Gablami’s 260 gallon Rimless SPS Build

[Osler]

That light mounting is super clean! I love it as well as the attention to detail. Following.

Osler

 

[Gablami]

could you show a picture of how the orpheks are attached to the beam ? love this layout !

Thanks for asking! I’m glad there’s interest.

For people who aren’t familiar with Orphek atlantik fixtures, the fixture is held together my 8 screws with bolts at the end that you can hand tighten. These photos are from BRS:

I just bought longer screws, and tnuts that would fit, and connected them to the 1010 aluminum extrusion. You can see in the tnut screenshot how it fits into the extrusion.

Here’s the link to the 1010 extrusion:

EX-1010 – 1″ x 1″ Smooth T-Slotted Aluminum Extrusion | TNUTZ

These extrusions are 100% compatible with the following manufacturers: 80/20 #1010-S T-SLOTS #650000 McMaster #60585K102

www.tnutz.com

Let me know if you have any other questions about how it’s put together.

 

[Cstar_BC]

Thanks for asking! I’m glad there’s interest.

For people who aren’t familiar with Orphek atlantik fixtures, the fixture is held together my 8 screws with bolts at the end that you can hand tighten. These photos are from BRS:

I just bought longer screws, and tnuts that would fit, and connected them to the 1010 aluminum extrusion. You can see in the tnut screenshot how it fits into the extrusion.

Here’s the link to the 1010 extrusion:

EX-1010 – 1″ x 1″ Smooth T-Slotted Aluminum Extrusion | TNUTZ

These extrusions are 100% compatible with the following manufacturers: 80/20 #1010-S T-SLOTS #650000 McMaster #60585K102

www.tnutz.com

Let me know if you have any other questions about how it’s put together.

thank you ! that was very helpful . may i ask what you have planned sump wise - with the return being on the side are you planning on high flow or depending more on the internal powerheads in the tank for movement?

 

[Gablami]

thank you ! that was very helpful . may i ask what you have planned sump wise - with the return being on the side are you planning on high flow or depending more on the internal powerheads in the tank for movement?

I’m planning for a custom sump that is 48”x28”. I haven’t ordered it yet, because I want to make sure it will fit in my stand. I’m pretty sure I’m going to go with one of advanced acrylics PVC hybrid sumps. I’m going for a triton method sump (though won’t be following the triton method).

I haven’t used socks in years, and just don’t see myself going back to that chore. I like a large fuge and having it be before the skimmer. I used to have issues with what I call “sudden chaeto death syndrome” until I got rid of socks, fed more and changed water more frequently. Haven’t had any issues with chaeto dying since, and I harvest a big chunk of chaeto every few weeks. Here’s a pic of my current sump (Reefer 525):

I’m planning for a high flow display tank, but not necessarily high sump turnover. I currently have a red dragon 100W return plumbed on my Reefer, so I’ll move that over. I’ll have a second return pump for redundancy, which will probably be an ecotech vectra M1 which I have in storage.

For DT flow I’m planning on copying @this is me, with his awesome sps angel tank — may it RIP —https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/nicks-360-gallons-reef-tank-with-angels.347824/. If you’re gonna check out a build thread, you gotta give that one a look.

He used two tunze turbelle 6255 pumps for his whole tank and says there’s plenty of flow. So I’ll give that a try, both of them mounted on the left side. No pumps or wires on any of the other panels. Hopefully this works. If it doesn’t, Ive got 4 mp40qds I can place on the back wall, but Im optimistic it doesn’t come to that.

 

[this is me]

@Gablami ,
Nice tank upgrade. We now have something in common lol. After about 3 months without a tank into the new house, I've planned for another tank from Miracle. The new tank is 84"x34"x28" ~345G. The order on the tank was placed in early February. The lead time as told was 8-12weeks. But with the current crisis going on, who knows. At the same time, I placed an order on the sump of 48"x20"x18" from Advanced Acrylic. That lead time was 4-6weeks. But again, with the current crisis, who knows. The last time I talked with John at AA, he has halted production since he can't get into the warehouse. Put an order on a bunch of G5 Radion Blues and same story there. And to be honest, I already lost some motivation in this....
I've kept all of my equipment on the 360G except for the Geisemann Spectra which in hindsight, was a mistake but it helps to get a buyer to get that tank out of the old house since the house was sold and I was in a time crunch.
I do plan on running the same exact equipment. 2xTunze 6255s on one side of the tank. They had no issue pushing to the end of the 72" tank at 50% power, I doubt they'll have any issue pushing to the end of a 84" tank. The flow will be assisted by the Vectra L2 with split return. So another 500GPH per return should be good.
I have bought a Geisemann Stellar to run the Radions with T5s. I have the Stellar, waiting for the Radions.
I have all the equipment cleaned and laid out ready to go. Built a stand for the sump and got materials to reinforce the floor. Everything was going. Then comes to lock down.

