I started in reef keeping in 2002 with a large 400g mixed reef tank. It was exciting, rewarding, and rather frustrating, and oh, expensive. My original tank was designed poorly, with inefficient water flow, return, and the acrylic was not the quality I was hoping or sold on. Anyway, speed forward 10+ years and I was done. Today I am just starting the design and build of my new tank. The specs on the new tank are: 84L X 30W X 30H (330 gallon) DT - located on the main floor just off of the living room. Fully visible from the living room and kitchen. It will be viewable from the front and left end and encased with cabinetry above and below the DT. The plan is a mixed reef, leaning more on the SPS side. Lighting will be provided by four (4) Radion XR30 G5 Blue LED's. All filtration will be plumbed into a dedicated room in the basement. The filtration/fish room will house the sump, refugium, mixing station with RO/ID, neptune apex system, frag tank, QT tank, and a sink. I am creating this thread to help document the journey, and hope to receive ideas and input from other reef keeping enthusiast.
Tank:
Custom built 84L X 30W X 30H with a center Bean Animal style overflow, 1 1/2" pipe. Tank has been ordered and should be arriving the end of October. Latest was the tank has been built and is now curing. Hope to receive pictures from the manufacture soon. As soon as I have picture, I will post them for you to see.
Tank Stand:
The display tank stand was built by myself and my son. Could not have done it without his help. There was a thought of having a custom steel or aluminum stand made. In the end I decided to built it myself and save a little. Had the stand structurally engineered by a friend (he is a structural engineer). It is constructed of 4X4's, 2X6's, and to many screws to count. This thing would hold an elephant!
Filtration Room:
There are times I get more excited about the fish/filtration room build than the actual display tank. I first need to express my appreciation to my amazing wife for allowing me to convert our basement storage room into my fish room. The room is 11' X 13' which is large enough to house all my current and extended plans. The floors have seen sealed and epoxied, sheetrocked the framed walls with green sheetrock, then covered with frp. Installed two new 20 amp breakers to the electrical panel to handle all power needs.
The fish room will house the following:
150g refugium
Sump
Sink
RO/DI
2 - 150g mixing tanks (one for saltwater, automatic water changes and one for RO water)
QT tank, independent system from main tank
Future expansion - Frag tank with independent system from main and QT tanks
Apex Neptune system to automate and monitor the main tank and filtration
*The window will be tinted with black UV blocking tent.
I will continue to update this thread with developments and progress.
Tank:
Custom built 84L X 30W X 30H with a center Bean Animal style overflow, 1 1/2" pipe. Tank has been ordered and should be arriving the end of October. Latest was the tank has been built and is now curing. Hope to receive pictures from the manufacture soon. As soon as I have picture, I will post them for you to see.
Tank Stand:
The display tank stand was built by myself and my son. Could not have done it without his help. There was a thought of having a custom steel or aluminum stand made. In the end I decided to built it myself and save a little. Had the stand structurally engineered by a friend (he is a structural engineer). It is constructed of 4X4's, 2X6's, and to many screws to count. This thing would hold an elephant!
Filtration Room:
There are times I get more excited about the fish/filtration room build than the actual display tank. I first need to express my appreciation to my amazing wife for allowing me to convert our basement storage room into my fish room. The room is 11' X 13' which is large enough to house all my current and extended plans. The floors have seen sealed and epoxied, sheetrocked the framed walls with green sheetrock, then covered with frp. Installed two new 20 amp breakers to the electrical panel to handle all power needs.
The fish room will house the following:
150g refugium
Sump
Sink
RO/DI
2 - 150g mixing tanks (one for saltwater, automatic water changes and one for RO water)
QT tank, independent system from main tank
Future expansion - Frag tank with independent system from main and QT tanks
Apex Neptune system to automate and monitor the main tank and filtration
*The window will be tinted with black UV blocking tent.
I will continue to update this thread with developments and progress.