Azoox Tank Build

[NanoSF]

Sorry to back track on this post but it's my first time reading it. I wanted to know what you used to glue the white (PVC I assume) elbow joint to the black plastic bulkhead that you had to shorten?

[redbelly]

Shaun and I were at Ross's house the other day to give him a hand with the plumbing. Not much was getting done but after some baileys it started moving quickly

As for glue I just used the standard clear PVC solvent. Oateys brand I believe.

[NanoSF]

As for glue I just used the standard clear PVC solvent. Oateys brand I believe.

But a bulkhead isn't PVC right? I thought you couldn't use PVC solvent on plastics? Doesn't PVC solvent melt and weld two pieces of PVC?

[redbelly]

So the tank wasn't quite clear yet but my lack of patients got the better of my and I turned the system on. I figured on a system with over 500g of water volume in total, the dust from a 45g wont make much difference.

I ended up removing the Diodogorgia nodulifera while we were filling the tank as I was worried about how long it was out of water + if the dust would causeit any damage. You may or may not have noticed, but its actually missing in the last few pics.



The glass is still a bit hazy, but in the pic above you can see one of the two firefish in the tank and in the center of the rock work you can see one of the dendron

In the pic above you can see an orange azoox coral in the center of the rock work. This pieces has orange polyps.
In the pic below you can see another orange azoox coral, but this one has white polyps.



These 2 pieces have a few things in common.
They were both shipped as Dendronephthya sp.
I am positive that neither of them are Dendronephthya sp
I suspect the bottom one may be a Alcyonium glomeratum.
And both of them have proven to be quite hardy!

Here is a list of the current tank inhabitants for fish and inverts:
2 Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica)
1 Yasha Haze Gobie (Stonogobiops yasha)
1 Blue Stripe Pipe Fish (Doryrhamphus excisus)
1 Cleaner shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
3 Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)
20 or so Nassarius
1 Caribbean Serpent Starfish

Now with the tank water cleared up we will start to transfer the corals over and should have some pics and a list up soon.

[redbelly]

But a bulkhead isn't PVC right? I thought you couldn't use PVC solvent on plastics? Doesn't PVC solvent melt and weld two pieces of PVC?

Some bulkheads are ABS and some are PVC.
I always use just the standard PVC solvent and it works just fine. I have neven had a leak or even salt creap, ever!
Sometimes I will use the PVC primer, like when it is right in front of me or if the bonding area is small, or if I have had to use my bench grinder to make custom fitting pieces or if it is in a higher pressure situation (like pumping up from the basement onto the main floor).

[Hookup]

Pat, this looks pro.  It's at least 10lbs of awesome in a 5lb bag. 

I am looking forward to seeing the dosing pumps in action. As I'm sure you are as well.  Very nice build.  And I'm looking forward to this summer when we add the 250gallon fish-only system in line.  You might just break the 1000g club yet... 

[NanoSF]

Thanks for the replies Redbelly. Tank looks awesome. Very nice rockscape too.

[ataller]

Love the fridge mod. I thought about doing something similar myself to feed my anthias all day long, and try and mimic how they would feed in the wild.

I saw someone with the same idea on RC, and he used an air stone to stir up the contents in the containers before dosing the tank. Just something you may want to keep in mind if you are going to be feeding some larger foods that would settle to the bottom of the container.

Excited to see the rest of the build.

Adam

[redbelly]

Pat, this looks pro.  It's at least 10lbs of awesome in a 5lb bag. 

I am looking forward to seeing the dosing pumps in action. As I'm sure you are as well.  Very nice build.  And I'm looking forward to this summer when we add the 250gallon fish-only system in line.  You might just break the 1000g club yet... 

Thanks Tim,
Its only a matter of time until my personal system is over 1000g.
I currently have permission that if we decide to stay in this house for another year I can put in a bigger tank. Since you wussed out and went with a nano I am going to have to step up to the plate. I am pre-approved for for a 8' x 3' x 24" tank, well not by the bank.... but by Trina. I tried for 10' but apparently Trina wants t be able to walk up the stairs.... I think they are overrated though.

Thanks NanoSF.

I had been thinking about using an air pump actually adam, but I was worried about the "splash" from th bubble at the air surface. One of the azoox pros on RC just had his tank featured in advanced aquarist magazine and he used a magnetic stirer. This seems like a way better idea to me which is actually what the project has slowed down for. In order to fit one of these inside the door, I would have to dremel parts of it out or replace the liner on the door with acrylic. I have just been too busy recently to figure out which one I will end up doing but I am going to try the piece of acrylic first as it will really open up the inside of the tank with extra space.
I too had actually been thinking of doing this on my main display as well for all my fish. Currently I feed small amounts about 5 times a day and they just love it! But its a lot of work... The tank is on a reverse photo period so the lighting is on outside of peak hours which means the lights are on until about 3 am so its easy for me to feed them over the course of their day but still.

[Aquaviewer]

But a bulkhead isn't PVC right? I thought you couldn't use PVC solvent on plastics? Doesn't PVC solvent melt and weld two pieces of PVC?

To add to Pat's point.  If the bulkhead is ABS, as I understand it, the manufacturer will put in a thin PVC sleeve to accommodate gluing to PVC pipe - if you look closely you can usually see the slight difference between the two materials in the bulkhead.

