New Chapter. 56 RR.

[ripcurrent]

I cant believe it but I retired my nano and am upgrading to bigger things

THis is my reefs new home. A 56 gallon acrylic RR tank. I have allot of work ahead of me but I hope you'll follow along and share your opinion as to what direction this project should go.

Onto the project... The tank itself has two 1" bulkheads and then two holes in the overflow for two 3/4" loclines returns. Not sure as of yet if I will make a closed loop, although I am leaning in that direction... Anyone have suggestions there? I plan to build the sump out of acrylic to hold a good size skimmer (maybe like an ASM G3 or a DIY version), a refugium, and then a section to hold various monitoring probes. For the return pump I will be using a Little Giant 3-MDQX-SC. At 3' of head it will push 1000 GPH. Other than that I'll be building the stand here over the next couple days and then I plan to order a 8x39 T5 Teklight here in the near future. Now I'm just trying to figure out whether or not I should do a closed loop and if so how it should be configured. Any help would be apprciated.

Stay tuned. It should be a good learning experience and I'll keep this thread updated as to our progress.

Here's what I have so far. I know... It's scary to think of everything else I need but it'll all come together.

 

[skipm]

Nice tank to upgrade into. You will have alot of fun getting this task completed, plus look at all of the room for more goodies and automation. Do I see a protien skimmer, calcium reactor, ozone, controllers, chiller, etc. in the future maybe?

 

[ripcurrent]

Yep I think you do Skip! :mrgreen:

I put an order together this morning for the acrylic I need to make a sump, skimmer(one for my bros tank too), and a calcium reactor. I have to buy the light, chiller, pumps, controllers, and some other various items but everything I can DIY.... I will.

Once all the equipment is built and I acquire what needs to be bought I will then build a stand around all the equipment. I want to make all the equipment easily accessible. I'm going to make the stand out of steel so it's nice and open. That way I'll be able to design an open functional space for each componant. Going for 100% functionality this time. I figure the added beauty of the reef in doing so will make up for any lost aesthetics in not having a traditional stand.

 

[reefman23]

Intead of making a custom acrylic sump, have you considered going with, say, a 40g breeder? You could just build the stand around it.

I would maybe reconsider the open-air stand though... sometimes it is nice having all the "guts" hidden away, you know?

Jesse

 

[mikeguerrero]

Dude,

You have become a reef building machine... Are you drinking red bull??

 

[ripcurrent]

Aquafina baby!!!!!

With this setup I didnt really want to turn something into something else. I want to build everything specific to this application. Sizing everything up appropriatly so its all compatible, works in unison, and fits together. I couldnt do what I plan to do to a glass sump anyhow... or at least not without having the glass cutting equipment here at the house.

I hear you on the stand... its a tuff call. I love a nice piece of furniture but after my experience thus far I think it's more important to have something really open, leaving everything easily accessed for maintanance ext. My little bro is saying I should make a smoke acrylic shell that would wrap around the stand. We'll see.