Bigjohnwoody Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 Ok So I just joined here! I actually found out about this site today! I never new there was a local forum! Very very glad that I found this. I have already started a build thread on ReefCentral but after having people ask me to do one on this site as well I feel honored and would love to do this! So yes this is from the past so it is going to go pretty quick! So a little background on myself first. I live in the Roseburg, OR. area and have, since about 7th grade, I am now 29 years old and have a wife (who is coming along slowly to this hobby) and two kids. I have been interested in saltwater tanks ever since my parents had three tanks back before 7th grade when we lived in the Seattle area. They actually got so into it that they became wholesalers and sold fish and actually made there own salt on a commercial level. (This was back in the undergravel, crushed coral, and dead coral pieces they had to take out and bleach evey so often when they started to not be brilliant white days!) They have been out of the saltwater hobby since we moved! I really do not know why. It is fun though to have my father come over and see my tank now and for him to see how far the hobby has come. (I am so gonna get him hooked again LOL.) So I decided I wanted to do a predator tank about 2 years ago and was telling my wife all about the clown trigger, lion fish and Tesalata eel I was gonna have and that was the end of that! No eel in the house. ( I think she was afraid it was going to crawl in bed with her or something) So I decided no Eel I'm going reef tank then. I figured it would be no more than a thousand dollars to start from scratch. (Blah haha) I had no idea and neither did she. So after two years of planning and reasearch and thousands of dollars I finally have my tank set up and hope you guys enjoy my long ride into a shortened condensed one. I however am just cycling and have a lot more to install and hope I get everyone caught up to speed quickly so I can get as much input as possible. Thanks. I will have pictures to come and continue this tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgf86123 Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 Glad to have ya man, lets see those pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 You should check out Reef Frontiers....they are local too....with about 10 times the members. Most are in WA but still quite local. Not that we here aren't here aren't local. This is a good club as well. But a lot of us are over there as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OwenReefin Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 Haha, cheap and saltwater don't mix lol. Cool, looking forward to killer pic, muchas pic por favor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted December 10, 2010 Author Share Posted December 10, 2010 Ok so first off I had to figure out what size tank that I wanted. I did some research and kind of found out basically that in this case bigger is actually better! LOL. So now I had to try to convince my wife that I needed a 500 gallon tank! Yah you guessed it.... never gonna happen. She gave me a max of 4 feet, so I went through some threads on RC and most people liked the standard 120! Only 5 gallons less than the 6 foot tank but in a nice 4x2x2 dimension! So I set the mark and decided that was the tank I was going to go for! I then found out I should get a reef ready tank! So I decided to go that route! I did not know hardly anything at that point and if I could do it again I would probably buy a 120 tech tank with just one center overflow and a would starphire the front and side glasses! I at that point had no idea what starphire was so it never even crossed my mind! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted December 10, 2010 Author Share Posted December 10, 2010 So now that I had my tank I had to build a stand. I really did not want my tank just sitting on concrete blocks so I was gonna buy a aga stand from Aqua Serene. After looking at them I then decided that I could make a much nicer stand for a lot less money! So I did some research on what I wanted my stand to look like and fell in love with a stand from a member on RC. His screen name was will16. I basically copied his design so I don't get much of the credit! He was great to bounce questions off of and his photography skills are amazing. He recently got out of the hobby and it was a sad sad day because his tank was truely amazing. So without any more waiting I will post some pics of my stand! Finished Product I decided to paint it black becasue I figured it would be more durable to saltwater. I painted it with a oil based paint in a hvlp spray gun setup! It took about 4 coats and a lot of sanding and making sure it looked perfect because as I am sure a lot of you know black shows absoulutely EVERYTHING!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkBirkett Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Stand Your stand looks incredible. Did you say you are going to get a Oceanic 120. Can't wait to see the whole set up. What are the plans for sump/fuge, pump, lighting. Are you gonna build a canopy? Looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-3 Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Geezzzz John you ready to build me a stand? That this is really nice!!! I might have to hit ya up on my next tank build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted December 10, 2010 Author Share Posted December 10, 2010 Ok so the next piece of equipment I bought was a AquaC EV180! I looked in a marine depot catalog and the first picture I saw was this skimmer. I figured it's gotta be the best so I bought it! I once again did not do much research and was kinda kicking myself for buying this skimmer. I am not saying that it is not a good skimmer I just read a lot and people thought they were kinda out dated for the price. Plus they say that you constantly have to keep adjusting! I do not know any of this to be true or not true since I never used one so please don't take offense if this is the skimmer you own! So I sold it!! I did some more research and really wanted to buy one of the msx skimmers. I heard they are rock solid and skim like crazy and everyone seemed to be in love with them! I really wanted a Bubbleking but no way on earth I could fork out 1000 bucks plus for a skimmer! My wife would kill me! So as I was searching the seller forum on RC I stumbled across a Bubbleking 180 gen 2 skimmer that was used for about 6 and in perfect shape for 525 bucks shipped! I did not think twice and I bought it! So here are some pics of my beast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted December 10, 2010 Author Share Posted December 10, 2010 So after I bought my first skimmer but before I bought the Bubbleking I bought my light! I once again did not do much research and bought a all in one light. I ended up buying a Current Outer Orbit 2x250 w metal halide with 4x54 w t5's and 18 lunar light setup! Now I am sure this light will work fine but after doing much more research I figure I should have done a retrofit myself and gone with something a bit different! I guess if I did everything perfectly I would have no way to improve so when my Current goes out I will just have to replace it with something a little different. HEHE. (Please don't tell my wife ) I did know that I wanted 250 w metal halides cause I am pretty sure I can put anything in my tank and it will survive so I don't have to worry about not having enough light which was one thing I never wanted to worry about! