My 92gal mixed reef corner bowfront
- Thread starter ReeferSteve
- Start date
ReeferSteve
Member
After doing some more research I think you are right on with the feather duster @Oxylebius, definitely a keeper then. The second picture I'm still looking into, both of the circled ?polyps? Are the same just hard to get a clear pic with my phone, I'll try again with my camera in the morning.
Thank you @PSU4ME
My LFS was selling it off at a price I couldn't resist. I did a dip/bath using tlf revive and it's either I did something wrong or got a really clean bunch? There was nothing in the container after the dip, or not that I could see. It opened up beautifully within a couple of hours and has settled in really nice in the centre of my rock work.
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Thank you @PSU4ME
My LFS was selling it off at a price I couldn't resist. I did a dip/bath using tlf revive and it's either I did something wrong or got a really clean bunch? There was nothing in the container after the dip, or not that I could see. It opened up beautifully within a couple of hours and has settled in really nice in the centre of my rock work.Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
ReeferSteve
Member
Typical!! Now I'm all set up and everything is settling in nicely I've been given the go ahead for a diy stand and sump [emoji2] and I guess I'd be a fool to pass up on the chance.
I've knocked up a quick design that still incorporates the bowfront and should give me enough space inside to get a reasonable sized sump tank. I'm debating if I should go with a straight forward sump or get an L shaped tank under there instead??
The main beams will be made from 2x4 pine with 18mm plywood sheets used for the top and the base and 12mm plywood for the back boards.
The only thing that is worrying me at the minute is having to drill my tank for the overflow. I have a place for my live rock and livestock to go whilst I'm working on the tank/stand/sump so at least that's one less worry.
I'm still researching into return pumps, other equipment and plumbing. I've got a pretty good idea where I want the returns going back into my DT and they should add a good amount of random flow.
Overall I'm excited to be able to get on and start the project but would still appreciate any advice from you more experienced guys and girls.
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I've knocked up a quick design that still incorporates the bowfront and should give me enough space inside to get a reasonable sized sump tank. I'm debating if I should go with a straight forward sump or get an L shaped tank under there instead??
The main beams will be made from 2x4 pine with 18mm plywood sheets used for the top and the base and 12mm plywood for the back boards.
The only thing that is worrying me at the minute is having to drill my tank for the overflow. I have a place for my live rock and livestock to go whilst I'm working on the tank/stand/sump so at least that's one less worry.
I'm still researching into return pumps, other equipment and plumbing. I've got a pretty good idea where I want the returns going back into my DT and they should add a good amount of random flow.
Overall I'm excited to be able to get on and start the project but would still appreciate any advice from you more experienced guys and girls.
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ReeferSteve
Member
I just wish my design skills were as good as some of the others I've seen on here.
The stand is a work in progress alough I've not got particularly far with it yet. The main beams are cut to size and pilot holes are all drilled ready to go. I just need to scrape together some free time to get it put together now. Fingers crossed for this weekend being my build time.
I get to pick up my sump tomorrow too, I've gone with just the straight sump instead of the L shaped I was thinking of. It will still be a nice size and will leave me some space in the cabinet for storing all the little bits and pieces.
I'm not too sure how the photos of the plans have come out, hopefully you guys can make sense of them. I've put together a rough diagram of my plumbing plans so I know what I'm aiming at when the time comes to put it all together. The main hold up will be waiting for some of the valves I've ordered they don't arrive until the 18th February, but at least that will give me some time to think through the whole plumbing plan before I have to pull it all apart and start from scratch!
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The stand is a work in progress alough I've not got particularly far with it yet. The main beams are cut to size and pilot holes are all drilled ready to go. I just need to scrape together some free time to get it put together now. Fingers crossed for this weekend being my build time.
I get to pick up my sump tomorrow too, I've gone with just the straight sump instead of the L shaped I was thinking of. It will still be a nice size and will leave me some space in the cabinet for storing all the little bits and pieces.
I'm not too sure how the photos of the plans have come out, hopefully you guys can make sense of them. I've put together a rough diagram of my plumbing plans so I know what I'm aiming at when the time comes to put it all together. The main hold up will be waiting for some of the valves I've ordered
they don't arrive until the 18th February, but at least that will give me some time to think through the whole plumbing plan before I have to pull it all apart and start from scratch!
