Adam's 450 GALLON REEF TANK BUILD!
- Thread starter Adamc1303
- Start date
SPotter
Active member
he just updated an hour ago....some is trying to get to 50.
I just ordered a sump tonight. I saw Dace's for sale thread but I didn't really like the configuration. I went with a 48" long by 24" deep by 20" high. The height was just because he could go to 24" with out charging me so I went to 20". I did a simple 6" drain area, 1 baffle huge fuge in the middle 2 baffles before return, leaving 6" for the return area. Basically I went with a monster refugium. The baffles will be 10" high so the sump volume while running is 50 gallons with additional room for 50 gallons of water draining when I shut the system down, although I think i should have under 20 gallons of water draining. I also got 48" by 18" by 10" high rimless frag tank ordered. They will drill it for me so I can plumb it right in. I gt everything at world class aquarium in Brooklyn. It's a really old school store and they build tanks in the basement. The tanks aren't nice at all, pretty sloppy and over built with a ton of braces on top, but for sumps and things of that sort they're good and priced very well. The guy that owns the place is really old school and he wants you to go his way, like a wet dry or what he calls a mud filter! lol But if you sweet talk him enough he actually will listen to you and do what you want lol. He's actually a really nice guy and means well but hes set in his ways. I am expecting a huge Premium Aquatics delivery tomorrow. Once I get that and I have the sump in like a week or 2 I can start plumbing which I wish I could just have someone good do for me but I don't know anyone for the job. I can do it all on my own but i'm sort of lazy with the plumbing for some reason. I am going to have all the electrical and ventilation stuff done tomorrow.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Great progress Adam. Single euro braced tank is sexy and I like how you matched the stand to your house decor. Congrats also on the sump.
Thanks for the compliments guys! I did the ventilation tonight. I installed a 120 CFM bathroom vent fan in my filter room. I hope the bathroom fan works, I am going to try to keep a glass lid on the sump to help keep down the moisture in the room. I also installed a 4" in duct fan sucking from outside into my canopy. I noticed that allot of people have it sucking air out under the canopy. I figured by blowing air in it would cool the tank and bring in fresh air to help with PH. I can always just reverse it, I originally purchased two and was going to go in and out, but I don't really want to punch any more holes in my house.
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SO I got a few things done over the weekend. I drilled through my floors to get my 3 drain line and one return line to and from the basement. I also made "Bean Animal" stand pipes and got my mocean's wave makers in place for the return lines.Once I get the sump I should be able to connect it all and give it a test run. I got a partial refund for the light fixture I was forced to keep 3 250w ice cap ballasts. I am not sure what to do about lighting now. I know I will probably go led in the future but I can't bring my self to do it now. Maybe it will happen after my first few electric bills! If I go Metal Halide I always liked retro fit pendents with VHO's. I know lol I know very old school, but I also saw a great deal on a 3 x 250 = 2 80w t5 directly from aquamedics website. It's for a refurbished unit. Does anyone know if I can use the Ice Cap ballasts on the aquamedic fixture?
I setup my return lines tonight. I have a main valve for the return line and then a valve on each individual line that goes to a Mocean's Wave maker. I used the ball valves with the unions so i can always swap or take something off line without really having to dismantle everything. Let me know if you see any issues. The tubing I got from lowes is kinked flat since it was rolled like that, if it remains an issue once there is water running through it i guess i'll have to change it.
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These look really cool. I am just scared to go LED until my tank is more mature. Since ive never used them before it's too much for me to handle all at oncewith a new tank not cycled starting totally from scratch. Once my tank is mature and doing well I would switch and if things go wrong I would know what to attribute it to. I may try one pendant in one section of the tank and experiment for a month or two before switching. I love the idea of LED's though.
I got the sump today this thing is huge! I was originally going to run my skimmer externally along with all of the reactors. I am a little tight on space and I never liked the idea of having the skimmer outside the sump. That being said I had the sump drilled with two bulkheads. I am thinking I get another refugium and just have that extra bulkhead drain to the fuge and have a small submersible return pump return the water. Basically I am adding another tank! Once that done eventually I would love to plumb in a frag tank. I am going to do a fresh water test tomorrow, i'm really nervous. I did all the plumbing alone and I don't really trust my own work. Here are some pics.
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I decided on having the skimmer externally and keeping the sump as a fuge like it was designed. I am running my reeflo barracuda gold totally open and not getting as strong of a flow like I thought. It does have 15 feet of head pressure and splits into 4. I shut down one of the Wavemaker outputs I think I will shut down another one to just have it split to two. I am going to put tunze pumps on the other wavemakers. Anyway the tank is running freshwater now. I had a few major leaks that I fixed now i have some minor drips by some pvc connections. I am going to try to just put a ton of glue on those areas and hope it fixes the problems. I don't want to have to cut those sections out and replace since each one is attached to something else and there would have to be allot of replacing for something really. They are very very slow drips. The type of thing were you just feel some moisture in that spot. On another note I spent very little time getting the Bean Animal overflow adjusted and I must say it's really good, I really like it, it's dead silent, I am impressed. There is a really loud hum from the return pump does anyone have pointers on silencing that thing? I hear it all the way from the basement to the 2nd floor. Here's a picture of the wet tank.
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So not a good update guys. I heard a snap last night at like 2 am as I was watching you tube reef videos. i went to the tank ad checked everything out and everything was fine. Once in a while my house makes noises or something shifts in a closet. Anyway I was on my phone and I looked at the tank and noticed that the one piece euro brace snapped! I guess that was what I heard last night. I immediately drained the tank. I didn't notice bowing or anything and it didn't spring any leaks or anythings that's good. I e-mailed the guy that built the tank I am waiting to hear back. I actually didn't it from a manufacturer I got it from a guy that built that was an employee of the manufacturer. he built this one for him self and then decided he didn't want it once he stopped working for the company. I really hope he helps me out here. I attached a picture.
