Plywood Tank Build. TOTW 5-7-07

[Samper]

My buddy and I have some big plans for our future in this hobby. This is one of our many projects that we have going at the moment. The goal is to use it as a prop tank and be able to incorporate more of them as needed. Dimensions are 48" wide x 96" long x 12" deep. The sump will be a hundred gallon rubbermaid poly tank. A 50 gallon gravity fed fuge sits at one end and the sump on the other. The overflow section is split into 2 sections and each section has its own closed loop. One half of one will feed the sump and one half of the other feeds the fuge. Skimmer is either a Coralvue Octopus recirc model 300 triple Reefwarehouse.com | For The Serious Aquarium Enthusiast and the feed pump is OPT-2000 or the model 400 quad Reefwarehouse.com | For The Serious Aquarium Enthusiast. We already have both skimmers in our hands as well as the fuge and sump. Lighting has yet to be determined. Yesterday we got the tank built and today we sanded and lined it with fiberglass mats. Bondo resin was used before we lined with fiberglass and after to seal the entire thing. Tomorrow we sand and bondo again but it's getting there extremely fast. Here are some pics. I'll keep ya updated.

[Samper]

more

[Samper]

crap they didn't post

[Reefland]

Looking like an interesting project. What is the picture we're looking at in the last picture of the second set?

[Samper]

That's the divider in the overflow section. We rounded the top of that lip and the lip that the water actually flows over in an attempt to keep splashing to a minimum. Keep in mind that it all was covered with fiberglass, then we used the bondo to go over it all again smoothing as we went. We have some sanding to do because it dries so fast but all in all I'm satisfied. We made it so that we could easily incorporate more tanks into the system as needed. Return pumps and closed loop pumps have yet to be decided on.

[Samper]

We finished the tank today. All in all we used 3 coats of the bondo and then a coat of black epoxy paint covered the inside and out. For the second coat of the inside we added a bunch of sand to the paint until we liked the texture then coated the inside with it. Next week we order all the bulkheads and locline to do the plumbing. Here are some pics from today. Tomorrow I'll post the rest. For the closed loops another good friend suggested to plumb them in a cris cross pattern. What I mean is one pump will feed from the back bulkhead farthest from the overflow but towards it and then on the opposite side of the tank it will feed into the bulkhead closest to the overflow. The other pump will be plumbed in the same manner. This way if for some reason one of them goes down we are still moving water on both sides of the tank.

[wozza]

are going to be lining it with anything or is that black stuff reef safe?

cheers james

[Poseidon]

Looks good Chuck! Is that going to be for frag grow out? Why did you decide to use black instead of a reflective color, like white, to take better advantage of whatever light source you decide to use>

[Samper]

We went with black because it will show off the frag/colony colors better. I'm not big on a reflective surface underneath a coral....some light will bounce back up but not as much as will be radiating down and that seems fairly natural. The epoxy that we coated and painted with is completely reef safe once dry. I've seen a few others use this same stuff. We are going to light it with T5's and have decided on using the model 400 quad to skim it. It's going to be pretty nice.

[Samper]

Here's the goal...

[charlie]

I want to see this when you get it running!!!! I really like your idea.

How many T5 bulbs are you gonna use?

[Samper]

I think 4 48" 54w t5 fixtures...8 bulbs total from Coralvue will light it nicely plus I have my 250 pendant that we can run on one end if needed. We all run those Coralvue fixtures around here and can't say enough about how nice they are. Thanks for the thumbs up we're pretty excited.

[Reefland]

When will the initial water test be?

[Samper]

We spent so much on the skimmers that it will be a few weeks before we can plumb it and get the pumps in. I think we may incorporate 2 metal braces on each corner and possibly a center brace even though it should be sturdy enough with the fiberglass lining. I don't want to take any chances.

[jmreef]

what kind of epoxy did you use?

[Samper]

In my third post second picture that's the resin we used.

[scubadude]

Here's the goal...

Be nice if there where a few corals in that pic ;;

Very Nice project bro.....gonna tag it

[Samper]

Thought I'd give an update.
We are moving along quickly and will definately have water in it by the end of the week. Today we built the gravity fed 50 gallon refugium stand and I tried drilling glass tanks for the first time. Everything went well. We have everything in place and ready to be hooked up. Here's some updated pics.

[Samper]

With my new system being such a success we decided to go the gravity fed refugium route. It will be fed from the sump prior to going through the skimmer and will then spill back into the frag tank. Lighting ended up being 6 3' t5 fixtures for a total of 12 bulbs. We suspended them from the ceiling and have the ability to raise and lower them as needed. Four Pan World 100px-x pumps will provide the flow throughout the entire system. Pan World 100PX-X Magnetic Water Pump - Marine Depot - Marine and Reef Aquarium Super Store
We have our reactors both Ca and Kalk in place and just have to fill the CO2 bottle. The lighthouse controller will be wired up and running before the weeks through and the aatoc topoff controller is almost completely ready to go.
On top of all this we plumbed for a sink in the basement and we have running water and drains in place where they're needed. That's about it for now.

[charlie]

That is some nice progress!!! Would this be the first water test for the system?? If it is, good luck.