320 gallon display with equipment shed

[cilyjr]

This is how it ended up.

 

[cilyjr]

Oh I never did that part where we talk about equipment. Here's the list.

4 four foot t-5 in 2 fixtures.
8 hydra 32hds
3 hydra 26hd over frag

4 ecotech mp-40qd
1 icecap gyre in frag tank

Bubble magus curve 9 elite skimmer.

18 watt twist uv sterilizer

Reef octopus calcium reactor
2nd chamber add on
Kamoer pump
Carbon doser regulator

Icecap KM-200 kalk reactor

Apex 2016 model
Dos
Trident
2 eb 8s
MXM (on order)

Jebao dcw-8000 return

The lights, 2 of the mp-40s, the trident and kalk reactor are all for this tank.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Great looking tank!

 

[bakbay]

Keep 'em coming -- definitely following!

 

[cilyjr]

I had to try and fit all of it into a 4x8 shed. It got creative. It's not nearly as neat as I wanted but it works.
There is a 20 gallon tank on the floor for making water. It has a pump so it can be pumped directly into this sump and the main return pump has a valve that will go directly into return. With that way I can change 20 gallons of water by just twisting a couple of ball valves.

There was no room at all for top off water. So behind to the shed there is a 25 gallon container that gravity feeds to a float valve in the sump.

 

[cilyjr]

Pretty close to every inch of the shed is used space.

 

[hale_20]

Hi. Thanks for this thread!!! I’ve been debating on the idea of using an outdoor shed to house aquarium equipment since there is not a room I can use near the location of my tank. My tank is very similar to yours - it is 325g for the display and I have a 125g I’ve repurposed with baffles for the sump. May I ask a couple question: is your shed sitting on an existing concrete pad or something else? And what materials did you use to insulate the shed? And lastly, for temperature control in the shed do you just use a chiller and heaters in the sumps or is there some other means like a mini-split on the wall? Im in SC so I know the temperature variations will be larger so that is why I am struggling with coking up with viable ideas. Thank you in advance for any input! Love your build!!

 

[cilyjr]

Hi. Thanks for this thread!!! I’ve been debating on the idea of using an outdoor shed to house aquarium equipment since there is not a room I can use near the location of my tank. My tank is very similar to yours - it is 325g for the display and I have a 125g I’ve repurposed with baffles for the sump. May I ask a couple question: is your shed sitting on an existing concrete pad or something else? And what materials did you use to insulate the shed? And lastly, for temperature control in the shed do you just use a chiller and heaters in the sumps or is there some other means like a mini-split on the wall? Im in SC so I know the temperature variations will be larger so that is why I am struggling with coking up with viable ideas. Thank you in advance for any input! Love your build!!

The shed is on existing concrete. It was kind of a patio that was there. It was easy for me to get plumbing into it from the crawl space as there was a vent in that location.

It's only a 4x8 shed so I bought a 4x8 piece of OSB sub flooring and 2x4s and framed it out with cross bracing every two feet.

It's insulated with R6 rated foam board on the sides and then a plastic sheet. The roof is r32 standard roll of insulation. Most of your heat loss is going up.

I don't use a chiller because it's never been more than 85° here. You said you're from California I'm 1 mile from Pismo beach.

My house does have a central air conditioning unit just in case it ever does get really warm I can crank that on and it keeps the display at a pretty good temperature.

On the really hot days in the summer I just open up both the doors.
If you look in the picture you will see I have cut HVAC registers into the base for venting. I have a small fan attached to that to pull heat out of the shed as well on the upper 70s days.

 

[cilyjr]

@hale_20
I am happy to help you with any advice I can give on the shed deal. It has really worked perfectly. Honestly I wish I had built one a little bit bigger.
I have talked about building a greenhouse on the other side to get a serious acropora grow out. May do that someday too

 

[cilyjr]

I'm thinking I'm pretty close to caught up.here it is.

Some early full tank shots,

 

[cilyjr]

I will be adding this today.
It's funny that even though Neptune Systems has gotten much better at customer support, those of us who have been with them since the beginning still set aside entire days to hook up one module...
I started with an aqua controller III

 

[cilyjr]

Hooking up the MXM went fast. Having to basically reprogram everything took a few hours.
At first I was thinking I was going to have to program each light separately, which would have been a no go for me. I found how to create a group after a few minutes of exploring.

