Planning Phase: 300G Reef Tank

drcrook

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Hey Folks,

I've moved again. This time around I have a very long wall which could really use some living art on it which is adjacent to the dining room table. I'm aiming for this build out to reduce maintenance and headaches as much as possible. Everything should be easy to access, repair, replace, maintain etc while also being very attractive. The dimensions of the tank are pretty much ironed out and I need to locate suppliers, ideally in the Miami area. Tank will primarily be mixed reef with docile inhabitants.

Decisions Already Made
  1. 100"L x 24"D x 30"T size tank against the wall; likely custom made acrylic.
  2. Reef Breeder Photon v2 w/ Apex Neptune Integrations (2x 48" lights)
  3. Apex Neptune Controllers
  4. It'll probably be expensive
Decisions to Make
  1. Display Tank Decisions
    1. Internal or External Back Overflows?
      1. I prefer the display tank appearance of external overflows
    2. Procurement, who can build these; preferably near Miami? Ideally same group builds cabinet & sump & possibly even installs at the house.
  2. Cabinet Decisions
    1. Height? - I was thinking 34"?
    2. Locating somebody who can do an aluminum frame w/ wood cosmetics.
  3. Sump Decisions
    1. Thoughts about relocating the sump into the Garage and running plumbing from the Garage into the Display Tank? I'm a bit concerned about contamination & temperature control. Maybe a split sump design where display drains to a primary filtration in the garage & RO/DI water and chemicals get put in which feeds to a secondary sump under the tank which has the heaters and additional mechanical filtration?
    2. What size do I really need here? I was thinking the Trigger Systems 44, but built to 60" as I'm not seeing options in this size.
    3. Handle overflow & valve failures
    4. Room for other equipment.
  4. ATO
    1. What size ATO? 10 gal ATO = 83lbs -> Refilling this becomes physically challenging. My water supply is across the room and not really in an ideal location.
    2. Dual ATO? 5 Gallons I can carry across a room more easily.
    3. I intend to use Kalk until an upgrade to 2 part dosing.
  5. Equipment List
    1. I've already got a large protein skimmer, 2 gyre wave makers, 2 DC return pumps
    2. Adding Neptune Trident + 2 Part Dosing
    3. Full House Generator Backup (natural gas)
    4. I want to set up Automated Water Changes
      1. 1 gallon/day
    5. RO/DI System. I was thinking of getting a whole house Water Filtration system so I can just use the tap.
I think those are the key decisions for now.
 
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vetteguy53081

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Rear overflows and sump in garage could get warm and throw off tank temperature plus risk of gas fumes.
ato- I use a 19g and it’s down every 5-6 days
I have a 10g on my 135 and that one’s down every 4-5 days
NO TAP WATER !! It will haunt you in time. I have a whole house filter plus water softener plus 5 stage RODI. I paid the price for tap water having multiple tanks.
We’re talking algae, cyano and Dino plus phosphate issues
 
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drcrook

drcrook

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Cool; I'll do dedicated RO/DI

I read a few on putting the sump in the garage. I think after consideration that sounds like a bad idea given the state of my garage.

That said, I think it would be great to have RODI and say 2x 200 gallon sealed containers in the garage which can be plumbed to the tank and serve as both ATO and continuous water changes.

I'm thinking maybe more like this.
1618946403529.png

Is there a known best way to do something like this? I'm fine running the plumbing through the house required to do this since the house is fairly well raised and accessible from below.
 
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I have my RODI barrel up high, 4 ft off ground, and it gravity feeds into my saltwater barrel next to and below it, for sw production

the water system is in my basement fishroom- 14ft away from my sump, and 20gallon long ATO container. I have a float sensor and valve in there, and when my ato gets low it triggers a solenoid to open on the outlet of my RODI container, filling the ATO container until it closes the float valve. A half full 55 g barrel at 4’ feet elevation is 6ft of head pressure pushing through 1/4” rodi tubing. And fills the ato container in 2 hours 25 minutes. I run the tuning down from the barrel, across the floor along the wall, under a doormat that is between my fishroom and QT room, and into the ATo container


for safety- I have my apex set up to time out the solenoid at 2hours 30 minutes, to minimize any spills of the float valve fails to function (hasn’t yet in 3.5 years of operation) or alert me if it opens the solenoid more than once every 4 days (typical normal evap rate is 19 gallons in 4.5 days). So even if the ato fails and constantly fills my tank with RODI- it’s only going to dump 20g max into a 220 g system, before I get alerted, - which only decreases salinity by a half point or less.

from there, the ato is a typical system that runs independently of the refill loop. I would never hook up a massive barrel directly to ATO directly.

gravity assist is very useful to have, particularly if you don’t need to accomplish the refill in a quick manner.
 
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drcrook

drcrook

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My RO/DI setup I'm planning would be in the garage ~30 ft away from the tank and 5 ft vertically lower as the house is elevated, but the garage is not. My plan is to run the lines under the house like the rest of the house plumbing.

@neilp2006 can you expand on how you separated the ATO from the barrel and removed manual effort? I'll probably run pumps for everything so that if a part fails, then the water just stays in the tank.
 

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My RO/DI setup I'm planning would be in the garage ~30 ft away from the tank and 5 ft vertically lower as the house is elevated, but the garage is not. My plan is to run the lines under the house like the rest of the house plumbing.

@neilp2006 can you expand on how you separated the ATO from the barrel and removed manual effort? I'll probably run pumps for everything so that if a part fails, then the water just stays in the tank.

sure

I have my main rodi barrel connected to my 5 stage rodi system as normal. This gravity feeds via 1.5” pvc and a gate valve into a lower barrel that is due SW. on that 7” run of pvc, I have a 1.5” to 1” elbow reducer, that is fitted with the necessary reducers to take it down to a 1/2” npt x 1/4” John guest fitting. This is connected to an apex controlled solenoid valve supplying a 20g long ATO container across the room under my sump.

the ato container has a float valve (Refill input) and a float switch that detects low level connected to an apex BOB

also in there is the intake for my Hydrofil ATO system. Which just functions as a standalone ATO.

when the apex senses that the ATO container has a low level, it opens the solenoid and gravity pushes RODI from the elevated RODI storage into the 20g long ATO storage container 14 feet away . It’s takes 2 hours 25 minutes until the 20g refills, floating the float valve and cutting off the water. The apex then shuts off the solenoid at 2 hours 30 minutes.

I also have a bypass loop and a manual John guest 1/4” valve next to the solenoid that I can turn for a manual refill if I see the ato container is nearing empty, but I lose the solenoid time out protection and the apex ‘time since last refill’ logic protection.

I’ll add some pics in a bit.

I did it because my sump is elevated on cinder blocks in my fishroom, and input the ato container under it. It’s a tight fit and would have required a refil standpipe to refill and I don’t have time, patience or the coordination to refill the thing every 4 days with buckets, plus this lets me refill the container during work trips and vacations without having to annoy the tank sitter with that job.
 
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drcrook

drcrook

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This sounds essentially exactly like what I think I want to do except I'll have the sump under the display. I found your build thread and was going through it trying to dissect the salt water mixing station & top off / auto-water change components of it.
 
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