My 300 gallon basement reef build

[Agrass1992]

Hello everyone,

I'm excited to say I finally ordered my new reef tank. I sold my 180 when my wife and I sold our last house and am ready to upgrade my 40 breeder to a 300 gallon tank.

The tank is being built by Customaquariums.com and is 84 long by 36 wide and 24 tall. I decided to only do 24 tall for ease of maintenance. The tank is going to be build into a corner wall so it will be visible from two sides. I'm going to use a 16 inch synergy overflow on the left side and two 3/4 inch return spaced between the overflow and the front and back, giving it a peninsula feel.

I ordered a custom T slot aluminum stand from Alufab.com. I could have pieced this together myself but for this build having a professional stand with all of the anchor points pre drilled so I only have to assemble was worth the $1200 it cost. Plus the aluminum extrusions will be very useful down the road for hanging support equipment like an algae scrubber or uv sterilizer.

The last thing to handle for now is the sump. I am leaning very heavily towards a synergy CL-60 sump but have not placed the order just yet for that. I'm curious to see if anyone has any other recommendations for a quality sump for this size of tank. I want one with 1.5 inch drain holes to match my synergy overflow. And although looks aren't everything, this is going to by my 10 year plus tank and I would like the sump to look as good as the tank hopefully will.

Ive attached my current sketch up of what the basement should look like when it's finished for reference

 

[lapin]

That is a nice sump

 

[Lividfanatica]

Dude - we are almost twins! I just finished my basement, had customaqariums build me a 310, built it into a wall AND have a synergysystems sump! Hit me up - love to talk reefs and maybe we can bounce some ideas off of each other. My build thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/adams-310-gallon-build-thread.819720/#post-9831457 for your reference.

Your drawing looks awesome - that will be an amazing setup!

 

[Agrass1992]

Dude - we are almost twins! I just finished my basement, had customaqariums build me a 310, built it into a wall AND have a synergysystems sump! Hit me up - love to talk reefs and maybe we can bounce some ideas off of each other. My build thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/adams-310-gallon-build-thread.819720/#post-9831457 for your reference.

Your drawing looks awesome - that will be an amazing setup!

Haha thats so funny. I just checked out your videos, I like how yours is framed. Mine will be similar. I'm a little jealous of the space you have behind the tank. I will have some space but not nearly that amount of space. You will have to let me know how you like the overflow system. I was talked out of it by my LFS so I'm going to be using a synergy 16" overflow. Here is an idea of how I plan to do my piping configuration. My tank and sump should be arriving in April sometime. I ordered a Custom T slot aluminum stand that should be here in about 5 weeks or so.

 

[Lividfanatica]

Haha thats so funny. I just checked out your videos, I like how yours is framed. Mine will be similar. I'm a little jealous of the space you have behind the tank. I will have some space but not nearly that amount of space. You will have to let me know how you like the overflow system. I was talked out of it by my LFS so I'm going to be using a synergy 16" overflow. Here is an idea of how I plan to do my piping configuration. My tank and sump should be arriving in April sometime. I ordered a Custom T slot aluminum stand that should be here in about 5 weeks or so.

Will do! - I should have water in it fairly soon. The only thing I don't like so far is the height of the stand. I would have raised the tank a bit more... but I can barely reach into it as it stands now, so maybe not. This design over overflow is a bit different than I am used to, but once again - I'll find out and let you know!

 

[periocillin]

I would put the longest part of the aquarium towards the armchairs

 

[Agrass1992]

Unfo

I would put the longest part of the aquarium towards the armchairs

Unfortunately I can't as there is a beam where the current corner of the aquarium is and behind that wall is where my furnace is. In its current configuration it leaves some space but I wouldn't have room for the full length there. If I were to put it on the other side I'd lose that entire bar area and only end up with a view from one side. I looked at this several ways and I think this is the best use of the space I have

 

[Sean Clark]

You might need to just keep Avatar on a continuous loop down there, or any movie that is already heavy on the blues.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Photos = Fun! Looking forward to yours as your project gets going.

 

[Agrass1992]

Looking for lighting reccomendations if anyone has any. Dimensions are 7x3 and 2 foot deep. The plan is mixed reef. Sps lps and softie. I figure the center of the tank will feature most of the sps and as you work towards the front and bottom is where the lps will be. I am leaning towards a 61 inch aquatic life t5 fixture and some leds to work with it. Even though it's a 7 ft tank I'm kind of treating the lighting like it's a 6 ft tank. 7 is just kind of an awkward number to work with it seems like.

