lastlight's 225 reef build

[lastlight]

Few more updates on my build. I've been working on adding my water-change station to the office that shares the wall behind the display tank. I bought the modular units for home entertainment at ikea. We used these upstairs in the tv room and really liked them. I beefed up the cabinets a ton with plywood, metal brackets and 2x4s then mounted the entire thing to a few wall studs.

This shows the tank in the livingroom and the water-change station on the other side.

Looking into the office...

 

[lastlight]

Doors open.

A 33 gallon will sit in each cabinet on the right. Each tank will have an emergency drain plumbed to the basement. The top tank will have a float valve and hold freshwater. A valve will empty to the bottom mixing tank. To add the mixed water to the display the eheim will be on a switch.

On the left will sit the Profilux, dosing jugs, test kits etc. A small fridge I have kicking around is tucked beside the desk on the other wall for frozen food.

The pvc is the drain to the basement. The drain in the display tank stand also connects to this line in the wall. The flex hose will connect the eheim to the 20 gallon tank sitting under the display tank.

I ran 3 dedicated 15A circuits up to here. I need to mount receptacles in here somehow. I left the wall socket accessible as well. You can see one of the metal brackets here. What I did since the ikea stuff is half cardboard is I placed a 2x4 inside the other cabinets and attached the bracket to it through the shared cabinet walls. I re-enforced other areas like this as well as attached a horizontal 2x4 to the back of the stand (it mounts into the other 2x4 re-enforcements) and pinned this to the wall studs.

 

[lastlight]

The 10 gallon i picked up used.

After I gave it a little love. I wanted to replace the bulkheads since I wanted them 1" all the way to my sump and they reduced to hose/ less than 1". Not until after I sawed the pvc off the bulkheads did I notice these were siliconed in from gasket and nut side. I had to drill the plastic and pry like crazy to remove them!

This shows the area where the fuge will sit or should i say float. I'm building a shelf so it sits above my return piping. It will be fed off that manifold (that also currently feeds into my 20 gallon waterchange reservoir under there). Two drains into the sump gives me peace of mind when running this in-line like I intend to.

Other side of the stand. Hard to see but I plumbed a mag3 i had kicking around in. To do a waterchange i isolate this 20g reservoir by shutting it's manifold feed off (it normally is always in circulation with the sump). Then I flip a switch and the mag3 empties 20g into my basement. I attached some type of threaded nipple i found in the irrigation section of HD to the intake and then trimmed it to leave maybe 1mm of space between the tank bottom. It empties NEARLY all of the tank before catching air. The topoff comes from my mixed water in the office. The tie-wraps you see on that pipe are directing the clear flex tubing from the water-change cabinet into the tank.

 

[lastlight]

Stand drain heading to basement. Hard to see clear flex hose connecting water-change station to display.

Under the floor in the downstairs bathroom. So glad I chose t-bar ceiling for down there!

Here's where I got REALLY LAZY. I had a drain put in the floor for what I thought was going to be a fishroom. It happens to lie beneath a benchpress I barely ever use. I managed to snake it in somehow! The junk I tossed in the window to keep the neighbors from gawking at me when I run is sorta permanent now unless I cut the pipe lol. GHETTO I know.

And just when you think my basement is a bit tough to stare at...the REST of it:

 

[lastlight]

Here's the fuge installed. Sits on a stand that needed to extend a little over my return valve. Closest bulkhead will have a strainer and be the drain, other is emergency drain. I ran out of sch80 90s so you see the extravagant result for the over-the-top return from the manifold!

 

[lastlight]

Ok the tank looks 10x cooler under light AND water.

This is freshwater of course lol. Leak-free so far! Going to run it all day and hope for the best. I'm leaving the house for most of the day too which seems pretty smart to me.

Coolest thing is with sunlight in my livingroom the auto white-balance has captured the look perfectly! Tho your mileage may vary since every monitor is diff.

 

[Mr. Brooks]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14803501#post14803501 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lastlight
Going to run it all day and hope for the best. I'm leaving the house for most of the day too which seems pretty smart to me.

:lol:

 

[Mr. Brooks]

Looks awesome man. I love the closet behind the tank. Everything seems so well thought out and clean looking. I'm seeing a lot of the ideas from the really big tanks being put to good use on a modest sized tank.

 

[pdhenderson]

what a build!
I really like the stand, very inspirational for my next tank!
How many heaters do you have for those cold winters?

 

[lastlight]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14803822#post14803822 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thechad21
I'm seeing a lot of the ideas from the really big tanks being put to good use on a modest sized tank.

Only because us modest sized guys (tankly speaking) wish/think they have larger systems than they really do!

 

[louie07]

wow

wow

this is a masterpiece...... im taggin along :rollface:

 

[Curtis1]

Say no more Rothchilds,,, this build,,,so many new innovations !!! How long have you been planning it ?!?!? Are you going to use penductors on the returns ??? I am doing a 180AGA RR using the same pump, I will be following along closely. I just went ahead and got a 75 gal to convert over to a sump. When I bought the 180 used, po's glued all of the overflow plumbing, someone before me cut the lines from the bulkhead inserts and inadvertently ruined all of the nipples on the inserts. Now I will have to rebuild it all. Did you use all slip joint bulkheads ??? As I was thinking that they would be better with union valves just below.

 

[Jflip2002]

That looks very classy, as a couple guys have said. It does look very well thought out, and executed the same. Are you going with a minimalistic aquascaping?

 

[lastlight]

Thanks guys!

Yeah for some reason I like glue a LOT. I used slip/slip bulkeads everywhere except on the 4 returns. Did this so I can rotate the returns or remove them. I removed one for now as a siphon break. No penductors...the Dart surely can't provide the pressure required. It's a very gentle flow out of the returns. I guess I'm diverting some of the flow to my fuge and water change reservoir.

I haven't really bought my live rock yet. These two pieces just caught my eye at a LFS so I bought them (at $9/lb which sucks) and proceeded to literally boil them once I got them home. The right end of the tank will be very open...maybe one more rock...the left side will have a nice big pile/outcrop.

 

[chriscobb]

SUPER BUILD......Love the sliding doors!!!!!!

 

[Curtis1]

Lastlight, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, I was under the assumption that the size of the pump or it's output, doesn't really matter. That's what they were designed for to increase the flow of the outputs. They pull along the existing water in the tank along with the pump return water, they state that some of them can increase the flow by 400% !!! Only downside is that it is a straight directional flow, you might have to bounce it of the glass to keep from rearranging you DSB if that's what you are going with, but IMO in a tank that size, I wouldn't worry bout it. Sorry, not being critical or anything, It's just that I can see 4 e-ductors on line-loc coming from each of the returns.

 

[lastlight]

I'm not sure whose returns you're referring to but my returns are nothing more than pvc 90 elbows. These devices designed to increase flow output etc require pressure-rated pumps in most cases I believe. A quick search should reveal the same but I've read that countless times. The Dart is certainly not a pressure-rated pump.

 

[nanoreefbro]

Excellent build!!! Very very neat, clean and well thought out..

 

[snaza]

any updates?

 

[eagleONE]

Wow. This is a very clean build. Keep it up. I'm loving every bit of it. I'll be following this!