Keith's 65G Tall (Tech 70)

[masterswimmer]

And yes, that is a Custom King 1-off sump. The manifold is plumbed and ready to feed both reactors and a 9w UV.

uuuuhhhh, then why is your heater in the display? :scratchch

swimmer

 

[Keith P]

uuuuhhhh, then why is your heater in the display? :scratchch

You may be too observant for your own good :shhh:

I'm still working on the wiring under the stand. The heater is only temporary.

Originally I had all the controllers mounted to the underside of the stand. I noticed after only 2 weeks they had salt creep on them.

I'm making a rack to goto the right of the tank. This will hold the chiller, quarantine tank, reactors, and all the controllers. Unfortunately, construction has been going slow.

 

[masterswimmer]

You may be too observant for your own good :shhh:

All good bud. :lol2: Just playing with ya.

Looks nice though. I realize it's in the construction stage. Keep up the good work.

R

 

[Keith P]

Chiller has been tested and is online. I received cured live rock and sand from two different MR members this weekend. The waiting begins. Hopefully just in time for the frag swap!:thrash:

Look forward to an update this week with a new 1/4" mesh top, auto top off, and finalized wiring.

 

[jaa1456]

Is that stand the same footprint for a 65? if so how much was it and where did you pick it up?

 

[Keith P]

Is that stand the same footprint for a 65? if so how much was it and where did you pick it up?

The Tech 70 is basically a 65 tall. It's made by Oceanic.

 

[jaa1456]

thanks

 

[OctaviousMonk]

Tank looks great. Do you have an endless supply of nylon blocks or what? Wondering why you have the starboard if you went with a sand bed? I usually only see the stuff in bare bottom tanks

 

[Keith P]

Tank looks great. Do you have an endless supply of nylon blocks or what?

It's good to work at a machine shop

Wondering why you have the starboard if you went with a sand bed? I usually only see the stuff in bare bottom tanks

I really designed the whole tank around housing a jawfish. I fear rock-avalanches. The starboard is just an extra layer of protection. It also eats up another 1/2" of this already tall tank.

 

[Keith P]

Just finished upgrading the batteries in my UPS battery backups.
These units were both salvaged from the dumpster, due to weak batteries.

The original batteries were two 12V7Ah and two 6V12Ah. I swapped them out for two 12V17Ah and one 12V27Ah. More than doubling my capacity. I had to modify one of the units to better fit the large battery. The other required external mounting.

The batteries were sourced by a Plainview battery supply house. Feel free to PM me if you want the companies contact info.

After last week's black out, I figured it was time up my backup time :redface:

Now I just need to find a place for them. I may "poke" a hole into the closest and hide the wiring there...

 

[aznt1217]

Hey Keith, make sure you only run powerheads and heater on those.

Those batteries don't got enough juice even with doubling capacity.

 

[Keith P]

By request, a pic of the Wingo LED moon lights:

 

[jaa1456]

Looks great

 

[aznt1217]

Wow dude those could pass for actinics lol.

 

[Keith P]

Light suspension 2.0!

A trip to West Marine scored me a set of pulleys. The light can now be lifted with one hand! A cleat makes adjustments super quick.

 

[AriMiko43]

What are those red rods you used going through your rock work? Are they used to hold the rock together for aquascaping? Do you drill into the rock and insert the rod and then into another rock to suspend rock for bridges, ledges etc.? If so where can I get those rods or something similar?

 

[Keith P]

What are those red rods you used going through your rock work?

The rods are fiberglass driveway markers. They are from home depot.
They are much stronger (and more flexible) than acrylic rods.

I used a mason bit and drilled the rocks to accept the rods. Make sure to cool the rocks with water while drilling. I tried a spade bit, but it tended to split the rocks.

Not only do they support the rocks, they make the rock relatively easy to disassemble.

I'm going to hide the rods better once I start adding corals....

The key is to setup the rocks and rods before the water and sand is added. It's a total pain to do wet. Doing it dry made the process bearable.

 

[aznt1217]

Light suspension is a stroke of genius.

 

[Keith P]

Added some live stock, finally.

Blue Spot Jawfish
Cleaner Shrimp
Emerald Crab
Blue Legged Hermits
Fighting Conch
Tiger Nassarius Snails
Tonga Nassarius Snail (he's a big boy!)
Margarita Snails
Cerith Snails

I've seen tons of micro fauna. I was worried that only seeding the tank with one small piece of live rock would leave the tank pretty sterile. (I started with all base rock)

I had one small mushroom on a small rock, but the jawfish quickly stole it for his cave building.

The dremel is still charging. Once it's ready, all the fancy corals (from the nano) are moving into the new tank. The rest will be given away in a different thread.

I finally have a reason to sit and stare at my tank :tongue1:

The jawfish is really tearing up my tank. It's tunnel has like 5 exits. He pops up everywhere in my tank. VERY entertaining! If I didn't go through the exercise of staking my rocks and making sure they were planted on the bottom of the tank, I'm sure they would have toppled. This fish can really excavate!

 

[Keith P]

I think their eyes make them look angry....

And Conchs just bug me out. They look like Noo Noo from the Teletubbies!