fuelman's 240 mixed reef build

fuelman

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So i decided to turn the 240 from freshwater to a reef tank. The set up already has the tank steel tube frame stand with wood surround, canape, bashsea sump with 2 lifeguard 4000 return pumps 3- 300 watt eheim heaters with a controller. I have jabeo sw8 & sw4 power heads. i also picked up a 60x24x18 acrylic tank that will be my refugium. I built a new stand for my 180 that will hold that, i will pump from the sump into the refugium & gravity drain back into the sump just gotta drill some bulkheads into it. Hoping to breed pods in there with the cheato so i can really use some advice on how to make it happen cause i want a mandarin. I still need to buy a skimmer, lights for display & refugium. I'm thinking the reef octopus regal 250int for the skimmer. Refugium i was gonna go with a combo of full spectrum & red/blue hydroponic lighting. Display lights i cant make up my mind to save my life. The tank will be lps mostly i want to do encrusting coral on the floor & "maybe" a few acros at the top of the rock work. I have a 165 watt viparspactra on my 40 breeder & it works great, I love the 360x but i'm trying to do this on somewhat of a budget. So any advice on led lighting for a 96x24x24 tank that i won't need to sell my first born would be much appreciated. I decided to go bare bottom on this one. I have got the tank cleaned up & the starboard installed today. I had to cut it into 4 peaces to get it in through the lid, was the best i could do with the opening on the acrylic tank. I have 160# of base rock & 160# of shelf rock gonna start on that tomorrow. I also have dr tim's one & only & the ammonia to cycle with when i get to that point. I have been keeping fresh water for about 35 years but i'm still pretty new to the reef hobby so i appreciate any advice you have.

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P-Dub

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Looking good! I would consider setting up a manifold to feed your refugium and other items. I have found that SB reef lights work well for me for lighting my SPS dominant reef tank.
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fuelman

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Looking good! I would consider setting up a manifold to feed your refugium and other items. I have found that SB reef lights work well for me for lighting my SPS dominant reef tank.
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thanks P-Dub. on the manifold i have an extra return pump was gonna just pipe from the return area to the refugium & then drain through bulkheads & pvc back to the two return pumps for the display tank. but will have to think about that if i need to add anything else the manifold would be nice i hadn't thought about that. i was looking at the sb reef lights. have you had yours long? how well did they hold up? i was thinking of 4 of the 18" WiFi if i went with those.
 

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i was looking at the sb reef lights. have you had yours long? how well did they hold up? i was thinking of 4 of the 18" WiFi if i went with those.
I have 3 of the 16" Basics controlled by my Apex via the Apex hack. I am embarrassed to say that I have not bothered cleaning them yet and have had them up and running on my tank for a year now. I have since supplemented them with two OR bars and two Illumagic BlazeX minis. Both supplements are unnecessary but the SB's only dim to 10 % and the Blaze X's to 0% so I put the BalzeX's on for dimming during ramp up and down photoperiods and the OR's for additional UV and blue light. Again, unnecessary but I like the look a the results in visual coral coloration. You can check out my build thread in my signature and this is my tank just last month...
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P-Dub

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oh that's a very nice tank P-Dub. thanks for the input on sb reeflights I'll check out that build thread.
Thank you! I think you will be happy with the SB's if you go that route.
 
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fuelman

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well i got the rock work done today my goal was to have as much surface area for coral as possible while making caves & hiding spots for my fish this is my first time aquascaping a big tank with reef rock (i did throw some in my 40 breeder but i'm not counting that lol.) i left the rocks out from the back of the tank so i can put a power head back there to blow all the waste out something that was recommended to me & i still have about 30 # of smaller rock for the refugium i'm shot for the day so on tap for tomorrow is set up the refugium & then start mixing up some water

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fuelman

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NICE! Is the scape on top of white HDPE or Starboard?
It's white king starboard i had seen in a few bare bottom threads the op said that was what they used, i ordered mine from king plastics on ebay but now i see threads saying HDPE is the materiel & king starboard is just a brand name of that product so i guess it's the same thing. I probably could have saved a buck had i known that & just bought a generic brand of the HDPE .
 
