Yyrkoon

My first aquarium was purchased from my LFS almost 10 years ago. I had it up and running until we moved to a new house in 2007. Since that time, its sat in the corner of my basement and collected dust. The tank is about 30 gallons, and while I know that is small for saltwater aquariums, I like the challenge of running such a setup. Smaller aquariums also keep CAPEX and OPEX costs down. The tank is an acrylic flat back hex, and when I got it, it came with an oak stand and hood. There was no provision for a sump, and the unit did not have a built in overflow.

Original tank. All the equipment is inside, no sump. HOB skimmer and terrible lighting...
I quickly replaced the HOB skimmer with a better AquaC model that was adequate, but not idea. After moving, I wanted to retrofit the tank with a sump to move all the filtration below the cabinet. And then life gut busy...

Fast forward five years.

I was cleaning out the basement late last year, and finally made the commitment to get my tank up an running. Being one who likes to build, this project was not going to be quickly accomplished. As I was also planning on going back to school, I knew that I would be rebuilding for a long time, but thats much of the fun for me. I wanted a sump and a built in overflow. As the base was not very deep, I also wanted to extend the base and add side boards to hide the plumbing on the back of the aquarium. This would also require modifying the hood to be deeper as well.

Progress to date. The carpentry is done, the sump is built. I installed a Calflo (coast to coast) overfly inside the aquarium. I made it out of blue acrylic and installed three bulkheads in the back for the tank. Plumbing is almost done. I have two canister filters from Avast (nice cost effective units if anyone is looking for them). a 36w LED fixture from AquaticLife will provide illumination. Skimming by SWC.



Front of the tank, CalFlo installed, scratches removed. I used 600, 800, 1000, and 2000 grit sandpaper before moving on to buffing to remove the worst of the scratches.


Roughing in plumbing.