Background- I kept a small 40b tank way back in the 2000's while in grad school back home (UK) , and never really had the means or the time to restart after I moved to the US for postgrad work. March 2017, my wife surprises me with a 38 bowfront (and the receipt- because she just knew it was going to grow if she let it sit in my head for a bit- i tend to upsize my projects), which soon became a 125 with 40b sump. Synergy reef shadow overflow running BA drains. Took me two months to work up to drilling it on a long edge (since it was going against the wall). I finished drilling it, installed the overflow box, then my wife got a call from work asking us to relocate. So, it sat for a bit while we found a new house in suburbs Atlanta (from Nashville), and long story short, we decided to put a tank in the wall between the living room and what would become the wifes home office. Viewable from both sides. I think you know where this is going... Except, i drilled the 125 on a long edge, so that wasnt going to work.
I talked it through with my wife, and detailed the expanded plan- use the drilled 125 as a sump, buy a 180 (might as well go a bit bigger) to put in the wall, and build out a room in the basement for the sump and support equipment. And she agreed! So, that brings us to...
The Tank- A Marineland 180 (6x2x2) in-wall, between the living room and office. Inset into the wall, so it is flush with the living room, and built in cabinets and bookcases on the office side. Pretty good deal from the local store, since it was not drilled and they were trying to move glass. Build quality is typical Marineland, black silicone, a little smudgy on the corners and the top frame was a little scuffed up, but the glass is clean.
The Stand- 2x8 top frame, doubled up 2x4 legs and in-wall supports. Topped with 2 layers of 3/4 inch plywood. Runs perpendicular to 7 joists, so no worries there. One long edge rests on the main LVL beam holding up the house over the basement.
Lights- DIY LED fixture based around 10W and 3W LEDs, controlled by a Coralux Storm controller, on a 5' MakerSled slim heatsink. More info in a later post. I have the parts in a couple boxes and just need time to put it all together. Very comfortable with electronics builds, so looking forward to the fun.
Flow- 2x Maxspect xf250 gyres. One mounted on the overflow box, the other on the opposite end.
Livestock- 2 Ocellaris clowns, a yellow tang, purple tang and a powder blue, a school of dispar anthias (7-10), pistol shrimp and goby pair. Wife wants an engineer goby or yellow dwarf eel, and a local shop has a mated pair in stock but they are waaaayyy too expensive. Have space for a few more inches of fish, but undecided. PBT is going in last, yellow and purple are being bought small and introduced together, after the clowns.
Corals are going to be mixed, but i am a sucker for rock flower anemones, ricordias, torches and hammers, so it might be more on the softy side. not a huge fan of zoas, but i might get some if i find interesting colors for not too crazy coin. Also a sucker for clams, an ultra blue maxima would be awesome, but that is a little while away yet. Will not be rushing that.
Disease control- Fully isolated TTM station in basement comprising of 2 sets of 10g tanks, air stones, square colanders etc. Prazi on transfers 2 and 4, then 4 weeks observation in a 40b with an aqueon hob filter and a bunch of pvc. Nothing goes into the DT without first going through TTM and Obs, no exceptions.
Filtration
This is taking up the bulk of the project time for now. I had some guys frame in a 12 x 8 room in a corner of my basement. Fully insulated, greenboard ceiling and plywood walls, epoxy floor, limited in wall electrical as ill be running most equipment from apex EB8's 'extended' with conduit to where needed. Dedicated 6" in-line ventilation fan on a humidistat.
Plumbing- 15 foot vertical and 20 foot horizontal distance from DT to the sump. I expect ill be using a bunch of spa flex for this one.I did a flow test of a jebao DCP-18000 in my backyard and was getting around 1100 gph out of a 25 foot vertical PVC run (thats how high my bathroom window is from the grass next to the deck...). Thats about half its rating, but im ok with that considering the cost and lower power consumption than some of the bigger 'pressure rated' pumps. Theres a test thread around here somewhere, but i cant find it right now.
DT Overflow- goes into a 29g tank i have plumbed straight to drain, and have a 1/2 inch pvc line coming from my salt water mixing tank. 14 minute, 25 gallon (10%) water change and all i have to do is turn 2 valves and push 2 switches. This overflows via 2 x 1.5" bulkheads into the skimmer section of the 125.