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted December 10, 2010 Author Share Posted December 10, 2010 So the next thing that I did was gonna be having to figure out where I was gonna put the tank! There was really no clear spot that stuck out to me! I really wanted it in the living room so that while I watched TV I could also enjoy my tank! There was just no room for it though! So next I decided I was gonna put it in our dinning room. It was a perfect spot so I decided to just put it there! That was until my wife said "Hey why don't you put it ine the family room?" I really did not want to put it that far away from everyone. Until she told me that the small walk in closet that is in the room, I could make into my fish room! I jumped at the chance in a heart beat! So I went to work on that room. At the time there was carpet in it and that had to go so I riped it all out and tiled the floor! After that though I just had to put running water in it. So I decided I would plumb in a sink. The problem with this was the small walk in closet was actually part of the garage that the previous owner sectioned off and made into a closet for his daughter. So beneath the floor is a slab of concrete! So no way to get to plumbing under the house. So I decided I would go into one of the wall's in the closet that happens to share a wall with the washing machine! So I riped out sheetrock and ran my water lines and drain lines parallel through the wall until I got to the spot that I was gonna install my sink at! So now I had water! I really wanted to install a floor drain into the fish room but the concrete pad was having no part of that so I was unable to do that. I however did install a ceiling exhaust fan to help get a lot of the moisture out of the room! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted December 10, 2010 Author Share Posted December 10, 2010 So since I bought a tank that had overflows in it I had to get a sump! So of coures I looke into getting a megaflow sump! I had megaflow overflows so it just sounded right! I then decided that it just was not big enough since I had a whole closet and decided I would get a big tank silicone some baffles in it and make that work instead. I then through.... you guessed it more reading discovered melevsreef! He has an incredible sight on acrylic works. So I decide I would build my sump out of 3/8" Plexiglass G. I probably could have made 1/4" work but I just wanted the piece of mind of the extra strength. So I modeled it after his model f design. I put the fuge section at one end and the skimmer section at the other and my return in the middle! The dimensions are 48" x 18" X 16" Deep. My Skimmer section is 11 x 18 and has about 10" in depth, my fuge section is 13 x 18 with about 12 3/4" in depth and my return section is 19 3/4 x 18. I made a 3 baffle bubble trap on my skimmer section that a re spaced 1" apart and I cut grooves in my baffle on the fuge section to prevent chaeto and snails and things like that from getting into my return section! So here are some pics of the build process! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted December 10, 2010 Author Share Posted December 10, 2010 Here is a pic of the finished product! Then I had to water test it! I was incredibly nervous as I had never worked with acrylic before and was afraid that as soon as water touched it, it was going to burst all over the place! Thank god this did not happen and it held water completely and worked just the way I planned! NO LEAKS....Yipeeee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Nice job bigjohn! You're very handy! Nice acrylic work too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted December 11, 2010 Author Share Posted December 11, 2010 So next up I had to figure out what RO/DI unit I was going to buy! I read great things about thefilterguyz.biz and called them up and talked with Jim! He was really a nice guy. He had a lot of information and was not there just to sell me stuff. You could tell that he genuinely cared about my success in the hobby. So I decided to buy my unit from him. I ended up going with the ocean reef miser 6 stage water saver unit. I added on the dual tds meter, RO bypass so I could use the unit for drinking water, and a float valve so I don't have to stress if I forget about it being on as well! The unit was very well built and I could not be happier with it. I am very glad that I went with them and would do business with them in a heart beat again. First class service! Installation was so easy I had my three year old do it! (Im Kidding) I did let him help though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 Sorry it has been awhile since I posted on this I am going to try and be diligent in getting it up to speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 So next up I worked on my plumbing. I decided to go with flexible PVC because I heard good things about it and figured it would be easier to install with out having to make sure everything was perfect and glueing all thous joints together. Well everyone was right. I really enjoyed working with this stuff and would absolutely work with it again. Under the tank shot. The two lines that T together are my returns the other two are my drains. Coming into my now fish room. How the hoses go to and from the sump! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 Here is a shot of my fish room! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dee77 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 sweet wish i had a fish room lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 So here are a couple more plumbing shots of my return pump and my overflows! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 sweet wish i had a fish room lol Yah it took some convincing but I eventually won the battle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 So after it was all plumbed together I had to start to fill it with water. I did this with just fresh RO water and ran it for about a day to make sure there were no leaks and it all checked out so I drained the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 So here are a couple more plumbing shots of my return pump and my overflows! I forgot to mention my overflows. I decided to run the Durso standpipe for my drains. I did some research and this seemed like the best option for the way my tank was drilled. I then ran my returns with PVC and locline out of the overflow into the tank. I made my own and it was super easy. You can find how to do it really easily at dursostandpipes.com. So far they are silent and running very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 So now was the time I had been waiting for. I had always thought it would be fun to aquascape. Well I was kinda wrong! It was fun but I found out I completely suck at it so my wife actually did the whole thing. (bless her heart) I bought about 80 pounds of marco fiji and about 30 pounds of his key largo rock and decided to seed that. I looked high and low for live rock and new nobody and actually posted on CL and never got a single response. I did not know of PNWMAS at the time! So I went to Aqua Serene in Eugene and picked out about 25 pounds of live rock from there and seeded my tank with it. I of course did not tell my wife of any living creatures that were in the rock like bristleworms and that nature. I figured the chances were slim she would get hit and new if I told her she would never touch a piece. It was probably wrong of me but she never got touched by anything so it worked out for the best. So here are some pics!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgf86123 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Where'd you get that flex pvc? The results so far look great man, good job :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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