Pictures of Ninong's tank in progress.

[Ninong]

This first picture shows the tank on its stand, which was originally a built-in china cabinet with hutch top. I just removed all the shelves. This gives the tank a semi-built-in appearance as the back half is concealed. The back of the tank is almost flush against the wall so the plumbing and wiring come up along both sides concealed by the woodwork.

There is a 3/4" Sea-Swirl in the right rear corner and another one on the left side of the tank just in front of the corner overflow. There is also a 3/4" return plumbed through the corner overflow aimed along the back wall of the tank. I may add a Tunze Stream to the left side, if necessary.

The tank has a black indicoat mirror back and I used black appliance epoxy enamel to paint the outside back half of the sides of the tank so that you cannot see the plumbing coming up on the sides. Tank dimensions are 45"L x 23"W x 27.5"H.




The second picture shows the way the tank looks after I added some black 1/4" acrylic to the top and bottom. I purchased some cut-to-size black acrylic from a commercial plastics place in Baton Rouge and constructed a shield to conceal about 4" of the sand bed, which will be a minimum of 5.5" deep. The bottom acrylic is 5" tall and I cemented the side pieces to the front piece with Weld-On #16, then I used velcro to make sure the front was securely attached to the front of the tank. If ever I want to check the lower sand bed I can just remove the black acrylic shield.

The top acrylic pieces are 7" tall and are not glued together. I constructed connections with small 1" x 5" and 3/4" x 5" strips of acrylic so that each of the three pieces snaps in place on the top frame and can be easily lifted off. The top pieces are attached so that 2.5" conceals the 2" top frame of the tank and 4.5" extends above the tank to block unwanted light spill from the suspended Aquastarlight Future fixture. The bottom glass of the Aquastarlight Future fixture will be 11" above the water, 5" above the top of the acrylic pieces. If it becomes necessary, a small clip-on fan can be concealed in the left side of the woodwork blowing across the tank and the acrylic shield on the right side of the tank can be temporarily removed without having any light spilled in my face while I am seated at my desk on the left side.

I had to cut out a small piece of the "hutch" woodwork to accommodate the metal halide light fixture over the exact middle of the tank. There will be a separate Phazer II light fixture holding two 55w PC actinics mounted behind the metal halide fixture. This fixture was a freebie I already had before I bought the Aquastarlight Future. The main fixture holds two 250w 10,000K HQI DE lamps plus a 25w blue incandescent moonlight on a separate power cord in the middle. All lights, including the moonlight, will be controlled by a Neptune Systems Aquacontroller II.




The third picture shows the view of the tank looking up from the chair at my computer desk that is just 4 feet away from the corner of the tank.

I hope to install the light fixtures tomorrow. I seem to have misplaced the steel suspension cables that came with the Aquastarlight Future, so I am considering going without suspension cables. What I will probably do is install a support on both sides so that the light fixtures rest on the wooden support. I will use some leftover 1x3 oak pieces that I bought to reinforce the stand inside the cabinet. In the future, if I don't like this, I can always remove the wood supports and go with steel cables.

Sorry if the pictures are not that good but this was my sister's camera and I have never used it before. I will have to practice.

P.S. -- Here are a few pics I took when the tank arrived way back in February 2001:

[schrocat]

sha-weeet!

[Ninong]

Just finished getting the lights up and running. I'll see if I can get a few pics in here.



The first pic shows the tank on the stand with the lights on.




The second pic shows the lights: two 55w PC Actinics in a Phazer II to the rear and in front of that is an Aquastarlight Future with two AB 250w 10,000K HQI DE lamps and a 25w blue incandescent moonlight in the middle. http://www.ab-aqualine.de/eng/index_e.htm




The third pic is another shot of the tank on the stand.




In the fourth pic you will notice that the white PVC plumbing is clearly visible through the graylite tinted glass corner overflow. I can either get a cut to size piece of black acrylic to put in there or I can try to hide much of it with live rock. That's a DIY Stockman standpipe (2" PVC, 3" coupling at the top) adjusted so that the water level in the corner overflow is 1.75" below the weir grate. http://www.rl180reef.com/pages/stand...n_stockman.htm It is very quiet. Notice that you cannot see the plumbing on either side for the two Sea-Swirls because I painted the rear half of the sides with black paint. That conceals the plumbing and the electrical cords.




