A Reefaholic's 1000+ Gallon Mixed Reef System Build

[Dustin1300]

BRS got the backordered supplies in and I've got that ordered as well as two manifolds I'll be using that should make plumbing much easier under the frag tank. They've been marked as shipped so hopefully have mid-week as well as the ones from BRS! I'll find some other fish room work to keep me busy in the meantime.

 

[Dustin1300]

Plumbing...Does it ever end?!

Plumbing...Does it ever end?!

More of my plumbing supplies came in last night so I was able to make a little more progress. Amazing how much time it takes to do plumbing but I'm very meticulous!

Tuesday night I got most of the beananimal overflow done. Still need the street 90s, caps, and line for the open channel standpipe. Developing one last list of plumbing supplies I'll have to pick up from BRS. Goal is to finish plumbing this weekend and if I need a part here or there I'll order from BRS so Wednesday I can finish all plumbing! Woohoo

Gate valves in now the SCH 80 Adapters came in:

Two inch wye the two pumps will flow into.

***This was originally designed to be on inside edge of stand but this ended up working out better.

Manifolds made for spas I picked up that will feed the 6 3/4" returns to fuge/mangrove/frag tank. Manifold with 3 on each side has 1" fittings and is for my drains from fuge/mangrove/frag tank. (1 I'll have to cap as I only need 5.)

 

[Dustin1300]

Did not have a chance to do any further plumbing last night because of a 14 hour day at work...That being said, I'm still going to have the weekend to hopefully get most of this all worked out! My original goal was to have water in system by end of February but I think I'll come out ahead of that!

Questions/Input appreciated:

- Planning on having Radions on DT once that comes up and running. Frag system is going to have a test where I run my reliable IceCap Ballasts with T5s and 14k DE Phoenix bulbs on half. Other 1/4 will be Radion so I can ensure I'm happy with fixture and other 1/4 is still undecided! That being said, I'd like to plan to have LED fixtures over the frag system long term so what does everyone think about running the Apollo dimmable fixture on frag tank?
- Best reactors for carbon and GFO? I have TLF reactors but think that needs to be seriously ramped up.

 

[david00061]

that sump is looking real nice. Everything is looking clean. Its going to be easy to work on

 

[Dustin1300]

Sand or no sand???

Sand or no sand???

While thinking today I've been considering whether I should use sand in the frag tank. I plan to have the frags on egg crate on legs of PVC so I don't see a problem as long as it has proper water movement. The more and more I see of others tanks I see sand in the frag systems.

If I do go sand route I'd likely go with Tropic Eden sand with a mixture of Miniflakes and Reeflakes:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-supply/TEsand.html

 

[Dustin1300]

No one with comments on sand in frag system?

.....Back to plumbing. Made some good progress and hope to have most of the return portions finished this morning. Then I can focus on the drains and hopefully have water in this thing in next week or two!

 

[david00061]

No one with comments on sand in frag system?

.....Back to plumbing. Made some good progress and hope to have most of the return portions finished this morning. Then I can focus on the drains and hopefully have water in this thing in next week or two!

i would use sand in frag. I did it once hated it

 

[Dustin1300]

So you did or did not use sand David?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[DogueDeBordeaux]

Have you decided on glass or acrylic for the main display tank?
I am having a hard time myself trying to decide. If I go glass I will get the marineland 300g, and if acrlyic I would get this size 96x36x26.

 

[Dustin1300]

Right now I think I've decided that acrylic is the route I'll take because of the access I have to basement and weight a glass tank would be. If it was on main floor, I'd go with glass from a good manufacture like A.G.E. but think I'll stick with original plan of having it in basement. I'll be remodeling basement before we put the DT in place.

My pick on glass would be A.G.E. and on acrylic I'm between Midwest Acrylic and A.G.E....I've still got time though so I'm not rushing anything as we just moved in house. Priority right now is getting frag system/filtration in place and work all kinks out and then focus on DT As far as dimensions, you should go with the 8' foot tank If you're doing a large build go big or go home!

 

[DogueDeBordeaux]

You have done a lot of nice work so far. I am also thinking if using MidwestCustom for the acrylic tank. I just do not see his name much on the fourms lately. I see a lot of people using EnvisionAcrylic, but the shipping is just too much for me. Midwest is about $6-700 cheaper on the shipping quote.

