Custom 187 gallon upgrade

[CriticalBill]

So I thought I’d start documenting my new build here.
Last summer I purchased a 60x30x24 custom reef tank. It has two sides Star fire and two regular glass. 3/4 inch with 4 inch euro bracing on top and bottom. Actually the bottom back bracing is 6 inches so there could be 5 holes drilled into the corner for the over flow. The overflow box is in the back left corner with three 1 inch drains for a bean animal and two 3/4 inch returns. Stand is 80/20 aluminum with marine plywood covers. The front panels are magnetic and removable.

I ended up deciding to plumb my filtration into the garage on the other side of the wall instead of underneath.

At the time of this post I’m almost done with the plumbing. I still need to set up the electronics. And I’m trying to decide how much rock to put in it. I’m currently leaning towards about .75 lbs a gallon.

I’m going with a vertex 180i skimmer. Three 3 puck LED reef lights that are built custom for the company I bought the tank from (Chinese but they grow Sps like weeds).

I’ll post pictures as I progress.

Thanks for checking it out and as always comments and advice are welcome and appreciated. Even the haters

 

[CriticalBill]

Tank and stand were built by Crystal Reef Aquatics out of Bellingham Washington.

 

[Bob Bennett]

very nice, wish I could have sumps in garage, but would need to run chiller almost year round, recently watched a video on a new reef tank built by Roger of Roger's fish food, the rock work he did will be amazing in the long term, a little strange looking at first, but in a couple of years Wow!

 

[litenyaup]

awesome size....mine is almost the same. 67x26x25 tall 189 gallon.

 

[CriticalBill]

very nice, wish I could have sumps in garage, but would need to run chiller almost year round, recently watched a video on a new reef tank built by Roger of Roger's fish food, the rock work he did will be amazing in the long term, a little strange looking at first, but in a couple of years Wow!

Link?

 

[Bob Bennett]

Link?

Reefs.com Youtube channel, Roger Castell's 265gal.

 

[CriticalBill]

So I’ve run into an issue which isn’t stressed much on these larger tank builds. My water test was a failure due to the return pump and piping. I decided to go with an eFlux 6011 pump by Current. My return plumbing consists of 7 90s a check valve and a couple unions. I calculated it to be about 20-25 feet of head pressure. My pump seemed to put up about 300-400 GPH. I am replacing with 1” braided hose to a 1” check to a Y connector 1”-3/4” to my returns.

Hopefully this will do the trick. Otherwise anybody have a suggestion for a return pump?

 

[Bill Howard]

How was your experience with Crystal Reef Aquatics? How do you like the build quality of the tank? They are on my list of possible tank builders for my upcoming custom 150 rimless build.

 

[Victoria M]

This is going to be a pretty tank.

 

[CriticalBill]

I really like the tank. I was able to see some beautiful custom tanks down at Orlando Reefapalooza. Crystal Reef’s tanks are high quality and built heavy duty. Everything is level and straight.
My only advice would be to talk with Mike the tank builder to design the tank. He’s been doing this for a very long time and even has some marine biology education to back up his ideas. Julien is awesome but he has a business to run while Mike is the one building your tank anyway.
Only thing I would have done majorly different would be to have 1” returns.
I am having Mike build me a floating hood for the LEDs and I can’t wait to get it up. I’ll post more pics when I do. Price is reasonable and competitive. Still costs a grip anyway though. If I can only get some days off I might be able to finish it. Waiting on a couple parts too.

 

[hyprc]

Love the dimensions and the tank looks good just sitting empty heh. Looking forward to seeing it all come together! Everything looks great so far.

 

[najer]

Nice looking tank.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

Tank looks awesome! This is gonna be a great build.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Tank and sump look awesome!!!

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Totally following this build !!!

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[litenyaup]

Updates?

 

[CriticalBill]

Finally got my old tank transferred over. Working on breaking in my Omega 180i. Diatoms already growing.

 

[CriticalBill]

Ran into a weird issue with my Vertex 180i. Diffuser was screwed to a post that wasn’t glued into the bottom plate at the factory. Adam from Vertex called me up after being passed along by BRS and said to super glue the post in. I did, now I’m back in track. Awesome fast help from Bulk Reef and Vertex.

 

[CriticalBill]