225 gal walk-around starphire from Miracles
- Thread starter summer6
- Start date
savethereef
SCRK
its awesome Dims. i have the same size tank going up in 2 weeks time too. i cant wait to see your tank with water. also i just wanted to throw this out the plastic thing that you have covering the cables for the lights if you spray paint it with paint to match your wall it will be less visible. thats what i did with mine and also the ones coming from my Tv on the wall.
Fish'R'Friends7
New member
Wow! Incredible!
I went round and round with what dimension to get. I saw some 4'x4'x2' tanks up in Greenwich, and that initially put me over the edge in wanting a square tank. I thought that would look cool in the spot, and began planning accordingly. But two things stopped me: the square tank was impeding too much into the room (fireplace area, less seating, and i have a husband to consider too) and i wasn't crazy about a single center overflow since it would make the fish go around in a circle.
I had grand ideas of a 6'x4' and a 6'x3' footprint, but again, it just didn't work well with the room layout. Also, it would be more to take care of, and those extra 6 inches would make it tough to reach the center of the tank being under 5'2" tall.
water and fish are in
water and fish are in
We had to wait for a second set of sch. 80 bulkheads to arrive since the first group didn't work with the OM omni fittings for the CL or the returns.
With 14 holes drilled, Derek (Miracles) had the bottom sent out to be tempered, and the sch 80 would also reinforce the bulkhead and fittings. Not easy to work with, as the guys needed to be careful not to cross-thread. Once the bulkheads were in, they didn't leak at all. The only leaks were at the CL pumps.
Here's a shot of the tank when we did a leak test. There are two OM 4 ways, and two Snapper Gold pumps under the tank.
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water test
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You can see there are two "goal posts" in the tank, and it's not for football! Yes they're big at an inch and a half, but should have no sand issues with the CL drums. I'm waiting for black piping to arrive, and I think we will switch it out. I also have black basket strainers, and may also switch them out. I'm assuming this tank will color-up soon, and everything may just disappear.
overflow (very quiet) Decided to have the returns outside of the overflow boxes, to keep the size down. With the gray pipes they're not noticeable.
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I love the OM omni flex nozzles for the CL and returns. They are well worth the added cost, for the flexibility and ease of use.
water and fish are in
We had to wait for a second set of sch. 80 bulkheads to arrive since the first group didn't work with the OM omni fittings for the CL or the returns.
With 14 holes drilled, Derek (Miracles) had the bottom sent out to be tempered, and the sch 80 would also reinforce the bulkhead and fittings. Not easy to work with, as the guys needed to be careful not to cross-thread. Once the bulkheads were in, they didn't leak at all. The only leaks were at the CL pumps.
Here's a shot of the tank when we did a leak test. There are two OM 4 ways, and two Snapper Gold pumps under the tank.
water test
You can see there are two "goal posts" in the tank, and it's not for football! Yes they're big at an inch and a half, but should have no sand issues with the CL drums. I'm waiting for black piping to arrive, and I think we will switch it out. I also have black basket strainers, and may also switch them out. I'm assuming this tank will color-up soon, and everything may just disappear.
overflow (very quiet) Decided to have the returns outside of the overflow boxes, to keep the size down. With the gray pipes they're not noticeable.
I love the OM omni flex nozzles for the CL and returns. They are well worth the added cost, for the flexibility and ease of use.
old 200 tank into the new 225
old 200 tank into the new 225
Ed (my LFS guy) moved all of the rock and livestock for two days ago. It took 8 hrs. and it went very smoothly. I'm lucky that the old house is just a minute away, so we they were able to move the fish in barrels, rather than bag them.
The tank was clear, and already the fish are de-stressing. They seem to like the CL's (no drums installed as of yet) and being able to swim in a figure-8 pattern as opposed to my 7' length of the old tank.
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old 200 tank into the new 225
Ed (my LFS guy) moved all of the rock and livestock for two days ago. It took 8 hrs. and it went very smoothly. I'm lucky that the old house is just a minute away, so we they were able to move the fish in barrels, rather than bag them.
