*d2mini's new 200g Reeftastic Build*

[d2mini]

Originally Posted by maroun.c

Just finished reading the whole thread.
Breathtaking system and you just seta new standard for a tidy basement setup!!!
Sad to see things going south in the last few pages but the comeback is even more impressive. Totally understand how ugly it can be when things go bad and you can't pinpoint a reason. Been going through something I just couldn't identify in my setup...
Looking forward for those changes you mention in the video

Thanks!

Originally Posted by iced98lx

When did you install a BASEMENT Dennis?!

I didn't tell you guys about my new basement upgrade?
Or is that downgrade?

[iced98lx]

Originally Posted by d2mini

I didn't tell you guys about my new basement upgrade?
Or is that downgrade?

That's really going to take your reefkeeping to new heights, or DEPTHS!!

(eh!? eh?!)

[d2mini]

ba-da-bum!

[d2mini]

****************************
d2mini's Reeftastic Reef - PART DEUX!!!!
****************************

What's the ???

So i've been hinting at some upcoming changes and I think they are going to be substantial enough that this thread needs a division of sorts.
This is going to be not unlike a completely new build, except the tank size will be exactly the same, in the exact same spot, surrounded by the exact same cabinetry.
Yet everything else will be change!!!

The explanation:

Two things. First, I've come to the conclusion that it's finally time to wall off my little area of the garage that I use for the "fish room". Using a chiller to keep temps down in a garage in Houston was doable when I was running LEDs. But adding MH and T5 to a closed canopy, with all that water volume in the hot garage, has caused the chiller to run more than I would like. I've also had to deal with humidity issues in the garage. Without the dehumidifier I ended up buying, tools would rust if left out in the open. I always have to be wary of the open tanks when working on other projects in the garage. Have to try not to run the cars for fear of what the exhaust might do. Etc.

Second, I got some pretty nasty scratches on the front glass early on. Over the last couple years that have gotten more pronounced and probably multiplied. I don't know what brand low iron glass Deep Sea Aquatics used, but it's soft as POO! I've never had this problem with Starphire in the past. So I've known that someday the time would come that I would have to replace the tank or at least the front panel which means a tear down. Since I had that little mini crash of sorts recently, I figured this is the time to do it. I already had put the fish room changes into motion so why not just do it all at the same time?

Moving Forward:

Tomorrow I will be starting the transfer into that big white tub i posted a pic of.
I've been cycling it for the last few weeks.
All my rock, coral, fish, and a good portion of my water will move directly into that tub. I have also been cycling an 8x8x4 Marine Pure block in my sump that will go into this tub as well. This should be like a straight tank transfer. Fingers crossed.
The chiller and pump have to be hooked up outside the tub, and I'll just place the skimmer inside the tub on a support.

Once everything is transferred over, tear down of the current fish room can begin. Everything emptied out, everything removed, down to bare walls. Then I will begin to layout the two new walls.

Plans for the Tank and Fish Room:

There will be some small changes to the tank.
For one, we will use actual Starphire glass and the tank is being built by Planet Aquariums out of Dallas, through Urban Aquatics here in Houston. Just to maximize tank space in the existing cabinetry, it will be euro braced rather than having the black plastic trim, and no black cross braces. The tank will have a low profile "ghost" style toothless overflow built by the amazing BAO (Building An Obsession) here in Houston. It will be almost coast to coast with a little room left on the ends. I'm not sure if I'll have my returns in those back corners, or if I will wrap around to the front of the tank and point them backwards? Probably the former but we'll see.
I also plan to try to be a little bit more minimal in the aquascaping than I am right now. I'm working with live rock which is tough to do, so we'll see what happens.

The fish room will be COMPLETELY redesigned. Putting up walls limits my space a little bit so I need to maximize my use of space. Therefor I am going back to a traditional sump. A Berlin sump in fact, designed and built by Jeff at LifeReef. I've been on Jeff's wait list for the past 4 months! There will be built in filter canisters for carbon, gfo, etc, problem holders, connections for my CaRx, holders for my level sensors, connections for tubing for my auto water changes and ato... the whole nine.

