Shawn's 180 Wall Divider Build

[adova]

Everyone loves a good build thread and I love to get feedback before I make mistakes, so here we go!!

My last tank, an in wall 240g, was taken down about 2 ½ years ago or so when travel and kids got to be too much. Travel has subsided and the kids are a bit older, so here I go again – this time with a 180g wall divider.

Old Tank:



My previous tank had a few main problems that I will try to address this time:

1. It was in the basement and got neglected and was not appreciated
2. Traveling for any period of time made me super nervous as something always seemed to fail
3. It had a few floods that killed the floor
4. It was too deep to easily aquascape, etc.
5. Water changes and dosing was tedious (leading to the neglect)

I will continue to add posts that describe the expected tank setup section.

New Tank Space:



Sketchup of divider:



** Please goes easy on my Sketchup’s – this is my first time using the program **

[adova]

One of the main problems to deal with is that the tank will now be on the main floor and will not be over a support beam. Calling all engineers!!

Luckily (somewhat) the old tank room was unfinished and sits pretty much right underneath the new display area. This gave me some visual access to the trusses, etc.

For those that care, the floor supports are made of manufactured I-Joist that run perpendicular to the tank (good news). From my initial research, I think I should be able to just add some 2x10’s to each side of the I-Joist’s to give the needed extra support. I am going to have a structural engineer come investigate ASAP.

Current state of old tank room:



I-Joists that will need to be re-enforced:



The second issue is that there is a small column on one side of the tank that I want to display (See pic in previous post above). I will ask the engineer if this can be removed as well. If not, I guess it will just be a through wall display.

[adova]

Here are some details of the tank, stand, sump, electronics, etc…

Tank Layout #1:



Tank Layout #2:



Tank:

The main tank will be an Acrylic 180 gallon 72 x 24 x 24 with three sides showing (hopefully) made by me . The thickness will be ½” clear on all sides but the far left which will be black. The top of the tank will be Eurobraced by ½” acrylic as well. Acrylic was chosen for flexibility (I can work with it), overflow options, weight, and cost. It will be my first main display acrylic tank.

I had created another thread asking about an idea I had to epoxy .1 or .125 glass (probably Starphire) to the interior of the acrylic to act as a protective shield for scratching. I did not get much feedback, so any comments here are welcome.

The overflow is 14” deep x 8” wide x 24” long and will use the Bean-Animal overflow design. The overflow is fed through a ¾” toothless weir routed into the back panel. Gutter guard will be placed ¼” (or so) away from the weir to help keep critters and snails out. The tank return will also feed through the overflow box and over the top of the tank. Any comments on this is very much appreciated.

[adova]

Waterproofing:

As mentioned, I have a huge fear of flooding my main floor! To help with this, I am going to place the whole system in a plywood basin sealed with epoxy – much the same way that you would do a plywood tank build. There will be a drain hole in the back corner that I can plump into the house drains before I finish the old basement tank room.

Of course this won’t help with pipe burst or similar as much, but it should help to alleviate the skimmer overflowing or something like that. Peace of mind .

[adova]

Stand:

Stand will be constructed of 1.5” x 1.25 steel and powder coated. I suspect I will do all of the welds but probably have it sourced out for the powder coating. The stand will also feature an adjustable height top to support lighting and maybe some cooling.

As a side note, if anyone knows a good way to remove the mill scale *easily* from the stock steel, please share!

[adova]

Sump:

Sump will be approximately 60 – 70 gallons – fairly simple baffle design with the return on the far right side of the sump. I will make the sump as well out of ½” Acrylic. I used to use 1/4” in the past, but I prefer a thicker wall and will probably have a good amount of it left over from the tank build.

[adova]

Water tanks:



On the right side of the sump area are two 40 gallon acrylic tanks that I will make. The upper tank will hold fresh RODI water that will be constantly supplied via a float valve and will top off the sump via another float valve.
The upper tank will be plumbed directly underneath to the same size tank that will hold salt water mixed for a constant water change system (more on that later).

The idea is that once the bottom tank is depleted (every couple of weeks), I will open a ball valve that will dump the fresh water into the lower reservoir, add salt, and turn on a submersible pump to mix.

