Projects with Sam
5000 Club Member
Partner Member 2024
Hospitality Award
Midwest Reefer
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My Tank Thread
My Aquarium Showcase
Only 4 links on signatures and I want to keep track of my grow-out posts...
12/2/21
New to saltwater aquariums! This is my first marine tank. I've kept African Cichlid for the past 4 years during which time I enjoyed the 'gear' side of it as much as the livestock so saltwater is a logical progression. I am happy to say I've built tanks, stands, overflows, sumps, canister filters, lights, and small circuit/sensor-based gadgets to help automate systems and provide redundancy in the short time I've been in the hobby. I ran 200 gallons across 4 tanks and a sump in my freshwater setup before I sold it to get a foothold in salt.
I have recently sold my Freshwater and have bought some Saltwater gear. I was lucky to find a great tank being sold by a great guy who was excited to help another get into the hobby. As such, He hooked me up with tons of stuff to help me on my way (even a bucket of salt!)
I am excited to start-out with the following equipment:
Oceanic 120 tank (2 weirs, one on each side) and stand
Eshopps R-300 Sump Gen 1 (36x16x16)
CAD Lights PLS-150 (conic) Super Space Saving Pipeless Protein Skimmer
Danner 9.5 return pump ~950GPH AC pump (so reliable but noisy as hell)
Jerepet SND-7000 return pump ~1850GPH DC pump (too much flow?)
Sicce 2mm utility pump (thanks brs!)
Assorted flow pumps from prior owner
2 GalaxyHydro LED Aquarium Lights
Slaouwo 1000W NOAH-S-X-100 plant grow light (repurposed as refugium light)
Eshopps rectangular filter holder for the R-300 Sump Gen 1
4" filter sock holder and 14" 200Micron filter sock
300W Eheim JAGER Aquarium Heater
ATO system with one operable float switch
E-Marco-400 Aquascaping Mortar Complete Kit - Grey
over 350gallons of salt mix
BRS Refractometer & calibration juice
API freshwater master test kit
10 gallon QT tank with filter and heater
5 buckets of dry coral rock (bleached for a week & drying)
1 bucket of sand (not being used)
125mL MicroBacter Start XLM - Brightwell Aquatics
125mL MicroBacter7 - Brightwell Aquatics
Assorted additives and chemicals rom prior owner
I plan to post my journey on my YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/randomprojectswithsam
I cant wait to do some cool DIY projects for the tank... Project #1 (after setup): auto roller fleece
Here are a few of my old African cichlid tank:
My new tank!
12/8/21
Completed one of two of my heater controllers. Total cost for two: $10
my only issue is that I cant get them to display Fahrenheit.
Finalized my return and overflows!
I'll have a bar with 3 ports across the back. Its supported on both sides buy the weirs.
I was going to go with schedule80 but found the Ts were $5/ea... SO, I decided to use Krylon fusion.... but Menards didn't have it... They had Krylon Premium Enamel for $10 less... I got it and called Krylon; the nice lady that helped me stated that no matter what, they don't support putting their paints into aquarium environments...
I also found out that the base, a Modified Alkyd Enamel, is the same as Krylon Fusion's base and that the solvents that evaporate away are simply different and allow the paint to stick to even more hard surfaces. (pass it on)
It dries to such a nice matte and omg does it stick! My siphon brek hole is on the endcap in the far weir near the secondary Durso standpipe .
12/10/21
Finished the plumbing! I glued the return line and used plumbers tape and compression on the drain lines. I may glue the drains after a wet test. I am still not sure if the split Bean Animal I made will work appropriately.
I have started thinking about the rock-scape. I've broken apart my rocks and angle-ground some flat sides for base rock. Again, I intend todo bare bottom but I am fretful it will be difficult to cycle and I want to keep some sand-dependent species so I will be making a 'sand-island' in a rock feature. I hope it doesn't look odd.
The sanding and re-staining is mostly complete (still need to polyurethane) and I am disappointed to comment that it does not meet my standards for how a wood-trimmed tank should look (I was unable to match the stain and I am unwilling to sand and re-finish the whole thing.)
I am going black trim and stand. The Krylon fusion on the PVC pipes worked so well, I would need to paint to bottom of the tank black anyway, and the re-finish didn't pan out so this is my best course of action.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed it wasn't a black tank to begin with.
For posterity, here are the re-finish progress photos:
12/12/21
Change of plan... I went white with white trim!
