540 in wall from Sunrise FL......

mrx66699

mrx66699

New member
Well the time has finally arrived after almost two years of planning. It's been a long journey to say the least. After acquiring what I thought was to be my new 300 DT upgrade (twice), I lucked into the DT I had been looking for all along a 540 ATM 96x36x36.....so without further ado the insanity begins....LET'S ROCK!

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First off lets start with my current setup and some of the inhabitants that will be moving into their new penthouse. If you can't tell I'm a big fan of lg fish and lots of them. Angles, Tangs, Wrasses, Triggers, Butterflies, Clowns and many others. Which usually brings us to the first thing that everyone asks about when they see my current setup.... do you have corals......and I reply of course I do just the ones that taste bad though....

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This setup is in the garage which became my new fish room for all the equipment and such. You view it on the right when you walk in my house and at the back of one of the family rooms...

The first thing we had to do was move the electrical panel that was in the way. A good friend was able to take care of this ....

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moved across the way behind the door to the right of the wall the setup will be on in its new location...

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after the electrical was moved and prepped for the install next came taking out the drywall and metal studs....this ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would...


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Next up was the stand....its made of pressure treated 2x6s and 2x10s

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when it was done it was coated in kills primer to seal it ....and I was meticulous about it being level......any where its measured or angle or position it sits level .....

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I have been acquiring select pieces of rock I wanted to used over the last year and letting it cure in this container. In all it ended up being about 950lbs that I was able to find and I will be adding another 350 that is in my current setup.....

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I put my skimmer that I will be using on the setup in with the rock to clean it up for a few months......BK Super Marine 300

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I can't wait to see this in person Matt, I'll be dropping you a line once your done with everything. If you need help, feel free to ask me.
 
sump was next.....with a few personal requirements

1. lg water volume with maximum flow
2. convenience ....plenty of room to work
3. multiple chambers for heavy filtration as I LIKE FISH
4. all acrylic so I could custom fabricate it to my needs
5. large built in isolated quarantine for easy additions of any new fish
6. keep it relatively cost effective

so here is what I came up with....I bought a used 300 gal acrylic DT from a local reefer but the only problem was it was tall and not wide like I wanted.....so I went to work and fixed that problem, I cut out one of the sides and positioned it on the top so I could turn the tank on its side and have a wide sump instead of a tall sump

1st. I cut out the euro bracing
2nd. Next I cut out one side
3rd. Then I took the side I cut out and re positioned it and welded it to the top where I cut out the euro brace now the one side left would become the bottom and the original bottom and new side would be the sides and were I cut out the one side it would become the top.....problem solved
4th. Next I installed the different chambers I wanted

1st chamber is were the 4 in of overflow come in then the 2nd chamber is were the water flow will pass through 2 7in 100 micron socks 3rd chamber is the skimmer chamber and 4th is the top off chamber and return section.....at one end is a 50 gal quarantine section and at the other end is a 50 gal section I will use to run a natureef denitrator section....I also built in a removable 20 gal fluidized sand bed filter but pics of it will be later on as its not installed in these pics .....the return pumps are dual reflo super dart golds both (4300gph)

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water testing

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in place in the stand

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