it's going well.I especially like your bracing and you can never have enough rodi storage.lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishop40k Posted April 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2015 Latest progress though I have been slacking off a little bit. Need to trim up the acrylic wall and get it siliconed into place: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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