I'm excited to see what you do with this! I'm also working on a build in these dimensions, but you're probably a couple months ahead of me, so I'll be following along with great interest.

 

Thank you! I've been waiting years for this tank to come to fuitition, I'm really excited about it, and since this is going right in the middle of my living room, really hoping the tank comes together in a way that looks good.

I am using an Oase Biomaster Thermo 650 on my Waterbox 4820/120p and it seems to be plenty. I have a spare 250 that I was going to use also but do not feel the need for it. I think that you will be happy with the 850. You will get much more noise from the Griggs than the Oase. I had a Griggs briefly and went back to an inline atomizer/diffusor.

You tempt me! I'm sooo hesitent to bite the bullet on the 850 because I don't want to a) need to buy another filter in addition to the 850, and b) am worried about the on paper calculations. I will be following your journal with great interest, if your tank were 6+ months further along and still working well I'd probably just go for it.

I've had griggs that were noisy and ones that were quiet. The difference being the amount of gas I was trying to pump into it. I think if they are too loud you just need to slow down the gas, the darn things are too efficient so if all the gas hasn't dissolved it will make noise. Or at least that is how I am explaining why my newt tank is dead quiet with the griggs at 1 bubble every 4 seconds while my quarantine was very loud with 4 bubbles per second.

I am excited to see how this turns out. I plan to do a build with this size too but it will be much later in the year. I know there is a shortage on tanks so I hope I will be able to get one when I am ready.

Yeah the tank shortage is very real. Waterbox has been doing a bang up business as their source of tanks seems to be less affected. But UNS, ADA, those guys are taking months between restocking and the demand is easily exceeding the supply.

I have a similar build going on and likely endpoint with discus, and waterbox came through for me greatly. Said 6-8 weeks when I ordered but ended up being less than two weeks.

Question for you and also @mourip, How did you guys move your tanks onto your stands? This is something I am dreading. My tank will (I assume) come in a crate. I have a handtruck and my plan was to move it into my house (on or off the crate depending on whether it would fit through my door) and then...... My wife is not much help at this point and during the pandemic my choice is either figure out how to do it by myself or hire some guys to come pick it up and put it on the stand.

Thanks for any advice.

 

I am using an Oase Biomaster Thermo 650 on my Waterbox 4820/120p and it seems to be plenty. I have a spare 250 that I was going to use also but do not feel the need for it. I think that you will be happy with the 850. You will get much more noise from the Griggs than the Oase. I had a Griggs briefly and went back to an inline atomizer/diffusor.

 

I am excited to see how this turns out. I plan to do a build with this size too but it will be much later in the year. I know there is a shortage on tanks so I hope I will be able to get one when I am ready.

 

I have a similar build going on and likely endpoint with discus, and waterbox came through for me greatly. Said 6-8 weeks when I ordered but ended up being less than two weeks.

 

...and waterbox came through for me greatly. Said 6-8 weeks when I ordered but ended up being less than two weeks.

That is great. I thought that it would be a couple of weeks and it took two months. 48" rimless thanks are in short supply these days.

 

4-2/3 in. Dual Suction Cup Lifter - 125 lb. 4 of these, two on each end with placement depending on preference. Have never had a tank move go so smoothly.

 

4-2/3 in. Dual Suction Cup Lifter - 125 lb. 4 of these, two on each end with placement depending on preference. Have never had a tank move go so smoothly.

Did you do it yourself or with another person? I assume another person?

 

Two of us, neither in great shape with a Minnesota salty heavy slanted drive way, into the basement. If your stand had a wood top I'd detail how I got a 180 onto a stand by myself but without a plastic rim and the concrete i'd say there is no way it's a one man job.

 

but without a plastic rim and the concrete i'd say there is no way it's a one man job.

Le sigh... I worried this was the case. I am definitely going to have to hire someone when this thing shows up heh.

 

Can't wait to see the end results. I like the light setup you have going. I may steal that idea for the basement fishroom.

 

Update!

The tank is..... still backordered... le sigh. This was to be expected though, if the original timeline remains then sometime in the next 2 weeks it will actually ship to me.

Meanwhile I have not been idle. Probably the biggest change is to the stand. I had a poured concrete top on it that I did myself and frankly liked quite a bit. BUT, I had previously been planning a plywood vivarium on it, not a rimless aquarium. That top was not dead flat, and worse, it bulged upward slightly in the middle. How much exactly? Around .5 to 1 mm in the center compared to the edges. Would this have been a tank shattering experience? I don't know. These tanks comes with a 'leveling' mat for a reason but I decided my peace of mind couldn't handle the situation so I needed to replace the top. Rather then try to pour another concrete top I opted for a more professional route.

