My 45 Gallon Build Thread!! =]

Hey guys, soo this last weekend I began some of the preliminary work to getting my build going. I painted the back of my tank flat black. With the help of my dad, we built a stand that can accommodate my sump and other things. I also silconed the glass baffles in for my sump.

Here are a list of all the equipment I will be using.

45 Gallon Tank
20H Gallon Sump w/ Refugium (DIY)
CPR Overflow CS100
ViaAqua 3600 1057GPH
AquaC Urchin Pro w/ Rio 1400
Hydor Koralia Evolution 1050
Odyssea 36" Dual T5 Lighting 78w 1x 1200k / 1x Actinic
Marineland Visi-Therm Heater 250w
100lbs Dry Rock from Reef Cleaners.
60lbs of CaribeSea Live Sand

To Do"s

1. Need to finish the stand, get some plywood and paint it black.
2. Install my RO/DI System & get the plumbing done for the overflow to the sump.

My Plan

My initial plan for this setup is to be a FOWLR tank. This is going to be my first dive into the saltwater hobby so I believe I'm not ready to get into corals yet. In the future though I do plan on making this a Reef tank when I feel like I have enough experience and research done. I feel as i have already made a mistake by buying the light fixture that I bought! lol

Pics!
Its just a pics of my stand & tank. lol




Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!

 

looks ok to me.

 

No complaints here.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

Quick Update:

I finished my stand, just need to paint it now and i also plumbed in my RO/DI Unit!

I have a question is it normal for it to take an hour and a half to fill a 5 gallon bucket?

Once the paint dries, ill move it in the house and do a quick clean of the tank and sump and get on the plumbing on that! Sorry no pics! will do after i have the plumbing on the aquarium done!

Also, to the people who have CPR overflows, how do you guys clean it? I bought mine used on ebay and i see alot of dried left overs from the previous owners tank. i tried soaking it in hot water and vinegar but most of it is still on there.

 

Ro units are slow to make water. pretty normal IMO. Your light should be ok for some soft corals. A lot of people run T5's and have corals. just remember to take it slow. its not a race....BTW great start

 

Update!

Filled up the tank and mixed in my IO Salt. I have my koralia circulating the water to mix the salt in and also have my heater on for a 79* temp.

To Do's

1. Check water salinity and make changes accordingly.
2. Add dryrock, aquascape, & add sand.

anything else i should do?


Pic!
Sorry my digital camera's battery died. had to use my blackberry to take this!

 

I would have added the sand and rock before you filled the tank. Put the rock in and then poor sand around it. If you add the sand to the tank with the water already i n the tank it will cloud up extremely bad. Plus as you add the sand and rock it will displace the water so you will have to take some out. It is a lot easier to aquascape the tank when there is no water in it.

 

Hey!

unfortunately i don't have a container big enough to mix about 60 gallons of saltwater, so i had to go this route. max container i had available was a 30 gallon tote and a 5 gallon bucket!

yeah, I was expecting the water displacement, Im going to remove about 5 gallons before I add in the rock and sand and I still have my sump thats not installed yet, which i will put in tomorrow. I was gonna direct plumb my CPR overflow with PVC but i realize that was a dumb idea because i wont be able to service it, soo later on today im going to buy a union fitting so i can unscrew the overflow when it needs to get clean and serviced. Im not also too worried about the aquascaping as i have a pretty good idea of how i want it and the rock i bought from reefcleaners are more then accommodating. i will be adding the sand as slowly as possible to not create as much clouds, i know clouds will still happen so ill be running a filter sock in my sump to catch any debris and such and clear up the water.

 

Update!

Update!!

Everything is is place and working, I just need to organize some wires and tubing and all should be good. I still need to test the water parameters. I need to buy a test kit this weekend or is it possible for me to use my API freshwater test kit to test for nitrates, ammonia, ph? I would still need to buy a reef kit to test for calcium and alk.

Pics!

Display Tank

The crack you see is not on the glass itself but on the overflow, i got the overflow off ebay and i couldnt say no to the price. other then the crack everything works like it should!





Sump



The lighting on the sump isn't final, it was just a spare 24" fluorescent i had for the 20H i converted to my sump. Also, do you guys think i put to much rubble in the refugium? im planning on putting chaeto and some mangroves in there.

Also, my lfs guy gave me a bottle of Bio-Spira by Instant Ocean, he tells me that it can cycle the tank very quickly. Now, im not sure if it will work, really dont believe it but have any of you guys had experience with it?

 

Looks good. I can't tell from the pictures of the aquascape, but it looks like you have rock leaning on the glass. I would advise against that to avoid damage to the glass, but that is just my opinion