JPK's 275 Gallon Garage SPS System

JPK

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HI all,

Here is my latest build thread :). The new and improved garage system consists of a new 5' x 3' x 20" Crystal Dynamics glass aquarium, a 4' x 24" x 12" glass frag tank, a 32 gallon Fiji Cube (on the other side of the wall in my wife's office) and a 50" x 24" x 16" Advanced Acrylics sump.

If you are interested, here are my previous build/sales threads

I had a 150 gallon SPS system in my office and another frag system in my garage. At first it was fun having two separate systems, but after a while it just felt like I was doing everything twice. So, I decided to consolidate and add a new 5' grow-out tank.

This was a big project, which included building a new water change station and constructing all new shelves and work benches in the garage.

Here are a few pics of my previous system before the upgrade

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150 gallon in my office

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60 gallon frag tank in garage

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32 gallon cube in my wife's office
 
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JPK

JPK

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I will start with the salt mixing/water change station. I upgraded from 25 gallon vessels to 65 gallon vessels. The plan was to construct this so I could twist a valve and pump mixed salt from the vessel to the sump and also set up an auto water change via a Dos.

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Here are the 65 gallon vessels I found at an agriculture warehouse

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And here is the finished product, pretty standard salt mixing station
 
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JPK

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The water in my city is really bad, so I had to go overboard with my RODI

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Pump > sediment filter > Chloramine Monster > 3 carbon blocks > 2 RO filters > 1 Anion > 1 Cation > 2 mixed bed resin
 
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JPK

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Here is the new tank 5' x 3' x 20" Crystal Dynamic custom aquarium on one of their steel stands. Re-enforced bottom and seams with euro brace.

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JPK

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When I was planning the scape, I wanted to make something that had a lot of room for coral, was fairly level and allowed flow to pass below. I built it out of left over Marco rock and Tonga branch rock I had with super glue and mortar.

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I hate this part, where everything seems a bit too overwhelming

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I added feet on all of my base rocks in the scape to allow flow to pass underneath.

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6 million hours later
 
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Here is a vid of when I test fit the scape, there are four structures

 
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JPK

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I am OCD and hate to look at wires, so I always build some sort of wire hiding technology.
Here is my latest which consists of a box in the stand and another box on the wall behind the tank.

Here is the box in the stand

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Test fitting energy bars and I made power block holders

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I added an access panel in the rear to make my life easier

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Ok here it the mostly finished product. I used magnets to attach the doors

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JPK

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Here is a side shot of the tank when I was cycling it, before I attached it to the frag tank. I had a bunch of marine pure blocks etc cooking for about a year in my old systems. I started cycling on July 1st 2022.

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And this is basically where I am today, tank is a little cloudy because I was feeding the coral.

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The tank has been running for almost 2 months now. I attached it to the frag tank a few weeks ago and I am stoked that coralline algae is already growing!!

I have some algae on the rocks, as to be expected when starting with dry rock, but my tangs are keeping it in check.

To be continued

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Here are before and after shots of the new shelving and work bench, complete with a kitty jail (cats can access the litter box through the wall from my wife's office)

This was the concept I was working with





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JPK

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Hi, here are a few more shots of the tank and some coral. Things are still settling in and most have browned out a bit with the transition.

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I like the man cave setup you have going on... I would spend my entire day in there quite happily. The only thing that would have me scared was the wife asking me to do the washing when down there:face-with-hand-over-mouth:
 
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3A502175-0FBD-4D2B-A9B4-AA3410CB6C89.jpeg

BC glowstick frag that is no longer a frag (I have been busy and haven’t been selling lately)

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TCK wildcard tenuis

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BC Frankenberry

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BC Cricket Spine mother colony

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Overgrown BC Cricket Spine frag

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Cantell’s banana

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Tyree Pinky the bear mother with overgrown frags

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A metric ton of Vivid Confetti I fragged today
 
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JPK

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I like the man cave setup you have going on... I would spend my entire day in there quite happily. The only thing that would have me scared was the wife asking me to do the washing when down there:face-with-hand-over-mouth:
Thanks Bali, I have been spending a lot of time in there lately, I think I finally have it dialed in. And yes there have been some laundry duties as well, but I go in to grab the laundry and don’t come out haha.
 

Janci

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Great system and neatly done wire management.
How many marine pure blocks do you count for such a system?
I would love to have this size of tank and that stand looks not that over-engineered as most of the stands tend to do.
All 4 tanks are connected to the same sump?
 
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HI Janci,
Yes I like that the stand is so low profile but still does the job. I especially like the leveling feet that it has. I paid a little extra for this, but my garage is on a slope and this made my life much easier. I used a 1/2 cubic foot box of the marine pure 2" cubes, I also used some live rock from my existing system, they seemed to help and were full of pods. All three of my tanks and my salt mixing station are attached to the same sump, I had to get creative with the plumbing :)

What is going on with your system? Did you ever set up a new one?
 

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HI Janci,
Yes I like that the stand is so low profile but still does the job. I especially like the leveling feet that it has. I paid a little extra for this, but my garage is on a slope and this made my life much easier. I used a 1/2 cubic foot box of the marine pure 2" cubes, I also used some live rock from my existing system, they seemed to help and were full of pods. All three of my tanks and my salt mixing station are attached to the same sump, I had to get creative with the plumbing :)

What is going on with your system? Did you ever set up a new one?
Hi, I saw the leveling feet and for sure, the stand is very well done. Worth it for sure.
I see more and more people having a very open scape with less and less live rock. So I keep wondering how much replacement is needed in the sump to keep the nutrients in check. Thanks for answering.

I took down and sold my system as I needed to move countries. Since then it was not possible to start again but i have a tank and stand ready at home to restart as soon as we settle down.
For now, i am enjoying others tanks and try to keep up with the new inventions in automation.
 
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