sbash's 220 Gallon Build

[sbash]

I am moving into a new, much bigger house. So, bigger house means bigger tank right? (It was my future wife's idea)...

My first plan was to just get an off the shelf MarineLand Corner-flo. I was going to put it in the as a primary display piece in the main room of our new house. The goal was to put it on an outside wall and brace the floor underneath (conveniently building myself a fish room right below). However, in the house we actually purchased, the only suitable wall is right above the garage (lol). Anyway, long story short, I have decided to put the tank in a wall as a room divider. This of course means I get to pull a wall down and run a fantastic build project, so I have an engineer coming to reassure me I can do so without the house caving in on itself!

So, I would love some input and feed back on this process. I will also have questions I am sure as I build things out, well, I admit, I have one right now

Here are some decisions I have made:

2 return pumps, I have purchase two Mag12 pumps, I chose two for redundancy.
4 Hydor 1500 powerheads, I picked up four of these on sale, I already have a 600 and two 850s which seem to work well in my 65 Gallon
Switching to Eheim heaters, I purchased a 250W to augment my 100W, and I have two 200W Hydors (which are horrible heaters) to use as backup. I have enough wattage to get started, once I get a feel for heating the system, I will likely switch entirely to Eheim.
5 Arctic-S026 LED lights, I have one already on my 65G (not exactly, but same specs w/same LEDs), and my corals love it. I have not purchased these yet.
Use my existing 55G sump/refugium system, I am going to rework the baffles a bit on my next water change, I will post something on this modification later...
Keep my RS-80 skimmer for a while, it is 'rated' for a large tank, and I only have five fish. Once I start ramping up the fish, I will likely need to upgrade. I am comfortable with the device at this point, so I should know when that is needed (i.e. having to clean it every couple days, lol).
The sump will be in the basement, and hopefully I can figure out how to mount the Mag12 pumps on the outside. I will likely re-use as much of the existing plumbing as possible.
For rocks, I probably have 100lbs in my 65G, and I am curing close to 100lbs of rubble for the refugium and another 100lbs of rock curing in my basement now. I also have about 50lbs of rubble in cold (room temp) water and 40lbs of dry rock (ready to be cured). Hopefully, this will give me enough 'base' rock for the system to minimize the initial cycle. That said, I am not trying to rush things, as I will have time to ensure a proper cycle when I fire this thing up. BUT! and a big but, I do want to minimize the time the 65G runs without a sump/fuge/skimmer. So, I figure for the load I have in my 65G, a bubble/aerator should do enough skimming for a couple weeks while I verify the new system. I would love some thoughts on this!!!

So, getting down to my first real question... I am getting close to when I need to place the order for the actual 220G display tank. Since I am in Ontario, Canada, my options are a bit limited. I would like to see what you folks feel are some advantages and disadvantages to the options I have narrowed it down to:

Durso overflow:

Marineland Corner-Flo, $1200 (local pickup)
I have 65G corner-flo now, it works well, although the durso overflow a bit loud. As a room divider, the one wall would need to cover up the overflow, which lowers the viewing abilities from that room. Good warranty.

BeanAnimal overflow:

Perfecto tank, $850 (local pickup)
Basic tank, I could drill it myself or hire someone locally to do it. The warranty would be void as soon as I start drilling. I would also have to build my own overflow box.

Miracles Aquarium, $1600 (shipped to my house)
Custom tank, drilled to my spec (three holes), tempering on the bottom and drilled end. Takes three days to reply to my email. 1 year warranty. This price does not include the overflow.

North American Fish Breeders, $950 + shipping (hopefully around $300, shipped to my house)
Custom tank, drilled to my spec (three holes). This includes the overflow box on the inside. Nothing is tempered, although he says he uses thicker glass (half inch). I will ask about the warranty when I follow up about the shipping cost next week. He only does Euro-style bracing.

I am excited about this build and will be posting as much as I can on the process here. Including my sump modifications, my ATO, my DIY auto-feeder, and of course, the demolition of a wall (hopefully)...

TL;DR:
Moving to a new house, installing a new tank, please advise on the four options above.

