The Etoimos 270g FOWLR build

[Etoimos]

Lots of work going on for the build the last couple of days.

I made up the forms for the footers that will be used to reinforce the floor the tank will be sitting on.

I then made up some plumb lines to help figure out where the forms needed to be placed.

Then it was just a matter of mixing up some concrete and filling the forms.

There was quite a bit of work going on for some the fish room stuff, but I'm going to hold off on posting pics of that until it is all done. I hope to get that wrapped up tomorrow and to get started on building the stand for the tank.

 

[Etoimos]

I also trimmed out the door, baseboards, and fan opening.

And more cable management stuff was done.. including turning the white power cords into black ones.

 

[Etoimos]

Last weekend I was able to get the stand frame done.

I setup my miter saw station to cut each of the legs. This ensured that each leg was exactly the same length.

Having all the legs the exact same length made it much easier to get everything squared up.

With everything squared up, I then clamped it all together so that they would not move when I glued and screwed them.

Using wood glue makes the joints much stronger.

Three sides down, one to go.

Counter sunk and pocket screws keep the face of the frame nice and clean so skinning it later will be easier. It will also give a better looking finish.

Not all 2x4s are created equal. The bottom side support was a little taller then the front and back supports, so I had to notch a little out to get it to fit in correctly.

And the frame is all assembled with help of Maximus

And finally, a quick coat of white paint in the $50 paint booth to help seal the wood from possible spills.

 

[Etoimos]

I made a little more progress on the stand this past weekend.

Some counter sunk screws to hold everything in place.

I use a circular saw to cut the full sheet of plywood down to the rough size.

All trimmed down.

A flush trim bit in the router.

The bearing on the bottom of the router bit keeps the bit flush with the side of the frame.

Then it is just a matter of pulling the router down the length of the frame to cut the top down to the exact size (and shape) of the frame.

 

[Etoimos]

Work on the build has been steadily progressing.

I made a mounting board for the RODI system and got that mounted and plumbed. If you have not noticed yet, cable maintenance is a thing for me. As such the RODI tubing had to be route and locked down to keep things pretty clean. I still need to do something with wires from the booster pump solenoid, but I'm waiting to see what else I have to do over there to clean it up more.

I've also made some more progress on the stand. It has now been skinned and mostly trimmed out. I still have to do the lip/ledge around the top that will go all the way back to the tank. I'm still undecided how much of an overhang I want. I'll go ahead and paint what I have done now so that there is protection under the ledge in case water gets down there.

The ledge will be attached to the top sheet of plywood where the tank will sit. It then over hang the front and sides.

I used Hemlock lumber to frame in the panels. Hemlock resists warping and twisting so it makes nice trim pieces. It does scratch and dent a little easier, so you have to be careful about that. It is also quite a bit cheaper then poplar (I'll make the ledge out of this as it will see more ware).

Wood glue helps the finish nails hold it in place.

Next I added detail trim to the inside and sealed the gaps between every board.

Then it was just a matter of sanding it all down for a day and a half.

Back when I ordered the tank, I also placed an order with TSM Aquatics for some quarantined fish. I ordered a Desjardini Sailfin tang, a Blond Naso tang, 3x Blue Hippo tangs, and a One Spot Foxface. I tried to plan for their delivery on a day with warmer temps, even postponing it a week to ensure the lows were not too cold. Of course the weather here in Colorado decided to make things interesting.

All the fish arrived safe and sound and I was quite happy with my experience with TSM. Not only was their service really good, but the packing of the fish was good as well.

The Sailfin and Foxface went into my 60g cube with the two clowns I already had.

DeVinchi

Bubbles

Archer

Renegade

I did not know that the Foxfaces changed coloring and pattering when the slept, so that was a cool surprise for the family.

The Naso and Hippos went into a temporary 40 breeder. They are all doing good, but this group is really shy so I don't have any pics of them yet.

I did have a few setbacks on the plumbing for the RODI tanks. Some how I managed to crack a union after it was installed, so I had to rem make a section of pipes and fittings. Then the pump I was planning to use to move water between the two tanks kept leaking, so I'm waiting on a new pump for that to show up. I was able to make 220g of RODI water. Now the old temporary sump is soaking in vinegar water to clean it up a little more. Pics of all of that to come once it is all completed.

That's it for this update, I hope to have more to share in a couple of days.

 

[JodiI]

I didn’t know fox faces changed like that either! Wow! He’s beautiful!

I love building, and I love watching your progress on this. The trim is a very nice touch. Keep the updates coming!


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[Etoimos]

I didn’t know fox faces changed like that either! Wow! He’s beautiful!

I love building, and I love watching your progress on this. The trim is a very nice touch. Keep the updates coming!


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Thank you. The foxface changing was a really cool surprise for us as well. When he wants to hide or when he is sleeping, he becomes very ridged and "sticks" to the rocks (or the turned off powerhead like in the photo above) for hours. When he does it on the rocks, it is very hard to see him. It is really cool.

 

[Etoimos]

This week I started laying down the paint on the stand.