The fifth pic show how much access there is to the tank with the front acrylic shield off. If you look closely you might be able to see how I attached the acrylic pieces. Look at the ones on either side. There is a 1" x 5" strip of acrylic glued to the inside of the acrylic light shield and then there is a 3/4" x 5" strip glued to that to make a bracket. The inside top frame of the tank is 1" wide and 1/2" deep so that this allows the acrylic pieces to just sit on the frame. There is also Starphire glass perimeter splash guard (2" wide Euro brace) on either side so I had to remove the rear bracket on each Sea-Swirl and relocate it 1" further back to get them to open enough to span the 2" wide glass on the sides.

The black acrylic light shield is effective but not quite adequate if you are seated exactly where my desk chair is to the left of the tank and just a few feet away. That is just about the only spot in the room that is a problem and that is the most important spot, so I will have to do something about it. The problem is that the stand is 36" high and then the tank is 27.5" high and then I have the lights 9.5" above the top of the tank (11" above the water). So the bottom of the light fixture is 73" above the floor. This is only a problem if one is seated below the tank and very close to it on the left side.

My desk is in front of a 6' wide window just to the left of the tank. I need to either, (a) lower the lights about 3", (b) add another 3" to the black acrylic shield on the left side, or (c) switch the position of the two light fixtures so that the PC actinic fixture is in front of the metal halide fixture. Right now I am inclined to just add another piece of acrylic to the left side whenever I am sitting at my desk. I'm not sure if I can lower the lights 3" without having heat problems in the water. AB-Aqualine insists they should be a full 30 cm (11.8") above the water, which is why I have them as high as they are. I don't think it would be advisable to lower them any lower than 9" above the water and that won't quite cut it as far as the light problem on the left side is concerned. I'll worry about that later.

(P.S. -- If I hadn't misplaced the steel suspension cables for the Aquastarlight Future I wouldn't be having this problem right now. I could just lower it down to 8" above the water and see if that caused any problems. I guess that should be option (d) above.)

(P.P.S. -- I just came up with a very good temporary solution that works just fine: I removed the black acrylic top piece from the right side of the tank and piggybacked it upside down onto the top of the acrylic piece on the left side of the tank. This added 2.75" to the height and it was just enough. The right side of the tank is only 4" from the wall.)


Still to do: Hook up Neptune Systems Aquacontroller II, make rock support structure, start making water, add Southdown to tank, order live rock and live sand.

Future stuff to do: Set up auto top-off system, order calcium reactor, try to figure out a way to incorporate a refugium into setup. I have two white 20-gal Rubbermaid Brute containers in another identical china/hutch built-in cabinet on the other side of my desk. One is for RO/DI water and the other is for saltwater. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pro...nd+Accessories Also have a 32-gal gray Brute container in the garage. I might be able to run tubing between the two cabinets and hide it behind my desk. The cabinets are 6' apart and the desk would hide anything that is behind it. In the meantime I will just drip Kalkwasser at night into the sump with a Kent Aquadoser.

Tank has a single 1.5" drain and a 1" return which I reduced to 3/4". Sump is a Lifereef LF1-150 with Lifereef 24" skimmer. http://www.lifereef.com/frame.html Return pump is LG 4MDQX-SC, skimmer pump is LG 3MDQX-SC. Return pump is adequate to run two of the three 3/4" returns with decent flow but not all three. In order to get good flow out of the left Sea-Swirl, I have to practically turn off the 3/4" return through the overflow compartment. May consider adding a Tunze Stream to the left side of the tank.

[reddhaus]

Looks great Ninong!! I can't wait to see how you put it all together.

[organicreefer]

WOW!!!
you finally did it ,and its about time i might add..looks beautiful..

what kind of rock support strcuture are you talking about??just put the rocks in there..i really hope youre not gonna do a pvc frame thingie-those almost always look lame..unless its just a single pipe and holes drilled into the rocks to completely hide it...

[Ninong]

Looks great Ninong!! I can't wait to see how you put it all together.

THANKS!

[Ninong]

WOW!!!
you finally did it ,and its about time i might add..looks beautiful..

what kind of rock support strcuture are you talking about??just put the rocks in there..i really hope youre not gonna do a pvc frame thingie-those almost always look lame..unless its just a single pipe and holes drilled into the rocks to completely hide it...

THANKS!

Did you ever have a Tinker-Toy set as a child? Think of a Tinker-Toy construction using 3/4" cast acrylic rods and 1/2" PVC fittings. The interior dimension of a 1/2" PVC fitting is 0.84". I ordered a bunch of side outlet ells because they didn't have any locally. They are great for making box type constructions. I will use those with the cast acrylic rods to make a support structure that will be about 5" tall. The sand bed will be at least 5.5" deep. None of that part of the structure will show at all.

