McNugget's Sea of Love

[comycus]

Just to share some design ideas for the cabinet and sump.

Chose to go for simple sump design. Huge Skimmer compartment to cater for future upgrades. Also have 2 removable acrylic sheets to serve as 'betta boxes' if we need to house fishes temporarily in future.

Side compartment of the cabinet to house electrical switches to prevent possibility of water spillage. Thanks to Eniram who got the French Cleats all the way from US for us! much easier to work with than hinges for easy access.

Lastly, FTS of tank and sump with skimmer installed. Do note from gf's pic in last post that the Orphek was mounted a good 2ft away from water level. That was just a temporary setup, we have since hanged the lightset on the custom built aluminum brackets by our sponsor, DE Lightings. Great service from Razali

LEDs are mounted around 15" from water surface. No PAR meter to test, but my eyes tell me its super bright

[peacemaker]

Makes me wanna change my sump... the skimmer compartment for mine is indeed a little too small for upgrades.

Always fun to look a new tank builds!

[pokmingsheng]

your mysterious bf finally reveals himself...

nice to see updates..

keep the pictures coming!

[McNugget]

Went to CF on Sunday morning to get the live rocks....I didnt know rocks can be that 'valueable'!!! Spend a bomb on it

Really appreciate Jacky for taking time off on a Sunday morning to accompany us to choose the rocks:) He is already pro at it.. I learnt from Jacky that rocks with irregularities are the better ones because we can scape it from different angles..

I think scaping is considered one of the most important but yet tedious task. Important because it affects the entire aesthetic look of the tank, tedious because during the scaping process, the one who scapes has to bend down to adjust the rocks and worse of all, he gotta look at the side constantly and not from the top view (very blur) to see whether if its fine.. Bf and me took about 1hr to come up with the scape with 5 pieces of rocks... needless to say, bf was the one who had a backache after that

We are pretty satisfied with the scape... may add another one pc of rock at the back of the RHS to create more dimensions.. Havent decided yet..

BF is pretty boliao You'll know what i mean when you see this...

Disclaimer: The last picture above will not be the real layout of the corals in the tank. He's just trying to kill his time! I repeat, spending 1hr30mins to photoshop the pictures!

[peacemaker]

He's actually doing the right thing... visualizing what the reef would look like. That helps in scaping.

[kenny1111]

that is a nice trick on the last pic, should learn that before buying coral next time.

Keep story going sis.

[comycus]

Bf and me took about 1hr to come up with the scape with 5 pieces of rocks...

Its actually 6 rocks.

This is by far, the easiest scaping I've done. CF rocks are indeed beautiful and fully cured. Cost a bomb though...

Been getting a few queries on tankmaker. We decided to take the plunge with CR Aquarium after hearing good reviews about them. In short, awesome experience. Dan was very patient and accommodating to all my requests and last minute changes, great customer service and a winning business attitude. Tank, cabinet and sump were well built.

Also had the opportunity to go down to the workshop to preview the build to prevent any unnecessary surprises on delivery day. Neat silicone work.

[jackywongto]

wow.... missed so many updates over the last few weeks.....

now I do not even know when to comment.

oh... firstly great decision on bf.... haha... Ray was eyeing him already.... Ding!

haha...

I like the beta boxing in sump concept... really neat.

loads of space to put eqpt too as they are not permanently partitioned.

The dry electical partition is another wonderfully idea.

The filter sock compartment is higher than the rest of the sump and totally enclosed.

awesome... even when sock is clogged and overflowing, water will not splash and there will not be any salt spray on cabinet inner wall. The full enclosure also reduce a lot of noise produced from water gushing down.

Nice rocks, nice scape. nice dummy mockup..... lol...

A very well thought tank which I am sure other hobbyist can benefit from.

2 thumbs up !

[comycus]

Thx Jacky, the rocks are really nice and easy to scape. Thx for helping out last week! The sump is alot more crowded now as we have added in 2 FRs for biopellets and rowaphos. I guess only bigger tanks have the luxury of having more real estate.

GF and I did a minor rescape this morning, and also managed to do some housekeeping. First up, finally did up the wiring! Inspiration drawn from 'Reef in the Sky' for those who know...

Tight space at the back for maintenance if needed to.

Orphek PR-156W... enough to light up my living room at night!

[comycus]

Tank in full diatom bloom, lots of space for fishes to swim and corals to grow. Still trying out white balance settings to get the real colours out...

View from the back...

[jquek]

Like the neat setup, especially the cable management. Nice rocks and scape!

[peacemaker]

Now this scape resembles this...

[comycus]

Now this scape resembles this...

Lol u have a v good imagination bro, it does look like a gorilla! And aptly so, this bugger weighs 7kg, at CF prices, no wonder they say Mountain gorillas are an endangered (and expensive) species.

[freewill]

This hobby does require some good imagination and creative visualization ..

Neat cabling. Does this include light powerpoints!

[comycus]

Pics of the messy sump...

This Skimz is really quite value for money workhorse. I just cleaned the cup and it pulled out this gunk. Looking forward to kopi gao in future!

[comycus]

This hobby does require some good imagination and creative visualization ..

Neat cabling. Does this include light powerpoints!

The lightset comes with quite a big driver/controller box, I was contemplating housing it within the cabinet, but there are space constraints. Temporarily placed next to the tank, still looking for a small cabinet to put beside the tank to house all my accessories

[freewill]

Now, you must be joking about the "messy" sump? Or do you mean "Messi" sump that does wonder?

Besides the 2 cables from mp40 controller, no other wires can be seen! Thats really "Messi" - small but amazing!

Just curious, you have a led light, but I don't see any refugium/chaeto... Is that in the plans?

[rebbot]

Excellent cable management! This is problem that I consistently face when setting up. After battling with dangling cables for some time, I just seem to give up! Lolz Hope I will be able to do better this round!

[jackywongto]

Very nice scape ZM... you don't need any help at all

Now this scape resembles this...

YJ, you just need to pinch his nose to be more pointy and it will be perfect...

[peacemaker]

YJ, you just need to pinch his nose to be more pointy and it will be perfect...

Lol... I just view it that it is about to kiss another gorilla with its lips extended.

[comycus]

Like the neat setup, especially the cable management. Nice rocks and scape!

Now, you must be joking about the "messy" sump? Or do you mean "Messi" sump that does wonder?

Besides the 2 cables from mp40 controller, no other wires can be seen! Thats really "Messi" - small but amazing!

Just curious, you have a led light, but I don't see any refugium/chaeto... Is that in the plans?

Excellent cable management! This is problem that I consistently face when setting up. After battling with dangling cables for some time, I just seem to give up! Lolz Hope I will be able to do better this round!

Thx! Scaping was done with gf's help. I dunno what it would look like without her. The wires are all hidden behind the skimmer, so you don't really see it in the photo! lol But do check out "Reef in the Sky" thread in RC. That was the inspiration for our tank design. Lots of good ideas including the side compartment for cabling!

The LED light is just reused from my old IQ5. No plans for refugium as we are using biopellets. It's just used to light up the cabinet when working on the sump at night.

Very nice scape ZM... you don't need any help at all

YJ, you just need to pinch his nose to be more pointy and it will be perfect...

Nice rocks, easier to scape!

Lol... I just view it that it is about to kiss another gorilla with its lips extended.

lol I must try to take a mirror shot like tt, show another gorilla!

[mengyang_neo]

Any update?