A Reefaholic's 1000+ Gallon Mixed Reef System Build

Been busy and got side tracked as I ended up painting the furnace/sump floors too since I had 2 part epoxy with 16 more hours of shelf life!

Progress update:

- Got walls painted with DryLok paint (PITA to roll that stuff!)
- Working on design of the sump/fuge/qt and water mixing station stands.
- Beefing up the propagation tank stand as the vertical pressure is on the screws with the way it was designed. I'm going to just eliminate the metal brackets and add some additional 2X4s to support the weight better rather than worrying about screws sheering in future!

I'm hoping to nail down my designs today/tomorrow and pick up all the wood Thursday/Friday night. The wife who is a nurse is working 12s this weekend so I have 24+ hours of not being interrupted on my build;) Hopefully I can at least get the stand knocked out so I can start plumbing and put the inserts in place for the sump!!!
 
After throwing around multiple versions of my stand for the sump/QTs/fuge I think I've got it down to two. Help me choose! Once I decide on that I'll get the mixing station stand designed so I can plan for it too! Once I have that I'll go pick up the wood to get this project one step further.

Option 1:
Have sump sticking out 8" from the bottom making it more convenient to work in the sump (Place I'll work more frequently).

SumpV21.png


Option 2:
Have sump hang over back and make it easier to reach QTs and Fuge.
SumpV22.png


Decisions, decisions....:spin2:
 
Hmm.. I would rather have room to work on the QT tank, as that is the one you will be in and out of the most. Once the sump is set up, you hope it will be low maintenance. Is the frag tank going on a separate stand? That is the tank you will be in and out of the most I would think.

what are you going to use to tie this into the wall? I would be concerned that the stand is tall and narrow, and you may get some good pressure on those tie downs. It is going into drywall right? I would definitely try and tie that into the studs if you can..

I had concrete wall behind my stands, so I screwed some 1/2'' plywood to the wall, and am using that to tie in my stands. But I don't have anything that tall and narrow..

Looking good, definitely make progress while the wife is on duty :-)
 
dprill,

I'm thinking that Option 2 is the better of them at this point too. I can run a 2X4 horizontally and just skin the top with plywood so I have some extra room on the backside and can drill holes to stabilize the plumbing that runs vertically. As far as anchoring to the wall, I've got concrete that I'll be going into but would rather not put plywood straight on the wall because of the moisture factor as it could easily build up between the walls/plywood.

I've not determined what I'll use to anchor to the wall as I've never went into a concrete foundation so I'll explore those options later and sure I can find some metal brackets...With tying the 4 blue 2X6s to the wall I should have more than a stable stand and prevent it from wracking since it won't be skinned:)
 
I want to make better use of space so stacking seems like a better option and also helps so they are gravity fed!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
 
I picked up all the wood last night. I've not yet settled on what I'm going to do but think I'm going to be doing a little differently than expected. I'm going to turn the 75 gallon into a QT with removable dividers so larger fish can settle into a large QT if needed and that will be on middle tier. I'll then be building a small sump on bottom level for QT system and then I have the third shelf for additional QTs I can add if needed later down the road. In the interim it will be used for storage.

Here's the final design. I hope to make all the cuts tomorrow and start putting it together. I doubt I'll get it all finished in a weekend with paint but hopefully I have it completely built!?

SumpV3_Final.jpg


*For reference, that is the backside! It will be mounted to concrete wall.
 
I've been using Google Sketchup. It's what I've drawn all the 3d models with and was very easy to pick up. I'm pretty quick with it now and it helps show what you are thinking so everyone has a clear idea of what you are talking about. I'm an obsessive planner too so it works well for me;)
 
Looks good! If you use pocket holes (Kreg has some kits) to join your vertical pieces, you can eliminate the long green vertical pieces. Since you're anchoring the stand into the wall (good idea), you should have plenty of lateral and front to back support.

Depending on how you manage your water parameters, you probably don't need a sump for your 75 gal QT tank. I currently have fish in a 75 gal and 55 gal QT tanks. They've been in there for 3 months and as long as I change 25-30% water every week, everything is fine. I have an aquaclear 300 and 250 on the 55gal and an aquaclear 300 and MP40 on the 75gal.

How much room do you plan on allowing between the top of your tanks and the cross member above? I've made similar stands, and thought 7-8" clearance was enough. Most of the time it is, but if I need to dump a 5 gallon bucket of water, there isn't enough room to empty it all out. If you plan on using a pump to fill the tanks with NSW, then there are no worries.
 
Haffs09 said:
Looks good! If you use pocket holes (Kreg has some kits) to join your vertical pieces, you can eliminate the long green vertical pieces. Since you're anchoring the stand into the wall (good idea), you should have plenty of lateral and front to back support.

Depending on how you manage your water parameters, you probably don't need a sump for your 75 gal QT tank. I currently have fish in a 75 gal and 55 gal QT tanks. They've been in there for 3 months and as long as I change 25-30% water every week, everything is fine. I have an aquaclear 300 and 250 on the 55gal and an aquaclear 300 and MP40 on the 75gal.

How much room do you plan on allowing between the top of your tanks and the cross member above? I've made similar stands, and thought 7-8" clearance was enough. Most of the time it is, but if I need to dump a 5 gallon bucket of water, there isn't enough room to empty it all out. If you plan on using a pump to fill the tanks with NSW, then there are no worries.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I picked up the Kregg pocket hole kit for the vertical pieces but think I'm still going to leave the green pieces in for added support. I'd rather it be built like a tank and withstand years of heavy pressure on it:)

The sump has ~20 inches of clearance above and that gives me enough room for my SRO 3000 on a stand with some clearance and also for future expandable area to add the SRO 5000 into the mix once I get the DT in place in the future!

As far as QTs, I've honestly not thought too much about the arrangements but I currently just have the 75 gallon tank. It has an overflow so I thought it might be nice to integrate a sump with carbon reactor and small skimmer. I can also program my water top off and daily water changes into it so it is automated like the DT. Do you run your QTs with hyposalinity or do you just keep at the normal SG?
 
Now I've got to stop looking at RC and get back to working on the stand:)

I've got 55 different pieces and 14 different sizes to cut. I sat down at comp to just do all my measurements on Sketchup so I could get them cut in garage and then move to basement with all the pieces!
 
20" of clearance is nice! I normally run my s.g. around 1.020. When it gets close to putting fish in the DT, I'll increase it to 1.025. I have gone through a round of hyposalinity in my 75gal (1.009) and didn't have any issues maintaining the s.g. without an auto top off. Having the tank covered with glass tops helps too.
 
Haffs09 said:
20" of clearance is nice! I normally run my s.g. around 1.020. When it gets close to putting fish in the DT, I'll increase it to 1.025. I have gone through a round of hyposalinity in my 75gal (1.009) and didn't have any issues maintaining the s.g. without an auto top off. Having the tank covered with glass tops helps too.
Click to expand...

I've just heard that hypo is not a very effective method unless you keep the salinity rock solid at 1.009. I think I'm going to go ahead and top off automatically just so I have some sanity and I want to try to keep the tank as automated as possible as I have to take 3-5 day business trips here and there. My wife has a good hold on the tank and will do any water testing but the less I rely on that the less I have to worry about:D
 
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