nuxx
.Registered Member
Hey guys I thought it was about time to create a build thread for my new tank.
A little background:
- Started keeping marine tanks about 4 years ago. Setup a 55 gallon with a canister filter, HOB Skimmer, etc... learned a ton, went through some crashes, and it's still running today.
- First large tank I went after was a used 135 acrylic. Was badly scratched and didn't think the effort in fixing it equaled the reward.
- Next I bought a used 240 gallon non-reef ready acrylic tank. After poorly choosing somebody to work on the tank and add overflows, I gave up on the tank after 1 year of not having the work done and sold it.
This all left me wanting a large tank, and just decided to go much bigger and have the tank custom built.
I changed the location I wanted the tank to go in and came up with the dimensions of 120 x 29 x 31".
After contacting the usual suspects I decided to go with Jeff at Pimped Out Aquariums (http://www.pimpedoutaquariums.com/).
Jeff just seemed the most interested in my build and didn't treat me like a number. His prices were also very competitive. He knew I wanted acrylic, but he suggested starphire glass as an alternative but didn't push it. Went with an internal overflow setup for the Bean Animal overflow.
The tank build time was not very long at all, and Jeff kept me in the loop at all times. He even ate the cost of moving up from 3/4" to 1", when the 3/4" he ordered for the tank was a hair under .75". I was blown away with this gesture
The tank was crated well and shipped via crate to San Antonio. My wife and I rented a truck and picked it up.
A local reef club member here in Austin who had the reputation of being a tank whisperer when it comes to moving large tanks came to help get the tank in the house.
The fit was TIGHT... maybe had .5" coming in through the garage. Coming in through the front door would have been extremely hard because of a pillar. With the custom tank jack we were able to get the tank in the house with only 2 people.
For the stand I ended up having another local reef club member put together a steel stand for me. I had the stand built tall (42") since I'm 6'2 and didn't want to have to bend to look at the tank. Also the middle three front supports are removable, since my sump is 8' long.
The sump is 8 feet long and roughly 200 gallons. It's feed by a Bean Animal drain using 3 1.5" pipes. 2 1" returns are feed back into the tank. I didn't think there was enough turbulence in the sump, so I added 2 Jebao WP25s and 1 Tunze Nanostream 6015 to the sump.
For rock I ended up not going with live rock and instead bought 500 lbs of Marco Rock. I decided to acid bath the rock as well. A ton of junk came off the rock, so I'm glad I did that step.
I then took the rock to a local Macro farm to cure for 4-5 months. After all the time it had some nice color, pods, snails and a little macro on the rock.
Laid down some egg crate for the base of the rock and just stacked the rock. I bought rods, epoxy, glue, etc... and didn't use them. The Marco Rock, esp. after acid bath, just stacked so well. Also added 240 lbs of CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand. Ended up spending 7-8 hours cleaning the sand outside. Had a sand cloud for just 2 days.
I had a Tunze skimmer and two Quiet One return pumps left over from my 240 build, as well as 2 Sicce Voyager 4000 powerheads. During my 2 week water test I discovered I couldn't live with the constant hum coming from all these pumps.
The Sicce powerheads were replaced by a host of Jebao WP powerheads. The Quiet Ones were replaced with two Jebao DC9000 return pumps. Finally replaced the Tunze with a Reef Octopus Diablo DCS300. The hum is completely gone and all I hear now is impeller noise.
Here is the tank how it stands today with two temporary LEDs. The tank is now going through it's cycle.
I've just setup a 40 gallon breeder for QT as well.
Next up is getting the reef controller, lights, ATO, auto-saltwater change system, and skinning the stand.
Guessing I'm going with the Apex controller, just not doing a crazy amount of things with my controller. The Apex seems to have a nice interface and is an industry standard.
Going with 5 Kessil A360-we LEDs. Probably going to start with 3 and add more when I get a better feel for their coverage. Going to use their goosenecks with 90 degree adapter to mount. Not going to have a canopy.
