Mike’s 300 gallon In-Wall Tank and Fish Room Build

[Victoria M]

There is so much going on in this thread that I love, I dont even know where to start! I have a thing for fishrooms. What can I say? Do you plan to place the sump under the tank? It is just harder to work in them under tank. I am very fortunate my fishroom is in the basement so my sump is elevated at a pretty good height to work on. The merfolk are great, but they will outgrow that tank in short order.

 

[Victoria M]

Look at all those elevated plugs! ;Wacky So awesome!

 

[Victoria M]

Acid washing old rock is the way to go. Unless you had neomeris annulata, then throw it out. Do you n to soak and treat for phosphate?

 

[Mike Jenkins]

There is so much going on in this thread that I love, I dont even know where to start! I have a thing for fishrooms. What can I say? Do you plan to place the sump under the tank? It is just harder to work in them under tank. I am very fortunate my fishroom is in the basement so my sump is elevated at a pretty good height to work on. The merfolk are great, but they will outgrow that tank in short order.

Thank you for the comments!! Yes, the sump will go under the tank, not my first choice, but I didn’t want to take up that much space anywhere else in the room. And there is so much available real estate under there. With the 42” tall stand and no supports in the way I think I’ll have enough room to work under there, fingers crossed.

 

[Mike Jenkins]

Acid washing old rock is the way to go. Unless you had neomeris annulata, then throw it out. Do you n to soak and treat for phosphate?

Old rock was acid washed and then bleach cured for an additional week. New Marcos rock was bleach cured for a day just cause.... All rock is currently curing in brute cans of heated circulated saltwater.

 

[Mike Jenkins]

Ok, time for some updates. I did a little preliminary aqua scraping before placing all the rock in brute trash cans for additional curing while the build progresses.

 

[Victoria M]

Looks great.

 

[Mike Jenkins]

At this point I was still waiting on my back ordered Shadow overflow from Synergy Reef so I decided to go ahead and get started on some of the plumbing for the sump and UVs.

I am using 3 Varios 8 pumps. The external one is for a closed loop running the high flow UV. One of the in sump pumps is feeding the manifold and the left return line. The other in sump pump is feeding the low flow UV and the right return line.

 

[Mike Jenkins]

This past week I finally received my Shadow overflow and was able to get all the holes drilled in the tank. With the current virus situation my wife wasn’t thrilled about having a bunch of people over to help lift the tank on the stand. So, I did a little improvising with some table lifts. My wife and I were able to get the tank up on its stand just the two of us. Doesn’t she look thrilled about the tank build!?

 

[PotomacReef]

At this point I was still waiting on my back ordered Shadow overflow from Synergy Reef so I decided to go ahead and get started on some of the plumbing for the sump and UVs.

I am using 3 Varios 8 pumps. The external one is for a closed loop running the high flow UV. One of the in sump pumps is feeding the manifold and the left return line. The other in sump pump is feeding the low flow UV and the right return line.

Unbelievable build. Quite amazing. The attention to detail is awesome. Maybe I missed this, but how many electrical circuits do you have near your tank? I noted you have 3-4 double outlets high and low for the lighting/pumps/accessories.

 

[Mike Jenkins]

And this weekend I was able to get the drains plumbed and tap water in the tank for some leak testing. Had leaks at several of the threaded connections that I’m still working through and cracked one of the bulkheads on the sump by overtightening one of the threaded connections, but nothing time and another amazon order can’t fix.

 

[Mike Jenkins]

Unbelievable build. Quite amazing. The attention to detail is awesome. Maybe I missed this, but how many electrical circuits do you have near your tank? I noted you have 3-4 double outlets high and low for the lighting/pumps/accessories.

Thank you for the compliments! I ran two 20 amp dedicated circuits for the fish room. Each double outlet is fed with one circuit on the right outlets and the other circuit on the left outlets.

 

[Mike Jenkins]

Looks great.

Thanks!

 

[Fishboy9227]

Is that a Fiji cube sump? How do you like it?

 

[PotomacReef]

Thank you for the compliments! I ran two 20 amp dedicated circuits for the fish room. Each double outlet is fed with one circuit on the right outlets and the other circuit on the left outlets.

Excellent. I'm assuming that they GFCIs too? I can't tell from the picture. Makes sense on the split of the circuits, it's easier to run electrical vertically in the wall.

What are you going to run on each circuit?

Also, glad to see this set up is close! Hello from VA

 

[Victoria M]

It is a work of art! What rnd are the valves?

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Looks great! Where did you get your utility sink? I’d love to have something like that for my build.

 

[Mike Jenkins]

Excellent. I'm assuming that they GFCIs too? I can't tell from the picture. Makes sense on the split of the circuits, it's easier to run electrical vertically in the wall.

What are you going to run on each circuit?

Also, glad to see this set up is close! Hello from VA

Yes each circuit is on its own GFCI circuit. The two GFCI plugs at the start of each branch are on the sink/water reservoir wall for easy reset. (I have a love/hate relationship with GFCI, but safety first I suppose...)

I haven’t had the brain power to make final decisions on the electrical side of things yet. I plan on running an apex with two energy bars, each on its own circuit. There will be several MP40s and or MP60s.

Still debating the lighting. I want SPS dominant and I want to go all LEDs but the 72x36 footprint is a tough one to work out from a coverage perspective. I’m leaning towards 6 Radion XR15s Gen5s. But worried it may not be enough. May go with 6 XR30s but that’s a big price jump from the XR15s.

You’re in Northern VA also? Awesome! What’s your favorite LFS?

 

[Mike Jenkins]

It is a work of art! What rnd are the valves?

Thanks! They are the cepex valves that BRS sells.

 

[Mike Jenkins]

Looks great! Where did you get your utility sink? I’d love to have something like that for my build.

Thanks! There are actually a lot of options out there for these type sinks. Just do a google search for commercial sink. I ended up getting mine off eBay. It was $100 cheaper than the same model at any of the online stores. I purchased the faucet from Amazon.