19 replies to this topic

[Josh Blaylock]

Back over the winter, a friend was giving away a 55gal tank, so I took it in.  My original intent was to have it setup for the fish I planned on bringing home from the 2018 NANFA Convention. But procrastination sat in.  May approached and I realized that not only was the aquarium not ready...but I hadn't started.  I began work on it shortly before the convention, and setup a temp. tank for the fish that was going to come home from the convention.

 

This tank wasn't going to be a show tank, like my 125, so I wanted it to be basic.  Located in my utility garage, its really for my enjoyment, and gave me a chance to try some DIY type stuff.

 

Your basic 55gal.

 

 

Leak Test...no leaks.

 

 

[Josh Blaylock]

I decided to do a basic cinder block stand.  This was cheap and easy.

 

 

I added this black backdrop to experiment with lighting and shadows later down the road.

[Josh Blaylock]

Next up, I painted the aquarium frame and the wood on the stand using a black acrylic paint.

 

I also really like the River Manifold system that I have on my 75gal.  It doesn't create a high flow, but it does create more of a 1-way flow and really helps to circulate the water in the tank, and keep from dead spots.

 

I used 3/4in PVC, no glue, and 2 powerheads I picked up at the NANFA convention.  Thanks to Zoomed for donating these, I love that that have a sweeping motion build in, that brings a bit more realism to the flow.  Also, I used some pieces of Swiss Tropics filter for the intakes.

 

 

 

[Josh Blaylock]

The next step was the background.  I thought about all black, but saw some ideas online that I wanted to try.  In order to get a shawdow effect, and to use lighting and other things behind the glass, I opted for a frosted wrap. 

 

 

 

[Josh Blaylock]

Next up, I routed the plumbing for the canister filter.  I had a cheap SunSun filter that I had bought a long time ago.  I can't remember why I bought it, but I hadn't used it.

 

The substrate would be a thin layer of Saf-T-sorb, followed by a mix of sand/gravel that came from Buck Creek KY.  The drift wood came from a few different places, including the 18 Convention.

 

 

 

 

 

[Josh Blaylock]

Next up, Lighting.

 

I used a DIY thing I found online.  Basically, I used PVC guttering and PVC pipes to make tubes.  I used reflective tape on the inside of the gutters.  I then used Cheap LEDs wrapped around the tubes

 

PVC gutter

 

Painted:

 

Light Tube:

 

 

So the cool thing about the lights being done this way, is I used a WiFi controller called Magic Home. You plug that into the LEDs, and it allows you to setup custom colors, timers, and more.  You can add Magic Home to Google Assistant, or Amazon Alexa, and also IFFT.  All of this allows for a lot of customization.  For example, I use IFFT to control when the lights come on, and fading in and out.  You can also use IFFT to change the light colors based on weather, but I've found that doesn't work as well because it can switch on the lights when they are supposed to be off, when it updates the weather.

 

I thought about doing a video on this, but haven't had the time.

[Josh Blaylock]

For lids, I made and altered some screen tops.  I originally made one top for each side.  Then I realized the pain of taking them out.  So, for the Right side, I cut the metal to allow me to bend it open to feed.  For the Left side, I made it into 2 screens, overlapping, for larger access.

 

 

 

[Josh Blaylock]

Prestocking

 

 

I wanted to try plants.

 

 

Something strange kinda happened.  When I finally mounted the light tubes into the Cutter (instead of just sitting under them) the color changed in the tank.  Not sure what happened with the LEDs.  Has a little more yellow tint.  I have 2 light tubes, a RGB and 10K white LED.  I may have to tweak the colors a bit.

 

 

 

[Josh Blaylock]

Here it is today:

 

 

 

 

 

The driftwood is growing some kind of fungus, the plants are doing pretty well and all the fish seem happy.

 

I still have a little left to do, mostly with the lighting coloration and the back lighting behind the tank.

 

I had the idea from here: http://reefcentral.c...d.php?t=1868825

basically creating a shadow box behind the aquarium to add depth.  I haven't got around to fooling with that yet.

 

The biggest disappointment is that my temporary tank crashed and I lost 80% of the fish from the Georgia Convention.

[michifish]

What is the purpose of wrapping the leds around the tubing. I have built a lot of gutter lights and i just glue them to the gutter and have been pretty happy. Even get the dapple effect.

[Josh Blaylock]

What is the purpose of wrapping the leds around the tubing. I have built a lot of gutter lights and i just glue them to the gutter and have been pretty happy. Even get the dapple effect.

