55 Gallon Display Refuguim Build Log

S

Serk

Well, after yakking about it for some time now, I finally took delivery of my 55 gallon reef ready tank to be used as my super-fuge (Thanks Aquarium Trading Company!).

The basic design is to have a 55 gallon drilled tank on a wall at a 90 degree from my reef. The 'fuge will be treated as a second display tank, fed from and returning water back to the sump under my 150 reef.

There is a Quiet One 4000 in my sump that will be feeding the fuge. I'm planning on putting my chiller inline on the feed line to the fuge, mainly because that's just a convenient place to put it.

The fuge will have 200 pounds (Pre-rinsed weight) of Pavestone sand in it for a deep sand bed. I'm planning on keeping the macro algae's to more uncommon types (Like Gracellaria (SP?)), Mangroves, and maybe some Xenia/Anthelia for nutrient export.

The only fish I'm considering is I MIGHT put in 1 or 2 engineer gobies to keep the sand turned, but these won't even be considered until the 'fuge has been up and running for some time and the bed has become live.

At some point I plan on getting some base rock, some to leave in the fuge, but mainly to hammer it into rubble sized pieces to put in the fuge, mainly to have a place for Xenia to grow for easy export of pre-mounted frags.

The fuge will be lit by a Coralife 4 X 65watt Power Compact fixture (I ripped the Corelife ballasts out and replaced them with ballasts from AHSupply though. I didn't trusth the Coralife ones). I'm planning on having it lit in a semi-reverse photoperiod, with the fuge always being lit when the main reef is dark, but also staying lit most of the day too. Planning on having the lights on for around 18 hours a day.

Anyway, that's a brief synopsis of what I've got planned if anyone's interested. Most of the parts are now on hand (I'm sure I'll be making some trips to Home Depot for that OOPS part I forgot), and I'm about to start putting it together... I'll try to get some pics once it's more or less together if anyone's interested...

So... Anyone actually read this far and still with me? Hard to gauge if anyone's gonna be interested in reading about me putting this together or now.....
 
Lol, considering I'm doing about the same thing, VERY interested.

A few questions, though.. I picked up three 50# bags of pavestone, and two bags (rinsed) gives me about 4-5" of sand bed in my 55g (standard size). How deep were you shooting for? (I can't decide whether or not I'm going to use the 3rd bag.)

Secondly.. won't having the tank on a reverse photoperiod mess with the main tank inhabitants?
 
Wow, cool... I had no clue how deep my 4 bags would go in a 55... As cheap as it is, figured I'd rather buy too much than not enouch...

I'm wanting around 6+ inches in the 55...

As far as the photoperiod, I'm a little concerned about that, I'm gonna see how much it lights the main tank. The fuge is 5 or so feet away from the reef at it's closest point...

Here's a crudely drawn layout of my dining room... (I'm such a fish geek... :) )



fuge-layout.PNG
alt="">
 
tagging along. How are you going to run the plumbing without it being noticeable? Or is the plumbing going to be exposed?
-Chuck
 
So 5 feet away, 4x65w PCs.. shouldn't be too bad..

Unfortunately for me, mine is right beside the main tank. I thought about blacking out the side of the tank and the fuge, or put some kind of barrier between them.
 
@ChuKronos wrote:
tagging along. How are you going to run the plumbing without it being noticeable? Or is the plumbing going to be exposed? -Chuck said:
Chuck, everything's pretty tight in that corner, there really isn't any open exposed wall space, so the plumbing will just be run along behind everything...

It will be visible to anyone who looks, but, well... Our house is kinda..... Messy and eclectic to begin with... :)

At this point, with my recent back injury, and being home by myself, the tank's still out in the truck, so I'm passing the time by getting the plumbing run. When I get frustrated I just walk away, and check the board; I'll try to get some pictures at the next rest-break so ya'll can get a better idea of what I'm doing...
Click to expand...
 
Sounds very interesting, I think I'll read along and see what happens as to the good, bad and oops that needs changed :) .
 
