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:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6655.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6659.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6660.jpg

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

The stand should be built tomorrow, the skimmer is already here,
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6661.jpg
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.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6662.jpg

[Ryan009]

The stand is in.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/photo-7.jpg

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:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6680.jpg

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.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6882.jpg

Official arrival - It was happy moment to see the tank safely off the truck and officially at the house.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6885.jpg

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.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6891.jpg

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.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6894.jpg

Setting it in position - We were able to just slide it off the truck onto the stand.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6897.jpg

In position - View from the living room and from the front entrance.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6900.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6901.jpg

[Ryan009]

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

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6903.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6904.jpg

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?

[Ryan009]

I wish I could take credit for it!

I like to dabble with woodworking, but when it came to project this size, my wife insisted I let the professionals take care of it. :(

That's why she's the brains in the family.

My local cabinet maker did it. It's cherry and will match the style and color of the other cabinet you see in the background of install pictures - they did that one too.

[Fats71]

That is a beautiful skin. Where did you have it done at ? Nice job on moving it in overkill makes for a happy back.

[Ryan009]

The skin was custom built by Wood Specialties in Menominee Falls.
http://www.woodspecialtiesinc.com/

I'll be honest - they're not cheap, but they do AWESOME work.

Here's todays update:

Here's some of the supplies - before I ran to Menards to pick up a bunch more pieces:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6911.jpg

Now that I have the valves in upstairs, I'm just praying there are no leaks!!!!
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6912.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6917.jpg

My plan is the use one of the 1.5" lines for a siphon drain. This line should handle 95-00% of the volume. The other durso is in a 1" line and would just be used to handle the trickle that the 1.5" couldn't. The return line is on a 1" supply and the last 1.5" line is just an emergency drain.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_6918.jpg

[rob1991]

wow its really coming along!

[Ryan009]

Still a long way to go, but I'm excited to at least have (some) water!


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_7028.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_7033.jpg

Here's the new sump system (I still have to do baffles yet). I'm worried about the bulkheads being on a slightly curved part of the poly tank. I'm sure they'll seal OK, but the outlet won't end up with a perfect lineup to the output from the glass tank. Any ideas?
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_7026.jpg

[Chrisrush]

Skin looks great. How easy is it to get into the tank?

Not sure about the poly tank. What type of bulkhead did you use? Did you look into a uniseal for the poly tank?

[Ryan009]

It's not terribly convenient to get into it from the living room. The door do open, but you have to reach over that front curved piece before you get to the water.

In the hall way, it's much more convenient. There, the tops tip up and open down to the top of the tank.

Someone else mentioned uni-seals too. I don't know much about them. They are suppose to be more flexible right? If anyone has experience with them, good or bad, please let me know.

[RayAllen]

Amazing already ever without livestock. Great craftsmanship!

[spsfreak]

Very nice, I am subscribed.

[Fats71]

Beautiful

[SaraB]

Ryan - we need updates!

[Ryan009]

Now that the holidays are over, I finally have some time for new photos!

The new sump isn't done yet. I had it all ready to go with cell cast acrylic baffles in a 120 AGA tank. Then I had our reef clubs holiday party at my house and a couple of people warned me the acrylic could swell and break the glass tank. Tonight I cut one of the baffles out, measured it, and threw it in the existing sump. I'll measure it again tomorrow and see if it grew at all.

This leaves the fish room an Rube Goldberg award winner right now, but it's functional.

Now that it is functional, it was time to do some damage at the LFS. There really aren't any decent ones in the Milwaukee so I headed south the Paul Law's, Bill Davis (Midwest Saltwater), and the typical Chicago stops.

I found some killer pieces! I would of had 1 more Acan colony at Bills - an awesome Purple/Red rainbow- but he had already promised to frag it for someone named Sara. Hummm? I wonder who that could be? :hammer: :lol:

Anyway, on to the new pics!

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_0065-1.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_0068-1.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/IMG_0067.jpg

[TandN]

tank looks great

[mpoletti]

Very nice tank and presentation :)

[SaraB]

The tank is looking great Ryan! I can't believe you have fish and corals in there already ... I'm jealous!

And don't be touching my Acan!!! :smokin:

[Ryan009]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14090849#post14090849 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SaraB
The tank is looking great Ryan! I can't believe you have fish and corals in there already ... I'm jealous!

And don't be touching my Acan!!! :smokin:

Yeah, I have a problem with this patience thing. Not that I'm the right hobby given my lack of patience, but hey - what's a guy to do.

Thankfully everything is doing really well. I felt I could be a little aggressive with stocking given that I was tying this in with my existing 210 so it really wasn't starting a whole new system from scratch.

