90 Gallon Wave Front Build (A LOT OF PICTURES)

Okay here is a rendering from goggle sketch up for what my sump will look like let me know if I am missing anything that would be helpful to add in before it is all finalized. This is a to scale model with everything excat to my sumps demetions.

Here is how many gallons each conparment will hold.

 

Piping

Well I was able to get a good amount done this weekend at least to me slow and steady wins the race.

Since I got my new pump I needed to make a stand for it to bring it up to the same level as the stand since the sump is going to be drilled in the back and the pump will be fead through bulkhead.

So here is the backside of the pump on the stand.



Here is a close up of the stainless steel hardware holding it down with a rubber mat that I cut out to hopfully keep the vibration noise down but I think it is a little to hard and might have to change it out for softer mat later.



Here is a shot of the pump from the front all ready to be mounted.



I still have to pocket jig the pump stand to the aquarium stand I am not sure if I am going to mount it directley to the back board or cut a notch out for it and mount it to the stands 2x4.

Next I was able to get the side panels on for the doors to attach to. I wanted them to be on there tight so I used two screws on top and bottom I will fill them later with some wood filler. I also have to sand them down some to get them to curve just right.

Here is the right side.



Here is the left side.



Next I started to work on the plumbing for the aquarium this is a first for me so the PVC has been fun to work with all the glue and mess. I bought a miter saw box from harbor frieght to help make really clean and square cuts since I do not have a chop saw.

Here is a shot of the down pipes attached to the sanitary tees and a 45 attached letting it go into the sump area.



Next I measured out the distance needed and cut the last pipe to teminate at the right length to allow another 45 on to get it to down turn right into the sump.



Here it is everything is glued except the pipe into the bulkhead since I still have to paint the piping and the back of the aquarium.



Next I got started on the piping coming out of the return pump it is all 3/4" piping I started off with a tee for the fuge to be fead off of, and a ball valve to adjust the flow right.



Next I put another tee in for a ball valve with a barbed fitting on the end to be added to in a later picture. This will be used for a hose to be attched to for blowing off rocks and water changes.



I think I am still going to need to add another tee to the return with a ball valve and a drop back tube to be able to keep control of the returns flow rate in case there is a situation that I might need to. Even though with a bean the flow is controlled from the siphon down tube.

Okay here are some final glamour shots. I still need to finish up the returns to go up and over into the tank, and glue it all together since it is all just dry fitted right now (on the return side). I will also need to be adding some wood support to keep the piping from flexing and putting stress on the bulkheads.

FTS.



Sump Shot.



Thanks for looking!

 

Now I figured out how much water my sump can handle after the power shuts off it is about 9 gallons of room left over is there a way to make sure that is enough of a capicity to make sure it wont flood over when the power is shut off?

 

I forgot to mention I got some satin dark blue for the back of the aquarium and some painters tape and paper to get the back of the aquarium painted next weekend. I also got some silicone for the bottom floor in the sump area to fill in all the cracks to hopefully keep most of the water out.

 

Turn off your return. Let the OF drain until the waterline is below the PVC so it can't drain anymore. lol j/k.

What you could do measure how far down your OF is in the tank. Then calculate how many gallons will OF by multiplying your tank width X length X depth of OF(from top of water line). That will give you cubic feet. Then convert it to liquid gallons.

 

AS long as your equipment fits in the sump, then it looks good.

 

Update

Well I was able to get some more work done this weekend and some set backs happened as well. Now to the pictures.

I started off the weekend by picking up some paint from wal-mart it is a Oxford Blue in a satin finish I wanted to get a dark blue to stay away from the light blue becuase I think it washes out the colors of the fish and coral.

The Paint



So here it is all preped and ready for paint.





And here it is after some coats and you can't really see through it anymore. It is looking pretty good.



While that was out drying for the day on my back porch I had the oportunity to get some more plumbing done on my return side of the aquarium. I went off the return pump with a couple and a ball valve for matinance if ever needed. then a tee and valve for the fuge return, follwed by another tee and valve with a barbbed fitting for water changes and to blow off rocks if I wanted to.



Then I got the aquarium back into the house and back on the stand and got to taking all the tape and paper off and this is the outcome.









I did like the outcome of the paint but it is a not quite as dark on the bottom and one side so you can see light penatrate through and it doesn't look good to me at all. I know it would prolly not to be seen by anyone since it is small detail.

I was also able to paint my down pipes from the bean with some black paint and got that all squared away I decided to leave the ball valves all white to make it easy to spot in case some one needs to when I am not around.





Some more of the return section.





I was also able to finally get the other door put on since I need to rip 1/8" off the side mount since the two doors would not shut otherwise.





As you may be able to see the doors do not line up perfectly with the top and bottom wave the right side door is off by almost 3/8" which I do not like but I don't think that there is any way of fixing it at this point. Surprisinly the door on the left is better off and that is the one that I was having the most trouble with making.

Now for the step back. In my never ending quest to make this the perfect aquarium I wanted to put some more coats on the bottom and side that were not completely covered and light was coming through. So I rewraped the tank and took it outside sprayed my first coat and wame the areas that I spryed all started to bubble up and crack/flake off!!!!! To say the least I was disappointed. So looks like I am going to have to start from square one with the paint on the back and do it over again since I can just scrape off one side as it will look different in contrast to the other side.



Now for some voting I like the blue concept but I still think that this blue was still to light of a color what do you all think I do not want to go with black since I want to keep it somewhat of a deep ocean effect. Do you think this blue is dark enough or go darker?

 

Doin' great, Scott.

...for a "deep ocean look" I would def. go with black.

 

My 65 is black
I think it is too light of a blue myself, but do what makes you happy

 

That is what I was thinking anyway it was a little to light for me and the lights for the aquarium were not even on yet.