Rebirth: ReeferEric's 210G Peninsula

[ReeferEric]

Looking great! Tile huh? Love that idea. Does it need to be a certain type/brand of tile? And do you need to caulk or glue the pieces together, or will fitting them as close together as possible work? I ask bc I really want to incorporate this into my next build, but some type of black tile

The tile is nothing special. Got it from Home Depot, it's called travertine tile. From what I gather, people say don't use the "honed" version but that's all they have. I'm using it and tank is fine. You do not need to caulk/glue them down. The down side from what I can see would be detritus trap under the tile. I'm thinking with a layer of sand under it won't happen.

The tile eventually gets covered in coralline algae. With black sand it does but with tiles it will.

 

[ReeferEric]

Final rock formation, lets hope it can stay intact till it goes into the tank. The tank overflow should be completed this weekend but who knows with hurricane/tropical storm Erica coming this way on Sunday/Monday.

On another note:
My order come in from BRS which included bulkheads and the all important 1.5" check valves.
Picked up a handful of gate valves from Ace Hardware as well.
Remainder of the plumbing will be picked up locally from Home Depots and Lowes.

*Sump will still need to be built
*Return pumps need to be bought (DCT12000 x2)
*CoralBox Cloud 9 Skimmer
*Light needs to hung up

 

[gettaReef]

LOVE the scape....tank is going to be awesome

 

[BrotherReef]

The scape looks awesome Eric.

 

[4FordFamily]

That's a cool transformation!!'

 

[ReeferEric]

Got the overflow built today by the local acrylic guru Matt Dudley, We are calling it the Dudley5000 overflow! 1.5" x2 pass through bulkheads from the internal to external overflow boxes. 1.5" drains on the external overflow boxes, this thing is rock solid as can be!!! I drilled the holes in the tank myself, had a few chips here and there but should be no issue at all once everything is put together and running. I'm extremely pleased with the outcome of it all and drilled the tank for 1" returns on each side of the tank as well.

 

[gettaReef]

Overflow is amazing! Really like the clear bottom

 

[AquamanE]

looking good Eric. following.

question: why is overflow so low? it seems like 2-3 inches from top of glass.

 

[ReeferEric]

Overflow is amazing! Really like the clear bottom

Ran into a small problem with the external box. The usual durso pipes inside the box it a tight fit, or rather won't fit properly. I'll have to ghetto fab these pieces tomorrow. The clear bottom will definitely help with keeping it clean once in a while.

looking good Eric. following.

question: why is overflow so low? it seems like 2-3 inches from top of glass.

The internal overflow box is set lower. Main reason is because I didn't want the water level high due to the center braces. Also, keep in mind that the power heads that I'll be using have wave maker capabilities so the lower water line will keep water in the tank. I plan on running the Jebao RW-15s on this tank, slight possibility of a set of MP40s down the line if it doesn't workout with the Jebaos. It's exactly 2.5" lower then the top of the tank, .5" more or less for the water to enter the internal overflow box.

 

[bknapp]

Great start to another epic build Eric, awesome stuff man.

 

[ReeferEric]

Managed to wrangle up a few guys to come over and help put the tank on the stand. This tank looks so much taller on the stand, more then likely due to the short stand coming in at 27".

So much more workable space with this tank up on the stand now.

Mock up of the drain and and return system. As with my other builds, I opted to go with threaded fittings. Makes life easier if things need to be changed out, I'm not the type to toss a coupling on and "fix" it. Unions and gate valves are a must, they cost a few bucks more but help in the long run. I might change out the sch80 piping on the return to keep things in white/sch40.

Manifold set up, nothing glued in place yet. Still missing a few key parts that I will pick up tomorrow. The Jebao DCT15000 return pump will feed into the manifold which will send water to the cube tank right behind it and two 1" returns on this tank. I've also added an extra port in case I need to run a reactor. For the time being, it will be plugged.

End caps on the manifold on both sides. This should help with general maintenance, just remove the plugs and put a decent sized brush through to clean it accordingly. Also with this it should pressurize all the outputs evenly and the gate valves will be the true adjustment.

 

[nick12881]

What size acrylic did Matt use on the overflow 1/4" or 3/8" ?

 

[ReeferEric]

What size acrylic did Matt use on the overflow 1/4" or 3/8" ?

For the overflow we went with 1/4", only the clear piece was 3/8". That was thicker to compensate for the drain lines going to the sump. We also ran weld-on 16 on the seems to make sure it will never separate, the seems with weld-on 4 made a good seal already but better safe then sorry. It's rock solid!

 

[ReeferEric]

More updates on the plumbing. This is taking a little longer then normal. It's a quick mock up for some of it but pretty much finalized. The manifold is an extremely tight fit, I'll have to figure a few areas to put more unions for easier servicing if ever needed.

1.5" true union ball valve, it's one of the bigger valves I've used to date. Monster in my eyes. lol

Nothing glued here yet, still need to pick up a Jebao DCT15000 return pump... that and the sump before finalizing it. 1.5" check valve will be used, ordered 2 of these for quick change out.

Here is a small problem I came across when we built the external overflow box. The bulkheads were drilled evenly across to provide strength and keep the same pressure on the box. With that in mind, 2 90* elbows wouldn't clear the sides. So I ended up getting a street elbow and regular 90* elbow. Went to town on both pieces, cut them down so they would fit.

 

[Rob reef]

Nice build
Got a bunch of ideas for my next build

 

[ReeferEric]

Nice build
Got a bunch of ideas for my next build

Thanks, lots of ideas are still in the air for this build. I've got brackets and mounts that need to be made for the underside of the tank as well.

 

[nick12881]

You decide on a dump design yet ?

 

[ReeferEric]

You decide on a dump design yet ?

It's been designed, just awaiting parts for the build. Hopefully before I leave this Friday to MACNA they will be ready for pick up. If they are ready then the work will start on Monday/Labor day. I'll go more into detail once it's done.

 

[nick12881]

Looking forward to seeing what you do with it

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking good so far! Following!