225 Gallon upgrade (for the 2nd time)!!

[cymaster007]

Soooo I ordered my replacement 225g tank a couple weeks ago- I think its appropriate to start my build thread (again). I kept all of my equipment and my stand from the old 225g, but there are a few upgrades I want to enact this time around.

New Tank:
No center overflow- give me that space back inside the tank!
No 6" eurobrace - give me that space back in the canopy for more light!
Better skimmer - replace old ASM G5 (Thanks Lawrence!)
Remote Sump - In garage instead of making a mess in the house on the carpet.
Plumb water changes - Open valve to drain into house main sewer line, open separate valve to pump water from mixing station (got the ideas from Jamie)

Heres the tank design from the builder- Oceans by Design in Seattle. I was going to go AGE or Lee Mar but shipping was going to be approx 800-$1,000. Oceans by design will deliver for free, and has a good reputation here in Seattle/Spokane areas.

a Grafted Monti I bought when I was in Ft Lauderdale the other week,

also saw an interesting sign around here that I never saw in socal.

Added a cool decal to my office (where the fish tank will reside!

Ive been working on the plumbing through the crawl space the past few weekends, I have to insulate everything because it apparently gets below 0 here in the winter. I also reinforced the floor since I am not longer slab-on-grade

Here is my current tank.... (my old 120g sump)

Cycling old rock!

My water change & mixing station

Starting to get equipment in

Going to modify my lighting this time and use T5's in lieu of VHOs from the start, so I ordered these nice hamilton fixtures for the T5's

 

[Jayman]

:smile:

 

[StikHedRon]

Looking forward to seeing this one develop!

 

[ashr]

the new tank will look awesome!!

 

[cymaster007]

UPDATE! Tank is being fabricated! Thanks to Oceans by Design I will have my new tank before spring!

Rebuilding my canopy light rail for my light fixtures

Got my return pump in- good old laguna pump!

Ran my plumbing up through the floor, stubbed out waiting for the tank

 

[cymaster007]

:smile:

Looking forward to seeing this one develop!

the new tank will look awesome!!

Thanks! It will be significantly improved over my last tank!

 

[cymaster007]

My old DIY LED & VHO light setup - I used Meanwell drivers, CREE LED's, makers heat sinks, optics, solderless LED holders & molex connectors so I can service any given fixture at any time. These fixtures should last me AT LEAST 5-6 years. I have tons of spare LED chips for them too so I can switch out the color configuration any time I want (or if better LED chips come out).

Oh so fun wiring diagram w/ calcs

Stuffed all the drivers into a PC tower to look cleaner as this was not able to fit under my stand

 

[cymaster007]

SO this time around, I want T5's instead of VHOs on the sides, and I need to rotate all the LED fixtures 90 degrees so that way i dont have t5's lighting up my eurobrace. I just had to modify the aluminum rail I used to slide all the fixtures around and attach the t5 fixtures to the sides.

Light fixture rotated 90

Testing out the skimmer from Lawrence (Bullitr) no leaks! almost totally silent!!

Started programming my APEX and remembered I needed to make some snail/slosh guards for the float switches

Laguna Pump out of its shell and ready to go!

 

[TJ's Reef]

Looks like you're off to a great new Build Thread here, and brrrrr... from SoCal to Spakane just in time for single digit temps .... lol

I'll be redoing my system again shortly and this time going with the external overflow to gain some much needed real estate as well.

Cheers, Todd

 

[cymaster007]

Looks like you're off to a great new Build Thread here, and brrrrr... from SoCal to Spakane just in time for single digit temps .... lol

I'll be redoing my system again shortly and this time going with the external overflow to gain some much needed real estate as well.

Cheers, Todd

Thanks! Yeah my wife and i have never lived in a place that snows... im already freaking out about the current 30 degree weather!

 

[tigerdragon]

Htrs

 

[dodgerblew]

Howdy from SoCal Cy. Looks like your settling right in and the build looks like it's off to a great start. Make sure you keep us SoCalis in the loop Brotha!

PS...you'll miss the stores and your photo journeys

 

[d2mini]

Looking good!

Why did you decide to go with T5 instead of VHO? More color options?
I currently run T5 as supplement along with my MH but thinking of switching the T5 to VHO for the VHO actinics.

 

[cymaster007]

Howdy from SoCal Cy. Looks like your settling right in and the build looks like it's off to a great start. Make sure you keep us SoCalis in the loop Brotha!

