"If you have $ for a new tank then you should have $ to add a new bathroom" Wife

[MatteZ]

My wife has been asking me to add a bathroom to our 1 bathroom house for years. I always found some reason to put it off. My friend broke down his 90g system and gave it to me. My wife was very against it as our house if tiny and I already had a JBJ 24g Nano Cube running for a few years Ithat fit nicely. So when I told her he was going to give me the 90 she was very against it. She said that if I had the money for a new fish tank then I should have the money to add a bathroom to our house. Two months later she got her powder room installed. I did it all myself so it cost next to nothing. Since she said she would compromise with me I got my tank! With the right motivation anything is possible.

So it all started with this. I took lots of pictures of both the bathroom and the tank build along the way. Since this is a Tale of The Tank I will stick to mostly the tank.

Some of my handy plumbing skills helped run the sink, toilet, and vent stack for the new bathroom.

To make a long story short. One finished bathroom


Now on to the tank
View attachment 4113
This is the tank sitting in my basement waiting for the bathroom to be completed. I will go over a list of stuff that came with it.

CPR wet/dry sump
CPR overflow
a skimmer that did not have a name I could find
a UV sterilizer
a return pump that has no label
CoraLife power CFL
75g a day 4 stage RO/DI system
a few boxes if misc. stuff that I can't think of at the moment.

Pretty much the only things I am still using is the lights, return pump, and the tank. The rest of it all is sitting in my shed and when I find the time to put it up for sale I will. (unless you are interested in any of it please feel free to PM me)

 

[Hawkeye]

wow awesome bathroom. If i could do that my wife would've forced me long ago instead of the tanks...lol.

tagging along.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Ok Mr. Handyman , before the code-nazis see your handy-work, a couple suggestions:

1. Pick up an artists brush and paint purple cleaner on each of the pipe joints. In every town I know, you have to show purple cleaner being used. Be sloppy about it, making it look like it was used when you assembled the pipe.

2. You might have a common GFI for all outlets, but if not, put in a GFI outlet in all outlets in the bathroom. I can see the one next to the crapper is not GFI.

3. Did you drill through a laminated beam…..for what looks like a 2 to 3 inch pipe?

Otherwise, it looks pretty!

 

[MatteZ]

Ok Mr. Handyman , before the code-nazis see your handy-work, a couple suggestions:

1. Pick up an artists brush and paint purple cleaner on each of the pipe joints. In every town I know, you have to show purple cleaner being used. Be sloppy about it, making it look like it was used when you assembled the pipe.

2. You might have a common GFI for all outlets, but if not, put in a GFI outlet in all outlets in the bathroom. I can see the one next to the crapper is not GFI.

3. Did you drill through a laminated beam…..for what looks like a 2 to 3 inch pipe?

Otherwise, it looks pretty!

The picture of the PVC is just the dry fit. I used the purple primer. Trust me I got iT ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was a solid wood beam I drilled through. I made sure I did it to code. That outlet is the one thing I just never got around to changing. It was on the wall before I built the bathroom. It is actually controlled by a switch that is on the outside of the wall.

Thanks for the compliments!

 

[MatteZ]

Collecting dust in the basement

The tank was not drilled so after sticking my laptop in the tanks and looking at the white screen with my polarized sunglasses I figured it was an AGA. I drilled two one inch drain holes and one 3/4 inch return. I was scared to death to drill those holes but they came out perfect. It was probably one of the easiest parts of the build.

 

[MatteZ]

My oldest daughter and I built the canopy together. So I can blame it on the because when I went to put it onto the tank it was 3/4 of an inch too short. I forgot to account for the width of the board and when we put it on it didn't fit. I am by no means an expert carpenter, and I guess my 10 year old daughter isn't as well. so if you look closley you can see where i cuthe entire thing into two and glued strip in to make up for the loss. It doesnt matter because i cut out the front to add a door that would swing up on hinges. I filled in the cracks and all with wood putty to make it smoother. If you look at the back you can see, but since nobody will ever see it then it is good for me. I made it so the lights will just sit on the top and kind of sunken into the canopy. I painted it black and coated it with varnish to make it shine.

 

[fatoldsun]

My oldest daughter and I built the canopy together. So I can blame it on the because when I went to put it onto the tank it was 3/4 of an inch too short. I forgot to account for the width of the board and when we put it on it didn't fit. I am by no means an expert carpenter, and I guess my 10 year old daughter isn't as well.

Should have asked Dora to help - I see her just chillin' there and I hear she's a fantactic finish carpenter....

 

[MatteZ]

Should have asked Dora to help - I see her just chillin' there and I hear she's a fantactic finish carpenter....

LOL That is now my dog's chair she sleeps in. Thanks again Dave for inviting me over. I had a blast getting to know you and your set up. Also thanks again for the frags. I will post pictures when they get comfortable. It's gestures like that that makes a world of difference.

 

[Hawkeye]

i spot what looks like tunze equipment on the left...

 

[fatoldsun]

Any time Matt. Wish I had more to offer

 

[MatteZ]

This is the finished plumbing that i went with. After doing it I now see things I would like to change I think. Any suggestions along the way please let me know. If you see I am did something wrong please correct me so I can learn.

In my backyard i filled all of the equipment with water and distilled vinager and just let it run for about 6 hours. I emptied it all then ran it all again with water and a tiny bit of bleach just to make sure. My buddy had stopped taking care of it long before he gave it to me so I wanted to make extra sure it was squeaky clean. After the bleach I ran just water, and after the water I let it air dry for a day. Once it was all clean I brought it all inside and set it up on the stand. I didn't like how the stand was that came with the tank because it was the particle board type, but what bothered me more was that it was not very user friendly. I was trying to make this thing as easy to take care of as possible becuase I would be more likely to care for it. I didn't plan on changing the stand or the sump when it was all given to me but the more I played with it I knew it should be changed.