Still not sure on the ATO. Want a pump that'll do 1/4" tubing with 8-9' of head. I like the Hydor system, just not sure of what pump to use. Have a tall-skinny 50 gallon storage tank to hold my RODI water. Used a BRS 150 gpd system. Also had to build a gutter system into the sump which is higher than my 50 gallon storage tank with an air break to stop the siphon after the ATO pump turns off.
For saltwater changes. I'm going to use a Stenner double head pump to make sure the same amount of old and new water is pumped. Also stored in a 50 gallon storage tank.
The tank skin will be distressed wood panels mounted in between the stands skeleton with magnets. We want the stands wood to match the style of furniture we have in the house.
Equipment list so far:
Tank - 470 Gallons (1" Acrylic ~ 120 x 29 x 30")
Sump - 200 Gallons (92 x 22 x 23)
Skimmer - Reef Octopus Diablo DCS300
Returns - (2) Jebao DC9000
Powerheads - (2) Jebao WP60, (4) Jebao WP40, (2) Jebao WP25, Tunze Nanostream 6015 (Needed 6 230 lb pulling force magnets for dry side due to 1" acrylic)
Heater - Eheim Jager 300 Watt
RODI - BRS 150 GPH
Equipment needed:
LEDs - Kessil A360-we (5)
Heater - Need a bigger primary heater
Controller - APEX
ATO - Hydor Smart Level (Pump ???)
Water Change - Stenner Double Head Pump
Fish planned:
Yellow Tang (Have)
Purple Tang
Black Tang
Yellow Belly Blue Tang (Have)
Chevron Tang
Kole Tang
Achilles Tang
Sohal Tang (Maybe)
Crosshatch Pair
Black Ice Clown (Have)
Various smaller fish, wrasses, etc... (My wife gets to pick)
Coral:
Mixed Reef (SPS, LPS, not much if any softies)
Thanks for taking the time to read my build... I'll try to update as often as I can.
Feel free to leave an comments, concerns, suggestions, etc... I'd love the feedback!
A little background:
- Started keeping marine tanks about 4 years ago. Setup a 55 gallon with a canister filter, HOB Skimmer, etc... learned a ton, went through some crashes, and it's still running today.
- First large tank I went after was a used 135 acrylic. Was badly scratched and didn't think the effort in fixing it equaled the reward.
- Next I bought a used 240 gallon non-reef ready acrylic tank. After poorly choosing somebody to work on the tank and add overflows, I gave up on the tank after 1 year of not having the work done and sold it.
This all left me wanting a large tank, and just decided to go much bigger and have the tank custom built.
I changed the location I wanted the tank to go in and came up with the dimensions of 120 x 29 x 31".
After contacting the usual suspects I decided to go with Jeff at Pimped Out Aquariums (http://www.pimpedoutaquariums.com/).
Jeff just seemed the most interested in my build and didn't treat me like a number. His prices were also very competitive. He knew I wanted acrylic, but he suggested starphire glass as an alternative but didn't push it. Went with an internal overflow setup for the Bean Animal overflow.
The tank build time was not very long at all, and Jeff kept me in the loop at all times. He even ate the cost of moving up from 3/4" to 1", when the 3/4" he ordered for the tank was a hair under .75". I was blown away with this gesture
The tank was crated well and shipped via crate to San Antonio. My wife and I rented a truck and picked it up.
A local reef club member here in Austin who had the reputation of being a tank whisperer when it comes to moving large tanks came to help get the tank in the house.
The fit was TIGHT... maybe had .5" coming in through the garage. Coming in through the front door would have been extremely hard because of a pillar. With the custom tank jack we were able to get the tank in the house with only 2 people.
For the stand I ended up having another local reef club member put together a steel stand for me. I had the stand built tall (42") since I'm 6'2 and didn't want to have to bend to look at the tank. Also the middle three front supports are removable, since my sump is 8' long.
