built my dream tank and did some DIY in the process "BUILD THREAD"

Okay, so where to start. First this is my first post on 3reef and so far i've liked the feedback from users and the threads i've read so i've settled here for the long haul hope you like my build thread!

A little back round on myself i grew up on marco island on a canal fish have always been in my life at 16 i had three 10 gallon tanks in my room one fresh water one sea water for when i caught my won things to put in the tank and one man made saltwater just to have. When i was of age i never stayed put till three years ago at which time i bought a second hand 55 gallon tank and worked on it building it up over the coarse of some time learning what i needed how to take care of it and so on you know the basics all over again. I ran and maintained that system for 3.5 years.

1 month ago i walked into my LFS and absolutely fell in love with the 60 gallon rimless cube and so the quest to build my dream tank began.

PICTURES OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN! I wont disappoint!

okay so below is my 55 setup at its finally it was coralife t5 ho with a hang on skimmer box 3 stage sump with skimmer in the middle rio 2100 return 30-40 lbs of live rock you know just the basics the sump was to big for the stand couldn't get to anything in it. It was really a total nightmare but i made it work and i was very proud of it.

 

onto the new tank

So like i said above i fell in love with this 60g rimless and sold some stuff and bought it. but i love building things so i started that night on my new stand now i have a little experience because i built one for my other fresh water tank that houses my turtles it was also a 55 so i new what i wanted to accomplish and basically how i wanted to do it.

 

so after i finished building i applied two coats of satan stain and also a quick few pics of the tank!

 

the next day i brought it inside rearranged my living room and set it where i wanted it basically the focus of the living room

 

the next night i plumbed my new sump and began the transfer of the goods the old light was placed on the new tank because i had to sell the old tank and light and sump before i could buy my new light!
oh and as for the sump the wires were cleaned up all having nice dips in between the water and outlet.

 

as luck would have it the very first thing that i sold was my light i had figured that the light would sell last for some reason but it did not so i sold the light and went out and bought my dream light Ecotech Marine Radion 2 gen. now i know what most people are prolly thinking that it is very expensive and what not and yes i could have made the light myself for cheaper but the real reason i bought this light is its light weight great output and spectrum but MAINLY because its so customizable i absolutely love that i can plug it in and do literally anything i want with it. Plus like i said the entire goal for this tank was to spare nothing and to build the tank i've dreamed about since i got my 55 up and going. below are pictures of the first couple of nights with my light

I DIY the light fixture what i did was went to hope depot bought a 4ft piece of aluminum and bent a U in one end and a 90 degree in the other. The U was to hang the light and the 90 bend in the other was because i had bought a nice 4"x4"x 1/2" piece of wood and notched a gruve in it to allow the bar to sit flush in it i then screwed it down with 4 screws and the 90 keeps it from sliding it out or moving in any way. the next step was to bend the bar so it would sit a little past where i needed it given the weight of the light would bend it a little and center it up. I then attached 40lb test mono leader to all four corners and hung the light and got lucky on the first go it was center!

keep in mind i will be hiding that white power supply for the light soon.

also the blues never photo well as im sure everyone knows

 

the latest thing i've done was let the tank settle tuned it got the scape where i wanted it arranged my return line and power head where i wanted them and just let it run for 2 weeks while watching my levels. everything seems fine and the tank is acclimating to the new lighting very nicely i even went out this past week and got some new tank mates for my older fish i purchased

please excuse any poor spelling

male and female bartlet anthias "first one came out after 2 days second one made his first appearance outside the rocks today for 2 minutes a solid week later

mandrian goby

yellow tang

i also already have a bi color a 3 line and a cromis i also bought 1 mexican turbo and a bunch of snails and blue legs and a sand sifter and a blue star i forgot the name of at the moment

 

Oh and cannot forget about my wild caught baby flounder that is inbetween the size of a half dollar and quarter "i caught him myself while i was out one day" he is doing better then ever imagined he eats the doors off mysis and looks awesome!

i know there is alot of post but i found the site just a few days ago and wanted to join and share! i hope everyone likes it as there is still much work to complete! but not to far down the road i will be adding more LR to build my scape and this week im doing my fuge i need to DIY some plexi to section off my middle chamber then i will DIY the fuge light i already have ideas and im going to go with cheatos. and then add another bottle of copepods to keep the goby happy. I know there is definitely more going on but i cannot remember at the moment. well like i said i hope you enjoy and i will be updating with more live stock and organized pictures aswell as all the upgrades that are soon to come!

 

+1 Awesome build. I am jealous. I guess you can say that I am where you was 3.5 years ago. I am cycling my 55g right now and piecing it together bit by bit.

Happy Reefing,
Zach

 

Welcome to 3reef.

We are going to have to acronym your profile name so BWBB it is.

I am a huge fan of cubes as well. Fantastic start, excellent job on the stand.

The blue star is a Linkia, they are very difficult to keep, especially in newer systems.

The flounder is great.