Taqpol's 220 gallon custom Miracles tank!

[Demonic]

Ask and ye shall receive!

This is a model, with the front pane missing, that I made in sketchup. I am trying my hand at acrylic fabrication and this thing will be made out of 3/8" cell cast acrylic. The chamber in the back is basically a really long bubble tower. All of my overflow pipes and skimmer outlet will enter this as close to the lefthand side so water will have to travel all the way to the right hand side of the trap before flowing to the skimmer. Next is the skimmer section, followed by an under - over - under baffle system which makes more sense to me then what i had last time. Lastly, oversized return section.

I am actually in the process of gluing all this together now and I'll take a lot of pictures of the progress!

Nice sketch up. I like the design, so much I may copy it. :hmm4:
Take lots of pics for me so it will help me in the theft of the design. Thats one thing I cant make up my mind on, mostly external or internal refugium. Keep the pics coming.

 

[sammy113]

Damn that tank looks so good. Congrats on all the new stuff happening. Can't wait to see this build finished. Enjoy this cause this is the most fun part of reefing I think I enjoy it even more than keeping it lol

 

[dragonfish_!]

nice work man

 

[Dejavu]

Alex the Miracle's tank looks great and you look like your have way to much fun! Keep up the good work.

 

[crvz]

You may want to think about a drain for the portable AC unit. Mine actually doesnt drain a lot of water, so I'm able to simply use a bucket, but if you get one with continuous draining (which almost any of them can be retrofitted to do, if it's not a built in feature) that may be a lot easier consider the amount of space you have (dragging an AC unit around for draining purposes may not be suitable).

 

[icedgxe]

Great looking build! I look forward to seeing the final product!

 

[Taqpol]

Damn that tank looks so good. Congrats on all the new stuff happening. Can't wait to see this build finished. Enjoy this cause this is the most fun part of reefing I think I enjoy it even more than keeping it lol

Alex the Miracle's tank looks great and you look like your have way to much fun! Keep up the good work.

I knew Miracles was going to be a good purchase, but I am speechless at the level of quality they put into this! Its just the small things, like the flush acrylic around the bottom edges to protect it from bumps or the fact that even the return holes in the eurobrace have had their edges beveled!

I keep trying to tell myself that this is the fun part, but I am definitely looking forward to the finished product right now. I basically ruined my first acrylic project (a 20"x18"x18" SW mixing tank) because I didn't take the time to research, that was costly. Once I get the sump plumbing and return plumbing, and maybe even the APEX hooked to the internet, I can sit back and enjoy my handiwork.

You may want to think about a drain for the portable AC unit. Mine actually doesnt drain a lot of water, so I'm able to simply use a bucket, but if you get one with continuous draining (which almost any of them can be retrofitted to do, if it's not a built in feature) that may be a lot easier consider the amount of space you have (dragging an AC unit around for draining purposes may not be suitable).

I actually purchased all the parts I would need to make this work, but after looking at the last job I did on my wall I decided a bucket would work just fine. If it turns out to be too inconvenient I do plan on leaving enough room to drill another hole.

nice! GO COUGS!

Ah Pullman. I will not miss the weather, but I will definitely miss the atmosphere! I have a feeling at this school I will be sucked into basketball, we'll see how that goes!

 

[Taqpol]

nice work man

Thanks!

Great looking build! I look forward to seeing the final product!

You and me both!

 

[Taqpol]

Nice sketch up. I like the design, so much I may copy it. :hmm4:
Take lots of pics for me so it will help me in the theft of the design. Thats one thing I cant make up my mind on, mostly external or internal refugium. Keep the pics coming.

The refugium idea is probably what I ended up thinking about the most. Personally, for my system I don't think it is worth it.

An ideal fuge would aid in food production (pods) and export of nutrients through growth of macro-algae. Fuges help with pod production by not allowing predation in their breeding ground, but if I added some live rock to the return area of my sump I can get the same benefit with much less maintenance. Secondly, I plan on using a bacteria/carbon driven system coupled with a powerful skimmer for nutrient export. Many people, including myself, have actually had trouble growing macro-algae in this type of setup. In my mind, a refugium equals lower flow, which equals detritus accumulation, which equals more maintenance. I have seen lots of great fuge-less systems in action (Like SunnyX) so this time around I plan on trying it out myself.

That being said, I am leaving room to install one in the future. I have even had a crazy idea to setup a fuge like a potted plant between the two tank, but grow mangroves out of it for purely aesthetic reasons.

 

[tegee]

Alex......I agree 100% in regard to your comments on the fuge setup. I had an external fuge on my last 180-gl and decided against it on my new Miracles tank. Way too much maintenance and I simply did not see the benefits outweighing the cons imho. I was finding myself spending waaaay more time on fuge rather then the display.

After 13-weeks up and running my nitrates are way down (used dry rock & new sand too on the new setup) and I have been feeding 2x's/day with no issues. Skim heavy and have great flow and you will be fine.......

Good luck going forward and have fun with the setup.....was the most rewarding time in the hobby the past couple of months with the new tank.

 

[Demonic]

The refugium idea is probably what I ended up thinking about the most. Personally, for my system I don't think it is worth it.

An ideal fuge would aid in food production (pods) and export of nutrients through growth of macro-algae. Fuges help with pod production by not allowing predation in their breeding ground, but if I added some live rock to the return area of my sump I can get the same benefit with much less maintenance. Secondly, I plan on using a bacteria/carbon driven system coupled with a powerful skimmer for nutrient export. Many people, including myself, have actually had trouble growing macro-algae in this type of setup. In my mind, a refugium equals lower flow, which equals detritus accumulation, which equals more maintenance. I have seen lots of great fuge-less systems in action (Like SunnyX) so this time around I plan on trying it out myself.

