600 gallon Display/ 900 gallon system

[46bfinGA]

Have been reefing for a few years now and have spent alot of time admiring the many many nice tanks here on RC. There has been so many large tanks in this forum that has led me to the broke status that I am in today. I started with a 46 bowfront back in 2005 and have been thru a 60 gal., a 120 gal., a 125 gal. and now my addiction has taking quite a turn for the better or worse, depending on how you look at it or who you ask(My Wife).

I have spent the past two years working on this project and have just recently got the tank running and in a somewhat presentable condition. So I would like to share with you guys the result of much sweat and tears....

Tanks that make up the roughly 900 gallon system...

1. Display tank - 600 gallons 96" x 48" x 30".
2. Sump - 240 gallons 72" x 36" x 24"
3. Frag tank - 80 gallons 32"x32"x18"

Equip....
1. DIY Dart NW skimmer which utilizes an Alita 40 air pump and Gold Dart Pump.
2. Aqua UV 120 watt
3. BRS Dual media Reactor for Carbon and GFO.

Water Flow....

1. Gold Dart return pump.
2. 2 --Tunze waveboxes built into external waveboxes. Uses 6091 controller.
3. 4- Tunze 6101's on 7095 controller.
4. Frag tank is fed from return pump and gravuty drains into display. Has a Tunze 6125 for additional flow.

Lighting....

1. Main Display--- 2 - 8 lamp Tek lights.
2. Frag Tank---- 24" Aquamedic 250watt w/ 2- T5 actinics.

Water Storage.......

1. Fresh water 2 -30 gallon reservoirs.
2. Saltwater 160 gallon reservoir

 

[46bfinGA]

Here is the beginning of it all two years ago....

I had to install a header for the tank, as the tank is an in-wall setup.

Then on to building the stand... I used 6x6 posts and 2x10's for the framing. This stand will hold ALOT of weight...

 

[46bfinGA]

Then on to building soffit's in the fish room to cover up AC ducts....

I installed all the rough-in plumbing,electric, exhaust fans,etc.... Then began on the sheet rock...

 

[46bfinGA]

Work continued....

 

[46bfinGA]

And continued....

Tank was put on the stand in the fish room so I could finish the display window which is smaller then the tank.

 

[46bfinGA]

Getting closer and closer.....

 

[adammreef]

Looks like you have done a great job so far.:thumbsup:

 

[46bfinGA]

Getting to the good stuff.....

 

[46bfinGA]

 

[46bfinGA]

I used some modular rubber flooring in the fish room and in the utilty closet outside the fish room. This stuff works really well....

 

[46bfinGA]

More pics......

 

[46bfinGA]

Plumbing for my double sink. (AKA the best thing ever for a fish room)....

Here is where I tied into my plumbing to feed the sink....

Pics of the QT system....

 

[46bfinGA]

Pics of the frag tank.....

Pics of the saltwater mxing reservior....

 

[46bfinGA]

Some more plumbing pics.....

There are several things going on here. There is a 1" pipe coming from the top-off reservoirs that are gravity fed into the sump...also a 1" pipe coming from the saltwater mixing tank. The water is pumped over to the sump using an Iwaki. The UV and Skimmer are fed from the return pump and dump mack into the sump. The return pump also pumps up to the frag tank and the display tank....

Here is the Alita 40 that feeds the NW skimmer....

Here is where I bleed off air....

 

[tmantaylor18]

Wow I think you have my dream set up !

 

[46bfinGA]

Some more skimmer shots....

After a few days....

The skimmer has been working OK for awhile now. I still have to do some tinkering with it to get it fine tuned. There is a huge learning curve you have to overcome when you start injecting air into a skimmer...

 

[46bfinGA]

I promise, we are almost done with the initial pics. I just wanted to get your guys up to date


I built some rock racks for the sump to keep the rock off of the bottom. That way I can use a powerhead ever so often to clean out the sump easily... In addition to using filter socks in the drain section, I hope to keep the sump tidy.

Then the rock work began....

 

[46bfinGA]

I washed all the sand before putting into the tank, so the cloudiness only lasted a day or two. I highly recommend everyone spend the time to wash their sand. There was what seemed to be mulch, all in the bags of Carib-sea sand....

The first inhabitant of my system.... The sump cleaner!

 

[46bfinGA]

Got the lights working.....

 

[46bfinGA]

More pics of the initial aquascaping ....