200 DD 2x Upgrade Build

[OrrG]

Well I think it's safe for me to finally set this tank up. I have 3 months left of my 8 year contract with the U.S. Army and am pretty confident I won't get called back, it already happened once and I had to take a down becasue of it. I've been planning this upgrade for few months and am starting to bring everything together. I have a 90G running now and it's packed, this tank can't get set up soon enough! The 200 is going directly across from the 90, 14 feet, and will have a basement sump, which will be directly below the tank. So here's a list of the system.

Tank
200G Marineland Deep Dimensions with Starphire front and corner overlows. ( I really wanted an external overflow and I called every major custom tank manufacturer and this tank was over $1000 cheaper than custom so I went with a mass produced tank)
Sump - 40 x 14 x 14 34G (It's under my 90 now. Going to use a 20 long as a temp sump to get this sucker out)
Fuge - 30 x 12 x 13 20G
Frag - 48 x 24 x 10 50G
All 3 of these tank are acrylic and were made by a local Reefer, DEERE G, he does awesome work.

Lighting
2x 250W Radiums in Lumenmax Elites on 2x Galaxy Select-a-watt ballasts
2x 54W T-5 retro on a Icecap 430 ballast with KZ Super Blue bulbs
2x 48" Icecap LED Lunarlites

I'm using a 6 bulb Powermodule over my 90 now and I love the color and growth but really miss the shimmer of MH so I'm going back. I'll use the PM over the frag tank.

Flow
3x Vortech MP40Ws (2 on my 90 now, pickeup a 3rd the other day. One on the back glass and 1 on each side)
Panworld 150 return

Equipment

I don't really need anything new, all of this is on my 90 now
ATB Econo 840 (It may be a little on the small side for my system but it's going to have to work, I'm not buying a bigger skimmer)
2x BRS reactors for carbon and phosban
Apex
Litermeter 3 (I love this thing)
Tunze Osmolator
Air, Water & Ice Extreme Typhoon 3 150 GPD RODI

Misc

1"-1.5" sandbed with Caribsea Special Grade
125 lbs Marco Key Largo rock (This is really nice rock and fits together like legos. Can't beat it, especially for $2 a pound)


My main concern it the transfering of corals. I have the great option of keeping my 90 running while everything gets going but am a little concerned with the tranfering of my SPS. It's going to be hard for me to get rock from my 90 out to seed the new tank with but I should be able to get a few pieces. I have a fuge that is packed with pods and some rubble rock which will get taken down and transfered when I take the sump off the 90. Will water from my 90, a few pieces of rock, and the fuge be enough to jump start the new tank? I can wait a month but really don't want to wait 3 months to move the SPS over. What do you guys think I should do?

 

[OrrG]

Some tank pics

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My fish are going to be lost in here

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My son wants to go swimming, he's begging me to fill it up

 

[Tater11]

oh ya this is gonna be good.will follow

 

[OrrG]

Made some progress on the stand today, should be done by next Sunday I hope, then the canopy. The stand is 33" tall.


<a href="http://s601.photobucket.com/albums/tt100/ReefTrigger/200%20DD/?action=view&current=IMG_2260.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt100/ReefTrigger/200%20DD/IMG_2260.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

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[OrrG]

And some preliminary scape pics. I ordered some 1/2" acrylic rods for the left stucure. I want to make it less bulky at the bottom but taller with some ledges sticking out at different heights. I really want to keep this tank pretty open. Did I tell you guys this rock is amazing?!



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[bennkrys01]

I'm going to build a stand for a 250 DD that I plan on setting up this summer. What is the size of the stand you are building? Did you have to add a 1/2" for the plastic frame?

 

[prop-frags]

Looks like a great start. Love your ideas for the rock.

I would sell your skimmer and upgrade. You'll be glad you did. Depending on your stocking level, of course, but it's always better to have more skimmer than you need.

As far as migrating the current rock over to the new, I can offer the following suggestion. We migrated from a 180 to a 300DD. We used a 125 as a holding tank for the livestock. We borrowed a 150g rubbermaid stock tub from our LFS to cure the new dry rock we purchased along with some of our old rock from the 180 and some live sand. We let all of this "cook" for a good long while, but if you can spare a month, that should do the trick. We used about half of the water from the old system to fill the new system. You can do incremental water changes with your holding system to partially fill your new setup. Being able to attach your pod-rich refugium to the new system will help a ton!

 

[Cove Beach]

One hint on rock placement, leave enough room between glass and rocks to get scrapers and mag floats. Also remember as the corals grow you will have less room to work. Learned that lesson with my 220 and a big frogspawn coral that keeps getting bigger.

 

[WmTasker]

<--- Very Jealous.

 

[vietcu]

Looking really good, jealous at the same time . Hey here is a little extra tip on the rockwork. I would drill the crap out of them for coral placement while they are dry, more is always better. It is so much easier to drill holes for frag plugs while the rocks are dry vs when it is fully cured. Will definitely follow along, I love large tank builds. Especially when it is from people I know.

