Arkansas 280 Gallon Mixed Reef

[zoohoot]

I have had this build in planning stages for quite sometime (at least 2 years) and I am excited to finally start my build thread!

Quick Overview of the Build/Plan:

• 280 gallon display
• Sump in a separate dedicated maintenance room
• Mixed reef mostly softies and some LPS
• A few of the "easier" SPS
• A powder blue tang is my favorite fish and will be the "star" of the reef
• Will eventually move all fish and corals from my current ~60 gallon system, the centerpiece of which is a pair of onyx clowns and the toadstool leather they host

I am very fortunate to have built our home that we moved in about 1.5 months ago. The home includes a separate building for our office, and I included space for the tank and a dedicated aquarium maintenance room there.

The Tank

• Waterbox Reef LX 380.8
• 383 total gallons
• 286 gallon display
• 77 gallon sump
• 20 gallon ATO tank

I selected Waterbox based on the positive reviews, quality of the build, and their excellent customer service. I went with the largest "off the shelf" model they had. The only downside to this model is it is too large to deliver to customer's homes. So when it arrived, I had to drive down to the FedEx terminal in Little Rock. Overall that was easier than expected. I checked in at the terminal, waited about 5 minutes, and they loaded it on my trailer. The forklift driver was impressive! He was able to get it pushed all the way over the axles on my 15 foot utility trailer. I strapped it down and drove it home to Searcy, about a 45 minute drive.

The Waterbox packing/crating is impressive. Very sturdy and protective. Everything arrived safe and sound!

The next challenge was getting it from my trailer into the office area. The display tank weighs 740 pounds empty! It's a beast!

To get it in, I backed the trailer right up to the office door and dropped the lift gate on the top step of office entrance. We then used these Kobalt brand suction cups from Lowes. They are rated for 242 lbs. We had a total of six people carrying the tank in, and used 8 suction cups. It went much smoother than expected and we were easily able to get settled on the stand in just a few minutes.

The suction cups are made for moving tiles, but worked perfectly. I don't anticipate needing 8 of these again anytime soon and my Lowe's accepted them back in return for store credit.

 

[zoohoot]

Saved for stand write up

 

[zoohoot]

Here is a Short Overview of the Maintenance Room

I am as excited for this dedicated maintenance room as I am the tank itself. The room is about 7' x 11' and is directly behind where the display sits. This room will have the sump, filtration, water mixing, and most equipment.

That's a picture from the doorway into the maintenance room.

I already had the BRS 7 Stage PRO Plus RO/DI system, so I am continuing to use it. I may add the pressure booster at some point because I am only getting about 48 psi into it.

I made some updates/upgrades to my water mixing station when we moved into the new house. I switched from Brute trashcans for collecting/mixing water to these 55 gallon barrels by WaterPrepared that I found on Amazon. Overall I really like them. My only complaint is you cannot easily see through them to see the water level, so you have to remove the lids and look inside. Otherwise they are working out great so far.

Originally I had planned to keep the sump sitting on the same platform as my water storage containers. But once the display was in place, I realized the sump was sitting slightly higher than the bottom of the display.

If I left it like this, I would have to plump up and over the sump.

This is a horrible drawing LOL, but you get an idea of what I mean. I debated doing that, but after seeking advice here on R2R I decided to cut the platform and lower the sump. My main concern was inconsistent flow from the drains and the potential for detritus to collect below the bend.

Here it is after lowering the platform. It delayed progress for a few days, but overall I am glad I did it. I will post on my plumbing in my next update. It was an adventure! LOL

 

[zoohoot]

Plumbing from the display to the sump ended up being a bigger project than I planned on. One challenge, obviously, was getting from the display, through the wall, to the sump behind the tank.

Cutting Through the Wall

Cutting through the wall was easy enough.

Unfortunately there is a wire running right through where I need the plumbing to go. The wire connects to a wall plug near the sump. I consulted with the electrician that did the work at our house and he said it would be fine, so I left it in place.

I dressed up the opening a little bit with these access panel covers from Lowes. As luck would have it they fit perfectly in the hole I had cut. I used double sided tape to help hold them in place.