I called around to several granite supply companies and got quotes. Those quotes ranged from 250 to 500 dollars for a granite top 22 inches x 51 inches. I went with the cheapest option at 250. The folks I bought it form loaded it into my car and I used a hand truck to get it out of my car and onto the stand itself. Actually tilting it onto the stand was a bit of a hairy moment but it found its way there safely enough. Here is how it looks now:

I still like the look of the concrete top but I feel much happier with the stand as an aquarium stand with the granite top.

Next up was work on the engine room. This tank needed a reactor, a heater, a temperature probe, and I decided, a dosing pump, and all of it needed to be done inline.......... Because .. aesthetics.

Granted this is all just my aesthetics but I have decided the only equipment in the tank will be a stainless steel lily pipe inflow with built in skimmer and a stainless steel lily pipe return. Nothing else.

The easiest I did first, the reactor. I have built at this point 5 different reactors, this one is my 6th. When I first built reactors I tried to be ...clever... and made weird reactors. I'm kind of over that phase of my life ;P I realize now that reactors should be kept simple not because my weird reactors didn't work, but because dissolving co2 into water is simple and my reactors were needlessly complicated, costly (by comparison) and overly large.

So this is what I built for my 6th reactor:

Next up was the regulator. I actually had purchased a 2 stage regulator about 2 years ago but lost it at one point only to rediscover it in time for this build. I bought a post body kit from @Bettatail and one evening put it all together. As an aside, Bettatail did an awesome job packing this post body kit up. Here is how the post body kit looked when I opened the box with everything individually wrapped:

My parts all laid out:

Everything back together:

I was told by folks on this forum (years ago) that my regulator is for relatively low pressure (I think 15? psi from memory) but that's fine for my purposes. For a reactor setup I doubt I will need more than that.

This is the first time I will be using a regulator with a bubble counter attached and check valve built in. My current regulator has a bubble counter inline and seperate check valve. Do folks install another check valve closer to the reactor? I'd hate to need to wait for the co2 to fill the whole line past the bubble counter, plus check valves fail etc.


Meanwhile I went to work on my various inline pieces. The heater I ordered from amazon is 300watt Ista inline heater. My research showed only 3 different brands for inline heaters. There is Hydor who is kind of the name brand but uses a spiny wheel dial for controls. There is Ista, and there is a random chinese brand that sells under different names the most popular of which is Datoo. Anyway I got the Ista because it had the least number of horrible reviews. Unfortunately the heater I got was either deliberately mislabeled or Ista changed their design because my 5/8" 16/22mm heater has an outside barbed diameter of 5/8" and an inside diameter that at most could be 1/2". This.. will probably be a problem. I'm going to just suck it up and go with it for now since I already own it, but I will likely replace it when/if it fails to produce the desired results.

For the temperature probe I drilled a hole in a pvc plug just large enough for the probe to squeeze through, then backfilled it with silicone. The plug then got screwed into a pvc Tee.

Of everything though my weakest link will be the fertilizer dosing. I searched through old posts on this forum for people dosing ferts inlinine and found a handful of threads on the subject. It seems that folks have made this work before... but there weren't many people claiming to have done it long term. It seems the biggest weakness are the check valves. They can clog so ferts can't make it through. My plan for dealing with this is to 1) over dilute my ferts to hopefully cut down clogs, 2) mix in a little excel with my micros and macros to stop clogs and mold, and 3) use better check valves. Specifically I will be using Harsh Chemical rated check valves I bought from www.mcmaster.com. I tested them with my dosing pump and it is powerful enough to push open the valve so I 'should' be ok there. Time will tell whether it works or not

Anyway I am as of now planning to go with pps-pro method of ferts. It failed for me once before but I'm hoping a much better attention to detail will get me in a better place this time.

On the cool techie side of things, at least one of my light bulbs is a smart bulb, my power strip is a smart power strip, and my temperature controller is wifi enabled as well (so it will create push notifications to my phone if it detects temperature irregularities). Not bad for off the shelf stuff and someone who doesn't code with a darn ;P

Anyway I spent a few days trying to figure out how I could fit all this stuff NEATLY in the stand. I started with the idea of using a free standing bit of 3/4" melamine and then attaching everything to that. I moved things around on this for a few days until I ended up with this:

It still needs the line leaving the fertilizer manifold and going into the tank but otherwise it's not..uh..horrible. It is not nearly as tidy as I envisioned it either but space became an issue and I didn't want to hard plumb everything together with lots of 90 degree pvc elbows.

