- Joined
- Feb 10, 2017
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- 5,561
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- Location
- Southern California
This build has been living since October, tank is stocked and has SPS and blah blah. Might as well start the story from the beginning though..
_______________________________________________________
Finally got all the equipment gathered and am starting to build the tank
The tank is a modest little setup. It's a 45g cube, which is 2" shorter than a 50g cube (which is what I was told it was). I actually like the shallow look, and just being 2" shorter is very noticeable to me.
Gear List:
- Apex
- ATI 6x24 T5
- 2 Sicce Voyager 3's w/Sicce Wave Surfer
- Sicce Syncra 4.0 Return
- eShopps Ghost Overflow
- Vertex Omega 130i skimmer
- The usual stuff (ATO, Heater, Matrix, etc etc)
Tomorrow the tank is going to be drilled for the Overflow by @thegrun, after that I'll be painting the back black and get a coat of flat white on the inside of the stand.
Gotta have a shout out to one of the best clubs in the world, the Vertex was won in a raffle at an SCMAS meeting. I couldn't be more happy with this amazing skimmer, it's exactly what I needed and the quality was out of my price range (gotta love that student 'budget'). So thanks to SCMAS and Vertex!
Things to do:
- Drill for Ghost overflow
- Feel dumb for not drilling returns 6-7 months from now
- Clean up the Sump / Augment Sump to accommodate skimmer
- Paint Tank / Inside of Stand
- Setup my BRS 1.1 doser
- Setup Cable Management
- Build light tree for T5
Some good progress was made today!
- Drilled
- Painted Back & Bottom (bottom in case I decide to try BB in the future)
- Painted Inside of Stand
- Got all the Conduit to make a mounting arm for my ATI.
Once the paint is fully dried and cured I'll put my ghost overflow on it. As for the plumbing im torn -- hard line PVC, or cheap nylon reinforced hose.
___________________________________
The eShopps ghost overflow looks perfect with gloss black background. It's almost invisible! almost..
Here's the backside of it!
Plumbing -- I'm going to add unions on the other PVC tubes to make it easier to disassemble. (mock setup, not glued yet)
Plumbing inside -- I'm going to make the bottom of the pipes equal lengths (Still not glued)
Next I'm going to clean up the sump, and probably do a few small modifications while I'm at it. I'm going to move one wall over a smidge to make room for the skimmer. I'm also going to try and use a strip of Acrylic to make chamber 1 (overflow) flow directly into Chamber 2 (skimmer) instead of chamber 2 & 3.
___________________________________
For those wondering -- PVC is hard
Next up, making this thing have a rock solid dedicated sump chamber so that my Vertex is always happy (note the giant *** Sicce Syncra 4 return pump... What was I thinking, 975gph gives no contact time for the skimmer!!)
Okay, quite a few more steps completed!!
___________________________________
--------- Oct 7th ---------
1) Lets change up this sump to fit a Vertex 130i skimmer
2) Now it fits!!!
3) Now to build more than 1 chamber...
4) Gate valve installed (forgot to move drain over before pic)
5) Custom sock holder from the most patient DIY guru I know!
6) SPARKS!! Bad ATI!
6.5) New reflectors, and ballast for freshly re-wired ATI Powermodule [Pre-LED -- This was a pain]
To do:
- Silicone Sock Mount in Sump
- Silicone dosing tube/ATO tube holder in Sump
- Run a second round of leak testing
- Get it inside
- Attach the Light Tree
- Scape it
- Get it wet!
_______________________________________________________
Finally got all the equipment gathered and am starting to build the tank
![biggrin.gif](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Freefcentral.com%2Fforums%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Fbiggrin.gif&hash=e2d7f8bcc1ac250892019cd7f1408620)
The tank is a modest little setup. It's a 45g cube, which is 2" shorter than a 50g cube (which is what I was told it was). I actually like the shallow look, and just being 2" shorter is very noticeable to me.
![glNpVqO.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FglNpVqO.jpg&hash=09369995eb4db8ad0d645cf81d983a30)
Gear List:
- Apex
- ATI 6x24 T5
- 2 Sicce Voyager 3's w/Sicce Wave Surfer
- Sicce Syncra 4.0 Return
- eShopps Ghost Overflow
- Vertex Omega 130i skimmer
- The usual stuff (ATO, Heater, Matrix, etc etc)
Tomorrow the tank is going to be drilled for the Overflow by @thegrun, after that I'll be painting the back black and get a coat of flat white on the inside of the stand.