The sump is 8 feet long and roughly 200 gallons. It's feed by a Bean Animal drain using 3 1.5" pipes. 2 1" returns are feed back into the tank. I didn't think there was enough turbulence in the sump, so I added 2 Jebao WP25s and 1 Tunze Nanostream 6015 to the sump.
For rock I ended up not going with live rock and instead bought 500 lbs of Marco Rock. I decided to acid bath the rock as well. A ton of junk came off the rock, so I'm glad I did that step.
I then took the rock to a local Macro farm to cure for 4-5 months. After all the time it had some nice color, pods, snails and a little macro on the rock.
Laid down some egg crate for the base of the rock and just stacked the rock. I bought rods, epoxy, glue, etc... and didn't use them. The Marco Rock, esp. after acid bath, just stacked so well. Also added 240 lbs of CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand. Ended up spending 7-8 hours cleaning the sand outside. Had a sand cloud for just 2 days.
I had a Tunze skimmer and two Quiet One return pumps left over from my 240 build, as well as 2 Sicce Voyager 4000 powerheads. During my 2 week water test I discovered I couldn't live with the constant hum coming from all these pumps.
The Sicce powerheads were replaced by a host of Jebao WP powerheads. The Quiet Ones were replaced with two Jebao DC9000 return pumps. Finally replaced the Tunze with a Reef Octopus Diablo DCS300. The hum is completely gone and all I hear now is impeller noise.
Here is the tank how it stands today with two temporary LEDs. The tank is now going through it's cycle.
I've just setup a 40 gallon breeder for QT as well.
Next up is getting the reef controller, lights, ATO, auto-saltwater change system, and skinning the stand.
Guessing I'm going with the Apex controller, just not doing a crazy amount of things with my controller. The Apex seems to have a nice interface and is an industry standard.
Going with 5 Kessil A360-we LEDs. Probably going to start with 3 and add more when I get a better feel for their coverage. Going to use their goosenecks with 90 degree adapter to mount. Not going to have a canopy.
Still not sure on the ATO. Want a pump that'll do 1/4" tubing with 8-9' of head. I like the Hydor system, just not sure of what pump to use. Have a tall-skinny 50 gallon storage tank to hold my RODI water. Used a BRS 150 gpd system. Also had to build a gutter system into the sump which is higher than my 50 gallon storage tank with an air break to stop the siphon after the ATO pump turns off.
For saltwater changes. I'm going to use a Stenner double head pump to make sure the same amount of old and new water is pumped. Also stored in a 50 gallon storage tank.
The tank skin will be distressed wood panels mounted in between the stands skeleton with magnets. We want the stands wood to match the style of furniture we have in the house.
Equipment list so far:
Tank - 470 Gallons (1" Acrylic ~ 120 x 29 x 30")
Sump - 200 Gallons (92 x 22 x 23)
Skimmer - Reef Octopus Diablo DCS300
Returns - (2) Jebao DC9000
Powerheads - (2) Jebao WP60, (4) Jebao WP40, (2) Jebao WP25, Tunze Nanostream 6015 (Needed 6 230 lb pulling force magnets for dry side due to 1" acrylic)
Heater - Eheim Jager 300 Watt
RODI - BRS 150 GPH
Equipment needed:
LEDs - Kessil A360-we (5)
Heater - Need a bigger primary heater
Controller - APEX
ATO - Hydor Smart Level (Pump ???)
Water Change - Stenner Double Head Pump
Fish planned:
Yellow Tang (Have)
Purple Tang
Black Tang
Yellow Belly Blue Tang (Have)
Chevron Tang
Kole Tang
Achilles Tang
Sohal Tang (Maybe)
Crosshatch Pair
Black Ice Clown (Have)
Various smaller fish, wrasses, etc... (My wife gets to pick
)Coral:
Mixed Reef (SPS, LPS, not much if any softies)
Thanks for taking the time to read my build... I'll try to update as often as I can.
Feel free to leave an comments, concerns, suggestions, etc... I'd love the feedback!
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