240 Gallon Mixed Reef Build

ChrisKey · Mar 18, 2013

I haven't done any sort of build thread before so I apologize if I am not the most detailed and get updates on a regular basis but I want a good place to document my new tank build. So here is the background:

240 Gallon Ocean View aquarium - 96" x 24" x 25"
The tank was originally sitting on a 24" tall stand but I want to make it harder on myself and decided to build a 36" tall stand for better viewing. The plan it to take the existing stand and convert it to a canopy above the tank to house my LED penant lights and give it more of a built-in feel.
I will be finishing the stand and canopy to match at a later date but getting it set up and cycling is the first step since I am setting the tank of 4 hours from home. I just bought a new house that we will move into in 7 weeks, but I wnad to take advantage of that time and cycle the tank before I move all my livestock. I wanted to have the tank up this weekend but due to a bad design in my stand (I built one side 1/4" taller than the other so I have to do some leveling of the tank/stand before I can add water) I had to push that back until Easter weekend when I am back to the new house in Huntsville.
Ultimate goal is a mixed reef tank with about 35x turnover in the DT.

Some of the equipment I will be running:
Aquacontroller III with 3 DC8 oulets
4 - 120w Bridgelux LED Pendant Lights
40b sump with a separate 20g Tall Refugium on reverse lighting cycle. 6x turnover rate through sump.
3 - 200W heaters as well as 2 cooling fans controlled by the aquacontroller to maintain 78.0-78.2 degrees.
Aqualifter Pump ATO controlled by float switch
Return pump is a Panworld 250ps that will be feeding dual 1" returns down to 3/4" penductors, dialed down to about 1500gph total flow. But with the penductors I hope to realistically get 3000gph flow.
I custom drilled the tank and built a 36" overflow box with a Bean Animal Silent overflow system.
4 Hydor Koralia Pumps (5000gph total)
Skimmer I am going to run is an ETSS 600 skimmer pushed by a Little Giant 4mdq pressure rated pump at just under 700gph at the necesary 3' of head.
Bubble magus Dosing pump with 3 of the 5L dosing containers. Plan to dose Calcium, Alk, and possibly fuel or some other trace elements. I am using Reef Crystals Salt and I think my Magnesium will not require dosing. I am currently running Dr Drews dosing pumps with great success, but upgrading to the Bubble Magus
BRS Dual chamber reactor with GFO and phosban.
Coralife 9W UV Sterilizer

I have 110 lbs dry base rock from Reefrocks.net I am using as the lower base because they are flattened pieces. Then I have about 60lb dry rock of mixed pukani and reef saver rock. Then I have about 120 lbs of live rock that is getting cycled for the next two weeks, and finally about 100 lbs of live rock from my current 55g and 20g mixed reef tanks. So I hope to use a total of 170 lbs dry rock and 100 lbs of live rock in the DT and use about 50lb of live rock in the sump. I have about 420 lbs of rock but I only want to use about 320 in the tank.

I am using 160 lbs of sand from reefrocks.net so it is his Bahama Sand placed in after the rock forms are sculpted. Seeding it with 2-3 cups from my current tanks.

Setting up a dual 55g drum Saltwater Mixing Station that will refill fresh RODI and Fresh Saltwater by the turn on a gang value under the stand.
Coralife 50gpd RODI 4 stage unit, upgraded to a 75g membrane with the 150gpd upgrade from BRS.
For water changes, I plan for an 8% water change each week, so I will pump 20g of water from the sump straight down my Laundry drain then just open a valve to refill the 20g I removed and turn the system back on.
I will have a 30g RODI container under the stand for the ATO reservoir, so once a week I can turn the valve to fill that fresh water.

Future upgrades:
Genesis RENEW Automatic Water Change
4 Vortech W40es pumps OR 6 W60es pumps

I know there are tons of things I am missing, but I will update on a regular basis. It will be slow updates in the first few weekd because I cannot do anything to the tank for 2 weeks at a time while I am still living in Auburn (4 hours way).

ChrisKey · Mar 18, 2013

revhtree · Mar 18, 2013

Can't wait to see the progress!

revsgirl · Mar 18, 2013

Looking forward to its progress!