12/14/21
More final touches to the finish before wet-testing the plumbing. Finalizing my rock structures. Very happy with the sand-oasis and the other two formations I've created. Almost out of E-Marco 400.
I like it more then Epoxy. I've done both and they each have their place but for doing large scale structures with the rock pieces I was able to make, I'd go Mortar everyday. My smaller Epoxy-based structures are great but It was too much with the crazy glue and the gloves and all... With Marco, If you spritz the Mortar with the water mixture, you can stick the rock dust to it easily and it assumes the color of the rock. then you can texture it and its done... all one step. Granted it takes longer because you can only do a few joins at a time; but if you're working with 3 structures you do a join on each every 2 hours/24hours. here are some images:
Second coat of Flexseal on inside of the stand.
Rock Formations:
Just 3D printed an Eshopps RS-300 Filter Floss Holder for my sump:
www.thingiverse.com
Let me know if you'd like me to print one for you (at cost); I can put it up on my ebay (u pay shipping).
Does anyone know if Inland White PETG is reef safe?
12/16/21
Filled it, leveled it, setup enough to run it. Did not have to modify the plumbing! it was ready to go and seemed tuned already... I did have to close down the gate valve and tighten a bulkhead. Even finished the aquascape in-time to give it a fresh-water rinse.
The water is cloudy from putting in the rocks because of all the fine coral dust used to cover up the glue and mortar joints.
Next on the docket:
*Sand* - cleanup / bleach sand for the 'sand-oasis' and the refugium floor.
*Lights* - Open-up the lights and clean their fans. Address their rusty screws. Turn around power plugs on left lamp so cables fall symmetrically. Build floating canopy to conceal lights + add 2 T5 fixture.
*Cabinet/power/space management* - organize the power cables - build extruded PVC management console.
*Refugium* - setup fuge lamp.
...etc...
12/21/21
PVC ceiling tile for a wire management and light timer box. I added the substrate and rocks from the 10 gallon to media bags and put them in the sump. I then put the fish from the 10 gallon into the 120. The tank got pretty hazy for a day after the additions. I setup an ATO and used the 10 gallon for the reservoir.
Leaving the tank for 10 days unattended with an auto feeder. It should be fine - even if the ATO empties the 10 Gallon, I have a floor drain...
1/1/22
Got back in time to beat the snowstorm and for the New Year! Happy New Year!
A few things stopped running in the 9 days I was out of town... they started affecting the tank resulting in some pretty bad conditions for my poor livestock. Below is a breakdown of the problems and what happened:
The ATO pump I used was poorly setup and inadequate for the intended use.
I should have used a submersible pump in the ATO.
My auto-feeder was dispensing way too much food. It was set for 5-times a day feeding (cichlid) and the pellets were so small a ton came out of the huge door at its smallest setting. Most of the excess ended up at the bottom of the emergency drain weir rotting in a fuzzy stinky mess.
The worst was the ATO only replacing about 5 gallons of RODI water in the tank before failing. The evaporation eventually led to the water level getting so low in my return pump chamber that only a trickle of water was being sent back to the tank which then led to the heaters in both overflows only keeping the overflows warm and the tank getting into the low-mid 70s with a high salinity.
Needless to say, the poor clowns and the damsel were hanging out by the return jets.
I added 9 gallons of ATO RODI water and checked the chemicals again.
ammonia:0, nitrite:0, nitrate:0.05 ppm(after 15minutes)
Setup my QT tank with a bag of base rock gravel in a bag from my sump and made my second temperature controller.
I am at a loss for stocking... some ideas:
2 clownfish (in the tank)
1 damselfish (in the tank - should go into fuge?)
~6 Green Chromis (Chromis viridis)
1 Royal Gramma (Gramma loreto)
1 Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica)
1 Six Line Wrasse or yellow coris Wrasse or pinstripe wrasse or Melanurus/Hoevens/Wardley wrasse
1 Neon Blue Cleaner Goby (Elacatinus oceanops)
1 One Spot Foxface (Siganus unimaculatus)
1 Male Red Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias cheirospilos/squamipinnis)
6 Female Orange Lyretail Anthias
1 Mimic Lemon Tang (Acanthurus pyroferus) or a sailfin tang if not too big
1 Green Banded Goby (Elacatinus multifasciatus)
I am in no rush so am considering waiting and finding local deals from individuals.