Main Sump- 125g divide up into a 12g skimmer section, a central 20g return section and a 40g refugium section on the right side. Fuge is fed from a T in the return at about 200 GPH. An addition port on the T feeds the cryptic zone with minimal flow.
Cryptic zone- a blacked out 29G fed with about 40 gph from the return pump, via 1/2 inch pvc with a bunch of holes extended to the bottom of the tank. Overflows into the fuge section. Contains a bunch of eggcrate platforms that i will seed with live rock rubble covered in the cryptic started pack from a website ive forgotten the name of.
BRS dual reactors for Carbon and GAC. I bought extra fittings and converted them to two singles, and saved $12 over buying two singles. Will be fed by a manifold off a 400 gph pump in the skimmer section, and will dump into the return section. A third port on the manifold will go to drain, so i can get an extra 12 gallons water change occasionally if i need to (15% change in that case). I can also move this to the return section for an additional 20g (for a final 22% change).
Im also adding a 20g long on a floating shelf above the fuge fed from the return line which will have some live rock, a bunch of Mangroves and some sexy shrimp. overflows into the fuge section. More aesthetic than filtration to be honest. i just love the idea of having some plants in the room.
Frag tank- Zoomed lowboy 50 g frag tank, fed from an overflow on the 29g overflow tank, and returning to the return section of the sump. Additional flow with powerheads, undecided at the moment. Plumbing it into the main system since it will primarily be a grow out system.
Fishroom tank stands- Going for concrete blocks, 2x4 top frames and 3/4 inch plywood base for the tank stands, and a regular 2x4 and plywood testing/ fragging bench.
Cheers!
photo dump
6 inch LED slimline can lights in 5000K
Electrical in...2 x 20 amo circuits, each powering a single apex eb8 provides main power to equipment, a third 20 amp does lights, 6" in line duct fan on a humidistat and some duplex and quad GFCI protected outlets at strategic points for things like webcams, fridge/freezer for foodstuff and redundancy if an EB8 happens to go out. I have another 20 am going upstairs for 2 x xf250 gyres and my DIY LED lights
Self-level concrete on floor as a new surface for epoxy. Cool blue with the gray, blue and black chips. Started the pour a little thin, and ended up with some left that i put on som plywood for one of the future tank stands. would have preferred it on the floor but mis-estimated the coverage
Cutting the first of the plywood walls to length. DEcided on plywood for the flexibility of mounting options, and the fact it turns out to be slightly less expensive overall compared to all that mud, tape and labor with drywall.
I talked it through with my wife, and detailed the expanded plan- use the drilled 125 as a sump, buy a 180 (might as well go a bit bigger) to put in the wall, and build out a room in the basement for the sump and support equipment. And she agreed! So, that brings us to...
The Tank- A Marineland 180 (6x2x2) in-wall, between the living room and office. Inset into the wall, so it is flush with the living room, and built in cabinets and bookcases on the office side. Pretty good deal from the local store, since it was not drilled and they were trying to move glass. Build quality is typical Marineland, black silicone, a little smudgy on the corners and the top frame was a little scuffed up, but the glass is clean.
The Stand- 2x8 top frame, doubled up 2x4 legs and in-wall supports. Topped with 2 layers of 3/4 inch plywood. Runs perpendicular to 7 joists, so no worries there. One long edge rests on the main LVL beam holding up the house over the basement.
Lights- DIY LED fixture based around 10W and 3W LEDs, controlled by a Coralux Storm controller, on a 5' MakerSled slim heatsink. More info in a later post. I have the parts in a couple boxes and just need time to put it all together. Very comfortable with electronics builds, so looking forward to the fun.
Flow- 2x Maxspect xf250 gyres. One mounted on the overflow box, the other on the opposite end.
Livestock- 2 Ocellaris clowns, a yellow tang, purple tang and a powder blue, a school of dispar anthias (7-10), pistol shrimp and goby pair. Wife wants an engineer goby or yellow dwarf eel, and a local shop has a mated pair in stock but they are waaaayyy too expensive. Have space for a few more inches of fish, but undecided. PBT is going in last, yellow and purple are being bought small and introduced together, after the clowns.
