New House and New 300 Gallon reef tank build w/ fish room

[cracker]

Very nice labor of love & patience !

 

[BroadBno615]

What program did you use to design your fish room and plumbing?

 

[scott11106]

What program did you use to design your fish room and plumbing?

i used autocad for the drawing and setup, i used the furniture store (IKEA) free app to give a 3d view of room

 

[BroadBno615]

i used autocad for the drawing and setup, i used the furniture store (IKEA) free app to give a 3d view of room

Alsome thanks

 

[scott11106]

Alsome thanks

are you setting up a system? let me know if you need anything at all

 

[BroadBno615]

are you setting up a system? let me know if you need anything at all

I'm in the process of designing one. A couple years out. But your is definitely inspiration..

 

[TK_KW]

@scott11106, jesus man lol. I finally got through this whole threat. All I can say is wow, looks fantastic, great forethought. Fish room looks amazing. Everything is so very clean looking.

Questions
1- are you growing chaeto now? Or just using the scrubber?
2- with three of those apex eb8 power bars, are they all on one circuit? Or split up.
3- quaritne, do you just seed tank everytime and use air stone? Is air stone needed?
4- do you like the way those neptune flow meter are working for you (I'm contemplating getting some)
5-what RODI is that, that you have?

Thanks again, you've been a huge help. Love the touch of cabinetry above/below incorporated in display side. Nice touch, cheers

 

[scott11106]

@scott11106, jesus man lol. I finally got through this whole threat. All I can say is wow, looks fantastic, great forethought. Fish room looks amazing. Everything is so very clean looking.

Questions
1- are you growing chaeto now? Or just using the scrubber?
2- with three of those apex eb8 power bars, are they all on one circuit? Or split up.
3- quarantine, do you just seed tank every time and use air stone? Is air stone needed?
4- do you like the way those neptune flow meter are working for you (I'm contemplating getting some)
5-what RODI is that, that you have?

Thanks again, you've been a huge help. Love the touch of cabinetry above/below incorporated in display side. Nice touch, cheers

thanks, it has been great and i never did this before so everything you see was built while learning to do so..
1. i do have some chaeto growing now, for some reason it would not grow originally
2. they are all on one dedicated circuit (i was going to split them up but electrician assured me it was not needed) and so far all is good, but each eb8 has its own APC1500 and then i have a house generator
3. i did seed tank at first but now i run two QT's (16gal each) one for coral inverts and one for fish and i keep them going 24/7. i am in the process of adding ATO to them so they are self-sufficient and they are hooked to the apex so i can do a water change automatically. i found that by the time i am done QT i am ready to add something else and if i ever have an emergency they are ready. if i ever am done adding then i will convert at least one to a frag tank or seahorse or something cool
4. i do like the flow meters very much, it shows when a pump goes down or starts losing pressure (has not happened yet ) but it also lets me know when there is a power problem or anything and then i can set the apex to do something if that happens
5. spectrapure maxcap uhe 100 and it has worked flawlessly

i would also get extra optical sensors and put them in your sump at a warning high and warning low place and do the same on your 2 water reservoirs as it is MUCH easier to do when everything is dry. dont forget check valves also

 

[revhtree]

This is an awesome set up!

 

[scott11106]

This is an awesome set up!

thanks, it was quite the learning curve and still is just like everyone im sure but i really wanted it to be a showpiece both from the front and the back. my wife calls the fish room "the laboratory"..lol

one of the best things about it is that it is mostly self-sufficient and self-checking with all of the apex gear and just in case there are 3 cameras streaming at all time to lay eyes on the system to verify.

 

[Bleigh]

New here and came across this thread. I just scrolled through the entire process! So beautiful! Do you have any recent pictures? I'd love to see updates!

 

[TK_KW]

@scott11106 good morning,

1-So if I understand correctly with the optical sensors. You have set them on/off through apex for you reservoirs? Or just as warnings? I wonder if you could use the high optical as a back up way of shutting of RODI if a float fails, is that achievable?
2-I also am just thinking about keeping my QT going none stop. And considering I have two 75g to work with, i also would want to do a frag tank later on also. So you wanting to do auto water changes, is that why you have 4 of the dos?
3-sry check valves for where? As pertaining to my build location.
4-flow meters, I think I'm going to do exactly what you have done, honestly makes complete sense, why not.

Amazing how much you've re learned and your progress really fantastic. I cant wait till my custom is delivered and finally sitting in its final spot lol. Maybe 3-4 weeks out yet...ugh. it's amazing how similar your build is to what I'm doing, love it.

 

[scott11106]

New here and came across this thread. I just scrolled through the entire process! So beautiful! Do you have any recent pictures? I'd love to see updates!

yes i will take some tonight and post them

 

[scott11106]

@scott11106 good morning,

1-So if I understand correctly with the optical sensors. You have set them on/off through apex for you reservoirs? Or just as warnings? I wonder if you could use the high optical as a back up way of shutting of RODI if a float fails, is that achievable?
2-I also am just thinking about keeping my QT going none stop. And considering I have two 75g to work with, i also would want to do a frag tank later on also. So you wanting to do auto water changes, is that why you have 4 of the dos?
3-sry check valves for where? As pertaining to my build location.
4-flow meters, I think I'm going to do exactly what you have done, honestly makes complete sense, why not.

Amazing how much you've re learned and your progress really fantastic. I cant wait till my custom is delivered and finally sitting in its final spot lol. Maybe 3-4 weeks out yet...ugh. it's amazing how similar your build is to what I'm doing, love it.

1. yes i do both with the sensors so it will also shut off my rodi as you wrote, works great, i actually use the sensor as the primary and the float as a backup
2. no i use the DOS as listed:
1. dos Calcium and Alk
2. water change for display
3. dos 4 part (this does 1&2) not a necessity but seems to work for me
4. dos 4 part (this does 3&4) not a necessity but seems to work for me
i do the water changes on the two small tanks via pumps hooked to apex with timer programming (since they might not be permanent, may change this in future)
3. check valves for the return lines to ensure there is no siphon if tank powers down
4. agreed, and let me say if you can afford to add the extras it makes maintaining the aquarium very easy. it is so worth it but not cheap...

it is strange but I am excited for you as the build process was one of my favorite parts, a lot of long nights but it was soo worth it, post lots of pics and details as i will do all i can to help, great job so far !

 

[mch1984]

Random question, how big is the fish room? Doing some planning and have some sizes in mind and trying to see what it will actually look like.

 

[scott11106]

Random question, how big is the fish room? Doing some planning and have some sizes in mind and trying to see what it will actually look like.

13x8 and the first page of this thread has a floorplan for reference if you want to take a look, i think it is a perfect size but i would have made the tank bigger if i did it again, get the largest tank your space will allow, you will thank me later after your wallet heals and you are all up and running

 

[mch1984]

I am planning a garage take over, it's 18' x 18' and I plan on walling off a section for filtration. It's also going to be my man cave and where I work when I take paper work home to do. I am hoping to fit a reef tank and a FOWLR tank in there. I'm going to be squeezing stuff in and I'll have to really plan it out. I was thinking a 6' x 16' section for the filtration part, yours give a pretty decent idea of what that will look like. I wont have cabinets so that will free up some space.

 

[Bryce M.]

Tuned in

 

[scott11106]

new pics

 

[Mark Gray]

Wow looks great love it