Mandarin_Jake
Senior Member
Here goes nothing on my second ever build thread...that's not actually mine.
So a couple weeks ago, my wife's mom gave me some cash towards a tank of her own. She always admired my tanks when they come over and I'm always talking fish stuff, so I think it's just kind of grown on her. As some of you may saw, for the space provided, something midsize between 20-50 gallons would be ideal. After some lengthy discussion, a 30 or 40b became the goal.
At this point, I have to give Randy (RandoReefer) a huge shout out. He has been the definition of being a TCMAS member. Gave myself and my MIL a great deal on the 40b set-up he had running. Also, gave plenty of his time on numerous occasions at his house and remotely, with questions, thoughts, comments, trouble shooting etc. Super stoked for this build and he made it happen. You should get to know him if you don't, he's a great guy.
Now, on to the system. A standard 40b aquarium with a custom solid wood stand with an external overflow plumbing job going down to a 20L simple diy sump. 15 gallon custom ato box w/ a tunze osmolator. Razor LED, Reef Octopus skimmer, a couple Jebao R-8s, a couple heaters, Jebao return pump. Everything to make a quick set-up for a successful mixed reef tank...or so you would think.
Went to pick up the system last week..Tuesday I believe. My Father-in-Law and myself helped randy drain the tank and pack up everything. We had saved all the water so we could reboot the tank once back at the house. Got to the point of loading everything up in the back of the truck when an unfortunate accident happened. The external plumbing's bulkheads were glued into the tank vs a threaded design and the return plumbing was pushed into a bucket of water. With a resulting pop, the glass cracked a good 8 or so inches. On to plan B, Randy had another 40b sump that needed to be cleaned up, but could be drilled in the same way to replace the display. We loaded everything up and made it back to the house.
Where we are now. - We've (my FIL and I) have decided to redesign the plumbing to better fit the space. Instead of an external piping plan, were thinking of a low profile, center overflow, herbie style. The 40b sump we got from randy has a tempered bottom, so I went and picked up a new 40b from petco with a non-tempered bottom so we can drill it. Still somewhat in the planning stage, but my FIL is a master plumber and has been in the industry for 30+ years. Its going to turn out awesome.
We picked up some new bulkheads from new wave this weekend and also borrowed a drill bit from Travis, with the plan of drilling the tank and doing some plumbing this next saturday. I plan on stopping by A-1 Acrylics this week to talk to them about the overflow design...just have to decide between making it personally or having it made. Time will tell.
Once the plumbing is done, its plug and play time. The 20l sump has some rock cycling with a pair of clowns (courtesy of Randy) and when the tank passes the leak test, its go time. After the initial set-up, I'll be looking at aqua-scaping next.
So a couple weeks ago, my wife's mom gave me some cash towards a tank of her own. She always admired my tanks when they come over and I'm always talking fish stuff, so I think it's just kind of grown on her. As some of you may saw, for the space provided, something midsize between 20-50 gallons would be ideal. After some lengthy discussion, a 30 or 40b became the goal.
At this point, I have to give Randy (RandoReefer) a huge shout out. He has been the definition of being a TCMAS member. Gave myself and my MIL a great deal on the 40b set-up he had running. Also, gave plenty of his time on numerous occasions at his house and remotely, with questions, thoughts, comments, trouble shooting etc. Super stoked for this build and he made it happen. You should get to know him if you don't, he's a great guy.
Now, on to the system. A standard 40b aquarium with a custom solid wood stand with an external overflow plumbing job going down to a 20L simple diy sump. 15 gallon custom ato box w/ a tunze osmolator. Razor LED, Reef Octopus skimmer, a couple Jebao R-8s, a couple heaters, Jebao return pump. Everything to make a quick set-up for a successful mixed reef tank...or so you would think.
Went to pick up the system last week..Tuesday I believe. My Father-in-Law and myself helped randy drain the tank and pack up everything. We had saved all the water so we could reboot the tank once back at the house. Got to the point of loading everything up in the back of the truck when an unfortunate accident happened. The external plumbing's bulkheads were glued into the tank vs a threaded design and the return plumbing was pushed into a bucket of water. With a resulting pop, the glass cracked a good 8 or so inches. On to plan B, Randy had another 40b sump that needed to be cleaned up, but could be drilled in the same way to replace the display. We loaded everything up and made it back to the house.
Where we are now. - We've (my FIL and I) have decided to redesign the plumbing to better fit the space. Instead of an external piping plan, were thinking of a low profile, center overflow, herbie style. The 40b sump we got from randy has a tempered bottom, so I went and picked up a new 40b from petco with a non-tempered bottom so we can drill it. Still somewhat in the planning stage, but my FIL is a master plumber and has been in the industry for 30+ years. Its going to turn out awesome.
We picked up some new bulkheads from new wave this weekend and also borrowed a drill bit from Travis, with the plan of drilling the tank and doing some plumbing this next saturday. I plan on stopping by A-1 Acrylics this week to talk to them about the overflow design...just have to decide between making it personally or having it made. Time will tell.
Once the plumbing is done, its plug and play time. The 20l sump has some rock cycling with a pair of clowns (courtesy of Randy) and when the tank passes the leak test, its go time. After the initial set-up, I'll be looking at aqua-scaping next.
we did pull the overflow box, as I know those aren't cheap. Might keep it for a future build or see if anyone could use it for their system.. 
