homer1475's 80 gallon build

[cfsg]

Great tank

[homer1475]

Originally Posted by cfsg

Great tank

Thank you!

Woke up yesterday and decided to go check out some shops I've been reading about in western NY(buffalo area). Man was I impressed to say the least! I only managed to get to 2 of them as it's a 4 1/2 drive to even get to Buffalo for me.

First place ARC(a reef creation), very impressive place! It's a little dirty and rundown, but the kind of dirty and rundown not from neglect, but from being there for years and moving a ton of livestock. It was just the right kind of dirty and you could definitely tell the owner knew *** he was doing. Very impressive tanks full of corals. After talking to the owner for a while he took me "out back" and showed me his fish breeding and online sales area. H*ll he had more tanks and water in just that area then all the stores in upstate NY I've been in, combined. I did not bring my CC with me and only a couple hundred in cash as I wasn't really on the lookout for anything in particular, but I could have easily spent a couple thousand in corals. Great place and certainly a must stop and see if your in the Buffalo area.

Was given the name of another place but they didn't open until 4pm and I would be long gone by then. I do have 4 dogs at home that certainly can't stay in the house all day. lol

The next place was impressive again and super clean, but more like the stores we have up here. A couple tanks with fish, and a couple with corals. A reef paradise in downtown tonawanda. Again nice place and the owner very knowledgeable with very decent prices.

All in all I ended up with a couple pieces of coral and 300$ lighter in my wallet. lol

Bought a small RBTA(been on the lookout for one of these as my wife really likes nems) that I can never seem to find in any upstate shop. I was finding plain BTA's and condys here in upstate, but wanted a rainbow BTA. A nice blue and yellow acan frag, and a black cherry micromusa.

I'll post a couple pics later as my lights are off right now.

[homer1475]

Tiny little RBTA


Blue/yellow acan I got yesterday, the rainbow I got the other day at my LFS.


Black Cherry micromusa


Unfortunately my pics do them no justice as I have to turn the blues off to get decent pics.

Also for some reason none of my acans puff up fully, they always have that shrunken look to them. They grow, puff up, and put out feeders at night, but during the day when the lights are on they look shriveled. I cannot turn my lights down any further, and everything else in the tank looks wonderful. Just an odd observation.

[jenkinscrew2578]

Mine all do that too, I think it is just natural behavior.

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[homer1475]

Spur of the moment vaca this week as I took the week off from work. Took a drive down to Ocean City, MD for a couple days.

Ended up meeting a fellow reefer on the boardwalk of all places! As we got to talking he told me of a great LFS but it was a small drive(I just drove 8 hours for a 4 day vaca lol). So of course being the reef junkie I am, and always a sucker for a decent LFS, the wife and I decided to make the drive.

Unfortunately I totally forgot the name of the place(and I payed cash so no receipt), very nice place, well cared for, clean, all tanks looked very clean, and all the livestock looked to be in great shape. After talking to the owner for a bit I ended up picking up a very nice brain on the very cheap. He had 2 and one was nice and healthy and expanded, the other was quite shriveled up. Payed for it and had him hold it. We picked it up late Tuesday night, and it seems to be doing quite fine even though it was in a bag for about 24 hours.

All day Wednesday I got to thinking about that beautiful elegance coral I saw in ARC out in Buffalo and how it has been captive for about 5 years now(this tells me it does not have ECS).

Well I must have rocks in my head because on a whim we decided to stop there on the way home. its not really on the way home, as a normal trip is about 8 hours, and this would take me about 12 to 14. So even after 2 weeks they still had that same elegance and now it's in my tank. Finger crossed they didn't lie to me. lol

Lights are still off so I'll post some pics later on.

[homer1475]

Elegance:



Open Brain:

[\Clownfish/]

Absolutely beautiful homer!! I'm currently dipping my fins in getting a 56 Gal Column Tank. I just want a pair of clowns and some nice coral. I miss having my biocube!

What fish do you currently have?

[soulpatch]

Well look who is still alive. Welcome b back clown

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[\Clownfish/]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

Well look who is still alive. Welcome back clown

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Omg! Soulpatch!! The gangs all here!

[soulpatch]

Yeah I moved to a 150. Reef is holding down the nano group though

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[\Clownfish/]

I posted on you profile awhile back! Not sure if you saw it though. I have seen your thread! Amazing!! I need to catch up!! The tank I'm looking at is 56 gal only used two weeks for SW and they gave up. $90 bucks with stand and equipement. I'm getting it this Friday (fingers crossed)

[homer1475]

Holy crap Clown is alive!!! Welcome back!

On my phone at work right now but I'll post up my fish when I get home this afternoon.

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[homer1475]

Wow 2 weeks, thats barely even cycled! Great deal if you end up with it.

For fish lets see, I have a flame angel, 2 naked clowns(bought these as a mated pair, apparently they weren't a mated pair because one lives in my overflow and the other paired up with my frostbite clown), 1 frostbite clown(the female jumped to her death), Ora neon dottyback, female ornate leopard wrasse, starry blenny, green mandarin, and a green warpaint goby.

Too many corals to list, but I'll try......
Red montipora capricornis, purple and pink montipora capricornis, purple wall hammer, green hammer, frogspawn, octospawn, elegance, RBTA, green plate, orange plate, warpaint scoly, duncan, encrusting goniopora, 3 different rock flower anemone, open brain, ARC black cherry micromusa, pink lobo, torch, 4 frags of acans, gorgonian, several frags of zoas, yellow sun coral(my black died during a bad batch of salt episode I had) and a squamosa clam. Think thats about it, but I'm sure I'm missing something.

[\Clownfish/]

Amazing!! I can't wait to see more as it continues to grow and the fish continue to adjust.