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ReeferSteve
Member
I'm hoping that once I'm finished with the build that the fish in my tank are just as happy [emoji2]Sorry, I don't know anything about sumps but I do like the fish in your drawing, they look very happy
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ReeferSteve
Member
So I've done a pretty good job at annoying my better half [emoji52] and not too bad a job on building the new stand as well. I made plenty of mess with saw dust all over the dining room and pieces of wood and plumbing anywhere there was space to leave it laying around hehe.
After a stern look from the missus I figured I'd be best to get on with it and try get some sort of order back in the house.
Creating a perfect arch out of timber proved to be too much for my not so good DIY skills so I went with a fairly simple design instead, which I think doesn't look too bad, and I think it will be easier to get a hold of the doors I need.
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After a stern look from the missus I figured I'd be best to get on with it and try get some sort of order back in the house.
Creating a perfect arch out of timber proved to be too much for my not so good DIY skills so I went with a fairly simple design instead, which I think doesn't look too bad, and I think it will be easier to get a hold of the doors I need.
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
ReeferSteve
Member
Now I've got the stand in an almost finished state I've got hold of an AquaReef400 sump tank that fits nicely in my cabinet and leaves plenty of room for working around and some space to keep things to hand.
I just need to get the back boards on the cabinet and I've a bit of a wait for my doors they won't be here for another 4 weeks! The inside of the cabinet is going to be coated in a white waterproof paint whilst the outside will be stained to match the rest of the furniture in the house and given a coat or 3 of polyurethane to give it from getting water damaged.
Being a total novice to sumps and plumbing I've had plenty of runs back and forth to the local hardware stores to pick up everything I needed, but I've had to order the ball valves for the 21mm return from online and still waiting for them to be delivered.
I'm about as far as I can be with the plumbing now until the valves arrive for the manifold and I get my tank emptied and drilled, oh and get the overflow box put together.
So far everything seems to be going smoothly. It's a bit easier than I'd thought it would be
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I just need to get the back boards on the cabinet and I've a bit of a wait for my doors
they won't be here for another 4 weeks! The inside of the cabinet is going to be coated in a white waterproof paint whilst the outside will be stained to match the rest of the furniture in the house and given a coat or 3 of polyurethane to give it from getting water damaged.Being a total novice to sumps and plumbing I've had plenty of runs back and forth to the local hardware stores to pick up everything I needed, but I've had to order the ball valves for the 21mm return from online and still waiting for them to be delivered.
I'm about as far as I can be with the plumbing now until the valves arrive for the manifold and I get my tank emptied and drilled, oh and get the overflow box put together.
So far everything seems to be going smoothly. It's a bit easier than I'd thought it would be
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ReeferSteve
Member
Wow, has it been that long since I updated? I'd best pull my finger out and get this up to date!!
So, everything is back up and running now and not doing too bad.
I had a local reefer come round and drill my tank for me. We decided on drilling on the back/side near the corner and the holes went nice and smooth. 2 holes were drilled so I could set up a herbie overflow as the tank is in my living room so a silent overflow was preferable.
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So, everything is back up and running now and not doing too bad.
I had a local reefer come round and drill my tank for me. We decided on drilling on the back/side near the corner and the holes went nice and smooth. 2 holes were drilled so I could set up a herbie overflow as the tank is in my living room so a silent overflow was preferable.
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ReeferSteve
Member
With the display drained and empty of livestock it was a good opportunity to do another rescape, it took me at least 3 attempts to get something I liked the look of and think it will work well for coral placements. And hopefully this will be the last rescape for a while.
Oh, and I finally upgraded my lights too [emoji4] I've got a set of the TMC V2 ilumenair 900 lights, I'm still playing about a bit with the settings, but so far I'm pretty happy with them. Apart from the fans which kick in quite often and are fairly loud when they do! If anyone has any suggestions to a setting that looks good feel free to point me in the direction.
My wavemaker got an upgrade too [emoji4] it's a good job my better half doesn't know how much all these things cost!
But I couldn't resist trying out the jebao rw-8. I'm liking the water movement I'm getting now but I think I might need one more of them for the opposite side of the tank then I can retire the eheim streamon 3000's for good.
