Dugless/TimothyJ 250DD Build

[TimothyJ]

Back in October, my brother and I began constructing a stand and fish tank room in the basement. The tank is a Marineland 250 gallon deep dimension. The idea is to have the front glass and the sides back to the overflows visible to the room. Here is a photo journal of the progress to this point and a small description of the photos and equipment being used.

Tank, stand and sump getting setup.

Walls and electrical going up.

 

[TimothyJ]

Next is all the plumbing for the tank.

After we had all of the plumbing situated and ready to go, we progressed on to the lighting and pumps. We built the light rack out of angle aluminum from Home Depot and cut it to the size needed. We then used a drill press to put holes in the corners of the two "boxes" so we could use eye hooks to connect everything. This allows us to raise each corner independently to make sure the light rack is perfectly level with the tank.

After getting the lights in place we got the tank filled with water and a few Tunze pumps running to get everything ready for the move from the 125 to the new 250.

 

[TimothyJ]

By this time we were just in to 2012. As my brother started moving over rock and such from the previous tank, I was setting up the Apex Controller and Tunze ATO.

 

[TimothyJ]

Everything up and running for the tank. All corals and fish moved.

Skimmer getting broken in.

Sump.

 

[TimothyJ]

These photos were taken yesterday. I hope to keep this build thread up to date as the tank grows up with time.
FTS

Left half of the tank

Right half of the tank

View of the right side of the tank

View of the left side of the tank

View from behind the tank

 

[sasharotty]

Looks fantastic. Was it hard to tune in the sro using the overflow? Im thinking about doing that but always heard of what a pita it is to tune. I will be running a 3000ext. It would be great to remove a pump from the equation.

 

[Dugless]

I thought it was going to be rough because the first 3-4 weeks it was all over the place. It is pretty consistent now, thinking it just needed to break in. The only caveat currently is the plumbing is downsized to 3/4". It took some finagling to get the hard plumbing to marry with the skimmer and the only way I could get it connected was to downsize to 3/4". I have to close the gate valve more than I would like to get the water level where I need it, but it does produce well now so I haven't revisited it. My previous DAS EX2 was fed from the overflow.

 

[bikeboss11]

Sweet set up,,,, very weird but kool idea for a sump.. Keep the updates coming

 

[TimothyJ]

Sweet set up,,,, very weird but kool idea for a sump.. Keep the updates coming

While original thinking was a large body of water for the sump would be better, we are contemplating putting in a more traditional tank for a sump in the not too distant future. The surface area of the current one leads to more evaporation than wanted, not to mention the foot print of area that is stolen which could be used in a more logical way.

 

[TimothyJ]

Earlier this week I picked up a Kessil A150W from a member on ReefCentral. I have put it over the sump to start growing out frags on the frag rack that is currently just hanging out in the sump. I am looking forward to see what kind of growth we get from it.

 

[TimothyJ]

Just a quick update. Here are a few photos that I took tonight:

Left front

Right front

Couple closer up

Left side

Right side

 

[TimothyJ]

A couple even closer:

Rainbow Monti

Favia

 

[Lpabsolute]

Very impressive

 

[TimothyJ]

Very impressive

Thanks!

 

[jt48]

Very Nice, hope to be there someday.

 

[EnV]

Awesome build, saw it on newage

 

[TimothyJ]

Awesome build, saw it on newage

Thanks!

 

[deepblue68]

awesome tank!! good luck with everything.

 

[hackney]

Man that's a lot of salt

 

[TimothyJ]

Took a couple macro shots of the tank last night. Hope you enjoy!

Pot of Gold Favia

Random Brain Coral

Close up of same Brain Coral

Miami Hurricane Chalice

Miami Hurricane Chalice

Random SPS

Blue Hoeki SPS

All photos are unaltered.