220 Gallon SPS Reef Build

[JonoH]

Started on construction of the doors last night.

Fitted off all the doors to the steel frame - then made a plywood plinth for the cabinets on the LHS that i am adding in.
Built the cabients and fitted the doors here.

Today i plan on wrapping the frame on the RHS, and fitting the infill to the wall on the LHS.

I templated the benchtop as i am getting a piece of stone cut for this.

The doors are currently raw, will be getting them 2 Pac finished once everything has been fitted (I actually run a cabinetry shop and we have our own 2 pac line which makes this easier! I am a Cabinetmaker by trade :-))

Distracted while i was working on this, noticed that my Acro crab still lives (havent seen it for months), currently residing in my Stylo! (pic taken with flash at night when its all receded so the coral doesnt look great, but its actually doing really well!)

 

[JonoH]

Bit more progress tonight - End Corner filler and doors done.

Just need to cut the infill for the LHS, then it can all go off to the paint shop.

The end doors are having stainless perforated mesh in them for ventilation.

For those with OCD...i am going to straighten the black conduit running into the ceiling haha
One of the cords for the lights is just a little short, so needs changing over!

 

[Janci]

Looking great.
How is the opening of the doors working exactly?

 

[JonoH]

Looking great.
How is the opening of the doors working exactly?

Pics below to show.
These are a hinge that we generally use on double action Kitchen Doors - they open to 165°, but because of the way they swing, i can program them to work with a large overlay - which means i can conceal the steel with them without having to have seperate vertical supports.
Makes the fronts on the joinery look a lot more seamless.

They are not Stainless, so will corrode if not kept treated with some anti-rust, but these are a couple of dollars each as opposed to 50-60 dollars each hinge. If they rust i will just change them over (benefits of running a joinery shop!) (To be honest, i dont think any commercially sold aquariums actually use stainless hinges anyway)

The doors on the end are hinged from the wall, the tall access panel closes off the void to the wall, so i can still get access to the MP40's and my UPS, then the access door for the end is hinged off that with what is called a blind hinge.

All the hinges just pop off with a button on the rear of them also, so very easy to strip the entire tank of doors quickly if needed during a water change etc. The control panel and doors on the end just lift out so i can slide the sump out easily.

 

[DarkReefer]

Why have I been missing these updates?!
You've really done a bunch of work, those cabinets look awesome and that little bench spot will be great for doing testing and the like. (or the other fish tank I see! :P) Amazing job.
Do you need to coat the edges of the doors or anything like that to prevent moisture getting in there?
I know my fish like to splash around and I'm constantly cleaning up after them!

 

[JonoH]

Why have I been missing these updates?!
You've really done a bunch of work, those cabinets look awesome and that little bench spot will be great for doing testing and the like. (or the other fish tank I see! :p) Amazing job.
Do you need to coat the edges of the doors or anything like that to prevent moisture getting in there?
I know my fish like to splash around and I'm constantly cleaning up after them!

I fitted all the doors Raw - they are a White Coated MDF, all going into my polish shop now to be 2 Pac finished, so no raw edges :-).

The little tank to the side is going to be plumbed into the main sump, and set up with frag racks, that way i dont need to keep any racks in the main tank, and can use it to grow out new coral a bit before it goes into the display.

 

[DarkReefer]

I fitted all the doors Raw - they are a White Coated MDF, all going into my polish shop now to be 2 Pac finished, so no raw edges :).

The little tank to the side is going to be plumbed into the main sump, and set up with frag racks, that way i dont need to keep any racks in the main tank, and can use it to grow out new coral a bit before it goes into the display.

Yeah nice!
Sounds like a good plan having a little frag tank there. Will allow you to monitor and have them grow a little before putting them into the main and potentially having fish disturb them etc. Certainly coming along really well though, you've done well with it!

 

[JonoH]

Got some more of this done over the weekend.
Stone benchtop was installed for the bench on the LHS, so i got the small cube that i am using as a frag tank in place and worked out the plumbing.
Was a tight fit to get it all in with the existing plumbing, mostly cutting the existing neatly and getting my hands in to glue it off was a pain!

One of my pipes inder the main overflow always had some salt build up on it like it had a small leak but it never really had any water dripping, only salt....turns out it wasnt glued at all!! I am so lucky this never popped off or anything as it was the main siphon pipe! (can see it in pic below)

Plumbing all hooked in, so the water comes from my bigger pump that was only running at around 40%, and the waste is hooked into the reefmatt also.

Took a bit to balance it all out, but i have now added about another 100L to the system. Thankfully my sump is very tall, so it can handle the water no worries.