[adova]

Main Pump:

The main pump, and also the only pump, will be either a Reeflo Barracuda or Hammerhead (I currently have both in house). The pump will serve as the return pump as well as a feed for a Reeflo Orca 250 skimmer (which requires something like 400 – 600 Gph flow). I am leaning to the Barracuda as I think it will be plenty big enough and I have a spare in case of failure, which, although it does not happen often, takes too long to get repaired to leave the system without it.

[adova]

Skimmer:

I am re-using the Reeflo Orca 250 from my old tank. It is overkill and quite a beast (39” tall and 16” footprint), but once dialed in, it does a great job (until you clean it ).

[adova]

Chiller:

I have a big 1 hp drop in, but I want to move to an in-line 1/3 hp or similar. Suggestions?

[adova]

Lighting:

I have a DIY LED system from quite some time ago that I am likely to use again (just re-wire and clean up a bit). I am not sure the total $ I spent making it, but it wasn't cheap. It is a mixture of blues and whites.
I also have a set of moonlights that will run.

[adova]

Controller:

I *tried* to run a Reefkeeper Elite back in the day and I just was never happy. It always seemed like the product was a mistreated step child. This time I am going to go Apex with the following modules:

• 1 or 2 Energy Bars – not sure yet
• Lab grade PH, Salinity, ORP and Temp sensors
• Automatic Feeding System
• Leak Detection
• Lunar Simulation Module
• DOS dosing System (one to start for automatic water change and perhaps another later for Alk / Calc / Mag dosing should I decide to get back into the coral heavy again).

That’s about it for now. I will post back as soon as I hear from the engineer…

[Sn8kbyt]

Looks like a well planned out build I am following. I am about 2 months into my own 210 build.

[iced98lx]

Looking good!!

[lurshy]

One thought: why not run sump in old fishroom on floor (basement?) below new display tank. Keeping maintenance in a roomier space and away from main living area.

[adova]

You don't know how much I want to do that, but the little woman has earmarked the area long before I even thought about the build.

[lurshy]

I hear ya..

[anbosu]

Originally Posted by adova

Chiller:

I have a big 1 hp drop in, but I want to move to an in-line 1/3 hp or similar. Suggestions?

Do you even need a chiller?

[adova]

I did in the basement, which held a lower ambient temperature. Or at least I did when I was running MH lights. I don't remember after the switch to LED. I am putting it into the equation anyways since the new system will be fully enclosed and there is no way for heat to escape.

Perhaps I will just wait until the summer and use my drop in if it becomes necessary and replace with an inline after evaluating...

[adova]

I got an engineer coming on Friday for $85 / hr with a 3 hr cost. Probably the best $255 I can spend on this project. Assuming that any needed fix is relatively minor, I will start buying some stuff Saturday.

[reefraider]

What about using one of the pumps as a closed loop CL?
I have a Dart running the CL on the current 180 Acrylic.
Planning on one in the 400 with a 8 way or 4 way Ocean Motion?
I saw somewhere on here in the large tanks

So I will tag along...great investment to have the expert come out and say do that, or this or NO PROBLEM. or NO!

Hope its not to much. I had my post and pillar checked by the dude and ended up storing the 400 in the garage and ordered the 180 as a tank instead of it being the sump. But now the 400 can go right there in the garage! Good luck

[adova]

Yea - I was at least thinking about plumbing for a CL even if I do not use it right away. As it will be viewed from 3 sides, the CL ports would be in each of the four bottom corners, I would suspect.

The CL return line was a pain, if I remember my last attempt at it. Finding a position for the intake that would not suck in a variety of debris, snails, or other critters was the main issue. Any suggestions?

[adova]

My daughter was nice enough to share her debilitating cold with me so I worked from home today.

But - the engineer was free so he just finished and I got great news. It is likely that the current system will support the load without modification (he will need to check the manufacturer joist specs in detail).

But even if it does not, we identified a way to transfer the load to an existing floating wall that is already exposed in the old tank room. Maybe $30 in material and I will be good to go without doing any more demolition.

May the ordering begin!!

[Vinny Kreyling]

One thing to change I see--
If you constantly top off from your RO you will have troubles down the road.
RO units increase in performance ( up to a point) as they run by decreasing TDS creep therefore keeping the membrane in good shape.
Work out a schedule where you can do @ least 20 Gallons all @ once, more if you can.

[adova]

Yea - I used to have a high / low ATO switch, but it got stuck once and, well, you can guess the rest. I will re-investigate it. Maybe a second set of switches for redundancy.