240 Tank Re-Build Thread

[adova]

As some of you may know, I had a major surgery about two years and had a cancerous ex-wife removed. I had to re-locate to a rehabilitation center downtown near young coeds to recooperate, so the tank came down.

I am happy to say that today, the cancer is in remission (although it tends to still bug me now and then) and I am back in my house ready to join the reef community again.

What follows here are my latest efforts for your viewing pleasure...

Shawn

 

[adova]

This is going to be a LR / Foam build. Unlike some of the foam / rock builds I was reading about, I wanted to use the foam as more of a "mortar" to hold everything together and limit critter access to the back end. I was tired of having my critters hide themselves for years. This also gives some great places to pop in coral frags (just shove into the foam).

Also, instead of building the structure outside and placing it in the tank, I decided to do it all in the tank to make it more fluid...

Eggcrate was used as a foundation - purchased from Home Depot in the lighting section:

 

[adova]

Here is some of the LR selection - It is all very dead and is about 200#+. A few pieces look to be man made from some sort of concrete mix, which I decided to omit most of...

 

[adova]

Then, I started to stack the rock. Since this was going directly in the tank, I found that I did not need to ziptie any of the rock to each other or the eggcrate. I am wondering if I could have eliminated the eggcrate on the sides entirely?

 

[adova]

If anyone is wondering, in the 3rd picture above there is a 1" PVC pipe in the middle of the rocks. This is "holder" that leads to a 1.5" bulkhead on the back side of the tank. This is used to do water changes and allows me to just crank open a ball valve to dump 50+ gallons directly into the house plumbing...

 

[adova]

Next the foaming. If you haven't heard, it is messy. If you haven't heard, it does not come off of your skin with "mechanical" means or time. That means you wait or use an SOS pad to remove skin.

I used some Great Stuff pond foam that I was able to find at an ACE Hardware for about $10 per can. I think I used about 6 cans of the stuff.

The lesson that I learned here (apart from the fact that you should wear a disposable long sleeve shirt and gloves) is that after 8 hours, this stuff is really going to expand, so you don't need to go overboard...

 

[adova]

 

[Hoosier daddy]

Looking good!!! Are you going to use more rock in the middle?

 

[adova]

Although I do not have any great closeup pics of it, some of the above pics represent where I grinded away at the foam to "mold" it. I used a cordless drill and a wire paint stripping attachment to grind it down to look more like rock. This was the painstaking process so far.

I have also clipped away the excess eggcrate now. Unfortunately, there was one spot in the lower left that I just couldn't get to. A littel more planning would have helped here. I will have to let the coraline cover it up over time...

Next, I used some Z-Poky finishing epoxy (from eBay at about 9 bucks per box - I used about 5 boxes here I think). This stuff was no joy to work with. It was a lot thicker than I thought it was going to be. So, mix it up, paint it on, and throw some sand at it, and you get:

 

[adova]

 

[adova]

Time to get some of the sand in there. I went with some Florida Crushed Coral this time around for a number of reasons, but I like the final product...

 

[adova]

Filling with RO/DI took just a little bit - with the sump and tank, about 7 days around the clock!!

 

[adova]

Tank is now filled, settled and I got some of the old lights on there:

 

[adova]

Hey Hoosier - I figure once I am ready to add stuff, I will get some corals from people, some of which will be on big rocks that will fill up the front, etc. If I were only patient...

I will post some more stuff later on teh LED build and the Sump, etc...

 

[LooseHip]

Very cool! I like the layout, using the full height of the tank will give the tank a unique dimension!

 

[ashtonmitchell]

As some of you may know, I had a major surgery about two years and had a cancerous ex-wife removed. I had to re-locate to a rehabilitation center downtown near young coeds to recooperate, so the tank came down.

I am happy to say that today, the cancer is in remission (although it tends to still bug me now and then) and I am back in my house ready to join the reef community again.

What follows here are my latest efforts for your viewing pleasure...

Shawn

Best post of the day.

 

[jaw969]

I love it! It looks so natural.......

 

[lngball]

Yeah that looks pretty cool, very differrent. Can't wait to see the finish product.

 

[adova]

Here is the sump being built. 72" x 20" x 20". There is a refugium on the left, section for skimmer and reactors (carbon and phosban) and the return is in the middle.

 

[adova]

And here it is in action. I had a ***** of a time this go around getting the seams to seal up and eventually caulked it with some silicone recommends for aquariums. Pump is a Reeflo baracuda.

While re-plumbing it, I snapped off the front housing which reminded me of the old saying "Tight is Tight - too tight is broke". Reeflo replaced it within 24hrs to my door for only $32!

Skimmer is a ASM G4x with the gate valve mod.