350g Dual Tank - Predator and SPS Reef

[static416]

Have wanted to start a build thread for awhile now.

I have always waited, thinking that I wanted to do this-or-that before starting to report on it, but now seems as good a time as any to show where I am, and how I got here.

I will start at the beginning and walk through my thinking. But first, as a preview, the current state.

This photo is roughly the current state. Two tanks connected by a shared sump.

• 350gal total water volume
• Waterbox LX 230.5
  • 60in wide x 24in high x 30in deep
  • Three Radion G6 XR30 Blues
• Custom Waterbox 120g
  • 24in wide x 36in high x 36in deep
  • Three Radion G6 XR15 Blues

And there is a on more “under the hood” to show, but I’ll get there in a bit.

Table of Contents:
- Connecting to the Fish Room


First, the history!

 

[static416]

Beginning of Time

I got started with saltwater tanks in university in 2003. It was a completely different world at that time of metal-halides and deep-sand beds.

I spent my entire student loan on aquariums and animals.

I had a 90g reef tank with about 1500W of metal halide + VHO fluorescent lighting. Siphon overflows because I was poor and the tank was tempered.

Then I got a second tank, a 180gal predator.

All of this in the living room of a shared apartment with 3 other guys in university for 2 years.

Unfortuantely I don’t have pictures, but it was crazy, and too much, and I had to sell it all when I graduated and moved to a smaller place of my own.


Back into Saltwater

Since then, always wanted another tank but never had the space. I lived in Toronto and had smaller apartments and condos that I couldn’t find the space for an aquarium.

Also, I knew that the moment I started, it was going to be an expensive addiction that was going to get out of control. So I wanted to wait until I had a better financial postion and a house.

In June 2021 I got a house in downtown Toronto.

Then in March 2022 I got a new well-paying job and decided to pull the trigger.

I figured I’d get a simple 65g Red Sea 300XL and that would be more than big enough.

(Narrator: “It would not be enough”)

This is filling it up.

 

[static416]

It Begins Again

One thing I knew immediately with the new build was that I wanted it to share a wall with a storage space where I could hide at least some of the equipment. In university it was in the middle of the living room and I had to bucket-brigade my top-off into the living room every morning. Huge pain.

So with the new setup, I used the shared wall with my storage space to hide the ATO reservior to start. That would expand over time, but you can see the water line running into the wall behind the sump here.

That comes out on the other side, connected to a simple 5gal reservior. And that reservior was topped-up from my RODI unit.

And this RODI unit started as a basic 4-stage. 100gpd membrane + sediment + carbon + mixed bed DI.

All of this would get dramatically more complicated as the 65gal got fancier, and then even moreso with the dual tank 350g setup.

But this is the first beginnings.

And nearby, a cheap shelving unit with supplies and my QT tanks.

 

[static416]

The First Animals and Corals

Started off with some clownfish (as is required by law). And used my new QT setup.

Also a few early corals (I think these came a few weeks later).

The Hawkins Echinata in this photo is still growing to this day, 3 years later. The Rainbow Loom and other one were removed eventually.

Lights and cycling

A few weeks later, also added some inverts and a Pectina.

Also more QT of more fish.

And my first conch, Conxita, who is with me to this day.

 

[static416]

And my favorite, Bumblebee the Mandarin Goby, I also got really early on.

Only like 3/4in to start, and still with me to today, years later. Through multiple tank-wide issues that I'll cover later.



This is a full-tank video of the 65g early on, miss a lot of these guys.



Also some early pests. These spaghetti worms ended up getting out of control.

 

[static416]

As a final post on the 65g, here's what it looked like after 7 months.



Around that time, also got onto Hydros, and wish I had done it earlier.

Sump getting more crowded with Hydros.

• All of the Hydros installed inside the sump
• 15W UV sterilizer
• CO2 scrubber
• Carbon filter
• Skimmate container

This ran through the wall and connected to the more complicated systen in the fish room. Building to what I'll show soon as the current state.



All of this by October 2022. 7 months from setting up the 65gal.

