230 gallon in-wall, room divider, reef build

MarsRover · Jun 21, 2017

Anyone have recommendations on good heaters for tanks of this size?

Thanks

ndrwater · Jun 21, 2017

MarsRover said:
Anyone have recommendations on good heaters for tanks of this size?

Thanks

Finnex makes some pretty good Titanium heaters. Some have their own controllers, or, you can do your multiple failure prevention by also adding it to your APEX. A good idea really as ALL heaters fail at some point.

MarsRover · Jun 21, 2017

ndrwater said:
Finnex makes some pretty good Titanium heaters. Some have their own controllers, or, you can do your multiple failure prevention by also adding it to your APEX. A good idea really as ALL heaters fail at some point.

Thank you for the reply! I'll look into finnex.

I intend to design and build my own controller so this sounds like a good bet!

Thank you

KingJason · Jun 21, 2017

I have 3x 300w EHEIM Jagers on mine. Have used Jager heaters on all my tanks and like them. I use mine on the APEX.

Mebeknob · Jun 21, 2017

I'm excited to see how this all comes together! Hopefully you never have to get to those bulkheads inside that tube!

MarsRover · Jun 23, 2017

KingJason said:
I have 3x 300w EHEIM Jagers on mine. Have used Jager heaters on all my tanks and like them. I use mine on the APEX.

I'll look into those too.

Lately i've been having terrible luck with heaters leaking current and heavy metals into my water station and my currently running tank (not fun figuring both those out....)

Mebeknob said:
I'm excited to see how this all comes together! Hopefully you never have to get to those bulkheads inside that tube!

thank you! yes, i am hoping that too..... on that note, here is what i have been doing this last week while waiting for the rest of my Marco rocks to show up...

So after getting the dry part of the tower leak tested (by filling with water an looking for leaks on the outside). The job is to make sure that dry tower is sealed up. So, now the tower is dry and i have been leak testing the top of the overflow box portion by filling the top of the overflow box, and seeing if anything leaks into the dry tower. I have been chasing down small leaks this week. I fill the overflow box, and seal the bulk heads on the dry tower so that any leaks from the overflow box into the dry tower, manifest themselves as a trail of bubbles int he overflow box. Works pretty well.

I think i only have one more spot to plug up. Will plug it with silicone once it drys out (probably tomorrow) then re-leak test it sunday.

I also water tested the ATO box i built a week ago. Holds water, no leaks.

I also started putting together the sump. I have the filter sock section built. Hope to build the rest of the sump today.....after completing brush-clearing in the back yard...ugh...

MarsRover · Jun 24, 2017

Okay, started securing rocks with mortar. Not easy. Developed a few techniques along the way thankfully. Letting it harden for a few hours before continuing on.....

....all....the....zip....ties.....

MarsRover · Jun 27, 2017

F!!!

So, I was scoping out the underbelly of the arch to put mortar to continue strengthing.

When I saw....legs......

Sprayed a bunch of water and sure enough....

Now what....... he has since burrowed into some unknown pore of the live rock and I have no idea where....

Crap...

prsnlty · Jun 28, 2017

MarsRover said:
F!!!

So, I was scoping out the underbelly of the arch to put mortar to continue strengthing.

When I saw....legs......

Sprayed a bunch of water and sure enough....

Now what....... he has since burrowed into some unknown pore of the live rock and I have no idea where....

Crap...

Is that rock sealed to another one yet? I would dip that rock in scolding hot water!!!

MarsRover · Jun 28, 2017

prsnlty said:
Is that rock sealed to another one yet? I would dip that rock in scolding hot water!!!

You are braver than I! I wouldn't even touch that rock. It is mortared down though..

I assulted the thing with water until it went deep in some hole somewhere. Then I sucked it up and my GF and I made the last part of the arch. Still needs a little more mortar at the joints, but I am letting what is down, solidify first to provide the majority of the support and then going in tomorrow night and packing the joint tight.

ndrwater · Jun 28, 2017

Just fill the tank... He'll come out.. Probably worse for wear...

Problem solved.

prsnlty · Jun 28, 2017

The rock looks great! Yeah the spider won't like saltwater too much and that should settle the problem LOL

805reef · Jun 28, 2017

ugh. I would throw the whole tank away! I hate spiders. lol

rock work is looking good!

underdog493 · Jun 28, 2017

Following! This is looking neat!

MarsRover · Jun 29, 2017

Thanks folks!

Last night I carefully removed the wet paper towels off the secondary arch joints and couldn't find the spider. I stepped off my stool and of course he was right at the base of that secondary structure. Yikes. So I dumped a bunch of RO/DI on him, he scurried on to the sand where I was able to get him with a vaccum!!!

Phew....

Thinking I'll be done with the rock work and able to fill the tank by end of the holiday weekend!

Daniel@R2R · Jun 30, 2017

Looking great!! Following!!

MarsRover · Jul 1, 2017

Zip ties removed!!!! It holds!!! Super stable actually. Surprised.

Hoping to be done with the remaining rock work this vacation weekend....maybe today....but definitely have it filled, or getting started....before we head back to work Wednesday!!!!

coris · Jul 1, 2017

Power head in the rock work is a cool idea are you still able to adjust it much?

justingraham · Jul 1, 2017

Wow that's a lot of sand

MarsRover · Jul 1, 2017

coris said:
Power head in the rock work is a cool idea are you still able to adjust it much?

justingraham said:
Wow that's a lot of sand

deep sand bed. Yeah it's a lot. Shooting for 5" all around. Probably going to scoop SOME of it out before putting in the crushed coral I'm going to have on top. Plus been using some of it to mix into the concrete and mortar as I build the rockwork.

As for the power head, it is free in there. Well, tight fitting. But removable completely incase it ever dies and needs replacement.

Today we started pasting concrete/crushed coral mixed onto the tower. I also flow tested the first baffles of the sump...wanted to make sure I was leaving enough spacing for full flow to go between the baffels and not have sections overflow. Looking good so I'm going to glue the remaining partitions as soon as it drys back out!