New IN WALL 300 gallon build!!

[dinger28]

The time has finally come!! New house = new IN WALL tank! Moving into the house in a couple of weeks so I wanted to start the "build" thread. Little background information. The wife and I moved near the Charlotte area to be closer to family. With another child on the way, FREE daycare was too good to pass up! We actually built the house around the tank. My father in law and I will have to build a mini-fish room in the garage around the tank.

We've had a 240 for a couple of years, but it was only 6 foot long; and for the fish we wanted to keep I really wanted an 8 footer. The tank (8ft by 2ft by 2 and a half ft) is coming Saturday and more pics will be uploaded when it arrives. Bought all of the wood for the stand, and will be using Randy's design, plus a couple extra braces for my own POM.

"Equipment" List:

Reef Octopus Regal 220INT 9" Protein Skimmer
BRS 75gpd 5 stage plus RO/DI system
Mag 7 and Mag 9.5 for return pumps
4 Evergrow D120 LED lights
5 powerheads in the tank circulating 8,000 gph in different wave patterns
160 pounds (will be adding more later on) of live rock...has been in holding tanks for almost 2 months getting ready! Making 2 islands with the rock.
280 pounds of live sand
Custom made sump with filter socks

Livestock:
Fish I already have in holding includes:
4 inch Naso Tang
5 inch Dsjardini Sailfin Tang
3 inch Annularis (changing to adult!)
2 Ocellaris Clownfish
2 inch Flamehawk Fish

Fish I would like:
Couple more tangs..Yellow and Gem possibly
Blueface or Emperor (know they can be mean so not sure yet)
Lyretail Anthias trio with male
Magnificent Foxface
Potter's Angel or Multicolor Angel
Sailfin Blenny
Sand Sifting gobies

I really want the fish to thrive so won't be adding too many fish to the tank....at least I don't want to; lol.

Have 2 60 gallon pickle barrels for water changes. 1 for RO/DI and the other for saltwater. I'm having 2 extra holes drilled in the back of the tank for easy water changes. 1 will be to empty water from the tank and the other will come from the Saltwater barrel to pump water back into the tank. After doing a timed test, this should take 8 minutes to do a full 60 gallon water change. Will have true unions on the pipes leading into both holes in case I need to change out the pipes for cleaning, etc.

More pictures will come later this weekend. Please let me know if you have any suggestions with my setup, as I am still "new" to the hobby, but always welcome anything that will make the setup better! Reefcentral has been so good to me and I am able to set up this tank because of the great threads that people on here have posted!! (SDguy, Hedgedrew, Slief, snorvich, just to name a few. Thanks!

 

[dinger28]

In the first picture I am showing where the tank will be. 2nd pic is of the wall insulated and the 3rd one is of the house. My son is in the 4th (and he loves fish already!) and the wood for the stand and header we have to "build" is in the last one.

 

[SPotter]

tagging along!!!

 

[dinger28]

Here are a couple more pictures of the protein skimmer and 1 of the pickle barrels for super simple water changes! Protein Skimmer is HUGE!! Love it next to my boy!

 

[kjboggs]

Looks great, I'm in the charlotte area and you should have an open house/tank showing!

 

[Aussieiniowa]

You could go with a madjestic angel instead of a emperor

 

[clekchau]

looking good so far, can you give more details of your equipment, sump, circulation pumps

 

[dinger28]

Haha! When it is complete definitely come in over!

Also, love the majestic idea! May take a go at it!

Equipment has been gathered over the past few months. I wanted the in tank circulation to be the main focus of the tank, which is why I only went with a combined 1650 gph return pumps. Sump is a standard 75 gallon with separate compartments for the skimmer, pumps, and filter socks. Will have baffles to catch micro bubbles as well. Was thinking of putting the return pumps near the skimmer, and was curious to what y'all think? Getting close!!

 

[viggen]

Do you know the return pumps flow at whatever their head pressure will be? Your 1650 number is with no head.... And I am sure depending on your setup 5-6 ft of head is what they will see

Remember you only need 2-5 times a hour turnover which will allow your sump to work better and the skimmer to perform better.

It's going to be interesting to see how that skimmer work for you. I would think it would be on the small side however that depends on your fish load.

 

[dinger28]

Yes I do know that. �� Head pressure will be around 3 feet. As you said, flow through the sump won't be too great, which is what I was going for. Also, skimmer is rated for 500g light load and 400g medium load. Will have about 325g total for it. Won't have too many fish either. We will see what the future holds however!! Hehe!

 

[airplanes1016]

Have you considered closed loop? Also why two returns and not just one? Like a large external?

 

[dinger28]

TODAY IS YHE DAY I GO PICK UP THE TANK!!! Being delivered at 2pm and will post pics when I can. My wife just had a baby on Thursday night so I'm in the hospital at the moment. What we won't do for our hobby!! Here are a couple pics of the little guy!

 

[dinger28]

One more

 

[caribfan]

Brand New! Congratulations, too cute!

 

[Butchhe]

Congrats

 

[dinger28]

Now that life is starting to get back to normal after having 2 kids....ahhh!!...I can update everyone on what is happening at the moment. The stand is built, as pictures show. My brother-in-law help build it. It will be going against the wall of the garage for the in wall feel. We will have to build a footer for the support inside the wall to hold the first few inches of the tank. Really happy on how it turned out. The thing is as strong as steel!...almost. Some of the other pictures are of the tank being loaded in the trailer and in it's temporary home in the in-laws backyard until the house is complete (Nov. 10!). Just a question though, has anyone built a header before inside a wall for support? This is going in a load bearing wall so unfortunately not having one isn't an option. Thanks!

 

[DavidinGA]

What's with the overflow boxes being clear (glass) then black in the other pics...?

 

[Easttuth]

Looking forward to following along.

I would be worried about not enough flow through the sump and needing much more live rock. Also that skimmer is the bare minimum, I would look around for an upgrade there. Just my humble thoughts

 

[stempy07]

Congrats on the new addition to your family, and the new tank! Looking forward to seeing this come along

 

[dinger28]

Looking forward to following along.

I would be worried about not enough flow through the sump and needing much more live rock. Also that skimmer is the bare minimum, I would look around for an upgrade there. Just my humble thoughts

No worries man. I am going to be focusing on not having too many fish in the tank, and just ones that can thrive in a big tank like this. Also, I am building two columns in the tank, so I feel I have plenty of rock for this. Thanks for the input though!