PS...you'll miss the stores and your photo journeys

Yeah i already miss it a lot.... there are very few shops around there, and even fewer SPS collectors to trade with. Before I left I never even had a chance to visit a few of the new shops that had just opened up like - I got corals, Chance of Coral, and a couple others. Tony at RR always hooked me up, and so did Jimmy at Reefers Lounge (Fish Collection). A few of us IE people used to spend a whole day hitting up all the OC shops all the way from Seaside in south Huntington beach up to Steve Garretts & Coral Gazers... Ill need you to ship me some goodies!

Looking good!

Why did you decide to go with T5 instead of VHO? More color options?
I currently run T5 as supplement along with my MH but thinking of switching the T5 to VHO for the VHO actinics.

I ran the VHO/LED combo for about 5 years (from originally having MH & VHO, then switching to the original Maxspect fixtures w/ VHO). I noticed I never really got the sps to pop w/ certain colors -namely Pinks & reds, I believe it was from the spectrum of the bulbs, I know it could also have been iodine or something else lacking in my water, but I see 2 things with the VHO's switching to T5's- I have more companies to pick form, and color combinations I can mix with the t5's for the same amount of power usage. With the VHOs I really had only the URI/UVL true actinic bulb to choose. Also most of the local shops carried T5's more than VHOs. I think VHOs are going to be phased out soon too from an energy efficiency standpoint.

Kind of a toss up, but I want to try a purple + and blue + bulb t5 combo on each side and see how it does. Ive seen a few reefers tanks with this combo down in socal and they had the sps colors really popping in all color ranges.

 

[dodgerblew]

Just say the word Cy if you want corals shipped. I always have some boxes around. As for combination of color it seems the combos depend on the reef you're growing but I guess for you it doesn't matter since it supplemental color to LED. Purple plus brings out reds, blue plus is like 20k. I've heard from many that the kz Fiji purple is nicer then the purple plus. I'm trying it out on next bulb change.

 

[d2mini]

Yeah i already miss it a lot.... there are very few shops around there, and even fewer SPS collectors to trade with. Before I left I never even had a chance to visit a few of the new shops that had just opened up like - I got corals, Chance of Coral, and a couple others. Tony at RR always hooked me up, and so did Jimmy at Reefers Lounge (Fish Collection). A few of us IE people used to spend a whole day hitting up all the OC shops all the way from Seaside in south Huntington beach up to Steve Garretts & Coral Gazers... Ill need you to ship me some goodies!


I ran the VHO/LED combo for about 5 years (from originally having MH & VHO, then switching to the original Maxspect fixtures w/ VHO). I noticed I never really got the sps to pop w/ certain colors -namely Pinks & reds, I believe it was from the spectrum of the bulbs, I know it could also have been iodine or something else lacking in my water, but I see 2 things with the VHO's switching to T5's- I have more companies to pick form, and color combinations I can mix with the t5's for the same amount of power usage. With the VHOs I really had only the URI/UVL true actinic bulb to choose. Also most of the local shops carried T5's more than VHOs. I think VHOs are going to be phased out soon too from an energy efficiency standpoint.

Kind of a toss up, but I want to try a purple + and blue + bulb t5 combo on each side and see how it does. Ive seen a few reefers tanks with this combo down in socal and they had the sps colors really popping in all color ranges.

For that actinic pop, you may also want to look into the Geisemann Pure Actinic.
So far that is the closest thing I have found to that VHO actinic look.
But of course its pretty low in par compared to a blue+.
Another is the KZ Superblue which to me is nicer than the blue+. Pretty much the identical bulb except is has less of the green tint that the blue+ seems to have. I prefer the KZ.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Awesome set up! Would like to see how the lighting looks. Sounds like using a combination of lighting is the way to go.

 

[inkedsparkster]

Very nice man! I am from Seattle area and have a OBD tank. Can't wait till it's done. Following along!

 

[cymaster007]

Any one else bought one of these BRS jumbo air dryers? I had no idea it was this huge, I thought it was just going to bea slightly oversized RODI cartridge, this thing is going to take up a lot of real estate on my equipment rack!

Got a dosing liquid storage container off fleabay

Made a small frag rack for Sahns frags

Rock being cycled was getting a bit cold & I can no longer feel my fingers when working in the garage so I had to get a garage- heater installed.

 

[cymaster007]

Very nice man! I am from Seattle area and have a OBD tank. Can't wait till it's done. Following along!

How do you like your OBD tank?