Saint's 110g Reef

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
I picked up a 75 gallon from a friend and member of our community.

He sold his house and is currently designing a beast of a setup for his new place. This left him "stuck" with his tank and all of the coral he has spent time growing out. Luckily, he sold it all to me for a great price under the condition that i do my best to keep a couple of his prized pieces alive for him and two of his favorite fish.

I gladly supported this and brought this beauty home. (pictures coming when i switch to my phone)

BTW, for those of you who haven't done this, moving/breaking down a tank with the intent of keeping stuff inside alive is not fun. This is the 3 or 4th time i have done this and i hope this to be the last!

Here are some pics of his tank before I moved everything into mine. The chaos is what the 75 looked like during the build.
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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Picking up tank and design plans.

There are a couple things i truly hate about my tank and the way i set it up. Nothing to say negative about the tank and stand, just my haste and lack of knowledge in its layout.

These things had to be changed for the new setup.

1) Wire hiding makes everything look great, but holy PITA for managing equipment changes or adjustments. I want to create something that simplifies this but accomplishes the same task.

2) The sump I had was a well built Trigger Crystal 30. I love it, but i have knocked the top off line off a couple of times, resulting in a mess and i hated the way wires ran all around the components. This needed more thought and design in the new layout.

3) Hard plumbing looks amazing, IMO, and i cannot see the benefit of going any other way. But without the right couplers in the right place, maintenance is a beating that involved cutting pipe and having the system offline too long.

So i want to built and electrical box that stores everything neatly, but accessible when needed. So the design is something like below (pics coming). I also need to modify the sump to hard plumb the essentials and route the wires.
 
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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Place holder - so much design thought... and poor execution LOL

One of my biggest beefs in this hobby is the refugium. Lets not start the battle of the pros'cons, but i am sure we can all agree on the fact that clear sumps with refugium grow unwanted things all around. So how do i fix this without spending a fortune on fancy focused lighting/high end sumps? Why replace a perfectly good sump?

What i decided to do was pick a color scheme and apply that color in acrylic to the inside of my "new" Trigger Crystal 36E sump. I also took this time to 3D print some missing components that always made me wish i had a solution:

1) Heater brackets
2) Refugium lid
3) Probe holder
4) Filter sock holder. I know the benefit of running "dirty" water into the fuge, but as i do not run much in the filtration category, i keep a filter sock in place to catch debris as it enters the sump.


This is what it looks like.
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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Hey i figured out some of the design flaws and how to do it...

I made this enclosure to ensure no water leaked our or splashed onto the new wall.... now how do i get the sump in?
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This is the condition of the stand when i took possession of it.
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This seemed like such a good idea...
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What the inside flex seal looks like.
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Time to start making the box.
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This enclosure will contain all of the electronics.
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Fixed my error in previous planning and started test fitting everything.
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Front view
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Acrylic for the sump
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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Almost forgot, parts list:

1) Unknown 110g tank (tall)
2) Unknown stand and canopy
3) Trigger 36E sump - modified
4) Radion XR15 lights x2
5) Vortech MP10 x2
6) Aqueon Pro heater x2
7) Bubble Magnus Curve 7 - modified
8) ADJ power bar 8 plug
9) GFI power strip adapter
10) Grounding Probe
11) Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper lite
12) Vortech battery backup x2
13) AutoAqua auto top off

I think that is it for now. My return pump broke so i threw in a generic high flow one for now while i recover funds.
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Day two water tests and a full tank shot. My mom is coming into town tonight so I am not sure how much I'll get done in the next 48 hours, but time will only help.

It goes against my core, but after extensive research, partial testing followed by a recent thread on another forum, I decided to use Fritz 9 and not perform the full cycle I have grown to trust. I may pay for this later, but in my mind, this will be the ultimate test; right or wrong.

So that said, I'll test again tonight and before I decide to start moving everything over. Until that time, here is a now post. The water test is my new tank on the right and the established 75 on the left.
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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Went to do the third day and apparently one of my family members wanted to let me know he was feeling left out. So he joined in on the fun.

That said, a little higher today on nitrates but barely measurable.

Nitrites, phosphates and ammonia are all 0's, PH 8.2, and Nitrates barely above 0. I'll test again tonight so I can watch the curve of the Fritz 9.

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Pancho75

Well-Known Member
Went to do the third day and apparently one of my family members wanted to let me know he was feeling left out. So he joined in on the fun.

That said, a little higher today on nitrates but barely measurable.

Nitrites, phosphates and ammonia are all 0's, PH 8.2, and Nitrates barely above 0. I'll test again tonight so I can watch the curve of the Fritz 9.

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Hahaha, I love dogs they are the best, the tank is coming along and now I can see the size!

I does look good. [emoji41]


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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Water tests done and reading all zeros. I added more Fritz 9 and rock for good measure. I forgot to make more water for the rinsing and staging during the transition, so hopefully tonight or tomorrow brings a new display!!!!

Pics coming :D
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Part of the fun before moving the tank in was choosing a color that matched the new tank and getting ready of this boring Texas tan they paint everything in.... i mean every surface besides molding and baseboards... After several trips to home depot to help the wife find her choice, we made one....
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Now that the painting is done, i got to play with the colors i care about.
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I decided to go with blue PVC and pure white fittings. I used black PVC in the return to hide the white pipes when you do a side view. Looks pretty sharp, or at least it will until the white specs start hardening onto it.
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I then started playing with the sump. I cut out the return holes and made them larger for the new bulkheads.
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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
So several pictures posted, sorry for any duplicates, playing in google photo and downloading made me lose track. Next time i will just post them as i go along like you are supposed to lol.

I took blue acrylic and wrapped the fuge to avoid light creep. Made a top to help with salt creep. I also had heater holders, probe holder and even a new filter sock holder made for the sump. I drilled out a hole for the wiring and for the ATO line so i do not knock it out again.

After this fun was done, converted my red and white BM curve 7 converted to blue and white.

I wrapped the inside of the stand in flex seal to make it easy to clean water and to act as a sound barrier for vibrations and general noise.

The pull out drawer is almost complete for the electronics, but that will have better pictures as i finish it.

I think that about sums everything up for now.
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Putting the room together slowly while I work on the final details in the cabinet. Hope to have the electronics display done this week and the door hanging kit completed by Sunday. Then I just need to finish the canopy and the light mounting kit.
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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Good news is the shroom is in fact splitting and starting to look a lot better. Spent the weekend on the golf course this time around and took a break from the tank. However, i did get the first iteration of the power center moved into the fish room and the canopy sanded with all mold and rust removed.
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Got the doors fab'd up and the wiring almost done on the power center. Of course, now i want to change everything on the deisgn of that, so lets see what happens there, LOL.

I also redid some rock work and am trying to decide on what to do there next. Also, my pup returned to tell me he still hates the tank and just wants "ear scratches"
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