zccef 120 gal 2.0

[zccef]

here is a link to my old tank thread
http://www.michiganreefers.com/forum...cefs-tank.html

i have not kept my tank thread updated i had a 120gal up
for about 5ish months. it was more of a grow out/ glorified frag tank as i did
not have the time to make it more. Chris(polskareefer) had been giving me a
hard time to get my system up and running. Make something i could enjoy,
be proud of. Over the past couple of weeks i have been putting in alot of late
nights and weekends trying to get my tank where i want it. about a week ago
it was there (we all know this is a lie/ exaggeration as our tanks are never
there).

The story of zccef 120 gal 2.0 begin friday morning at 3AM.
I woke from a deep sleep, with one very clear thought in my head. I cant
stand that clear silicone on my fish tank I must have black. Costs and time
be dammed i have to pull my system apart and get a new tank with black
silicone. Quite coincidently i turned my head to the left and looked at my fish
tank with its silly clear silicone and saw water pouring from it on to the floor.
Nothing crazy but like a niagra falls for ants.





I woke my dad up for some help on the 3AM tank revamp. I am very thankful
for his help as it would have taken a long time to do this my self.

I called up Chris from Reef Solutions Friday morning and explained to him the
situation. The silicone must be black! He told me he would make some calls
and get back to me. I barely had time to hang up the phone before he called
me back and told me he could have one for me around noon. Now thats what
i call customer service!

Once i got it home i prepped the tank for drilling. I used a drill press and a
diamond hole bit that would allow me to put 1in ID bulkheads in the tank.





Next i siliconed the overflow box in.





This is what an overflow looks like siliconed in with type II. Wrong silicone,
Type II releases ammonia as it cures. While this is not as harmful to humans
it is not good for marine life. Once it is cured it is supposed to be ok though.
Needless to say i removed the silicone and went to the store to buy the
correct stuff.



Ahhh there we go now i have to correct silicone. I also picked up a new tool
the pro caulk set. Had no idea if it would work but for $10 i figured why not
try it out. the tools required are shown in the picture, also the type II is on
the overflow in the back left. Turned out to be a great tool, i put extra
silicone on and used my finger to apply it one direction then went back the
other direction. I did this to make sure it had a good seal. I the used the pro
caulk tool to clean up the lines. This is what a overflow with the correct
silicone on it looks like. Notice the very clear difference.



from there i prepped the back for paint.

[zccef]

this is a photo of the above plumbing as it stood with the other tank. The problem i ran in to was sound. i did not think it would be an issue because the water was dropping such a short distance in to the overflow. i did not take in to account a need for air. an example of what was happening was a full two liter pop bottle turned upside down. The pipe was sucking air in between water going down it resulting in a lot of noise. the way i remedied this was to add a ball valve and more pipe on the return line back in to the sump add some flow. this allowed me to dial in the top feed, and keep it just under the point where it was making a lot of noise.



Part of the tank 2.0 is to employ a similar tactic to the Durso standpipes but on the outside of the tank. this will allow the water to flow freely while still allowing air to enter. these are not yet finished i will be adding more pipe so they are above the watter level just in case. also will be adding caps with a bunch of holes in an attempt to keep things out dust bugs....



As i am unsure of the reason the old tank leaked i wanted to take as many precautions as possible. The stand was level aside from one side being slightly raised. this only effected the water line and overflow. with the help of my father i leveled the stand. also he proposed that we check to make sure the board was flat. we did find out there was a little bow in a few places. for this we used more "shims" to support areas that were dropping down. I say "shims" because we figured out how much we needed to raise the tank and then cut and or sanded boards rather then using shims. my father suggested some sort of forgiving material be placed under the tank such as rubber. the thought behind this was where the tank makes contact with the stand are not all perfectly the same. due to this different parts of the base of the tank are in contact and others are not. we went to home depot and asked for rubber strips and of course they didnt have them. when we explained the idea and what we were trying to accomplish we received a crazy look and were directed to the hardware isle? am i the only on who receives crazy looks when i go out to buy parts for my projects? most of the things i do are custom and i am capable of explaining what i am trying to accomplish almost all of the people i interact with at these types of stores are not able to think outside of the box. example when i went to home depot i asked an associate about the new pro caulk tool's (discussed in above post) effectiveness i started talking about how i was going to caulking a fish tank and i received a crazy look. i immediately switched to caulking a tub and the guy wouldn't stop talking. He couldnt tell me that it would make nice straight lines on a fish tank but it will for a tub. sorry for the tangent. i ended up with this DIY/ custom curse from my father so i was in good company in searching for something to put under my tank. We decided upon a foam strip used to weather seal garage doors.







Next came filling the tank back up.





this took a little bit of time because i had to wait for the dust to settle so to speak. here are some photos of the aquascapeing i had finished just two weeks ago. sorry not great photos i took them to document it quickly. did not figure i would have to redo it. glad i did though otherwise i would have no document of the 12-16 hours of work i put in to it.

[zccef]

now to the task of remaking my rock work. below are the tools i used.



this is the start of my aquascapeing



this photo is what happens when you drop a razor blade that you were using to cut the zip ties in to the tank and loose it. i found after a very long time of searching i had to tear apart all of the progress i had made. once i pulled it apart i was still not able to find the blade. i then grabbed one of my koralia 4's and moved it around the bottom of the tank until it grabbed the blade with the magnet.



this is where i ended last night around 1 got a lot of the hard part done and i have a nice plan of attack for tonight. i am really hopping i can finish my aquascapeing tonight. one thought i was originally using the two part plummers epoxy and it does not work at all. i was able to accomplish a little with it but it was much more two steps forward one step back. in my opinion zip ties are the way to go, if you are smart about it they can be used and virtually unseen and add a lot of structural stability. i think my plan is to use some of the plummers epoxy to glue small rock pieces over the zip ties. this way the epoxy is not load bearing so it might work better?

[ReeferRob]

Awesome awesome awesome, keep the updates and pictures coming!!!

[jimsflies]

Eric thanks for sharing! Posting your tank here on CR will add +10 Tank Strength, +8 to Beauty, and adds 30% more growth.

[zccef]

thanks guys, Jim talking to you at the swap was all of the reason i needed to check out Captive Reefs but +10 Tank Strength, +8 to Beauty, and adds 30% more growth that is the icing on the cake.

[jimsflies]

thanks guys, Jim talking to you at the swap was all of the reason i needed to check out Captive Reefs but +10 Tank Strength, +8 to Beauty, and adds 30% more growth that is the icing on the cake.

As if that's not enough, I believe being here on CR also helps with the ladies.

When I was up making annoucements at the swap I observed what appeared to be schoaling women around schminksbro, rabidgoose, reeferrob and tazzy as they were manning the CR table. The only explanation I caan figure is it was the power of CR manifesting itself in yet another way....

[zccef]

it just gets better

[zccef]

took A LOT longer to get the rock back to where i wanted it. have had it in
place for about three or four weeks. still have not made an attempt to cover
the zip ties but that will come with time. were does time go?? spent some time
placing frags two or three weeks, i am happy with how that went. i was
looking at some old pictures of my tank i never ended posting and my tank
was FULL! everything looks empty. i did however place everything in great
places to grow out.

[zccef]

this is what i ended up doing to take care of the overflow noise. it worked out
quite well, using the same method of the Durso stand offs.



this is my frag/ sump setup, not finished but working well.