MattL22 225 gal first lg tank build!!

[MattL22]

Hello I've been on reef 2 reef a few yrs now by far the most fun site!!
I've been in hobby about 4 yrs I had pretty good sucess with my first 75 gal

tank grew sps but ran into some bad luck from mislabeled 2 part to sandy and a few moves!
I'm finally setteled in my hopefully forever home after bout a month of living In new house I brought the 225 in to basement to start build!
The process of buying / looking for the tank started few months ago and I feel really lucky to have found this beautiful set up used and basicly a steal from a really generous guy who was happy that the tank was going to someone who would use and love it for many years!
Here is the tank in uhaul!

My brother and I left Long Island 6am one Sunday morning drove 2 hrs to New Jersey the guy I bought it from had 2 friends we had a dolly and 4 vaccum suction cups !
When we got back to my garage on Long Island just my brother and I where able to pull it off on to 2 horses !

 

[MattL22]

Tank is 3/4 starfire glass custom weighs about 500 lbs it was hairy pulling it off the van with just 2 guys!

 

[MattL22]

It came with a gorgeous custom made walnut stand and hood and custom sump!

Another pic of the tank

 

[Duffam3434]

Awsome!! Can't wait to see what you do with it!! Following Along!!

 

[MattL22]

Looking at this tank and sump in my garage was a bit daunting I had never done a big tank and really had no idea what to do! So first thing I wanted to get the 500lb tank off the 2 flimsy wooden horses and down in the basement!

Here is tank being rolled in on dolly over new tile floor was worried weight might break tile but it worked out!

 

[MattL22]

Tank in its final location! I wasn't happy about the beam but its the only place tank fit next to the closet I wanted to use for a fish room. Closet!
I know it could be moved but its not that bad about 3 and half feet between tank and column !

 

[MattL22]

Getting tank down the steps was a challenge we slid it down on a pice of 2"x6" wood it was hairy!

 

[MattL22]

Was gonna go bare bottom for this build because of the fact this will be an sps tank and the sucess I've seen of reefers in my area and online going bb (Cuna reefer very impressive no sand or rock approach) but my wife who usally has very little to say about the tank spoke reef to me one afternoon and basicly said my previous 40 breeder which was bb was really ugly that this tank needed sand so between that and an obvious love for wrasses I decided to add sand and I'm happy with the choice! I started filling tank before even started plumbing!

 

[MattL22]

Of course this being a used tank that was empty atleast a month or 2 I was nervous and looking everywhere for leaks

 

[CUNAReefer]

Was gonna go bare bottom for this build because of the fact this will be an sps tank and the sucess I've seen of reefers in my area and online going bb (Cuna reefer very impressive no sand or rock approach) but my wife who usally has very little to say about the tank spoke reef to me one afternoon and basicly said my previous 40 breeder which was bb was really ugly that this tank needed sand so between that and an obvious love for wrasses I decided to add sand and I'm happy with the choice! I started filling tank before even started plumbing!

Looking good Matt! I think you made the right choice with the sand. I like the ease of maintenance with no rock/sand, but I love the look of a bright white sand bed. You can also keep wrasses without a sand bed, but something tells me the wife would like the look of Tupperware containers around the tank. Looking forward to seeing this tank grown out. Good Luck! James

 

[eliramos]

following along good luck with the build!!!!

 

[MattL22]

Thanks guys taking it slow with this build !
Oh before I even bought the tank I saw a great deal for a set of LEDs !
So this tank will for now have 2 fixtures over it !
I bought them and was very happy with them for the price I think i paid $300 for both them but after hanging them realized that I had to rewire them cause I wanted the drivers under the tank so I needed to add 10 ft of wire too also let me take light out of the hood and work on tank !

 

[MattL22]

 

[MattL22]

That last picture represents about 60 hrs of work on the tank !

Originally the hood for tank had a bracket but because of the low ceiling I removed the bracket so I just pull Down the front pice when keep to work on tank!

 

[MattL22]

Sump closet

 

[MattL22]

Just picked up a mtc cal reactor for $100 just needs a new pump for $60 so all I really need is a skimmer!
For Christmas gonna get sro 5000 int

 

[MattL22]

Decided I needed to build a heavy duty shelf to hold 3 water containers I found a heavy garbage called slim at Home Depot !
Gonna use right side for the 3 29 gal containers left side for mtc cal reactor and media reactor

 

[MattL22]

 

[revhtree]

Great job!

 

[MattL22]