That Acan is super cool. Although I couldn't get the colony, I had him save a frag for me.

So far so good on the acrylic experiment. I'm going to give it a few more days, but after 1 day in the sump it had not swelled at all!

[SaraB]

Agreed, tying it in with an existing system sure helps. All my liverock is cured and after 3 weeks, I have 0 for Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia. I just now have to get the rest of my work done on the system so I can start moving over some livestock.

Glad to hear you will be getting a frag of that Acan, it was sweet looking! Congrats!

[Ryan009]

Slightly off-topic (and shameless promotion) - Part of the delay in posting updates was due to setting up a new webpage/forum for our local reef club. Stop by and check it out!
www.wireefsociety.com

[stunreefer]

Looks awesome Ryan, congrats! :thumbsup:

I've "heard" about acrylic swelling in a glass sump before because my old sump was glass with acrylic baffles (I got told it was going to fail all the time - being stubborn I never changed it). It was set-up over two years without an issue at all. Now I have "heard" about this in more than one case, so it might be best to use glass on glass or acrylic on acrylic, but I figuired I'll share my first hand experience about going against the grain. The only thing I can say negatively about this IME was that it seemed tough to get acrylic to seal to glass with silicone.

[Ryan009]

I really appreciate that feedback.

My biggest concern was the glass sump failing and finding a couple hundred gallons of water on the floor! It's very encouraging to hear first hand experience.

It's strange because I've heard opinions in both directions from people I really trust. Thus my experiment.

The more research I do, the more I think I'll be OK. Supposedly, the cell cast acrylic doesn't have near the same issue as other acrylic's. Also, when I have heard of issues, it's normally on 40G or smaller tanks with much thinner glass. Between the thicker glass and cell acrylic I'm hoping it'll work.

FWIW, when I put the baffles in, I used two different sealers - one black and one clear. Why? It's just what I had on hand. :p
When I cut the panel out, it was the one that had black silicone on it and clear silicone on it. While the panel was being held firmly in place all the way around, once I got it out, the black silicone peeled off the acrylic with no problem at all. I had to work at the clear with a razor blade to get that off.

When it goes back in, it'll definetly be with clear silicone.

[Ryan009]

Well, its been a while so I thought I'd post an update.

First, the acrylic baffles in the sump don't seem to be a problem (knock on wood). There haven't been any problems yet and it's been in service for about a month now.

Second, I thought I'd share a few shots of some of the corals in the system.

I have very little luck shooting through the glass, so I pulled out the Olympus compact that is waterproof, turned off the pumps, and gave it a "shot".

Some of the colors were off slightly so I did some global post-shot color tweaking.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010003_2.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010007.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010011_2.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010013.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010014.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010018.jpg

[Ryan009]

Round two:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010020_2.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010022.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010023_2.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010029_2.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010035.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010037.jpg

[Ryan009]

and the last of them...

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010049.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/P1010051.jpg

[SaraB]

Looking great Ryan! Looks like a BGM from WWC ... I recognize the frag plug ;)

[GSMguy]

great looking tank, I really like the cabnetry and aquascape, your off to a great start.

[Ryan009]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14548324#post14548324 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SaraB
Looking great Ryan! Looks like a BGM from WWC ... I recognize the frag plug ;)

Ding ding ding!!

You know your frag plugs. I took the family to Disneyworld in January and found WWC. Did some significant damage, but got some WONDERFUL pieces. Two of the acan colonies shown came from them (the all red one, and the one with the super large polyp's).

[SaraB]

Those are nice acans too! I've done some damage via mail order myself with them!

I think we are due for a FTS too!

[Ryan009]

Here's some of the new additions from our local reef clubs (Wisconsin Reef Society) bus trip to Chicago:
(along with at least a few photos tips from Gary Parr)

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/Blastos.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/Bluecarpetwithclown.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/Duncans.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/SunCorals.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/Yellowanenome1.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/Yellowanenome2.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/Zoos.jpg

My clowns are in absolute heaven!

[Ryan009]

And some new FTS:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/FTSBack.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/FTSFront.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/Ryan009_2007/FTSSide.jpg

[SaraB]

Looking great Ryan! I see you listened to Gary too with the photo tips ;)

So you have both a green and blue carpet in your tank?

[Ryan009]

They've only been there since Saturday night, but yes.

The store I got them from had about 20-30 of them (mostly blue though, I think there was only one or two yellow/green ones left).

[tom obrecht]

Hey Ryan, great progress on the tank! I heard that a certain store had some blue carpets...looks like both colors are enjoying your tank. Nice!