Reefdaddy

In my Previous blog I gave some of my background in tanks. Now it is time to get down to it. I scored a acrylic 55 gallon from a fellow club member here for 100.00 with stand and canopy. the tank was pretty rough, mico scratches all over and just looked bad over all. I gave it good cleaning and it came looking like this.

After much rubbing with Novus ( great stuff for acrylic owners) it came out lookiing like this.

I was still rubbing on it when I took the pic there is still novus on the front there.
pic dont do it justice almost all the scratches are out. I felt my arms were gonna fall off after.
Shortly after I headed to the table saw to make my overflow. I started out with this ....

And ended up with this.

I added sand after the fill, I did not want my rock on any sand due the choice in fish I want . Rock slides are avoidable if well thought out.
All these parts can be had Home Depot, Its 1 1/2 inch male adapter with long street 90 a female adapter with 1.5 to 3 flange. It measure exactly 5.5 inches down from top to bottom and that is how far down I put my hole on the tank. here it is installed


I got this from a guy on Reef Frontiers, disturbedreefer. I chose it because a 55 gallon is very short on depth, so the more floor space I have the better.
I did not like the color or structure of the stand and canopy I got with the tank so i donated em to the bedroom fresh water system. I built this stand from plans I had in a file from ages ago. I used recycled wood fom and old project I tore apart. It came out strong as heck. I could park a car on it.

Waterproofed the inside and took it in the house Ill skin it later.
Had to do a test fit of my plumbing to make sure the holes I drilled would line up correctly.

Set in the stand where I wanted it. Here some pics


Now its time plumb it. So back to Home depot for PVC. I wanted simple and clean. there will be no closed loop on the system Ill do it with Powerheads. this is the return from the sump.

My pumps were Deleiverd from my old wholesaler, I got a Quite one 4000 for the return, the Sedra 9000 is for my Reefdevil skimmer. I ended up replacing the skimmer but that is another thread.

For flow I mentioned earlier that I was going to use Powerheads, Well I picked up these Seio 1100's for 10 bucks from a buddy here. They work well but I needed added flow and some randomness.

So I ended biting the bullet and got this. It is everything they claim.


I scored all my rock off of craigslist. It was all dead a bleached out from sitting in the sun here. But it had nice shapes and was only 1 dollar a pound. So not to bad at all. No fear of baddies getting the tank.Anyhow I start messing with the layout a bit. I am no fan rock walls especially in a 55 gallon, but that being the case I am very limited on what I can do. So I came up with this, 2 rock formations leading into a open cave( or crevas)
Right side

Left side

Being I did not have RODI hooked upo yet I bought ready salted water from a LFS. it worked out really well. it was quick and I only had to boost salinty a bit to my liking.
The light in the pic on the fuge was only for the pic, I made a different one for the Fuge


Iam pretty much here, I had some set backs with another possible move and sale of the house we are in, but overall it where we are at right now. I am gonna build the light unit and skin the stand, but also build some cabinets on each side and there is a ton of DIY I have done and will be done.