Babado's Reefing Journey

Babado

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Hello Everyone!

After much time browsing and lurking on the forums it is time that I start a build thread of my own. I have been working on this tank setup and fish room for a few months already so I will have multiple posts to get everything up-to-date.

After a recent renovation to our kitchen & dining room area, my wife made the mistake of saying that one of the walls lacked color/needed something… It was then that she realized the extent of her mistake. The Tank will go here!

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We spent some time shopping around and looking through classifieds until we were able to find a local reefer who was getting out of the hobby and looking to sell his entire setup. This included some top of the line equipment and a 210 gallon display tank. While we lined up moving the tank and equipment, my wife and I decided to start on our aquascape and some construction in the basement to create my fish room to house the sump, R/O system, water mixing station, refugium, frag tank, etc.

For the aquascape we began purchasing by Marco rock base rock, shelf rock, and building rock. We used Gluemasters super glue with sand to hold everything together. The Aquascaping process took place over a few weeks with man hours invested.

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This is pretty close to the last addition before getting things in the tank to make final adjustments.

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We also started prepping and building the sump/fish room in the basement.

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Babado

Babado

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Documenting some more progress that was made over the past few weeks:

So the day came to go pick up the Tank and equipment. It was pending for a while so the livestock could be relocated. To do the moving we rented a Uhaul and started the fun. Everything was set up and running so I had some cleaning in my future!


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After Hours of scrubbing and cleaning my wife and I realized that a used display tank in our space was not going to work for us. There were also some issues with the silicone and tank that I was just not comfortable with. All of the other equipment was great and working so I had almost everything I needed to get started except for a display tank.

We started researching and talking to tank builders and after talking with Glasscages we decided they were the the Tank builders for us. We worked with @Joe Glass Cages and could not be happier with our decision.

We decided that a 72"x30"x31" tank was what would work in our space.

Pic of tank during build
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Now that I knew the exact footprint of my DT it was time to start building a stand.

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Joe Glass Cages

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Documenting some more progress that was made over the past few weeks:

So the day came to go pick up the Tank and equipment. It was pending for a while so the livestock could be relocated. To do the moving we rented a Uhaul and started the fun. Everything was set up and running so I had some cleaning in my future!


IMG_5484.jpg
IMG_5488.jpg
IMG_5489.jpg


After Hours of scrubbing and cleaning my wife and I realized that a used display tank in our space was not going to work for us. There were also some issues with the silicone and tank that I was just not comfortable with. All of the other equipment was great and working so I had almost everything I needed to get started except for a display tank.

We started researching and talking to tank builders and after talking with Glasscages we decided they were the the Tank builders for us. We worked with @Joe Glass Cages and could not be happier with our decision.

We decided that a 72"x30"x31" tank was what would work in our space.

Pic of tank during build
IMG_6009.jpg


Now that I knew the exact footprint of my DT it was time to start building a stand.

IMG_5697.jpg
IMG_5704.jpg
thanks so much for the mention. Love seeing build, process and process pictures.

following!
 
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Babado

Babado

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Well the Day I had been waiting for finally came! My tank arrived! It was no easy task moving it from the back of a truck about 75 feet to its final resting spot, but we managed to get it done with no issues.
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I spent a couple hours washing sand which my kids loved helping with. Spread it out in the hot sun for a few house to dry and it was good to go!

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Since I had most of my Aquascape already designed we got that in fairly quick and I only had to add a few more structures to be happy with the look.

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The Tank will be heavily viewed from the side so I tried to pay close attention to the view from this angle.

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Babado

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Looking into my options for drains. The tank has two 1.5" holes for drains and two 1" holes for the returns. I would really like to have the drains come down separately so 1 of them can go to the refugium and the other can go directly to the sump.
Any suggestions for this?
 

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Looking into my options for drains. The tank has two 1.5" holes for drains and two 1" holes for the returns. I would really like to have the drains come down separately so 1 of them can go to the refugium and the other can go directly to the sump.
Any suggestions for this?
I would replumb them using 1 1/2 inch pvc and run them the way I wanted.
 
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Babado

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I have had a little time to work on the fish/sump room and get my RO/DI unit installed. Hoping to start mixing saltwater and have plumbing done in a week or so!
 
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Babado

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I am planning on using the Herbie overflow method. With my sump being in the basement would it be best to have the Gate valve close to the tank upstairs or in the basement closer to the sump?
Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!
 
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Babado

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So I have filled my tank with Ro/Di water to leak test everything and all is holding great.
Only issue is that my di resin was exhausted so it has about 200 gallons of 1 TDS water in a 420 gallon system. Will that be an issue? Should I drain and refill with 0 TDS water? I haven’t added any salt yet so that isn’t an issue.
thanks!
 

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I am planning on using the Herbie overflow method. With my sump being in the basement would it be best to have the Gate valve close to the tank upstairs or in the basement closer to the sump?
Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!
where did you end up putting
 
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Babado

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I ended up putting the Valve directly under the tank. Being able to adjust it would be too much of a pain if it was in the basement.
 

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