Hornet's 150 gal piece of the Ocean

[Hornet]

Ok, I'm no where close to my tank being even remotely considered a piece of the ocean, but this is where it all starts for me. I've been quietly following a few of the chronicles here so I decided to start tracking my sloowwwwww build. So hopefully in a few months I can look back and and find some sense of accomplishment

To start things off here is a pic of my tank so far.


Stand is 35" tall and tank is a 150 gal 48"x24"x30". I plan on skinning the stand this weekend.

I'll post the rest of my plans for this tank a little later

 

[Stacef]

Looks great! Do you plan on having a sump? FOWLR tank? or reef? Glad you are posting pics, otherwise, we would be demanding them!! Are you going to be running a skimmer?

 

[Hornet]

I new there would be a demand for pic's as I've been lurking around reading a lot of threads. So I took a few crappy pics with my cell phone until my new D40 gets here.

This will be a mixed reef tank. I plan on drilling it for a closed loop that will be fed by a dart pump. I started just looking to get a 120 tank but I saw this 4ft 150 gal tank displayed in a LFS and after many weeks of talking myself in and out of getting it I bit the bullet. I know I'll be cussing at my self when I have to reach stuff in bottom of tank but oh well .

Yes there will be a sump. I have a plan worked out but it's about time for me to get some sleep so I'll post that tomorrow.

 

[Dentoid]

Nice start! How do you get around in that garage?

 

[Hornet]

How do you get around in that garage?

Man does that sound familiar. I actually so-called cleaned the garage up before I started building the stand. Basically I just moved everything to 1 side. After I took the pic I noticed how junky it was so I'm planning to totally clean it up this weekend so i can keep the boss happy

Here is a pic of my proposed plan for drilling my tank. My goal is to get enough flow and not have to utilize powerheads in the tank. I have a 1500 gph overflow on order from glass-holes and return pump for the sump is going to be a panworld 100 px-x pump.

The closed loop will be ran with a Reeflo Dart. I'm still trying to decide if I want to have the 2 of the CL returns in the bottom of the tank or not. I like the idea of having some flow directed to the front of the reef. I'm also debating the use of an OM-4-way along with the dart.

Any opinions good or bad are welcomed.

 

[tbittner]

The bottom is most likely tempered so it can't be drilled. Just move those two holes to the back/bottom about 4" up from the bottom and you and your reef will be happy with the flow.

 

[Hornet]

The bottom is most likely tempered so it can't be drilled. Just move those two holes to the back/bottom about 4" up from the bottom and you and your reef will be happy with the flow.

I forgot to add that the bottom is not tempered. My tank is a Perfecto 150 H with no tempered panels. Perfecto Tank Information

 

[Hornet]

I'm basically finished with my stand. After taking the picture below I noticed that the doors are a bit to dark so I'm going to try and sand them down lightly before putting on clear coat.

With my stand about finished I'm now going over my plan for drilling my tank. I decided to move the overflow box to the middle of the tank and the returns from the sump to the upper corners. I suck with sketchup so some of the placement of the holes are not aligned properly like I plan but the basic idea is what I'm thinking.

Here's a image of what I'm looking to have for a sump. I'm thinking of getting a custom sump to take advantage of the extra height I have in my stand. I have 31" of height inside the stand. But after I get a price on a sump I may be back to using a 40 gal breeder.

I welcome any feedback on my project.

 

[Hornet]

I'm moving real slow but I finally got up enough nerve to drill my $400 tank.

I have to say the hardest part was getting started. I taped a small piece plywood scrap from my stand build on the back of the glass to cut down on possible chip out. I'm proud to say that I successfully drilled 2 perfect holes for 1 1/2" bulkheads. :bouncer: The first hole probably took me around 25 min's because I nervously kept stopping. But the second only took me around 15 minutes. Here's a couple of pics I took.

I now feel a lot better about being able to drill another 7 holes in my tank

 

[tippMANn98]

Those are some CHOICE holes my friend!
looks like this is gonna be a fun one! So what are your plans so far, if any? I'll be around to check the progress on this...and maybe help you out along the way.....that is....If you need it! Great start.

Im Daniel....:hallo:

 

[Hornet]

Thanks tippman! I welcome any help and feedback as I'm learning as I go along.

