Ive been working on setting this tank up for about a week or so and figured i would go ahead and post some pics. For those of you not familiar with this tank here is a link:
Obscene long link - just click this …
The tank is simply amazing in person. Obviously i opted out of the lighting, i just could not get used to that ufo looking pendant. I also got an amazing price on the setup. I paid $249 for the tank and $179 for the stand brand new with $16 shipping. Thats not a typo, i only paid $16 for the shipping for both the tank and stand together.
I list some of the modications ive made to the setup and then post a few pics. Im hoping to have LR in it by the end of the week(fingers crossed).
I ditched the included ATO because pretty much everyone had said it was useless. I bought a reef fanatic ATO for $89 new that includes two sensors, one acting as a back up kill switch. Instead of hooking the ATO to a pump i have it connected directly to a normally closed solenoid valve. The solenoid is connected directly to my RODI unit. I was going to T off of my existing unit but decided to buy a mini unit from AWI. The unit is under my bathroom sink which shares a wall with the tank. A 1/4" line comes through the wall and connects to the solenoid behind the stand. You can see it in the pics. Ii ditched the stock lighting and decided to go with a sunlight supply reef optix pendant, 250w ice cap ballast, and a 14K pheonix bulb. The bulb, pendant, and ballast was a package deal from Reefgeek that cost $289 with free shipping. So i was able to upgrade the fixture to get a better quality fixture, ballast and bulb and upgrade from 150W to 250W and still pay less than the stock system. The light rack is one that i fabricated myself. It is telescoping so that i can slide the fixture in and out and i wired a quick disconnect so that i can completely remove the fixture from the pole in about 15 seconds. I fished the wire down through the wall so there are no visible wires. I removed everything out of the media chamber in the back and im going to put in rubble rock and some cheato. Im hoping the main light alone will be enough to make the chaeto grow. I have just a couple of things left to do. Im going to fish a 14/2 wire down my wall so that i can connect my poweheads on my solana to my battery backup downstairs. Im also going to upgrade the skimmer to a tunze nano and purchase either two koralia nanos or tunze nano streams. Im still undecided. Im not worried about buying the powerheads or skimmer until after the tank cycles. You might be wondering where i got the extra money to set up a new system in this economy? I lucked out and won 3 SRO tickets to game 5 of the world series and sold them on ebay! Obviously i have no regrets after the disaster that was game 5. On to the pics.
Here is a pic of the electric outlet i had to wire. You can see the 1/4" RODI line coming through the wallplate. I used a single gangway box and a double plate so that the RODI line was not in the same gangway box as the electric.
Here are two different pics of the light rack and the wallfish and quick disconnect.
Here is the back of the stand. I decided to mount everything on the back of the stand instead of under it becuase the front door to the stand is glass and i didnt want an eyesore.
Here are two pics of the tank with my new favorite pheonix 14K bulb.
I will try to post more pics soon. The weird angles of the pics are because the tank sits at the top of my stairs. As soon as you come into my front door its the fist thing you see at the top of the landing.
Oh, ignore the rough looking drywall. It is now freshly spackled and painted!
Its not. I used a single gangway box with a double plate. The electric is fully enclosed in the gangway box the water line is simply in the same cavity. I dont have a copy of the NEC codebook lying around, but if its against code to have water in the same wall cavity as electric then my entire house is a violation. If you notice, there is a drain pipe in the same cavity, thats what you can see in the opening. That same cavity has a 14/2 line because thats what i daisychained off of to run the outlet.
Hey Shawn, I didnt see it anywhere in the thread or on the link… what are the dimensions of the tank? If my math is right, 20"x20"x20" should give about 34ish gallons. If that is what it is how do you like it? Can you post a pic with something for a size comparison. I’ve been tossing around the idea of building a tank of those dimensions with starfire glass and black silicone, but I’m not sure if it would look good.
[b][size=12pt][color=green]Craig’s Law states if water is involved it will do at least one of the following:
[b][color=limegreen]Get the floor and or carpet wet
Short out the nearest electrical device
Destroy the first floor and basement
Cause the replacement of a perfectly good water heater
Ruin a vacation
Piss off the wife
[size=10pt]And of course not necessarily in this order
Bellamy - Yep, your exactly right. It’s 20" X 20" X 20". So far i love it. The size is great. Small enough to fit on my landing but big enough to pretty much keep anything but the larger fish. DFS sell the exact same thing but its called the ecocube. Its a little smaller but you can buy it with starfire as an option, both tanks use black silicone.
