My 200 Gallon Reef Savvy Dream Tank

[Behnken]

First off I would like to thank Chris Benner at Sticks N Stones for working with me on this build. Chris did a wonderful job building the stand, and worked with Felix on the tank design. If you are looking for a custom build Chris is your guy.

So about a year ago my wife and I decided to build a new house, the reefer instinct in me immediately kicked in. It was time to start convincing the boss that we needed a bigger tank. After some convincing I finally got the go ahead.

Fast forward 10 months and we are in our house, Chris has delivered the stand, and the tank will hopefully be delivered in a couple of weeks.

I have some fun things planned for this build, such as an automatic light lift and small details like wiring lights in the sump to come on when any door gets opened. One of the main focuses will be super clean wiring and ease of maintenance. I plan on making this a picture heavy build thread.

So on to the fun stuff. Here is the list of equipment.

Tank and Stand

80” x 24” x 24” Reef Savvy tank with armored seems and phantom bottom.

Walnut stand with electronics cabinet, acrylic liner for sump area, and one of my favorite features are the quick release removable doors.


Equipment

Bashsea 60” x 15” x 16” signature series sump

(2) Bashsea media canisters

Deltic 1500i Skimmer

Ecotech Marine L1 Return Pump

Geo CR618 Calcium Reactor

(4) Neptune Wav pumps

Apex monitoring system

Apex DOS this is from the old system now being replaced with the calcium reactor. I’m considering setting it up for automatic water changes.

I will also add the Neptune whenever I can get my hands on one


Lighting

(4) Ecotech Radion G4 Pros

(2) 36” Aquatic Life Hybrid Fluorescent fixtures

The plan is to be able to raise these 24” with pneumatic actuators

 

[Behnken]

I roughed in both electrical conduit and plumbing in the walls while the house was being built. My mixing station will be on the second floor, so I installed a 3/4” pipe to fill the tank during water changes and a 1” conduit to run the cabling and tubing for the auto top off.

Our laundry room is behind the tank so I ran a 3/4” pipe to connect to the drain line for water changes and several 1” conduits for tubing to the calcium reactor and possibly the DOS.

I also ran a 3/8” tube into the attic to attach to the skimmer to bring in fresh air.

 

[Txdragonslayer]

Can’t wait! Let the pictures flow! Lol

 

[Devaji]

man it must be so nice to build I house with a tank in mind. that plumbing going to be so clean!
keep the updates coming I am curious about this armored seems and phantom bottom.

 

[Behnken]

man it must be so nice to build I house with a tank in mind. that plumbing going to be so clean!
keep the updates coming I am curious about this armored seems and phantom bottom.

It was a lot of fun, and our builder was really cool about letting me get in and run the conduit. I considered doing an in wall with a fish room, but I decided to build it so if we decided to move there wouldn’t be any wall repair or major work needed for a new owner.

 

[Behnken]

Here are some pics of the mixing station. Our mechanical space is on our second floor almost directly above the tank. The floor has additional bracing were they sit for the extra weight. I also put a pan underneath the mixing station just incase of a leak. I still need to run a drain line from the pan to the drain, and put a couple of fittings for the RO/DI fill area, should have it done in a couple of days.

 

[Behnken]

I wired up a switched receptacle for the pump my other mixing station I was constanly reaching behind to plug and unplug the pump.

 

[Behnken]

Here are some pictures of the stand. Chris did an amazing job with it.

 

[Behnken]

I placed a LED strip light in the cabinet and installed micro door switches so the light will come on no matter which door gets opened.

 

[Behnken]

Here are some pics with the sump in place.

 

[Behnken]

I want to have as much of the wiring concealed but one thing I learned from my last build was that created some issues when taking pumps and other equipment out to clean it. I have about 4.5” from the back of the sump to the back wall of the stand.

I decided to install receptacles along the back wall and have them each controlled by the Apex so I can easily unplug the equipment to remove it. I also added a raceway to install all the probe wiring so it will be separate from the power wiring.

The bottom pipe will be used to run the L1 return pump wire through because of the large fitting on the end of the cable

 

[ESH]

Very nice! Looking like this is going to be a very clean build!

 

[Behnken]

Very nice! Looking like this is going to be a very clean build!

Thanks, stay tuned I’ll be posting pics of the control cabinet soon. It’s looking pretty good so far.

 

[Captain Quint]

Looking great. Looking forward to more.

 

[BoSalman]

Perfect so far!

Looking forward to see the tank...

 

[Scubafrog]

WOW!

Looking Good!

 

[Behnken]

The controls are done for the most part.

Here is a picture of the wiring behind.

 

[Behnken]

The tank arrived a couple weeks ago and I’ve been busy getting everything plumbed in. I couldn’t be happier with the work Chris Benner and Felix did with the stand and the tank.

 

[Behnken]

Here are the plumbing pictures.

 

[Behnken]

For the lighting I went with two 36” Aquatic Life Hybrid fixtures and four Radion’s. I rewired the two Aquatic Life fixtures together so there is only one cord feeding both lights.