Building My 375gal Glass Reef

[GlassReef]

Hello all!

First a preface - I spent 30 years in Europe working for an American company. The last 15 years of that time I was heavily involved in saltwater aquariums. The Berlin System was used by almost everyone at the time, and I was no exception - worked pretty well, but wasn't perfect. Caring, successfully, for SPS was very (read - extremely) difficult. Most aquariums were full of soft corals and a few fish. Angels and Butterfies were illegal because of CITES. Anyway, I left Europe a few years ago. Deep down, I always had the wish to get back into saltwater but didn't act on it. Then I discovered Reef Central! Bam! I immediately decided that I would get back into the hobby as soon as possible. It took a while, but here I am.

So… I thought I’d join the club and start a thread about the building of my 375gal glass reef. I’ve been planning this whole thing for at least a year. We recently had a home built and I took advantage of the opportunity to include a fish room. The past 3 or 4 months have been spent - well, spending. It’s amazing how many “things” are required in order to put together a functioning saltwater aquarium system. Of course, concentrating on SPS tends to lengthen the list.

This is probably the correct place to say that, almost without exception, ALL the ideas you will see in this project were taken from the great threads I found here on Reef Central. The amount of info on RC is incredible â€"œ and I took full advantage of it. The general plan calls for:

System Overview

The system will consist of the main display tank, a sump, a separate refugium, and a frag tank. The sump will be placed under the display tank, in the usual manner. The return will be via a Reeflo Dart Gold. The refugium and frag tank will be located along the wall opposite the display tank â€"œ here also, the return will be by a Dart Gold. Water for the system will be processed through an RO/DI with booster pump. Water storage will in two 65gal ACE tanks â€"œ one for RO/DI top off and one for saltwater mixing. Lighting will be a combination of Metal Halide and T5. I plan to use the Balling Method for calcium/alkalinity/magnesium maintenance. I have found this method allows for very precise control of the most important water parameters. Skimming will be handled by a Reeflo 250 with custom needle wheel and collection cup. An AquaController III Pro from Neptune will be in charge of controlling the systems hardware. Water will be chilled via a Teco 1/3HP (too weak huh? â€"œ I’m beginning to think so too).

Fish Room

18’ X 7’ (way too narrow â€"œ a case of bad planning). Floor drain. Running water with utility sink. FanTec exhaust fan, connected to an humidistat, in the ceiling to control humidity.

Display Tank (in wall)

All glass - 96" L x 36" W x 25" H â€"œ approx. 375 gallons

Details - front pane Starphire, external coast to coast overflow (no teeth) with three 1½” drain bulkheads (BeanAnimal’s design), 5” Euro bracing, 3/16” thick black acrylic covering the inside of the back pane to hide the overflow box.

Status - being built as I write by ConceptAquarium.com in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada). Randy Cameron, the owner, has been invaluable in helping me with the design.

Internal flow - 4X Tunze 6205 streams attached to a Tunze 7095 controller. The 6205’s are a brand new model and won’t be available until October (I hope), just in time for the delivery of the tank. I chose to go with the streams instead of a closed loop because I’d like to try to avoid the “plumbing chaos” that can result when a loop is employed. Of course, it remains to be seen if I can succeed.


Return: Reeflo Dart Gold.

Sump/Fuge/Frag-Tank

Sump - Acrylic 3/8” - 48" L x 24" W x 16" H â€"œ Euro bracing - 75 gallons (DIY). It will be a simple affair, just a bubble trap (3 baffles) and a place for two filter socks. The intake area will have a 1” bulkhead for the skimmer feed pump (or should I feed the skimmer directly from the overflow?). The return section will have two 2” bulkheads for the Dart pumps feeding the display and the fuge/frag tanks.