Wow... I really appreciate all the offers to come help me move the tank into the house! But, the wife and I got it rinsed out, and on the stand... I'm doing the final plumbing hookups tonite, doing a few pieces, getting frustrated, walking away for a while, going back, seeing where I screwed up, cutting that bit off and regoing it, etc... Ya'll know, the standards... No matter how well you've got it planned out, it never quite goes together like it's 'sposed to, especially when it's as convoluted a setup as this one is...

Anyway... Here are a few pics. Not the greatest, but should give ya'll an idea what I'm doing...

PICT4726.med.jpg
alt="">

Tha fuge where it's gonna go. And before I get any smart-aleck comments, yeah I know the Durso is a little too tall, that was just put there as a placeholder for now... :)

PICT4727.med.jpg
alt="">

Overall view of that corner of the dining room. The left part of my 150 reef is visible on the right, with the bookshelf o' fuge's next to that, my chiller and then the new 55g fuge...

One thing I've already noticed. Little background. I'd ignored my tank for over 3 years after my daughter was born. About 9 months ago I bought a used chiller, and plugged it inline with my skimmer, so it went pump->chiller-skimmer. Didn't notice any reduction in skimmate, so went with it. Few months after that I finally took the skimmer apart for the first time ever (5+ years) and cleaned the AquaC injection nozzle. 2 of the 3 nozzle parts had snail shells in 'em. Put it back together, and noticed a lil' better skimmate, and was happy.

Last night, in preperation for this project, I removed the chiller and plumbed it straight from pump -> skimmer. Wow. Skimmate production has SHOT up at LEAST 10 times what it was... Lesson learned, keep that skimmer fed well!!! (I figured the next few days should be a safe time period to be without a chiller... :) )

So far on the Oceans View aquarium, I'm still happy, biggest complaint I've had so far is: would it have killed them to take 5 minutes and rinse the glass dust out of the tank from where they drilled it? Oh well, no biggie...


Anyway, breaktime over, time to get back to plumbing...
 
Brian,
I'm following along your thread as a few others are I'm sure :) Yes I did notice that very tall durso. It kinda fits you :wink:
 
I love the black seams. I wanted black seams for my main display. I thnk they look cleaner. So, where are you going to hook up the chiller now? Are you going to have it on a seperate pump?

-Chuck
 
Chuck - Ironically enough, I declined the extra cost of the black seams, but since the tank was held back a week while the company waited for more black trim to come in, they evidently did that for free... (I hate the oak-trim on tanks) Found out from the place I bought it they were ALMOST ready to offer to euro-brace it for me for free because of the delay. Doh!

The chiller will be plumbed inline on the run from my main sump feeding the new 'fuge... I'm not terribly worried about constricting the flow to the fuge, and I'm using a ~1000ish GPH rated pump to feed it, so ever after my wonky plumbing and the chiller it should still have sufficient flow. Pictures below...

Latest update - Plumbing is almost completed, doing liquid-testing now. Poured a few gallons into the overflow section to test the bulkheads, so far so good. I also started adding the Pavestone to the tank and put the lights over the tank just to see how it'll look...

PICT4731.med.jpg
alt="">

Almost done... That's around 50 pounds of rinsed Pavestone in the tank so far, btw...

PICT4733.med.jpg
alt="">

Here's where the line from the sump to the fuge goes into and out of the chiller. The chiller has a "IN" and "OUT" side marked (I'm assuming for the thermostat) and, of course, they were on the wrong sides from where I needed 'em, thus the wonky looking criss cross. The run is all rigid PVC up 'till this point, where it goes flexible just to go into the chiller, and on the other side goes back to rigid PVC just out of site.

Question I've been wondering doing all this: Am I the only one who uses the no-primer required, quick drying, has no problems curing wet, sets almost instantly and can run the tank with it in just a few hours blue "Rain N Shine" PVC Cement? I notice most people use the purple kind that requires primer, and wondering why that is... I've been usuing the blue kind since the beginning with good results, and it says right on the can requires no primer (If local code allows, blah blah)...

Anyway, just been curious about that for a while...
 
Whew, what a night! Final update of the night, and I'm heading to bed!

