• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

TanksNStuff's 75G to 120G Upgrade

TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
OK, so what's this baby look like all setup?

Back shot (ignore the MP40 wire hanging through the canopy door. I have a plan to route that under the canopy, right above the pump... just didn't get to that yet.)

IMG_0104.JPG


Side shot

IMG_0105.JPG


Sorry, I didn't take a pic of the side door off, showing the manifold. I'll take one tonight and post it up later.

For now, here is a full sump area front shot with door off.

IMG_0109.JPG


You can see I also added my ATO container below the manifold and UV (easy access to that from the side door too!) You can also now see the tubing for the UV filter. I plan to mount it to that small block of wood after I cut it to fit in that lil track.

Skimmer is in the left section, rock and macros in the center, return on the right. That rectangular acrylic container is my collection container for skimmate. It has a pressure switch in it that will turn off my skimmer if the level gets up that high.

Here's a shot of the stand with the front door on.

IMG_0110.JPG


Here is a full setup shot with the doors on (except for the missing cabinet door that isn't finished yet. Again, please ignore that and picture a nice oak door that resembles all the others. Also, please ignore the messy room and the messing wiring in the cabinet.

IMG_0112.JPG


I did spend a big part of yesterday cleaning up the wiring though. I got it almost to where I want it and took a pic for you all. I'll probably get some sort of conduit to hide all the wiring or maybe just use that plastic ribbed tubing stuff that will dress it up a bit.

IMG_0115.JPG


Well, that about catches you all up to date. If I find any relevant pics of the build process before these, I'll add them in. If anyone has any questions about any section of the build or how something was done, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer best I can.

I still have a short list of stuff to finish up on it (besides the obvious missing door.) I have a nice oak shelf to put around the top of the front and right side, and crown molding to help keep it secure and pretty it up. I also have to notch an opening for the VorTech wire on the right side, so it can go up into the canopy and across to the opening into the cabinet on the other side.

Equipment wise, I still need to do my carbon/gfo as stated before, but I also have 2 new dosing pumps that I'll be setting up on the bottom section of the tall cabinet.

Coral-wise, I also have to rearrange things in the tank. Pretty much everything in there is just as we left it when we set them in the slightly cloudy water. I may move a rock or two also (especially some of the pieces we just put in along the edges) but haven't even had time to think about it yet. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to make a note and I'll consider it.

Anyway, there you have it folks. I got it done before the swap which was my ultimate goal and now I should have some room to be able to buy corals again.

OH, I did move all the fish and inverts into the big tank, but I left the 2 clowns and all the anemones in the cube. I didn't want the nems to run around and kill everything before I had a chance to make them some room first. I have 4 RBTA's, and I'm considering selling 2 or 3 of them with pickup at the Swap. Haven't decided on a price yet, but they will be cheap! ;)
 
Last edited:
kschweer

kschweer

Administrator
Staff member
Officer Emeritus
Moderator
Looks great george! Very well thought out. Best of luck with it.
 
MatteZ

MatteZ

George that looks AWESOME!!! I am sorry I wasn't able to come help. It is soccer season and I had two games on Saturday. You did a great job!
 
Tommyboynj

Tommyboynj

Administrator
Officer Emeritus
George. How do you like the waveline pump? My water blaster is the only thing I'd change on my upgrade. It was a carry over from the old tank. To loud.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Hockeynut

Hockeynut

NJRC Member
Wow George everything looks great.. You know what they say, great things come to those who wait and the tank looks great. Good luck
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Thank you all for the kind words. I'm glad it came out looking so good. Yes Rob, good things come to those who wait, and nobody waited like I did, LOL.

Tom, it's only been 2 days, but I love the DC pump so far. It's really quiet... almost completely silent! I also like that it has a soft start and ramps up slowly which is better for the motor. Plus, it should save me some energy costs too. Especially since I'm replacing 2 smaller pumps by putting in the manifold.

Now the bad news. I made a serious mistake the night before when setting up my ATO. In order to put it where I wanted it, I had to splice my power wire for the ATO pump to extend the plug. Also, on the breakdown, I pulled the float switch wires right out of the contacts when trying to remove them from the controller. That took me a while to get the connectors onto the end of the float switch wires and so I was up really late when I finished it all.

Well, when I ran the ATO pump tubing through the sump, into the cabinet, out through the canopy, and into the overflow section... I guess I was so tired I forgot to secure the clamp that holds the tube just above water level. Long story short, I came home to a flooded living room. :mad: What happened was, since the end of the tube was submerged, it back siphoned into the ATO container. I had the thing filled up already, so the water overflowed that and filled up the bottom of my stand and then out onto the carpet. :eek:

The good news is that Red Gard stuff really works great. Since I didn't want to leave water sitting in the bottom of the stand, I shut the tank down, removed the sump, and proceeded to dry it all out. After shop vaccing the bottom, I noticed the Red Gard protected the wood really well. The bad news is, the stand only holds about 1-2 inches of water in it since I put a thick piece of foam on the bottom of the sump to reduce vibrations and noise... so the water rolled right over the edges and onto the carpet. It's a concrete slab floor with "industrial" type Berber carpet so just used towels, shop vac, and put on some fans to dry out the carpet. Worst case scenario, I may have to replace the carpet but I've wet it before with my old tank and it was fine after similar cleanup.

I think I'll cut away the extra foam around the sump tank to give a little more space for any future incidents. It will also lower my ATO container and give it another inch of clearance under the manifold outlets too. It's manageable now, but another inch will make it easier I think.

Oh, since I had the sump out again, I decided to change out my overflow drain tubing. My old tank's tubing was the same size and it had a PVC TEE (with the TEE part capped) inline that I used to secure my filter socks and below the TEE is a flex pipe that bends easy. Figured I'd take advantage of those features and put it on the new tank. I was very careful not to put any stress on the bulkhead for this because I didn't need any more water on the carpet! And while I was at this, I put on a fresh filter sock because the first one had some sand and junk in it already. I had been considering switching this drain tube anyway, so at least I had easier access then with the sump in place.

Anyway, all is back to normal now but I didn't get to do any other progress on the build since I was in cleanup mode all night. I did get my parts from BRS for the carbon/gfo reactors but I didn't have time to even work on that. Guess I'll get on that tonight. I need to get those back online ASAP.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Everything looks fantastic, not sure what I like best. Maybe the fact that you get three sides to view it. Second the cabinet on the side very impressive.
 
AnthonyJerseyShore

AnthonyJerseyShore

The tank looks awesome! And as far as going nuts with the primer... better to over do it, then under do it and have to rip apart the plumbing because of a missed spot where it leaks. Know what I mean :p?
 
Tommyboynj

Tommyboynj

Administrator
Officer Emeritus
Must be an upgrade thing. I'd had my tank up about 2 weeks. No issues. I went away on vacation and on the second day mark goes over to feed my fish to find water everywhere. For some reason my skimmer freaked out. Filled the 5 gallon overflow bucket i use when away, drained my 10 gallon Ato and dump about 10 gallons all over the floors.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
Consider it a baptism of your new tank (I left the ato running last night so about 25g on the floor last night so I feel you).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top