 

[sbash]

Okay! So, I decided on the Miracles aquarium. A little higher priced, however it should be a good build quality, plus I really like the idea of the euro bracing. Either way, the tank should be in any day now

Quick notes based on progress in the last three months are as follows...

Lights: The S026 prices went up at the same time the Canadian dollar tanked, so the decided to get some generic 'Black Box LED' aquarium lights. They came in this week and seem pretty good. One of them is wrong, so I will have to change the LEDs manually, which is a great opportunity to try out some of the designs on the 'Black Box LED' thread.

Skimmer: My RS-80 died right before I moved my tank to the new house, so I have been running two months without a skimmer and I have noticed a difference. After much research on skimmers for a 200+ gallon system, I decided on the Auqamaxx ConeS CO-3. It should arrive in the next few days. I will need to modify my sump plans to account for this large skimmer, however it will work out well in the long run!

Walls: I have a fancy engineer's report which tells me exactly how to build the walls in order to prevent my house from imploding. I have already re-enforced my basement/garage walls according to the report and am ready to start rebuilding the display tank wall.

Rocks: The live rock I picked up from several sources has been in a tub for the last couple months. I have split this out and added some dry rock to cure. I have a tub of display tank rock and a tub of rubble for the refugium. I only wanted an extra 20lbs of rubble, but ended up with over 70 from someone who was dismantling their system. Half of which is in the tub. I still have another 20lbs of dry rock to cure if I need it. I liked these rocks the best, so hopefully I will not need the rest of the dry rock...

 

[sbash]

This is the live rock waiting for action in my garage.

 

[sbash]

Alright! Thanks to some fine folks in the community, I was able to get the tank into my house.

(http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2533440)

Anyway, here is the rebuilt wall (or lack of wall). The span is almost eight feet of re-enforced goodness:

I cut out the laminate floor and found some nice parquet floor under it, I will save it for later use (maybe):

Here I have finished the faming, but it is not fully supported yet:

The tank arrived a day late, but at least it made it safely. It sat in my driveway for three days:

After gathering the resources to get this beast into the house, I was able to get it in place and finish the support structure...

So, now I am playing the waiting game again, as it will take several days to fill up with R/O water. Here we are just under 12 hours in:

From here, I have picked up all the plumbing pieces I need. I get to cut another hole in the floor! I also have to build an overflow. I was not sure how the euro-brace would turn out, so I did not have it added as part of the tank build. Originally, I was going to just bend some acrylic to create a removable overflow for easy cleaning. However, there is plenty of clearance to get my hand in there, so at this point I am thinking of ordering some glass to fit and just going with a simple 24" L shaped overflow on the one end. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated...

 

[theMatrix]

Nice progress.... subbed for updates

 

[markfortkamp]

that is awesome! how many people did it take to lift it?

 

[nuxx]

Was going to say... go custom any time you can

 

[sbash]

that is awesome! how many people did it take to lift it?

It took six of us to get in into place. We had to use lots of moving straps, dollies and a pickup truck to move it.

We put it (on the pallets) into the back of the pickup. Drove it to my back deck and unloaded it onto dollies. Then we rolled and shuffled, shuffled and rolled until it was in line with the stand.

The hardest part was the stand, not only was it a three foot vertical, but the Styrofoam made it hard to slide the tank into place.

 

[Bogue Chitto]

That's going to be a great looking tank when you get it up and running. You have a smart wife by the way...

 

[sbash]

Was going to say... go custom any time you can

Indeed, although the glass is so thick, I have to be careful when navigating around the ends of the tank to prevent knocking the powerheads off

I will probably also have to spend the big bucks on a magnetic glass cleaner. I doubt my cheap Chinese one will work, lol.

 

[sbash]

That's going to be a great looking tank when you get it up and running. You have a smart wife by the way...

Thanks, and thanks!

 

[sbash]

So things are coming along. I have half the plumbing done (not visible in the picture). I had to stop filling it with water because I am waiting for the overflow glass to come in. Half of the rocks are also in, this is not the final rock layout, I just wanted to get filtration going asap. They are already cycled, so I have to keep on the chemistry, but there has not been an ammonia or nitrite spike thus far, hopefully it keep stable. My goal is to have the sump in place by the middle of the week and everything running by the weekend, so hopefully the glass comes in tomorrow!

