300 Mixed Reef Build

[New Wave]

I'm excited to announce I'm finally beginning my 300 build... Bill and I started the build tonight... Its going to be awesome!!! Bigger and better than the 240 build.. I guarantee it! Stay tuned!!! :-D YAY!!!! IM SO EXCITED!!!!

 

[Reef keeper]

Pics!!!! Lol

 

[orthokardia]

LED's?

 

[Zef004]

So the AC 300 found a new home! Lol
Pics or it didn't happen. Lol

 

[ToXIc]

 

[Dowtish]

hahahaha! nice Toxic.

Cmon Mel, take some freakin pics.

 

[gmoney243]

Oh trust me zef its there I had to help lift that beast lol

 

[New Wave]

i didnt get any photos of the "swap"... unfortunately... but thank you very much to greg, mike, bill, hjavier, dallas, and everyone else who donated their time and muscle to making the move... if i forgot you... im sorry.. im just an idiot.. but please... chime in and point it out...

the aquarium is the 300 ocea (SP) from our friends at the AC... THANK YOU!

first thing we did was take out the old 240... and once we had that out.. we had to modify the stand to fit the 300... which... all things considered... it went fairly smooth...

 

[poolkeeper1]

LED's?

Yes, By Bill By God! More to Follow, And we did work on it last night to replace those too small overflows. They are history and new ones have been installed. I let Mel tell the rest of the story.
Bill

 

[New Wave]

i opted to buy a tank already built as opposed to having one custom built... simply for cost... that one i bought is nice... but had to have some mods... im kinda surprised that the tank was not properly built from the get go... it makes you wonder... who is building these things... obviously the overflows are not nearly big enough for the surface area... so. they had to go...

this is the original overflow

i decided to go ahead an build glass overflows which will allow me to fill the tank while i wait for the covers to be made... these are the new glass overflows bill and i installed... they are twice the size as the originals... we've estimated that these are 7 gal..

and for comparison:

 

[New Wave]

the aquarium had these huge glass braces accross them... i wanted to take them out because of the maintainence, and access issues... so i called the manufacturer... and they said not to take them out... but after looking at them... and seeing how close to the water surface they were... there is no question... they had to go... luckily.. Bart had run accross this before and had an excellent solution... which ill include later... but basically... that means i couls remove these things...
this is the braces... there were 2 of them

and now... MUCH better :)

 

[New Wave]

so... basically.. this is where we are now... got the tank modified... and in place... these are the front and back photos for today... we'll be working more on it today... and maybe ill have made more progress for tomorrows post :)

 

[Dowtish]

Mods look good. This is going to be an awesome build. Good luck to you, hopefully the reef gods will smile down upon you on this one.

 

[ToXIc]

:cry: i want a fish room!!!!!

mel you suck.. :kiss:

interested in seeing the bracing

 

[NeedBiggerTank]

Your new 300G is longer or wider (or both) than your old 240? Just curious about the dimensions - it looks like it fits in the same space as the old tank.

 

[Dowtish]

The last tank was 8 x2 x 2, I think this one is still 8 ft long but deeper

 

[pickupman66]

Looking good man. I do like the way the brace bart made on his 185 looks very very clean. I am guessing you will be adding 2 or three of them?

 

[New Wave]

Yea... I think Barts idea was excellent... I'm going to use a variation of what he did... I'm going to use two to start... But Im going to make 3 so I have a back-up...

The old tank was 8' x25" x 24" 240
The new tank is 8' x 23" x 30" 300

I haven't done the math to see that it's 300... Just going by the sticker... I don't know how to calculate the volume... So if anyone wants to double-check that for me... I'd be grateful :)

Today Bill and I worked on the plumbing... And added the rock back into the tank to begin the aqua-scape (ugh!)

I'll post updated photos in the morning.

Thank you all For tagging along on the build... It's going to be bad-butt!!!! :-D

 

[New Wave]

GARY!!!!! I knew I was forgetting someone... Thank you for the help moving bro!!! :-D

 

[MoneyPit]

I got 287 gal for the new tank. (Online calculators) Can't wait to see what you put in there !