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Thread: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW Tank Update 11/28

  1. #1
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW Tank Update 11/28

    I just wanted to start a new thread on this build so that I have an OP with an equipment list and everything is easier to find

    As the title states, this will be a Peninsula tank. It is only 22g, but with rockwork it should be much closer to 15g. I'm hoping to offset that a bit with a larger sump.

    So, here are the specs:

    • Tank:

    Mr. Aqua 22g Long (Low Iron) - 36x12x12



    • Light:

    Maxspect Razor 16k 160w


    • Filtration:

    Bean Animal side mount overflow

    Sump 30g Eshopps - 30x16x12

    Skimmer Eshopps S-120

    DC-12000 Swapping this out for a DC-3000

    DC-3000 This will be the second DC-3000 to serve as redundancy.

    3 Way Manifold - will probably end up being run by the second DC-3000

    Siporax in eggcrate for bio


    • Chiller:

    Customsealife 1/5 HP


    • Water movement:

    MP20


    • Water Treatment - RO/DI & ATO

    Spectapure 90gpd unit

    JBJ ATO - will probably replace this with a Tunze soon enough


    • Dosing:

    Still debating on which brand to go with


    • Stocking:

    1 Pair of Designer Clownfish. Toss up between Frostbite / Phantom / Premium Black Snowflake (Amphiprion ocellaris)


    • Additional Equipment:

    TFL Phosban 150 reactor

    BRS GFO & Carbon Dual Reactor

    2x STC-1000 - Controllers for heater/chiller and box fans for stand



    I like to overthink things and love paying attention to detail on builds, this is why this has taken me well over a year to even get to this stage. I have 80% of all the equipment needed.

    As many of you may know, I love DIY, and the one thing that is left is the stand which is where I usually drain all my money in to, lol. I don't plan on doing that this time and will try to keep it simple yet still look good.

    I hope you follow along this new venture with me


    Here is a pic of the equipment so far:
    DSC08431 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    DSC08432 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    DSC08435 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    Last edited by rickztahone; 11-30-2016 at 01:57 AM.

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
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  2. #2
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    As I said , I love DIY. I chose to do my own overflow and drill and cut my own glass. Here's how that went at first:
    DSC08395 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    DSC08397 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    That was fun

    Here's my second try:
    DSC08487 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    DSC08492 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    1 Hole - 2 Hole - 3 Hole by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    I also tried to cut the glass myself, however, that was a complete and utter fail. I bought a cutting wheel, running pliers and oil but just couldn't get it to work. A quick tip for those that are planning on getting the equipment to cut their own glass, just save your money and leave it to the pros. They charged me $2.50 per cut and it came out much cheaper for them to do it than it did for me to get the equipment to cut. lesson learned.

    Here is how the panes look once cut to the measurements I specified:
    DSC08495 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    Everything siliconed in to place:
    DSC08496 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    DSC08497 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    DSC08499 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    Sorry about the mess in the tank. I was pretty tired at this point and even taking that out and putting it back in wasn't appealing, lol.

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
    Cafepress.com

  3. #3
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    If for whatever reason anyone is curious of the sizes of the cut panes, here's this:
    DSC08437 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    the top piece will serve as a lid for the overflow setup

    Also, this shot shows the difference between low iron and regular glass if anyone is curious about the difference between the two:
    DSC08438 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
    Cafepress.com

  4. #4
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    I will say one thing about the shattered glass pic of me drilling. There were a couple of things that I did that could have easily prevented this disaster. First, the bottom was unsupported. If you check out the pics of the successful drilling, there is a plywood piece as well as 1/4" Styrofoam piece when you drill through. Also, in the failed attempt, I forgot to lower the chuck to 1. When I hit full speed, it shattered immediately. Going slow at first on 1 will not allow you to go faster than you need to be. Once I got the groove going, I upped the drill to 3. Never really went full speed, because I decided to take my time because the small pane could have easily cracked because of the close proximity of the holes.

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
    Cafepress.com

  5. #5
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    As I said, going bare bottom with this tank. Painted the tank bottom with Rustoleum textured paint and added flat white in to the mix to better look like reef sand. I have been using this textured paint for years and love how it looks. It gives a good balance between BB and sand, at least I think it does. Better than no paint IMHO.