Al- Im not overly worried about the electric and water. I tried my best to incorporate every failsafe i could thing of including the dual sensored ATO and the NC solenoid. I also put drip loops on all the cords and mounted the solenoid below all of the electric and about away from the outlet. Since the tank is upstairs i wanted to take every precaution to avoid a flood. When i get the chance i create a thread on all of the failsafes i added to my main system last weekend. Im hoping that my system is close to bulletproof now. Ive also started a DIY bucket kalk stirrer that im going to submit as an article this month. Im close to being finished. Man, ive been a busy boy >LOL<
[quote=“logans_daddy, post:7, topic:816”]
Al- Im not overly worried about the electric and water. I tried my best to incorporate every failsafe i could thing of including the dual sensored ATO and the NC solenoid. I also put drip loops on all the cords and mounted the solenoid below all of the electric and about away from the outlet. Since the tank is upstairs i wanted to take every precaution to avoid a flood. [/quote]
I see but I could not resist making fun of Craig again
[quote=“a1amap, post:6, topic:816”]
I was thinking of Craig’s Law
[b][size=12pt][color=green]Craig’s Law states if water is involved it will do at least one of the following:
[b][color=limegreen]Get the floor and or carpet wet
Short out the nearest electrical device
Destroy the first floor and basement
Cause the replacement of a perfectly good water heater
Ruin a vacation
Piss off the wife
[size=10pt]And of course not necessarily in this order[/quote]
I love being the butt of a perpetually running joke.
Seriously though. I would think about putting some sort of seperate channel in for the water line. Even if it is just the shell to a magic marker with a grommet on each end. If that plastic line gets a nick it creates a weak spot and could spring a leak - would be disatrous to have it spring a leak that close to an electrical outlet.
My flood (the big one) was the result of a pin hole in a 1/4" vinyl line. Over $13K in damages and that was without shorting out a gang box.
But i was thinking the same thing. Please rethink the water and outlet thing. But you are more experienced than me so maybe i should shut it up.
I need to clean up my tank. You have motivated me. to get it clean. I even have a Batt backup and haven’t plugged it in. I am going to do that this weekend or tomorrow (After I push myself away from the WOW King)!!!
I guess it doesnt bother me to much since it doesnt share a gangway box. The only holes in the ganway box are on the top and bottom and the line is adjacent to the side of the box. Im sure there is at least one more dangerous thing in everyone’s setup in this club. I mean having a non GFI outlet behind your tank, or a powerstrip under your stand(cough craig cough) is WAY more dangerous because your more prone to a spillage near your tank than a line bursting. Everyone should mount their powerstrips to there stands and put drip loops on the cord. Its also a good idea to put every thing but your pumps and heater on a GFI.
Im not saying that water on an electrical outlet CANT start a fire, but its unlikely. It would short so quickly and trip the breaker. Now, if you didnt have the outlet insulated in a gangway box and you had it surrounded with tinder, then yeah, you could probably start a fire.
Ehhhh…what can you do? You build as many failsafes into your system as you can and if something happens you make sure it can never happen again. Ive had my spills here and there, but nothing catastrophic.
Ok, i got the aquascaping done today. I promise it looks better in person, the perspecitve is off a little. The column in the back is much more narrow than it looks and is freestanding. The column in the front right runs horizontally for an overhang. The rock in the right front is just one piece of rock that im hoping to keep the anemone on. Also, you cant see the nylon rods from the front of the tank. The pics are from odd angles.
Let me the first to say thats BAD ***. I really like the open structure. You could even go a little higher in the back left corner and secure together.
I would go higher but i ran out of rock >LOL< I was a little nervous about the overall height of the rock at first too. I looked at a bunch of solana tanks in the nano forum on RC to compare. It seems most people aquascape to about the same height. Its hard to go higher unless you want a big rock pile in the center of your tank. Im hoping the open structure will let me keep more fish. As always though, i came up with a great idea to do the aquascaping after i was done! >LOL<