Are you planning on placing the tank against the wall? It looks like it from the picture. 34" wide at 24" height probably not an issue. But if you have the space, I would pull it out of the wall about 12". It helps when you drop something and easier to clean and aquascape.

 

[this is me]

And on another note. Final Fantasy VII Remake comes out tonight. There will be no tank activities for awhile.

 

[Cstar_BC]

I’m planning for a custom sump that is 48”x28”. I haven’t ordered it yet, because I want to make sure it will fit in my stand. I’m pretty sure I’m going to go with one of advanced acrylics PVC hybrid sumps. I’m going for a triton method sump (though won’t be following the triton method).

I haven’t used socks in years, and just don’t see myself going back to that chore. I like a large fuge and having it be before the skimmer. I used to have issues with what I call “sudden chaeto death syndrome” until I got rid of socks, fed more and changed water more frequently. Haven’t had any issues with chaeto dying since, and I harvest a big chunk of chaeto every few weeks. Here’s a pic of my current sump (Reefer 525):

I’m planning for a high flow display tank, but not necessarily high sump turnover. I currently have a red dragon 100W return plumbed on my Reefer, so I’ll move that over. I’ll have a second return pump for redundancy, which will probably be an ecotech vectra M1 which I have in storage.

For DT flow I’m planning on copying @this is me, with his awesome sps angel tank — may it RIP —https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/nicks-360-gallons-reef-tank-with-angels.347824/. If you’re gonna check out a build thread, you gotta give that one a look.

He used two tunze turbelle 6255 pumps for his whole tank and says there’s plenty of flow. So I’ll give that a try, both of them mounted on the left side. No pumps or wires on any of the other panels. Hopefully this works. If it doesn’t, Ive got 4 mp40qds I can place on the back wall, but Im optimistic it doesn’t come to that.

Wow ! Thanks for the tip that is an amazing tank .

I have a 240G 56x33x30 that I’m trying to setup however there have been so many hiccups . But it’s nice following your build !

 

[Gablami]

@Gablami ,
Nice tank upgrade. We now have something in common lol. After about 3 months without a tank into the new house, I've planned for another tank from Miracle. The new tank is 84"x34"x28" ~345G. The order on the tank was placed in early February. The lead time as told was 8-12weeks. But with the current crisis going on, who knows. At the same time, I placed an order on the sump of 48"x20"x18" from Advanced Acrylic. That lead time was 4-6weeks. But again, with the current crisis, who knows. The last time I talked with John at AA, he has halted production since he can't get into the warehouse. Put an order on a bunch of G5 Radion Blues and same story there. And to be honest, I already lost some motivation in this....
I've kept all of my equipment on the 360G except for the Geisemann Spectra which in hindsight, was a mistake but it helps to get a buyer to get that tank out of the old house since the house was sold and I was in a time crunch.
I do plan on running the same exact equipment. 2xTunze 6255s on one side of the tank. They had no issue pushing to the end of the 72" tank at 50% power, I doubt they'll have any issue pushing to the end of a 84" tank. The flow will be assisted by the Vectra L2 with split return. So another 500GPH per return should be good.
I have bought a Geisemann Stellar to run the Radions with T5s. I have the Stellar, waiting for the Radions.
I have all the equipment cleaned and laid out ready to go. Built a stand for the sump and got materials to reinforce the floor. Everything was going. Then comes to lock down.

Are you planning on placing the tank against the wall? It looks like it from the picture. 34" wide at 24" height probably not an issue. But if you have the space, I would pull it out of the wall about 12". It helps when you drop something and easier to clean and aquascape.

Nice! Can’t wait to see your new build. Glad you’re getting back in . I bet you get you get your new tank before me. I feel you on the motivation side of things. Like sometimes I look at the room and say, do I really need a 260 gallon reef tank taking over this room? But then most days it’s like, “HELL YES!” Lol.

It’s funny, I woulda thought I’d get tons of stuff done during the social distancing time at home. I got all these projects, etc. But time flies, preschools are sending all these projects for the kids to do, I’m doing all these chores I never did before, and before you know it, the day is over!

Anyways, back to the tank. I don’t think I can pull the tank from wall 12”. I’m planning on 3.5-4” which is enough for me to get my arm in. If I had that type of room, I’d probably opt for more tank!

And on another note. Final Fantasy VII Remake comes out tonight. There will be no tank activities for awhile.

You’ve got one kid right? At about 1 year? I’ve got a 2 year old and a 3 year old. Would LOVE to vege and play some video games like the old days. My wife and I would game together for hours pre-kids. Maybe once the kids get older lol. Enjoy it!

