Crazy George's 90 gal upgrade log (image intense)

[george1098]

Hi guys
Well I’ve officially been in the reefing hobby for a year now, and I decided to celebrate by upgrading my tank from a 33gal system to a 90 gal!
First off, here’s a little bit about my old tank. It was a 33 gal running through a 40 gal sump/fuge with a 175 watt MH pendant and a Remora C hang on skimmer. It probably has about 50 lbs of LR and 40 lbs LS. I keep a BTA (who’s bubbles are long gone) along with some softy chorals. I grow cheato in the fuge and do weekly chem tests and water changes. The reef has done very well and has plenty little critters running around the sand bed when they think I’m not looking. As far as fish go, I have a pair of tomato clowns (Ping and Ying) hosting the BTA (which recently split), a pair or green chromis (Jerry and Larry) and a yellow tang (named Timmy…don’t tell tang police.. I figure I should get off this once since I just bought him a 90 gal).

Here’s a pic of the older tank.


I got a little ambitious (or was it lazy?) when I decided to build up the tank walls to accommodate an external overflow. This I did as an alternative to emptying the whole tank and drilling it.

Here’s a pic of the built up tank wall


And where it drains into the overflow


It was all done with acrylic, and actually worked (believe it or not). In retrospect it was risky and I wouldn’t really recommend doing this because a few months down the road and it started sprouting leaks. I would call the operation a success though, but for my next tank I will defiantly being doing a proper drilling job.

Here’s one last pic of the cabinet that I made, which I will be putting the 90 gal on once the 33 is out of the way. Should be plenty of room as it measures approximately 3’x5’x2.5’ HxLxW.

[george1098]

Anyway, out with the old and in with the new. I neglegted to get a pic of the new tank before I started work on it, but I’m sure we all know what an empty 90 gal tank looks like. (48’x24”x18” by the way)

Here it is on the floor waiting to be painted. I used ‘marine blue’ spray paint I got at home depot. I was going to go with black but the name won me over.


And here she is painted. Took about 4 quotes, and there were still a few lighter spots, but I though it looked more natural that way (or was I just being lazy again?…yes).


I decided to put some egg crate on the bottom of the tank. this will protect the bottom from rocks should an avalanche occur, and it will also help my anchor the rockwork and plumbing. Ignore the pvc pipe, its just there so I don’t forget about the internal overflow.


Here’s a pic of the internal overflow baffle I made out of smoke grey acrylic (I think it looks brown personally). The idea of an internal overflow was one I didn’t arrive at easily. I’m a stickler for tank realistate, and I didn’t want to take up much room with the overflow baffle, but after much consideration, and a threat from my girlfriend who does not want another leaky tank, I opted for the much simpler to make and less risky internal overflow. The baffle itself wasn’t too hard to make. This is the first time I’ve ever attempted to cut out teeth and I think they turned out pretty well. I used a ban saw for the teeth and molded the corner by clamping the acrylic sheet to a 2x4 and molding a 90 º curve with the blow torch. I is a pretty easy method as long as you measure carefully. It is a little risky if you haven’t tried it before because if you don’t get a perfect 90º curve the baffle won’t fit. Somehow I managed to get it right my first try.

[george1098]

Here’s the best I could do for an up close shot of the baffle sitting in the tank. It sits nice and flush on all edges, so I’m pretty happy (or lucky). I had to use the belt sander to round the edges that would stick into the silicone on the bottom of the tank. Nothing is glued yet, just try fitted. I plan to use 100% clear GE silicone to attach the baffle to the tank.


I’ve only began to ponder the plumbing for this thing, but I know that I’m going to go with standard 1 ½” black pvc for the overflow drain. Here’s a pic of the overflow assembly. I used plastic mesh that you can buy in the sewing or crafts section at Wal-Mart, and zippy tied it to the pvc to make a strainer. This should keep any fishies or enterprising anemone’s from taking a trip to my sump.


Here’s the overflow assembly all dry fitted behind the baffle. Everything fits nice. Hopefully it won’t be too noisy.

[george1098]

Everything above represents about 2 days work ( work also includes shopping for the rest of my plumbing supplies). I was hoping to start drilling my tank with the diamond bit I have coming in the mail, but it still hasn’t arrived, so I fount myself beginning work on the canopy before I can start tinkering with the plumbing.
First off, I knocked up this sucker, which will make moving the tank around to avoid traffic coming in and out of the garage.


Benny the Benze isn’t happy about the tank occupying his parking spot during the day. Especially when it rains.


Here’s the beginnings of my reflector. It is sheet aluminum I bent on my dads bending jig. It is not the shiniest piece of metal, but it should reflect the light down, which is all it needs to do.


First I knocked up a wooden frame for the reflector and fitted it on top of the tank. should work well. This won’t be a full canopy, it will merely sit on top and hold the lights. I will have some ropes on pulley’s going up to the ceiling so I can rays it for easy tank access.


I will use an acrylic shield to protect the bulbs from splashing and misting, and the tank should the worst happen and a bulb explodes (I’m sure Mr. Icecap won’t do that to me though.) The shield will be able to slide in and out of the canopy for easy cleaning and bulb changing on ¼” grooves I cut with the table saw.

[george1098]

Continuing on with the canopy, I started to build up the sides and added the fans that will hopefully keep the lights nice and cool.


