New 300 build almost from scratch

[rus]

Just to catch you all up , i have been running a 225 gal reef for the past 4 years ,. About 3 weeks ago i came home from work to a rather large problem , the bottom seal on my tank had gone and i was down
around 80 plus gallons.

Needless to say i spent the next 24 hrs or so cleaning up and trying to save all that i could.

A few days after , i decided it was time to press on and not let this get me down . I am now a week away from my new tank arriving. The old fish room has been totally renoed including , new lino floor tiles , emergency floor drain *** ( very important for my marriage ) , repainted, new stand ,new cabinets and work area , new lighting setup , etc...

Equipment will be mostly the same except a few new goodies.

Tank 72" x 36" x29" ( front panel starphire / external rear overflow)

*Skimmer Deltec 902
*Deltec Calcium reactor
*Deltec Kal stirrer
*Dart ( main pump on 2 seaswirls )
*2 vortecs
2 tunze 6100 ( controlled by aquasurf)
*Aq 3
*Carbon / phosphate reactors
* 90 gal sump

Lighting 2 - 250 ( hqi ballast ) 1 -400 ( vertex elec. ballast ) 4 t5 actinics. Halides will be using lumineric mini reflector ( look forward to seeing the improvement with these.

I will post some pics of work so far in a bit , neew to charge up camera.

-Russ

 

[rus]

some random pics of tank location and work done so far

work area

just enough room for size

 

[jt48]

Is this the 300 gallon Mraineland deep dimension 72x36x27? If your new tank is truly 29" high that would give you 325 gallons. Looking forward to new pics.

 

[rus]

Tank is made by Seastar ( although i believe they are called something else now ) I had it custom to my dimensions thru my local fish store.

the dimensions were based on my original opening for width , and then as big as i could go without removing doors in my home.

 

[rus]

tank is actually 28" high ( misprint earlier ) this was max room to rebuild new stand and still line up with my existing opening in the wall.

 

[purebullet417]

im building a tank almost the same exact size (30" tall though) looks good cant wait to see it

 

[rus]

my old 225 was 30'' high as well , the only reason this is not was so i could rebuild a stand where the existing one was, i needed to shrink the height a little. I find anything much less than this in height does not look as good when it is in wall as you seem to lose too much of the front panel when it is all trimmed out . As well as i like to have the trim up an inch or so from the bottom tank trim so i do not need to bring my cleaning magnet too close to the sand and cause any scratches


you can sort of see this in this older pictcure.

 

[mseepman]

Looking forward to following this one...are you posting updates on the local Canreef forum as well?

 

[TandN]

Sounds sweet cant wait to see it up and running best of luck with it

 

[rus]

Looking for some other options for carbon and rowas as far as reactors go. I have been using Two little fish brand reactors , and although good price they are a little small and tend to leak too much for my liking .Although i am a Deltec user , i find the cost of there reactors just a tad high for what i want , any other good brands out there in the middle of the road say.

On another note finished off final paint on my stand , and have started making rodi water for upcoming tank arrival . 300 gal is a lot too produce from a 50gpd rodi... might be time to upgrade.

 

[hershell]

Looks Good... What lights are you running?

 

[Jade]

You might want to check out Bulk Reef Supply for your reactors. They have single and dual reactors for running Carbon and GOF. Good prices. Worth checking into. Hope that helps.
Chris

 

[rus]

Lighting will be 2- 250 14k Aquaconnects on pfo hqi ballast and 1 - 400 watt 20k radium on new Vertex electronic ballast. there will 4 39watt t5's as well mixture of actinics.

Thanks for the heads up for the reactors , i will have a look at it tonite.

I did find out today that my tank delivery is off till middle of next week now.... seems to be the norm these days, oh well time to finish off a few things lighting and misc items, not to mention make some more rodi water.

 

[Americanreef]

The in wall tanks always look great is it difficult to install a tank in the wall I have always liked the idea.