This is just filling the tank to make sure that everything that I had done would do what it was suppose to do.

This is my 8 year old happy to see that all I had done was not spilled all over the floor! I was much happier than she was.

 

[Hawkeye]

I do see tunze equipment! nice.

And she is adorable. great pic!

 

[MatteZ]

While the tank was still in the basement I started to order the sand bed, rock, BRS dual medai reactor, two Tunze power heads, and an Apex tank controller with an extra energy bar. I had most of it shipped to my office so my wife didn't freak out when 2 GIANT boxes came to the house filled with 100 lbs. of Pukani Dry rock etc. I didn't want to start with anything, "live" I wanted to start all dry. So once I knew that all of my plumbing was 100% leak free I emptied the tank and started the aquascape process.
What was nice about the rock being dry was that I could take as long as I wanted. BRS had some awesome videos specifically for Pukani Rock and it gave me some cool ideas. some I cut with a saw and made pillars and others I used a chisel and added caves and tunnels. It was a lot of fun to do.

This is what I came up with, and this is me filling the tank. I just stuck the RO/DI line in the tank.
On a side note, you would think my water bill would be outragouse right? My water bill was the lowest it has ever been. I couldn't figure it out. The next month it was low as well.

 

[MatteZ]

This is the start of the cycle. I used anAPI test kit to follow the cycle process and watch ammonia spike etc. Rather than try and match the color to the card I would test both my tanks and do it that way. Since I knew my Nano tanks parameters were on point I would just compare the two.

You can see the progression

You get the point.

It took 4 weeks to cycle the tank.


While the tank was cycling that is when I decided to build a new stand for it. I looked online and got plans from ReecCentral and went to work.

I got a 36" Trigger Ruby Sump and a SuperReef Octopus XP1000SSS skimmer

 

[fatoldsun]

This is the finished plumbing that i went with. After doing it I now see things I would like to change I think. Any suggestions along the way please let me know.

will you have it against a wall? I'd want access anything that may need to be serviced - the thing that I assume is a check valve on what looks like the return - will you be able to get to that?

 

[MatteZ]

will you have it against a wall? I'd want access anything that may need to be serviced - the thing that I assume is a check valve on what looks like the return - will you be able to get to that?

I have unions all over the place. SInce it has been up and running I have changed it slightly. I took out the one check valve and replaced it wita new one. I have a union directly above and below it just to make it easier.

 

[MatteZ]

If you noticed that I started the tank on the particle board stand then I built the solid wood one I had to move it filled from one stand to the other. I have 3 rubbermaid 30 gallon cans that I use to do water changes. I installed the sump, dual reactor, skimmer, and Apex. Then I pumped out the water from the tank into the buckets and then a friend and I were able to lift the tank and quick slide it onto the new sand. It wasn't as hard as we had thought it would of been. Now that it was running on the new sump I had to let it cycle for a few more weeks because of all of the dry rock I had added in the sump. The sump is the thing I know the least about because my cube never had one so I am trying to learn as much as possible. I am sure I will have tons of questions, and I will post more pictures of the sump to have you all help out and tell me what I am doing good/bad.
Here is the Apex and the ATO. I built that shelf and later painted it black to give me a place to put things and also under the shelf I got one of those Kingsford plastic charcoal containers to hold my top off water. It holds about 10 gallons and lasts maybe a week.

The BEST part of keeping a SW tank is sharing it with my kids! We have a 19 month old boy who will only watch Finding Nemo and goes balistic if I bring him to a LFS or when we go to the aquarium. (My wife won't let me cut his hair yet so he is always confused with being a girl. His name is Gabriel.) I have an 8 and 10 year old girl and the baby boy. We are expecting our 4th(and final) child on April 4th of 2013. My family means the world to me! The tank takes a close second.

The next thing I am going to do is to make a propper door for the front of the tank and one to cover the ATO container on the right. I just framed some ply wood to put on the cabinet because Gabe kept putting his toys in the sump.


This almost brings us up to date. I have a few pictures still to post from me moving the fish and the very few corals I had over from the Nano Cube.

 

[MatteZ]

I wish I would of gotten this when I first started the build

This added membrane makes a huge difference!! For me it does about a gallon every ten min or so. I still have to figure out a permanent place to mount the RO?DI unit. Right now I hand the supply and waste water tubes out the window and hook it up to the house. I have to do something soon because when it gets cold I won't be able to do it because the hose will freeze. I'm thinking under my sink...

 

[MatteZ]

This picture was taken on 9/18/12. In the fish caregory there is one perc clown, one tiny gold stripe maroon clown, six-line wrasse, green chromis, diamond watchman goby. and a royal gramma. I got the CUC from Reefcleaners.com who put one to fit my needs. I liked dealing with them. This is what I got. All the algae was almost completely gone by the next morning.
50 Dwarf Ceriths
16 Nassarius
29 Florida Ceriths
22 Assorted Hermits
3 Chitons and 4 Limpets
10 Large Nerite and 10 Small to Medium Nerites

Coral wise there is a tiny green brain that was in my Nano tank and a small leather. Thanks to Jose I got a small RBTA and thanks to Dave I got a few other frags. The people here have been very welcoming. I am glad I found NJReefers. It has been nice talking to people with the same interests.

 

[MatteZ]

I think I need to find a better set up for my RO system. I am limited for space so I set it up and take it down when I need to make water. Since I run the tubes out the window and hook it up to the hose I have to go outside and turn it on/off. I forgot to turn it off the other day.


Oops!

I am thinking about under the kitchen sink that way it is close to the tank and has water and a drain source. I'll figure out something...