jgjert Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 This build has been a long time coming. I started thinking about doing a saltwater aquarium last summer after I saw my friend’s 90 gallon reef tank in Houston. After about 4 months of thought and research I decided to go with this smaller 29 gallon tank that would sit on my kitchen countertop rather than the much more massive tank I had in mind for above my kitchen table. I’m glad I chose this tank size as I soon discovered this saltwater tank stuff is stupid expensive. I knew when I first started this build that I wanted to build the tank from scratch; drilling the overflow, custom machined baffle, DIY overflow box. Why you may ask? Because I am an engineer and can fabricate parts myself… so why not! In hindsight this decision may have been a mistake since I ended up breaking some stuff and it didn’t work quite right the first time. But now I know how to do all this tank building reasonably well so the next one SHOULD go much smoother. Once I decided on the orientation of the tank it was time to drill the tank, an Aqueon 29gal tank from Petco. Everything was going fine on the first hole until the very end when I let the drill get away with me and cracked the tank. Second two practice holes went ok but the tank was still cracked. Fortunately, my girlfriend bought me a gift certificate to Petco for Christmas and round two proved more successful. For those of you who want to drill your own tank, do yourself a favor and put a wood backing where you drill your holes (I didn’t do this the first time around and it made a huge difference). This will prevent you from losing control of your drill as you break through on the other side and should minimize your risk of cracking your tank like I did. These next pictures show the overflow baffle and box which was drilled and milled to pull water from multiple levels in the tank. It took me a while to finally get the overflow draining at the same rate as my Eheim 1000 compact pump due to some silicone plugging the holes drilled in the glass. Once this problem got cleared up it was time to fill with live sand and aquascape. Right now lighting is provided by a single ecoxotic par38 12k bulb. It will eventually be hanging on some oak and stainless steel from the cabinetry, but for now I am making good use of my engineering textbooks as counterweights. The tank definitely needs another one however I have started to second guess my choice of the ecoxotic after reading about the orphek PR-25UV bulb. Anyone out there have experience with the orphek bulbs? As it stands the tank has been cycling for about a week but I am in no rush to add livestock or corals in since I don’t think I am done fiddling with the aquascaping. Right now I think I am going to put in an engineer goby, some kind of blenny, a small royal tang, cleaner shrimp and a dwarf angel of some kind. I would love any feedback or suggestions y’all have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blindside Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 looking good, did you make that overflow yourself? looks interesting.. i have no experience with the ecoxotic par bulb nor the orphek. i use the rapid led par38, the reason i chose it over the others was cause it has 7 leds total, the others have 5. and its a great bulb, love the color too. nice scape by the way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgjert Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 Yes, I did make the overflow. It seems to do what I intended it to do which is pull water from all levels rather than just the surface. I appreciate the comments on the scaping; it was quite challenging, given how narrow the tank is, to get the rocks to look nice and have it be stable without drilling or doweling. If I were to upgrade this tank in the future I will definitely be getting something that is 18" wide instead of 12". Also, since i took this picture I added another 20lbs of live rock, bringing the LR total to 52lbs or so. I have been told there is no such thing as too much live rock... however I am having trouble fitting all 52 pounds of it in my tank and refugium not to mention the chaeto I would like to add. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbnj Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Ideally, you want to overflow to drain as much surface water as possible and use circulation pumps to help bring detritus to the surface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.