300 inwall starfire project

R

Rumrunner

New member
Hey all!!!

I just wanted to contribute to this forum as I have been reading through it on a regular basis and I have been greatful for all of the information and knowlege everyone has shared.

After 12 years of breeding African Cichlids I finally have the opportunity to start my dream reef tank of 300 gallons.

My original plan was to set up a 500 gallon in wall tank but the missus has put her foot down and a compromise was reached at 300 gallons :)

We have recently been involved with putting an addition on to our home and this has allowed me to plan for the tank literally from the ground up.

I can only hope that it will help others and provide the opportunity for people to make comments and share their thoughts. I will attempt to show everything that I can throughout this whole project.

Welcome to all on this thread and please join me on the realization of a dream.
 
Hey cool. Youre pretty quick with the reply :)

Already started and am trying to figure out how to get pics on the thread. Any help would be cool.
 
Get an account with photobucket.com, its free.

Load your pics on there then copy the IMG section then come here and paste in the IMG tab
 
Very detailed pictures coming... I hope
Ok here is what I have done so far. I have started uploading pictures to the member pages like it said in the instructions. You may now veiw some of the pics by clicking on my camera icon. I will try to get the issue ironed out. Every time I copy and paste to the It doesnt work I will try again now.
[url]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/173693141_4113_1_1.JPG[/url]
 
Hmmmm I am getting a sight you can click on now on my computer to see the first picture. Its an improvement but I was hoping the picture would automatically show up on the thread. Anyway this first one shows the place where we are putting the addition. The contractor sunk 2 concrete footings to bedrock on the spot where the tank will go. He also poured extra concrete.

I should be good with wieght for a 5000 gal tank :)
That will come when I win the lottery.
 
173693141_4117_1_1.JPG


Starting the framing. We ran into some frost issues as the contractor was a bit late so he framed everything up and put in insulation than used propane heaters and than poured the concrete. A bit of a backword way but it was either that or wait till winter was over and our winters are longggggggggg.
 
Ok enough of the framing pictures lets get to the tank stuff. Here is a picture of the starting of the vent system. All that moisture has got to go somewhere so I will be running a variable speed bathroom fan in the wall directly out through the roof. I hope this will tackle some of the evapouration so I wont get mold and stuff.

Only time will tell.

173693143_4392_1_1.JPG
 
Here is the start of the electrical wiring. I will be running three circuits to handle the load. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to put in regular outlets or running power bars. The electrician thinks that three power bars of eight outlets will take the load. One for each circuit. Than there is always the Ground fault outlets but I have heard some bad things about them tripping all the time. What does anyone think?
173693143_4393_1_1.JPG
 
Ahhhhh plumbing. This is the start of the plumbing for the tank. Thank god for smart plumbers. I hate to admit it but I had no idea that when you run an RO system not all of the water gets used. Apparently for every 1 gallon of clean RO water there is 3 gallons of waste water and that has to go somewhere. The plumber roughed in a 3 1/2" drain right by the tank in the wall. Also the RO unit plumbing was roughed in. I have a return tube running into our kitchen that will eventually be hooked up to our fridge that has ice maker and water capability. No sense wasting all that good water. The RO system will be a power assist 100 gallon a day with a built in TDS meter. I think thats plenty after the initial fill.

My water company is going to love me paying their taxes.
173693144_4404_1_1.JPG
 
I anticipate completion of everything by the beginning of May. These pictures are back dated a bit. The construction dudes are already hanging drywall no and the tank is already in the addition. There are more pictures to come. I am just trying to give you all as complete a picture as I can.

Again any feedback would be much appreciated.
 
Here is the protein skimmer I have chosen or more to the point my lfs guy has recomended. It is a 4 pump system octopus/swc is the make...I think... there was not very much info on the box or instructions... I am hoping that it will be enough to take the load of my tank. LOl I don't think there is going to be a problem with this puppy.

Whoever said reef tanks cost alot was way underestimating things. I had planned to spend 5000.00 ( thats what I told my wife ) but I think realistically I will be approaching 10000 when all is completed. So for the feint of heart dont try this!!!! Mr. Visa is a very happy camper right now :)

173693144_4441_1_1.JPG
 
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