220 mixed reef build

[Hitmans reef]

alright everyone I haven't ever been thru an entire system that wasn't already built before I got it. The wife and I have had a 90gal mixed reef for the last 4 years. This tank was a wonderful experience and let me say a lot to learn about to keep up never having a salt water tank before this. When I got it they said that I would never be able to keep corals in it and I did. However regrettably I had to tear our tank down in February of this year due to having work done on the house. I transferred my fish and corals to a friends house into a 40 gal tank.( all I had left after selling others to make up for the new tank. ) so after stressing myself and my fish out I have finally about got my build done and ready to start. The first picture is the last one I took before tearing my 90 gal down.

 

[Hitmans reef]

At this point I'm waiting on a few more pieces of the puzzle to finish up at the same time I'm also supporting my flooring and building my water station which I will include pictures of at some point any ideas tips or comments

 

[Hitmans reef]

 

[Idoc]

looks really good... awesome.

 

[Hitmans reef]

looks really good... awesome.

Thank you it's been a lot of work and plenty more to come as we all know

 

[Hitmans reef]

I guess I can add something new to this even though @WWC kept my attention all day yesterday with their amazing live sale. I was still able to build out my water changing station to get ready to start up this beautiful tank

I had to place my system in a different place than most would I built framing right over our stairwell in our mud room down to the cellar

 

[Hitmans reef]

Since the last week I've been super busy with work and people's transmissions. Even worked on a fed ex truck with a transmission issue this week that was carrying my package lol... but in any result I did manage to get my flooring braces up for the 220 I put an 8' beam under the tank perpendicular to my floor joists which is parallel to my tank. Built another beam and laid it on the ground and squared them up. I then built three upright pillars out of 4 - 2x4's using a total of twelve uprights. This tank isn't going anywhere infact Friday was a vacation day for me so I finished gluing all of the plumbing together and leak tested my bulkheads once this was done it was time to replace my rodi filters and resin. Then I went back under the house and much like ur cable I drilled a small hole in the floor and ran enough ro line to run it right to my sump tank. I turned it on and waited and waited and waited. Friday evening the sump was full. The next morning I went and got a couple of supplies so I could extend my ro line up to the top of the tank and again started filling. Sunday evening finally I was able to turn on the pumps and wavemakers. Let me say there is a ton of flow in this tank. However if anyone has any ideas on how to silence the drains a little more this would be appreciated. I tried adding a piece of quarter inch line out of the top of the drain pipe and it does help, until it decides to gurgle a bunch of water down.

 

[Hitmans reef]

 

[Hitmans reef]

Haven't made it back to this for a little bit but I think now that it's up and going it's time to share some more photos

As u can see the rock is in along with a few fish I added my bonded pair of cardinals and my blue diamond watchman who went straight to moving sand lol. Sry no image of him ATM but as u can see in the last photo I have a few floating eggs that weren't able to fit in the males mouth literally those two had only been in there for 8hrs before they started spawning can't wait to see how many babies pop up in a few weeks

 

[Hitmans reef]

Finally got to add a few more inhabitants got my gold torch and hammer moved over from the QT. The gold torch will probably be moved at some point ( to better suit its needs) but it has been under an gen4 xr15 pro since I received it from @WWC during their live sale . And had been getting more light than necessary so I'm slowly acclimating it to less light as you can tell it's in a spotlight zone. These lights have been awesome since I got them three years ago and with @BRS finally doing some par testing on such said "black boxes" I knew I needed to move them down a little. I don't have a par meter to tell where I'm at nor a place to rent one from my closest lfs is 2 hrs from home so.... trial by fire has always been the way I've learned the best hope all goes well with this torch it's such an awesome piece

 

[Ben Weaver]

Nice! I really like your rockwork, This looks like a really solid build!
What type of wood did you wrap your stand in?

 

[Hitmans reef]

Nice! I really like your rockwork, This looks like a really solid build!
What type of wood did you wrap your stand in?

It's 3/4" cabinet grade red oak stained with mahogany and the cleared with a urathanei left the underside light as it will be dark in there for the most part. So I just clear coated the underside to protect it from any potential water damage.

 

[dburt520]

Mind if I ask how you attached the wood to the steel stand?

I am getting ready to do something similar and this one has me a little confused.

Thanks
Dave

 

[Hitmans reef]

Mind if I ask how you attached the wood to the steel stand?

I am getting ready to do something similar and this one has me a little confused.

Thanks
Dave

The wood is not actually attached to the stand I built the steel frame and then built the wood skin so that I could slide the wood right over the steel Meaning that the back of the wood skin is open

 

[Radman73]

Nice build. Some of you make me jealous with your plumbing runs. I generally look for the shortest/easiest runs lol! Not generally very pretty. Gotta love the additional space though!

 

[Hitmans reef]

Nice build. Some of you make me jealous with your plumbing runs. I generally look for the shortest/easiest runs lol! Not generally very pretty. Gotta love the additional space though!

I agree plumbing it so it looks good was in my head but without ordering colored pipe lol around here we don’t have that available. I just went down and over for the drains the outlets were hard to line up which is why they are staggered the way they are but all in all I’m happy with the way they operate

 

[Radman73]

I agree plumbing it so it looks good was in my head but without ordering colored pipe lol around here we don’t have that available. I just went down and over for the drains the outlets were hard to line up which is why they are staggered the way they are but all in all I’m happy with the way they operate

I thought yours looked pretty good! Maybe it's because I'm just comparing it to mine lol!

 

[Hitmans reef]

Lol well thank you

 

[FARMBOYREEF]

Nice build! Looking forward to seeing this stocked for sure. Stand looks killer. Nice work.

 

[Hitmans reef]

Nice build! Looking forward to seeing this stocked for sure. Stand looks killer. Nice work.

Greatly appreciated I wish I could make it up there someday to come see yours .Maybe I can talk the wife into a vacation up there... just for me to go talk fish lol