215 starphire inwall build

[68sting]

I'm getting close to putting water in my tank and would like some help on the details.

I had a 92 corner reef and a 90 FOWLR 8 years ago. I was getting around to finishing my basment and needed to get my old tanks out of there. I sold them on craigslist and ended up helping one of the guys get the tank to his house. He already had an established reef set up and I was hooked again.

So down came a newly constructed wall.

I was deciding between a 150,180 or a 210. After looking at used market for awhile I decide to get a starphire tank and that was going to be hard to find used. So ended up with a new 215 ultimate oceanic.

I kept my rock from the old tanks and started to clean it up.

 

[68sting]

Here are some pictures of the build to date.

Tank room/workshop

I skinned the tank in clear alder. Here's some pics of that project.

 

[68sting]

Stain applied.

Poly applied.

Basement finally done enough to get tank going.

 

[68sting]

I have my lights ready. I ended up with 3 400watt galaxy ballasts, radium bulbs, and lumenarc III reflectors.

diy sliding system

rack installed

Cheap LEDs from walmart shining into the lumenarcs for moonlights.

I'm considering some VHO's for dusk to dawn lighting also but I don't have much room left as you can see.

 

[68sting]

Here's my present equipment.

ASM G4 skimmer
2-MP40w vortechs
Iwaki 55 return pump
75 long acylic tank for sump
calcium reactor


Here's also where my questions start.

I need to design my sump and weld some baffles in place.

How far down from the top do I want my baffles?

Also I was considering the baffles in this order:skimmer/return/fuge.

Here are the problems I'm having. Another member runs these large (I believe 4ft long) socks and I would like to run them also. Its hard to make the skimmer chamber big enough to hold these and still keep the fuge big enough and the return big enough. I would also like to put my return pump at the end of the sump under the tank. I thought I might want to divide some areas the long way to achieve my goals. Let me know your thoughts.

 

[68sting]

Welded the baffles in my sump this weekend. Also installed my slip/slip bulkheads. As you can see from the picture there's not much room to tighten them. Do I need to try and get a wrench in there our should my finger tips take care of the job?

Also how long should I let the sump sit before I can test the chambers for leaks?

 

[1mbrews8]

looking good!

 

[FishyBiz]

Looks great!
What kind of stain and finish did you use? Was it sprayed or wiped?

 

[sunsetSPS]

Great build. Impressive wood finish.

 

[68sting]

What kind of stain and finish did you use? Was it sprayed or wiped?

2 parts Old Dads Expresso with 1 part General Finishes Mahogany sprayed on. I then used wipe on satin poly. I sprayed all the trim in the basement and it sucked.

thanks for the compliments guys

 

[68sting]

I want to go pick up my plumbing parts and just want to verify what I need. My return pump is an iwaki 55 and I believe it has 1" supply and return connections. What size pipe do I want for the supply end and what size for the return end?

Thanks
Lance

 

[68sting]

I may have imagined reading this but I thought I read somewhere to have a little bigger pipe feeding the pump then the pumps intake will take. So for instance I would have a 1.5" pipe from my sump feeding my return pump even though its only a 1" input.

On the other end I would come off the pump returning to the tank with 1" (thats the accual size of the output on the pump)and would I reduce down to say 3/4" to the two returns to maintain pressure.

Does this sound right?

Thanks
Lance

 

[68sting]

I have my plumbing in place but not glued up yet. Let me know if you see anything that looks suspect. I didn't buy any unions for the drains. Is that something I need to take apart?

Also as you can see in the last picture I will need to drill the drain hole in the sump a little high. It will need to clear the stands 2x4. I plan on putting an elbow on the inside of the sump to pull the water off the bottom. Let me know if there's any problem with that.

Thanks
Lance

 

[68sting]

I have fresh water running through the tank and all looks good so far. Now on to aquascaping.

 

[lmarc78]

Looks good Lance you are almost there.

 

[PaulOKC]

Absolutely, beautiful! I love the deep stain in the woodwork! The tank looks great!

 

[NexDog]

Nice build, and I just love to look at aquascaping in progress so tagging along for sure. Is that a standard 72x24x24?

 

[68sting]

Thanks Marc. It's finaly coming together.

the tank is 72x24x29.25

 

[lmarc78]

You need to get that thing going before Fragstock this year so you can load up.

 

[68sting]

Hey Marc

I'm thinking of coping your aquascaping and wondered if it sits on the back glass or is there some empty space between the rock and glass? Is it stacked or attached using epoxy or dowels?

Thanks
Lance