Metric Plumbing

The bigger plumbing challenge ended up being that the Waterbox stock plumbing that comes with the tank is in metric. Before working on this build, it had never even occurred to me that metric plumbing existed LOL.

At first it seems CRAZY that WB would use metric plumbing. But as they point out on their website, the sell internationally and therefore metric is their preferred plumbing:

As an internationally distributed brand, Waterbox Aquariums plumbing is manufactured in metric sizes.

Now, to be honest, I really think they should consider using standard plumbing when a tank is being sold in the US, and metric when being sold outside the US, but oh well...

All of this means, of course, that standard plumbing and fittings are not going to work without some adapters. The Reef LX 380.8 uses:

• DN25 (25mm ID, 32mm OD) for the two main drains
• DN32 (32mm ID, 40mm OD) for the emergency overflow drain

There are a few options for adapters:

These ones from CoralVue are designed to go into the inside diameter of a metric fitting and around the outside diameter of the standard fitting.

Then there are these ones from Adaptive Reef that are standard slip couplings that go on the outside diameter of both pipes.

Adaptive Reef also makes these unions as a third option.

So I needed to adapt the DN25s to 1" and the DN32 to 1.25". This is where things went really sideways for me and ultimately I ordered way more parts than I needed and took at least 10 trips to Lowes LOL.

It took my slow mind a while to figure out ID vs OD and exactly which adapters I needed. Once I worked that out I found that the DN25 to 1" adapters are sold out everywhere. I did manage to find one of the CoralVue adapters so I ordered it and a bunch of other plumbing parts and got to work.

I was able to adapt one of the main drains with the CoralVue adapter. Success!

I was impatient with the thought of waiting for the other adapters to come back in stock, so I tried removing the stock pipe from the union fitting. That didn't go well. I don't recommend trying this LOL.

Then I had an epiphany! I could take the slip side out of a standard union and swap it into the metric union!

And with that, I had the two main drains ready to go.

I wanted the plumbing to look a little "extra" so I ordered blue schedule 40 PVC from BRS for the drain lines.

The emergency overflow has a slight rise but after testing it drains just fine.

I added this panel above the sump so I could easily mount plumbing, controllers, etc. I kept it off the wall with some 1x4s to give cords room behind the panel, and drilled a few holes in it for future wire management.

Gave it two coats of paint to match the rest of the room and I was ready to finish up the plumbing.

Here's the final plumbing. Overall I am very happy with how it turned out.

As you can see, I used PVC Surface Mounting Clamps from BRS to hold everything in place. I really like how the keep everything secure, especially when adjusting the valves.

I did a quick leak test and found some water leaking from one of the main drains. Fortunately an extra 1/8 turn on the bulkhead sealed it up tight.

 

[zoohoot]

The tank is filling with RODI water now. Next step is to setup my heaters and add salt. I have 200 pounds of live rock ordered from my LFS which I hope to get in the tank by Thursday.

 

[zoohoot]

I am working on cable management/controls while the tank is filling. Part of my enjoyment from reefing is the tinkering and finding ways to satisfy some underlying OCD lol. So I really wanted a good cable management plan as part of this build.

I have two rack mountable power strips from my current tank that I am not using. They are the ADJ PC100A strips that I bought on Amazon. I love the ability to toggle individual devices on/off and you can easily label each control with a label maker. I will do that once all major components are installed and arranged.

I installed this Star Tech wall mount rack unit above my ATO and water making station, just to the right of the sump. This way I have easy access to all controls and I can neatly run the cables from the sump up to the unit.

That is the finished install so far. Super easy to install everything. I used wall anchors rated for 75 pound capacity. I also added the shelf at the bottom from Star Tech. I will use it to hold the power blocks and zip-tied cables.

I have the water to temp, added salt, and the first 100 pounds of live rock. Just a little bit more RODI water to go and I can turn on the return pump. More on that later.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Luisn17]

Wow!

Not sure what is more impressive the tank or the fish room. I was going thru the posts and when I saw the fish room with the sump out in the open like that, so jealous. I can imagine how easy cleaning and doing everything will be.

