Choss' 96 gallon Reef Savvy "Nano" Tank

[Reduck]

Way cool! It's gonna look great as usual.

 

[choss]

Way cool! It's gonna look great as usual.

Reduck happy you are following along. You were the inspiration for my IM40.

 

[Reduck]

Reduck happy you are following along. You were the inspiration for my IM40.

Aw shucks...thanks!

 

[JustAnt]

Excellent news! Let the plumbing begin . FYI, I'm moving to Peekskill in a month so I'm in the middle of a huge re-plumbing job myself.

What?!? I can't believe it. U had such a great set up. R u taking the tank to the new house

 

[jgvergo]

What?!? I can't believe it. U had such a great set up. R u taking the tank to the new house

Yep, the tank is making the trip with us! The task at hand is to redesign the system so that everything will be housed under the DT in the cabinet since it won't have a two story set up. I actually think it will be pretty straight forward (famous last words )

 

[choss]

Ok time for another update.

The Sump Cabinet

In reviewing my plans, space for a sump and cabinet was going to be very tight. After doing some research I settled on a Ruby Cube sump. It’s the maximum size sump I can fit into the allotted space. I picked this baby up on black Friday and have been storing it ever since.

This thing was well protected

Well I couldn’t leave it in storage the entire time so I put it to good use

To build the cabinet around the sump, I resorted to @rocketengineer’s design for stand building, using 1X4s.

Here are a few shots of the main structure. The skin of the cabinet will be held on with magnets. Because it is going into a corner I will be leaving the back and right side of the cabinet open. The top will match the other pieces and will be finished 1.5” Walnut.

Once finished I painted it white with Kilz premium waterproof paint

And a top down pic

 

[jgvergo]

Ok time for another update.

The Sump Cabinet

In reviewing my plans, space for a sump and cabinet was going to be very tight. After doing some research I settled on a Ruby Cube sump. It’s the maximum size sump I can fit into the allotted space. I picked this baby up on black Friday and have been storing it ever since.

View attachment 545147

This thing was well protected

View attachment 545148

View attachment 545149

Well I couldn’t leave it in storage the entire time so I put it to good use

View attachment 545151

To build the cabinet around the sump, I resorted to @rocketengineer’s design for stand building, using 1X4s.

Here are a few shots of the main structure. The skin of the cabinet will be held on with magnets. Because it is going into a corner I will be leaving the back and right side of the cabinet open. The top will match the other pieces and will be finished 1.5” Walnut.

View attachment 545152

Once finished I painted it white with Kilz premium waterproof paint

View attachment 545153

And a top down pic

View attachment 545154

You get the award for the best secondary use of a sump...ever!

 

[choss]

You get the award for the best secondary use of a sump...ever!

I really worked well. The red wine goes great with the ruby color of the sump. Now I hope it looks as good with water in it!

 

[Janci]

I really worked well. The red wine goes great with the ruby color of the sump. Now I hope it looks as good with water in it!

In worse case we pray and turn water in to wine [emoji106]

 

[choss]

In worse case we pray and turn water in to wine [emoji106]

Great point! Janci - I love your avatar. Is that from your current tank?

 

[Janci]

Great point! Janci - I love your avatar. Is that from your current tank?

The avatar is one of my favourite fish.
I currently do not have it in the tank but hope throat one day I might.
Still... too many wrasse for the moment which are another of favourites.

 

[choss]

The avatar is one of my favourite fish.
I currently do not have it in the tank but hope throat one day I might.
Still... too many wrasse for the moment which are another of favourites.

ding through your build thread now.

I'm reading through your build thread now. Getting some inspiration!

 

[choss]

I thought I'd start the day off today by posting some sexy pics....Here is what arrived yesterday. Should be a fun weekend ahead...