The refugium is also being built by LifeReef and integrates seamlessly with the sump.

Above that, I will have a nice sized frag tank, along with a tank just for Mangroves. BAO might be helping me out with that.

I may be going external with my skimmer. This will allow for unlimited height and I won't have to reach into the sump.

And finally I will have a quarantine tank! Never had the space for one before, now I do. This will be the last thing I figure out, which is fine since it's not connected to the rest of the system. I'm basically just leaving room for it right now.


Below you will see the general layout of the new fish room.
Actual pics of the progress to come this weekend so stay tuned!

Thanks to everyone who has followed along over the past 2+ years and hopefully you stick around for PART DEAUX!!!

[liverock]

Carnac 'sees' another trip to Tampa...... lol

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com

[SPotter]

Wow this looks awesome Dennis!!!! I can comment on the return lines....I have mine in the front corners and they are on sea swirls. I really like that they push water towards the overflows and create a lot of aggitation. I have noticed that if I have too much flow that you hear the water gushing into the overflow when the sea swirl passes by. I might take the swirls off and just have them in a fixed postion.

[eclarkhb]

Wow. Lots of changes - Good luck with the new project!

[dtum]

Looking forward to this update. Tell us about your holding container plans.

[muttley101]

Good luck man.. May you be blessed by the nautical Gods!

[d2mini]

Thanks!!!

Originally Posted by liverock

Carnac 'sees' another trip to Tampa...... lol

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com

Originally Posted by SPotter

Wow this looks awesome Dennis!!!! I can comment on the return lines....I have mine in the front corners and they are on sea swirls. I really like that they push water towards the overflows and create a lot of aggitation. I have noticed that if I have too much flow that you hear the water gushing into the overflow when the sea swirl passes by. I might take the swirls off and just have them in a fixed postion.

I have thought a lot about sea swirls but haven't decided yet.
Would you still point them rearwards, or would you change it to forwards?

Originally Posted by dtum

Looking forward to this update. Tell us about your holding container plans.

Not too much to tell. Planning on hooking up the pump and chiller tomorrow and transferring everything in. I've had a couple pieces of live rock and a couple cups of sand in there for 3-4 weeks. Saw a bacteria bloom after the first week which cleared up a day or two later. Not sure if this will make any difference but it made me feel better.
Once everything is in, with the skimmer, I should be set.
Will also have to get my CaRx, ATO, and AWC hooked up to it as well but I don't foresee that being difficult.

[iced98lx]

Wow Dennis!! You'll love having fish room finished out, despite the loss of space. Bummer on the scratches but will be sweet to have a fresh start!

[d2mini]

Originally Posted by iced98lx

Wow Dennis!! You'll love having fish room finished out, despite the loss of space. Bummer on the scratches but will be sweet to have a fresh start!

Actually, I'm probably going to have more elbow room than I do now.
With the big rubber maid tub, crazy plumbing, etc its pretty tight in there.
The plan is for this to make more efficient use of space with more traditional sumps/tanks and being able to stack them with two levels. I won't be roomy, but it should be a little better.

Oh and my mixing/storage tanks will remain where they are, which will mean they will be outside of the new room. Small water lines will run through the wall.

[SPotter]

I would still point them to the back to help push anything on the surface to the overflow.

[shaggss]

Hey Dennis good luck! I would offer to help but Hong Kong is a bit far! Love the idea of the mangroves. Will it be a display tank too? I'm thinking you should do something like the Volcano Tank! That would be really cool!

[d2mini]

Originally Posted by SPotter

I would still point them to the back to help push anything on the surface to the overflow.

Ya, makes sense. Rather than pushing stuff away from the overflow.