Chasing the Dream Giver, not the dream! Tonya

ChrisKey · Mar 18, 2013

Sorry about the rotated picture. Here is the tank after I first bought it and moved it into a garage for 2 months. The tank sat without water for a few years and has lots of salt deposit and about 250 pounds of coral rubble in it.

ChrisKey · Mar 18, 2013

Here are some pictures of the equipment I will be using. I am not going to be using filter socks on a regular basis but only use them about 2 days a week to get a good removal of suspended solids or use them 2 days before I know I will be showing my tank. I am also going to redesign the socks and make a larger rectangular sock. when I bought the tank, it had some DIY metal halide lights with cooling fans, so I removed the fans and fabricated an acrylic holder for them to sit on the sump. They will turn on when the temp gets too high and should be adequate for my setup.

H@rry · Mar 18, 2013

Taggin' 'long 2!

ChrisKey · Mar 18, 2013

Water will flow into the first chamber (socks) with the protein skimmer pump pickup at the bottom of this chamber. The water will then flow under the first baffle into a section with live rock. I built the second section large enough for an in sump skimmer in case the ETSS downdraft skimmer just doesn't work like I want. then it overflows into a large section that will be a frag growout area with a 250w metal halide 10,000K lamp. Then flow into the return chamber on the far left. I think I will install one more baffle as a bubble trap on this section to prevent microbubbles. I will be pushing 1500gph, so I think that will be some turbulent flow falling into the return section, even if I place the float switch just an inch below the overflow. This setup will give me about 30 gallons of water in the sump so I will have about 10 gallons of backflow from when the tank backsiphons with the pumps turned off.

I will either be feeding the refugium with its own cobalt 1200 pump from the middle section or have it fed off the return line and overflow back into the return section. I don't want it fed from the overflow of the DT to prevent as much debris from getting into the refugium as possible. And I will be keeping a population of copepods and ampipods in the refugium so it can overflow them into the return to feed the DT.

aslmx · Mar 18, 2013

Hey Chris , How are you going to plum your sump and fuge? and would love to see your overflow.

ChrisKey · Mar 18, 2013

I am going to have three separate 1.5" drains from the DT coming into the sump from the Bean Animal Overflow. In this sketch, I have the overflows on the side of the tank but I decide to drill in the center and have the overflow in the center of the tank.

I have a 1" bulkhead for an external pump drilled for the protein skimmer from the first chamber.

Then for the return, I drilled a 1" bulkhead for the Panworld pump that will pump up and split into two separate sections for each side of the tank. I may also split off and have it feeding my GFO Reactor, Phosphate Reactor, and UV Sterilizer, as well as the refugium. The 20g refugium is drilled and will just drain directly into the sump.

ChrisKey · Mar 18, 2013

Here is the first sketching of the sump design. I have already built it and may make some modifications, but the overall design was followed. Even with the sump only being 40 gallons, the refugium will also hold 17 gallons of water making my total water volume around 230 gallons after the sand and rock displacement.

dorky · Mar 18, 2013

Nice

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Chameleon · Mar 18, 2013

looking good! cant wait to see the progress

ChrisKey · Mar 19, 2013

Here is a picture of about 2/3 the plumbing I plan to use. I also have all the plumbing to set up my dual 55g saltwater mixing station that isn't pictured.

And here is a pic of the downdraft skimmer and the 20g refugium. The box is also my 4 sets of 120W bridgelux LED Lights. I currently have 3 of them hooked up to my 55g and 20g reef tanks, so I didn't bother with getting the last one out of the box until I get the rest of it set up.

jason.tammy · Mar 19, 2013

Looks like a fun project.Have fun

ChrisKey · Mar 19, 2013

I was dreading the tank drilling for a few weeks because one slight problem and I didn't want my 240 gallon tank to crack. But all was successful and went very smooth. It took about 30 minutes total to drill the 3 holes including the setup and cleanup time, so I was very happy.

Chameleon · Mar 19, 2013

nice holes

ChrisKey · Mar 19, 2013

Notice the nice wood grain trim. That will be going away very soon as it will be covered with black paint while I paint the back glass as well. The stand skin will have a lip over the front top and bottom trim, but I wanted to paint it anyways since I was already prepping and spraying.