I was hesitant about buying the first example of the adapters you show to convert to standard pvc. I could not figure out how they work and end up buying the unions from coralvue. I agree, if waterbox wants to use metric, they should include more adapters than just 1 or they should sell them in their website. Avoids us from hunting them down.

What lights are you going to use? I know you have an extra foot to cover. I was going to start with 4 hydras 32 which I know will not be enough to cover the full tank. But I only keep zoas, euphyllia, and a few SPS.

Following…

 

[zoohoot]

Wow!

Not sure what is more impressive the tank or the fish room. I was going thru the posts and when I saw the fish room with the sump out in the open like that, so jealous. I can imagine how easy cleaning and doing everything will be.

I was hesitant about buying the first example of the adapters you show to convert to standard pvc. I could not figure out how they work and end up buying the unions from coralvue. I agree, if waterbox wants to use metric, they should include more adapters than just 1 or they should sell them in their website. Avoids us from hunting them down.

What lights are you going to use? I know you have an extra foot to cover. I was going to start with 4 hydras 32 which I know will not be enough to cover the full tank. But I only keep zoas, euphyllia, and a few SPS.

Following…

I haven't decided on lights. I am not doing alot of SPS either. I am using a Vectra return pump and Vortechs for flow, so I was thinking of going Radion so I could control everything from the Mobius app?

 

[Wonkabar]

This is amazing. Following along

 

[zoohoot]

Update…

I’ve got the skimmer and ATO setup.

So far the cable management plan is working well. Still some more cleanup to do though on that.

Protein Skimmer

For the skimmer I went with the Red Sea Reefer RSK DC 900.

I have the 300 in my current smaller tank and have been very happy with it. I like the self leveling feature and the various alerts and controls I get with the Reef Run controller. You can adjust pump intensity, skimmate wetness, etc.

Auto Top Off

I’m sticking with Red Sea for the ATO as well. Specifically their 3-In-1 Reef ATO+. I’m also using that on my other tank. It’s been very reliable. Plus you get ATO, secondary temp monitoring/recording, and a leak/flood sensor.

The WB comes with a 20 gallon tank for an ATO reservoir. It should do the job, but I need to get a top for it. A lid would help control evaporation and give me a better way to keep the ATO pump upright.

 

[zoohoot]

This is amazing. Following along

Thanks!!

 

[zoohoot]

Return Pump

For my return pump I’m using an Ecotech Vectra L2.

I had wanted to keep all the equipment Red Sea, but the Vectra L2 has a slightly higher flow rating than the ReefRun pump I had. Plus, I am already set on using Vortechs for flow and leaning towards Radions for lighting. So either way I was going to be operating in both a Red Sea and Ecotech ecosystem/app.

I’m not currently planning on using an Apex or other controller beyond their apps, but we will see how that goes…

 

[zoohoot]

Aquascape
Here’s a photo and video of my aquascape so far. I started with one “wall” of live rock but it as kind of boring, so I broke it into these two islands. I’m happy with the overall look, plus there’s lots of hiding spots, crevices, arches, etc.

Would love any input or suggestions. Thanks!

 

[zoohoot]

Made a cover for the ATO tank that comes with the WB. I looked into buying one, but found it easier and cheaper to make one. I used 0.22 plexiglass from Lowes. Cut it down to the size of the tank, and then used superglue to attach a few pieces on the underside of it to help hold it in place.

You can see from the condensation that it definitely helps retain evaporation.

Lastly I used a hole saw to cut an opening for the ATO pump cord and tubing, as well as for the refill line I added to my RODI setup:

 

[zoohoot]

Got my UV filter and reactors setup!

 

[NautiTang]

Following, this setup is amazing!

 

[zwalter38]

Following as well. I’m so jealous of the maintenance room!!

 

[Anna K]

This looks like it's going to be a fantastic build! I am highly invested now. I can't wait to watch this grow with you! I think your Aquascape looks great! The video you posted really highlighted it a lot better than the photo, but I think it'll do fantastic with your coral expectations!

 

[zoohoot]

Thanks!! I’m super happy with it so far!

 

[zoohoot]

Following as well. I’m so jealous of the maintenance room!!

Thanks so much! It is so nice to have all that space.