New 200DD

[hllywd]

I've been working on a months long project. To start, I've been in the hobby since about 1985. My first salt water tank was a glass 29 with an air driven under gravel filter and a 30W NO plant grow bulb. State of the art according to shops I had access to at the time.

Many tanks later with more, or less success, and a lot of money spent, I decided to get rid of my previous 210 which had been over run by caulerpa, and bubble algae I battled for 3 years or so. Time to get it right or get rid of it! The tank area of our room had never really been finished, but the 120 I built previous to the 210, then the 210 were really nice for several years. This past spring it was time to reboot, and get the room finished once and for all, so here it goes.

Equipment list: Mainland 200DD, 2x Radion G2 XR30 Pros, 2x MP40W, 2x Tunze 6105s, BM 220CS Skimmer, 6x18 GEO Ca Rx, 6x18 GEO Kalk Rx, 40"x17"x17" AE Tech Sump that's a clean slate for new baffles, Eheim 1262 as the return pump for now at least, BRS Dual Media Rx, Apex Classic, Avast tall skim mate collector with control, and an older ATO I may or may not replace.

This is going to be a mixed reef, heavier on SPS and lighter on LPS for the most part. Planning at this point to run my ATO through the Kalk Rx and keep the Ca Rx out of the mix. I'm also planning to just replace the baffles in the sump to a better height for my skimmer (it was a little shallow before) and keep a similar design to what it was now I have it all polished out. skimmer/inflow chamber, huge section, then the return section, the final low baffle was the only one that was secure and the online I didn't remove.

I'm planning to plumb this soon and would love suggestions for things I may not be thinking about to have this as up to date from the start as I can. I'm pretty familiar with the basics. I bleached all my rock early in the summer and let it soak for a couple months. In August I rinsed it all and started soaking in clear tap water. Around the first of September I did several days of RO soaks and changes and it's been curing in Reef Crystals with good flow, and my skimmer since. I'd estimate I have better than 200 lbs with some nice sized pieces, some new and a lot of stuff I've had for a long time.

How about some pics?


Not long before the old tank came down.


Out with the old. Some painting occurred while it was there...


Progress.




The niche is where my Apex will reside. Try into keep all the wires out of sight. Built a nice AV closet to help with keeping things organized. The opposite end of the room has a projection screen we use as our main TV downstairs, about 90" diagonal.


Countertop formed.


Countertop poured.