~200G First Time Reef Adventure ~350 total

[kalgra]

The wall adjacent to where the display tank will sit has been ripped out. The loop that is seen in the pictures below is basically just a loop back from the sump so I could test my return pump with a fairly accurate representation of head loss.

I was really surprised at how powerful these wahoo pumps are. I should have no issues powering my reactors off of these pumps as well so I was please with that. I did have two very slow leaks at the inlet of each pump where they were threaded. I tried three times to reseal the threaded union but each time still had a leak. I finally tracked downs some Spears blue 75 thread sealant which did the trick and no more leaks.

I added this 1.5" gate valve just in case I do ever need to throttle the pumps back a bit.

As with the equipment room where the sump is located I was very concerned with humidty issues around the display. Also in the winter time I have found that it's a little tricky to keep the ph above 7.8 when the house is all closed up so I wanted a solid solution for both humidity control and air exchange. While temp could be a concern as well I wasn't worried about that as much since I will be running all LEDS.

A good friend and mentor to me "œreefsafe" had installed a really nice air exchange unit in his fish room that works great for controlling humidity, temp, and air exchange in the winter months. To make it even better it is dead quite! I knew it would be overkill but I decided to install the same unit along the back wall of where the DT will be. I have already run one 4" duct for the inlet but still need to run a second one for the output as well as frame in a box to mount it.

The unit is made by Panasonic and these are the specs for anyone interested:

http://www.rewci.com/whisper-comfort-spot-erv-fv04ve1.html?gclid=CKqvktvBmbACFcyb7QodhS20Xg

At this point I need to decide if I'm going to get the hardwood floors refinished. My wife and I want something a little darker to match our home decor. I think now is probably the time to have it done as I'm not crazy about having someone run a floor sander anywhere near my tank. Also the door just to the left of where the tank will go opens in an unfavorable direction toward the tank. I am going to have to order a new door and door jam that opens to the left instead of the right.

 

[kalgra]

The last week or so I have been working on building the stand for the display tank. I'm a pretty tall guy and I don't like always having to bend down to look at my current tank so I wanted the stand to be high enough that I could comfortably enjoy it while standing but not so tall that others would have difficulty. Plus I didn't want it to be too tall that it made a big hassle for cleaning.

I settled on making the stand an even 40" tall which combined with the length and width of the tank made it impossible to construct one solid steel frame that would fit through the largest door way of our home. The stand was going to have to be built into to pieces that stacked one on top of the other and locked together for stability. The first time I had ever thought of this I for some reason envisioned two stands side by side but quickly realized that would be very difficult to level up perfectly with one another when the time came to put the tank on it and it just didn't make that much sense.

I haven't made a sketch for my own stand yet but this is a sketch I did for a friend with a 280 that wants me to build his stand also. This picture still illustrates the same basic concept I am using for my stand.

The really big difference with my stand aside from the dimensions of course would be that The two pieces would not be the same height. I want the bottom piece as large as possible to allow for easy access so on mine the bottom will be 30" tall and the top piece will make up the other 10" inches.

 

[kalgra]

Getting started with the stand. Once I got all the measurements figured out I went through the tedious task of cutting all the pieces to length and beveling the edges to allow create a channel at each joint for the molten steel to flow into. I purchased a POS cutoff saw from Harbor Freight that got the job done but I had to go pretty slow with each cut otherwise the blade would flex and give me a cut that wasn't perfectly square.

I built a larger table than I had for making the other stands for the sump and the mixing station. I used part of an old stand I had built for my 120 and some 4x4 posts with leveling feet so I could get a nice perfectly flat perfectly level surface to build the stand. I started with each of the four horizontal frames making them just like I did for the sump stand but this time my welds look much more professional. (or at least I think they do)

 

[kalgra]

Hands down I would say the most time consuming part of building these stands is attaching the leveling feet. Considering this stand is going to be much heavier and have a lot more weight on it I decided to use 5/8" zinc plated bolts for the leveling feet. I found some really heavy duty swivel foot bolts on line but they were $30 each and the only place I could find that carried them said they would be special order and take at least 4 weeks to get. I figured standard bolts would work just fine.

I probably could have just drilled the frame and welded the nut right to it but I like to over build thing so I opted to first weld a 3"x3" 1/8" thick plate to each corner and cross member first. These are some progression shots of the base of the stand.

 

[nwcronauer1242]

Looking good. Welds look real nice. cant wait to see it with a wet tank on top!

 

[lotusstar]

Very nice job documenting the build. I really like the sump, hoping to build something very similar on my upgrade build.

