So.Cal. Out of the Ashes 340 build

[acesq]

Hi, I’m Art, welcome to my first ever build thread.

This is not my first build. I started way back in 1973 in Massachusetts and have kept a tank through all of my various moves. I moved to L.A. in 1986 and kept a tank in my various apartments and house. Unfortunately, since the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake, my tanks have been banned from the house. Water and fish everywhere!

In 1995 I set up a 100 gallon reef in my office and kept that until 2010 when my firm moved. Next up was my current 120. I spend a good amount of time at the office working and an additional amount of time on the tank. To get me home more often, my wife was finally warming to the idea of setting up a tank in the guest room.

Then something dramatic happened. On January 21 we had a bad house fire. We lost a lot of stuff. But it was only stuff. All living creatures (four humans, two dogs, three horses and a tortoise) were fine. And we had good insurance coverage. So we take the roof off (it was an attic fire), rip the house down to the studs and rebuild.

Oh yeah, AND MY WIFE SUDDENLY LOVES THE IDEA OF BIG TANK WITH SEPARATE SUMP ROOM!! Silver lining? You becha!

The tank will be located in the wall between the entry and dining room. The sump room (sump closet, actually) is a 6’x10’ room cut out of the garage. I pray I left enough room for two cars. My wife will be so mad if I make her park in the driveway. (Yeah, right. You know my car will be in the driveway)
The details:

Tank: 84x32x31 peninsula built by A.G.E. About 340 gallons. Three sides Starfire, acrylic eurobrace and PVC bottom. External Herbie overflow on one end. Because this will act as a room divider, I wanted the drama of a tall tank. I ordered the tank through my LFS – Vivid Aquariums. (Dave and his crew are awesome.) The tank was delivered last month, sat in the unfinished garage for another two weeks and was finally lifted onto the stand.

A pic of the stand showing where it will be situated in the house:

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The tank:

At AGE:

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After delivery:

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On the stand with the obligatory wife and daughter pic (the second daughter is away at college -- lucky girl):

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I started the plumbing of the drains and return this weekend. I also got the intakes of the closed loops done. I'll tackle the closed loop returns this week.

Progress!

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Lights: 3 x Orphek Atlantiks with 6 x 24” T5 supplemental all suspended from a light rack I made from 80/20 slotted aluminum. I'm going to build a light lifter to raise a lower the rack. Hopefully that will come together well.

Here is the rack so far:

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Circulation: Closed loop using 3 Blue Eco 240W DC pumps controlled by an Apex to create a gyre across the bottom and over the surface toward the overflow. (Padrino’s build turned me on to these – thanks Rob). I was waiting to purchase a Royal Exclusiv 240W Red Dragon 3, but it looks like they won’t be released for a bit. And I’m chomping at the bit to get this tank wet! One of the 3 pumps will discharge through a Moceans 3500 at one end of the tank toward the overflow at the opposite end. The other two pumps will discharge through 6 - 1” outlets drilled into the bottom of the tank pointed toward the end opposite the overflow. The sump return pump is a Laguna 2900. Since the sump is located a good 30’ from the tank, I don’t expect to get much more than 1800-2000gph at the tank. It will discharge through a Moceans 2000.

Drilling the bottom of the tank was not as easy as you might think. The PVC is 1” thick and melted into the drill bit. It took a minute or two to drill each hole and 20 – 30 minutes removing the plug from the drill bit!
Here are the bottom returns. They are intentionally spaced so that they fit around the rock structure.

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Calcium/Alk will be handled by a DaStaCo Extreme T3. After reading about them in all of the Ultimate Reef build threads, I had to have one. After paying for it, I wish I wasn’t so impulsive. Let’s hope its all its cracked up to be…

Here it is:

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Control: my trusty Apex with multiple power bars.

Skimmer: BK Super Marin 250.

