My 300 Gallon Nightmare!!!

Good point, dogstar. I was thinking the returns wouldn't let any out, but the flow going down the drain would open the returns a little.

Okay, option 2: Prayer. ;)
 
I have no experience with plumbing and putting a system together. These guys were highly recommended and as you can see, did a great job!


Outside pump shed:
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Hayward Actuated ball valve for closed loop:
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JBJ 1/2hp Commercial Chiller:
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I have done a ot of research on closed loops here on RC and on other sites. I stayed away from them based on many comments from pump failure to addtional water heat to clogs, etc. I thought the Tunze's was a safer and more flexible system. However, my install guys highly recommended the closed loop and had no bad experiences with the closed loop on the bottom of the tank. There is no room behind the tank to install a drain or returns.

At some point, I have to trust the experience of the people who install my aquarium. There are many potential Murphy moments in something as sensitive and complicated as this aquarium however, I hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
 
Wow! Everything looks so nice and clean and new! Even their glued joints look unglued, they are so clean. What brand of skimmer is that?

Your plumbing looks amazing. I hope you'll be happy when everything is running.

Remember: microbubbles are normal for the first 14 days. Don't be upset if you see some in the beginning.
 
Marc,
You have been a tremendous source of information and support. I really appreciate your excellent work! Thanks for everything! I am sure that I will be asking many more questions over the coming months.

The skimmer is a Reef Concepts aerofoamer 830. There is an Iwaki 70RLT dedicated to the skimmer. The head is not screwed on yet because the brace that holds the side cabinet together needs to be cutout to allow room for the skimmer head. The head is actually just the neck which then sends the skimmate to the collection cup pictured under the skimmer. The Aerofoamer is a Beckett style skimmer that I have seen in action. It is extremely well made and produces extremely fine microbubbles.

The complexity of the system is due to three reasons.

1. Automation. The system can drain water from the tank through the closed loop in seconds and refill with fresh saltwater in a few minutes. This added additional plumbing lines to the sump area and the top of the tank.

2. Quiet & Clean. I placed all the pumps, chiller, UV and much of the plumbing outdoors behind the tank to minimize noise, mess, salt creep, and humidity. This made the system somewhat more complicated but added the advantage of space and ease of maintenance.

3. Flexibility. I wanted a system with all the bells and whistles, but also the ability to bypass them if I felt they were not needed. I had installed a UV, chiller, ozone, dosing system, Calcium Reactor, Phosphate Reactor, Filter bag, probes, refugium, topoff, etc. Many of these systems require slower water turnover than the rest of the system and therefore the use of ball valves in many locations. The subsystems bleed off water from the return pump as needed. Or I can simply close the valves and bypass the component as needed.

I am running two Iwaki 70 RLT. One for the skimmer and one for the return pump. I am running a Sequence Barracuda for the closed loop with an actuated valve to create intermittent flow. I can add Tunze's with controller if additional circulation is necessary or I find dead spots.

There will be three aquascaped sections of the tank. The center will have an island built over the closed loop intake. The two sides will have caves and ledges. I am looking for a mixed tank environment that will be home to a variety of fish including a Grey angel from my 90 gallon, a Moorish Idol from my 90, a pair of gold stripe maroon clowns from my 54, a rockskipper, niger trigger, a pair of sleeper gobies, a sohol tang, pair of hippo tangs, assorted anthias, maybe my baby tusk, assorted wrasses, Spotted Mandarin Goby, etc.

I have a yellow tang, lionfish, spotted puffer, wolf eel, flame angel that are not right for the new tank. I will probably have to give them away when I break down my 54 & 90 gallon tanks.

As far as corals go, I would like to have about 50-60% sps and the rest LPS and soft. I love clams and would really like to keep them. I am concerned though that many "reef safe" fish pick on them. I have also found that my cleaner shrimp crawled all over the clams and caused them to close up much of the time. I love shrimp as part of the aquarium, but I will definitely wait on the cleaners.

I know that some of the fish I mentioned are not considered reef safe. However, I am willing to risk some losses in order to have them. I have found that most fish will leave the corals alone if you feed them well enough. Except for open brains. These corals seem to attract all kinds of fish and inverts to pick on them.

Water check tomorrow!!!
 
i just wanted to know if your wife has a sister cause mine would kill me if i ever even talked about doin something that big !!!
 
Richard, the piece of acrylic around the intake (exiting the sump) should be standing like a carport. Unless it is too short to do so. The idea is to put a roof over bulkhead to avoid sucking in air. Or is that around something else, because I see a second intake with a strainer basket on it?