I just bought all the meds to treat fish in QT so am also open to getting deals on sick fish from stores.
12/2/21
New to saltwater aquariums! This is my first marine tank. I've kept African Cichlid for the past 4 years during which time I enjoyed the 'gear' side of it as much as the livestock so saltwater is a logical progression. I am happy to say I've built tanks, stands, overflows, sumps, canister filters, lights, and small circuit/sensor-based gadgets to help automate systems and provide redundancy in the short time I've been in the hobby. I ran 200 gallons across 4 tanks and a sump in my freshwater setup before I sold it to get a foothold in salt.
I have recently sold my Freshwater and have bought some Saltwater gear. I was lucky to find a great tank being sold by a great guy who was excited to help another get into the hobby. As such, He hooked me up with tons of stuff to help me on my way (even a bucket of salt!)
I am excited to start-out with the following equipment:
Oceanic 120 tank (2 weirs, one on each side) and stand
Eshopps R-300 Sump Gen 1 (36x16x16)
CAD Lights PLS-150 (conic) Super Space Saving Pipeless Protein Skimmer
Danner 9.5 return pump ~950GPH AC pump (so reliable but noisy as hell)
Jerepet SND-7000 return pump ~1850GPH DC pump (too much flow?)
Sicce 2mm utility pump (thanks brs!)
Assorted flow pumps from prior owner
2 GalaxyHydro LED Aquarium Lights
Slaouwo 1000W NOAH-S-X-100 plant grow light (repurposed as refugium light)
Eshopps rectangular filter holder for the R-300 Sump Gen 1
4" filter sock holder and 14" 200Micron filter sock
300W Eheim JAGER Aquarium Heater
ATO system with one operable float switch
E-Marco-400 Aquascaping Mortar Complete Kit - Grey
over 350gallons of salt mix
BRS Refractometer & calibration juice
API freshwater master test kit
10 gallon QT tank with filter and heater
5 buckets of dry coral rock (bleached for a week & drying)
1 bucket of sand (not being used)
125mL MicroBacter Start XLM - Brightwell Aquatics
125mL MicroBacter7 - Brightwell Aquatics
Assorted additives and chemicals rom prior owner
I plan to post my journey on my YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/randomprojectswithsam
I cant wait to do some cool DIY projects for the tank... Project #1 (after setup): auto roller fleece
Here are a few of my old African cichlid tank:
My new tank!
12/8/21
Completed one of two of my heater controllers. Total cost for two: $10
my only issue is that I cant get them to display Fahrenheit.
Finalized my return and overflows!
I'll have a bar with 3 ports across the back. Its supported on both sides buy the weirs.
I was going to go with schedule80 but found the Ts were $5/ea... SO, I decided to use Krylon fusion.... but Menards didn't have it... They had Krylon Premium Enamel for $10 less... I got it and called Krylon; the nice lady that helped me stated that no matter what, they don't support putting their paints into aquarium environments...
I also found out that the base, a Modified Alkyd Enamel, is the same as Krylon Fusion's base and that the solvents that evaporate away are simply different and allow the paint to stick to even more hard surfaces. (pass it on)
It dries to such a nice matte and omg does it stick! My siphon brek hole is on the endcap in the far weir near the secondary Durso standpipe .
12/10/21
Finished the plumbing! I glued the return line and used plumbers tape and compression on the drain lines. I may glue the drains after a wet test. I am still not sure if the split Bean Animal I made will work appropriately.
I have started thinking about the rock-scape. I've broken apart my rocks and angle-ground some flat sides for base rock. Again, I intend todo bare bottom but I am fretful it will be difficult to cycle and I want to keep some sand-dependent species so I will be making a 'sand-island' in a rock feature. I hope it doesn't look odd.
The sanding and re-staining is mostly complete (still need to polyurethane) and I am disappointed to comment that it does not meet my standards for how a wood-trimmed tank should look (I was unable to match the stain and I am unwilling to sand and re-finish the whole thing.)
I am going black trim and stand. The Krylon fusion on the PVC pipes worked so well, I would need to paint to bottom of the tank black anyway, and the re-finish didn't pan out so this is my best course of action.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed it wasn't a black tank to begin with.
For posterity, here are the re-finish progress photos:
12/12/21
Change of plan... I went white with white trim!
12/14/21
More final touches to the finish before wet-testing the plumbing. Finalizing my rock structures. Very happy with the sand-oasis and the other two formations I've created. Almost out of E-Marco 400.