 

[Dustin1300]

You have done a lot of nice work so far. I am also thinking if using MidwestCustom for the acrylic tank. I just do not see his name much on the fourms lately. I see a lot of people using EnvisionAcrylic, but the shipping is just too much for me. Midwest is about $6-700 cheaper on the shipping quote.

I'd have to agree with you on the acrylic. EnvisionAcrylic was steep on shipping. Only single complaint I've seen about Midwest is that they had tank build where they requested back acrylic be black and the acrylic was painted on the back so ensure that if you want black acrylic that you clearly state it. Turnaround from A.G.E. and Midwest both seem to be good. You have a build thread yet?

 

[bishop40k]

Good to see things moving ahead Dustin, if you need any help down there let me know. I'd be up for helping on a system that I know I won't be affording any time soon lol.

 

[Dustin1300]

Good to see things moving ahead Dustin, if you need any help down there let me know. I'd be up for helping on a system that I know I won't be affording any time soon lol.

Thanks for the offer. At this point I'm just focused on finishing up the plumbing and moving forward on finalizing a few more things before I put water in the system. I ended up needing a few more pieces of plumbing and some Weld-On to seal off return section as I had a small leak going to the main sump section. Plumbing parts and weld-on should be in tomorrow.

Hopefully this weekend I have the time to finish off the plumbing and the last of the bulkheads I need in the sump for draining it/high water bulkhead to prevent overflow. My goal was to have water running through system by EOM so it's looking like I'm right on schedule. I'm on call for work this weekend so hopefully none of my customer's VoIP systems go down and I'm free to work on my addiction:smokin:

 

[Dustin1300]

Once I get DT ready to move in I might take you up on the offer though bishop!

 

[Dustin1300]

I started a thread in Reef Discussions that I brought up my question regarding sand in the frag tank and the consensus was NO! That being said, I'll stick to the original plan and keep it bare so it makes for easier cleaning of frag tank since the SSB would not really serve any benefit.

That being said, my next part I'm considering is equipment. I just started a thread in SPS forum regarding my current equipment list/plans and stuck on what additional filtration I should use....Should I go with a biopellet reactor or should I go with the tried and true method of using carbon/gfo in reactors? Let me know your opinion here or on the other thread as well as what reactor you'd recommend. Right now I'm leaning towards the Avast reactor(s) but opinions appreciated.

 

[SPotter]

Would you consider using an algae turf scrubber? I use one now and will be building a bigger one for my new tank. I havent used reactors or pellets in months now. I feed pretty heavy too. there are people that just use the atb as tgeir sole source of filtration and have cut wc's to monthly. they are cheap and easy to build as well as clean. check out tge advanced topics thread....there are few huge threads in there about them.

Steve

 

[david00061]

Would you consider using an algae turf scrubber? I use one now and will be building a bigger one for my new tank. I havent used reactors or pellets in months now. I feed pretty heavy too. there are people that just use the atb as tgeir sole source of filtration and have cut wc's to monthly. they are cheap and easy to build as well as clean. check out tge advanced topics thread....there are few huge threads in there about them.

Steve

do they smell?

 

[david00061]

I started a thread in Reef Discussions that I brought up my question regarding sand in the frag tank and the consensus was NO! That being said, I'll stick to the original plan and keep it bare so it makes for easier cleaning of frag tank since the SSB would not really serve any benefit.

That being said, my next part I'm considering is equipment. I just started a thread in SPS forum regarding my current equipment list/plans and stuck on what additional filtration I should use....Should I go with a biopellet reactor or should I go with the tried and true method of using carbon/gfo in reactors? Let me know your opinion here or on the other thread as well as what reactor you'd recommend. Right now I'm leaning towards the Avast reactor(s) but opinions appreciated.

i woudnt use biopellets in a large system. a buddy of my tried it he is back to using carbon/gfo and cheato

 

[SPotter]

do they smell?

No odor at all while its running. it will smell a little when you do the weekly screen cleaning. cleaning the screen takes all of 15 mins, my glass can go 3-4 days without cleaning, water is crystal clear, trates are zero and my phosphates are under .02. I was doing wc's every 2-3 weeks @ 15-20% but with my renovation in the basement ive been doing them weekly now because of all the dust and fumes in the air. I know guys that only run their skimmers 12 hrs a day with it and there are some that don't even use one. I will never be that radical.

Steve