Gotta have a shout out to one of the best clubs in the world, the Vertex was won in a raffle at an SCMAS meeting. I couldn't be more happy with this amazing skimmer, it's exactly what I needed and the quality was out of my price range (gotta love that student 'budget'). So thanks to SCMAS and Vertex!
Things to do:
- Drill for Ghost overflow
- Feel dumb for not drilling returns 6-7 months from now
- Clean up the Sump / Augment Sump to accommodate skimmer
- Paint Tank / Inside of Stand
- Setup my BRS 1.1 doser
- Setup Cable Management
- Build light tree for T5
Some good progress was made today!
- Drilled
![vINiMhE.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FvINiMhE.jpg&hash=e29bb5330e1d0df2badcdb50c56c47e6)
- Painted Back & Bottom (bottom in case I decide to try BB in the future)
![ysBesLH.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FysBesLH.jpg&hash=695386319bde21bb8d447f65ae37966a)
- Painted Inside of Stand
![MYTSp1T.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FMYTSp1T.jpg&hash=6aa0e3e8b4d8421e45e25e425c884606)
- Got all the Conduit to make a mounting arm for my ATI.
Once the paint is fully dried and cured I'll put my ghost overflow on it. As for the plumbing im torn -- hard line PVC, or cheap nylon reinforced hose.
___________________________________
The eShopps ghost overflow looks perfect with gloss black background. It's almost invisible! almost..
![0RuI6Ot.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F0RuI6Ot.jpg&hash=9c8b0acc2598091d3a62715bcb550828)
Here's the backside of it!
![042LVWB.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F042LVWB.jpg&hash=187359b30512b986eeea37fe0997a33a)
Plumbing -- I'm going to add unions on the other PVC tubes to make it easier to disassemble. (mock setup, not glued yet)
![qIpLdp2.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FqIpLdp2.jpg&hash=302ec4e1851623e8868a469f513c0e42)
Plumbing inside -- I'm going to make the bottom of the pipes equal lengths (Still not glued)
![DHVaQXb.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FDHVaQXb.jpg&hash=e755201482e0d0ad05660ac4295aff0c)
Next I'm going to clean up the sump, and probably do a few small modifications while I'm at it. I'm going to move one wall over a smidge to make room for the skimmer. I'm also going to try and use a strip of Acrylic to make chamber 1 (overflow) flow directly into Chamber 2 (skimmer) instead of chamber 2 & 3.
___________________________________
For those wondering -- PVC is hard
![frown.gif](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Freefcentral.com%2Fforums%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Ffrown.gif&hash=37e90200c1bc6d7d8e4632490b0436bc)
![fUYLhjZ.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FfUYLhjZ.jpg&hash=8c1f621cd4f4f965b99cdc12ca8c1930)
Next up, making this thing have a rock solid dedicated sump chamber so that my Vertex is always happy (note the giant *** Sicce Syncra 4 return pump... What was I thinking, 975gph gives no contact time for the skimmer!!)
![LTLLoL9.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FLTLLoL9.jpg&hash=ca555096b417c1e0969ee0c8223a4d4a)
Okay, quite a few more steps completed!!
___________________________________
--------- Oct 7th ---------
1) Lets change up this sump to fit a Vertex 130i skimmer
![LTLLoL9.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FLTLLoL9.jpg&hash=ca555096b417c1e0969ee0c8223a4d4a)
2) Now it fits!!!
![ZIk2dcP.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FZIk2dcP.jpg&hash=aae3e599e2534d5a20ea86b7d4be7875)
3) Now to build more than 1 chamber...
![SVRYseo.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FSVRYseo.jpg&hash=54bdfd35580c491b0cb98c51593231de)
4) Gate valve installed (forgot to move drain over before pic)
![E9ZEFe4.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FE9ZEFe4.jpg&hash=1f06b125f679d6e4e179dd118fffc4a2)
5) Custom sock holder from the most patient DIY guru I know!
![fapVrlL.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FfapVrlL.jpg&hash=5af170d573ef54aafa7daba14ccf9f2a)
6) SPARKS!! Bad ATI!
![HYurYND.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FHYurYND.jpg&hash=de85b78d007c4435e598b4ba87e2db80)
6.5) New reflectors, and ballast for freshly re-wired ATI Powermodule [Pre-LED -- This was a pain]
![bGW19BK.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FbGW19BK.jpg&hash=0e509cccedd450c4157e42398cd326bf)
To do:
- Silicone Sock Mount in Sump
- Silicone dosing tube/ATO tube holder in Sump
- Run a second round of leak testing
- Get it inside
- Attach the Light Tree
- Scape it
- Get it wet!