I like it more then Epoxy. I've done both and they each have their place but for doing large scale structures with the rock pieces I was able to make, I'd go Mortar everyday. My smaller Epoxy-based structures are great but It was too much with the crazy glue and the gloves and all... With Marco, If you spritz the Mortar with the water mixture, you can stick the rock dust to it easily and it assumes the color of the rock. then you can texture it and its done... all one step. Granted it takes longer because you can only do a few joins at a time; but if you're working with 3 structures you do a join on each every 2 hours/24hours. here are some images:
Second coat of Flexseal on inside of the stand.
Rock Formations:
Just 3D printed an Eshopps RS-300 Filter Floss Holder for my sump:
Eshopps RS-300 Filter Floss Holder by alejl
This object was made in Tinkercad. Edit it online https://www.tinkercad.com/things/39dL5mBYw1W
www.thingiverse.com
Does anyone know if Inland White PETG is reef safe?
12/16/21
Filled it, leveled it, setup enough to run it. Did not have to modify the plumbing! it was ready to go and seemed tuned already... I did have to close down the gate valve and tighten a bulkhead. Even finished the aquascape in-time to give it a fresh-water rinse.
The water is cloudy from putting in the rocks because of all the fine coral dust used to cover up the glue and mortar joints.
Next on the docket:
*Sand* - cleanup / bleach sand for the 'sand-oasis' and the refugium floor.
*Lights* - Open-up the lights and clean their fans. Address their rusty screws. Turn around power plugs on left lamp so cables fall symmetrically. Build floating canopy to conceal lights + add 2 T5 fixture.
*Cabinet/power/space management* - organize the power cables - build extruded PVC management console.
*Refugium* - setup fuge lamp.
...etc...
12/21/21
PVC ceiling tile for a wire management and light timer box. I added the substrate and rocks from the 10 gallon to media bags and put them in the sump. I then put the fish from the 10 gallon into the 120. The tank got pretty hazy for a day after the additions. I setup an ATO and used the 10 gallon for the reservoir.
Leaving the tank for 10 days unattended with an auto feeder. It should be fine - even if the ATO empties the 10 Gallon, I have a floor drain...
1/1/22
Got back in time to beat the snowstorm and for the New Year! Happy New Year!
A few things stopped running in the 9 days I was out of town... they started affecting the tank resulting in some pretty bad conditions for my poor livestock. Below is a breakdown of the problems and what happened:
The ATO pump I used was poorly setup and inadequate for the intended use.
I should have used a submersible pump in the ATO.
My auto-feeder was dispensing way too much food. It was set for 5-times a day feeding (cichlid) and the pellets were so small a ton came out of the huge door at its smallest setting. Most of the excess ended up at the bottom of the emergency drain weir rotting in a fuzzy stinky mess.
The worst was the ATO only replacing about 5 gallons of RODI water in the tank before failing. The evaporation eventually led to the water level getting so low in my return pump chamber that only a trickle of water was being sent back to the tank which then led to the heaters in both overflows only keeping the overflows warm and the tank getting into the low-mid 70s with a high salinity.
Needless to say, the poor clowns and the damsel were hanging out by the return jets.
I added 9 gallons of ATO RODI water and checked the chemicals again.
ammonia:0, nitrite:0, nitrate:0.05 ppm(after 15minutes)
Setup my QT tank with a bag of base rock gravel in a bag from my sump and made my second temperature controller.
I am at a loss for stocking... some ideas:
2 clownfish (in the tank)
1 damselfish (in the tank - should go into fuge?)
~6 Green Chromis (Chromis viridis)
1 Royal Gramma (Gramma loreto)
1 Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica)
1 Six Line Wrasse or yellow coris Wrasse or pinstripe wrasse or Melanurus/Hoevens/Wardley wrasse
1 Neon Blue Cleaner Goby (Elacatinus oceanops)
1 One Spot Foxface (Siganus unimaculatus)
1 Male Red Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias cheirospilos/squamipinnis)
6 Female Orange Lyretail Anthias
1 Mimic Lemon Tang (Acanthurus pyroferus) or a sailfin tang if not too big
1 Green Banded Goby (Elacatinus multifasciatus)
I am in no rush so am considering waiting and finding local deals from individuals.
I just bought all the meds to treat fish in QT so am also open to getting deals on sick fish from stores.
Last edited:
