Away We Go - New Reef Set Up 230-250 gal

Gieser

Gieser

Member
This is posted in another thread, but someone thought it would be better received here as this will be a fairly large project.

Sorry a bit lengthy, but we are back with about 250 gallons to work with. My wife and I have been out of the hobby for a few years. We had a 180 FOWLR and 120 REEF. We have been discussing changing the bar in our house into a workroom for a new reef aquarium that would be in the wall. So we will close off the bar and put one of two ideas in the bar. Either an L-Shaped 265 gal. acrylic tank, or 2 separate tanks (Front=65x24x31 tall, Side=21x16x31 tall). As of right now, we have decided on doing 2 tanks and running them on one system. I found a place that can make the L-shape seamless with glass out of New York, but it is about $4,000...a bit more than we budgeted for for the tank. We feel acrylic for a reef would be a bad move because of scratching, etc.

We are curious about ideas for the set up. Our bar is an L-Shaped bar, and we have not heard of anywhere that recommends a seamed L-shaped glass tank. I will get some pictures of the space up tomorrow.

We are planning to run HQI MHs 250w with T5s.

We plan to fill it with TampaBay saltwater sand and rock starting off

Ideas would be much appreciated on the following:

Filtration ideas (overflow boxes or other ways), size and quality sump and skimmer, pump sizes and flow heads
L-Shape ideas for glass, or 2 separate tanks...
Refugium that could act as a quarantine tank or hospital tank. I am curious about a sump and refugium in 1 box...any thoughts

There is a lot to be figured and I we are planning now. We plan to have the bar built out by the end of the month. I would love some input from the "Powers that Be" on a tank or system this size.

Andrew and Kelly
 
Also, I will get pictures up here and keep the progress posted as we make progress. I also meant to mention that the area behind the bar (bar is a corner bar) will become the "tank" room. We decided we would never do another tank until we had the opportunity to actually have a tank room. That is how we will be building this.
 
One last thing. I have read and read and read about Acrylic vs. Glass. I even read one article that suggested snails can even scratch acrylic?!?! My wife is concerned about size. We have decided that either way we do the tank, it will be over 250 gallons...either an "L" shape that would be about 285 Gallons, or just a rectangle 65 x 30 x 30 tall at about 250. She is afraid of the weight with glass and also the scratching of acrylic. Any guidance here would be much appreciated.
 
I even read one article that suggested snails can even scratch acrylic?!?!
Click to expand...
Wow that would be one high powered radula:eek2: ! As clumsy as I am I'm not a big acrylic fan either. I scratched one of the lenses on my polycarbonate glasses the first week I owned em!
 
So we have decided on the Acrylic so we can actually get the "L" shape for the corner. The dimensions will be (Starting from right front corner of the "L" moving all the way around the "L") 63x45x16x21x47x28 31" tall which will give us about 260 gallons to work with. I am a little worried about the height, and may decide to have it made a little lower, like 28" to make cleaning a little easier. This tank will sit on 44" high stand.
 
Get the extra height. The cleaning is not a big issue. The height looks better and gives you many more options IMO

The glass would add about 20% to the total weight. If that's a concern then I would suggest if that's you might need to address the tanks foundation.

I manage to scratch every glass tank I have. I would never consider acrylic.
 
This will be the actual dimensions of the tank itself...(Starting from the right front corner and working all the way around the "L") 63x45x16x17x47x28 31" High and 3/4" acrylic. There will be 2 external overflows, a 24" on the long side of the "L" and a 12" on the short side. This will give us a total volume full of 250.4 Gallons.
 
This is the area we will close off and make for the tank room...we can consider these the first pictures of this project. The idea was to build onto the bar and make it support the tank, but I am thinking it would be better to take it out and build from the ground up...what do you think? I have one contractor look at it and said he can make this bar support the weight and size by building over it. hmmmm I am not sure about thart.

50135IMG_1705.jpg



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50135IMG_1700.jpg


50135IMG_1706.jpg
 
Here is some of the equipment we are trying to decide on. Any input would be great.

Skimmer:

If we go with a recirculating skimmer:

ReeFlo Orca 250
E.T.S.S. 900 XR or E.T.S.S. 1800 XR (this may be overkill)
Warner MArine AR200

Heater:

800W Titanium Heater with
D-58 Controller by Won Brothers

Lighting:

I am struggling here...I would like 3 250 HQI 12K-14K MH lights with a T5 HO set up. The problem is that it seams fixtures would be easier, but pendants and retros may be cost effective...Either way, I seem to be drawn to the Current USA Outer Orbit HQI+T5 and am leaning that way.

I don't know if I will need a chiller...the lights will be 12" over the tank max. The most important thing is setting this all up right the first time.

My wife and I are also seriously considering a Dialyseas system, which is more her idea than mine. I have talked to Jerry with the company about them and although it is expensive...well, it's just expensive!
 
I don't know how many hours I spent last night reading through other threads on tanks and tank rooms. I was pretty excited about building mine out and getting it going so I can keep everyone up to date, but this will be sooooo much smaller than most of what I have been seeing here in the large tank category...I am now becoming intimidated about it :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14381567#post14381567 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gieser
I don't know how many hours I spent last night reading through other threads on tanks and tank rooms. I was pretty excited about building mine out and getting it going so I can keep everyone up to date, but this will be sooooo much smaller than most of what I have been seeing here in the large tank category...I am now becoming intimidated about it :)
Click to expand...

Arr thank envy :rollface: you know what they say about guys with large fish tanks right....................

Keep reading the threads its a great way to learn and pick up ideas.
 
Hey Hey I'm jealous of even the 240!! Even though I only had a 40 runnin (down sizing to a sumpless 29 due to layoff) I still love trawling for ideas from the big guys. By the time I can leave home and go big I'll be ready dang it!
 
One thing I would do if possible, would involve removing the bar and going with a tubular steel stand and building a wall to enclose the tank. If possible move the footprint into the room a little 6" - 9", that should buy some more room ...
 
That is a good idea. I have a guy that could easily weld a stand for me for pretty cheap. I believe we are going to remove the bar. We were going to try and build over it, so if we needed to move, the bar would be easy to keep for the next owner.
 
:bounce3:HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS!!! WE ORDERED THE TANK TODAY FROM Envision Acrylics:beer: !!! James up there is such a great pleasure to work with. He is smart, has great design ideas, and get this...out of all the tanks he has made, big or small, he only ever had a problem with 1 because a trucking company drove a forklift into the side if it. You can see how exceptional his packaging is (which he does charge a bit for, but worth it :thumbsup: ) in this thread. I will be taking exceptional pictures of the seams, for all to see. He is smart, and I believe he builds EXCEPTIONAL acrylic tanks, according to my research and the fact that he would not make it any less than 3/4" (which others thought 1/2 would be okay). It will take about 6 weeks to get here, so we are getting to work now. We decided to do 2 external overflows on the rear of each side of the "L". We are also doing 2 closed loops for water movement with 2 seperate pumps (3,000 gph each). As well, we will use about a 2K gph for filtration.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14390778#post14390778 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by brainchild24

Octopus Extreme Skimmer (250 / 300) [stay away from the mesh mod]

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/coralvue/CV-MSX-300.jpg

Which is an in sump skimmer, it should save you some room in the fish room...
Click to expand...

We are looking at the Octopus Skimmer 300 and the ReeFlo 250. I am leaning toward the ReeFlow 250. As for bio-load, we plan to have a fairly stocked reef with SPS, LPS, Soft Corals, Clams, Anemone, etc. & the following fish: School of Lyretail Anthias, School of Blue Chromis, Orchid Dottyback, Grama, Assessors, Long Nose Hawk, Coral Beauty Angel, Pink Clowns, Chromis, Wrasse (Fairy/Scots/Flasher/Six line), Bi-Color Blenny, Mandarin, Shrimp Goby, Naso Tang, Sohal Tang, Sailfin or Blue Tang, Pair of Blue Jaw Triggers (Male/Female).

We are also going to use 3 ReeFlo Pumps (one for the main filtration and 2 for the closed loop). Decided this last night. I am thinking of a 1700-2000GPH for the main, and 2500+ for the closed loop.
 
After doing a lot of reading and research through RC, here is my first idea for flow and plumbing. Comments and suggestions welcome. Maybe this is too much flow :)


50135Tank_Plumbing3-med.jpg
 
A quick update on more design for plumbing and current.

Thanks to Paul at OM, a real pleasure to talk to and VERY helpful!!! THANKS PAUL!!! Here is an update on the flow. The returns for the closed loop actually will be in the rear facing forward, and in the front facing up toward the rear. The return system will push water from front to back. The drain for the closed loop is not in there, yet...they will e 2 "T" shaped pieces with 4 nozzles on each against the back walls to draw the water down the back of the tank. More to come.


50135Tank_Plumbing5-med.jpg
 
If you can do a insump I would go for an I tech large cone over a reeflo Then you could make your sump larger also. I changed due to changing my set up but it pulls out more than the reeflo ever did. I have a 240 and it does a great job
 
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