I plan on this being a mixed reef tank. The 2 holes I drilled are for a 1500 gph overflow I got from glass-holes. Since I have my confidence up I'm going to finish drilling the other holes in the back glass this week per the drawing I have above.

My equipment list as of today

50 gal std. tank - skimmer > return < fuge
Dart - for the closed loop
Panworld 100px-x for the return from sump
Octo Extreme 200 -
Constellation T5 Fixture -
ACIII -
OM 4 -way

My list has already changed a lot and I'm sure I might change it some more before I'm finished.

 

[tippMANn98]

Im POSITIVE that your list will change, all the lists will change, corals, fish, inverts, there is NEVER A SET LIST!

 

[Octoman]

Nice build! I gotta get subscribed to this one. I love drilling holes in glass!!

How many T5's in the light fixture, is it the one with 7 x 48" bulbs?

 

[Hornet]

Nice build! I gotta get subscribed to this one. I love drilling holes in glass!!

How many T5's in the light fixture, is it the one with 7 x 48" bulbs?

Nice to have you here Octoman, I've been skimming through your thread and your set-up looks real nice. I'm also thinking of going with TBS.

The Constellation has 7 lights in it. I think it will do well with my 30" high tank and not leave me wishing I got something else. That will likely be one of the last things I buy.

I finished drilling the holes in the back glass of the tank this weekend and also painted it. Man :evileye: if I was to paint the back of another tank I'd probably just use a latex paint. I used 2 cans of Krylon to paint the back and after a few layers I started thinking about a post I read where guy said he just rolled the latex over the back one time.

Next on my to-do list is to get started on my sump. I've been hoping I could find a 50gal on craigslist as I drag my feet but I've had no luck yet. So I'll probably start checking the LFS's this week for prices on a brand new 50gal.

 

[Hornet]

I fogot to add to my chronicle that I got a new toy. Sadly I'm far from using it but it's still a new toy. I got a little deal buying it from a guy that bought it and never used it.

Figure I'll throw up a pic of my tank sitting on the stand in the garage. I'm trying to decide exactly where I want to drill the 2 holes in the bottom glass for 1" CL returns. Excuse the doors on the stand they are ticking me off, I'm about to pull them off and make new ones.

 

[Hornet]

I'm going to try to start picking up the pace on my build. I can use some help trying to figure out how plumb my overflow to the sump. The crappy paint picture shows 2 different ways I thought of. I'm kinda leaning towards the blue lines.

Will one of these work? Or do you have a better idea?

 

[yungreefer2410]

whats wrong with the doors? i don't know much about plumbing. i'm sure frankie would have an answer though

 

[Hornet]

whats wrong with the doors?

Having a problem with one of the hidden hinges. Just a case of my bad measuring. Also in that pic there were some white spots showing on the edges of doors from where I painted the inside of the stand and doors that I have since fixed. Basically its just a bunch of rookie wood working minor mistakes. Of course since I built it I see all of them when I look at it. But the family seems happy with what I've built so I'm going to try to leave it alone.

As far as the pluming I'm now leaning towards the green line set-up if I can find some kind of wye that will merge two 1.5" pvc pipes down to one 2" pipe that I can run down to the sump.

I'm going to finish up the sump this weekend. I used some EPDM to pressure lock some acrylic baffles in place but water was not holding well when I water tested between baffles.(probably another product of my bad measuring) Was thinking of replacing with glass baffles then I decided I'm just going to leave the baffles like they are silicone them in.

 

[Hornet]

Well, it's been a LONG time coming!

I finally got some water in my tank. I got it all plumbed yesterday and I'm doing a fresh water test for leaks. Thankfully I only found one leak so far. One of the valves was missing a gasket, but I've replaced that and all is well.

In all my newbness I did make one big mistake in my design. I drilled the holes for the return from the sump too low. As soon as I drilled them I realized they were too low but I thought I could fix it with some crafty plumbing... dumb me. Far as I see I have two options: I can get some more loc-line segments and angle the sump returns up higher, Or I can drill a hole in the top of the plumbing and put a tube in the return line from the sump. Anyways here's a few pics:





If you notice a change in the stand, I got annoyed with my crappy stain job so I decided to paint the stain. I think it looks a whole lot better.