 

[theMatrix]

Basement right? Supports?

 

[sbash]

Basement right? Supports?

The tank is on the main level; inside a 'load bearing' wall. The tank is directly centred over top of a foundation wall (the garage is under one side, the basement under the other). I brought in an engineer to give me a report on my situation.

My foundation is also wooden, not poured concrete or cinder like most houses. This means I have to deal with weight distribution through my foundation walls a bit differently than with a concrete foundation.

The solution, to evenly distribute the weight onto my footings under the tank, is shown in this picture. These are 4x8 1/2" plywood panels which are hung with a specific nailing pattern and the framing is beefed up behind them.

 

[mkindsfather]

Keep the build pics coming!

 

[sbash]

Well, I had huge delays getting the glass for the overflow in. After waiting a week, they beveled the edged, despite ordering them unfinished. Fortunately, I found another glass place which cut the glass to size in the same day. Not the best caulking job I have done, but it will have to do (it looks fine, I am just super critical of my own work). That said, installing the overflow with water in the tank was very tricky, I recommend avoiding such a situation.

The plumbing is pretty much completed. I have to strap the lines in to get them to stay in the right place, but all in all, the 'Bean Animal' style overflow and the two return lines are good to go. In the pictures below, I still have to put the 1" fittings into the overflow. I will get to this once I flush the lines, the cutting and gluing process has left a bunch of gunk in the tubes.

Lastly, I have added a small clean up crew, including so snails, hermits and two peppermint shrimp. They are all doing well

I only put a valve on the siphon line. Not sure how that is going to work out. The middle is going to be the emergency, and the far side is the Durso type tube. I still have to install the air line. I will do this after I flush the tubes.

Each pump is connected to a single union ball valve. I just wanted an basic union, but these fittings were nominally more expensive, so I figured the more valves the better. The pipes are a bit dangly... Once I have my sump in place, they should shore up just fine. I found this rather challenging, as I am not sure how it will sit once everything is in place. If you look closely, there are plenty of tick marks on the wall for the sump edges and baffles, etc...

The foam sheet is the size of my sump. I would like some sort of foam under the pumps when they are running in the sump. I do not like the idea of the mag-drive pumps just sitting on the glass... Any suggestions?

As you can see, there is a random 1" valve high up. This is an experiment to see if I can use that same pump to do water changes. I will run a flex tube do the drain in the basement. I have no idea how effective this will be, but I had the parts so I figured why not?!

 

[Bogue Chitto]

Overflow looks good, I think you have got it going in the right direction. Hope you get to fill it and get it all running this week end.

 

[sbash]

Progress has been good over the last week or so. It took an extremely long time to make this much water (lol). While I was waiting, I started on the facing, and finished the plumbing. There were a couple unions I still needed to install, and finalize the cementing.

The entire contents of my 65 gallon, have all been moved over to the new tank now and everyone seems happy. I did, however, lose my conch. I will wait until the sand bed matures before getting another. The rock placement is not final, I think I will wait until the colours are more uniform before making any more adjustments.

The 'Bean Animal' style overflow, I have to say, does not slurp or gurgle, but you can sure hear that water fall 10 feet! There are still some refinements to the overflow pipes and weir which need to be made permanent. I have some plastic canvas zip tied to the ends of the drains, and some egg crate over the weir to prevent anything from accidentally getting in the overflow. This was triggered by a snail getting sucked into the siphon and my chromis somehow making it over the weir.

Anyway, onto the photos... There will be cabinet doors installed, this is just a rough in to cover things up in case we have guests before things are finished up:

This is side 1 thus far:

And, this is side 2:

Here is the best shot I could get of my sump. It is rather small, I have started thinking of ways to expand or replace it. I still have about 100 lbs of rubble in a tub, but I think this is good enough (must be close to 40 lbs):

Next up, I want to get my ATO back up and running. I have been adding water manually for the last week and it is such a pain! I also need to get the skimmer placed properly, it is hardly visible, but the adjustment valve is almost completely shut, yet the bubbles are all making it up to the collection cup. In the old location, it was behaving the exact opposite...