Joel/Waves personal tank build

[WAVES]

Its WET! I just tap water tested my tank, TOTALLY STOKED doesnt even discribe how I feel! Leak FREE! those of you that saw my closed loop system, realize what an accomplishment this is. So, no photos yet, once I have rock Ill do a full photo array (I took LOTS of pictures) right now just wanted to share my excitement.

Now that I know Im leak free, I need to push the system against the wall and drill my floor drain. I gotta do this before I put rock in, because Ill have to slide the system over to drill through the tile floor.

System Info:
48w x 30d x 25t Starfire Aquarium Obsessed trimless Eurobraced custom overflow/closed loop intake tank.
Custom furniture with hydrolic flip top lid, doors on 3 sides, stain matched to match my kitchen.

Flow:
Sump with Dart, 3 outputs, one through a 1/4hp PCI chiller.
Closed loop with Dart on a Ocean motion ( www.oceansmotions.com ) all through the bottom of the tank, with ball valve for easy water changes directly into floor drain.
Wavysea rotation device on center front return

Lights:
Dual 430 (HQI) Radiums in Lumenmax fixtures (SLS ballast)
4 HO T5, 2 actinic URI lamps, 2 geisman aquablue+ (new SLS reflectors)
PFO moonlights

H&S A150 recirc skimmer, skimmer collection is into a vessel that will shut off air to the skimmer when full, this way I can drain it easy (ball valve) directly down the floor drain without risk of over skimming and draining the tank (thus topping off with kalk water)

Korallin reactor

PM kalk reactor on RO/DI auto top off

Ozone dosed into a "ozone reactor" then directly into a Carbon reactor, then a phos reactor.

Aquacontroller III Pro, controlling everything

drip pan with floor drain for any issues, and for easy water changes and skimmate drainage.

and tons of other "features" Ill need photos to describe.

Web cam hopefully to come in the future too :)

[dsoz]

WOW! I think is the only thing that I can say. I guess owning a fish store has it's perks!

I would love to see it when it is finally set up with rock!

dsoz :)

[uhuru]

You probably don't remember me but I saw your setup at the shop when you were still working on the plumbing. That is one of the coolest setups I've ever seen! The plumbing is insane.

[reefgeek84]

Its a little over done on the plumbing...Just messing with you Joel. It is a very impressive set up. I bet it feels awesome to finally get this set up, Cause I have been admiring your tank for the months that it has been in the shop. Can not wait to see the rock work.

[izzypop]

congrats joel. your patience on this project is inspiring. saw it completed and very custom and well done for an under the stand sump. thanks for sharing and AO starphire tanks are very nice. i like build threads so keep it coming. always something to learn.

[impur]

I'm waiting for pics! This sounds like one sweet setup.

[pledosophy]

About freaking time Homie!

That's tight. I can't wait to see your other little "features". Should be cool.

[reef165]

I dont beleave anything without pics. we want pics!!

[Michael7979]

(worthless)

[reef165]

what is an ozone reactor? do you have a link or pic, hey weight whare are the pics? its been long enouph!!

[Liquid Hobby]

Now, if you had just kept it in the shop for all of us to gaze at...

Congrats on splashing the tank!

[pledosophy]

tease! :D :D :D :D

[impur]

Come on Joel, pics!!!!!

[180Brandy]

(worthless) :D

[WAVES]

Ill edit this later with discriptions, for now you just get photos.
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/tank.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/tankstandcanopy.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/fliptoplid.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/lighting/canopyback.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/lighting/canopylighting.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/lighting/lights.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflow.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflowintake.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/intakescreen.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/intakehole.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/frontshot.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/sumpplumbing.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflowplumbing.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflowplumbing2.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflowplumbing3.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/sumpplumbing.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/loopfloor.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/loopfloorassembled.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/closedloop.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/closedloop2.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/om.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rightsideplumb.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/hole.jpg


http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/probeholder.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/probeholder2.jpg



ROCK

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/rockonfloor2.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/rockonfloor3.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/frontrock.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/haliderock.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/leftrock.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/otherleftrock.jpg
http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/rightrock.jpg


Rock movie: www.wavesreef.com/photos/rockmovie.mov

[WAVES]

how bout them apples eh?

[Sol]

Looks great. Are you planning to paint/somehow the PVC returns on the bottom?

