250 Tank build.

[israelnajar]

Hey guys/gals. I have been commissioned by an eccentric old cowboy, to gather all the equipment that is required to run a 250 gallon tank. He wants me to pick out the equip as I would if it were my own tank and as if money was almost no object.

This DIY tank is 8x2x2x1/2 framed with 2 inch angle iron. The bottom of the tank sits 55 inches from the floor on a custom poured reinforced concrete slab. There will be a wood frame built under the tank to create storage for Christmas decor and such. The doors on the stand will be wood with etched glass from Cedar Steet. At this time I dont have any photos but they will come when the stand is done.

Close up of the welding on the angle iron.

The top of the canopy. It is finished but when it goes on the tank it will be covered with the bartop from Cedar Street using the brass pillars for support. Again photos will be coming later when it is finished.

From the side.

VHO Mounts with DIY stand off

Halide Mounts with DIY stand off

And this is what the fish and corals will see. With the Halides and VHOs mounted in there.

We are also going to have a fuge/sump that measures 48x20x20. It has not been built yet but will be built very similarly to the main display up top. Using angle iron. I will continue to update as we get the equipment ordered.

An initial parts list is as follows.

3 - 250 watt Metal Halides
4 - 46.5 inch URI Actinic VHO
4 - Maxi jet 1200 mods the high flow
1 - Poseidon PS4 or PS3 for the return
3 - 250watt Stealth heaters
1 - ASM G4 Plus Skimmer or an industrial skimmer scavenged from an out of business Marine shop.
1 - Reefkeeper 2

If anyone has any suggestions on how or what I can do to make better or what you would do different let me know.

 

[pfish]

I hope that angle iron is stainless. I would probably go with 3 400 watt halides if you want sps. The heaters probably won't be necessary, you'll need a chiller. The maxi jets are good but not controllable, if money is'nt an object I would go with 4 tunze with controller. You should think about a calcium reactor and a kalk reactor, plus ro water and automatic top off, or possibly go with auto dosing for supplements.
You will need fans for that canopy., stainless really gets hot. The sump will really be important, reasearch that out carefully.

 

[pfish]

Also you need overflows, and you might think about a closed loop for current.

 

[israelnajar]

Oh yea I forgot to mention we are going to have an RO since this property has a well. Calcium reactor will be added later if needed. I may go tunze. All metal is stainless. And there will be plenty of fans used to blow the heat from the canopy. The room is not insulated so the tank is going to be used to heat it. But the man who wants this put together doesnt think he will need the chiller. But he will be calling me in the summer asking me why his water temp so high, I know this. Of course I know about the overflow but I did only list a preliminary list of equip.

 

[pfish]

Well then that can be a beauty, and I wish you the best of luck. I hope the owner knows what he is in for as far as maintaining that baby. Often someone who pays someone else to do the set up is too far removed to really make it work.

 

[GreenUku]

A Tunze Wavebox would be really awesome.

And if you're going RO, you might as well go RO/DI. Will that be hooked up to an auto top-off?

Keep us updated!

 

[skyfireblaze]

A couple of thoughts ---

1. I'd be looking at either the Aquacontroller 3 or 3 Pro on this kind of tank. The Reefkeeper 2 can only control 8 channels right? I'd go with the Aquacontroller. A lot more capability (a lot more $, but you did say that didn't really matter, right?). I know that you're going to have more than 8 devices to control on this tank. Again, I'd go with the Aquacontroller.

Neptune Systems Aquacontroller

2. On a tank like that, I'd have it drilled and put in some type of internal overflow. Some people like the so called Calfo-style, but personally, I'd just go with the regular internals like you'd see on a standard reef ready tank. If you didn't feel like DIY on the overflow, there are several online vendors.

3. Sump?

4. The ASM skimmer may work fine. I personally would be looking at one of the following Deltec, H&S, Euro-Reef (with the eheim pumps), and maybe even BubbleKing. This is the direction I'd be taking if putting together a "high-end" system. Then again, I'm a sucker for German aquarium equip ...

5. And while we're on the subject of German products ... Tunze. As nice as the MJ Mods are, I'd still go with Tunze for a tank like this. The controllable Tunze's are really nice. I think you should look into a couple of controllable streams and a multi-controller at the very least.

That's about all for now ... Good luck.

