Benjamin's 75g Garage Build (FOWLR to Reef)

[mrbee2828]

I picked up more crabs last night at Animal Jungle (25% off stock Wednesdays from 5-8). Another large emerald crab ($5) and a sally light foot crab ($10). We had just planned on buying the emerald but when the lady took a few live rocks out to get a hold of him, the sally was on one and jumped onto the floor. So we caught him and I said "we'll take him too" lol

$12 - 2 more crabs
--------------------
$1027 total to date

 

[mrbee2828]

I also worked on my overflow this morning. Here is a shot at the prototype. This is a 2" reducer. I have a bulk head fitting to go in this to drop it down to 3/4". Standard egg crate and some cross stitch mesh from Michael's. We'll see if this works. Again this is only until I spring for a nicer overflow. I'm doing 1 in each corner despite many people's opinion on the lack of benefits. In my eyes it can't hurt. The egg crate fits snug (plus the water will be pushing it downward) and I'll probably just glue or tie the mesh to it with fishing line or a zip tie. I won't cement this to the 3/4" down pipe so that I can pop it off for easy maintenance.

 

[don_chuwish]

Very nice. Beautiful Emerald with such bright green. We love watching our Emerald - always so hard at work.
Nice DIY overflow too - I love finding stuff in random places that can be adapted for another purpose.

- D

 

[NyteGTI]

Very nice. Beautiful Emerald with such bright green. We love watching our Emerald - always so hard at work.
Nice DIY overflow too - I love finding stuff in random places that can be adapted for another purpose.

- D

Same here. my emerald is awesome to watch. just keep an eye on it when it gets near a zoa or Acan. mine snuggles up next to my Acan frag to sleep but doesn't touch it. I've read stories of people returning their emeralds for nipping at zoas & palys so be careful when you do get your reef going.

 

[mrbee2828]

It's interesting hearing about how animals behave in different tanks. Like people, they are all different. Some fish will nip at coral while others seem to not be interested. Some will eat frozen food and some need it live. The tank these were in had tons of frags of all types. It will be interesting to see what my inhabitants will do.

 

[mrbee2828]

I got the rock from reef keepers today. It looks amazing. Locks together really well and looks like 75% of the rock I have now which is a real mixed bag. I was just playing with it after unpacking. I was thinking about 2 larger portions in the corners to possibly hide the overflows and then have some lower stuff coming forward with some caverns. It's amazing how far 50lbs doesn't go with this stuff though This is almost 3' wide for reference.

 

[mrbee2828]

I cut and dry fit the overflows tonight and got started on the sump. Cutting the thicker .22mm acrylic form Lowe's was much nicer than the thinner stuff I used on my cichlid sump. The first 10" baffle is in for the refugium.

 

[squidward]

My buddy asked me last night what color background I was going to do.... I DON'T KNOW! I haven't even thought about it yet! Opinions?? Black??

Im tagging along for this build ! i personally like the blue background

 

[mr_X]

So, that reducer is going to sit on top of a standpipe? What return pump are you using? I have a feeling that's going to be noisy.

 

[mrbee2828]

I'm hooking up a eheim pump 1262 rated @900gph. We'll see how it goes. I have PVC overflows on my office tank and when I redid the sump with the flow exiting underwater went 110% silent. Remember it's in the garage and the PVC is only a temporary solution. (I say that but we all know if it works out, every time I have $100 for a "real" overflow box I'll be buying stock heheehe).

 

[mr_X]

I'm not talking about when the water hits the sump, i meant as the water was getting sucked in. I think those will end up sounding like a toilet flushing. Can you take a picture of those overflows?

 

[mrbee2828]

I'm not talking about when the water hits the sump, i meant as the water was getting sucked in. I think those will end up sounding like a toilet flushing. Can you take a picture of those overflows?

Yeah this weekend when I get some more time.

 

[mrbee2828]

I spent the lunch break mounting the RO/DI setup. I also reenforced the shelf over the water heater and put the 29g tank up there. The water will come in and go out/up a hole on the top right (there is a speaker wire there now if you can see it). Filtered water into the tank and waste into the attic. I also ordered another float valve and will be making a simple gravity fed ATO (just like the float valve to shut off the RO/DI). I should be making water Saturday afternoon. It would be amazing to have all this done Sunday (sump/return) but I'm not going to get my hopes up or rush anything if I can help it. Given the amount work left on the sump and cure time it'll be mid week most likely.

 

[Mpfaff77]

What do you plan on doing with waste water? Why is that going into attic? I would love to use my waste water.

 

[mrbee2828]

I'm running the waste up through the attic to the front of the garage and out into the rain gutter. I don't have anywhere else for it to go.

 

[Mpfaff77]

Oh ok. I really need to get on my idea this spring. I plan on setting up storage tank in crawl space and run it to my washing machine.

My only issue is that it is a front loader and not sure how to feed water line and have it coincide with the original supply line. I mean I know I can get a Y connection and get my RO line to meet with supply. But what decides where water comes from and will enough pressure be there to allow the washing machine to take what water it needs from RO line? In my head seems like they would conflict each other.

 

[mrbee2828]

It shouldn't be an issue if you just hook up the Y on the supply form the wall. You can run the waste to the drain for the washer too.

 

[mrbee2828]

For Doug... don't hate on me

 

[mr_X]

Holy!!!!! That looks like a musical instrument!

 

[mrbee2828]

hahahaha.... yeah no doubt. My other one is a tad different but obnoxious none the less. Fortunately once it's in the tank it's not a huge deal and it does work.

Hey.... it's DIY, it's not supposed to be pretty right? What else can you do for less than $10?