Building a 120G reef!!!

DRC Archive Member Tanks
1

Ok guys, I havent been very active here, I tend to frequent a few other forums but I figure I myaswell Share my build with you all since I plan to attend some meetings and meet more people local to Delaware.

I have been keeping a 65G mixed reef for about 2 years now. Here is a link with some older pictures of it.
http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h172/dmitchell6259/FISH%20TANK/

The current project, 120 Gallon tank:

I decided to re-do the silicone so I would never have to worry about leaks.
A few notes: This is by far the most tedious project ever. You have to be very careful to remove every last bit of silicone that existed since new silicone does not adhere to old silicone well. I would be happy to answer any specific questions on this topic since I was given great/detailed advice on another forum.
I ended up resealing the tank with MOMENTIVE 800 SERIES Silicone, this is what the big tank manufacturers use.

The tape job before I applied the silicone!

And the after-silicone pictures. Not perfect by any means but it will work and I dont plan on staring at the silicone once the tank is up and running.Plus its my first time haha.

The next step of the project was drilling 3 holes for my bean animal failsafe overflow system. I am happy to answer any specific questions on this topic as well, I have read alot and gotten great answers on other forums.
This was my first time drilling a tank and I was a bit nervous so I read and watched videos first. It was a breeze, I took my time, kept water on the drill bit the whole time and successfully drilled 3 holes for the overflow. A few pics of the work in progress.


After the drilling was complete I started to work on the design of the overflow. I decided to dry/test fit the plumbing to get an exact dimension of the glass that I need to order for inside the tank to create the overflow. I plan to have the overflow measure 4x6 1/4" the entire length of the tank.This will create perfect surface skimming along the entire tank. Here are a few pics of the progress thus far.

I am now waiting on my glass to be delivered, It will be another week until it comes So I started to do the water/leak test of the bulkheads and my silicone job.

I plan to do the water test for about 7 days in my garage before I take the tank into my house and put it on the stand. I built a custom sump/fuge out of a 40 breeder I picked up from the $1 gallon sale at petco. I installed baffles into it. I will update pictures of how I plan to reinforce the stand to accomodate the equipment underneath. Stay tuned, this will be a very cool build imo and I have some neat ideas that should make this tank way better then my current 65.

Thanks for looking and sorry for the long post, I will try to update as I go next time.

2

Looks like a great build project. I sorta remember something about Bean animals overflow systems but its been a while. I’ll have to refresh on how it works. He does good stuff.

3

[quote=“kaptken, post:2, topic:4515”]
Looks like a great build project. I sorta remember something about Bean animals overflow systems but its been a while. I’ll have to refresh on how it works. He does good stuff.[/quote]

Thanks, if a 120G RR tank was free like this I would not touch it, but I got this tank for free so I decided to go to town and make it into a SHOW TANK.

4

Great looking build so far. The 65g looks good as well. Keep us posted

5

I figure I should update this thread since I have a few minutes,I have been working alot and went away all last weekend so I have been delayed, I was planning to have salt water in the tank this weekend, maybe tomorrow if I get lucky.

Anyway, I received my glass from onedayglass and it turned out great, I installed/siliconed the glass into the tank, I waited 24 hours and did an initial overflow water seal test and it does not have any leaks! So next step is to get help carrying the tank into the house.
I also decided to poly-urethane the inside of the stand and paint it with a white paint. I also took the time to seal all the corners with a wood caulk and cut some 2x4s down to reinforce under the bottom plywood portion of the stand that the sump will sit on, for some reason there was a 2" gap between the bottom of the stand and the floor?

I will post a few pics, I also received my carib sea sand and also managed to snag 80lbs of rock for $.66 a LB, it is currently inside a bleach bath with a pump circulating, I plan to be very careful introducing this into my system since I am sure the rock has plenty of stuff to leach over time.

Tomorrow I will start to configure the plumbing once I can set the tank up ontop of the stand.







6

looks like a lot of fun!

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Thanks for sharing the pics. looking good, coming right along. Can we get bigger pics? some of us have to squint to look at the pics.

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[quote=“reefman66, post:7, topic:4515”]
Thanks for sharing the pics. looking good, coming right along. Can we get bigger pics? some of us have to squint to look at the pics.[/quote]

This is the default size for photobucket I guess, not sure of the easiest way to resize since I take them with my iphone and the forums say they are too large to upload.

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That 65g looks good. I like the idea with you’re tank I have never seen it done before.

As for the pictures on you’re phone set the camera to the highest resolution. Do not upload the pictures from phone directly to photobucket try putting the pictures on you’re computer first then upload to photobucket. Just like facebook when you upload from mobile they look like crap even with a very good camera(HTC Thunderbolt) but look great when you load them on the computer first. I think its due to the phones always resizing so it can send it.

10

I like big overflows and I will not lie. You other brothers can’t deny.

Seriously looks like you’ve already put some hard work into this. Can’t wait to see where you go with it. Best of luck!

[quote=“JustSumGuy, post:9, topic:4515”]
I like the idea with you’re tank I have never seen it done before.[/quote]

Which is, lol? Looks to be doing a lot of different things so I’m not sure what idea your talking about.

11

Alright well time for an update. Here are a few pics of whats going on.

-Rock is “getting ready”. It is kinda a combined technique from many methods, needless to say It wont be ready for a few weeks at the earliest.

-Overflow is in and all the excess silicone is cleaned up (I really wish my tape job was cleaner but its tough with such a small space to work in)

-Return plumbing is complete, contacted one of my old buddies and turns out he had a Mag 9.5 for free :slight_smile:

  • All plumbing on the back of tank is almost complete, just waiting for the paint to dry, I had originally planned to leave the overflow box portion of the back glass unpainted, but the glass is not perfectly black allowing you to see inside the overflow and see the plumbing. So I had to go back and paint the exterior glass so that the overflow is darker inside. I may also use the dark grey plumbing inside the overflow if it is still visible.

-And thats about it.


IMG_1124 by DMITCHELL1985, on Flickr

IMG_1123 by DMITCHELL1985, on Flickr

IMG_1120 by DMITCHELL1985, on Flickr

IMG_1119 by DMITCHELL1985, on Flickr

And the starfish infestation in my 65
IMG_2302 by DMITCHELL1985, on Flickr