The 65gal developed further, but by August 2023, it was getting cramped, and I knew I needed something bigger. So I made a leap.

Next, the install and setup of the dual-tank setup.

 

[static416]

Go as Big as Possible

By August 2023 I knew I wanted to go bigger, but I had an organization problem.

The 65gal was placed against this wall in my living room so that I could run water and supplement lines through the wall to the fish room.

If I wanted to go bigger, I’d have to either knock-down the bookcase and take that entire wall (ugly and would kill the space), or find another spot.

I realized I could put it here, under the stairs, where the desk is in this photo.

But created a problem, because now it’s not sharing a wall with the fish-room. There is a hallway in between.

The answer? Go through the walls and the ceiling.



I ran water and supplement lines through the wall, across the ceiling of the hallway, and into the fish-room. And built a sort of supplement and plumbing panel into the wall.

That's 9 supplement lines, 1 water in, 1 water out, and a large airline to run air from the garage. Enough for an auto-waterchange system and more supplements than I thought I needed.

And the 230LX arrives! The truck couldn't fit down my small street, so they had to bring the crates into the garage with a pallet truck all the way down the street. Wish I got a video.

Getting it downstairs was a bit of a challenge, but that’s what movers are for.

Then the custom tank arrived a few months later.

Also got a kitten around this time, who was (and remains) very interested in the tanks.

So that's the quick history, and we're roughly to the layout of the current system as it exists today.

But there are a lot of interesting details there.

Next I'll cover the existing system in greater detail with more photos and many diagrams to outline my system and thinking.

If anyone has questions, chime in for sure. But I'll keep going either way, I'm also just interested in documenting this for my own reasons.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Go as Big as Possible

By August 2023 I knew I wanted to go bigger, but I had an organization problem.

The 65gal was placed against this wall in my living room so that I could run water and supplement lines through the wall to the fish room.

If I wanted to go bigger, I’d have to either knock-down the bookcase and take that entire wall (ugly and would kill the space), or find another spot.

I realized I could put it here, under the stairs, where the desk is in this photo.

But created a problem, because now it’s not sharing a wall with the fish-room. There is a hallway in between.

The answer? Go through the walls and the ceiling.



I ran water and supplement lines through the wall, across the ceiling of the hallway, and into the fish-room. And built a sort of supplement and plumbing panel into the wall.

That's 9 supplement lines, 1 water in, 1 water out, and a large airline to run air from the garage. Enough for an auto-waterchange system and more supplements than I thought I needed.

And the 230LX arrives! The truck couldn't fit down my small street, so they had to bring the crates into the garage with a pallet truck all the way down the street. Wish I got a video.

Getting it downstairs was a bit of a challenge, but that’s what movers are for.

Then the custom tank arrived a few months later.

Also got a kitten around this time, who was (and remains) very interested in the tanks.

So that's the quick history, and we're roughly to the layout of the current system as it exists today.

But there are a lot of interesting details there.

Next I'll cover the existing system in greater detail with more photos and many diagrams to outline my system and thinking.

If anyone has questions, chime in for sure. But I'll keep going either way, I'm also just interested in documenting this for my own reasons.

I’m following to see the “greater details”! Your tanks look incredible!

 

[italquam]

I am very interested in how you ran the ATO and RO lines through the wall. I am thinking of similar situations and curious to see more details

 

[static416]

Plumbing into the Fish/Storage Room

I am very interested in how you ran the ATO and RO lines through the wall. I am thinking of similar situations and curious to see more details

In that case, we'll do this next.

I'll start by giving an overview of the layout and how the lines connect.

Below is floor-plan view of my living room, fish room, and nearby area.

- Red walls are concrete
- Green walls are wood/drywall
- Orange line is the path of the water/supplement lines.

And below is a 3D scan of the area (minus the fish room) that the realtor did before we moved in.

- Blue line is the path of the water/supplement lines.

Below is a video, showing the path of the water and supplement lines from the fish room, through the ceiling, to the bathroom, and down the wall to the tank.

It has changed over time, but currently I'm running through the walls.