Also made a mesh screen for the frag tank, just in case a fish ends up in there (can treat it as the Sin bin lol)



Pic above - filled with water.



Doors should be back this week, then i can finish this all off!


Also tested my parameters over the weekend - tank is sitting very nicely at the moment.

 

[DarkReefer]

Doin amazing work here mate, well done!
Can't wait to see it all finished off nicely, tank is looking great and full of life too! (lil bit jealous! LOL)

 

[JonoH]

My small light for the frag tank turned up this week - I figured i would just chuck a Noopsyche NP K7 mini on it to see how it went, seems to work really well.
Its funny though as i ordered the shade for this also....but they got the order mixed up and ended up with 2 lights! Nice to have a spare...could also chuck 2 on it if i need a bit more spread.

Also picked up some egg crate and made up a 2 tier rack, looking a bit lonely on there now so need to frag a bit more coral :-)

Also ended up pulling some rock from my sump, and putting it at the back of the tank under the taller rack, figured i could use this if anyone wanted a piece of live rock.

 

[JonoH]

So the Doors are all on, and the its all technically finished!
Picked up a few more colony size pieces of Acro from my LFS, will be nice to see how these colour up over the next 6-12 months.
Tank is all testing nicely at the moment also - my next upgrade will be to add some light bars to the front and back of the tank, at the moment I'm leaning towards the Orphek OR4's. (Would like to stretch to the AI Blades to keep it all in the same eco-system, but they are double the price).

Pics below of the finished product, 2 colony's are sitting in the frag tank at the moment until i can work out where to position them.

 

[Featherweight]

What a cool build. Thanks for sharing

 

[JonoH]

Should also add...I deep cleaned my skimmer for the first time on the weekend since it sucked in a turbo snail and was rattling around.

For the most part it was pretty clean, there is a little bit of light that throws into that chamber from my Fuge, so it had some Coraline growing on parts of it from this.
Running like a dream though again afterwards - best thing i ever did was run the breather hose out to the top of the tank!

 

[DarkReefer]

Setup looks lush mate, awesome job !

 

[mjszos]

Wow, what a great thread to catch up on. Looks awesome, and the cabinetry is coming along nicely! Looking forward to future updates!

 

[JonoH]

New Acro - have no idea what sort - but mounted in the tank now. Love watching these change over the next 6-12 months as they colour up!

My existing Rods Real Teal Colony is looking amazing, just want to give it more light!

 

[JonoH]

This is one of my Wild Caught Acro's I purchased about 6 months ago.
I believe this is a Strawberry Shortcake.

My fish knocked it off its mount the other day, so i took the opportunity to frag off a large branch from the back of it. :-)

Pic is straight off my DSLR with no editing.

Pic isnt 100% in focus, but gives a sense of the colour.

 

[JonoH]

Been testing out a new Nori Feeder - struggling with my Tangs ripping the sheet out straight away.



Spoke to the company that makes them, and they suggested soaking it for 10-15mins first to soften the Nori - this worked a treat.

 

[DarkReefer]

Nice!
I've just been using the Ocean Nutrition clear plastic clips for mine, they're cheap and if you buy the seaweed I think it usually includes one. I'll usually grab about 4 sheets that I've cut down from the larger ones into about 6cm x 10cm ish pieces that fit into this plastic container I store them in.
Then I fold it over and cut it into strips on the non folded side and clip it in with the folded side in the clip itself (gives it a nice hold).
If I'm lazy I'll just fold it and chuck it in but sometimes that means the fish will tear off larger chunks that may clog up the drain a little. At least with strips they're smaller pieces and easier for the fish to tear off.

Been wanting to get a magnetic one though so I can drag it down lower in the tank.

 

[JonoH]

Nice!
I've just been using the Ocean Nutrition clear plastic clips for mine, they're cheap and if you buy the seaweed I think it usually includes one. I'll usually grab about 4 sheets that I've cut down from the larger ones into about 6cm x 10cm ish pieces that fit into this plastic container I store them in.
Then I fold it over and cut it into strips on the non folded side and clip it in with the folded side in the clip itself (gives it a nice hold).
If I'm lazy I'll just fold it and chuck it in but sometimes that means the fish will tear off larger chunks that may clog up the drain a little. At least with strips they're smaller pieces and easier for the fish to tear off.

Been wanting to get a magnetic one though so I can drag it down lower in the tank.

Thats what i use for most of the time. I fold a half sheet up into a small square so they can't rip the whole thing out.

The nibbler seems to work ok, i believe the new version has smaller holes now.