 

[rus]

Well, this is suppose to be the week. Tank is scheduled to be delivered sometime later this week..... with any luck . last week i was told it would be ready but apparently the starphire panel was delivered to the builder with a scratch in it so it pushed things a week later.

I was able to get a few things done this past week though so the fish room , stand and misc items were completed . Spent some time cleaning all my old pumps and skimmer as well.

I was also able to pick up a sump from a buddy of mine who had shut down his system so now i will have a 200gal sump instead of my original 90 gal. New sump is 7' x 2' x 2' ( it is a fiberglass plywood sump with baffles in it ) Hoping with the added length i should be able to eliminate any bubbles which may be caused by running a larger amount thru my main pump .

Still debating running a refugium this time , as i have never run one on any of my setups over the years, but they do seem to seem to make a difference to those that do. Any thought on whether you would setup one or not?
I'm also debating on creating my own rock pillars for aquascape , i really like what Sanjay was able to accomplish with his setup , altohugh i would like a little more simplicity to mine ala the ''japanese look''.

 

[rus]

tank arrived yesterday , 4 of us spent the better part of 3 hrs lugging it around to the back of the house to get it in. A few pops and some sore backs later it is wasin and on the stand .Started filling with Ro water today, but i will need to upgrade my RO to something larger ( It's a 35gpd model ) don't feel like waiting 3 weeks to fill. Plumbing to start sometime this weekend.

Pics to follow later on.

 

[porterdog]

check this out.. would fill up your tank really quick

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/RO/DI...-Water-Saving-"TDS-Spartan"/product_info.html

 

[rus]

Ya , that would do it.. i'm looking at the 100gpd unit from vertek it comes with a few good features ( shut off , booster pump and a few other things ) and in most cases this would be plenty for me. I was doing weekly 25 gal WC on my old system and this one i will probably bump it up a bit but not enough to warrant that size . System should be running around 425 gal. total.

Quick question for all you plumbing gurus , my return pump will be a dart that will split to 2 returns on seaswirls, would it be best to maintain the 1 1/2" piping right up till i get to them to maximize flow? Seaswirls tie in with 1" pipe. Also what is better , splitting the return lines at the pump and going up or bringing up one line and teeing off it to the seaswirls?

 

[rus]

Been a busy last week or so work wise , but i have been able to squeeze a few hours a day into my build . Tank is now full with ro water and by midday tomorrow should have the sump full as well.

With any luck plumbing test will go well and i will be able to start adding salt to the water by tomorrow evening . Hope to get started on aquascaping sometime next week or on the following weekend.

I have done a few things with the electrical side of things as well . Aq3 is hooked up and running and i am in the process of setting up the tunzes on the Aquasurf. Still looking for a good program for this.

pic from the back

sink and working area , i plan to add a frag tank one day on the right side of the counter directly below this is the 30 gal WC container, this will be plumbed into the sump soon.

RO water srorage ( 30 gal ) this will be controlled by auto shutoff from my RODI. The rectors will be on the shelf below this.

Side shot showing catwalk area , i will have removal catwalks on the sides as well, so i can still access the pump and the sump below them.

and start of the electrical board area , this is raised out from the wall by 1 1/2" so extra wires can be stuffed in behind out of site , but still easy to access for matainece or other reasons.

 

[rus]

Well the Ro water test has gone well i have had it running for over two days now and other than one little leak when i first fired up the main pump there have been no problems.

I have really got to say that eliminating the closed loop this time around and using tunze and vortecs has made this an extremly quiet running systems . You can't even hear the dart pump running outside the room.

I have noticed that even with the head i have my 2 - 1 1/2' overflows cannot keep up with the pump full open , I think i'm still pushing around 2000 gph thru the sump though which is what i wanted at least.

I plan to be adding salt sometime this week with live rock and aquascaping starting by the weekend . Hard being patient but we are finally getting there.