Originally Posted by shaggss

Hey Dennis good luck! I would offer to help but Hong Kong is a bit far! Love the idea of the mangroves. Will it be a display tank too? I'm thinking you should do something like the Volcano Tank! That would be really cool!

lol, ya that is a bit far.
I'm probably going to have a max of 3 mangroves in a DSB.
Real simple.
And my two Benggai Cardinals will be in there.

[SPotter]

I run duress's on my two overflows and they are dead silent but when the swirls swing by you can hear the water rushing into the overflow from the other side of the house. I have penductors on the out puts of the swirls so water really flies out of them.

[d2mini]

PLUMBING DONE!
I was mostly able to use various chunks of plumbing from my old setup.
That's why it looks a little wonky, but it works and saves me some cash.
So the return pump and chiller are hooked up and running.
Next I need to do a big water change, place the skimmer, and then start transferring stuff.

[maddmaxx]

IT HAS BEGUNNNNN... lol

good luck, new projects are always fun huh...

[shermanator]

Like you, I have a lifereef LF1-300S sump with two drain inputs (I got it a month or two ago and I'm still setting it up -- I made fish room in basement so it's taking a while) and also running Beananimal. In hindsight, I wonder if it would be more useful to have redesigned to have only 1 input. With nearly all of the flow coming from the siphon, is there any point to the right input (where you have the open channel going)?

I was going to set mine up the same way as you, but I might change the sump design if doing it over. Have you given this any consideration?

[d2mini]

Originally Posted by shermanator

Like you, I have a lifereef LF1-300S sump with two drain inputs (I got it a month or two ago and I'm still setting it up -- I made fish room in basement so it's taking a while) and also running Beananimal. In hindsight, I wonder if it would be more useful to have redesigned to have only 1 input. With nearly all of the flow coming from the siphon, is there any point to the right input (where you have the open channel going)?

I was going to set mine up the same way as you, but I might change the sump design if doing it over. Have you given this any consideration?

That's one of the things up in the air. I still need to talk to jeff about that.
I may have all drains go to the first section where the skimmer will pull from.
Nearly all the flow will come from the siphon, but you still need the open channel. So whether there is one or two pipes flowing water, it doesn't really matter if they are both going to the same section.

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by d2mini

That's one of the things up in the air. I still need to talk to jeff about that.
I may have all drains go to the first section where the skimmer will pull from.
Nearly all the flow will come from the siphon, but you still need the open channel. So whether there is one or two pipes flowing water, it doesn't really matter if they are both going to the same section.

It's certainly not bad to do it the way you have drawn. But if only 10% of the flow is going through the right, does that really merit it's own section? You could have all three drains enter the left section and have a much bigger middle section with the same footprint. Even on the LF1-300S (biggest sump he sells), I think it's cramped in the middle section.

I love his sumps (love!), but I was originally planning dual Herbie. When I decided to go Beananimal, I wished I had customized the sump more and got rid of the right section.

As far as other custom things to add (minor things), I would suggest adding a few extra "bulkheads" (they are PVC fittings) in the middle pump section (they are in line with the return port). I have two extra (compared to standard LF1-300S). The standard one is for the LifeReefugium and I will have an ATS drain into one and one capped for future use. Better to have an extra now than needing an additional port in the future...

[d2mini]

Man what a day... what a day....

Got all the rock, coral and fish out of my tanks.
You should have seen me carefully lifting out huge 60lb pieces of rock with colonies attached and amazingly I "fragged" very little of it!

Was able to drain the tank and do a few other odds and ends.
Important thing is all livestock is in its new home and happy.

Tomorrow I get to wake up and continue tearing stuff down. Yeesh. lol

[iced98lx]

I've pm'd you my address for all the "Frags"

no problem taking them off your hands!!

[SPotter]

wow that was a lot of work Dennis! glad to hear that there were no major issues!!!!

[Reef or Die]

Holding tank looks awesome! Can you tell me what my bulbs and t5 bulbs you are running?
Can't wait to see the new finished product. Great thread!