I got 3 of the 5 buckets of pavestone into the tank, and think that's all I'm gonna run with. (I had 4 bags, total of 200# of the stuff, split into 5 buckets for the rinsing process)

I put all the water that I've made so far into the tank to let the "milking" begin.

To help the process along, I came up with the contraption below, we'll see how it works:

PICT4736.med.jpg
alt="">

What this is, is a Maxijet hooked to flexible tubing. The tubing runs up and into a filtersock inside of a filtersock that are being suspended by the center brace. No clue if this'll help things along, but figured it'd be worth a shot. There's definitely some nice thick crud being collected by the socks at least!

PICT4737.med.jpg
alt="">

This is a close up on the filtersock filtration contraption I came up with to help clear the water.

Oh, and keep in mind, this is pavestone that was throughly rinsed for many hours before getting to this point. However, I INTENTIONALLY disturbed the sand as I was adding water, I wanted to get as much of the really fine bits into suspension for the filter socks to grab as I could, as I plan on having decent flow in this tank for a 'fuge (As in modified maxijets as well as the return pump)

I also threw the only spare heater I've still got into there, but as it's I think a whopping 50 watts, the best it can do will be to keep the edge off. My plan is to, once everything's ready for me to flip the switch for real, run the main pump for just 30 seconds or so at a time, #1 so I can keep a close eye on the thing and look for leaks, but also so that the new (And cold) water mixes in with the water on my main system very slowly and gradually, rather than whamming my new system with cold and different water all at once...

The only plumbing I've left to do is the spray bar that will feed the fuge. I opted to ignore the 3/4" drilled hole in the overflow box (Put a bulkhead with a short piece of PVC and a cap on it in there to plug it up) and instead have the 3/4" PVC line coming from the sump run straight up the wall on the right side of the tank, then I'll do a U turn over the lip of the tank, and have a piece of PVC that runs the depth of the tank, back to front, along the far upper right hand corner of the tank. I'm going to drill several small holes pointed at a roughtly 45 degree angle down and to the left, to provide some nice flow. I'll also put a few holes higher up to act as a siphon break, and a few straight down to avoid dead spots.

Shopping list for tomorrow - 3 pronged X-10 module so I can hook the new 'fuge lights into my lighting system. I'm sure I'll think of other things along the way...

Oh, and I'll post it here first since people most likely to want them would be the ones reading this thread:

Once the new 'fuge is fully operational, I plan on decomissiong the bottom 2 5 gallon fuges in my 6 gallon "Fuge Beuwulf Cluster". They're of an older style tank that I don't care much for, they were some of the first I made so all the "Lessons Learned" were learned on them, and there's a slow drip leak somewhere in them (I suspect it's on the bulkhead for the right hand one, but just can't be bothered to try to fix it).

If anyone wants 'em, they'll be available. My standard rules apply - Free, all I ask is you give a frag to a newbie and/or help a newbie out (And encourage them to become full-fledged members.)

Disclaimer - These are MOST DEFINITELY USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. They've been up and running on my system for nearly 5 years, but there are several things I'd do definitely were I to do them again. I will be transferring the contents into the new fuge, but if anyone's interested, you'd basically get 2 5 gallon acrylic tanks, drilled with bulkheads (But there's a leak somewhere, just not sure, but I think the bulkheads just need to be taken apart and throughly cleaned. And there's a 13 watt power compact light retrofitted into each... (One of the BIG lessons learned - the ballasts are screwed into the back of the hood. I do all my ballasts remotely now)

Anyway, lemme know if you'd be interested in these once the transfer's done, or they'll end up in the trash. I'd prefer you not take them just for the lights, but if so, so be it... Oh, and I'll keep the bulb on the left one, I just put that bulb in a week ago...

Anyway, sorry to throw a "For Sale" type item in the middle of my build log, but been meaning to mention that...

Whenever I've seen these large build logs in the past, I've often marveled at all the time and work the person went into taking pictures and writing up their experiences, but now that I'm actually trying to do the same, I'm finding the process quite enjoyable actually. Coming on here and writing about what I've done or about to do gives me a break away from the mess, a chance to stop and collect my thoughts, and re-think things. I've quite enjoyed this so far...