Refugium - Acrylic 48" L x 18" W x 16" H - 60 gallons (DIY)

Frag tank - Acrylic 48" L x 18" W x 14" H - 50 gallons (DIY)

Lighting

Metal Halides â€"œ 4 LumenBright (20”) reflectors, 4 CoralVue dimmable 400W electronic ballasts, 4 400W ReefLux 12K SE bulbs

T5 â€"œ eight 36” retro assemblies (HelloLights.com) - four 10K and four actinic

The lighting will be mounted in a DIY hanging aluminum frame. The entire frame will be hung on sliders, allowing it to be moved away from the tank to make access easier.

Filtration, Etc.

Skimmer is a Reeflo 250 with a Dart Gold pump. I bought the custom collection cup and needle wheel available from Mike at Reef Specialty. This looks like one mean machine. Can’t wait to get it going.

1 DIY fluidized bed filter for GAC
1 DIY fluidized bed filter for GFO
2 filter socks located in the sump

RO/DI

Typhoon III 5 stage 75GPD unit from AirWaterIce.com - Includes booster pump and DIY ATO for the raw water reservoir.

Controller

AquaController III Pro â€"œ with Temp, pH, ORP, and Conductivity probes. Three DC8s and 1 DC4HD.

Calcium/Alk/Magnesium Dosing

Dosing (in this case, following the Balling Method) will be handle by a LiterMeter III and 2 external LM pumps

 

[GlassReef]

The fish room itself has caused me a lot of worry. All my fault, of course. When the house was being designed I tried to be a little conservative with the size. Big mistake. Although the room is 18' long (sounds BIG huh?), it's only 7' wide. I originally thought the tank was going to be 24" front to back. Whups! it's 36. That's going to make for a very narrow space behind the tank. Especially when the exterior overflow is considered. We weren't present when the room was finished - the result is it was overdone a bit:

You can see the contractor tried to do us a favor and closed in the hole in the wall for the tank and textured and painted the walls. Said it would look nicer until the aquarium was there. Meant a little more work to tear it back out, but it wasn't too bad.

I decided to cover the walls with FRP (I think that stands for Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic). I wanted to make the room as "waterproof" as possible. The FRP comes in 4' X 8' sheets. They make plastic rivets to attach it to the walls, but I decided to use a special water-based construction adhesive.

It worked real well. Only problem was, it took a heck of a lot to finish the room. I thought this was going to be enough to do all 12 panels:

In the end, it took 4 times as much. The installation of the FRP was very easy. The panels are joined using a variety of plastic channels.

The end result turned out real well. The surface can be scrubbed clean and, with the addition of a little silicon along the joining channels, the wall are close to water proof. I had a floor drain installed in the middle of the room. If I had it to do over, I would place it under the display tank - near the sump. I think I also used the wrong kind of drain. It's a normal shower type drain. Should have used a more "industrial" drain where the grate can be easily removed.

 

[mike660r]

This sounds like it is going to be a good build. I'm tagging along for the ride.

 

[GlassReef]

This is the state of the fish room now:

The RO/DI is the Typhoon III model from Air,Water,Ice. Not sure I would go with them again. When the unit was delivered the order of the filters was wrong - it should be 1. - sediment pre-filter 2. - 1st carbon block 3. - 2nd carbon block. Mine had a carbon block first and the sediment filter in the middle. Not having had any prior experience with RO, I didn't realize there was a problem. Used it for 7 weeks for the household (just for the heck of it) like that until a friend told me what was wrong. Sent the vendor 2 emails and called twice. That was 3 weeks ago. Never heard a thing. That said, the unit seems to be working fine now. Output TDS is zero.

I built a panel to hold the RO/DI, the booster pump, RO reservoir ATO, TDS meter, etc. The panel is just a 24" X 48" piece of MDO with 4 coats of poly and then laminated with some Formica I had around.

The booster pump is an AquaTec CDP 8800. I was (and possibly still am) confused about where the pump should be tied in to the RO unit. Some said right before the RO membrane, others said before all filters. That was the way I decided to go. I did install a sediment pre-filter in front of the pump.

