Thor's Custom 80+ "kind of" Cube Build

Thanks everyone, I am super excited!

So, I'm going to pick-up to loot tomorrow! I've been thinking about this so long, I am excited it is here.

The story behind this is that I met a guy at the local LFS. They are undergoing a change in ownership, and the new owner is really doing a lot of great things there. Anyway, he has a friend that has been coming to the store and has been helping him out. I got to talking with him and told him my plans. It turns out that he had a tank set-up and got some bad carbon (I believe that was it) that ended up having some copper in it. As you can imagine, it totally wiped out his tank and he lost about 5 years/ $8,000 in livestock. Anyway, the company was really good to him, and basically paid for him to buy basically his dream system. Well, in the meantime he has decided he is done and just doesn't want to start all over. So he is selling me everything he has--for a very reasonable price (although I won't say how much). Most of it is totally brand new.

I'm getting the tank (brand new Miracles tank as I mentioned previously), GEO 618 Calcium RX, CO2 tank, regulators, Reef Keeper Elite V2 with Router module and all associate probes (temp, salinity, ORP) with extra PC4 module and float switches, SWC skimmer (although will probably use the Warner Marine I bought off of John instead), a vortech mp 40, reef octopus biopellet rx, 200g Reef Crystals, 80 lbs Carib Sea sand still in bags, 250 pounds of really nice dry rock, all the plumbing, brand new 20 gallon long (which will be my sump), the stand (although I don't think I will end up using it unless we can modify it to fit), an 250 halide reflector, ballast, etc. and a bunch of other stuff.

I just walked into the right time, right place with this and I am very thankful to him for it. He is even willing to help me plumb it, and do a DIY led fixture if I decide to go that route.

Crazy.

So, my father-in-law and will pick it all up tomorrow morning. I will post pics of my loot then.

We will see what we can do with the stand, but I am almost sure we will need to build one. Even though I am getting a great deal on this, I'm still shelling out quite a bit of cash and so I am changing up my plans a bit. I was going to build a stand with really nice hardwoods, but to save some cash we will go basic and paint it instead. Also, I was planning on either buying a sump, or building one, but again with cost the way it is I plan to utilize the 20 gallon long, and will probably buy a smaller aquarium to plumb in as a refugium.

So there it is! My wife and I have a bit of work to do to the room to get it ready too, so this will still be a slow process to get it set-up and running. Since I live in a 3rd floor condo, I'm going to have to cycle the rock in the tank and all that.

I probably will not be using all the stuff he is selling me, so I will turn around and sell some of it off later too, which will help with the cost and help pay for my livestock.

More to come...

 

Congrats Thor.

Sure did not take that long to find another good tank, yeah!!!!!!!!!

 

Cool. Interested to see what it looks like set up.

 

Wow! Congrats on the new setup! You really did show up at just the right time.

It sounds like this will be a really col and interesting build. I can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

Awsome, sounds like you really lucked out, can't wait to see your haul.

 

I don't have a picture of all my loot, but of the stand that almost ended this deal. Here she is: View attachment 51573

A few other angles:
View attachment 51574

And:

Since it is too big to get in the door, I'm gonna chop the base of, and rebuild it so that the stand will be around 34 inches height, and we should be able to squeeze it through the door. I will be cutting on it Friday.

After that, next on my list is to build a floating shelf above the tank. It will serve to puposes. 1 storage...living in a condo leaves a premium on space. Second, it will give me a solid plaform for hanging my lights. And possibility of a rodi storage tank.

Aftter that, I will build a small stand for my QT.

Paint the room, and then plumbing begins! Yippee!

More pics to come...

 

Cool Bro congrats!!8)

 

Stand re-fabrication and other notes

Thanks Skyfire! I wish I had pics of all the loot, but it is in nooks, corners, and on the deck of my smallish condo . Once I have a chance to organize it, or at least get it all in one room I will take pic of the total haul.

Thanks Seano! I've been lurking and following along with your dorm tank. I'm super excited for you and I hope you enjoy your college experience.