Excuse my feet

 

[choss]

So while I feel like I did not accomplish much this weekend, I did manage to squeeze in several really important items. First, I installed a float switch in my salt reservoir. I'll be posting a much more detailed plan of how I have set up the salt refill station and how I will be managing the system to be as automated as possible. The float switch will shut down my AWC pump in case of a low water situation so this is one of many backups I am planning. More importantly, I took the plunge and drilled a 1" hole through my hard wood floor, through two sub floors (yeah, not sure why there were two sub floors) and into the room below where all of my water needs will be handled. I have to admit, this was knuckle biter.

While I wanted initially to go through the wall into the floor below, it quickly became apparent that, due to space limitations, I would be seriously challenged to pull this off correctly. So through the floor I decided to go.

First, I had to estimate exactly where to go through the floor. The issue is, the room below is a small utility room, that houses my refill tanks, a slop sink, and my HVAC unit. The area where I went through the floor needed to open exactly in a small 6-8" shaft between a massive duct and the actual heating unit. I did a lot of measuring, from all sides - outside, from walls, ceilings, etc. Then I drilled a small pilot hole. I put a flashlight over the hole, then went down to see if I had achieved success. Well first try and there was nothing! I tested a coat hanger and that showed me the problem. I had hit a second sub floor. SO I went to the hardware store and bought a 10" 3/32" drill bit. Now I was able to punch through. Turns out I would be drilling through 4.5 inches of solid wood.

My approach was to start with a 1" hole saw. I did this to save the oak piece to potentially use it later to patch the floor when I sell the house. I also ordered a few of these as backup

http://www.widgetco.com/oak-wood-floor-plugs-1-inch

Next, I grabbed a 1" spade bit. These bits look like this

This guy did the rest of the hard work. about 15 minutes later I was through and had a perfect hole to feed my plumbing through. Don't worry, the full plan will be in a post coming this week. It will be clear why I am only making a single hole and not running the full system through the floor.

 

[choss]

Update - Controller

A few pics to lead off the day. Look what arrived recently…

Just like Choss…

P4 Mega Set!

Man there are a lot of goodies…

And here is the brain and heart of the Choss system…

Man this thing is serious looking. And not small either…

Ok so by now you know that I am going with the GHL Profilux as the brains of my system. I did a ton of research as this is the first controller I’ve ever gone with so I wanted to be certain. So why GHL you ask?


· Build quality & reliability – There were a ton of threads on the merits of both controllers. But in the end, the GHL guys were the happiest of the bunch. And I could not find a single “GHL failure” thread or post. I travel a lot and this was critical to me.

· Programming – I’ve read mostly how easy the GHL is to program. We shall see if this holds up!

· Customer service – this was actually the deciding factor. When I started my research, I sent emails in to both companies. I called Neptune several times to no avail. I kept getting caught in a circular conversation with a pretty unfriendly type on the other end, who just couldn’t connect me with the service rep who had reached out to me. With GHL different story. Vinny contacted me and the rest was history. Super friendly, great advice, and quick turnarounds on questions asked. I will be controlling devices on two levels in my house and he was able to help me figure out cables that I would need, etc. I believe these guys will be there if I have any issues. Not feeling that way about the Apex support. In any case, I’m sure they are both great products but this was the tie breaker for me.

· Cost – Apex was definitely cheaper for what I wanted to do. But in the end, I have already invested heavily in the tank, furniture build, equipment, and not to mention the future investment in corals. I made a commitment to excellence in build and equipment selected so $100 or so more wasn’t an issue for me.

Can't wait to program this baby.

 

[Janci]

Update - Controller

A few pics to lead off the day. Look what arrived recently…

View attachment 548142

Just like Choss…
View attachment 548143

P4 Mega Set!
View attachment 548144

Man there are a lot of goodies…
View attachment 548145

And here is the brain and heart of the Choss system…
View attachment 548149

Man this thing is serious looking. And not small either…
View attachment 548150


Ok so by now you know that I am going with the GHL Profilux as the brains of my system. I did a ton of research as this is the first controller I’ve ever gone with so I wanted to be certain. So why GHL you ask?


· Build quality & reliability – There were a ton of threads on the merits of both controllers. But in the end, the GHL guys were the happiest of the bunch. And I could not find a single “GHL failure” thread or post. I travel a lot and this was critical to me.