    DSC08501 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    DSC08502 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    After a good round of masking

    DSC08503 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
    and done

    DSC08504 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    It will look better from the inside, I promise

    Next I am going to try to make my own lid out of acrylic. Does anyone know, can you use a jig-saw on acrylic?

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
    Cafepress.com

  6. #6
    Registered Member Discus-n00b's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    I am excited for this. Great craftsmanship. Love the idea of painting the outside bottom, gives me an idea for my next tank.
    -Matt


  7. #7
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    Quote Originally Posted by Discus-n00b View Post
    I am excited for this. Great craftsmanship. Love the idea of painting the outside bottom, gives me an idea for my next tank.
    Thx Matt. I should also mention that I will be painting the overflow box white but I won't paint it until I get the actual paint for the stand and use that so that it matches perfectly

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
    Cafepress.com

  8. #8
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    Great recovery there Ricardo, looking pretty sweet!

  9. #9
    Registered Member zchauvin's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    Very nice so far Ricardo. Looking good.
    -Zach

  10. #10
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    A fellow RC member was nice enough to give me some extra acrylic he had. I had originally intended to use the acrylic as baffles but then I thought I may just make a tank lid out of it.

    Originally I was going to use glass as a top but I cringed at the idea of possibly dropping the lid and it shattering inside the tank. I didn't want to use a whole piece of acrylic because it bows badly. So, I figured I'd try to make a lid which just had the edges and use fishing line to prevent jumpers. So far I have just done the cut out but still need to drill the holes and buy the fishing line.

    Also, I need to buy 2 more clips because the way it sits still bows in the middle. Of course there is no telling if all of these things will prevent it from bowing regardless, but I will cross that bridge when I get there. For now, this will be my temp solution and it came at no extra cost, so why not?

    Here are the pics of it in progress:

    This is the way the tank looks with the painted bottom btw:
    DSC08505 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    DSC08509 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    So first I cut the acrylic sheet down to size and make sure it fits:
    DSC08510 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    This is what we started with:
    DSC08511 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    All areas marked off. The inner lines represent where I will clamp down a T-ruler and give enough space for blade clearance. Notice I marked little tic marks. Those represent where I would stop with the drop in circular saw so that I could round those corners. Worked out fine:
    DSC08512 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    Drop ins done and now time for the jig saw. When cutting acrylic with a jig saw, find the finest blade you can and it would go through acrylic like butter:
    DSC08513 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    All done:
    DSC08514 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    Here's the lid on the tank:
    DSC08515 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr

    So, few things, I wish I would have marked the outside white paper to do the cutting. I had taken it off initially because there were areas of the acrylic that were cut. I didn't want to use a cut section so I peeled one side off to check which area to use. Then, I didn't want to place the unpeeled side down in fear of scratching it so I marked on that side. Now, I cannot get the marks off by wiping it away. I will have to sand it off I suppose. No biggie, but lesson learned.

    I still need to clean the edges as well, but I ran out of time.

    Later this week I will make a jig to drill all the holes and get the fishing line to finish this little project. Hope you liked

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
    You can get this and many more items such as T-shirts/Polos/hoodies/cups from our merchandise shop:
    Cafepress.com

  11. #11
    Registered Member zchauvin's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    Looking good man.
    -Zach

  12. #12
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    Looks great, I love watching DIY projects.

  13. #13
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    I would say your off to a promising DIY project. That is pretty thick glass to have cut on your own and you nailed it.
    A friend told me the best way to cut glass is on a rubber blanket/mat but your method worked out just fine.
    Great work my friend and will follow this project build to the end.

    ...Ralph
    "Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."
    -John Wooden

  14. #14
    Registered Member Discus-n00b's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    Can't wait to see it wet. Find something like bird netting at the hardware store, would be easier than trying to weave something yourself with fishing line, maybe that is what you mean anyway.....just trying to save you some work lol
    -Matt


  15. #15
    Administrator brewmaster15's Avatar
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    Default Re: OT - Rickztah's Low Iron 22g SW peninsula tank

    Ricardo,

    Looking great...really great. You've done an awesome job documenting the build out too. I'm enjoying this one alot.

    Going to be a sweet love nest for those clowns!

    Al
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    I take Pics.. click here for my Flickr images

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