Jim's Tank

[James Goodman]

Hi All,

New member on the forum.

I thought i'd document my build as I hope for it to be a sucessful one and could do with some feedback and input from the more experinced reefers here :)

I've kept freshwater fish for many years and made the move into salt last year; and absolutley fell in love with it.

I had a lovely 400 litre tank doing really well with great coral growth and fat healthy fish... Until my daughter dumped a couple of cups of washing powder into the sump! Needless to say I lost everything and was devastated. I was very very close to walking away from the hobby altogether. However, I couldnt get the bug out of my system and decided to 'go big or give it up'.

I also have a couple of survivors that went into my evo and didnt want to part with them :)



So, this is the tank so far. Still dry and lots of work to do.




~2000 litres minus sump so far, a big jump from the evo!!

Kit so far is 3x Maxspect RS 200's 2x Gyre 350's and a single 330 with ICV6 controller. sump and return are all next on the build.

 

[dbl]

First off, welcome to R2R and your new reefing family. I'm glad you didn't give up and decided to take the next step. I'm signing up to following along on this build.

 

[SDK]

Nice looking build. Good timing as your current tank is too small for that catfish :D

 

[gtrider]

wow nice tank. good luck with it!

 

[Ironworm]

Love the tank and lighting

Looking forward to watching your build

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

Welcome, looking forward to the details of your build.

what the heck is washing powder?

 

[JumboShrimp]

Watching! :) What are the dimensions of your tank?

 

[JDnKY]

Welcome to r2r! Glad to have you on board. Very sorry to hear about the soap incident but the build that came from it will be epic. Looks great so far, can’t wait to see the progression.

 

[James Goodman]

Hi All,

Fistly, thanks for the warm welcome and apologies for the lag in my reply. I've been too busy working on the tank!

The tank is 10 feet (L) by 30" (W) and 28" (H). Its a custom design by Mark at my LFS (Taunton Aquarium Center) who thankfully took me through the whole design process and are helping with stocking and averall advice.

I've let the tank sit for a while to settle and did a 3 day leak test. Filling it was terrifying as i was expecting to to explode :) It took 3 days to fill as I only dared to do a 3rd at a time.



I ended up adding an extra XF330 Gyre to even out the flow a bit and to (hopefully) prevent dead spots at the back. Looks like a swimming pool from the side!!



This weekend has been all about getting it boxed in, lights hung and sump area sorted





Lit up the sump area so the kids dont get too scared when I lock them in there.



And started with cable management (i'm a tad OCD about cables ;) )



Next steps are painting, plumbing and installing the sump. Sump is due in a couple of weeks :( Am desperate to get water in it but i'm told this isa hobby for patient people :)

 

[James Goodman]

Welcome, looking forward to the details of your build.

what the heck is washing powder?

Washing powder, I think is Laundry detergent? kills fish whatever it is though!