Cali Kid Corals

Bryan (seminolecpa's) Tank

seminolecpa

Past President
Well here is my attempt of some shots of my tank and some brief info. I hope one day to have a tank photographer to take some pics but for now you will have to settle for my crappy ones. A few things are still a little brown since my mass valonia extraction about 2 months ago, but seem to be coming back nicely.

Tank- Oceanic 72G bow bare bottom
Lighting- 2 250 Mogul Reeflux 10K's with 2 3' 96 W superactinig supplements built into a 12-14" hood (halides 7 hr pd, Actinics 8 hrs pd)
Flow- 1 Tunze 6100 w/ controller, 1 Tunze Nano stream, 1 Korrilia 4 (I think) Mag 7 return
Skimmer- Euro Reef 6-2
Reactor- Aquatic system Design custom
Phosphate Reactor
Fish- Maroon Clown, six line wrasse, Tomini Tang
Corals- Primarily SPS (too many to list), Zoas, a few acans and chalices

Current tank has been up and running for 11 months all inhabitants transferred from a 58 Oceanic that was running for about 3 years.

Full Tank Shot
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Probably the only good pictures I have tank of multiple corals in my tank

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Room my tank sits in from the outside crying for a Rich like sump underneath. (Please ignore the bald guy in the picture)

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Some misc inhabitants that I could actually get a decent shot of

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I recent bought a frag tank that I am considering sectioning off. The tank is about 4 feet long and my though would be to divide the tank in half and further dividing one fo the new sides in half again making a total of 3 sections (hope this makes sense). I would use smaller section #1 for a refugium with Macro algea etc. Section 2 would be used to hose live rock (at least temporarily). The Larger section would house my frags and would have a single 250W MH pendant over the area.My thought process is that the refugium and the live rock would get enough light from the leakage from the larger section of the tank to promote sufficient growth etc.

I am hoping to use this on its own for a couple of month until I can construct a room under my house in which it will ultimately reside and be plumbed to my main tank as a king of super sump. At that point the live rock could be removed from one of the chambers and I could insert my main tank skimmer etc.

Ok so now that I have rambled here are my questions as I am no expert with acrylic. Considering the above:

How difficult would it be to install the dividers into the tank?
Is there a standard sized plastic I should use?
Are there any specialty tools I would need?
Do they need to be cemented?
Should I have slits cut in them?
Can you think of anything I am leaving out?

I really want to do this right so advice would be helpful.

Here are some pictures of the tank

front

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right side

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left side

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bulkhead in back top left corner

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Sounds like you have put some thought into it. One concept I've always liked is the idea of (and will be implementing soon) is the idea of having the light on your sump on the opposite schedule of your display tank. That has nothing to do with your question but I thought I'd throw it out there :)

Depending on how you have your plumping set up routing slots on the divider sounds like a good idea. I'm thinking you would be fine just siliconing the dividers in place. For tools for that a table saw and a table router would be convenient but you could get by with a having the acrylic cut to size when you buy it then setting up a jig with some clamps to make the slots.
 
Depending on how long water was in the tank it may be difficult to get adhesion with the existing plexi. Also I would take measurements on the inside to see if there is any bowing, that may affect the panels as well.

I do like the design though, I hope you can make it happen.
 
Just curious. I fully plan to silicone in the dividers but is it honeslty that necesary to get completely solid adhesion anyway considering that they are purely to keep thing seperate and the intent it to have water run through all of the chambers anyway?
 
Make sure you get at least 3/4in plexi deviders, coz they bent very easily under water pressure.
The dividers in my sump are thin and bend very easily as water levels change between sections.

Silicone should work fine.
 
When I measure out for the cuts do I take anything off the dimensions for spacing or is the idea to have it fit snugly up against the existing plexi?

I am thinking of going to Tap today and seeing if they will cut the sheets for me.
 
how about you just have an elevated frag rack and use the space below for your live rock? This would get you a ton more frag space.
 
I would do that, but the plan ultimately is to use this as a super sump so the area that I am dividing off currently to house the live rock will eventually hold my skimmer etc.

I still am going to you some elavation ala eggcrate for a portion of the frag section.
 
In that case, follow your diagram, but do the elevated frag deal in both your rock and frag sections :-D Since the pendent is offset, you can put the high light frags in one section and low light in the other.
 
I would try and use Weldon #16, unless your plan is to remove the baffles later. With silicone all it takes is one "doh!" moment and it's time to glue again, at least IME.
 
Do you really need baffles as dividers? Why not egg crate or some kind of meshing? Are you trying to keep pods and other things fully isolated?
 
[quote author=seminolecpa link=topic=3246.msg36369#msg36369 date=1204744641]
Does someone sell that locally? Was gonna ask if there was a specific type of glue or silicone I should use.
[/quote]Tap plastics on B st in San Mateo has it. Bring your earplugs though one of the employees whistles the entire time, it's maddening. If I worked there I'd weldon her mouth shut!
 
I have some weldon 16 from TAP plastics you could use. You would want the pieces to be as snug as possible as that will help keep them in place.
 
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