 

[Tampa_Bandit]

Great Documentation and pictures on the build so far. Oh nice FJ as well!! tagging along to see final display tank in place.

 

[reefsafe]

tagging along

 

[kalgra]

So I have hit a few financial snags along the way which have slowed me down allot on this project but I'm slowly making some more progress. Here is some more progression shot of the stand I'm building.

To recap, the dimensions I wanted for the stands height combined with the width of the tank was going to make it too big to get into my house unless I built it in two pieces. Originally I had planned on pretty much just making two segments like cutting the stand in half horizontally so that the top piece was about the same height as the bottom but then realized that this was going to create an access problem. By keeping the two pieces the same size I would only be leaving a couple 15"x23" holes to climb through for plumbing and other maintenance down the road. It's probably possible that I could fit through that crawling on my belly but I'm a fairly large guy at 6',3" and 200lbs and that just didn't sound very pleasant.

So I ended up making the top piece what I call the "deck" only 7" in total height so that access under the tank would be much easier. Unfortunately I did wind up with not what I would call a design flaw but more of an oversight. I had always pretty much figured I would surround the steel frame with a 2"x4" wood frame as I figured this would be easier to mount my finish panels to. It never really occurred to me that magnets in the finished panels would just be so much simpler. So what you will see is that I built the "deck" to accommodate the offset of the 1.5" thickness of a standard 2"x4". Oh well! not redoing in now. lol

 

[kalgra]

On another front I have also started building my adjustable light rack. I found this unit on line and thought I could modify it to fit my needs. The foot print however is 4'x4' which it too large to fit in the cabinetry above the tank so some pretty serious modification is going to take place. But at the end I should have a unit that I can easily hoist out of the way for cleaning and maintenance as well as adjusting the height of the lights. For now I'm going to leave it manually operated but if I can find a motor i can integrate I will definitely go that route.

Right now I'm planning on starting with 4 Ecotech 2nd gen Radion lights and will hopefully be expanding to 6 as I get additional funds. I really love the the whole Ecotech line of products so I also plan on running 1 MP60 and two MP40s.

 

[kalgra]

I have had allot of time on my hands with this project having run out of money for the time being so I decided to work on my tank the only way I could. So I virtually (in the literal sense) built my display tank all trimmed out. I was not sure how the whole thing was going to go together as far as panels, hinges, mounting tabs, measurements etc. So I figured hey why not just make a 3D blue print. Now I have all the measurements and could foresee any possible issues in my plan.

The next step to come is having the floors refinished. After that I can finish the stand which is complete except for the mounting tabs. I just wasn't sure where I needed to put them but now with my mockups, feel like I have it figured out. Then I can get it powder coated and get the tank in the house! My wife will be thrilled to have the garage back in time for winter. LOL

 

[drdoolittle]

Nice build. Tagging along.

 

[dankreef]

dime welds.

 

[kalgra]

So this thread has been dead awhile but with my other tank gone Im gearing up to start moving on this build again. Got some new toys.

Bubble King SuperMarine 200. Ill need to build a little stand to get it higher above the baffles, but other wise the fit is perfect.





Reef Octopus Dual Chamber Calcium Reactor. This is the big boy rated for 1000 gallons. Way over kill but when I setup this baby for "set and forget" I mean it! Set and forget for a looong time. Or at least thats what Im hoping for.



I got the best Harris regulator I could find and a digital bubble counter. I also got a MasterFlex medical grade peristaltic pump to control the effluent. This CA reactor should be as rock solid as I can possible get.



This regulator is built like a Mac truck. Its huge.


This regulator is built like a Mac truck. Its huge.


This peristaltic pump makes everything else hobby grade look like a toy. But with a 100% duty cycle, ultra precision, and no effect on head pressure if I clean the reactor, change the media, or as the media dissolves it now seems like the only way to go.




Got my controller as well. I lucked out and got a smoking deal on the complete GHL Profilux 3 with three PAB power bars, SMS unit, Touch screen display and dosing pumps (should I ever want to dose anything). I also got the expansion box for future upgrades. I already had a Profilux3 but this one was only sold as the full package so Ill either sell the one I was using or keep it for a back up if no one buys it.

 

[kalgra]

Started working on the light rack as well. I had to cut it up allot to modify for what I need but I think its going to work really well. Still havent found a motor for it yet but then again havent looked that hard either. In all likely hood Ill just use the hand crank to raise and lower it.









Here it is all assembled with the mods. I just need to get all the parts sand blasted and powder coated.

 

[1fishkeeper]

WOW this is looking like a really nice set up going on.