[Aquaviewer]

Great build by the way - I would like to do a tank like this someday as well.  I'm following with interest.

[salvini55]

Not sure about the sleeve of PVC on bulkheads but Oatey sells ABS to PVC glue as well 

[redbelly]

Its been a while since I posted on this thread but there has been some progress so here we go.

Now that I am finally back and settled a bit after Indo and LA then catching up on mountains of work, I set to installing my new Fauna Marin Dosing pump. These units are crazy sleek and clean looking.



Now I could easily just sit the pump on top of the tank or just build a little riser or shelf for the pump to run the hoses under the unit and up to the tank but I wanted it to look clean so I decided to build a black acrylic box. The input lines to the dosing pump will go straight down and into the fridge. The output line from the dosing pump would would disappear into the box and come out the back all neat and tidy.

As it was the Easter weekend I was limited to building this box to the scrap acrylic that I had sitting around as pretty much everything was closed. I did have enough acrylic though and a decent supply of Weld On 16 so it wasn't long before I had the basic box built.

Now it was time to get out the pen and paper and start blue printing the design. I wanted the pump to be centered on the box, and for the lines to go straight down then make a 90 degree turn and go into the box / under the pump. After a few min of sketching I had the layout and started marking where my holes would go. I used a punch to make sure the holes would be in the right spot, just like I did earlier in this thread on the fridge and I made my pilot holes at 1/8"



Now with the pilot holes drilled I had to address how the lines would make a 90 degree turn into the box. Luckily Home Depot was open on the weekend and I found these there.



The tubing I decided to use of the lines required that one side of this barbed fitting remain as it is, but the other side was far too large to squeeze into the tubing on the Fauna Marin Dosing pump. After a few second on the bench grinder and an extra few second with some sand paper to clean it up this is what I had.



I will admit here that at first I tried to use a file to clean the barbs off the fitting put after about 2 min my patients got the best of me and the power tools came out

I had to drill the hole slightly larger for the barb to fit through the acrylic box and here is the test fit.



Originally I tried to use Weld on 16 but it did not stick to the barbed fitting at all.
So out came the Ecotech Glue and 2 seconds later it was attached.

Once the glue dried I attached the output lines of the Fauna Marin Dosing pump to the black box.



Now I needed to build my wire loom for where the output lines would come out of the box. After all, what is the point to building the box if the lines will come out in a big mess all over the place.



This is a little trick that we used to use when I worked building stock car motors in days gone by. We used to use this for keeping the spark plug wires properly spaced but it works very well for making your dosing pump lines look nice and clean.



I attached my line loom in the box and was ready to install the pump over the fridge.
Now the true test would come, does everything line up perfectly?



I would say that everything seems to line up just about perfectly

I did do all the work so that I could add a forth pump in the future. The FM dosing pump currently has 3, but you can add a forth one down the road. As it would be an absolute nightmare to try and drill more holes in the fridge and drill more holes in the black box I just did it now. Maybe I will add a forth pump, maybe not but either way its ready for one.

Here is a zoomed out shot where you can see the pump on top of the black box, and the lines running into the fridge.

[redbelly]

It did just occur to me that I have not included a pic of how I built the little contraption below how inverting the pop bottles, sorry. Its pretty simply though really and again it was just made out of some scrap acrylic that I had sitting around.



I used an inverted pop bottle with the steepest neck possible. The idea being that with a high angle like this the phyto of foods would not really be able to settle out onto the pop bottle.
I installed 2 airline nipples on the pop bottle cap by drilling a hole and gluing them in with the Ecotech Glue as well.

One nipple I cut down shorter and an air pump could be attached to it to help keep the particles in suspension in the bottle. Unfortunately my variable speed airpump seems to need some service so I just glued this nipple shut for not and will drill it open later.

The other nipple is where I attached the input to the FM dosing pump.
I hit the manual over ride button on the dosing pump (that's the big red button next to the pump) until the phyto was pulled from the bottle and pushed all the way up and into the tank.

Now with everything all finished up I could close up the fridge and admire the finished product.





Still to come:
1) Finishing the lines above the tank.
They didn't have enough barbed fittings at home depot when I was there so I had to just kinds end the lines like this for now above the tank.



2) Adding a second bottle so that I could start feeding the Fauna Marin AzooX feeding line

3) The third line will be used to dose Fauna Marin MinD for now and I would like to add a forth pump to dose oyster eggs.

[redbelly]

I do have some pretty cool pic too.

Here is a black suncoral that I picked up from Fistails





And a close up of one of the polyps



This is a close up of one of our Aussie Dendros


And the Aussie Balanophyllia

[redbelly]

I have to admit that I am a little shocked at how well the following piece is still doing.

Even without the dosing pump this pieces is still a decent size and open 24/7 for feeding.





Its hard to get a good pic of this piece as its kinda under/behind some of the rock work but still.

[Hookup]

10lbs of awesome in a 5lb bag... as always.

[Thunda]

Really looking great

[Severum]

The attention to detail in this build thread is great! Thanks for sharing!

[redbelly]

Thanks guys!

I should have some more pics up this weekend with the other foods that I am feeding plus I should finish up the lines at the top of the tank.

Also I have been playing arund with the reef brites and will get some pics up of that too.