240 gallon acrylic reef build

[h2so4hurts]

As a long time lurker of the large reef tank section, I'm happy to finally be able to start a build thread here! I currently have a 150 gallon SPS reef tank that I fabricated out of 1/2" acrylic last year. It's hanging tough, but of course bigger is always better!

I recently got a new job, they have a 90 gallon reef tank in their lobby and once they saw the webcam of my tank they wanted it for themselves. Breaking down a tank, moving it a 1,000 miles, and then setting it back up is doable, but would require an army and a lot of No-doze. To ease the tank transition, I will be building a 240 gallon tank (96"x24"x24") out of 3/4" acrylic and moving it up 2 weeks before my livestock. I have the sheets ordered from my acrylic shop and they should be ready in a few weeks. I'll be pinning the build and using WeldOn-4 as I did for the 150 build.

Lighting:
This will be a DIY build using RapidLED solderless LEDs in parallel with two Meanwell HLG-320H-42B drivers. People are probably going to chime in about my color mix, but I went with 2:1 royal blue to cool white. I have this arrangement on another tank. It has great growth and I love the color.

216 3W CREE LEDs
9-6x9 heatsinks 24 leds per (8CW, 16RB)
RapidLED Dimmer
72 Cool white XP-G solderless
144 Royal blue XT-E solderless
Resistors, fuses, fans, etc...

Plumbing:
I'm going with 4x 1.5" internal durso overflows painted black
Returns will be 4x 3/4" loc-line split 2 ways each
Sump is two 40 breeders connected with 2" PVC
One 40 breeder will hold the filtration, the other will be a fuge with a 4" DSB and macro. I'll add glass baffles just before the return
Return pump is a Reeflo Dart

Skimmer:
ASM G5 - Nothing fancy...

Media:
TLF 550 - GFO
TLF 550 - ROX carbon

Flow:
2x MP60w ES
4x Koralia Evo 1400's on a RedSea Wavemaster pro

Rock:
150 lbs Pukani
150 lbs BRS reef saver

Chemicals:
Top off from two 15 gallon tanks of dilute CaCl and NaCO3

Stand:
2x4 structure
Skinned with pine
Stained Dark

Fish list:
TBD, but my current tank has:
2 BG chromis (Probably get rid of these)
Royal Gramma
Powder blue tang
Desjardini Sailfin
Copperband Butterfly
Spotfin butterfly
Sunburst Anthias
Moorish Idol
Tomato clown pair

I'll probably add:
Purple Tang
Achilles Tang (or White cheek)
School of Bartlett's anthias
Some form of a toby puffer maybe a leopard or valentini
Mystery Wrasse
A proganthodes sp butterfly (Probably a longnose atlantic...because they don't cost a fortune)

QT system:
30Long and an Aquapod 25
25watt UV sterilizer
Lots of rid-ich plus, buckets for tank transfer, Prazipro, etc

If all of my shipments come in this week, I'll get started on building the stand, drilling the breeders, and plumbing the return pump. The parts for the lighting build won't be in until next week.

Stay tuned for pictures

 

[cdrewferd]

Nice list. Can't wait for the pics.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Acrylic sheets will be ready for pick up next week!! I have two huge orders coming in today and tomorrow.

The one thing I'm still deciding is how to plumb the returns. I'm going to plumb the overflows on the right side of the tank. Maybe it will turn into a peninsula tank. I just don't want to get into a situation where my bulkheads are backed against a wall and I can't get to them if there's an emergency. But then the return lines become tricky. I'm considering plumbing the returns through the top flange of the tank, because I don't want any pipes going through the bottom of the tank. They take up space and look ugly...

The calculated head pressure with two 90 degree turns, vertical height of 5ft, horizontal length of 8ft, and 4 exits is just above 2000 gph. That's about right for a 240 gallon tank ~8x turn over (maybe a little too much).

Oh and the skimmer is an ASM G4, not a G5. I'm going to replace the skimmer body with a 5 gallon water jug though because the current tube is cracked.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

QUOTE]

Nice size tank and setup. The only thing I would suggest to change is the last 40 breeder. Switch the configuration of the baffles before the return. The water will stay more level for the refugium that way and the sand or macro wont get inside the dart.

 

[h2so4hurts]

@Newbie, totally agree with you there. I could only fit three in my super lazy schematic but the last baffle will be on the "bottom." Maybe I'll bust out Google sketch-up later and do a proper schematic I've been keeping an eye on your build for a while now. Keep up the good work. I certainly appreciate any tips or ideas you have to offer!