Here’s a shot of the business end of the reflector. Should kick lots of light down at my reef with two 250watt MH bulbs. I’m thinking of adding a 3’ VHO strip with actinics, or possibly re-using my 175 watt ballast to fire a 20,000k bulb. What should I do?

p.s. I used the aluminum tape they use to tape up heat ventilation piping (or whatever they call it) to tape up the exposed wood. It makes a great reflector.

My camera seemed to go missing half way through the day, and I missed a few steps, but its not hard to see that I managed to get a bit done. I built up the back and installed a few more fans. The top and back will remain open for ventilation


Here’s a pic of the fans all wired up and running. They have blue LED’s in them which I’m hoping will kill two birds with one stone and act as a moonlight at night, but its not very likely that they are bring enough to light the whole 90 gallons like a proper moonlight should. The two fans on the back are mounted with acrylic brackets I made. They should blow across the surface water and provide some nice agitation for better gas exchange and evaporation (thus cooling).


And for my last pic of the night, here is yet another shot of the back of the tank. with the canopy roughly in the spot it will sit. Should be plenty of room to squeeze some plumbing back here. I’d like to install a wavy sea unite back here, hope there is enough room. Or I’ll just have to make some.

[george1098]

Here's an update
Over the weekend i got busy installing some fluorescent fixtures. Once again my camera went missing so i didn't get any shots of the work in progress, but basically i used rivets to attach the ballast to the top of the canopy, and i cut out little brackets out of aluminum to hold the end caps and riveted them onto the inside of the canopy.

and the inside. I used a regular 2x30 watt florescent ballast i bought at home depot. they fire two 3' florescent strips. these are just two spare bulbs i had lying around, i plan to use incandescent bulbs along with 2x250watt MH bulbs (if i ever get my balast).

still plenty of room for the metal halide brackets and bulbs to fit.

and i replaced my acrylic guard with two glass pains ( i learned how to cut glass over the weekend too). It is regular 1/4" glass that i had lying around. My father, who runs a sunroom company (who knows a thing or two about glass) think this should hold up fine against the heat, even though it is not tempered. I plan to test it pretty Thoroughly without the fans on once i get my MH ballasts and bulbs installed.

[george1098]

I finally got my diamond whole cutting bit today from Lau’s eBay store. Took about 3 weeks to ship from Hong Kong, and only cost me about 20 bucks. It is a 48mm bit, which is the same diameter of 1 ½ pvc. I think I can also use it to cut holes for my 1” bulkheads, as they require a 45mm hole. Do you think 3 mm makes a difference? Or should I get the proper sized bit for the bulkheads?


In cutting the hole I stopped every 30 seconds or so and pored some water on the glass and bit to keep them cool. I also dripped some 3in1 oil on as that supposedly helps keep the glass from cracking.. so says Dad (my glass authority). I think it turned out pretty good, and a breathed a sigh of relief when I made it through to the other side without shattering the side of my tank. 1 hole down, 4 to go.
That’s a nice hole if I don’t say so myself.


The hole was the perfect size for the pvc. I actually had to tap it lightly with a hammer to get it to go through the hole. It was probably pretty close to being water tight before I added the silicone. Some may ask why I didn’t use a bulkhead here, and I would say, because this works just as well. Just put a little silicone around the pipe and you have a waterproof seal (I hope). Anyway, I used this method when I did my sump and it works like a charm.

[george1098]

I threw a 1 ½” union on the other side, and ran a silicone bead around the edge touching the glass.


Next it was time to install the overflow bulkhead. First I ran a silicone bead around all the edges that would be in contact with the glass.


Then I simply stuck it in. It fit like a charm, but that didn’t surprise me
Here’s a pic of everything put together.

[Rob]

awesome thread.. thanks for sharing all the details..

looks liek its progressing nicely.

i like the hood, i might just steal that design, if i stay with my MH lights.
what type of lights are going in yours, all i saw were what looked like a pair of NO of VHO bulbs?

[kj_yoda]

Very cool. Can't wait to see more.

[george1098]

Thanks guys,
For lighting I will go with 2x 250 W SE bulbs powered by icecap ballasts. I’ll use actinic VHO’s to substitute a little blue light.. I'm not quite sure which kind of MH bulbs I will go with, but I know they will be 10000k. Any suggestions on a good 10000k bulb?. I was thinking XM, but I know there are plenty more brands out there that I’m sure are just as good. The florescent strips I have in there now I was just using for testing as I had them lying around for a while. Unfortunately everything is stalled as I wait for some packages to arrive by mail, but hopefully I’ll be able to start plumbing the close loop this week.

By the way Rob, I wanted to say kudos on the site. I just hear about it recently in this months RC magazine and I though I would check it out. The pod casts are great and I’m sure I’ll be doing allot more posting around here

[george1098]

I've been posting clones of this thread on reef central as well as my local reefing society forum ( http://arrg.ca/ ) . I have been getting lots of feedback from both places, and so far I have changed my design slightly. One of the issues that is currently being debated is about the shield that I am using on the canopy to protect the bulbs from being splattered by salt water. I cut a ¼” acrylic shield, as well as a ¼” glass shield. I can slide them in and out easily, so changing my mind is no big deal. I was wondering if you guys could give any insight into this? Should I go with the shatter proof, but possibly melt under the heat acrylic, or melt proof, but possibly crack under the heat glass?