Why thank you Corailline! It actually is the same tank that broke my heart a week ago. The stand was too big to get into my place, so I turned it down. The seller, after getting some folks who then tried to nickel and dime him on his stuff came back and made me a really good offer. So I took it, regardless of stand . One good lesson from this: treat people with respect, and they may just reward you for it. More on the stand in a bit...

Glad to have you along for the ride you Fat ******* you! Love that movie BTW. Anyway, I hope I can do 3Reef proud.

Thanks Bruh, and you are right. Positive vibes, positive thinking, good things happen. Although I must admit after the 2 years my wife, son, and I have had this is long overdue! I am thankful for every bit of it though. Hope I do you proud Soldier. I'm not up to your skills yet, but maybe with time...

Thanks Bobba Love! (Had a friend in College by the name of Vinny, but we just called him Bobba Love.) You remind me of him for some reason, but in all good ways bro! Hope I can make you proud.

Okay, I've got pics of the stand that would not fit. Solution? Cut off the base and rebuild it so that it is short enough to get in my doors. It's a really shame, because this stand is immaculately built. The guy who built this not only knows what he is doing, but is a very skilled craftsman, you can see it in the details.

Here is the stand as purchased:
IMAG0079.jpg picture by thor5522 - Photobucket

Since it was too tall, we had to go redneck on it with a sawzal:
IMAG0082.jpg picture by thor5522 - Photobucket

And here is the base totally removed:IMAG0085.jpg picture by thor5522 - Photobucket

Very sad. Now I just hope I can put it back together nice and square/level. I definitely do not have the skills that they guy who originally built this did. I'm a bit scared at this point.
IMAG0088.jpg picture by thor5522 - Photobucket

And so the reconstruction begins.
IMAG0089.jpg picture by thor5522 - Photobucket

At this point I am feeling better. Since this stand was so well build to begin with, I think we reconstruct the base fairly well, and I hope so that you'd never know the difference. Going this way we cut the stand height down from 40" to 34" (which is just small enough to fit through my doors.) I will be working on it again monday and Tuesday and hope to get the construction done. I'm going to repaint it as well to better match our decor.

The rest of the weekend will be spend working to get the rest of the room ready for the stand. We gotta move a lot of stuff out of there to make room, paint, and I still need to get an electrician to come out and add a new circuit to make sure we have power.

I've got lots to think about down the road--most notably--if I am going to keep the calc reactor. I wasn't originally planning on using that approach and was totally sold on dosing. Now that I have one I am doing more and more research, and well, I'm on the fence.

I have decided that I am going to run bio-pellets from day one on this tank.

Next decision point is lighting. I am actually considering a DIY LED, with help from the guy who sold me the tank. He has done a few, so that makes me feel better. We will see, but I have felt that most DIYers get better lighting that the top end units, for much less. The only downside is looks--hard to beat a radion/AI for style. But I have a few ideas to make it a bit more finished in appearance.

Oh so much to think about! One thing at a time though. Stand and get room ready. Then plumbing, then cycling the rock. Then a fishless cycle thanks to Dr. Tims. I hope to be working on lights at the same time, so I can have them up after the cycle and ready for my new friends....

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Hi, Thor. Congrats on getting the tank/stand to work out. It's going to look great! I am very excited for you with this build.

As far as lighting goes, aesthetics do seem to lack with most DIY LED fixtures. But with acrylic and/or project boxes, I bet you could make it pretty nice. This fixture was built by a member on NR before the AI Sol unit was released.



He made it for his 40 breeder tank. You can see more of the drawings and actual build below.

Sammy's 40B Build - Nano-Reef.com Forums

 

Amazing info and thought process thor. Super impressed. As far as the led build, check out inertia tics new build and this awesome heatsink. Def makes it look pro, hidden wires and equipment, with built in splash guard. Awesome

Love the build
http://www.3reef.com/forums/led-aqu...spectrum-build-makersled-heatsink-135913.html