· Programming – I’ve read mostly how easy the GHL is to program. We shall see if this holds up!

· Customer service – this was actually the deciding factor. When I started my research, I sent emails in to both companies. I called Neptune several times to no avail. I kept getting caught in a circular conversation with a pretty unfriendly type on the other end, who just couldn’t connect me with the service rep who had reached out to me. With GHL different story. Vinny contacted me and the rest was history. Super friendly, great advice, and quick turnarounds on questions asked. I will be controlling devices on two levels in my house and he was able to help me figure out cables that I would need, etc. I believe these guys will be there if I have any issues. Not feeling that way about the Apex support. In any case, I’m sure they are both great products but this was the tie breaker for me.

· Cost – Apex was definitely cheaper for what I wanted to do. But in the end, I have already invested heavily in the tank, furniture build, equipment, and not to mention the future investment in corals. I made a commitment to excellence in build and equipment selected so $100 or so more wasn’t an issue for me.

Can't wait to program this baby.

All the right reasons to go with GHL.
You will not be disappointed. Although the P4 is a little tricky in his wireless connection, the controller is top.
Equipment wise this is going to be a great set up with all what is necessary (and more) for success.
[emoji245][emoji226][emoji225][emoji108][emoji108][emoji108]

 

[choss]

I hope I have even just a small amount of the success you are having on your tank. I think the peace of mind I will have using the GHL P4 will be worth every penny of investment. As you know things always seem to go wrong when we are away from our tanks.

 

[choss]

Update – System layout

System Overview Diagram by choerenz, on Flickr

Ok – sorry if the image isn’t the easiest to understand but I wanted to show how the system will be set up and break down my maintenance plans and why I am setting things up this way. A few posts back I talked about the very difficult (and nerve wracking) decision to drill a hole through my hard wood floor. So let me start there.

The layout of my house is actually very much set up to support a fully separate equipment room right below where the display tank will be located. This is no accident. I purchased the house in Westchester NY back in 1996. The house was built in 1908 and needed a ton of work. My wife and I had the opportunity to renovate and add a few things that were very specific to our needs. At the time, I had just moved a really “happy” and thriving 30 gallon reef tank from my NY city apartment, into a 75 gallon holding tank in my basement.

I had every intention on setting up a 180-200 gallon tank in my office. I asked the contractors to add extra support in the floor of this room (which I’m not sure they did) and located a utility room right beneath in the garage area. The room was plumbed with a slop sink, and was ready to go. Then I found out that heating system in the house would need to be replaced and this opened the door up for duct work and central AC. The bad news is the heating unit had to go into my utility room. The room is still big enough to house a sump but it’s a bit tighter and so I’ll get into my decision to house the sump in the main display room rather than locating it in the room below.

One side bar, as things will happen, during the renovation, my holding tank was covered with a tarp during the construction in the basement. Well unfortunately the cover fell off, and the tank was exposed to massive amounts of dust from the sheetrock and demo work. Needless-to-say nothing survived and I was devastated. I never ended up setting up the 180 and got out of the hobby until 2014 when I bought the AIO 40 gallon. So that is the back story.

Sump Location

I really did not want to drill multiple holes in the floors. I’m running a bean animal and I would have needed an opening large enough to feed 4 pipes. I also wasn’t psyched about getting a bigger pump, head pressure etc. In thinking things through, I opted for a different plan. I would go for a minimally invasive opening (in floor or wall) and set up an automatic water change system using small John Guest pipes, from a station below to a small sump hidden in a cabinet by the main display tank. I have studied a few of these setups and once these systems are in place, maintenance is pretty easy. In my case, I’ll pretty much be cleaning my skimmer and harvesting Chaeto.

In reviewing the diagram above, let me first describe the setup so that the image makes a bit more sense.
In the main DT room, we have the three structures. The electrical cabinet to the left of the tank, the main display stand which is exposed steel pipes and walnut, and a cabinet to the right that hides a 24 gallon cube sump.