 

Not really sure there's a specific reason.  Gluing them would work just as well, if not better.  It's just what I watched on a video.

[lilyea]

Josh - I'm sorry to hear about the system crash, but this is a nice setup!  Thanks for sharing the build.

 

 ... Not sure what happened with the LEDs.  Has a little more yellow tint.  I have 2 light tubes, a RGB and 10K white LED.  I may have to tweak the colors a bit....

 

If you haven't fixed the yellow tint issue already you may want to check your electrical connections - I have seen this happen in the past when working with this style of lighting setup and, from my experience, if it isn't addressed then the lights seem to burn out more quickly.

 

What is the purpose of wrapping the leds around the tubing. I have built a lot of gutter lights and i just glue them to the gutter and have been pretty happy. Even get the dapple effect.

 

 

One of the weak points in a DIY strip LED setup is the connections and/or splices.  Wrapping the lights around a tube limits the number of breaks in the light strip and the lights that are not pointed at the tank are reflecting off of the inside of the gutter canopy.

[Chasmodes]

Very interesting.  

 

I too am fascinated by the shadow box idea, and read the reef central thread.  They look great. I'll be following along if you decide to build one.  I wanted to do that for my oyster reef tank, but instead of blue, use a pale green.  The only problem is that it's tough to find the right shade of green or yellow (I want to match our Bay water).  I also thought about buying the cheap plexiglass and dying it to the shade that I want.  This is way down the road for me though.  I have to get my tank infrastructure done first (electrical work, finish my stand, etc.).

[littlen]

Stock list? Looks like some nice shiners in there still fired up.

If it's not too soon, what was lost in the great tragedy of the temporary tank? 

[Josh Blaylock]

Stock list? Looks like some nice shiners in there still fired up.

If it's not too soon, what was lost in the great tragedy of the temporary tank? 

 

Stock list:

SRBD

Scarlet Shiners

Rainbow Shiners

Alabama Shiners

Tri-Color Shiner

Yellowfin Shiners

Redside Dace

Ozark Minnow

Rosyface Chub

Blackstripe Topminnow

 

 

I'd expect some type of breeding behavior next spring.  The area where that tank is an unfinished part of my basement.  So the temps in there fluctuate with the seasons, but also doesn't get to extremes where the fish would be unconformable.  

 

 

The temp tank was more of a failure than a tragedy.  I have a 20long that I take to river cleanups and events to setup and show people fish.  I set it up using a couple established filters.  I thought this would buy me enough time. But I suppose the combination of transport stress, over crowding in my cooler, and the stress of being in that 20gal was too much. I lost a bunch of Tri-Color, Yellowfin Shiners, Rainbow Shiners and most of my Rosyface Chubs.  Like I said before, I probably lost 75-80% of the fish I brought back from GA.  I'm not sure which one upsets me more.  I love the color of the Rainbows, but was looking forward to having a good sized school of Yellowfins in that tank.  I think I have 3-4 now.

 

Seems like Tri-Colors are kinda touchy anyways (especially in summer).  I jumped down into GA for a couple hours while on a trip to Chattanooga.  I collected for a couple hours, and found 4 Tri-Colors.  They were only in a cooler for 4 hours until I got home.  I still lost 3 of the 4, but all the Alabama Shiners were fine, so I have about 10 of those.

[littlen]

That is a sexy list of shiners, sir.  Good luck with the tank.  Looks sharp.

[Josh Blaylock]

That is a sexy list of shiners, sir.  Good luck with the tank.  Looks sharp.

 

If it continues to do well, I'm going to break down the 125 and redo it.

[littlen]

Is there something about the setup of this 55 that you want to incorporate into the 125?

[Josh Blaylock]

Is there something about the setup of this 55 that you want to incorporate into the 125?

 

 

That 125 has seemingly been an unhealthy tank for years.  While fish thrive in several other tank, not that one.  I've often suspected it has something to do with the 3D wall in the back.  Not the wall itself, but the position in the tank, it sits a few inches from the back, hiding the plumbing.  Also, I really love the sand/gravel mix substrate and the river manifold system.  I did both of those in my 75gal Coosa Bass tank and love the look.  What I'd like to do is, breakdown the 125, move the rock wall all the way against the back, add the river manifold and add sand to the substrate.  

[MtFallsTodd]

Nice looking set up Josh.