Cali Kid Corals

Levi iii's 29g tank build

karate_reefer_III

karate_reefer_III

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Well here is my first official post (yes my dad finally got off his butt and set me up an account :) )
Well me and my dad finally got the 29g acrylic tank up in my room. We got the tank and stand free from a club member. We built a custom overflow and cleaned up the scratches (but there are still a lot more but they are hard to see with water in the tank). We also modded a scwd (we'll post a thread with that later) from Phong (Elite) but it still needs some testing so we decided to use a working scwd from Matt (Dyngoe). We are powering the scwd with Quiet One 2200 which is our return pump. So far we aren't using any power heads since most of them are all to big for a 30" long tank. We will be using a RedSea Prizm HOB skimmer he had on his 46g but instead of hanging it on the back of the tank (which it wouldn't have fit anyway) we have it hanging on the 10g AG tank that we made into a sump. It has 1 high section for the skimmer which spills into a middle section where we want to put some chaeto then the water passes through a bubble trap into the return section. So far it works awesome BUT the water level is very sensitive since it's a really shallow sump and we had to leave it less than half full in case the pump cuts off. We need to make some lids for the overflow and maybe the sump to try and keep evaporation down because without an ATO I'll have to manually top off once to twice a day. We may scrap the 10g tank and build an acrylic tank inside the stand. Here are some pics. We are getting the T5 parts we need Monday so we'll try and get some more shots then.

Here is a link to the moonlight we made
http://www.bareefers.org/discussion/index.php?topic=4856.0

Here's a quick shot before we filled it up.
readyforwater.jpg


Here is the tank freshly aquascaped. We got all the live rock from Gorm and it's been sitting in a glass 20g for months now. They are big pieces but I like it. My dad (LeviT) wants to change some out for smaller pieces but I kinda like these.
Aquascaped1.jpg


Here is a plumbing shot. We tried to keep it simple.
backplumbing1.jpg



Thanks to all the members who gave us parts to get this up and running!

[size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt]EDIT:[/size][/size][/size]
Here is a shot of the overflow if you look close you can see the thin slot my dad routed in the back of the tank.
Overflow01.jpg


Here is a shot of the left side of the sump
Sump02.jpg


Here is the right side before we put the skimmer in. We are using a filter sock to clear out dust and stuff from the sand.
Sump01.jpg


Here is a short video showing it working. You can tell it's pretty quiet.
 
It looks good so far!

One thing to keep in mind is to leave enough room in the back to get to the SCWD if you need to do any cleaning or maintenance on it.

I look forward to seeing the progress on it :D
 
Yeah make a bigger hole so you can take out the SCWD from the front. You will have to clean that more often than you think. Everything looking good so far kid. What are you planning to keep?

You or your dad should remove the back of that stand and put in some 2x4 or 2x2. Less heat inside the stand.
 
Yeah we didn't think about scwd mainenance, thanks guys. With the modded design it shouldn't have needed any but I'm sure this one will.

As far as stock goes, Levi already has tried to claim stuff from my tank :) We'll be running 4 T5's so we should be able to keep almost anything but I'm conserned with space since there are so many huge rocks. We had to cut several of them to get them in. He wants to get a yellow watchman gobie to help keep the sand clean and he'll have at least 1 maybe 2 clown fish and an anemone. That's as far as we've gone with planning. I'm thinking we'll stick with softies so we can keep mainenance down a little... but we'll see :)
 
Don't you need more sand than that to keep that fish??
Maybe you can take out 1 or 2 piece of rocks so your fish have more swimming space and the tank doesn't look too full..
 
[quote author=Elite link=topic=5054.msg62062#msg62062 date=1225649893]
Don't you need more sand than that to keep that fish??
Maybe you can take out 1 or 2 piece of rocks so your fish have more swimming space and the tank doesn't look too full..[/quote]
Ya, we need more sand.

