Cayenne's 300G 72"x36"x27" Upgrade

cayenne

Premium Member
The time has come to begin a fairly major upgrade. For a little background, it has been roughly a year since we set up a Oceanic Ultimate 140 which was upgraded from a 55G. This upgrade was completed over a single weekend and everything was rushed and not thought out very well. We all know how that goes, but it something I will never do again. Below is the current setup.

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After receiving quotes for several custom tanks, and researching most everything that was available from manufacturers, it was decided we would get a Marineland 300G Deep Dimension. It seems that the dimensions are making this a popular choice for many people, I have seen several build threads with them lately.

The tank was delivered yesterday and is currently sitting in its new home.


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As far as the "we" in this build, my other half is active in the hobby and was a big supporter of the upgrade. I think she was just tired of being told she couldn't get that fish because it was going to get too big. ;) Anyway she is mdh0215 and I would expect her to pop into the thread from time to time as well...
 
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This is sitting in a front room of our house, directly over a room in the basement that will become the equipment room. I will be able transfer some of my equipment from the 140g, but I will be upgrading many things as well.

The primary goal of this build is to take my time, and make it exactly how I want it this time around. From an aquascaping point of view we are planning on making two or three islands in the middle of the tank and leaving the rest open for swimming room for a couple of larger fish.

From the equipment perspective I will be upgrading lighting, skimmer, and my return pumps. My chiller, calcium reactor, and Tunze's are overkill enough that they will still be able to handle the upgrade without breaking a sweat.

My Equipment List at this point is:

Lighting:
3 x 250W MH with Lumenbright Reflectors (Haven't decided on a bulb yet)
Galaxy Electronic Ballasts
Either 2 or 4 6' VHO Actinics

Calcium Reactor: MRC CR6
Skimmer: Completely Undecided

Return Pump: Probably a ReeFlo Barracuda
Circulation: 2 x Tunze 6101's

Chiller: Teco TR20 1/3HP
Controller: AC3


First order of business will be reinforcing floor joists beneath the tank, by sistering them up, boxing them in, and then installing columns. This part of the project is starting today! Then I will start looking at ventilation requirements for the basement, it is completely unfinished, but I am concerned with humidity issues.
 
72x36x27, those are terrific dimensions from a non custom tank. No wonder its becoming suchh a popular choice.
 
I agree Joe, I think with these dimensions more and more people will be interested. I priced several custom tanks around the same size, and it was going to be considerably more.

Not a whole to update as far as progress today picture wise... I did manage to finish priming and sealing an equipment table for the fish room, swept and cleaned the entire basement, and moved a HVAC duct into the basement equipment room.

Tomorrow I will be working on the floor joists hopefully...
 
Today was a fairly productive day. The floor has been reinforced and I finished modifying the HVAC duct work.

The floor joists have been sistered up with an additional 2x8 and are sandwiched together with 5/8" Stainless Hardware.
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I also installed a 4x6 spanning the length of the floor joists in the room and installed two floor jacks.
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New HVAC Vent
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Equipment Table. This will eventually be on the other side of the studded wall and the sump will be where you see the stand.
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My reward for working hard... (Diet Coke and a secret ingredient)
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This week I need to focus on equipment selections. I need to pick a skimmer, which is my biggest decision at this point. I have been looking at the Octopus Extreme Series, does anyone have feedback or recommendation?
 
Yeah, NOTHING OCTOPUS. Coral Vue has the worst customer service. Period. I had an Octopus 250 pro, and my pumped messed up shortly after. Needless to say it took a long while, and was quite a hassle to get a replacement propeller for my $550 skimmer. If you really must go that route, go with SWC or MSX, since I dont believe they are related at all, besides copying each others' design.

It kind of depends on budgeting. The ATB Econo series are nice skimmers for around $1k. I have a Warner Marine AS200, and it is an absolute beast (I only run it on a 112g tank). The AS200 is a little undersized for your tank; I think if you could get an AS300 (rated up to 450g I believe), that would be an excellent skimmer that you wouldnt be dissapointed with. Their new K series cones also look nice. Jon has the best customer service Ive ever encountered (even better than Vitko, which says a lot), so you have no worries with his stuff.
 
While I won't say Coralvues customer service is bad, I will agree the pumps that they put on some of their skimmers are horrid. The OTP-2000 that comes on the recirc 300 is a piece of crap that I have had to replace 4 now in not quite 2 years. They replaced the first one...I paid for the other three.

The extreme models have a different pump make, should work much better. Wish those pumps would hook up to my skimmer.
 
Re: Cayenne's 300G 72"x36"x27" Upgrade

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14804244#post14804244 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cayenne
The time has come to begin a fairly major upgrade. For a little background, it has been roughly a year since we set up a Oceanic Ultimate 140 which was upgraded from a 55G. This upgrade was completed over a single weekend and everything was rushed and not thought out very well. We all know how that goes, but it something I will never do again. Below is the current setup.

