Daughters 55g Nemo tank turned Dada's scratch he can't itch

[90addict]

It's getting late and the whole house is kinda sick but wanted to at least start a build thread tonight. In the next few days or so I'll look thru my phone for pictures over the last 3.5 months and add some story behind it. By no means is this going to be a great story but maybe some other newbies will see this and laugh with me or learn from some of my mistakes. Stay tuned because in the next few months this is turning from a hob system to a basement sump system!

First pic is sep.1st with my twin daughters in awe
Second pic is today with 33 frags, rbta's, clowns, hippo tang, pintail wrasse, ect

 

[fishywishy]

Nice

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

This is nothing to do with you. It’s keeping your twins happy.

 

[90addict]

12-13-24....So I finally have a few minutes while I'm not so patiently waiting for corals from corals.com that I won in the costume contest giveaway!!!To double back on how I started this thread I started this tank strictly for my twin daughters and their love for Nemo in August. I bought a used 55g tank and stand from a guy in my neighborhood. I also found on Facebook marketplace a guy selling 40 pounds of old dried out live rock so I bought that too. As for all the equipment and chemicals, I bought everything on Amazon hoping this would be a cheap tank. aqua clear hang on back filter, offbrand hang on back skimmer,heater, hygger wave maker, ect. with pretty much everything bought and delivered, I could feel the itch starting. I wrestled the stand and tank into the living room one night after work. The following day, as soon as I got home from work, I immediately started filling the tank with water. Now here comes one of my biggest mistakes early on... I filled the tank straight from the garden hose with tapwater. I then added instant reef crystal salt and let the powerhead mix it around while the hang on back filter was running to mix it up. I did add water conditioner. That’s supposed to get rid of the chlorine and chloramines, but was too new to the hobby to know anything about TDS and phosphates. Anyhow, once I got the salt mixture up to where I wanted it to be I slowly added 40 pounds of carribsea live sand. if I remember correctly, I laid the bags in the bottom of the tank and then cut them open and pushed the sand out to try to minimize the sand particles floating around the tank. I think it did pretty good. I cleaned the filter out twice from sediment, but the tank cleared up within a day. later that same week I stopped at my local fish store and bought 40 pounds of mature live rock that came with tons of critters, mushrooms and sponges. I think that came to $200-$250. in hindsight, that was the absolute best decision I’ve made for this tank thus far. I set up the rock that night, up against the back glass, stacking to try to leave many holes for fish to hide... (I'm terrible with finding time to do things so jumping back in to finish this post on 12-30-24)... After the water cleared up and everything was up to temp, now was the nerve racking decision to do fishless or fish in cycle right? I'm hindsight, WRONG!! I opted for fishless and added ammonium chloride I think it's called. Dosed per the instructions and my ammonia was thru the roof! I think it was over 8! I did a bunch of water changes to get it down to around 5 then 3 then 2. Few days later and it was bottomed out. Thank you Jesus lol. I learned later that with the very mature live rock I bought, I could of skipped the cycle perse and went strait to fish with a little ugly stage. Either way after 3 weeks from adding tap water to bringing my ammonia down, I was ready for fish!



I opted for quarantined clown fish pair and a rbta for them. For 1, I didn't know I should be waiting 6 months before getting one. #2 I wish I would of known my clowns wouldn't even look at the thing! lol. Either way, I was totally addicted and my twin girls were so happy to see Nemo everyday!



I'll try to update more soon so I can get us to the present. So stoked to be starting the process of doing a basement sump. More so cause my wife isn't killing me lol

 

[90addict]

Here's some more pics in that time frame.

 

[90addict]

Well, it's hard to tell old news to get us to the present. Let's fast forward and just show you where I'm at now! 55g dt and in the process of building my basement sump! Today I had a little time in between taking care of the twins. My wife's dad has been in the hospital because of a heart attack and she was gone most of the day picking him up. (Discharged)... Anyway, there's a few projects going on that all serve the big project!

So this morning I shut the electric off in the house and wired in a new 20amp breaker just for my sump and controller cabinet. The 12/2 wire is ran from the main panel, across the floor joists and just dangling right now (breaker off). Soon I'll mount and wire in the 4 gang box.

After that, I siliconed in all my baffles for the 60g breeder sump! Super stoked to finally see it look like a sump. Last night I siliconed in the first baffle which holds the socks and houses the drains. I also super glued the rest of the baffles so they were easier to silicone today. Just 4 little dabs per baffle.

Finally, after my wife got home and we put the girls to sleep (7pm est) I went into the garage and started modifying this huge pallet for a sump stand. **Little back story**, I'm a union pipe fitter/welder apprentice (4th yr)... We installed a pretty big chiller at my local VA hospital and the chiller came in 7 different pieces. The pump for the chiller came on this 6' x 4' pallet made from 2x6's and 4x4s. As soon as I saw it and how great of shape it was in, I could hear it calling my name! Lol. Anyway, back to modifying it...I cut it down to 4ft long which left 3 4x4 braces and also made it skinnier. As you'll see in the pictures. After that I took some 4x4s and made some legs. I think I'll add support pieces in between the legs on either side to give them more rigidity later on. I made the legs tall enough to fit my rodi tote underneath and also with the tank on top, it will be 45" to top of sump. I think it'll be a good height to be able to clean it out and not have to get on my knees. (I'm getting old) lol... Not only that but it cuts down on my head pressure even though I think I'm gonna have too much with the Sicce sdc7. We shall see I guess.

Well, I think that's it for now, I'll post the pictures below. If anyone has advice or suggestions, lmk

 

[90addict]

Moved the sump onto the stand. Still want to add some 45° braces for the legs but wanted to test fit some equipment. Have to find out where I want to mount the brs dual gfo reactor

 

[90addict]

Slowly but surely trying to make more progress. My wife has had the last 2 weeks off and I'm on 4-10s so Fridays are supposed to be "our day". Usually get breakfast or lunch together. One of my daughters had other plans. She's been running a fever so we kept her home from daycare. Either way, I got some things done for sure! Finished the electric first thing this morning. Ran the wire thru some stick on wire hiding thing-a-majig. Looks pretty good for my first time... After that I started on some of the plumbing. Had to take the Neptune unions off the flow sensors cause they are super hard to get. Replaced with standard American sch40 unions. Used some base plates, all thread and 1" split rings to hold the flex tubing and regular PVC nice and tight coming down from living room. Trying to decide how far into the sump I want my drain lines. Right now they are roughly 2 inches under the top of sock filter. I also mounted the dual gfo/carbon canisters. Hoping tomorrow I can plumb in the return line to the pump. Upstairs is still open ended on all 3 pipes. I'll move to there once I'm done here. If anyone sees this... Do you glue PVC right into the bulk head holes in an overflow box? I have the CPR cs102. The 1in PVC sticks in there but it seems like it has to much room. Idk

 

[90addict]

Forgot this pic. Was headed to the plumbing supply place to try and find bspp unions but decided to just ditch the Neptune ones