Anyway, more tomorrow I'm sure. Tomorrow night is the last of my all-night 12 hours shifts, then I go back to regular hours at least...

Wow, I got really long winded, didn't I? Well, thanks for reading along, and I appreciate any questions or comments...

Good night... :)
 
For me, it's just habit. I used to be a plumber, so I never pick up a red or green can of cement without also picking up a smaller can of purple. But then again, I also still deburr each pipe, and scuff up the pipes with plumbers tape, to give the glue extra tooth.
 
Congrats on the new fuge. I will be following along on this one. If your looking for base rock you might want to try:
http://www.reeferrocks.com/baserock/index.htm
Their rock looks nice and I've heard nothing but good things about it. The price is good. I've heard it's like styrofoam it's so light. You could run a hot filter on the tank to clear it instead of the filter sock. That way you could do carbon or whatever. Anyway, got lots of algae and mangroves for ya when your ready for them.

Angela
 
Good job, Brian. Reading how it all goes together is always interesting, and helpful to others.

For gluing, I use the purple primer and the clear glue. It has never let me down. Now here's an oddity: I have several cans of purple primer that are either in the heat or cold of the garage. I was using a can the other day, and the purple was gone - it was clear. It still smelled and acted the same, but the dye wasn't there. Strange, but true.

I'd like to know how the filter sock works out. And you might reconsider using the crossbrace to hold it, only because many of them have cracked in the past. I don't put a lot of trust in those, and try not to lean or hang anything off of them.
 
Serk -

I am interested in the 2 5 gal fuges you will be discarding.

Thanks


Frank Perkins
(214) 578-7895
 
Well, I just rolled outta bed and am about to start my next shift, so here are the latest updates:

Angela - Thanks for the link, I might go with them, or I might just go to Whiz-Q Stone and get some Holey rock. The main purpose of this rock is just gonna be a rubble bed for stuff to grow on, so I'm not that worried about what it actually is... Still thinking on that one... And believe me, I'll take all the mangroves you wanna get rid of! :) Might need the info on those filtering clams again, thinking of throwing some of those in there too... I've got a few small HOT filters, but none of them have intake tubes long enough to reach the amount of water I've gotten into the tank so far. At this point the main holdup is my RO/DI, waiting for it to make the water. I'd filled my main water-change tub up in preparation for this, but it didn't go far enough. The filtersock-filter thing was more of a 3AM "What can I do with what I've got on hand" kinda thing... When I woke up, the water was crystal clear, but I stirred it back up again before taking pics to let more gunk get filtered out...

Marc - As I said above, the filtersocks are dark brown after 9 or so hours of running like that, and the tank water was clear. I've stirred it back up to filter more gunk out, I'll prolly take the socks out in a bit and rinse them out, and keep going. As far as the cross-brace, the socks are more-or-less floating, so there's hardly any stress being put on the brace. With the glue, when I first started I was standing in the plumbing section at Home Depot with a confused look on my face, (This is before these boards and such by many years) and after I explained what I was doing, the plumbing guy recommended the blue kind, since it works well, and only requires one item, instead of a two step process. I've (KNOCK ON WOOD) never had a leak in any of my PVC joints, ever. My personnal experiences aren't enough to recommend everyone switch to it, but just something else to consider.

Frank - You got 'em. Just keep in mind, they're not in the best of shape, but with a little TLC they could continue their lifes as external fuges for ya'... I'll PM ya' once I've finally got the stuff in them transferred over. I'd say it will still be a ways away, but I tend to take Marc's view of projects - once I get started, I tend to steam-roll right through 'em, don't like having half a tank sitting there for months... :)

TCU Reefer - Yeah, I'm still suprised at that. As I said earlier, I've always been in awe at the other build logs, figuring the person was spending more time documenting what they're doing that what their spending actually doing it, but the build log has become a really nice distraction and is quite fun...

Not a whole lot to do as the cold water has slowed my RO/DI to a crawl, but I'm sure I'll figure out a few things to keep me occupied tonite...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top