Ryan009's 250G build thread

[Ryan009]

Well, there no turning back now. The 250 is underway!

Paul Law and his son spent the day helping reinforce the floor:

I have the most understanding wife in the world!!!!!

The stand should be built tomorrow, the skimmer is already here,

the upgraded RO/DI unit will be here monday, the MH lights will be here later this week, and the tank should be here in about 2 weeks.

I'll try to keep up with photos as things progress.

Here is the equipment list:
Tank -
Custom Miracles in Glass 65.5" X 30" X 30". Starphire on 4 sides. Single ended U-Shape overlfow box with (2) 1.5" bulkheads and (2) 1" bulkheads in the bottom. Eurobracing along the top 2 holes drilled in the top of the bracing or returns. Tank is setup to be viewable from both sides.

Lighting -
(3) 250W MH lights with LumenBright 16" X 16" reflectors. Bulbs will be SE Reeflux 12K running on dimmable Coralvue ballasts.
(2) 60" Sunlight Supply Ready-Fit T-5 2-bulb fixtures. Between the (4) 80W bulbs, I'm planning on using (1) Giesemann POWERCHROME Aquablue Plus, (1) ATI Pro Color, (1) Fiji Purple, and (1) Geisemann POWERCHROME Pure Actinic.

Flow -
(2) Tunze Turbelle Stream 6105 pumps.
(1) Tunze Multicontroller 7096
(1) ReeFlow Wahoo return pump

Filtration -
Connected in to existing (possibly to be upgraded) sump in the basement that is serving existing 210G tank. Skimmer will be (1) ReeFlow Orca 250 with upgraded collection cup and needlewheel.

RO/Di -
New Spectrapure UHE 100 5 stage RO/DI unit. 100G/day capacity with 1:1 or better waste ratio

Existing equipment:
Tunze Ozmolator automatic top-off
Geo Calcium Reactor
Neptune Aqua Controller III
57W AquaUV

As far what I plan on keeping... I really like the mixed reefs. My goal is to keep SPS up towards the top when they can get the most light and increase my LPS collection towards the bottom.

Aside from the fact that it will be viewable from 2 sides, I'd like it to look similar to my 210G that's downstairs.

 

[Ryan009]

The stand is in.

A huge thanks to Paul Law! We both share the similar "Tim Taylor" overbuild-it mentality.

With the reinforced floor, and now the micro-lam constructed stand, I can sleep well knowing I could park a truck on this thing!

 

[hatfielj]

Nice work with the reinforcement! I'm in the same mindset as you...build it way stronger than you need it! That's how they used to build houses and buildings in the past. They didn't have all these advanced engineering programs to figure out how strong a material was. They just knew that if you used gigantic pieces of wood and lots and lots of bricks it would hold up to anything!

 

[Ryan009]

Thanks.

The last thing I wanted was to get everything setup and then have the floor start sagging!

One of the side benefits to opening up the floor is that it made it much easier to run the plumbing to the basement.

To make sure that I had more than enough plumbing and electrical to be able to do whatever I wanted (and have future options), I ran (3) 1.5" lines, (2) 1" lines, and (2) 4-wire SO cords (like long extension cords) back to the sump room and ran (2) 14 gauge romex cables to the circuit breaker box for dedicated circuits in the stand.

The RO/Di filter came yesterday. Gotta love this thing. Needless to day, I like gadgets:

I also picked up (2) 35 gallon storage tanks from Fleet Farm today along with a 100 gallon storage tank.

My plan is build a new 120G sump that then drains into the 100 gallon storage tank (basically there just to increase volume and provide an area of bubbles to settle out. I'll also put a drain in here to be used for water changes. With this, I'll be able to do water changes with effecting the tank or sump levels.

I'm going to use one 35 tanks RO/DI water storage and the other for a mixing/saltwater storage tank. By positioning them at the right heights and setting up a series of valves and connections, water changes should only take a few minutes and be accomplished by turning a few of the right valves.

 

[edandsandy]

Good luck! I agree that you need to build it stronger!