[homer1475]

Seems as though I've lost my female naked clown! No idea where she is, I've looked around my rockwork, all around the tank, overflow, socks, emergency pipe, everywhere, and no where to be found.

So now I have my male snowflake, and a male naked that lives in my overflow. I'm going to fish(yes pun intended) him out of the overflow and throw him in the DT. No idea whats going to happen, but hopefully my large male snowflake will accept the smaller male naked and they become best buds(mated pair). Or I could end up with WWIII in my tank.

My poor male snowflake has had 2 different mates now. I feel sorry for him really. Hopefully he'll bond with the smaller male and he'll eventually turn to female.

[soulpatch]

sucks Homer. Make sure you cover your overflow to give the 2 forced time together else the one will just hop back into his safe place.

[homer1475]

Covered the overflow long time ago. Just kept that fish in there as the other 2 would pick at him until all he did was hide.

[kallan]

Super nice build Homer!

I just received this 80 gallon sc tank and the plumbing parts look very old and dirty.
There's a T return that is off by at least 1/2" and does not fit inside of the overflow. None of the parts fit together to create that PNP that I was so excited about. There's a pvc pipe with a cap glued on? No instructions at all.

I would love some help with my plumbing if anyone could offer some assistance. I'd love to do it right the first time if I can. I've never plumbed anything but think I could.

I have time to shop for plumbing parts due to the stand arriving blown out/destroyed. I'm hoping the tank and sump will hold water. I think the stand took the blunt force of the fall in route. I've never seen anything like it.

Thanks in advance for any guidance and plumbing knowledge!

[soulpatch]

Throw out the stock plumbing for the PNP IMHO as in the stand it relies on barbs and tubing. The pipe in the overflow is ok if you remove the cap and run a herbie setup.

Go to gmacreef and look up herbie setups.

[homer1475]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

Throw out the stock plumbing for the PNP IMHO as in the stand it relies on barbs and tubing. The pipe in the overflow is ok if you remove the cap and run a herbie setup.

Go to gmacreef and look up herbie setups.

+1

I ended up just ditching the entire PNP plumbing and doing my own.

My tank is drilled with 3 holes(herbie setup), One main drain(full siphon), one emergency(just a trickle down that one), and the middle hole for the return.

If you look back in this thread you'll see exactly how I plumbed the entire thing. It's pretty simple if your familiar with working with PVC at all.

[kallan]

Soulpatch great link! http://gmacreef.com/herbie-overflow-...method-basics/ It is so well written that even I should be able to do this.

Homer I can no longer view your photos in this thread. I'll read back through anyway.

Thanks to you both.

[homer1475]

Yeah sorry but that, forgot about that whole photobucket thing.

I have switched to imjur, and could gladly repost any plumbing pics you might want.

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[kallan]

Originally Posted by homer1475

Yeah sorry but that, forgot about that whole photobucket thing.

I have switched to imjur, and could gladly repost any plumbing pics you might want.

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I'm ready to purchase plumbing for it and but if you have time to step me through what you did that would be great! I am going to do the herbie which I believe is what you did. Did you use a filter sock and holder?

My new stand has shipped and I should have that Monday. Thought I'd sand and paint it good before setup. I got a yoga mat for it since a mat did not come with mine. How did you water test it with those holes?

Thanks so much for your help.

[soulpatch]

for your plumbing purchase make sure you have some of the following:

2 gate valves for drain and return pump (purchase from BRS or Amazon)
a few unions so you can easily remove plumbing to clean or swap in new items later.

If you want to go fancy in the stand with colored PVC the best place to order it is actually Home Depot online and have it shipped. They also have colored fittings if you wish. Note if you go this route also order clear pvc primer as the purple stuff in stores will quickly detract from your color choices.

For the stand get white appliance paint for the interior from any hardware store. Not only is it super bright but it is an epoxy paint (note smells a lot when painting) and creates a hard shell which is great for water environment. Get some paintable silicone based caulk for all seams as well in the stand (including top) to make sure it is properly sealed.

For water testing you can put a temp plug on any plumbing or simply turn the valves to be off and ensure no leaks. I wouold test plumbing and overflow by only pouring water into the overflow portion and allowing that to sit overnight checking for leaks. Wrapping paper towels around pipes will quickly show any moisture as well.

[homer1475]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

for your plumbing purchase make sure you have some of the following:

2 gate valves for drain and return pump (purchase from BRS or Amazon)
a few unions so you can easily remove plumbing to clean or swap in new items later.

If you want to go fancy in the stand with colored PVC the best place to order it is actually Home Depot online and have it shipped. They also have colored fittings if you wish. Note if you go this route also order clear pvc primer as the purple stuff in stores will quickly detract from your color choices.

For the stand get white appliance paint for the interior from any hardware store. Not only is it super bright but it is an epoxy paint (note smells a lot when painting) and creates a hard shell which is great for water environment. Get some paintable silicone based caulk for all seams as well in the stand (including top) to make sure it is properly sealed.

For water testing you can put a temp plug on any plumbing or simply turn the valves to be off and ensure no leaks. I wouold test plumbing and overflow by only pouring water into the overflow portion and allowing that to sit overnight checking for leaks. Wrapping paper towels around pipes will quickly show any moisture as well.

+1 to Everything and pretty much how I did mine.

But for reference, and looking at my tank.....I scrapped all the SCA stuff BTW

2 lengths of 1" red pipe
1 length of 1" blue pipe
1 cepex ball valve
1 spears gate valve
3 slip to thread ABS bulkheads
1" slip bulkhead strainer
2 1" Unions
8 1" 45's
1 1" T
2 1" couplings
2 1" to 1/2 Slip to thread coupling(to go from 1" PVC to 1/2" threaded locline)

I think thats it.... Keep in mind I have 3 1" holes in my overflow.

Pics of the plumbing to follow.....