Wesley's 125

[Wes888]

Using a 20g fish tank as an algae scrubber is really hard to work with. Put the light outside the tank and it's too far away. Try to put the light inside the tank and it doesn't have enough room to squeeze the light in close enough. Finally changed the single line design to an "L" shape. Now I can have all 4 lights close enough to the plastic sheets.

My first attempt was just to feed the water from a horizontal T split from the overflow. It just didn't have enough flow. Most of the water went straight down to the sump. Worst yet, one of the glued joins has a tiny leak! :grumble: I was like screw it. Since I have enough flow and enough outlet from my return pump, I just hook the feed from the return pump. I turned the valve half way but the flow was not impressive at all.

I went up stairs and check on the DT overflow and it is at the "normal" level. The water was within the normal overflow slot height. That's too weak for my taste. :D

So, I changed the last support leg with a Quiet One 1200 pump. It should have about 200gph at 2 feet. One side feeding the water from the main return pump and the other side with this small pump to recycle the water. The flow looks much better now. :)

Here is the L shape Algae Scrubber with 4 lights and a fan on top. I also used my old algae scrubber sheet sandwich in there and hope it can seed the new sheets to grow faster.

 

[daugherty]

great job with that scrubber

 

[Wes888]

The move is complete!! Look at how clean the rock and sand is? Wonder how long they gonna last. lol

Oh, there was an accident while removing the rocks and many of the corals branches were broken. Now I have quite a few new frags. lol

 

[dcantucson]

Looks great Wesley. Are you going to be adding more rock?

 

[Wes888]

Yes, there are another 30-40 pound of branch rocks still being cured in the sump room. The current rock structure is more or less copied from the old tank. It's proven and very stable and have room in the back for them to swim all around. They seem to love it. The new rocks most likely will be all by themselves as a rock wall on the left. not sure how it's gonna look and mix with the current layout.

 

[littleyea1]

i love your tank

 

[steelcity]

what is that pretty pink anthia? Thinking about getting a sun burst anthia.

 

[Wes888]

That's a male Lyretail Anthias. It is no where near as red as the picture in the Live Aquaria site, but I actually like it the way it is. More purplelish, and a bit more unique.

 

[daugherty]

your tank looks great i wish i could talk the wife into letting me get a bigger tank

 

[Wes888]

Thank you!

hehe, why not. People like bigger house, fishes like bigger tank. :D

Actually, people like bigger tanks as well. :D

 

[daugherty]

she is already mad about where i put the uv light. she said that my fishtank keeps taking up more and more of her living room

 

[Wes888]

lol. so true. Especially that UV thing. Boy, it's huge! I was so surprised when I got it.

Build a big tall stand like I did and fit everything in there. Show your wife my build thread and show her how neat it could be with a bigger tank. No more stuff outside the tank area.

 

[daugherty]

i did a tall stand but just not big enough. i think the stand is 32in and my uv is about 39 in. but that is the only thing outside the stand.

 

[yote]

Thats a good looking tank Wes.

 

[dcantucson]

James, get her a nice potted plant to put in front of it. Women love plants. :)

 

[dcantucson]

I don't think it matters how large a stand we have, we still need more space! I want a utility tank room.

 

[daugherty]

yea well she already has 5 or 6 of them.
i think i will just try to save some money and buy a 120 and just set it up and not tell her about it

 

[dcantucson]

Tell her you're getting the tank or she's getting a divorce. Period. :lol:

 

[daugherty]

i think if i said that divorce it would be.j/k she would kick my ass. one thing i want to do is set up a system in my basement with 6 or 7 small tanks and make them species tanks for weird inverts or small fish. and one big sump then maybe plum my 75 into it. but my stand was made for a 120 so an upgrade there will be easy

 

[dcantucson]

Aren't you two going to have your hands full, anyway? You're expecting another bundle of joy aren't you? How do you keep up with 3 now and another on the way?