 

[moonpower]

What an undertaking!!!

One thought... Even dream jobs can have their nightmares.:crazy1:

Best of Luck and keep us informed.

 

[israelnajar]

The builder is in the process of learning the maintenance aspect of his set up.

Yes we are going to get a 6 stage RO/DI. Auto top off. I will have to ask Alex to help me set it up like his with the quadruple redundant failsafe.

Sump will be on this system, 87 gallon custom built, by the owner.

I already suggested drilling the tank but the owner doesnt want to drill it.

I wanted to get the reefkeeper 2 because I want to be able to give some of the LFS's around some business. Plus they are only like 8 bucks cheaper online and the expansions are fairly cheap.

We might DIY a skimmer. 4 inch PVC that is four feet tall recirculating, not sure yet, may also suggest a Deltec..

Thanks for the suggestions keep them coming. Updates will contiune as they happen.

 

[skyfireblaze]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9157010#post9157010 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by israelnajar
...
I wanted to get the reefkeeper 2 because I want to be able to give some of the LFS's around some business. Plus they are only like 8 bucks cheaper online and the expansions are fairly cheap.
...

I understand wanting to purchase locally when possible, and you're right, the price is a wash. Just keep in mind that the RK2 expansions only add an extra outlet to the channel. You can still only have 8 discrete on/off signals. Might not be enough depending on what the owner has in mind ... Still, the RK2 is a great product.

One other thought I had was about the power for the tank. Does the owner plan on having a dedicated circuit (or two or more) wired just for the tank? I'm thinking that with that much equipment, especially the 3 MH ballasts, you'll want to stagger the on/off times and have dedicated lines so you don't trip the breaker.

 

[reign]

looks like fun! I would do the tunze w/multi controller if money is not an option. although the mj mods are sweet! You gunna put 400's in that bad boy right? If you go for the diy you should do at least a 6"-8" diam Min. 4" is way too small. I made a hsa 1000 diy a few years back and was not satisified w/ the dia.

 

[crazy4acros]

Do it right the first time, or it might as well be a fish only tank. If you are not drilling for closed loops then at least drill an overflow, with that volume of water it will make it foolproof. If you decide to go 400w MH a chiller is a must especially durring summer. With no closed loop holes then nothing beats TUNZE for random current MJ mods are just plain silly if $ isin't an object. Sounds like fun! too bad the steel wasn't powdercoated first.

Good luck Bud! "i'm wishing i had a tank right now =("

 

[rabid frog]

I thought the reef keeper expansion gave two more channels. I have 8 channels as it is now on my reefkeeper 1.

 

[skyfireblaze]

The RK expansion box does have two outlets on it. You can plug two devices into it. The expansion box then plugs into a separate wall outlet which provides the power to the box. This makes the power draw on the expansion box completely separate from the rest of the devices plugged into the RK. However, to control the expansion box, you have another "power" plug that goes into one of the channels on the RK power/control strip. As that outlet goes on or off, so does the relay controlling the power to the expansion box. So you lose one outlet on the RK, but gain two outlets on the expansion. You really only get one more plug (but with higher allowable current draw). Still, both outlets on the expansion box are tied together. They both turn on and off at the same time since they're controlled by the single outlet on the RK. Does this make sense? You still only have 8 channels to control. With an expansion box those 8 channels can turn 9 devices on/off. You can put up to 8 expansion boxes on the RK. Of course then you'd need a lot of wall outlets, and then the 16 RK outlets would still work in pairs.

RK Expansion

 

[rabid frog]

ya makes sense. I had to go home and look at it again. Its kind of a shammy thing I suppose. But for the money it really is a good piece of equipment. Although I have been looking at some of the higher end controllers and all I can say is wow.

 

[israelnajar]

It has been a while since I updated. But I do have an update.
We got the salt and the sand for the build.

Also got the skimmer MR-3-R

Assembled

On another note. As he is building the tank with panes of glass that he had. He used GE window and door on the main display tank and he used GE window and door on the refuge/sump. On the but he made a mistake. In using that he didnt realize that he had used around 18 tubes of GE with mold inhibitor to silicone the edges and baffles.

I let him know that he needs to pull all that silicone off and resilicone without the mold inhibitor.

 

[aquafien]

should have gone bare bottom