 

[this is me]

My son is 16months and is a handful. The only break I get is when he's sleeping. I'm downloading the 90GB FFVII now. Ready for tonight midnight gate to open. Lol

My last tank sat in the crate in the garage for a year before I did anything with it. Hopefully, this one will go up quick once I receive it.
I'm doing this for the kid, I think.

 

[BullyBee]

Sick build. I love it

 

[Gablami]

Found some time today to tap into a sewage drain in the crawl space. For this new build I want to open a ball valve on the tank or sump (still undecided) and gravity drain 30 gallons into the sewage line.

I want to use 1” PVC so it goes faster. 3/4” can still take surprisingly long for a large volume. I’ve done this before for 1/4 RO line for my AWC on my current tank. But drilling and tapping a 1” NPT thread is much larger (though same concept).

Disclaimer: I’m not a plumber nor an expert. I’ve just done this a couple times and wanted to share how I did it. Maybe there’s a better way to do it.

First you need to decide what size PVC you want to use. Then find a NPT tap (amazon has lots). You’re tapping into plastic so I would go cheap. No need to buy the nice stuff that can tap metal repeatedly.

There are charts that list what size drill bit to use for each tap size. Buy the corresponding drill bit size. I actually had a series of large drill bits which will be useful in serially enlarging the hole. If you go straight to the big one, it won’t work as well.

I bought a short piece of 6” pipe to practice on. Start small and enlarge the hole.

Thread it through all the way to the end. It’s tapered and it will slowly deepen the grooves of the thread.

...and that’s it. I decided to tap into my cleanout drain.

I bought some 45 and 90 degree fittings and will eventually extend the drain to the spot under the tank. Once the tank arrives I’ll use a hole drill to make a hole in my floor and put in a bulkhead.

I hope someone finds this useful. Let me know if you end up doing it!

 

[scuzy]

Hey Gabe looking good there. Can’t wait to see it completed.

 

[Gablami]

Thanks man! I’ll catch up to you...maybe in a few more months .

 

[scuzy]

my tank been pretty sad haha. I have like 4 piece of coral and not doing the best.

 

[Gablami]

my tank been pretty sad haha. I have like 4 piece of coral and not doing the best.

Maybe you gotta get more fish like before. From what I remember you only have a few fish in that big tank of yours. Load it up!

 

[Cwentz758]

Found some time today to tap into a sewage drain in the crawl space. For this new build I want to open a ball valve on the tank or sump (still undecided) and gravity drain 30 gallons into the sewage line.

I want to use 1” PVC so it goes faster. 3/4” can still take surprisingly long for a large volume. I’ve done this before for 1/4 RO line for my AWC on my current tank. But drilling and tapping a 1” NPT thread is much larger (though same concept).

Disclaimer: I’m not a plumber nor an expert. I’ve just done this a couple times and wanted to share how I did it. Maybe there’s a better way to do it.

First you need to decide what size PVC you want to use. Then find a NPT tap (amazon has lots). You’re tapping into plastic so I would go cheap. No need to buy the nice stuff that can tap metal repeatedly.

There are charts that list what size drill bit to use for each tap size. Buy the corresponding drill bit size. I actually had a series of large drill bits which will be useful in serially enlarging the hole. If you go straight to the big one, it won’t work as well.

I bought a short piece of 6” pipe to practice on. Start small and enlarge the hole.

Thread it through all the way to the end. It’s tapered and it will slowly deepen the grooves of the thread.

...and that’s it. I decided to tap into my cleanout drain.

I bought some 45 and 90 degree fittings and will eventually extend the drain to the spot under the tank. Once the tank arrives I’ll use a hole drill to make a hole in my floor and put in a bulkhead.

I hope someone finds this useful. Let me know if you end up doing it!

I had a similar idea wanting to just open a valve and let the water drain. However I have a basement being from Pa and was just going to run the PVC to the utility sink that will be right below the new tank. I loath carrying buckets now for a 60g let alone a 125-130g

 

[Gablami]

I had a similar idea wanting to just open a valve and let the water drain. However I have a basement being from Pa and was just going to run the PVC to the utility sink that will be right below the new tank. I loath carrying buckets now for a 60g let alone a 125-130g

Yes, the larger a tank gets, the more you gotta plan for water changes. Changing water 5 gallons at a time just won’t cut it. Putting a bulkhead in the tank for a drain is kinda scary but not that hard. Putting it in the sump is a little bit harder to plan, but you’re limited in the volume of water you can change at once. I’ve leaned both ways but I haven’t been able to decide yet. Currently leaning towards having it drain out of DT.

 

[rds85]

Yes, the larger a tank gets, the more you gotta plan for water changes. Changing water 5 gallons at a time just won’t cut it. Putting a bulkhead in the tank for a drain is kinda scary but not that hard. Putting it in the sump is a little bit harder to plan, but you’re limited in the volume of water you can change at once. I’ve leaned both ways but I haven’t been able to decide yet. Currently leaning towards having it drain out of DT.