I installed a dual tap TDS meter. I plan to install another one so that I can check raw water, after the membrane and after the DI. As you can see my raw water isn't too bad. It comes from a well in the back yard. We're frontier folks, don'tcha know ....

This is the reservoir ATO I built. It controls two float switches located in the RO water tank. The tank is a 65gal Ace. The switches are set so that the RO unit turns on when the lower switch closes and turns off when the upper switch closes. That results in the RO unit producing approx. 55gals of water at a time. My hope is this will reduce the amount of salts escaping the membrane whenever the unit first starts. There is also a float valve connected to the RO unit's output line. The valve in located in the reservoir, just above the top float switch. It functions as a failsafe in case the switch malfunctions. I'll go into detail about the building of the ATO later.

This is a pic of the reservoir where the ATO is connected to the upper and lower float switches.

BTW - although I have quite a few years experience in the hobby, some of this stuff - like RO/DI - is new to me. So if you folks see that I'm doing something stupid or you know a better way, please jump in. I would very much appreciate all the help I can get.

 

[thor32766]

wow awesome. I wish I had fish room like that!! Great job cant wait to see the progress.

 

[mflamb]

Now that's a great start!!!

 

[cjgalante]

Looks great Tom

 

[GlassReef]

Thanks everyone!

Mike, I'll be putting up some pics of the stand soon. Jeff did a fantastic job on it - couldn't be happier.

Chris, how's the Dwyer?

 

[chris22582]

Thats going to be very nice. I can wait to see it finished.

 

[GlassReef]

Just a little about water storage/saltwater mixing. I picked up two 65gal Ace storage tanks. Seemed like a good way to go. Very sturdy and no need to worry about anything leaching into the water. For the Tampa area folks, I hadn't heard about Vigro (sp) yet.
Since the tanks are 43" high, I decided to place them next to each other, as opposed one over the other. I wanted them off the floor a little, so I built a stand. It's just a 24" X 48" piece of 3/4" ply and some 2" X 4"s. After it was assembled I painted it and glued on a piece of Formica.

A few details:

Here's a view of the tanks on the stand. The left tank is for mixing saltwater. The right one will hold RO water.

A bit closer on the plumbing. The pump is a Pan World 100PX I bought used here on RC. Seems to be in good shape but it's much louder than I expected. Anyone have the same experience?

I've set up the plumbing so that, depending how the valves are set, saltwater or RO water can be pumped out to the sump or elsewhere - the saltwater can be circulated for mixing purposes, etc.

This is where the reservoir ATO connects into the RO tank. I'll go into more detail on this when I talk about the ATO.

To get a sense of the water storage unit's placement in the room, here is a view through the display tank wall opening.

 

[Ah64av8tor]

Tom,

It looks like a great start! Nice and clean, user friendly. I had a floor drain like that in a previous house. A squeegee works good for cleaning up spills, just remember to keep the pee trap full or you will get sewer gas coming up.

I kept a reef in Germany for 4 years so I can relate to the changes and challenges here. I still prefer the German equipment but getting metric plumbing parts for repairs or mods is tuff.

 

[cymbiline]

Well I'm extremely impressed so far can't wait for the next instalment.

Bob

 

[GlassReef]

Thanks Bob, I should have quite a bit more up tomorrow. Love your avatar.

Hi Greg. Your so right with the metric stuff. I was going to try to use all my old German PVC pipe, etc. (yes - I brought it with me ) - turned out to be way too much trouble. Couldn't find this and couldn't find that. Plus the Sched80 stuff is soooo expensive. I finally gave up and decided to stick to the Sched40. I'll tell you what though - the tanks here in the States, on average, look every bit as good as those in Germany. Didn't used to be so, but I really think it is now. BTW - how's the Dwyer working for you?

 

[GlassReef]

Help please!!! Any expert electricians?