 

[waynem]

Some nice tangs in the old tank, do they all get on?

 

[Ryan009]

They really do seem to get along pretty well. It's fun watch, they almost move around together as a school.

 

[thor32766]

wow looks awesome. Will be cool to see it progress. That achilles is beautiful!

 

[Lowredranger]

Great looking build. Did you drive over to get your tank i noticed they were out of Canada.

 

[Ryan009]

I guess they are about an hour north of Toronto.

Although I love going to Toronto, they are shipping the tank. A couple of people in our local reef club have bought tanks from them and have had nothing but great things to say about them.

 

[SaraB]

Looks like it's going to be a great build ... can't wait to see the progress!

I also see you called in the expert ... Paul! Sure wish he was more local for me too as he does great work!

 

[Ryan009]

Woo Hoo!!!!! The tank is shipping today!

I need some substrate recommendations.

The plan is for a shallow sand bed (maybe 1") and I don't want it too fine, otherwise I'm afraid of constant sand storms.

I was thinking a few bags of the CaribSea Aragamax Select:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...ode=Substrates

and 1 or 2 bags of this just to jump start the sand bed (remember that it will be plumbed in with an existing 210 system):
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...ode=Substrates

Comments and suggestions are definetly welcome!

 

[Ryan009]

YES!!!!

The tank showed up today.

Now, for the hardest part of the build, does anyone have any suggestions on how to move this beast???? It has to be over 600#'s! It seems like a very difficult and dangerous lift even with a bunch of guys.

Right now, my thought is to load it into a pickup with the forklift here at work. Then, I also have a vertical-lift palette jack here at work. My plan is to take that jack in another truck and hopefully use that to help get the tank out of the pickup. Then, wheel it to the door to the house in the garage. I should be able to get it 2 feet into the house and onto a furniture dolly. We should be able to then cary one end in the rest of the way and set it on another furniture dolly.

After rolling it to the stand, bring the vertical jack back to lift it to the appropriate height and then slide it onto the stand.

This seems horribly complicated, but it's the best I could come up with. How have other people done it?

 

[SaraB]

You can rent Heavy Duty Suction Cups to move the tank. Here's a link to a thread that show's it being done. Moving the tank starts towards the end of page 6 and on to page 7. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1354165&perpage=25&pagenumber=6

 

[Goongs]

How long it takes you to reinforce the floor ??

 

[Ryan009]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13809895#post13809895 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Goongs
How long it takes you to reinforce the floor ??

It really wasn't as bad as I had feared. It took about a day to do the floor work. The carpet guy came the next day to re-stretch and install the carpet.

------

Thanks for the link Sara, I hadn't been following that thread (although I am now). Except now I feel like a wous for wining about my 600# tank!!

I went and borrowed some suction cups from Paul Law and Bill Davis tonight.

 

[~sp0ok~]

good job...really nice work

 

[Ryan009]

Well, the tank is in place!

After lots of planning and engineering (and some critical tools), the move went extremely well.

Here's how the process went:

Getting it out of the truck - This is one of the bigger obstacles. Putting in the truck was easy (forklift), but how do you get it out without dropping it? The suction cups were critical. With that and the vertical palette truck, it wasn't too bad.

Official arrival - It was happy moment to see the tank safely off the truck and officially at the house.

Into the house - Once the tank was on the palette truck, we wheeled it the step into the house. We were able to get the front end in and on a furniture dolly. It was then fairly easy to scoot it forward and get the back end onto a second furniture dolly.

Preparing for the lift - With the tank squared up with the stand, we used the palette truck to lift the tank to the stand height.

Setting it in position - We were able to just slide it off the truck onto the stand.

In position - View from the living room and from the front entrance.

 

[Ryan009]

Here are some pictures of the cabinet "skin" that was delivered today.

Staining happens this weekend and the cabinet should be installed next Tuesday.

 

[SaraB]

Congrats on getting the tank in place! Glad to hear the suction cups worked good too.

That's a really beautiful cabinet skin! Did you build it or someone else?