The tank was clear, and already the fish are de-stressing. They seem to like the CL's (no drums installed as of yet) and being able to swim in a figure-8 pattern as opposed to my 7' length of the old tank.
Somrschool
New member
Absolutely gorgeous.
2 questions:
1. Not concerned about carpet (or, wood floor) surfing?
2. Any plans to cover your overflow boxes?
2 questions:
1. Not concerned about carpet (or, wood floor) surfing?
2. Any plans to cover your overflow boxes?
Thanks
1. I'm hopeful that my fish won't go surfing. I have some small gobies (hear they might like to jump) but no wrasses (hear they jumpers) and will keep my fingers crossed.
2. I'm going to talk to Derek from Miracles about covering the overflows. My LFS guy looked at them today, and we agreed that we don't want to chance impeding flow to the drain. I'm short so i can't see over them. For overflows, they are beautifully made with glass boxes, and black acrylic covering them
Crazylikeafox
Premium Member
I agree, beautiful tank.
I would like to know a little more about the stand. Is their a steel frame? If so how are the panels attached?
I am currently designing my stand and would appreciate any information about the leveling feet you mentioned. Seems like it hovers about 1/2" off the floor.
If you could show me how the feet of the stand are attached, or shoot me a photo that would be great.
-Charles
I would like to know a little more about the stand. Is their a steel frame? If so how are the panels attached?
I am currently designing my stand and would appreciate any information about the leveling feet you mentioned. Seems like it hovers about 1/2" off the floor.
If you could show me how the feet of the stand are attached, or shoot me a photo that would be great.
-Charles
Thank you. I was hoping that the tank would work well with the style of my new home. I didn't want the base to overtake the clean lines of the tank and light.
I must say that my live rock is not exactly what i envisioned with this tank. In time i would like to have some branching/tonga rock to open things up a bit, instead of having the pillar wall like i had with my old tank.
Granted, i'll never have that super "clean" look that other rimless tanks have (with the island overflows) but, i really love being able to walk around and view the tank from 4 sides. My fish know me, and so far they're not freaking-out by being the center of attention, with general activity.
Here's some pic's of the basement sump room:
There are a couple of things i would do over here: Why on earth we put the electrical outlets above the sump baffles me! (i guess the stress of building the house, and planning a tank) They are safety outlets, and i think high enough above not to be a big concern. We also wanted plywood as our base wall to mount things, but it's not as forgiving as regular drywall with vibrations. Again, the plywood stand is attached directly to the wall, which will make any vibration travel.
The return pump (Tarpon) was much louder than my previous basement set-up, but thankfully my husband got it quieted tonight by placing extra foam weather seal directly under the pump and again under the mousepad.
The BM250 is being really difficult to tune-in since the set-up. Maybe I'm fiddling with it too much, as it's flooded twice. This is a good skimmer, but overall I'm not satisfied with the balky pumps - they tend not to start-up after tank maintenance.
BTW the snapper gold pumps on the CL are almost silent.
Charles,
The guts of the stand is 1 -1/2" steel tube (square), 6 legs with levelers, 4 x 45 degree corner supports.
The tank is skirted in maple. I'll see if i can take a couple of shots tomorrow in the daylight. We decided to add some pink foam (but not attached) to the 3 inside walls of the cabinet because once all of the plumbing for the drains, returns, and CL's were in, it would be difficult to do anything. If i can pull a section away and get a good pic of the attachment i will.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14039748#post14039748 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tanya72806
the BM skimmers I know about 7 - 8 people who had them and all hated them. I forsee a new skimmerEverything looks great
Funds are getting low, so i need to be patient...
I don't know if these pictures will help much because the feet are now hidden with the bottom shelf we installed after the tank arrived, but you'll get a general sense of how it was built.
The feet are either a 6-sided nut or bolt that's adjusted by a 1" wrench, with only about 1/4" clearance between the floor and maple cabinet.
