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20G Waterbox Build


mhart032

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It wasn't to bad, the shipping was really not great, but maybe 150 bucks for this size, please note that I didn't really know what I was doing and it was trial and error, knowing what I know now, I could have gotten it done for around 100. Mind you I ordered everything to size so there was a premium for the individual cuts vs bulk ordering. 
Thanks Matt! My steel stand cost $700 so that price range of around $150 sounds great. I'm sure there gets to be a point where the size and weight of the tank wouldn't make sense anymore to do aluminum but good to know! Thanks for sharing!
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From what my customer told me at Western Extrusions, the 20 and 30 series and the double and the 20X40 and especially the 30mm x 60mm can hold upwards of 2500- 3500lbs braced correctly. I'm really impressed by this, i was testing this stand i made and put a 55gal brute trashcan on it, filled to the top, a little shaky, but i still need a couple corner gussets in the corners at the bottom and it will stiffen it up . so just under 500lbs, pretty impressive from 1in x 1in aluminum. 

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Quick update with pics, everything has really mellowed out pretty quickly. I had a small diatoms bloom I cranked the vortechs up did a 50% water change skimmed wet and they were gone in a coupe days. The rock is coloring up a bit, I see small specks of Coraline, all levels are back to untraceable by my current test kits, doh is stable, calcium and mag are in order. As my gf says "the baby shark" or chromis has done really well, colored up very pretty and eats like a piggy. I still skim pretty wet for the time being just to be on the safe side, I'll dial it back soon after I move to the new stand and install the Apex and the rest of the equipment. 20180716_092841.jpg20180716_092841.jpg20180716_092848.jpg20180716_092858.jpg 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had to do some more work to the extrusion stand before I felt like i wouldn't put the tank on the floor, so I ordered some more gussests braced the stand a little better. Now it's finally ready for the move. I picked up my first corals today from Juiceman, accimated them, the hammer is still a little closed up, but the sps seems to be doing good. I'll move the tank when I get some help I don't want to try and move it myself for fear I'll break it. So might as well wait a couple.more days. 20180729_162651.jpg

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I need some ideas as to what to skin this stand with, part of me wants to use black acrylic and leave the extrusion exposed, but im on the fence. I was thinking maybe magnitising something to the sides and from and make it all flat. Thoughts?15330781083821047234875335089055.jpg

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I know that I want to wire up a LED light strip inside the cabinet and and display all the systems for that I will use the black acrylic and mount the controller all the apex components on the back 1/4 of the stand with the power bricks and wireing on the back side . Under the shelf ato and 2 part reservoirs will go there and be out of the way from everything else. 

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Picked up the stuff that Jolt was nice enough to hold for me while my tank was getting ready. everything is doing pretty good with exception to the acans still be a little pissy due to travel and what not. The Goblin picture does not do it justice, the color is amazing in the tank as well as all the rest. anyway here are pics! 

 

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quick update, i had the lemonade frag RTN last night, not really sure what happened, but everything checked out, i did a 5gal water change this morning, i noticed the extension wasn't great the last couple days, but it did get moved when i added the new colonies, the chameleon looks to be starting a little bit, the water change should help some with that. i moved it a bit lower in the tank and turned down the intensity of the lights. the Goblin looks great no issues with that one and the acans and hammer are doing pretty good. i really have to get my apex on the tank and get the dos working quickly to help with the alk, mag and calcium to make sure they stay in check, they have been stable during the day and PH has been right at 8.0 8.4, but ill check it tonight when the lights go out and see if it swings and the alk as well. iv been dosing the KZ system for a few days .5ml a day by hand all 4 supplements and feeding reef roids to the tank in very small qualities, i noticed the salinity was a bit about 1.022 buffed that up with the water change this morning. still not algae really of any kind. I know with the 20gal its going to take some work to get everything super stable. so we will see what happens. I hate to lose corals, but what are you going to do, figure out what happen and learn and fix it. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ok, so I've been super busy with work and not time to do any updates. But I almost got the stand finished up, it spent forever at regal getting panels cut, I waited and waited for them to tell me it was ready, turns out it took them a day and they wrote my number down incorrectly, anyway. It's almost ready to set the tank and finish hooking everything up. The tank has been bad with alk swings. But I think my Hanna checker is giving me false readings. I did 3 tests back to back and got 8.2, 8.7, 9.1 all with in 10 mins. Mag has been stable, calcium has been on tract. Haven't Dino issues due to it being so low nutriance. Everything tests 0 phos tests .7 on the Hanna low range test kit. Undetectable on the high range. Had some STN on some of the sps. I'll admit it wasn't ready. But it's getting closer. I made a big mistake and was trimming the stn from the goblin and dropped it and it smashed into 500 pieces all over the floor 😕 ill have to get some more. It didn't make the glueing back togeather. The acans and the hammer are doing very well (surprises me with the low nutriance) but I been hand feeding them. I went ahead and found the clowns I wanted and added them, they are roughly 8 week old snowflake clowns (finally my gf is happy about something in the tank lol) anyway I'll leave you with some pics of the stand. Still have a couple things to mount when I move the tank over, the tunze ato, heaters and probs. waiting on regal to build me a 4 compartment 500ml each compartment reservoir for the kz system (hopefully Weds) and ordered another dos to handle that. Need to put the brushed alum hindges on the door. Don't mind the foam I used to hold the door on. 20180831_193121.jpg20180831_193346.jpg20180831_193358.jpg20180831_193334.jpg

 

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8 hours ago, jolt said:

I can replace the goblin for you (no charge), just let me know when you would like to meet up.

I really appreciate that, that's pretty awesome. 

 

5 hours ago, FarmerTy said:

Stand and equipment are looking great!

Did you mistype your phosphate level? Is it 0.07 ppm or 0.7 ppm?

Yeah i miss typed. 0.07

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Worked perfect, finally got that all sorted out. I think i have everything finished except the KZ dosing system. I did have one flaw. The ATO syphoned back into the ATO made a mess good thing i can remove the panel from the bottom and was able to clean it up. Im thinking ill make some kind of containment for under the chems. 

anyway here is a pic. Don't look at my ugly stn corals. 

20180902_141855.jpg

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

So everything has been pretty good for the most part, i did lose all the sps, i was on vacation for a week, and my mom was house sitting and the dinos got everything, i did 3 days blackout when i got home and alls well. they are all gone. it was real bad ugh. actually went dark for 4 days to insure everything was gone. started lighting the take a week ago and im happy i did. everything is clean again, a little GHA from phos and no water changes. but all in all manageable. decided before i added the SPS id let a nem roam around and get situated so im not moving things around constantly. hes been in for a  couple days and stayed put right where i put him. it was the lowest flow area in the tank, with the 2 mp10s and the tunze return pump there isn't a whole lot of real estate that has little flow, but it was built for SPS so im not going to compromise on the flow. i started off slow and worked up to where i wanted the flow to be so he would be fine where he was. of course the clowns still wont host, they love the hammer even though they are killing it. anyway here is a quick video of what it looks like now. mind you the dinos engulfed the entire sand bed and rocks. it was terrible. 

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