And when are we all coming to your house to see it?(laugh)

-Sol

[coker98]

Wow, This is an incredible build and you must have great resources seeing as you own a fish store. This is going to be a great tank. Great job Joel. I know we will see the best and the rarest in this beauty.

[JeffP]

Wow. I'm jealous! That rock is gorgeous.

Nice tattoo :-) here's my most recent ;)
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n89/jparamch/DSC_0896.jpg

[powdertang05]

1 question why a close loop from the bottom why not form the back??

[pledosophy]

how bout them apples eh?

I guess it's alright. (laugh) (laugh) (laugh) (whistle) (whistle)

Thanks looks pretty awesome Joel. Love the rock work.

Unless your going to hide the white PVC returns with rock, you might consider painting them. I painted mine purple with the PVC primer and they blend in pretty nicely in the spots where you can see them through the rock. after the coraline fills in it should be cool.

Why the grates on the overflow box? Excuse my ignorance. :D

Your plumbing gives me nightmares. That must have been . . . fun. (laugh)

Thanks for sharing.

[WAVES]

Kevin, I am actually switching out the PVC for Oceans Motions Omni Flex (www.oceansmotions.com) I may use some epoxy and sand (coat with epoxy then sprinkle on sand).

They wont be visable,,, one way or another :)

Are you talking about the grates on the front of the overflow? That would be to keep out snails and fish? most tanks have teeth,, Mine has grates :)

[WAVES]

I first purchased my old tank back in 2003, it was an acrylic tank with a standard 4” or so overflow box. I made tons of mods to it trying to get the flow I wanted. This led to other problems, micro bubbles, water noise etc.

Quick stats:
Aquarium Obsessed 150 gallon glass tank, custom overflow, euro braced, starfire 3 sides 48 x 30 x 25h
Custom oak furniture, doors on 3 sides stand and canopy, flip top canopy lid, 36” tall stand.
Closed loop with Dart and OM all through the bottom of the tank
Dart on return pump partially through 1/4hp PCI chiller returned through Wavysea
2 by 430w (HQI) radiums on SLS Reefoptics 1 plus
4 by 54w T5 URI acitinic with SLS new generation reflectors
H&S A150 skimmer
Koralin reactor
Aquacontroller III Pro with PX-1000
Ozone through ozone reactor
PM kalk reactor


The Tank and Closed loop: I was sick and tired of cleaning coralline off acrylic so I wanted glass. I also wanted to have the tank tight up against the wall, so I had to come up with a way to do the closed loop through the bottom of the tank. I like sand so I knew I couldn’t simply put bulkheads with screens in the bottom of the tank, I didn’t want to have riser tubes with screens because that looked tacky and it was going to be hard to cover them, yet make them accessible to clean. The result was a closed loop intake design integrated into my overflow box.

The overflow box is made of 3 chambers in a row. The outside two have 4 x 12 inch laser drilled square holes in the sides of the box. These square holes have acrylic covers that are perforated with 1/8 holes. In the bottom of these two side chambers are 1.5” bulkheads for the closed loop intakes. This way there is less suction (so I don’t suck in fish and anemones) yet it is clean looking and the covers are easily removed for cleaning. The center chamber is a normal overflow box, it has two 1.5” bulkheads in it for drainage to the sump. Water can enter this box through the front (surface skimming) or water can travel through the acrylic intake screens and go up and over the glass partition between the CL intakes, and the sump drain.

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflow.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflowintake.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/intakescreen.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/intakehole.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/frontshot.jpg

The intake join together into a 2” pipe and enter the Dart. The 1.5” output goes into a 4 way Oceans Motions device that alternates flow from the left side to the right side. The outputs are up through the bottom.

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/loopfloor.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/loopfloorassembled.jpg

The overflow drain pipes I used a modified herbie type of drain silencer.

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/sumpplumbing.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflowplumbing.jpg

One thing I chose to do was use gate valves to control water into my CA reactor, ozone reactor, and skimmer. So far this has been very very effective. I can fine tune the affluent rate on the reactor very well with a 1” gate valve.
As you can see in this photo, the herbie overflow in the front, and the closed loop plumbing in the back:

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflowplumbing2.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/overflowplumbing3.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/closedloop.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/closedloop2.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/om.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rightsideplumbing.jpg

in the bottom of the stand there is an acrylic drip pan with a drain. The closed loop has a true union ball valve used to attach some vinyl tubing for water changes. This way I can simply attach the tube to the bulkhead drain, screw on the union and open the ball valve.
I had to drill through 7 inches of materials to get into the crawlspace. I simply used acrylic solvent to fix the bulkhead into the hole. This way I didn’t need to put a bulkhead “nut” on.