I will use Weld-On #16 to glue the acrylic rods inside the PVC fittings. I will also use some 1/2" PVC Tee's and Crosses to support acrylic rods that will rise above the sand bed. Live rock can be drilled to slide onto the acrylic rods or the acrylic rods can be used with a few carefully hidden PVC fittings to make more elaborate structures.

This was a more expensive way to go than just using all 1/2" PVC pipe but I liked the idea that the acrylic rods are practically invisible in water and you don't have to worry about dead water inside them. I already have the 3/4" cast acrylic rods, they arrived yesterday. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pro...st+Acrylic+Rod The 1/2" side outlet elbows are scheduled to arrive Monday. http://www.plumbingsupply.com/pvc.html

Once I know exactly what sizes I want the acrylic rods cut to, I'll take them to the commercial plastics company I dealt with in Baton Rouge for the black acrylic pieces. They said they would charge me $40/hr labor to cut whatever sizes I wanted. They can probably make 50 cuts in less than 20 minutes and it would probably take me 3 days. Believe it or not, the black pieces cut to size cost only $41, plus $1 ea for the little 1" and 3/4" scrap pieces cut to size, and $6 for the tube of Weld-On #16. The sheet acrylic had contact paper on both sides and they used one of those fancy automatic saws for cutting plastic and the cuts came out extremely nice. I didn't have to do anything else to them.

[zhenya]

Hey Ninong,

Great to see it finally happening Also,thanks for taking time to post pics in progress. I'm not even gonna bother telling not to putz around with all those PVC fittings,knowing how meticulous you are in everything
However ,one thing that sort of struck me is that you can see through the overflow box. I kind of hoped that the indicoat would help in that regard but I think I was wrong. I guess with all the rockwork that you're planning it would not matter but I sure hope you want have to look at the plumbing in the box.
The lights are even brighter then I imagined whey would be and I like the way this tank is near the window as well. Its going to be one beautiful tank,fellas

PS. Could you build some sort of canopy to match your wood work and conceal the glare? My 75 is sort of behind my back when I seat at my desk,but I had no problems so far with the glare,then again my stand is only about 30" high.

[Ninong]

However ,one thing that sort of struck me is that you can see through the overflow box. I kind of hoped that the indicoat would help in that regard but I think I was wrong.

Yes, you can see through the corner overflow compartment... but... it's not indicoat mirror, it's graylite tinted glass. You can't see through indicoat mirror. The entire back of the tank, including the back of the overflow compartment, is indicoat mirror but the part that you can see through is just semi-translucent dark tinted glass.

When I go to Baton Rouge next week to have the acrylic rod cut, I might get the leftover piece of 1/4" black acrylic that they should still have from my last job. It measured 11" x 24" and all I need is about 9.75" x 24" to fit inside the front of the overflow compartment.

[scubadude]

Ninong I know you have told us before but I cant remember....the center brace is it made of starfire? Also is your waterline actually touch the center brace? Im just curious for light transmission. Some ppl say that they get better transmission when they run their waterline right on the brace so no salt spray or crud buildup hinders they light. Its coming together quite nicely.

[Ninong]

Ninong I know you have told us before but I cant remember....the center brace is it made of starfire? Also is your waterline actually touch the center brace? Im just curious for light transmission. Some ppl say that they get better transmission when they run their waterline right on the brace so no salt spray or crud buildup hinders they light. Its coming together quite nicely.

Rocky,

The center brace is Starphire, 10" wide. Both sides have Starphire, 2" wide, the front has Starphire, 1.5" wide, and the back has Starphire, about 1" wide. Mitch refers to that as a "splash guard." The back glass is thicker than the rest of the tank because it is a sandwich of 1/2" regular soda-lime glass with a 3/16" pane of graylite tinted glass behind that and then a 3/16" pane of black indicoat mirror behind the graylite, total of 7/8". The front and both sides are 12 mm (1/2") Starphire. The bottom is 3/4" regular glass. All of the top bracing is 12 mm Starphire.

With the LG 4MDQX-SC as the return pump, the water level comes up to about 0.25" below the center brace -- the water level rises 0.5" above it's resting point. I suppose that if I still had the Ampmaster 3000, the water level would be somewhat higher than that but I sold the Ampmaster after I became convinced that it was too much pump for a 120-gal tank considering my cabinet space limitations. Don't forget, the tank was not drilled for a closed loop, so all of the Ampmaster's output would have been running through the sump. The Lifereef sump measures 30"L x 13"W x 14"H (22-gal) and it came with the skimmer and both pumps.

