Jay's Move - Build Thread - 350 gallon system

[JayinToronto]

This thread will be about build of my new system in my house. I'll be down-sizing a little bit from my current setup but it will be much more complex due to it being on 2 floors. Please don't hold back on comments and suggestions. This forum has been my aquarium's life blood for years and I look forward to everyone's input on the new system.

First a little bit about my current system.
I've been at this for over 12 years. I currently have a 400g setup in my loft. The aquarium sits on the floor with the sump and all components sitting beside it. I've had my ups and downs but feel that right now things are really dialed in on this system (see vids in next post).
Lighting: 6 Orphek Atlantics.
Circulation: 8 MP40s.
Return: AC through a UV sterilizer.
Deltec protein skimmer.
Refugium with bubble caulerpa.
Carbon reactor.
External chiller.
2 part dosing with ESV B-Ionic
All integrated with my Apex Fusion and Trident testing.
I keep my parameters at: Temp 78, Alk 9, Calcium 450, Mg 1375.

 

[JayinToronto]

Here a video of the current system

 

[JayinToronto]

Some more

 

[JayinToronto]

Some pics of the current system

 

[JayinToronto]

Here are some pics from over the years.

 

[JayinToronto]

Video attempt 2

 

[JayinToronto]

For the new build I'm building a custom 260g DT. My main reason for going a bit smaller is due to the difficulty I have reaching all the way to the bottom of my current system. So this one is only going to be 28" high, but is still going to be 6' long and will be 30" front to back. The tank will be in what was the dining room of the house.

I'll be putting it on an 18" high frame (haven't decided between metal or wood yet) set inside a stainless steel drip tray (I learned my lesson on that during a couple tank leak events on the current system).

The sump will be in the utility room of the new house in the basement. I'm building a custom 155 g sump down there. I hope to also be able to set up a frag tank, but the space is quite limited and I also want a sink and a couple large water holding tanks for top off and water changes.

 

[JayinToronto]

The first thing I would love some input from everyone on is what return to pump to use.

Internal vs External? Just out of concern for flooding the basement I think I like the idea of an internal pump. But I'm not totally sold.

AC vs DC? I would love a DC pump for efficiency as well as adjustability.

I like the idea of having 2 separate return pumps to create some redundancy, but in looking at the cost of some of the DC pump's I like, having only one makes some sense.

I've calculated the head height of the return to be approximately 25'

I'm strongly considering splurging on the Abyzz A400. The efficiency, power, adjustability and 10 year warranty are all major selling points to me. But obviously the cost is the main negative issue.

 

[JonoH]

The first thing I would love some input from everyone on is what return to pump to use.

Internal vs External? Just out of concern for flooding the basement I think I like the idea of an internal pump. But I'm not totally sold.

AC vs DC? I would love a DC pump for efficiency as well as adjustability.

I like the idea of having 2 separate return pumps to create some redundancy, but in looking at the cost of some of the DC pump's I like, having only one makes some sense.

I've calculated the head height of the return to be approximately 25'

I'm strongly considering splurging on the Abyzz A400. The efficiency, power, adjustability and 10 year warranty are all major selling points to me. But obviously the cost is the main negative issue.

Asking the same questions of myself at the moment!

I have been thinking of having a dedicated one for UV and for redundancy, but the cost may mean this is a future upgrade.

Also would love to known the advantages to internal vs external, my sump has the option to connect it externally.

 

[brandon429]

hey where I'm from thats about twenty grand in life that's no small job. that's a big deal man

what is your biological plan for relocating all that fish and coral without recycling/losses, any particular tricks you have planned to ensure the safe transfer

 

[JayinToronto]

hey where I'm from thats about twenty grand in life that's no small job. that's a big deal man

what is your biological plan for relocating all that fish and coral without recycling/losses, any particular tricks you have planned to ensure the safe transfer

Fortunately the move is within the same city. I'll be setting up the new system with some rock and water from the current system, so both will be running at the same time. I'll also have a kiddy pool set up in the new house to aid in the transfer and setup of the new system.