I almost did this in my build, but I went to small daily AWC as my solution. I went under the mentality that the bulkhead in the display must be low enough to drain enough water to make a significant water change, which leads to that drain line under a "decent" amount of pressure relative of course. So I did a risk based approach. Currently I am assume you have three drains drilled relativity high in the glass ( or two if you have an external overflow box) which will only drain a 15-20 gallons of water at worst case if any of your bulkheads, valves, unions, fittings fail along your drain lines.
Now when you put a 4th ( or 3rd when using external overflow) lower than the original drains, using the same potential failure modes as before you increased amount of lost water to be 3-4X that. Best case scenario somehow you have a failure but it all drains into the waste water line ( sewer) and you can just fix the problem and refill the tank. I am sure you can picture worst case.

I am not trying to scare you by any means on your current position, but just sharing how I made my decision. Really large water changes I would just use a pump and hose and run it to my waste water and refill manually into the sump and pump it in. Granted I have a little different setup where I can drain my 75 gallon fuge for one water change in the sump.

 

[Gablami]

I almost did this in my build, but I went to small daily AWC as my solution. I went under the mentality that the bulkhead in the display must be low enough to drain enough water to make a significant water change, which leads to that drain line under a "decent" amount of pressure relative of course. So I did a risk based approach. Currently I am assume you have three drains drilled relativity high in the glass ( or two if you have an external overflow box) which will only drain a 15-20 gallons of water at worst case if any of your bulkheads, valves, unions, fittings fail along your drain lines.
Now when you put a 4th ( or 3rd when using external overflow) lower than the original drains, using the same potential failure modes as before you increased amount of lost water to be 3-4X that. Best case scenario somehow you have a failure but it all drains into the waste water line ( sewer) and you can just fix the problem and refill the tank. I am sure you can picture worst case.

I am not trying to scare you by any means on your current position, but just sharing how I made my decision. Really large water changes I would just use a pump and hose and run it to my waste water and refill manually into the sump and pump it in. Granted I have a little different setup where I can drain my 75 gallon fuge for one water change in the sump.

Thanks for the input. I totally agree with the concerns. When I first heard about a drain bulkhead midway in the tank, I thought (and said aloud), “no way.” But then I saw it on a couple tanks, and an LFS owner said he has never had one fail on him. Closed loop system used to be much more common and many of those bulkheads were on the bottom . Get a SCH80 bulkhead and many every once in a long while it might need to be tightened a quarter turn.

That said, your opinion has swayed me once again. I’ve been going back and forth whether to have the drain off the tank or off the sump, and now I’m leaning towards sump. I want to be able to do a 10% water change at one time, so about 25 gallons. If I have a large refugium section and put a bulkhead on the bottom of that, that would work.

But really, what’s the difference between having a failed drain on my tank or my sump if they’re both positioned to drain around 30 gallons?

I had a continuous AWC system setup for a couple years on my Red Sea tank. I used a two channel masterflex to change a couple gallons a day. That worked, and I think it’s a good solution, but I stopped it. I can’t give a good reason why. What are you going to setup your AWC? Maybe I missed that in your thread...

 

[Gablami]

I finally worked up the motivation to get back down into the crawl space. A 20” tall crawlspace is not bad, but it’s still a PITA. Every time I go down there, I think this is such a labor of love, and I also think of all the plumbers, electricians, and pest controllers who have to crawl down there for a living.

Today I reinforced the crawl space joists. I’m not sure that I HAD to, but I definitely wanted to. This tank will hopefully be in place for many years, and I just don’t want to worry about it.

I already had a couple of cement blocks, and purchased a 6x8” post. I did some research on jack posts. The ones at Home Depot are cheaper, but I had a hard time finding one short enough for my purposes. I finally found one that fit the bill. I’m really happy with it. It has a very solid, industrial quality and has a 15,000 lb capacity.

Mini Screw Jack

Our shortest adjustable Support Jack. The Ellis Mini Jacks are offered in two sizes, with minimum heights of either 6.5" (MJ-3) or 9.5" (MJ-6) and 15,000 lbs.

ellismanufacturing.com

Here’s the corner crawlspace before the reinforcement.

I had to dig down about 4 inches and then placed the cement blocks, jack posts and then 6x8”. Then put some elbow brackets in place. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Definitely not going anywhere.

So I’m almost done with all my pre-tank arrival checklist. I still need to drill one more hole for my skimmer airline and ATO tubing. Once the tank arrives, I’ll drill the hole in my floor to connect the drain.

The good news is I heard back from CDA yesterday, and they are estimating that they will be done with my tank and stand in 4 weeks!