Corals are going to be mixed, but i am a sucker for rock flower anemones, ricordias, torches and hammers, so it might be more on the softy side. not a huge fan of zoas, but i might get some if i find interesting colors for not too crazy coin. Also a sucker for clams, an ultra blue maxima would be awesome, but that is a little while away yet. Will not be rushing that.
Disease control- Fully isolated TTM station in basement comprising of 2 sets of 10g tanks, air stones, square colanders etc. Prazi on transfers 2 and 4, then 4 weeks observation in a 40b with an aqueon hob filter and a bunch of pvc. Nothing goes into the DT without first going through TTM and Obs, no exceptions.
Filtration
This is taking up the bulk of the project time for now. I had some guys frame in a 12 x 8 room in a corner of my basement. Fully insulated, greenboard ceiling and plywood walls, epoxy floor, limited in wall electrical as ill be running most equipment from apex EB8's 'extended' with conduit to where needed. Dedicated 6" in-line ventilation fan on a humidistat.
Plumbing- 15 foot vertical and 20 foot horizontal distance from DT to the sump. I expect ill be using a bunch of spa flex for this one.I did a flow test of a jebao DCP-18000 in my backyard and was getting around 1100 gph out of a 25 foot vertical PVC run (thats how high my bathroom window is from the grass next to the deck...). Thats about half its rating, but im ok with that considering the cost and lower power consumption than some of the bigger 'pressure rated' pumps. Theres a test thread around here somewhere, but i cant find it right now.
DT Overflow- goes into a 29g tank i have plumbed straight to drain, and have a 1/2 inch pvc line coming from my salt water mixing tank. 14 minute, 25 gallon (10%) water change and all i have to do is turn 2 valves and push 2 switches. This overflows via 2 x 1.5" bulkheads into the skimmer section of the 125.
Main Sump- 125g divide up into a 12g skimmer section, a central 20g return section and a 40g refugium section on the right side. Fuge is fed from a T in the return at about 200 GPH. An addition port on the T feeds the cryptic zone with minimal flow.
Cryptic zone- a blacked out 29G fed with about 40 gph from the return pump, via 1/2 inch pvc with a bunch of holes extended to the bottom of the tank. Overflows into the fuge section. Contains a bunch of eggcrate platforms that i will seed with live rock rubble covered in the cryptic started pack from a website ive forgotten the name of.
BRS dual reactors for Carbon and GAC. I bought extra fittings and converted them to two singles, and saved $12 over buying two singles. Will be fed by a manifold off a 400 gph pump in the skimmer section, and will dump into the return section. A third port on the manifold will go to drain, so i can get an extra 12 gallons water change occasionally if i need to (15% change in that case). I can also move this to the return section for an additional 20g (for a final 22% change).
Im also adding a 20g long on a floating shelf above the fuge fed from the return line which will have some live rock, a bunch of Mangroves and some sexy shrimp. overflows into the fuge section. More aesthetic than filtration to be honest. i just love the idea of having some plants in the room.
Frag tank- Zoomed lowboy 50 g frag tank, fed from an overflow on the 29g overflow tank, and returning to the return section of the sump. Additional flow with powerheads, undecided at the moment. Plumbing it into the main system since it will primarily be a grow out system.
Fishroom tank stands- Going for concrete blocks, 2x4 top frames and 3/4 inch plywood base for the tank stands, and a regular 2x4 and plywood testing/ fragging bench.
Cheers!
photo dump
6 inch LED slimline can lights in 5000K
Electrical in...2 x 20 amo circuits, each powering a single apex eb8 provides main power to equipment, a third 20 amp does lights, 6" in line duct fan on a humidistat and some duplex and quad GFCI protected outlets at strategic points for things like webcams, fridge/freezer for foodstuff and redundancy if an EB8 happens to go out. I have another 20 am going upstairs for 2 x xf250 gyres and my DIY LED lights
Self-level concrete on floor as a new surface for epoxy. Cool blue with the gray, blue and black chips. Started the pour a little thin, and ended up with some left that i put on som plywood for one of the future tank stands. would have preferred it on the floor but mis-estimated the coverage
Cutting the first of the plywood walls to length. DEcided on plywood for the flexibility of mounting options, and the fact it turns out to be slightly less expensive overall compared to all that mud, tape and labor with drywall.