• 9 supplement lines using 1/4" RO tubing
  • One is an ATO water line
  • One is low-pressure airline to supply the ozone generator in the sump
  • The other 7 are used for various supplements (to be covered in the chemistry section)
  • Color-coded heat-shrink is key to keeping track of what connects to what
• Three runs of 1/2" silicone tubing
  • Only 1 is in use, as a very low pressure airline bringing low-CO2 air from the garage upstairs
  • The other two are still in the walls, but unused now (previously water lines)
• Two runs of 1" PVC flex pipe (aka spa hose)
  • Closed loop out to the inline refugiums and water chiller
  • Closed loop also allows for auto-water changes
• 24/12V electrical supply
  • Powers all Hydros gyres and powerheads
  • Fails back to 12V
• Hydros Data Bus
  • To connect to the collective in the fish room
• Hydros Probe Cable
  • Because at the start I needed more probes in the sump, and had spare ports in the fish room

View from the fish-room side of things.

All of this provides a few things:

• All of my supplements and ATO are away from the living area.
  • This is way more convenient for refils and storage
  • Also has saved the floor from a few spills
  • Has allowed for fancier dosing setups like my live Phyto with lighting, air, and magnetic stirrer.

• The closed loop water line to/from the sump allows for auto-water change, dual inline refugiums, and chiller

• The waste water from the auto-water change can easily drain into the storage room main sewer via the powered ball valve above.

Next, how to run the lines through the walls.

 

[static416]

Running through Walls

So how to actually run all of this through the walls?

I unfortunately don't have too many videos of actually doing it, but there are a few key details:

- Try to avoid studs.
- Have the right tools.

In my case, I got lucky that there is a air return right next to the new tank. You can see the grille on the wall near the floor, next to the tank below.

I was able to run all of my lines through that duct work until I got to the ceiling above the bathroom.

I removed the air register in the ceiling of the bathroom, then removed the air-duct behind it, to get access to the interior of the ceiling. You can see that in this video.



In the photo below, you can see some of the lines on the left, way over behind house plumbing and duct work. All of that is in the ceiling above the hallway, between the bathroom and the fish room.

Tools Involved

In order to do any of this and not get completely frustrated and give up, you'll need some stuff.

Fish-tape. This is absolutely key. Nothing is possible without this.

1. Push the fish-tape through wherever your path is, and find it on the other side
2. Attach a strong piece of thin rope to the fish-tape and pull the tape back out so you have a rope running the path.
3. Attach the rope to your tubing, and then pull the rope back through, threading the tubing through
4. Swear and yell a lot as the tubing get snagged and you have to keep jiggling it around until it finally goes through.

Also can use some grabbers. I have this flexible one, and a long alligator forcep. Both from Amazon. Both good for grabbing fish-tape and pulling it through gaps. Neither are very strong, so minimally useful for heavy loads.

And finally, one thing I think is worth the money is a Borescope. Basically a tiny camera on a flexible line, with a screen.

It's small enough to fit into gaps so you can see where you are snagged or missing something. Or to do recon before cutting bigger holes.

 

[italquam]

This is an amazing build , especially with the lines through the walls , ceilings, absolutely great job and so organized.

Those Phyto reactors are so cool also

 

[static416]

I'm going to start just treating this as a tank-diary rather than attempting to make it purely a build thread that I never update.
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On that note, I've been struggling with my chemistry for awhile, and briefly had some success here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/suddenly-so-much-budding-branching-in-my-sps.1133254/

But within a week or two, the growth halted because I got over-confident and started over-feeding. And some of the more sensitive SPS are not looking happy.

I didn't notice the rising phosphates because I've been relying on my Mastertronic Essential to test them, and I had switched it to using the Red Sea Phosphate regeant. This is advertised by Mastertronic to have a range of something like 0.01-0.1 ppm phosphate, and I only saw 0.075ppm.

However, it seems like 0.075 ppm is actually "max" and when I tested with my Hanna checkers, I was somewhere above 0.2ppm! Way higher than I thought.

So this morning I refreshed the refugiums, put in some GFO, and we'll see if the phosphate comes down.

Video of the cheato I pulled out this morning.