I also managed to get my mixing station setup over the last couple of days. I painted the reservoirs red and black to match the color scheme of the room. I think painting them makes them look much better then the neutral white color the come in. It also helps hide a lot of the nicks and scratches they got during shipping. The only thing I don't like about them being painted is, that the paint scratches off very easily. I lightly sanded and wiped them down before painting them, but maybe I should have used a different type of paint or sprayed with with a primer first.

The bottom part of my mixing station plumbing is pretty standard.

Just above the pump I have basically a manifold setup. I plan to run my salt water through a filter filled with filter floss to help control the brown crud that builds up in the new saltwater reservoir. The valve between the two allows me to use the system without a filter if needed.

After that I have another manifold. The downward facing valve allows me to draw either saltwater or RODI water into a bucket. The valve that goes in front of the red RODI reservoir will be plumbed all the way to my sump once it shows up. This will allow me to easily do large water changes from my sump. I'll have a pump in the sump that will pump all the water out, then I can just open the correct valves and turn on the mixing pump to refill the sump. My plan right now is to do automatic water changes via an Apex DOS and then do a 60~70 gallon water change once or twice a month.

 

[Etoimos]

Okay, it has been a while since I updated this build thread. That's because I've been busy working on the tank with every spare moment I get. So, here comes some update for everyone....



I finished up the lower part of the stand and I'm fairly happy with the way it came out. There are a few nit picky things that probably only I will ever notice that bother me when I see them, but so far everyone that has seen it in person likes it a lot.

I also finished up the floor supports in the crawl space.

With those two things done I was able to move the stand and the tank into their final location in the house.

 

[Etoimos]

With the stand and tank in place, it was time to start cutting holes in the wall through to the fish room behind it.

To clean up the wholes I made inserts and trimmed in all of the opens and wall studs.

With everything trimmed in, it was time to paint them all to match the walls so they did not stand out too bad.

 

[Etoimos]

While all of this work was going on, my slightly custom Synergy Reef SK-60 sump showed up.

This sump allows you to run either dual 7" filer socks or dual Clarisea SK5000 roller filters. I ordered the extra top plates so that I could run both of them as needed. I plan on running the filter socks initially to catch all the crud floating around from setting everything up. That way I'm not wasting roller filter in the beginning. As you can see in the photo below, the sump is modular to allow for both options.

The sumps is a really nice looking sump and I'm very happy with it. There were a few small cosmetic issues, but since they do not effect the operation of it and are not really noticeable, I'm okay with them.



A couple of glue smears...

And a dinged corner...

 

[Etoimos]

With everything in place, it was time to get started on the plumbing. Unlike the nice and easy plumbing layout I CAD'd up back at the beginning of this project, the real plumbing was not quite so easy or clean. Right where one of the return lines needed to come through the wall at was a stud. That forced me to run that return line on the house side of the wall behind the tank and out the center "window" I had cut into the wall.



One of the drain lines was also extremely close to one of the studs. So close in fact that there was no room for me to angle it over some to meet up with the drain port in the sump. Due to how the sump and tank aligned, I could there was not enough space to do a simple 45° to 45° to jog it over to line up. Instead, I had to do a full 90° and then extend it out past the sump to then do some more 90°s to get it to come back in and line up with the sumps drain port.



With all the crazy plumbing, I had to make some hangers to help support various parts of it.

 

[Etoimos]

And that brings us to where it has been sitting for the last couple of days...

 

[SynDen]

Looking awesome. Very sporty with all the black and red. I like it. Getting ready to scape it next after the leak tests?

 

[Etoimos]

Looking awesome. Very sporty with all the black and red. I like it. Getting ready to scape it next after the leak tests?

Leak tests are done and I'm adding salt to the RODI water that is in there now. Once the salinity is correct, I'll move over the rocks I've had setup in a stock tank for several months. After that it is just adding the sand and it will be ready for the fish to move in. I'll setup the Apex after that and the final part of the project will be building and installing the canopy.

 

[Etoimos]

Well, shortly after posting that last post I noticed a very slow leak from the overflow bulkhead. It took quite a bit of time and effort to get it sorted out, but there is now saltwater, rocks and sand in the tank!

And a couple of shots to try and show off the depth/3D look of the rocks. I might grab a video later to help show this a little better.

Since this is supposed to be a Fish Only tank, I was not concerned about places to place corals. Instead, I focused on giving the fish interesting places and paths to swim. I also think it will be very cool to watch the fish swim in and out and around all the different spires.

 

[Angelo]

I lasted 6 months with a FOWLR. Turned in to a softie tank. Do you think that you'll keep it fish only?

 

[JodiI]

That aquascape is super cool!! I love it! All the spires look fantastic!


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[Etoimos]

I lasted 6 months with a FOWLR. Turned in to a softie tank. Do you think that you'll keep it fish only?

For he most part it will stay fish only. Our current 60g cube has been a softie tank and while we really liked it, we want to have a lot of fish that are not know to do well with corals. I'll be moving my nems over to the new tank and a couple of softies that we already have. If those survive I might add some more super easy corals like GSP or something.

 

[Etoimos]

That aquascape is super cool!! I love it! All the spires look fantastic!

Thank you, it was a lot of work building those but I'm super happy with how it turned out.