My biggest gripe is that the sync and anti-sync features for the mp40s is not available in the MXM yet. So if you rely on that don't buy it yet

 

[cilyjr]

I also like messing around with 3d printing. I've designed a frozen food feeder that attaches to 1/4 locline.
I then split one of the returns which use 1/2 locline and reduced to 1/4. I did not want a single power cord going over the top in this aquarium.

 

[Morpheosz]

Really awesome project, love all the DIY!!

I had one random question, curious what your substrate is, it's a unique color, almost looks like freshwater gravel from back in the day

 

[cilyjr]

Really awesome project, love all the DIY!!

I had one random question, curious what your substrate is, it's a unique color, almost looks like freshwater gravel from back in the day

It's a feldspar from a very local beach here. I have not seen it anywhere else in the world. I have been using it since I moved here on my other tank.

I guess I should have mentioned it, but I just did not think about it.

 

[cilyjr]

It's a feldspar from a very local beach here. I have not seen it anywhere else in the world. I have been using it since I moved here on my other tank.

I guess I should have mentioned it, but I just did not think about it.

It's similar in size to the 2.5 meso flake from tropic Eden. It is obviously not aragonite though

 

[Wiskey]

This is a great build!! I'm somewhat disappointed that your 320 uses 8 Hydra 32's though, mine is only 6. I have four rows of T5's as well. I've been back and forth on the idea of adding two more Hydras, and I'm trying to talk myself out of it

Do you know what your Par is?

I also love the 3d printing! I have 4 original metal Hydra 32 mounts, but opted to print all the ones for my tank because I could set them up in advance. Also over the weekend I designed an AI Blade mount that uses the end mounting holes in Tinker Cad and printed them out for my smaller tank. It really is a game changer for all these little things to make it exactly the way we want it to look.

Whiskey

 

[cilyjr]

This is a great build!! I'm somewhat disappointed that your 320 uses 8 Hydra 32's though, mine is only 6. I have four rows of T5's as well. I've been back and forth on the idea of adding two more Hydras, and I'm trying to talk myself out of it

Do you know what your Par is?

I also love the 3d printing! I have 4 original metal Hydra 32 mounts, but opted to print all the ones for my tank because I could set them up in advance. Also over the weekend I designed an AI Blade mount that uses the end mounting holes in Tinker Cad and printed them out for my smaller tank. It really is a game changer for all these little things to make it exactly the way we want it to look.

Whiskey

I would be fine with 6 and 4x t5.
I don't know the par. For a long time LED did not give accurate readings in the old days with the par meters. I believe that has changed in recent years but I still haven't really gotten over that.

I am only running my t5 for a couple hours a day. Just to get the light dispersal they provide. I see the undersides of corals dead in others tanks that run only led. I assume that the newer lights with diffusers would help with this but I wasn't sure so I ended up just sticking with what I knew.

 

[Wiskey]

I would be fine with 6 and 4x t5.
I don't know the par. For a long time LED did not give accurate readings in the old days with the par meters. I believe that has changed in recent years but I still haven't really gotten over that.

I am only running my t5 for a couple hours a day. Just to get the light dispersal they provide. I see the undersides of corals dead in others tanks that run only led. I assume that the newer lights with diffusers would help with this but I wasn't sure so I ended up just sticking with what I knew.

I'm 100% with you on the T5. I have not been happy with LED only unless you have a ton of LED lights covering the whole top basically. Like the Neptune Sky that are the size of the tank. Adding in the T5's makes a huge difference in both the shadows in the tank from a Visual Perspective/Photo Perspective, and keeping tissue on shaded parts of the coral longer.

Plus! I like that I'm filling in the spectrum a bit. I know that LED's tend to be very peaky in their light output, and I like that having a second light source can help fill that out. That's why I didn't go with something like the Blades instead.

Whiskey

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I'm thinking I'm pretty close to caught up.here it is.

Some early full tank shots,

Tank looks like it is doing really well!