Reef structure: I decided to go with ceramic rock. I bought a huge three piece structure from CeramEco at R.A.P. It fits the tank perfectly. I’ll post a pic as soon as I have it in. I’ve had the biggest rock seeding in a Rubbermaid water trough for 4 weeks. I dose it daily with Zeo Start3 and a couple times a week with ZeoBak. Hopefully that will speed up my cycle. Here it is at the show:

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I’ll also set up a water change station with automatic water changes using a dual head peristaltic pump.

Whew! That's a start. I'll try to update as things progress.

[cali_reef]

Nice built!

[Newbie Aquarist]

That rock structure looks good. Great start on the build. To bad it had to take a fire to get your large tank in the house.

[SPotter]

Beautiful tank!!! Good luck with it! I'm anxious to see how the ceramco rocks work out for you as I'm thinking about using them in my tank .

[acesq]

Originally Posted by cali_reef

Nice built!

Thanks cali_reef. It's a start!

Originally Posted by Newbie Aquarist

That rock structure looks good. Great start on the build. To bad it had to take a fire to get your large tank in the house.

Thanks for the though Newbie. Yeah, the fire was bad news, but I've learned in life, you've got to roll with things. In the end, we'll be happy with the new house and I'll have my dream tank.

Originally Posted by SPotter

Beautiful tank!!! Good luck with it! I'm anxious to see how the ceramco rocks work out for you as I'm thinking about using them in my tank .

Thanks SPotter. I really like the concept of the Cerameco. We'll see how it works out. It looks awsome now, beautiful shape and color. The plan is to have a refugium under the tank with live rock and macro algaes for some greater diversity and, of course, pods.

[DRThompson]

Subscribed! Love the openness of the rock work! Looking forward to following along.

[tbone28]

I have an A.G.E. as well. Great tank. Curious as to why you didn't have them pre-drill your closed-loop holes? They can counter-sink too.

[acesq]

Originally Posted by DRThompson

Subscribed! Love the openness of the rock work! Looking forward to following along.

Welcome aboard. I already took your automatic water change idea! I love the simplicity of it. Program the Apex for X minutes per day and we're done!

Originally Posted by tbone28

I have an A.G.E. as well. Great tank. Curious as to why you didn't have them pre-drill your closed-loop holes? They can counter-sink too.

Yeah, counter-sinking would have been great, but I had no idea where I wanted to put the return holes until I placed the rock structure. Thus the DIY drilling. I can't believe how tough it is to drill 1" PVC. I did learn how strong that bottom is though. It will never break!

[tbone28]

Gotta love AGE tanks. They're tanks

[artpics]

Nice Set up neighbor i guess the best part is we are only 15minutes from Dave at Vivid Aquariums. Look forward to more pics.

[autodave]

Very nice! Rock work looks killer. Did you consider a BeanAnimal overflow?

[acesq]

Originally Posted by artpics

Nice Set up neighbor i guess the best part is we are only 15minutes from Dave at Vivid Aquariums. Look forward to more pics.

Another Calabasas reefer! Cool. Being close to Vivid is pretty great. Unique Corals is not very far either. Have you checked them out?

[acesq]

Originally Posted by autodave

Very nice! Rock work looks killer. Did you consider a BeanAnimal overflow?

I considered Bean Animal, but didn't want to have to run a fourth pipe from the tank to my garage. I designed the sump so that in the incredibly unlikely event of a blockage of both the siphon and the emergency, the return pump will only pump ten or so gallons into the tank and there is plenty of room for that much additional water.

In the event of a power outage, there is plenty of room in the sump to hold what will overflow from the tank.

[ocreefer92844]

Love the build! too bad if you were closer I would come over to check out this beast!

[slief]

Very nice start so far. I see we live pretty close to each other! You mentioned tortoise.. What kind have you got? We have a Desert Tortoise and a 80+ pound Sulcata.

Keep your thread updated! You going to Frag this Saturday in Simi Valley? It might be worth coming out to. There are a lot of vendors (not only for coral) and things to see and it's close by. Not to mention that the raffle seems like its going to be pretty impressive.

[acesq]

Originally Posted by ocreefer92844

Love the build! too bad if you were closer I would come over to check out this beast!