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Oh, and I finally upgraded my lights too [emoji4] I've got a set of the TMC V2 ilumenair 900 lights, I'm still playing about a bit with the settings, but so far I'm pretty happy with them. Apart from the fans which kick in quite often and are fairly loud when they do! If anyone has any suggestions to a setting that looks good feel free to point me in the direction.
My wavemaker got an upgrade too [emoji4] it's a good job my better half doesn't know how much all these things cost!
But I couldn't resist trying out the jebao rw-8. I'm liking the water movement I'm getting now but I think I might need one more of them for the opposite side of the tank then I can retire the eheim streamon 3000's for good.
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ReeferSteve
Member
The stand is finally finished now as well, I couldn't get the custom doors I was after so for now it just has some temporary doors on there, but I'm not going to give up looking for some new ones as I'm not entirely happy with how it's looking at the minute [emoji20]
But it is an improvement on how it was originally, and at least it accommodates a sump now.
Everything under the cabinet is finished for now too, apart from a couple more future upgrades! I finally got all the plumbing finished, return manifold finished. My hang on skimmer fits in nicely, but I'm looking for a slightly larger sump that will allow me to have an in sump skimmer and a larger fuge. I have a small fuge at the minute that has a deep sand bed in it, but now I have a reactor running biopellets I don't feel there is a need for the DSB, so I'm going to pull it out and just use live rock rubble and some macro algae to house plenty of copepods etc as I'm still wanting a mandarin in the distant future.
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But it is an improvement on how it was originally, and at least it accommodates a sump now.
Everything under the cabinet is finished for now too, apart from a couple more future upgrades! I finally got all the plumbing finished, return manifold finished. My hang on skimmer fits in nicely, but I'm looking for a slightly larger sump that will allow me to have an in sump skimmer and a larger fuge. I have a small fuge at the minute that has a deep sand bed in it, but now I have a reactor running biopellets I don't feel there is a need for the DSB, so I'm going to pull it out and just use live rock rubble and some macro algae to house plenty of copepods etc as I'm still wanting a mandarin in the distant future.
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ReeferSteve
Member
On the downside though, I had an outbreak of ich shortly after refilling the tank, the stress of being moved out and back in mist have brought it on along with the fact I never qt'd the first inhabitants. So lesson learnt and all my fishes are out of the main display and are currently sat in a copper treated QT. They've been in there for 11 days now and all are looking healthy and happy. I'm going to carry on the full length of the treatment before reducing the copper and leaving them in QT whilst the display sits fallow for another 8 weeks, just to be sure the parasite has died out.
I did get a few more new additions too before the outbreak, and won't be adding anything else now until I'm happy that the ich is eradicated and my QT is empty and cleaned ready to QT any new additions.
So far though I have acquired
my first anemone,
a watermelon favia?
a small Duncan (has 5 heads with a 6th on the way)
And some kenya tree.
You'll have to excuse the hair algae, it is thinning out now that the biopellets are starting to kick in, and hopefully with the addition of some new CuC and a tuxedo urchin, it will be nice and clean looking again soon.
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I did get a few more new additions too before the outbreak, and won't be adding anything else now until I'm happy that the ich is eradicated and my QT is empty and cleaned ready to QT any new additions.
So far though I have acquired
You'll have to excuse the hair algae, it is thinning out now that the biopellets are starting to kick in, and hopefully with the addition of some new CuC and a tuxedo urchin, it will be nice and clean looking again soon.
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ReeferSteve
Member
And yet another new addition has gone in damn this is getting addictive!!
I believe this to be an orange flower tree coral. I know it can be a tricky one to keep and requires a lot of feeding, as it falls into a non photosynthetic category it isn't light dependant either. I've been using natural sea water in my tank for a while now, so I'm hoping there is enough micro life in there to sustain this coral.
It doesn't stop there though! I'm on my way to pick up another new piece today, I'll upload a pic as soon as it is acclimated and looking happy
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damn this is getting addictive!!
I believe this to be an orange flower tree coral. I know it can be a tricky one to keep and requires a lot of feeding, as it falls into a non photosynthetic category it isn't light dependant either. I've been using natural sea water in my tank for a while now, so I'm hoping there is enough micro life in there to sustain this coral.
It doesn't stop there though! I'm on my way to pick up another new piece today, I'll upload a pic as soon as it is acclimated and looking happy
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