The fans look like they have metal grates on them. I'd remove them because they will rust in this environment.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7030546#post7030546 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rberrie
I have done a ot of research on closed loops here on RC and on other sites. I stayed away from them based on many comments from pump failure to addtional water heat to clogs, etc. I thought the Tunze's was a safer and more flexible system. However, my install guys highly recommended the closed loop and had no bad experiences with the closed loop on the bottom of the tank. There is no room behind the tank to install a drain or returns.

At some point, I have to trust the experience of the people who install my aquarium. There are many potential Murphy moments in something as sensitive and complicated as this aquarium however, I hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

It's not that bad I have my close loop drain and return on the bottom. I had a spill a week after I set it up because one of the threaded pipes busted. Drain that sucker empty! I fixed it and hadn't had a problem since. been over a 1 and four months. If they took their time and put it together then you'll be fine. I kinda rush mine when it spilled on me.
 
Marc,
The acrylic "shield" is currently covering the intake for the skimmer. The bulkheads had to be installed higher than I wanted because there was obstruction in the wall. I will have to play around with it to see if it makes a difference in another orientation.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7033240#post7033240 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mikeatjac
Very impressed. I like how clean everything looks. You can tell you planned this out.


Thanks mikeatjac! I was inspired by Steven Weist from oregonreef. His system is outstanding and as clean and well laid out as anyone could imagine. I didn't have the same resources or space as his, but I did try to plan everything and make the best use of the space I did have. This aquarium I hope to have for a very long time and I wanted it to be easy to maintain and as automated as possible.

I will install an autofeeder, webcam, aquacontroller III pro, and create a website that will show real-time the aquarium and all of its parameters and the status of all of the components.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7034156#post7034156 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by eidillitih
It's not that bad I have my close loop drain and return on the bottom. I had a spill a week after I set it up because one of the threaded pipes busted. Drain that sucker empty! I fixed it and hadn't had a problem since. been over a 1 and four months. If they took their time and put it together then you'll be fine. I kind of rush mine when it spilled on me.

Thanks for your advice and encouragement. I will be water testing my system this weekend. The test will be freshwater and will run for a couple of days to make sure it all runs smoothly. I will be able to check the water flow patterns and make adjustments or additions as necessary.

After the water test, I will be aquascaping the tank with live rock and continuing the curing of the rock without sand. This will take a few weeks. After that is done, I will empty the tank, remove all the detritus and refill the tank after adding a shallow sand bed.

Once all the live rock is cured, the substrate is in place and the water parameters are where I want them, then I will let the tank run on an increasing light cycle with a whole bunch of inverts (cleanup crew). This will take a month or two.

Once I feel comfortable that the tank is well seasoned and the parameters are stable, I will add some lps and softies from my existing two tanks. I want to make sure there is enough time to cycle the tank and remove as much detritus and algae (diatoms) before adding livestock. I also want to make sure that I am happy with the aquascaping. Very often, what looks good in the first attempt at aquascaping turns out to be not what you eventually end up with. It will be a lot easier to move stuff around before there is livestock in the tank.

I have waited a long time to get this tank up and running and I want to make sure that I don't rush the rest of the process. The one thing that I learned during this project is that patience and time are two elements that will make or break your plans. Even so, I am extremely anxious to see the end product the way I envisioned it. It is not easy to wait so long. But I am continually thankful that I have been forced to take my time due to factors not in my control.
 
Sorry to back track to your RO setup, but why the 4 DI? (looks like).
I use there 5-stage SP2000 system myself, just don't get the use of so many DI sets unless you want like distilled pure. :) Only in my dreams will I have such a tank, great job!

Per my set, 0.5m > Carbon Block > RO > DI 1 > DI 2
SP2000 90gpd (SpectraPure)

Rich
 
wow very good job so far. that set up would confuse the heck out of me. i think i'll stick with my nano tanks, lol. but i look forward to pics of your tank when it's up and running. good luck.
 
First fresh water fill

First fresh water fill

We tested the plumbing, the closed loop and the circulation pumps with freshwater. All went very smoothly. There was a lot of noise coming from the overflows so we have to increase the water level in the overflows.

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Today we are filling the tank with saltwater and placing the live rock in the tank to finish curing. Once the rock is completely cured, we will drain the tank, remove the rock and aquascape the tank according to plans. We will add the substrate and refill with saltwater!

I will post photos tomorrow of the tank filled with curing rock...how exciting!!!;)
 
Today is a big day! Besides the steps above, we are mounting the lighting fixture, mounting the moonlights, setting the aquacontroller ProIII, siliconing all the seams in the cabinet top and bottom, installing quick disconnects on the lighting fixture to make it easier to remove, installing a black acrylic wall to the refugium to minimize light into the sump therefore reducing algae growth in the sump, adjusting the overflows to minimize noise, installing the dosing pump for additional calcium supplemetation, and making whatever modifications needed.
 
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