102_2193.jpg


After receiving quotes for several custom tanks, and researching most everything that was available from manufacturers, it was decided we would get a Marineland 300G Deep Dimension. It seems that the dimensions are making this a popular choice for many people, I have seen several build threads with them lately.

The tank was delivered yesterday and is currently sitting in its new home.


102_2203.jpg


As far as the "we" in this build, my other half is active in the hobby and was a big supporter of the upgrade. I think she was just tired of being told she couldn't get that fish because it was going to get too big. ;) Anyway she is mdh0215 and I would expect her to pop into the thread from time to time as well...



Where did you get that stand from?
By the way take a look at the I-tech 400 for a skimmer.
 
I *love* that tank. Awesome dimensions. I'm hoping to pick up the 36" cube they make. Just perfect dimensions!
 
My wife just gave the OK for an upgrade as well, and this was one of the first tanks I looked at. I will be following along to see the progress, and show her what it could really turn in to.

Can't wait to see it up and running!
 
Hello all, thanks for all the compliments on the tank. We are really loving it. Now we just need to get some water in the tank. I am the other half that pushed to get a bigger tank. :rollface:
Here are some updated pics of things we have completed lately.
We got the rock in yesterday and are curring it now.
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I am not sure if Cayenne told you all that we put the tank on little slider pads to make moving it a bit easier. Because of this we were able to move the tank out with no real struggle so that we could paint the back.
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In the interest of allowing people to learn from my mistakes, and hopefully take an idea or two away from this thread, here is an update with everything that occurred from May 3rd to date...
 
May 3rd, 2009

May 3rd, 2009

Well there is good progress, but there is also one monumental set back...

While working under the tank yesterday thinking about how I was going to do my plumbing, I looked up and noticed part of the glass that was refracting differently than the rest from underneath. After further inspection, I found a half moon shaped piece of glass that is missing from the outside of the glass near the lower trim piece on one side. It's one of those things that your eye just isn't drawn to, so I guess that is why we haven't found it until now.

It is definitely a manufacturing issue, and it looks like the side glass was chipped and then still assembled. If I take a flashlight and shine it behind the trim piece I can see what looks like a starburst chip that is beneath this half moon.

All the damage looks to be on the outside of the pane, but I am not going to risk it... I have spoken to my dealer, and a new tank should be ordered tomorrow, but it may take several weeks before schedules allow for the tank to be swapped out.

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May 10, 2009

May 10, 2009

Haven't gotten a whole lot done recently, I just got back from the UK so I was tired and lazy most of Saturday. I did manage to get my VHO bulbs laid out, and the custom brackets installed. I think it turned out pretty well.


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I only installed one of the bulbs for a test fit, and left the others safely in the packaging. All bulbs will be URI Super Actinic for supplementation of the XM 10K's.

Unfortunately, I couldn't wire up the IceCap ballasts, as I unpackaged one and I was accidentally shipped the 220V version...
 
May 25, 2009

May 25, 2009

The replacement tank still has not arrived. There is a good chance that I will rent a trailer and go swap tanks next Saturday. Anyone available to help get the damaged one out Saturday morning? I think I already have two people lined up, one or two more would be helpful though. I am going to bring the LFS tank cart back with me so hopefully unloading will be easier.

I got a good deal done this weekend, even though we had a plumbing leak from a bathtub in between the first and second floors and I had to remove a large section of drywall in the kitchen, so Saturday was shot and I didn't get to work on anything other than disaster clean up.

Couple of goodies came in last week.

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RODI was installed and has started filling the 125G storage tank.
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Pump Manifold
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First Pass at Sump Plumbing
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Fuge and Equipment Table
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What you don't notice in all these pictures is how Melanie carefully took each picture without showing the mess on the floor. The basement is a complete WRECK at this point. I can't wait to get it cleaned up.
 
June 3, 2009

June 3, 2009

The replacement tank is safely here in Lynchburg. Several of my friends (including Paul) and neighbors, came by to help out early Saturday morning, and then again Saturday evening to unload the new one. Thankfully everything went okay...

Sunday was an extremely long day, I got the new tank repainted, and then proceeded to inhale PVC primer and cement for somewhere around 6 hours. As of tonight, all plumbing between the two floors is complete, and all but one return line has been plumbed. The last line will have to wait until the swap, as it will be inline with my chiller.

I still need to build my bubble towers for the sump, but we are hoping to do a freshwater test on part of the system this coming Saturday.

One gripe I have with this tank is, as large a tank as it is, the bulkhead holes were drilled right on top of each other. It was a tight fit getting unions and valves installed.

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At this point, every last part needed for completion is here (as far as I know) with the exception of a replacement Red Devil II pump for my skimmer that is en-route from Seattle this week.
 
June 7, 2009

June 7, 2009

Here is the general layout of the final plumbing flow diagram. I threw it together rather quickly, so it doesn't show reactors, or QT tanks, etc...

Everything is running off of one pump.


Plumbing2.gif
 
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