As for filtration, well I already own a Polar Aurau (rebadged Sunsun 704b) which is rated for 525gph. On paper its likely not enough power but I already own it, so I'm going to at least hook it up and see how it goes. If its not giving me enough flow (or ends up being too noisy) I will switch it out for either an FX4 or a Sunsun HW-3000. Speaking of which, anyone have any experience with either of those two filters? Specifically interested in how noisey they might be?

And that brings me to current. HOPEFULLY, my next update includes how I used two sets of these gripper things to move a UNS 120P onto that stand.

 

Great progress! Things are looking great underneath there too. Can't wait to see the tank all decked out.

 

I'm 100% stealing that heater probe idea. Looking like this will be just as awesome as your newt tank.

 

Thank you! I can't claim the probe holder as an original idea. I saw someone (can't remember who) do this before. Hopefully it works for both of us!

 

I love the style of the stand @minorhero! ...Too bad it won't hold your original dream tank of 120gal.
How come you chose to go with a canister filter now? I saw in your original posts you were still considering sump and K1 media?
Your "engine" set-up looks great!! I may need to poke you with some questions about fertilizers / reactor etc. when I get to that stage of planning! BTW, thanks for helping me think through my own 300g tank planning and sump design!

 

I love the style of the stand @minorhero! ...Too bad it won't hold your original dream tank of 120gal.
How come you chose to go with a canister filter now? I saw in your original posts you were still considering sump and K1 media?
Your "engine" set-up looks great!! I may need to poke you with some questions about fertilizers / reactor etc. when I get to that stage of planning! BTW, thanks for helping me think through my own 300g tank planning and sump design!

I sadly had to abandon the idea of using a sump for the 75 gallon for the simple reason of photography. I want to be able to enter this tank into the big aquascaping competitions which meant I needed clean sides without an overflow (similar to your desires with your 300g tank - but for a 75 gallon a canister filter is a much easier to implement option). I wasn't really concerned about this when doing the planning on the 120.

 

Question. Would it be better to have the temp probe piped into the cannister inlet tubing? In my mind that would the best reading of the actual tank water. Or being after the cannister and still before the inline heater is it effectively the same?

I have a similar Inkbird probe hidden behind a large sword along with my doser inlet but I would have no hardware in the tank if I could do it. Being a bit paranoid I also try to minimize any out of tank water connections!

Just curious...

 

I honestly don't think it makes any difference whether its before the canister filter or after. Technically the canister filter is imparting some small amount of heat to the water from the pump, but this is pretty minimal. Considering that any filter I use will pump hundreds of gallons an hour, the water will be moving too quickly through the tubing, the tank, and back into the tubing again to really vary much in temperature whether its before or after the filter.

On the other hand, its a lot easier on me to stick all the various connections in the same place. So it got installed after the filter along with everything else being done inline.

I'm paranoid about certain things when it comes to dozens of gallons of water but not about barbed connections or pvc pipe. The latter is designed to handle water inside the walls of households for decades without maintenance, the former is proven secure in hundreds of thousands of aquariums. If it doesn't leak when you first set it up it will keep not leaking unless you start pulling on it. At which time you will know it because you will be sitting there doing the pulling ;P

For the wacky inline things I'm doing? Well I feel mostly pretty good about it ;D

 

Update!!

I got an email this morning telling me that sometime in the next week to 3 weeks I should be getting a shipping notice for my tank.... Golly! I ordered this tank in the middle of February, after I was told it should be coming in sometime in March. In March I was told to expect it in June. In June I was told they had no idea when it was coming in. Looks like it will ship in September. So somewhere around 7 to 8 month turn around.... Honestly if I knew that when I ordered it I might have done things a little differently ;P

Oh well, the good news is that this critter is finally happening!

Consequently for anyone else, if you are interested in a larger UNS tank now is a really good time to pre-order or start obsessively checking stocking status.

 

Any luck yet?

 

It's officially supposed to arrive today. But so far I haven't seen it. Fingers crossed ;P

 

Spoiler

 

Lol, not quite apparently. What I have is an email from a freight tracking service which gives me an estimate of arrival time to be noon on the 22nd. That time came and passed. The 'original' estimate before they ever picked it up is the 24th. This oh so helpful email informs me that someone should be home to receive the freight and that I should be looking for it on the 24th - or even after this date, its quite vague (this is a static email without the subsequent tracking data). Sooooooooo I guess who knows at this point ;P

Presumably somewhere in the continental United States there is a pallet with my name on it, that's all I'm willing to commit to right now.