What actually happened was that I called Jeff at Lifereef to discuss a custom sump plumbed for the Ampmaster but he didn't think it would work given my space limitations and tank size. Then a couple of weeks later he had an LF1-150 Berlin Filter System available due to an order cancellation, so I took it and got rid of the Ampmaster and my original skimmer, a Turboflotor Multi 1000.

I will post some pics of the sump setup as soon as I get the Neptune Systems Aquacontroller set up. Right now all of the electrical cords are plugged into a power strip that's just sitting on top of the sump. I'm hoping to be able to squeeze in a calcium reactor at the left side of the cabinet in front of the sump but I'll wait until later to deal with that. I have exactly 8" of space between the front of the sump and the cabinet doors. This sump system just barely fit into the stand because of the length of the LG 3MDQX-SC skimmer pump -- I had to offset it to the side of the skimmer. I think the LF1-125 sump comes with an LG 2MDQX-SC skimmer pump, which is shorter. Also, the LF1-125 sump is only 24" long. My interior cabinet space was exactly 51"L x 22"W x 31"H (the cabinet floor is elevated about 3" above the room floor) before I added six 1x3 oak reinforcements in the corners and middle front and back just as a safety precaution. The cabinet was built with 3/4" plywood.

[almostdiva]

Ninong,

Looks fantastic. I'm really intrigued by your rock work support structure -- pics of that please once you get the acrylic rods cut and the whole thing assembled. Also pics once you attach the rocks. What are you going to use?? Electrician's ties? (it's what I have tied all my rock together with and in the begining, it was kind of not attractive, but all the white plastic is now totally covered with coralline, so you don't even see it).

What a fun summer project... what are you planning on stocking it with!!!????

Rebecca

[Barry N.]

Man that is going to be one sweet tank. Can wait it see it when you have animals in it.

Barry

[Ninong]

Ninong,

Looks fantastic. I'm really intrigued by your rock work support structure -- pics of that please once you get the acrylic rods cut and the whole thing assembled. Also pics once you attach the rocks. What are you going to use?? Electrician's ties? (it's what I have tied all my rock together with and in the begining, it was kind of not attractive, but all the white plastic is now totally covered with coralline, so you don't even see it).

What a fun summer project... what are you planning on stocking it with!!!????

Rebecca

THANKS!

Yes, I have some electrician's ties in case I decide to use them. I'll have to wait to see what I end up with and how the live rock fits. I have never seen it done exactly this way before so I'm going to have to play it by ear.

I have some ideas about stocking but I'll wait until I'm ready before getting into that. I would like to hold off as long as possible before introducing any fish but that is always subject to change depending on potential algae problems. The sand bed will be started with a box of Fiji live sand, followed a week or so later by detritivors from IPSF and Inland Aquatics, followed a week or so after that with an assortment of snails. Hopefully I can feed the tank just the right amount to maintain those initial critters without overdoing it. I expect to introduce one or two herbivorous fish eventually but the timing may be speeded up if I encounter much of a problem with hair algae.

[Ninong]

Man that is going to be one sweet tank. Can wait it see it when you have animals in it.

Barry

THANKS!

[hcp28]

So how big is this tank Ninong? What are you planning for it? SPS? softies? What kind of corals and fish are you planning? details we want details Looking great!

Henry

[Ninong]

So how big is this tank Ninong? What are you planning for it? SPS? softies? What kind of corals and fish are you planning? details we want details Looking great!

Henry

THANKS!

The tank is approximately 120 gallons (45"L x 23"W x 27.5"H). It will be mostly SPS. All of the details will evolve over time depending on what is available.

[Reefland]

Ninong,

I am so happy to see everything; both coming together and literally with the pictures you supplied. I'll be looking forward to seeing the pictures of the sump, etc. in the stand to see how it all looks.

I am so happy for you that things have finally settled enough for you to get to this point.

Regards,
Scott

[Ninong]

Ninong,

I am so happy to see everything; both coming together and literally with the pictures you supplied. I'll be looking forward to seeing the pictures of the sump, etc. in the stand to see how it all looks.

I am so happy for you that things have finally settled enough for you to get to this point.

Regards,
Scott

THANKS!

[john gallagher]

Im glad its happening. its been a long time.