Didn't read your transferring question, until after I posted.
Get water running and ready to go in your new system, and make sure that everything is working the way you want it. Fresh water is fine doesn't have to be saltwater. Once everything is running correctly and no hiccups, start to mix in the salt to get it to match your 90's water. Once that is done, take out as much as you need of the new water out and refill the rest with the water in your 90. Then you can transfer as soon as you like. I did this to a 500+ system and had no death. All you have to do is make sure the salinity of the new system matches the salinity of the 90. I am not 100% sure on checking the Alk and other parameters, but all I did was check the salinity. Transferred from a 100g system to a 500+, ran the new water for about 1 week give or take a few days. Hope that helps. Only note that I have to say is I am not sure the difference between a tank with sand vs a barebottom tank. I transferred and move to a barebottom tank, so no sand at all just live rocks and base rocks.

 

[chefzif]

Looks great! Let me know if you are going to still part with the sump on your 90! chef!PM me if so!

 

[OrrG]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, keep em coming!

I'm going to build a stand for a 250 DD that I plan on setting up this summer. What is the size of the stand you are building? Did you have to add a 1/2" for the plastic frame?

The stand is just 48" x 36" x 33" with about 1/8" added on. The tank will sit right on top of the 2 x 6 and the plastic frame will get covered with oak trim later on.

Looks like a great start. Love your ideas for the rock.

I would sell your skimmer and upgrade. You'll be glad you did. Depending on your stocking level, of course, but it's always better to have more skimmer than you need.

As far as migrating the current rock over to the new, I can offer the following suggestion. We migrated from a 180 to a 300DD. We used a 125 as a holding tank for the livestock. We borrowed a 150g rubbermaid stock tub from our LFS to cure the new dry rock we purchased along with some of our old rock from the 180 and some live sand. We let all of this "cook" for a good long while, but if you can spare a month, that should do the trick. We used about half of the water from the old system to fill the new system. You can do incremental water changes with your holding system to partially fill your new setup. Being able to attach your pod-rich refugium to the new system will help a ton!

I'm going to try the skimmer out for a while, hopefully it will hold up. That sounds like a good idea I don't mind taking my time. What do you think about Vietcu's idea a just going for it all at once?

One hint on rock placement, leave enough room between glass and rocks to get scrapers and mag floats. Also remember as the corals grow you will have less room to work. Learned that lesson with my 220 and a big frogspawn coral that keeps getting bigger.

Good call with the rocks, I am going to move the right structure in a bit and once I get the rods I'll get started on the left side making it a little more compact.

 

[OrrG]

Thanks Vu. So you say just go for it all in one shot? Transfer corals and fish to a temporary tank with water from the 90, fill up the 200 with whatever water is left from the 90, fill the remaining volume with new saltwater and then put everything in? I would love to be able to this but don't want to lose anything. This scares me a little because I'm not using any rock from my 90 but if I took all the corals out I guess I could put the rock in the sump for a while. The tanks are seriously right across from each other. I like the drilling holes for plugs idea.

Thanks Chef. I think I'm gonna keep the sump, but if anything changes you are first in line.

 

[leslie hempel]

gonna be a cool setup..

 

[vietcu]

What I meant is run your new system with full water. Does not have to be saltwater as you are test running everything. In a large setup there are always leaks and loose stuff in places that you think are tight. So run the system with fresh water (RO water) and make sure everything is running without any glitches. Once it is running alright slowly add salt, so basically you are mixing the salt as the system is running, since the water is already RO. Once the salinity and temperature of the new water is equal to that of the 90, do your transfer. But before doing the transfer take out as much of the water in the 200 that you need to so that you can fill it up with your old water (basically draining the 90 into your new setup). Need some containers to hold the water you are removing from your 200. It sounds complicated, but it is simply a large water change. But if you are not using your old rocks, I wouldn't do the transfer like I describe. If you put those rock in the sump then that is OK to do But if you are not going to use the rock in your 90 at all, the rocks in your 200 is going to have to be live to be able to take on the bio load of the transfer. Hope I am not making this more confusing for you.

 

[TotalVapor]

Coming along for the ride. I love the Key Rock from Marco.

Just a word of advise, soak it in RO/DI water for a week or two. This is just to clean it a bit.

I bought mine and I had tank issues in the beginning. My brother and I set up at the same time. He soaked his rock in the RO/DI water for a week, did a 100% water change and soaked for another week. Then placed into his empty tank. Filled the tank with new RO/DI water, added salt and mixed for two days.

We both followed the rest of the directions and used Fritz-Zyme Turbo Start #900. He used 16oz in his 150 gallon I used 24oz in my 400 gallon.

He got nice color pretty quick, I had to wait about 5 months.

Remember your rock is clean and there is no to extremely little die off. Your cycle time is cut down quite a bit if you have one at all. Both my brother and I never saw a spike. We both waited for a month and added damsels to our sump / refug right away to get the tank cycling.

Looks like this is going to be a great build!

 

[mal1099]

those marine land dd are great tanks. youll love the deep for your aquascaping.

 

[John Blaze]

Any updates???

 

[OrrG]

I got all the oak stained and polyurethaned over the past few days and I should have the tank on the stand by tomarow. I sprayed the back of the tank with a few coats of black Krylon Fusion, it looks great. Should have some more pics tomarow.

 

[Bax]

Nice looking stand ... tagging along