900 Gallon Reef Project

After years of planning my wife and I have purchased a new home and decided to put in a 900 Gallon reef aquarium in our basement. Jeff Turner and Reef Aquaria Design, Inc out of Florida will be building and setting up the entire system. This is a dream come true for me and I wanted to share the process with all of you.

I have maintained reef aquariums of various sizes since 1993 and have even worked at a few Reef shops while in high school and college, but this project was just too big for me to handle on my own. This aquarium will essentially house everything in my current 210 gallon system.

The dimensions of the tank are 120"x48"x36" for approximately 900 gallons of water volume in the tank with an additional 500-600 gallons for the sump/refugium/grow-out tank, for a total water volume approaching 1500 gallons.

Today the stand arrived in pieces and is being welded together in the basement. The stand is made out of 2 inch stainless steel tubing and is being assembled on site. The tank itself will be constructed out of 3/4 inch starfire glass for the front and sides, with a 1 inch bottom panel. The tank will have to be built on-site due to the location of the tank in the basement. Tank build will occur first week of April and the whole process should be done by mid-May. I will keep posting updates throughout the process.


Essentially we had to fit two ten foot by three foot sections of the stand:

standparts2.jpg


standparts1.jpg


through:
Windowegress3.jpg


Windowegress2.jpg


Windowegress1.jpg


and here it is almost finished:

Standpartiallycompleted.jpg


God I love welding:

Standwelding.jpg


Stay tuned for more schematics and system info!:frog:
 
Last edited:
Nice! Now I don't need to come over to watch them build the tank... just watch it directly from work.
 
i'd rethink the 36 inches of hieght, that might be a real PITA to place corals and clean with a tank being that high, you'd need a ladder to get your hands in it and then you'd be up to your shoulder in water

my tank is 27 inches tall and honestly i wouldn't want anything taller seeing how the water level is up to my shoulder when my hand is touching the bottom of the tank
 
Looks great. I wasn't aware PPG still carried 3/4" starphire glass.
 
i'd rethink the 36 inches of hieght, that might be a real PITA to place corals and clean with a tank being that high, you'd need a ladder to get your hands in it and then you'd be up to your shoulder in water

my tank is 27 inches tall and honestly i wouldn't want anything taller seeing how the water level is up to my shoulder when my hand is touching the bottom of the tank

There is a 36" catwalk located behind the aquarium to make reaching in much easier. My current tank is 30 inches in height so it shouldn't be too much of a pain to handle. Also I can pretty much lie down on the edge of the tank to reach in if need be.
 
Wow...I was originally planning one doing my large build with glass and just couldn't accept the risk of a tank that large held together by silicone only. I ended up deciding on concrete with a viewing pane since it was going to be inwall anyway. Best of luck with it!
 
Wow...I was originally planning one doing my large build with glass and just couldn't accept the risk of a tank that large held together by silicone only. I ended up deciding on concrete with a viewing pane since it was going to be inwall anyway. Best of luck with it!

The guys from RAD have built tanks that are 2000 gallons + out of glass. There is one in the Redbank Animal Hospital, in New Jersey, that is a 2000 gallon glass cylinder.
 
Last edited:
Crazy tank! Can't wait to see it go up. Why such an odd shape?

The right side of the tank will be up against a wall. I needed something that would make the tank a bit less boxy on the left as the room continues about another 20 feet. I am going to have a second living room in that area. My wife loves the way it looks and I am in no place to argue considering she is going to let me actually go through with the project!
 
Last edited:
More photos of the space


Drain 1 located under the fish tank in case there ever should be a four or five letter word in the area (leak or flood).

Drainfishroom2.jpg



Drain 2 located in the fish room connected to the first drain and to the....
DrainFiltrationRoom.jpg


Sump pit number 2. I had a a secondary sump pit with sump pump installed on a battery back up in case something bad happens as well as any waste water produced by the RO system and the water cooled chiller.

SumpPit2.jpg


Filtration room photos
FiltrationroomtoCatwalk2.jpg


FiltrationRoomtocatwalk.jpg


Catwalk area leading to filtration room:

FishroomtoFiltrationroom.jpg


More random photos of the space.

BasementLivingarea1.jpg


BasementLivingarea2.jpg


Sorry about some of the poor picture quality, I still haven't had a chance to unpack my camera and am using my blackberry in the meantime...
 
Back
Top