The OC's not that far, on an early Sunday before the traffic starts! It will be a while before there is anything much to see. My wife is actually making me help pick out furniture, appliances, electronics (oh yeah!) and whatever esle we need to move back in. I'm finding it hard to spend time on the tank..

Originally Posted by slief

Very nice start so far. I see we live pretty close to each other! You mentioned tortoise.. What kind have you got? We have a Desert Tortoise and a 80+ pound Sulcata.

Keep your thread updated! You going to Frag this Saturday in Simi Valley? It might be worth coming out to. There are a lot of vendors (not only for coral) and things to see and it's close by. Not to mention that the raffle seems like its going to be pretty impressive.

Hey Slief, thanks for posting! I've read your build thread and watched most of the videos. You have a very impressive set up.

We have a desert tortoise that we rescued from a friend 6 or 7 years ago. Her Jack Russell terrier got a taste of tortoise meat and just about ripped off it's front foot. Amazingly enough, he's not afraid of our dogs, in fact he "chases" them around the yard. Its pretty funny to watch, he's relentless.

I'd love to go to FRAG but I'm pretty sure my wife is not going to let me out of her sight -- she wants to start moving back in the house this weekend.

I'll be sure to update the thread as things progress. I'm building my light lifter now and hope to install it soon. Do you know a local source for pulleys and blocks? I'm short a couple.

[bullitr]

how are you sir?
is the yellow belly regal will be a part of this built?

[slief]

Originally Posted by acesq

The OC's not that far, on an early Sunday before the traffic starts! It will be a while before there is anything much to see. My wife is actually making me help pick out furniture, appliances, electronics (oh yeah!) and whatever esle we need to move back in. I'm finding it hard to spend time on the tank..



Hey Slief, thanks for posting! I've read your build thread and watched most of the videos. You have a very impressive set up.

We have a desert tortoise that we rescued from a friend 6 or 7 years ago. Her Jack Russell terrier got a taste of tortoise meat and just about ripped off it's front foot. Amazingly enough, he's not afraid of our dogs, in fact he "chases" them around the yard. Its pretty funny to watch, he's relentless.

I'd love to go to FRAG but I'm pretty sure my wife is not going to let me out of her sight -- she wants to start moving back in the house this weekend.

I'll be sure to update the thread as things progress. I'm building my light lifter now and hope to install it soon. Do you know a local source for pulleys and blocks? I'm short a couple.

I got my pulley blocks from a place in Burbank. If I can remember the name, I will be sure to post it. If my memory serves me correct, I also got my stainless cables from them too. Depending on your plans, I have a handful of single and double pulley blocks that I got from harbor freight. I got them for my lights but went with a better quality block. You can have them if you want them.

[acesq]

Originally Posted by slief

I got my pulley blocks from a place in Burbank. If I can remember the name, I will be sure to post it. If my memory serves me correct, I also got my stainless cables from them too. Depending on your plans, I have a handful of single and double pulley blocks that I got from harbor freight. I got them for my lights but went with a better quality block. You can have them if you want them.

Thanks for the offer. I got online last night and ordered what I needed from e-rigging. I paid a little extra for second day air and should be able to install the pulleys this weekend.

[acesq]

Originally Posted by bullitr

how are you sir?
is the yellow belly regal will be a part of this built?

I'm great Lawrence. I am sad to report that the regal didn't make it. It just stopped eating a couple of weeks after I took him from you. I'll try again after I get this build done.

I like your blueline so well that I've put one of those on my fish list as well!

[acesq]

Progress:

The past couple of weeks have been pretty productive for the build:

Bottom Cabinet done:
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[acesq]

Closed loop pumps and plumbing:

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[DRThompson]

love that flexible pvc pipe, use it in my tank also. Tank is coming along GREAT, are those DC pumps in the closed loop?

[acesq]

Motorized light rack installed with 3 Orphek Atlantiks and 6 24" T5s:

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[acesq]

Aquascaping done with CeramEco rock. Tanks is cycling!!

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