On the day of the move I'm going to fill 100l totes with snap on lids with the coral, rock and water. Old salt pails with lids will be used for the fish. All this will be put in a u-haul and taken across town in one load.

At least that's the plan A.

 

[Stevorino]

The first thing I would love some input from everyone on is what return to pump to use.

Internal vs External? Just out of concern for flooding the basement I think I like the idea of an internal pump. But I'm not totally sold.

AC vs DC? I would love a DC pump for efficiency as well as adjustability.

I like the idea of having 2 separate return pumps to create some redundancy, but in looking at the cost of some of the DC pump's I like, having only one makes some sense.

I've calculated the head height of the return to be approximately 25'

I'm strongly considering splurging on the Abyzz A400. The efficiency, power, adjustability and 10 year warranty are all major selling points to me. But obviously the cost is the main negative issue.

Loving the pics of your old tank and the game plan for the new one!

If you check out my build, we have a lot of similarities in general, but in this case I too pump from a fish room in the basement.

My fish room is below and across the house from the tank. My guess my return pump runs ~14 ft high and 35 ft long.

I have had a fish room in basement for almost 8 years(?) and have had success with Pan World and Iwaki Pumps. I now have a pair of Iwakis (the biggest one BRS sells). They move so much water my sump can only handle one at a time.

I looked at Abyzz and was super close to pulling the trigger, but decided to splurge elsewhere.

 

[brandon429]

How are you relocating the sand, that's the dangerous part

 

[JayinToronto]

Will be using 4 parts to 1 new sand to old. Will fill up one bucket of the old stuff in a sealed container for transport and then mix into the rest. I understand there are potential issues with Hydrogen Sulfide. Do you have any suggestions or tips?

 

[Lebowski_]

Excuse me sir, are you selling any frags or nems? Worth the drive!

Exciting project.

 

[brandon429]

We have a sixty page tank transfer thread, some are very high dollar relocation jobs

No losses or fails

#1 rule from all pages: transfer 0% unrinsed old sand. It has only danger, nothing of benefit. Your live rock re seeds the new sand with life. You can kill your fish with one handful of old sand, I have a thread from 2020 that did that. Leave that one part out and all will be fine

also from the thread: when the new tank is set up, dont run todays full power lights on it, ramp up from a -40% cut over three weeks for a guaranteed bleach prevention. Pre rinse any sand you buy so that it’s cloudless 100%

see these jobs:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

your sandbed bacteria don’t matter, only the live rock bacteria are required to make a safe transfer. Relocating 0-3 pods in the one handful of old sand isn’t worth it.


the light re ramping and the totally clean sand xfer are your two main change points for total safety. There is no need for bottle bac nor testing for ammonia (because a misread causes us to dump in chemicals in reaction, we never do that above)

 

[Lebowski_]

@brandon429 We need to get you a special badge for "Sand Guru".

 

[brandon429]

ten years ago I was very interested in finding the cause of why some tanks can transfer and some can’t without crashing…we found it


it was the waste within the sand grains. In the 00’s people would initiate tank transfers and all kinds of losses would happen if we watched the threads (because they always moved dirty sand)

it’s ironic that common cheap tap water is what fixed all the transfers. I love it when rules are remade in non standard ways. It’s doubly ironic that any reef tank on this site doesn’t need any of its sand bed bacteria, they are extra bioloading the tank tolerates vs being an integral link to safety of the filter system.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Following along!

 

[Lebowski_]

ten years ago I was very interested in finding the cause of why some tanks can transfer and some can’t without crashing…we found it


it was the waste within the sand grains. In the 00’s people would initiate tank transfers and all kinds of losses would happen if we watched the threads (because they always moved dirty sand)

it’s ironic that common cheap tap water is what fixed all the transfers. I love it when rules are remade in non standard ways. It’s doubly ironic that any reef tank on this site doesn’t need any of its sand bed bacteria, they are extra bioloading the tank tolerates vs being an integral link to safety of the filter system.

I actually used your advice I found through google when I transfered my 15g contents to my 25g - didn't lose a single piece. Instead of moving the sand, I ended up getting rid of most of it and now only maintain a very thin sand bed (<0.5"). So your proselytizing about sand maintainable is getting out there.