 

 

BAM!

I will say the packing job was almost disastrous. 6 nails were bent over but still sticking up in the pallet directly under the tank. It was enough to go through the cardboard, the Styrofoam and the leveling mat. 5 of those nails destroyed the leveling mat in fact. These weren't just bent over and pounded into the wood but were actively sticking into the air. They did scratch the bottom of the tank quite a bit but fortunately its all cosmetic. None of the scratches are even deep enough to feel with my fingers. I ditched their leveling mat in favor of a yoga mat I had purchased for my DOOA kitchen tank. The scratches are on the bottom of the bottom pane of glass so it's invisible when filled. Thus I won't be taking any action. I did send a heads up letter to the seller though because somewhere in their shipping process they have someone working who is either extraordinarily incompetent or purposely trying to destroy tanks.

All that said, I am SUPER excited for this tank. It's been 8 months to the day since I ordered it.

 

its xmas in september!!!!!

 

yay, now the fun begins

 

Update!

I have not been idle these last few days. Step one was figuring out the hardscape of course.

I started with 2 very large pieces of malaysian driftwood. I originally wanted both in the tank. After fooling with them for a day I just wasn't happy with how they had to fit together (because they were too big to go into the tank in many orientations without piecing the water's surface). Here is how they looked:

Once I decided I needed to lose one of them, it became a bit easier. I picked the one which was obviously better (to me at the time) and tried to get it into the tank. Again due to it's size there were only so many ways it could go in. I ultimately wasn't happy with essentially the only one that worked. Here is how it looked before I pulled it:

Once I put the other piece in the tank I immediately realized this was the right decision. It fit much better. With minimal fooling around with it I also realized I might be able to make an undercut bank kind of tank with the wood. Here is what my original inspirational position looked like:

This placed the wood up a bit too high on the left hand side. So fiddled with it some more:

and some more:

This was much better. I added some bags of lava rock as filler and some more rocks to see how it would go together:

I kept adding big rocks and got to this point:

I was happy with the big rocks on either end up top but the rocks up top in the middle needed some work:

I was feeling really good about how it was going so I started filling in the extra space with bits of lava rock. (I have I mentioned that I have WAY too much lava rock? - I ordered some crazy number like 10 bags of the stuff thinking I would need it for this build. I ended up using like half of one bag.)

Time to add some sand!

And some detail stones:

And that brings me to current.

There's still a lot more work to do. I need more detail stones, and more small stones mixed into the sand. BUT, this is by far my best scape ever and I haven't gotten to the plants yet. I am super excited to see how far I can take it.

 

Flow seems really good. Not sure you need anything else but.....????
"Less is more"...

 

This looks great!

What kind of sand do you have in there? I like the look of it.

 

HTH Pool Filter Sand. I am also going to mix in some Safe-T-Sorb as 'pebbles'.

Flow seems really good. Not sure you need anything else but.....????
"Less is more"...

Thank you! Probably not much more but I need some more small stones, maybe some pieces of bark/wood.

 

Small update:

I added safe-t-sorb to the tank to give it something to break up all the sand. From experience the safe-t-sorb will stay pretty much on the surface since its significantly less dense then the sand. Right now it looks kinda stupid, but that's because it's wet from me washing it so its all clumped up. Once I fill the tank it should spread out all over. It won't cover the sand but it will cover about 30-50% if I did it right.

I also added some more wood to the tank, though much smaller pieces. There's one small piece in the front middle and another cool root bending around some stones on the top right hand side. The wood in the top middle I ended up removing after this picture was taken because it just didn't 'fit'.

I also pretty much completed the plumbing of the tank (big huzzah). I was mostly done with it already but I have never hooked it up before and put in place important things like check valves etc. Now it is actually all hooked up to a point where I could fill the tank. With that in mind I put some temporary stones in to stop all the wood from floating. Here is what it looks like now:

Next up will be filling the tank, which will probably happen tomorrow. After the tank is full, leak checked, and everything is running as it should I will start getting in plants.

As far as plants go it's going to be pretty sparse. A few medium to small swords, some moss covered stones, and maybe something high maintenance like Brazilian pennywort. And.... maybe another plant species? haven't decided, but there won't be a carpet or even really dense plantings. Stay Tuned!

 

Looks great so far! Love your hardscape placement.

 

Can't wait to see how this thing turns out!