The Build of a 225 Gallon Reef

[corals b 4 bills]

Hey all I am building a new reef tank, it's 70 gallons larger then my current 155 bowfront and I coundn't be happier. Iv'e been remodeling my house for the past 5 months and I'm getting to a point to where I am about to put the hole in my wall and build the fish/sump room in the garage, I am very excited to build my set up as the house construction comes to a close. the tank will be actually in the house with the wall cut open to expose the back of the tank being in the garage, I will build a 3'x6' room (The city won't let me build it any larger) and it will have it's own entrance. now that you have an idea where it's location will be here are some pictures and a list of what equipment I have that will be installed.

Tank - leeMar 225 72"L x 30"W x 24"H, Starfire panels, bevel diamond cut edges, PVC bottom, black silicone, euro braced with 4-2" holes, trapizoid over flow with 2-1 1/2" drains and 2-1" returns.

Stand - 72"L x 33"W x 39"H 2"x2" square tube steel with epoxy coating, made by myself.

Plumbing - Schedule 80 PVC pipe, unions and ball valves.

Sump - So-Cal Creations acrylic 48"L x 24"W x 20"H x 3/8" thick and has black refugium section incorporated to house macro algae, and of course probe holders.

Sump/Tank leak Tray - i had a leak tray made out of 1/4" acrylic to be placed underneath the entire sump area of the tank to catch any spills and or over flows (A bulk head will be installed). The bulk head will be piped to the waste drain.

Skimmer - I went with a Deltec 1060-S skimmer with three aquabee pumps, i wanted a skimmer that would be placed inside the sump incase of an overflow.

lighting - Three luminarc large reflectors with Reeflux 10k's, 3- 250 watt Ice Cap ballasts, 1- Ice Cap 660 Ballast with two 72" VHO Super Actinics mounted on a aluminum rack that I built. There will be air duct ports in the reflectors and an enclosure around the rack, air ventilation will be moved by an inline Fantech fan un the attic and anothe fan under the house drawing the excess room air under the house. The rack will be raised above the tank by actuators into the attic.

Calcium Reactor - Deltec PF 601 rated for a 520 gallon tank.

Fluidized Reactor - Deltec FR 616 to be used for phoshate removal.

Kalk - Deltec**500 Kalkwasser Stirrer to be run throughout the night.

Nitrate - Korallin Biodenitrator S1502, I have had great success with this unit in the past.

Water movement - 3- Tunze 6100 Turbells on a controller and a Tunze wavebox 6212. 2- 3/4" Sea Swirls with a Snapper pump (thinking about an Oceans Motions but I have holes in the euro brace to accept them already).

Auto top-off - Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155.

Return Pump - Reeflo Dart, I will use the flooded drain system for the overflow.

Controlling - Aqua Controller II, I am waiting to see the new aqua controller when it hits the market.

Dosing - Liter Meter III with auto water changer.

Water Change - I have two 65 gallon food grade pickeling barrels that will be mounted virtical one on top of the other in a cage, the system will be connected to a mag drive 18 to pump it into the system, there will be a pipe permently mounted inside the tank through one of the euro brace hole for draining the tank. (The picture incl. is not mine but is exactly what it will look like)

Water - I have an Air Water and Ice 5 stage R/O-DI 100 GPD with a booster pump.

Moonlight- RK2, may switch to the aqua controllers unit.

Electrical - I will hard wire the entire system to the sub panel with GFCI's, each box will have a seperate switch and outlet to control each peice of equipment, at the beginning of the electrical run will be a large emergency (Red button) pump swith in case the entire tank needs to be shut down. (The picture is the panel that is on my system now but the swithes will be the same on the new panel).

Well this is my tank in progress I will post pictures of the fish room build!

Mark







http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/81436New_tank3.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/IMG_20080618_0388.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/IMG_20080909_0780.jpg http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/814365-12-09_1.jpg http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/814365-12-09_2.jpg http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/81436Deltec_1060s_skimmer1.jpg http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/81436new_electrical_pic_2.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/81436quick_change_tanks.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/IMG_20080910_0787.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/IMG_20080910_0784.jpg[/IMG][/IMG]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/Deltecequipmentresize3.jpg

[Tangweed]

WOW:thumbsup: That's an awesome set up. I like the switch panel... click off and click on.

[corals b 4 bills]

Thank's the next panel will be insane, here are some more plumbing pictures that I could not fit in the last post (looking for advice :D )http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/IMG_20080910_0784.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/IMG_20080910_0788.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/IMG_20080910_0783.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/IMG_20080910_0782.jpg

[atwinparadox2]

Looks like you're rolling right along, nice clean setup!!

[corals b 4 bills]

Thank you, my wife has no idea how long this tank is going to take to set up. I told her it could take up to two months to set it up correctly and she freaked,then I told her that I was joking, so, I have half of the set up completed but as you guys know you only have one chance to do it right because your creatures lives hang in the balance if you have to turn the tank off to redo something. I still have to build the room, and the exhaust system and that will take a while to do, but in the end the tank will look sweet! My wife has been really great about allowing me to put a reef tank in the middle of the house and it will be the focal point of the living room.

Here is a couple of pictures of my 400 sq. ft. addition, the first picture is of the entry (With the barreled ceiling) and the old dining room (My wife calls it the fish room :D ), by the front door you will see a half wall, that will be where the tanks end will start, I will move the old garage door a couple of feet to the right behind the existing tank. Should be very cool for the pizza guy to see!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/photo1.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/photo16.jpg

[HowieB]

Your tank will be 30" wide and your room will be 36" wide. Is 6" enough space behind the tank? The reason I ask is I am putting a 120 gallon tank "In-wall" under my stairs. The tank is 24" wide and space is 34" wide. 10" will be a tight squeeze for me to get behind the tank.

[corals b 4 bills]

My light rack will be raised into my attic so I will have 4 ft. above my tank for access, at first I was worried about the same problem.

[IMM3DOORSDOWN]

wow thats going to be nice and you did alot of work.hope everything works out and keep us updated.

[birdz]

insane

[corals b 4 bills]

Tomorrow I will pick up some marine ply and cement the 1/8" Melamine to it, then wrap the inside of the stand. This way there will be some reflective light, easy to clean and have some sound deadening properties.

[corals b 4 bills]

Any advice on my plumbing before I start to glue?

[corals b 4 bills]

I made some additions to my plumbing, I added 4 small ball valves to the manifold to feed my Reactors, then installed a threaded fitting to be able to clean or replace the flap valves as nessessary, last but not least I put Unions on the return pipes to be able to remove the filter socks if I ever decided to install them.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/photo5-15-09jpg3.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/photo5-15-09jpg2.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/photo5-15-09.jpg

[corals b 4 bills]

I made a few changes yesturday I put some unions on the flap valve and will be glue thing up monday, anyone see anything that needs changing before I start?

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/photo18.jpg http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/msb142/photo17.jpg

[cham]

Incredible build. I wouldn't change a thing except the VHO's to T5's.

Amazing amazing tank!!

[scottallert]

Looks like you should be doing this professionally

[corals b 4 bills]

Professionally?......I wish-thanks, This will be my last tank so I want it to be the best I can create. I just hope I can keep up this pace of quality parts, things are tight these days.