Then in the room directly below, we have the following items from right to left:

RODI water container: Because I will be feeding the system above using the Tunze Osmolator, I started thinking about whether I could locate this high enough in the room to feed the tank in the room above via the 7’ of so max head height of the stock pump. It sits roughly 5-6 feet below the sump give or take. I will test this soon and if the pump cannot handle the distance and height, I will resort to adding a stronger pump to my refill system. Once I settled on this location for the RODI tank, I began considering the benefits of the setup:

• I can leverage the RODI pressure to fill the tank that sits on a high shelf, and then leverage gravity to feed the salt mixing station
• I can also use gravity to refill the frag tank (if necessary) that sits directly below the 35 RODI tank.

To find a tank, I went to a local tractor supply store and found this:

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...l?cm_vc=-10005

The way I will run this setup, this tank should never be empty as it is continuously fed from the RODI unit which is shut off with a float valve in the RODI storage tank. Daily, for about 30 minutes, a solenoid will open and refill as necessary.

RODI container shelf: I built the stand for the container using the same design as the sump cabinet (rocketengineer design).

finished container stand by choerenz, on Flickr

RODI tank and stand by choerenz, on Flickr

As I was putting the stand together I was struck by an interesting idea that began to form. I had another small storage room that currently houses a fish QT tank, and what I was planning as setting up as a frag QT tank. But then I began to think, as I am pulling water out of my main display tank via the automatic water change pump, why drain it straight to the sink? So an idea was born….

 

[choss]

continued...
Frag Tank

Since I’m setting the main tank up with automated water changes (and dosing) it wouldn’t make sense to then set up a frag tank that requires water changes and other maintenance. So I had a thought. What if I connected the frag tank to the main system in a one directional way. This last piece in important because I want to maintain corals in the same environment as the display tank, but without the risk of allowing any pests into the display.

So the solution I came up with is simple (and please send feedback if you see problems with it).

Step 1 drill the 20 long I was going to use as a frag tank. Attach a glass holes nano overflow. Paint bottom and back glass black – make it look awesome.

Preparing frag tank for drilling by choerenz, on Flickr

drilling frag tank by choerenz, on Flickr

clean hole for frag tank by choerenz, on Flickr

Nano overflow by choerenz, on Flickr
Step 2: Build a shelf into the water storage stand. Locate the frag tank under the RODI water storage tank.

shelf added to container stand by choerenz, on Flickr

Step 3: Connect a float value to the frag tank to allow for gravity fed RODI water.

Frag tank float valve by choerenz, on Flickr

Float valve from RODI by choerenz, on Flickr

 

[choss]

continued...
Step 4: Rather than pouring the old water from the water change system down the drain, feed it into the frag tank in small doses (approximately 1.5 gallons a day, evenly throughout the day). As water enters the frag tank, the same amount flows out of the tank and into the sink.

Basically, the frag tank will get a consistent flow of water that has just left the main display. This water should have stable chemistry and quality (it is being drawn from the sump) and potentially allow me to avoid having to hook up a protein skimmer to the frag tank. Corals that are being held in the frag tank, should adjust well to the display since the chemistry should be similar. Yet no pests can enter the main display.

I was going to use a small 2 bulb T5 fixture for the frag tank but then I remembered that I had a metal halide, 175 W socket and ballast lying around from my old 30 gallon tank. This socket was not a mogul socket but I found an adaptor on Amazon. Then I ordered one of these

Ushio 14K by choerenz, on Flickr

Lamp warming up...

Ushio warming up by choerenz, on Flickr

Warmed up...

Ushio warmed up by choerenz, on Flickr

Here is the finished product. Since the main display is not yet hooked up (and feeding water to the frag tank) I am cycling the tank using some siporax in a HOB filter. I also have a heater and constructed a frag rack using black egg crate and some sexy red ¾” PVC. Right now my nitrite and ammonia is still a bit high so I’m dosing some MB7 and staying patient. Once the tank is stable I will move one or two frags from my holding tanks.

Frag tank FTS by choerenz, on Flickr

Frag rack by choerenz, on Flickr