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/hole.jpg

I wanted to run Ozone but I wanted to do it 100% safely. To do this I decided to run a ozone reactor. So I used the old style 2littlefishes reactor with the “nipples” on top to run ozone into ceramic bio media through a air stone in the bottom. This ozone/water solution then travels directly into another Kent phos reactor filled with carbon, this will remove any residual ozone. Finally it runs through a phos reactor with ferric hydroxide prior to returning to the sump. The ozone is also controlled through my ACIIIPRO.

I also have a DIY auto top off system directly feed from my RO/DI unit. I know this is highly NOT recommended thus why I have multiple fail safes. First there are 2 float switches in series, this way if one of them gets stuck the system wont continue to fill.
I was also planning to drain my skimmate down the drain but after hearing Steve Weasts story about his skimmer overacting and running his sump dry I knew I had to come up with a different system. What I decided to do is run my skimmate into a DIY resevour that has a float switch in it. Instead of creating back pressure on the skimmer like the beckets with collection containers mine shuts off the air supply to the skimmer. An airline is connected to this collection continer from outside, then the air travels through the float switch and into the skimmer. When it fills up with skimmate the float switch shuts off the air supply to the skimmer. This box then has a ball valve drain that is directly over the floor drain. A flip of the valve and the skimmate is drained.

I built a probe holding system for the controller probes as well. I don’t have final pictures of it as the first round failed. I used a polypro material and it turns out not to be “floaty” enough to hold up the probes. I have since built an acrylic box to be the float with the probes attached to the sides of it with O rings. The first round photos:

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/probeholder.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/probeholder2.jpg

Furniture, lights, and tank:

As you can see I built some aluminum racks to hold the lights. I wanted the T5’s to be at the same height as the halides, I also didn’t want the halides to be mounted directly onto the sound proofing material so they are mounted with a 1” gap using the aluminum.

I have since changed the back, I have added 2 more fans. I now run 4 fans in the stand and canopy.

I found some fans that are incredible, they are 72cfm at only 14db, they have a controller that controls 4 fans so no custom wiring is necessary.

The stand and canopy are both sound proofed. I used a closed cell sound proofing foam, covered by MLV (mass loaded vinyl)

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/tank.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/tankstandcanopy.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/lighting/canopyback.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/lighting/canopylighting.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/lighting/lights.jpg

Rock: the tank is mostly filled with Vavau rock, Im able to get this rock in very large pieces with makes for better aquascaping in my opinion. I have one 54 pounder that is an “island” I plan on having anemones, ricordia etc on this island. This way they wont likely walk over onto the main structure and bother the acropora. I will not be having any zoas, mushrooms (other than rics) and may have a small patch of GSP on another island like a piece of branching rock.

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/frontrock.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/leftrock.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/otherleftrock.jpg

http://www.wavesreef.com/photos/rock/rightrock.jpg

I have added a couple more branching rocks in the middle since the photos. Im also changing out all the plumbing and loc-line with Oceans Motions Omni Flex nozzles.





More photos to come of the skimmer and skimmate collection container etc.

[WAVES]

webcam (still needs tuning)

www.wavesreef.com/webcam.html

[WAVES]

I almost forgot... SAND! Im not a BB fan..... (cosmetically speaking)

[WAVES]

cab lights are on a door switch,, so trick and cost like $10. Open the right front door, BOOM lights on.

[B.friend]

Those Covers For the Intake SURE ARE NICE>>>>!!!!!

[albertareef]

Looks fantastic Joel! The additional pics and explanations help to get a feel for how it all comes together - I really like the incorporation of the closed loop intake into the overflow box... nice design. BTW - does having the returns on the bottom create any substantial back pressure issues for the CL pump? Just curious....

Also, do you have any additional info (source?) for the fans you used in your canopy? I need to replace some in my stand and they sound like a great option.

Thanks for sharing... it's looking awesome!

[Sol]

Looking great Joel. I wonder if you could explain (and name a source for) those gas springs that hold the canopy open.

-Sol

[Holly]

WOW! Great-looking tank!

