Shooters 72 bow front build

[ShooterRick]

Well I finally got started with my 72 gal bow front dry fit. I am using a repurposed wet dry as a sump and have recently purchased 180 watts of LED 2 watt with a 3 channel controller for the light. Specs are very good on this unit as far as par goes compaired to metal halides and can be found if interested at purelyh2o.com. Cool light and the pics don't do it justice.

Today I finally figured out the programming of the digital light control and dry fit the DT supply and sump return line. A small 9x11 fuge will be in the sump. My only problem so far is this used tank does not have room for the sump and the SWC octopus skimmer. I believe the previous owner had access to the rear of the tank as wave and heater controls were mounted on the back of the stand. I am not sure I can get away with keeping the stand 9 inches off the wall with my wife to make room for the skimmer behind the stand. I will maybe be able to set the tank up across a corner. Pics so far show the light, sump, return pump and line with a T fitting and ball valve to be used to bleed off excessive flow from the pump if needed.

[ShooterRick]

More pics.

[Sniperhank]

Looks great!

[ShooterRick]

Originally Posted by Sniperhank

Looks great!

Thanks! Today I plan on installing 2 maybe 3 wave pumps, and the heater after testing it first. Wish I could put the heater in the sump but it is a all ABS sump. Can it go in the overflow box of the main tank?

[FTMMWS]

Looks good,,,yes you can put the heater in the overflow

[joejeff]

I will be watching. Tank looks awesome... I want a bowfront for my Nxt I think.

[ShooterRick]

Originally Posted by joejeff

I will be watching. Tank looks awesome... I want a bowfront for my Nxt I think.

Thanks! Another question? I originally thought one of the 3 power heads with this tank was a wave pump. I found some pics today and it is a Tunze 6060 stream pump. My plan now is to have the 2 Hydor wave pumps mounted above and across the front of the reef. I want to use the Tunze 6060 continues stream pump to move water across the lower and behind the reef. It is a low pressure high volume stream pump. Does this sound like the correct application since I have a split duel return from the sump for surface movement?

[FTMMWS]

You can basically put a powerhead pump wherever you want...Eliminating dead spots is ideal and most people place them according to where they have dead spots

[ShooterRick]

Ok I found a bad impeller on one of the Hydor K3s. I ordered 2 and figure I will replace both since they are used saving the one still ok as a backup.

[ShooterRick]

Well the basic setup is finished! In the pics you will see 2 Hydor K3 controllable wave makers, a Tunze 6060 current pump to be placed behind the reef once aquascape is done, and a Coral Maxx 180 watt LED with red, UV, White, Blue, all on seperate channels and timer control of each channel independently. You can see the specs on this light at purelyh2o.com. I like it alot. It will be suspended 7-10 inches above the tank once it is moved. Luckily it will slide easily on our floors empty! LOL Also on the sump is a homemade silver reflector for a curly Q type daylight florescent for the Refugium. It will be controlled by a seperate timer. I plan on installing a ReefKeeper Lite later but for now I can do things the old fashioned way.

Still to do: Install skimmer and heater once moved. Rock and substrate, suspend the LEDs, and I have 2 new impellers coming for the Hydors. I will start producing RO about a week before filling.

[ShooterRick]

Well under way. I ordered 50 lbs of base rock from reef cleaners and a large bucket of red sea reef pro salt. I choose to replace both impellars on my K3 wave pumps as one had gone bad, reserving the used good one for backup. I also ordered a RKL basic controller that I can expand as I recover from the expense of getting this tank up and running. I will be transfering 29 lbs cured live rock from my folwr.

Today I dry fit the skimmer under the sump. Was a bit of a horse shoe to get it in and elevated. Because of the way things are under my stand I am removing the PVC tail pipe return of this monster SWC OCT skimmer and replacing it with flexible return line PVC like you would use from your DT to the sump. Pics below so far.

[carey]

Great progress! Looking good!

[ShooterRick]

I choose to go the LED route. This unit has the par compared to halides below and all whites, blues, red uv, are on seperate controllable channels with a timer control matched to the unit. It will run independent of my RKL because of this. My RKL will run the wave pumps, heater, return, skimmer, pumps, and refugium light. The readings were done 15" above water level. Mine will be mounted 7-10 inches above.

Here is our Par readings compared to a metal halide. This was done on a 55g tank, with a 250w metal halide and our LED lighting system.

