Jake's 50+ gallon seahorse tank

Almost ready to fill with water....

I put on the back panels to support/conceal the plumbing. The back panels are supported with magnets. Again I used marine plywood coated with acrylic paint.

Back panel with magnets in each corner. Slots cut out for the plumbing.


Close up of counter sunk magnet. The magnet is superglued and screwed to the panel.


Acrylic disk on top of magnet.


Panel attached to the back of the stand. Plumbing is supported with hose straps on the back (not shown).


How I ended up plumbing the DC5000 pump. I would have preferred something "cleaner", but the vinyl tubing may help dampen pump noise.


The pump is sitting on top of a silicone trivet. The DC5000 actually comes with great rubber feet, and I can't even tell the difference between the pump running with and without the trivet beneath it, so I may remove it.

Anyways pros/cons to using magnets:

Pro: Really easy to install. Easy to change skin if you want. Inexpensive (~$2/magnet).

Con: The panel has to rest on the floor. Magnets can resist pulling forces, so the panel is firmly kept upright, but the panel slides downwards until it hits the floor as the magnet does not strongly resist up/down slide forces.

Thanks for reading! (if anyone is following haha).

 

bump

 

The background on my tank became detached last week, so the builder is sending me a new one made out of acrylic, hence the delay.

In the mean time I have been working on electrical organization. Just got this in the mail today. The case is metal and the GFCI is made by Tower. I rent and do not want change the outlet to GFCI, so the plug in option works best for me. I have used this type of plug-in GFCI before and haven't had any problems. It always restarted after power outages and only tripped once when a drop of salt water fell from my hand right onto a plug.

My old iPhone for scale.

 

You've done a lot of hard work, but this really looks more like a reef tank than a seahorse tank in terms of flow and plumbing and sump and such.....

 

Thanks, it has been a lot of work. I'm not sure I follow though. Most of the plumbing is dedicated to the Bean Animal overflow, which I chose for it's reliability and noise level. I wanted a big sump for a big refugium and potentially a skimmer.

 

Finally! I started planning this tank in August, so it feels great to see it filled.







Dead SPS skeleton for seahorse tail anchors.


3" DSB. Bottom layer is mixed mineral mud and sugar sand. Upper layer is pure sugar sand.

 

Early morning bump!

 

Looks great and love the cove look to the scape.

 

Love the simple scape. Looks awesome.

 

Thanks guys!