That being said, I am leaving room to install one in the future. I have even had a crazy idea to setup a fuge like a potted plant between the two tank, but grow mangroves out of it for purely aesthetic reasons.

I just cant see myself without a refugium for some reason. I am still up in the air about it though. Are you going to be dosing vodka or the new vodka pellets? If I didnt do a refugium, then I would def do the MB7 and vodka. You are making me rethink my setup, of course most of it is in my head, since I cant make my stand yet. Garage is still full of boxes from the move. I cant wait to see yours setup done.

 

[Taqpol]

Acrylic sump construction time! This is my first time ever working with this nasty stuff,and it shows!

Getting a straight and clean edge was the hard part. Gluing the sides together reminded me of glass tank construction, which i actually enjoy.
End pieces on the front pane:

All my pieces were oversized, but that left lots of room for 'flashing' that would be routed off at the end:

I actually constructed my bubble trap and baffles outside of the tank. I don't know if this is better or worse:

When working with acrylic you can only glue horizontally, so I first glued the two baffles to the front pane:

Then I was able to turn the tank on end (after waiting four hours to be safe) and glue the bubble trap to the side:

...and the bubble trap to the remaining baffle:

Back Panel:

And the hard part, the bottom! I didn't have anyone helping me on this project, so I had to run around like a chicken with my head cut off to get glue in all the seams (including the internal ones!) and get the pins out before the glue set:

Of course I forgot a pin! I was able to get the plastic head off, but that sucker was stuck in there! I ended up covering over it with WeldOn 16 to stop any metals from leaching out into the water.

 

[Taqpol]

Lastly the top was put on.

I did make sure to drill a hole in it to let gasses pass to the inside of the container as the glue cured.

Time to use a flush bit router to remove all of the flashing I had sticking out, as well as to cut out the euro brace! I have to say, Acrylic is the messiest solid I have ever worked for in my life! I made this thing days ago and I am still pulling acrylic shavings out of my hair and pockets!

It looks so much better without paper!

Sort of... I told you it showed that I was new to acrylic construction! Sometimes that Weld On just got away from me!

Time for a water test...

Not a single drop made it past the first chamber:

And full! I let it sit like this for almost 48 hours and not a single leak!

 

[Taqpol]

Now I had a tank with water in it, and a sump, but no way to get water between the two! If you look at the floor plan on page one you see that my fish room is actually to the side of the tank, and that the tank rests against an outside wall. There was no way I could rout the drain pipes outside or through the floor, so they were going to have to look pretty!

Drilling more holes in the wall. I think being able to drill holes in your walls is the definition of being a homeowner!

Dry-fitting the pipe that was going to have to make the span:

And finished pipe in place. After I got it all assembled and glued I spray painted it with Krylon fusion. Another tank is going in front of these guys, and maybe even a potted plant/mangrove refugium, but I think the paint color will help it blend in better:

Fish room side of the holes:

Drains under the tank:

Drains going into the sump:

Temporary return coming from ReeFlo Dart:

Returns coming up and over the tank:

With all the crazy twists and head pressure on the pipe I'm not getting very noticeable flow in the DT. I might try out some penductors in the future.

 

[Taqpol]

My goal was to just get all my rock in the tank with flow and heat so that it could cycle while I was gone. After getting it in there I decied I might as well aquascape it, too. I tried to keep my two islands I had in the 120 as i was very proud of them, but I wanted a scape that had more balance and showed off the size of the tank. I came up with this (Thanks to Drummereef for the inspiration!):

This is my new favorite sand, CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade. The stuff looks good, settled in one day, and doesn't get blown around by my vortechs at 100%.

After the sand settled:

There is still room for improvement, as I am missing a fair number of my rocks right now (they either had corals or nems attached to them). As it is now it looks vacant but I keep telling myself to resist the urge to put any more rock in. Once all my corals grow in it will get crowded soon enough.

Also, for whatever reason adding the sand really brought out the bristle worms that (unfortunately) made the trip all the way from Washington:

This one big, but not even 1/4 the size of one I pulled out of the 120. Once I get back to my SLR I'll have to see if I can find the picture I took of that one!

 

[Dejavu]

Wow you have water already.... looking good! How many gallons is the sump?

 

[drstratton]

Alex, everything is looking great, I am excited to see how the rest of it comes together. Congratulations on your Marriage!!!

 

[Taqpol]

Wow you have water already.... looking good! How many gallons is the sump?

The sump is 42"x19.5"x16", and accounting for internal dimensions and at operating water level it holds 32 gallons of water. It should hold almost exactly 50 gallons at max capacity. I am very pleased with its operation as of now. The BeanAnimal overflow in my previous system would almost overflow my sump when I turned the return off, and almost drain it before the full siphon would kick in and normalize my water level. In this setup my water rises a whole three inches upon power outage, but still leaves me three more inches to the top of the tank!

Alex, everything is looking great, I am excited to see how the rest of it comes together. Congratulations on your Marriage!!!

Thanks!

 

[prop-frags]

CONGRATS ALEX!!

An incredible new wife, and tank, too!
Looks like all of your work so far is just superb. The aquascaping is great... subscribed!
:thumbsup:

 

[crvz]

Looks great, Alex. But you're making me feel incredibly lazy. My project is no where near as far along. Go have a kid or something.