Kelan's 210g build - with full fish room.

[dsmhero]

I am excited to be posting this, I finally get to join the large tank family.

I started in the hobby early of 2011 with a 12g nano which quickly became a 24g then finally to my current 60g cube. Now that we have bought a house, it is time for a large tank and fish room build.

A buddy of mine was getting out of the hobby completely and I was able to take all his equipment off his hands. The tank is 210g 72"x24"x30" and will have its own support room. Let's just let the pictures do the talking and I will explain ask the process goes on. It may be a slow project but I will keep this thread up to date...

Getting the tank cleaned up for the move




Loading up






Finally made it to my basement unscathed


Here is the wall it will go on


75g sump which I am unsure if I will end up using. I like the rubbermaid troughs


The skimmer he had looks the be the Reef Octopus 150ext which seems quite small for a tank his size but I was able to throw it on the 60 cube so I could get get the little PSK-75 out of there


Another shot of the tank


Fish room

 

[steelheader.262]

Wow, thats guite the upgrade, good luck!!!

 

[bobman]

Nice you sticking that thing in the wall? Its been something I have been thinking of doing but the soon to be wife (or ex lol) wont let me.

 

[dsmhero]

Wow, thats guite the upgrade, good luck!!!

Thanks!

Nice you sticking that thing in the wall? Its been something I have been thinking of doing but the soon to be wife (or ex lol) wont let me.

I don't want an in wall because I love the view going down the full length of the tank.

I should have a rough SketchUp model up soon.

 

[dsmhero]

Here is what I am thinking about the stand. I am sure it is quite over built, but I don't see how it should hurt. Ideas?

All built with 2x8 and 2x6 and 32" tall. The room only has 82" tall ceilings.


Tank room


Support Room

 

[Harold Green]

There used to be a great video that I went by when I built the stand for my 210. I don't remember where I found it but basically it was 2x4's planed and glued up to make 4x6's. They were bolted together to form a rectangle. Two made the ends of the stand and the other two spaced evenly to support the rest of the stand. Way over building but a stand that would last practically forever. Hint, the 75 is what I'm using for a sump and I had to make the stand a little deeper than I needed for the 210 so that the 75 would fit under it.

 

[dsmhero]

There used to be a great video that I went by when I built the stand for my 210. I don't remember where I found it but basically it was 2x4's planed and glued up to make 4x6's. They were bolted together to form a rectangle. Two made the ends of the stand and the other two spaced evenly to support the rest of the stand. Way over building but a stand that would last practically forever. Hint, the 75 is what I'm using for a sump and I had to make the stand a little deeper than I needed for the 210 so that the 75 would fit under it.

I will have to look for that video. Fortunately I wont be using the underneath of the stand for a sump, only storage. Everything else will be in the support room.

 

[Harold Green]

With a remote sump you definitely have the option to go quite a bit larger on the sump. I'd shoot for several tubs totalling as much as the tank volume. That way you can have a 100g refusium plus your skimmer and ato will be much easier to service. Wish I had been able to do that. I do have my ato system remote with three 30g tubs. One for ro water, one for ato plus kalk, one for salt water. That allows me to swap the ato water for salt water and do a water change allowing the ato to refill the sump with salt water. The video was on some other reef forum website but I don't recall which one. It looks like you could park a semi on the stand without flexing it. I've done lots of custom stands but I wanted this one to be so plain you wouldn't even notice it rather just focus on the tank. Somehow I managed to not take any pictures during construction. Curses. Here's the finished stand clad in 3/4"birch plywood along with an oak pantry cabinet to hold equipment and supplies.

 

[HowUDoin]

Stand seems like overkill to me. Are you going to wrap it with plywood? That will also add a lot of strength to it.

Nice score on the upgrade, good luck with the build.

 

[dsmhero]

Slow process but finally get some things organized.


Pumps to clean


Here are the two externals the previous owner was running. They are in need of some cleaning, not sure if I will even use them. The new Ecotech Vectra is looking promising.