Depth: Type of lighting: Metal Halide
light to surface (15"): peak-400 avg-350
just under surface of water: peak-91 avg-80
12" under water: peak-87 avg-80
bottom of 55 gallon tank (19"): peak-47 avg-40

Depth: Type of lighting: LED
light to surface (15"): peak-700 avg-600
just under surface of water: peak-380 avg-375
12" under water: peak-250 avg-200
bottom of 55 gallon tank (19"): peak-175 avg-165

90 total 2 watt LED's with 90 degree lenses
whites-36 10,000k
blues-34 454nm
red-8 630nm
uv-8 410nm
white -4 6,500k

Ready to hang! Fittings, D ring, and hanging wire preinstalled.

Under 8lb hanging weight including the fans

Only one cord due to the advanced built in 3 circuit timer/controller
- 1 circuit for white
- 1 circuit for blue
- 1 circuit for red,uv, and 6500k
1 timer, 8 function, 18 way adjustable.

This is alot of light that pics don't do justice to.

[ShooterRick]

I am finally gonna start the RO tonight in anticipation of actually getting water in this tank next weekend. I have been thinking of the aquascape throughout this process and have decided on a 2 island plan with plenty of free space. I plan on dry stacking the base rock on the table first to get a good idea of the islands configuration. Then the bottom of the islands will get 3/4 inch pvc pipe 2 inches long epoxyed to raise the islands off the DT floor. The substrate should hide these and I can always place a few rock frags at the bottem to hide more if needed. I think this will be a good firm foundation in my mind for the islands and help flow and cleaners out. I will dry stack them again in the tank and play with it till I have what I want. Then again I will epoxy anything I think needs it and dry stack some of the live rock in when I add water.

Any thoughts?

[ShooterRick]

Well I am making RO and have finished the plumbing on my skimmer set up. I am hoping base rock will be in friday at the latest as I have 3 days off to work on the build. I am getting close and excited!

[ShooterRick]

Tomorrow is tank moving day! I will be removing about 10 gal of water from my fowlr tank and sliding it across a doorway to its temporary home to make room for my 72 bowfront. I then will make the final plumbing connections and locate controllers, timers and the module for my RKL inside and above the sump of the stand. I now have 30 gals of RO made and will need another 60 gal to fill the 72 tank, sump, and skimmer. The RKL and reef mix with another 50 lbs of base rock is suppose to be here tomorrow afternoon. I hope to have the 72 ready to cycle within about 5 days!

[joejeff]

Moving rt along. Lookin forward to pics!

[ShooterRick]

Originally Posted by joejeff

Moving rt along. Lookin forward to pics!

Pics coming today or tomorrow.

Things are progressing. We won't move the tanks till Saturday morning now but I figured an ounce of planning was worth a pound of cure. My base rock came in today and is wonderful. I also recieved a bucket of Red Sea Coral pro mix, aragonit substrate, and my RKL controller level 1.

Since I am starting with the basic controller I mounted a coral life timer strip and wave timer controller inside and high on the back of the stand. I also set the programs in the RKL to handle what I felt were the critical systems of the tank. The homemade fuge light and reflector are also on the RKL because if this thing were to short or something I wanted the RKL to kill power to it. My stream pump, return pump, both skimmer pumps are also on the RKL as well as the heater. My actual tank lighting is on a stand alone 3 channel timer made for that light system and it is programmed also subject to change of course. The K3x are on there own wave timer I mentioned above.

I will start taking pics tomorrow after the tanks are moved.

[ShooterRick]

PICS! LOL.. Lots of progress today. Rinsed about 90 lbs of sand, mounted and ran all the electrical, placed the substrate and layed the base rock bones for my 2 pillar cave island aquascape. Sandy and I hauled 30 gal of RO water from my filter and have the system about 1/3 full figuring I need about 90 gal RO total for the tank,sump, and skimmer. Skimmer is raised about 3.5 inches and that leaves me just enoeph room to remove the cup. I can't even take the lid off the skimmer cup without removing the whole cup. All electrical strips and the RKL PC4 module is mounted inside and high on the back wall of the stand. Everything is plugged in ready to go with drip loops. All modules and strips have circuit breaker features. Pics are below and I am impressed with this base rock from ReefCleaners. You can't see from the pics but I took advantage of this bow front take design and was able to keep all base rock 2 inches or more from the back wall.

[ShooterRick]

Well the tank is filled but still have the sump and skimmer to fill. Right now I am waiting on more RO. Later to day I hope to tune in the system and get the salinity and PH good to go. No leaks in the bulk heads and my only leak concern now is the outside the sump recirculating skimmer.