[quote author=bluenassarius link=topic=5054.msg62064#msg62064 date=1225650108]
very cool that your son is into reefing too :) what kinda tank are you running? any decisions on lighting yet?
[/quote]
i think its an old truvu... we're supposed to be getting T5 bulbs and end caps monday, we're using the reflecters you gave us. thanks!!! we're starting off w/ 4 T5s but we may switch one out w/ a T12 if we can get the parts :)
 
coolness. good to see it being put to use. if you do decide to try the t12, i have a pair i got from eileen raddogz a few yrs back i'm not using. your welcome to it if ya want it.
 
Oh nice job on the external overflow! Since I did that on my 100, I don't think I'll every do internal again... the problem is I typically do a LONG overflow which is great since it strengthens up the tank, however it doesn't leave room for a return at the water height, but no biggy, I'll go through the top
 
I'm a little scared about the thickness of the acrylic on the overflow. It looks really thin. Normally tank builders use 1/2" acrylic on the external overflows. Other than that things look good.
 
I think it's ok. It doesn't hold much water and doesn't carry that much weight.. Couple bulkheads and couple PVC pipes.. It's ok. A little bit thick would be better though.
 
[quote author=bluenassarius link=topic=5054.msg62068#msg62068 date=1225654051]
coolness. good to see it being put to use. if you do decide to try the t12, i have a pair i got from eileen raddogz a few yrs back i'm not using. your welcome to it if ya want it. [/quote]

Sure Sam, we'll take it and try it out.

As far as the overflow goes.... We'll post some close up pics withe better lighting. Since it's all black it's hard to get good shots. The overflow is only designed to hold a couple inchs of water and them 3-4 if the first drain were to clog. I pretty much did a 1 of a kind overflow, you'll see what I mean when I post the pics. It has a small narrow box with teeth to skim the surface (that was a must, good surface skimming that is) then there is a slot in the back of the tank were the water spills into the external box. I actually really like it a lot. I wanted to start a thread just for that but I didn't get the pics I wanted showing the process. We are acclimating some frags we got from Matt (Dyngoe) along with an anemone and a pair of clown fish so I'll see if we can get some pictures.
 
[quote author=iani link=topic=5054.msg62071#msg62071 date=1225658743]
I'm a little scared about the thickness of the acrylic on the overflow. It looks really thin. Normally tank builders use 1/2" acrylic on the external overflows. Other than that things look good.
[/quote]

More than that, usually tank builders double up on the acrylic on the back of the tank to eliminate bowing that can snap the overflow box off of the back of the tank.

Basically they build a box and mount it to the back of the tank with weld on 40, that effectively eliminates bow in that section which is the main cause of failure on external overflows. Perhaps you could mount some bracing across the back towards the top to stiffen it up ;)

That said, good job! I think Levi III's tank will kick butt on Levi II's tank, and Levi III will get more crunchy skin off of the Thanksgiving turkey :D
 
[quote author=tuberider link=topic=5054.msg62114#msg62114 date=1225681997]
Basically they build a box and mount it to the back of the tank with weld on 40, that effectively eliminates bow in that section which is the main cause of failure on external overflows.
[/quote]

Granted I might be jumping to conclusions, but I thought that's exactly what he did (well maybe with another weldon, 3,4,16..
 
[quote author=sfsuphysics link=topic=5054.msg62144#msg62144 date=1225692173]
[quote author=tuberider link=topic=5054.msg62114#msg62114 date=1225681997]
Basically they build a box and mount it to the back of the tank with weld on 40, that effectively eliminates bow in that section which is the main cause of failure on external overflows.
[/quote]

Granted I might be jumping to conclusions, but I thought that's exactly what he did (well maybe with another weldon, 3,4,16..[/quote]
We used both, 4 to fuse the pieces together and 16 around the outside and inside for added strength after the 4 was dry. But I was cheap and used some fairly thin acrylic.

[quote author=Elite link=topic=5054.msg62155#msg62155 date=1225694897]
Is there a reason why you make the baffle on the right so high??[/quote]
That's the skimmer chamber, we're reusing a HOB skimmer I already had. We installed it shortly after we took that picture.
 
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