[reefhut]

Sol,
Those gas springs are called strut rods. You can find em at an autoparts store in different lenghts and sizes. There made to hold up hoods and deck lids, and then what everelse you can use them for.;)

[Sol]

Also called gas springs http://www.internationalgassprings.com/ , I didn't make up the term :)

Mostly I was curious about what he uses to latch the door shut, so it doesn't just pop up on its own. Or maybe the springs aren't strong enough to push it up; they're only strong enough to hold it up?

-Sol

[reefhut]

The strut rods I've used are designed to give way at a certian hieght and will hold up hoods or deck lids on cars. I guess gas springs might be along the same line. The only thing to keep in mind is that there are different kinds for different duties.

[WAVES]

Looks fantastic Joel! The additional pics and explanations help to get a feel for how it all comes together - I really like the incorporation of the closed loop intake into the overflow box... nice design. BTW - does having the returns on the bottom create any substantial back pressure issues for the CL pump? Just curious....

Also, do you have any additional info (source?) for the fans you used in your canopy? I need to replace some in my stand and they sound like a great option.

Thanks for sharing... it's looking awesome!


Alberta, I sell the fans here. You can read about that at www.silenx.com , they are pretty sweet, 72cfm at 14db is about half the sound of any other fan on the market. If you want more details shoot me a PM since I can post prices etc here.

Also, the CL through the bottom of the tank does not create any pressure, because the intakes into the pump are being pushed down with the same pressure the water is pushing back up with. Hope that makes sense....

[WAVES]

Also called gas springs http://www.internationalgassprings.com/ , I didn't make up the term :)

Mostly I was curious about what he uses to latch the door shut, so it doesn't just pop up on its own. Or maybe the springs aren't strong enough to push it up; they're only strong enough to hold it up?

-Sol


Sol the struts are just from napa, they are the "softest" ones I could find that are short. When the lid is closed they are almost horizontal so there is no pressure pushing UP. The pressure is hard on hidge Im sure so someday I may have to replace the hindge, but for now it all works great!

[kriswaters]

Wow Joel....what a great tank. I sure goes to say that hard work, time and paitence pays off...I wish I could win the lottery and build the tank of my dreams...for now, I will keep building my little diamond...

Kris

[DisturbedReefer]

How about an updated FTS? Looking forward to seeing some of your tanks out there as well. I really like my AO 60g, but there are a few things I would like to do different like an external overflow.

[Ryan]

Waves,

Any updated pics?

[WAVES]

nothing right now, the tank was very neglected for about 6 weeks after my familys loss, I had calurpa growing everywhere. Its very under control now so Ill be restocking some corals slowly.

[Jay]

Joel:
This is the first I found this thread of your tank. Man thats really a awesome tank. Very well planned out. I really like your rock work. How do you get those big rocks to balance like that and not fall over? Do you connect the rocks with some kind of epoxy or drill for dowels and peg them togather?

Really awesome

Jay

[WAVES]

Joel:
This is the first I found this thread of your tank. Man thats really a awesome tank. Very well planned out. I really like your rock work. How do you get those big rocks to balance like that and not fall over? Do you connect the rocks with some kind of epoxy or drill for dowels and peg them togather?

Really awesome

Jay

The rocks are all just stacked. I recommend stacking rock in a bare tank then adding water. If they are stable with no water, they will be very stable once the tank is filled. I also add the sand after the rock, to be sure all the rock is on the tank bottom, rather than on sand, this makes it even more stable once you add the sand.

[pledosophy]

nothing right now, the tank was very neglected for about 6 weeks after my familys loss, I had calurpa growing everywhere. Its very under control now so Ill be restocking some corals slowly.

Told ya we should have taken pictures. (laugh)

[fishmanmike01]

Thats a great looking tank, One can tell you put alot of thought into your build. I especially like the overflow grating idea. NICE JOB JOEL!!! (rock2)

[CA2OR]

hey Joel, would you be interested in assisting my with a DIY project?

[WAVES]

hey Joel, would you be interested in assisting my with a DIY project?

Sure, drop by and we can talk about the details


Told ya we should have taken pictures. (laugh)

you just wanted me to prove the beer was worth it huh....

[CA2OR]

Joel, I plan to come down there on Wed Dec 31, I will bring the tank that I have been talking about with me so you can see what I am working with. I will also start a thread here in the DIY section with pic's of the tank today so you, if you wish, could take a look and have a heads up on the tank before I get there.