225 Gallon upgrade (for the 2nd time)

[Cymaster007]

Soooo I ordered my replacement 225g tank a couple weeks ago- I think its appropriate to start my build thread (again). I kept all of my equipment and my stand from the old 225g, but there are a few upgrades I want to enact this time around.

New Tank:
No center overflow- give me that space back inside the tank!
No 6" eurobrace - give me that space back in the canopy for more light!
Better skimmer - replace old ASM G5 (Thanks Lawrence!)
Remote Sump - In garage instead of making a mess in the house on the carpet.
Plumb water changes - Open valve to drain into house main sewer line, open separate valve to pump water from mixing station (got the ideas from Jamie)

Heres the tank design from the builder- Oceans by Design in Seattle. I was going to go AGE or Lee Mar but shipping was going to be approx 800-$1,000. Oceans by design will deliver for free, and has a good reputation here in Seattle/Spokane areas.

a Grafted Monti I bought when I was in Ft Lauderdale the other week,

also saw an interesting sign around here that I never saw in socal.

Added a cool decal to my office (where the fish tank will reside!

Ive been working on the plumbing through the crawl space the past few weekends, I have to insulate everything because it apparently gets below 0 here in the winter. I also reinforced the floor since I am not longer slab-on-grade

 

[Cymaster007]

Here is my current tank.... (my old 120g sump)

 

[Cymaster007]

Cycling old rock!

My water change & mixing station

 

[Cymaster007]

Starting to get equipment in
Got some goodies in the mail!

Going to modify my lighting this time and use T5's in lieu of VHOs from the start, so I ordered these nice hamilton fixtures for the T5's

 

[Cymaster007]

UPDATE! Tank is being fabricated! Thanks to Oceans by Design I will have my new tank before spring!

Rebuilding my canopy light rail for my light fixtures

Got my return pump in- good old laguna pump!

Ran my plumbing up through the floor, stubbed out waiting for the tank

 

[FishM8]

Thank your for all the pictures!
Do you have a delivery date?

greetings
Bjorn

 

[Cymaster007]

Thank your for all the pictures!
Do you have a delivery date?

greetings
Bjorn

Looking at delivery in December/January

 

[PederP]

Great Nice Christmas if it gets there in time.
Like how you put the overflow box on the outside.

 

[FishM8]

Hopefully before christmas! That would be a nice family thing to do:lolspin:

 

[Cymaster007]

My old DIY LED & VHO light setup - I used Meanwell drivers, CREE LED's, makers heat sinks, optics, solderless LED holders & molex connectors so I can service any given fixture at any time. These fixtures should last me AT LEAST 5-6 years. I have tons of spare LED chips for them too so I can switch out the color configuration any time I want (or if better LED chips come out).

Oh so fun wiring diagram w/ calcs

 

[Cymaster007]

Stuffed all the drivers into a PC tower to look cleaner as this was not able to fit under my stand

Pic of the lights over my old 225g tank

 

[Cymaster007]

SO this time around, I want T5's instead of VHOs on the sides, and I need to rotate all the LED fixtures 90 degrees so that way i dont have t5's lighting up my eurobrace. I just had to modify the aluminum rail I used to slide all the fixtures around and attach the t5 fixtures to the sides.

Light fixture rotated 90

Testing out the skimmer from Lawrence (Bullitr) no leaks! almost totally silent!!

Started programming my APEX and remembered I needed to make some snail/slosh guards for the float switches

Laguna Pump out of its shell and ready to go!

 

[Cymaster007]

Hopefully before christmas! That would be a nice family thing to do:lolspin:

Great Nice Christmas if it gets there in time.
Like how you put the overflow box on the outside.

So true!
And I have a "coral care package" coming in from one of my old buddies in southern california with frags of some of my SPS I left behind around thanksgiving so the timing would be great, i could be 100% operational by spring!

 

[Sonicboom]

great to hear! loving the progress. might want to put a link to this thread on the old one.

 

[Cymaster007]

Any one else bought one of these BRS jumbo air dryers? I had no idea it was this huge, I thought it was just going to bea slightly oversized RODI cartridge, this thing is going to take up a lot of real estate on my equipment rack!

Got a dosing liquid storage container off fleabay

Made a small frag rack for Sahns frags

Rock being cycled was getting a bit cold & I can no longer feel my fingers when working in the garage so I had to get a garage- heater installed.

 

[Cymaster007]

OK since there are NO decent fish stores in Spokane, I had to sneak into one when I was in Portland for work. I smuggled home a VERY nice collection of goodies. They had really good quality healthy SPS frags, and the fish I have been looking for (Sorry Jason) also had one of my favorite nems I have been trying to justify buying for a long time. I finally broke down and got out my credit card.
Labouti Wrasse
Flame Wrasse pair
Flame Tip Nem
5 SPS frags- some that remind me of a few high end RR pieces
a crazy looking acro- reminds me of the Walt Disney Tenuis so I had to give it a try...

I went out and bought a cooler because the livestock was too precious to risk the cardboard box from freezing or getting

Acclimating the fish

Frags

Look how bright the flame tip is compared to my rainbow red nem that I thought was really bright....

 

[HowUDoin]

That LED plan is a bit intimidating to someone who has never worked with them. Sounds like a cool build, interesting to me with the long plumbing run.

What happened to your previous 225g?

 

[Cymaster007]

That LED plan is a bit intimidating to someone who has never worked with them. Sounds like a cool build, interesting to me with the long plumbing run.

What happened to your previous 225g?

Yeah its not too complicated. Just takes time to plan it right! The color coded spread sheet diagram i made in excel was a wiring nightmare life saver

 

[Cymaster007]

That LED plan is a bit intimidating to someone who has never worked with them. Sounds like a cool build, interesting to me with the long plumbing run.

What happened to your previous 225g?

Oh and i moved from los angeles to spokane wa for work so i had to sell + give away everything before i left

 

[Atomic081]

good build so far, im tagging along. Your not gonna have any problems with lack of light!!!!