 

[h2so4hurts]

Some stuff, breeders for the sumps, skimmer pump, gate valves:

Some skimmer fab:

The new body

Test fit with the G4 neck and cup

Traced the cut line

Rough cut with the dremel cut off disc, shaved down to the right level with the grinder disc

Neck on, Perfect fit!

This thing is going to be a beast

Uniseals come from bulk reef supply tomorrow so I'll add the outlet tube and skimmer pump inlet on Saturday! I still need to decide how to attach the neck to the bottle. I was thinking WO16, but that stuff doesn't dry very fast. Is there a good tank safe glue I could use to make a water tight seal?

 

[a240reef]

Some stuff, breeders for the sumps, skimmer pump, gate valves:

Some skimmer fab:

The new body

Test fit with the G4 neck and cup

Traced the cut line

Rough cut with the dremel cut off disc, shaved down to the right level with the grinder disc

Neck on, Perfect fit!

This thing is going to be a beast

Uniseals come from bulk reef supply tomorrow so I'll add the outlet tube and skimmer pump inlet on Saturday! I still need to decide how to attach the neck to the bottle. I was thinking WO16, but that stuff doesn't dry very fast. Is there a good tank safe glue I could use to make a water tight seal?

Wow. you're building your own skimmer?! That's pretty crazy. Props

 

[h2so4hurts]

Wow. you're building your own skimmer?! That's pretty crazy. Props

Don't give me that much credit...I'm really just scavenging parts from an ASM G4 that I found that had a broken main tube (volute?). It has a beefy sedra 9000 needlewheel venturi (900gph). So nothing fancy but still a great no gimmick skimmer.

It's going to be like Christmas today, my bulkreefsupply order comes this afternoon!

 

[fote03]

looks good dude

 

[S14Swap240sx]

nice skimmer! Aint nothing wrong with a lil diy!

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

@Newbie, totally agree with you there. I could only fit three in my super lazy schematic but the last baffle will be on the "bottom." Maybe I'll bust out Google sketch-up later and do a proper schematic I've been keeping an eye on your build for a while now. Keep up the good work. I certainly appreciate any tips or ideas you have to offer!

Thanks for keepin an eye on my build. Nice job you did on the skimmer too. I am not an expert but I will try and help out as much as I can. I am only a newbie.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Thanks Fote and S14swap!

Got some more orders in today:

Terminals, resistors, pico fuses for the lights

Heaters, Media reactors, loc-line parts, auto-top off kit and top off pumps

50Lbs of Pukani live rock - 3 big pieces, a little disappointed about that, but we'll see how they look once they're aquascaped. They also smell like death so I'm probably going to have to cook them and cycle them in a box before I can use them to get all the phosphates out

50lbs of Reef saver - almost wish I would have just got 100lbs...the Pukani in my last order was much better

Reeflo Dart return pump

 

[h2so4hurts]

Finished up the skimmer last night.

I'll do a skim test with some water change water from the 150 a little later today

 

[Hodge1995]

Interesting skimmer. I will tag along. Nothing like a little early Christmas!

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

Finished up the skimmer last night.

I'll do a skim test with some water change water from the 150 a little later today

Nice. What type of pump are you using to run the skimmer? Did you alter or mod the impeller?

 

[h2so4hurts]

It's a brand new sedra 9000 with a needle wheel impeller. I have a sedra 5000 on my 150. I'm not planning on modding it, but we'll see...

 

[MathiasM.]

Your selfmade skimmer looks really awesome =)
Looks like a great project!
I´ll follow =)

 

[h2so4hurts]

@mathias, Thanks buddy!

Ugh, I got the MP60w ES pumps from ebay today and they're totally broken...didn't want to deal with this on something so expensive. Lucky me...

Anyway, I got a bunch of plumbing parts in today:

Tested out the skimmer and couldn't be happier. I threw in 1/4 cup of goop from my 150 and it sucked it out in less than 2 minutes:

Video:

 

[davidadelp]

Pretty neat skimmer you made there! I would have to do something about the white pipe that the water just comes up and out of I would have to make it so its not as loud. Cant wait to see the progress!

 

[h2so4hurts]

Pretty neat skimmer you made there! I would have to do something about the white pipe that the water just comes up and out of I would have to make it so its not as loud. Cant wait to see the progress!

Definitely! This was just a skimming test. I'm going to add a diffuser to the end of the pipe to make it less splashy and try to cut down on the micro bubbles