Something just came up! Maybe someone can help. Had an electrician come out yesterday and run a line from the main breaker box to the fish room, where he installed a 2 slot distribution box. The line leaves the main box off a 40 amp 220 breaker (2 hot lines and a ground). Ends up in the distribution box as two 20 amp 110 breakers. So ... my problem: if I touch the outside of the distribution box (fish room) I get a small shock. Kind of like static from grabbing a car door in dry weather. I called the electrician and he just says nothing to worry about - but, of course, it worries me to no end. I'd hate to have a constantly charged aquarium. Are there any experts out there that can tell me what could cause the shock I'm experiencing and maybe more importantly, what I can do about it. Oh, BTW - after I've gotten the shock, it does not happen again until some time (undetermined) later.

Note: I also posted this on the Lighting, Filtration and Other Equipment forum.

 

[Ah64av8tor]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13462765#post13462765 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GlassReef
Hi Greg. Your so right with the metric stuff. I was going to try to use all my old German PVC pipe, etc. (yes - I brought it with me ) - turned out to be way too much trouble. Couldn't find this and couldn't find that. Plus the Sched80 stuff is soooo expensive. I finally gave up and decided to stick to the Sched40. I'll tell you what though - the tanks here in the States, on average, look every bit as good as those in Germany. Didn't used to be so, but I really think it is now. BTW - how's the Dwyer working for you?

Dont give up the metric pipe!!! I have some odds and ends that come in handy, still looking for some larger stuff for the Reefflow, and some small stuff for the Korallin KalkReactor. I miss the BayWa

The Germans do some nice setups, I see you haven't given up on the schwarz/weiß anal approach.....I catch myself at times then the lazy American comes through and I just through it all together.

I haven't got the new pump/ needle wheel so its back in the box, will come in handy for tweaking after the up grade.

 

[GlassReef]

The Germans do some nice setups, I see you haven't given up on the schwarz/weiß anal approach.....I catch myself at times then the lazy American comes through and I just through it all together.

Well .... I wouldn't call it anal - merely regimented

 

[mike660r]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13462910#post13462910 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GlassReef
Help please!!! Any expert electricians?

Something just came up! Maybe someone can help. Had an electrician come out yesterday and run a line from the main breaker box to the fish room, where he installed a 2 slot distribution box. The line leaves the main box off a 40 amp 220 breaker (2 hot lines and a ground). Ends up in the distribution box as two 20 amp 110 breakers. So ... my problem: if I touch the outside of the distribution box (fish room) I get a small shock. Kind of like static from grabbing a car door in dry weather. I called the electrician and he just says nothing to worry about - but, of course, it worries me to no end. I'd hate to have a constantly charged aquarium. Are there any experts out there that can tell me what could cause the shock I'm experiencing and maybe more importantly, what I can do about it. Oh, BTW - after I've gotten the shock, it does not happen again until some time (undetermined) later.

Note: I also posted this on the Lighting, Filtration and Other Equipment forum.

I would believe you would need a 4th wire for a chassis ground for the sub-panel back to your main box. If he only ran 3 wires that means you have two hot wires and one neutral. You should have an independant ground wire as well.

 

[GlassReef]

Mike - your right, of course. I was just showing my ignorance. There are 4 wires. Any idea what could be causing the shock?

 

[GlassReef]

The Stand da dah!

I had the stand made by a local fellow, Jeff Robinson of JR Fabrications. Jeff did a great job! I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's made of 1 1/2" Sq. steel tubing. The design will allow me to access the sump and return pumps with no problem.

The raw material ...

That's a good start ...

Halfway there ...

Got'er done ... Now it just has to be powder coated.

Notice the overhang on the top. This will protrude into the wall opening. This should save me the problem of leveling the wall with the stand.

Here's the stand in place. You can see dark shadows under some portions of the stand. That is where it is not touching the floor. When the house was built, the fellas that did the slab weren't in a good mood. I'm going to have to do a lot of leveling.

I had little flanges welded on so that I can fasten the plywood sheet that will cover the stand.

Here you can see how the stands fits into the wall opening.

 

[brad2048]

WOW great job. Looks very professional. good luck!