Zechenia’s Upgrade to 90 Gallons!

Coming along nicely. +1



Keep the pics coming.

 

I would go with a biotope with the species tank, a macro tank, DSB seagrass tank, or mangrove tank would be very interesting. Striped Shrimpfish, seahorses, and pipefish do well in these setups.

 

Latest update:

I have completed stand/canopy painting. Saturday I rearranged my basement, and got them moved in. Even without the tank I love the new look. I’ve also attached the knobs to the doors. Haven’t added my glass fish yet, but definitely like the look of the flat black, so hopefully the glass knobs will looks good too!


I’ve started painting the back of the tank black (got 2 and 1/2 coats on… then ran out of spray paint). Hopefully will finish that up early this week. Next is my dreaded overflow box. Hoping to have the glass ordered within a month. I’m also thinking I am going to glue black egg crate to the top to act as “teeth”.


I’ve decided to hold off on any plumbing my in-stand stuff until I have the tank done and moved into the house. So, that means overflow installed, and the tank cleaned.

To clean the tank, which is stained from Calcuim, I plan on leaving the tank on the side “to be cleaned” and let a vinegar/water mixture sit there for a night, then scrub. Should make things easier, I hope. If I don’t get all the calcuim off, will it eventually disolve back into the water?

Lastly, I am about to order a glass drill and overflow setup for my remote fuge. Going with an external durso on this one. Thinking of skipping the overflow box. I think that the slow flow into the fuge will negate the amount of water that will empty in the event of a power outage.

 

look foward to more pics. Nice work.

 

There should be more pictures soon. Finished painting the back of the tank. Deep cleaning/scrapping should start tomorrow. Hopefully will be able to order glass this weekend (glass shop only open the hours I work... except they're open for like 2 hours on Saturdays).

Additionally, a local reef club member (well... technically she runs the reef club) sells clip on teeth that she makes using a 3d printer (https://www.etsy.com/listing/105215289/6-clip-on-overflow-teeth) so I will be using those on my overflow.

Ordered a drill bit and bulkhead so I can start working on my remote fuge plumbing.

Slowly getting the "work" part of the build done. Then it'll be the slow process of saving for the rest of the equipment.

I'm thinking once I get rock and substrate that I might start cycling the tank with just the flow from the return pump (won't yet have powerheads, lights or skimmer).

 

Just wrapped up drilling my fuge. Sure is nerve wracking drilling! I didn’t have a template, so the bit wanted to walk everywhere. Finally figured out I could make a template out of egg crate. That stuff has a billion uses!

Got the beginning of the overflow plumbing done on the fuge. Gotta water test it, then I’ll move it inside and figure out a mini-stand for it so I can finish the return plumbing. Will add pictures once I water test it and move it into it’s room.



Also, got my glass ordered and will be getting it Monday. I also picked up a cheapo rotary tool from Harbor Freight to grind the corners to go over the silicone.



My plan of action (PLEASE correct any of these steps that seem out of order or that you’d do differently!!!)

1. Grind the corners of the glass down for where it goes over silicone at the edge of the tank.

2. Apply tiny bit of super glue on the top and the bottom of where the seam is to glue the new glass together (measuring to be sure the edge is square).

3. After it dries, silicone the inside seam of the overflow glass.

4. Spray paint inside of the overflow black.

5. After silicon dries, put the glass into the tank, Silicone outside of the glass along the bottom, and then up the outer sides.

 

My recommendation would be to glue it together with a small bead of silicone instead of super glue.

As for painting the overflow, I'd be afraid of crap leaching out of the paint. Not sure if this is a problem or not but I don't think I'd do it. Are you using some special kind of paint?

I'm far from expert on either topic, but that's my $0.02. Congrats on your drilling success. I'm getting ready to drill my 90 in the next few days and I'm pretty nervous.

 

Using krylon fusion . Everything I've read is that it's reef safe once it dries.

Just be sure you have some sort of template or something to keep the bit from trying to slide around. Once I got something to hold it steady to get the hole started it was easy.

 

Looking good!

 

Your tank look awesome