 

[Sean Clark]

I almost went with the 61" aquatic life fixture too; but I got nervous about the future availability of t5 bulbs.
Treating it like a 6' tank is smart, you will have some lower lighting on both ends to put different corals.
I am a Kessil person but maybe 3-4 skys or 4-5 radions with some reefbrites or other strip lighting to act as the t5s.
Or 3 ati stratons would be nice.

 

[Lividfanatica]

Looking for lighting reccomendations if anyone has any. Dimensions are 7x3 and 2 foot deep. The plan is mixed reef. Sps lps and softie. I figure the center of the tank will feature most of the sps and as you work towards the front and bottom is where the lps will be. I am leaning towards a 61 inch aquatic life t5 fixture and some leds to work with it. Even though it's a 7 ft tank I'm kind of treating the lighting like it's a 6 ft tank. 7 is just kind of an awkward number to work with it seems like.

I was going to put Skys over my 310 but ended up with 3x XR30 Pros and 2x 6' Quanta Pro (Meso Blue) light bars (local guy's lighting line that looked good - so I'm giving them a shot!). I think in time I will at least add another XR30 as I plan on having primarily SPS. Waiting on a par meter to make that call.

 

[JachPot]

I am following this bad boy, because that's basically the exact size tank I want in my basement and I want it on a metal stand if possible. I'd love if you could DM me your quotes and specs for these so that I could potentially copy them!

 

[Agrass1992]

I am following this bad boy, because that's basically the exact size tank I want in my basement and I want it on a metal stand if possible. I'd love if you could DM me your quotes and specs for these so that I could potentially copy them!

I'll try to get you over my quotes when I get a second. I know it was roughly 3k for the tank and 1500 for the stand from Alufab.

 

[Agrass1992]

The stand from Alufab showed up today. Just got done putting it together. Forgive the mess I did some demolition last weekend but haven't gotten rid of the aftermath just yet. It took me a solid 4 hours to put this together by myself. The connectors aren't the easiest to tighten using a standard Alan wrench, but hopefully that's something we only have to do once! I love how it came out. Now I plan to reach out somewhere local to get a pvc sheet made for the bottom. I would have gone through Alufab but they said it was going to significantly jack up the price of shipping.

 

[JachPot]

I'll try to get you over my quotes when I get a second. I know it was roughly 3k for the tank and 1500 for the stand from Alufab.

So good news, I found an absolutely sicko 200 gallon at an absolute steal. I appreciate the effort, but I'm out of tank money. Thanks for the rough estimate though!


Got a nuvo ext 200 with stand for $2000

 

[jepuskar]

The stand from Alufab showed up today. Just got done putting it together. Forgive the mess I did some demolition last weekend but haven't gotten rid of the aftermath just yet. It took me a solid 4 hours to put this together by myself. The connectors aren't the easiest to tighten using a standard Alan wrench, but hopefully that's something we only have to do once! I love how it came out. Now I plan to reach out somewhere local to get a pvc sheet made for the bottom. I would have gone through Alufab but they said it was going to significantly jack up the price of shipping.

Thank you for posting. I'm waiting on my quote from Alufab to get the process started. Also, thinking of going with Custom Aquariums, but they won't do the external overflow like I want it done, so probably won't.

 

[Agrass1992]

Thank you for posting. I'm waiting on my quote from Alufab to get the process started. Also, thinking of going with Custom Aquariums, but they won't do the external overflow like I want it done, so probably won't.

Sorry to hear that, they set mine up for a synergy 16" overflow. The tank just showed up today. Very excited to see it inside tomorrow.

 

[Agrass1992]

So today was the big day. I hired a few movers to get the tank into my basement. For those curious it took 6 full grown men and even then it was a bit of a struggle but it's here now. Seeing it in person I can already say that I love the dimensions on this tank! I am really glad I went with 3 feet deep on this one. While in the crate it was actually packed sideways and I wondered if I should have gone with a 3 foot tall and 2 deep tank, but seeing this one on the stand has completely reassured me of my choice.

 

[Agrass1992]

Here's the latest, please forgive the poor lighting. New lights won't be installed down here until the framing is done. Mostly working on the basement more than the tank at this point. I got my first wall framed up tonight. I also added the bottom piece that the sumps going to sit on. That should be showing up soon asnI heard today it's in the final production stage.