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fuelman

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Since it is dry rock. I would go for a less wall of rock look and use cement or epoxy to create arches that add depth
I did use some of the instant ocean hold fast on some of the rocks just to make it more secure. I ordered all 12" base rock & then the shelf rock so it's mostly big rocks unless i break them up. I don't think i have the skill level to do arches out of big rocks like these, but that would look super cool, i just don't think i could pull that off. i would want to do it outside the tank in case it fell over while i was making it, then i probably wouldn't be able to get it back into the tank through the openings in the acrylic tank i had to cut the starboard into 4 to get it into the tank. thanks for the suggestion i love the arch look, i did think about buying one pre made but then never pulled the trigger on that.
 
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So I got the refugieum tank drilled bulkheads installed, I felt I needed something to keep the cheato from clogging up the drains so I made a overflow. I had a acrylic hood from a 55 gallon that is cracked on one side so I cut it on the table saw & cut slots into it with a laminate trimmer. I don't have a jig for that so I just wet free hand (ya I know a bit on the red neck side) had some acrylic cement #16 so used that to secure it in place. still need to get the line x for the return line into the fuge

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P-Dub

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So I got the refugieum tank drilled bulkheads installed, I felt I needed something to keep the cheato from clogging up the drains so I made a overflow. I had a acrylic hood from a 55 gallon that is cracked on one side so I cut it on the table saw & cut slots into it with a laminate trimmer. I don't have a jig for that so I just wet free hand (ya I know a bit on the red neck side) had some acrylic cement #16 so used that to secure it in place. still need to get the line x for the return line into the fuge

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Reduce, reuse, recycle. I like it.
 
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fuelman

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Reduce, reuse, recycle. I like it.
Ya I got it for free, I figured I could use it for something, it's 4' of black acrylic. I have been filling the system over the last few days. My ro unit is 80gpd & I need about 400 gallons. Work has been busy bi drive a gas tanker & it's a holiday week, so haven't had much time. Hopefully I can get home today in time to make the last batch & fire up the pumps.
 
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so i got the tank cycling last week dumped the dr tim's in & dosed with his ammonia to about 4.0, haven't got anything done sense then until today. i didn't like the plumbing running so far from the fuge & wasn't sure how i would mount everything under the stand with the sump in the middle, so i figured it's now or never. unhooked the plumbing, pumped the sump into one of the mixing cans, slide it over to the fuge side of the stand, & redid all the plumbing that gave me room to fasten some 3/4" to the stand legs for mounting everything. i see some really clean setups on here (mine is not one of them) but i was trying for that look. got all the controllers & power strips mounted set up & filled the ato tank. got the other 4 power heads in the DT. moved one of the smaller power heads to the fuge for some lower level circulation. i did have a brain fart moment though i started running the cords plugging everything in as i went making sure it would reach, & the fist thing i plugged in was the heaters power strip, not thinking that i had unhooked it from the controller. they were running the whole time when i got to mounting & plugging in the controller the temp was at 86, so i opened the canopy pulled the lids off to help it cool down. that's all for today. gonna order my skimmer from brs today so i can get it running & broke in. was gonna order some sb reef lights 6 of the 16" pro timers but they only have 1 in stock so not sure on that might just get the viparspectras & try to get the sb replacement boards for them later cause they only have one of those at the moment also. guess i procrastinated to long on those.
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fuelman

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So the power was out last weekend for 4 days total. Got nothing done but running down to get a generator to keep all the tanks powered, I can see a whole house generator in my near future lol. Last night and today I cut all the brackets for the lights used two lights to test fit the brackets together. Painted them black, it's a good thing I have a ton of tools or I don't think I could pull all this off, I'm starting to see why all these kit tanks are so expensive lol. I cut holes in the top of the canopy for venting & also cut out & installed 3 fans for pulling air out of the canopy. I decided to use the 2 orbit marine pro lights I already had as a supplement because they have ramp timers for sunrise/sunset. I bought 6 of the viparspectra lights & Mike from SB reeflights responded to a Facebook post letting me know that he had the replacement led panels back in stock so I ordered those also, ups tracking shows they should be here Tuesday. The tank is also done cycling, & I just moved a few fish from qt into the tank will be doing a water change on that tank tomorrow and moving the rest of the fish in to the 240 also got my skimmer from brs & plan on setting that up tomorrow. Should have the light panels swapped this week & installed next weekend. Also got the hydroponic lights for the refugieum & will set those up next weekend also.
 
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So I got the lights installed, played with the settings to get par where I wanted it. gonna wait a bit on the refugieum lights and see how the nutrients go before getting some cheato. haven't needed to turn the fans in the canopy on yet, the temp hasn't gone up not even a tenth of a degree yet in two days.

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