POTO's 600g Reef/Freshwater Hybrid Aquarium Build

[Pieces of the Ocean]

We are excited to share this unique project we have been commissioned to build with the R2R community! This project is quite special because it is destined for a local high school's science lab. Talk about cultivating the next generation of marine scientists, aquarists, and reefers! The tank measures 96x30x48 (it's a tall tank!) with half of it dedicated to reef and the other half freshwater. The two sides are separated in the middle by a 3/4" glass divider panel sandwiched by 2 black acrylic panels. The reef side has a black background, and the freshwater side is clear. Each side has a corner overflow that meets in the middle mirroring each other. Today we just took delivery of the tank from CTC Aquariums (thank you Patrick). We will update this thread as the build goes on. Below are some pictures from today's delivery. Thank you for joining us on this exciting ride!

We had to get past a balcony with fences to get to the second floor where the tank was going. So we used a telehandler to boom it over the fence.

We placed the tank on dollies during the transfer, then transferred over to two 1000lbs capacity hydraulic lift cart to raise the tank to stand level. The glass weighs a total 1200lbs.

And we did it! Team work makes the dream work. The sump under the tank will be used for the FW side. The saltwater gets its own filtration area behind the wall.

The space in the room behind the tank that is allocated for our reef filtration. We only get about half the space here but we'll make it work.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Man, I'm excited to follow this one!!

 

[Alaeriel]

That's going to be amazing!

 

[TriggerFinger]

Really cool!! I wish we would have had something like this is my school!

 

[ScottR]

I know your bro David in HK is jealous haha.

 

[Joem820]

This is amazing, I thought about trying to build a hybrid tank like this but the little bit of planning I did was never near the scale of this tank.

 

[Peach02]

Love the concept, is it going to be a reef and planted or cichlids or somthing else?

 

[Pieces of the Ocean]

Love the concept, is it going to be a reef and planted or cichlids or somthing else?

Thanks all for the comments. The fw side will be planted.

Dug up a couple of pictures of the stand before we received the tank. These guys are strong!

Stand in place. Here you're able to see the source line for the fw side and the floor sink that will be used for water change.

 

[MERKEY]

Ooooohhhhhh this is gonna be good )))

 

[Pieces of the Ocean]

One of the challenges with such a big tank is that we were only given a very small amount of space for filtration on the SW side - only within the red lines. But we will make it work. This is before the hole in the wall was punched for plumbing lines.

Hooking up the 105g saltwater storage container.

Some work in progress photos of FW plumbing. All the FW filtration will be under the stand, and the SW filtration will be behind the wall. The SW sump has been delayed so there is not much going on there yet.

Here you can see the SW lines going through the punched hole in the wall to the back room.

We won't be using filter socks for FW, even though they're seen here.

The floor sink where the outgoing water during a WC will go for both sides.

 

[AlexG]

This will be a fun project to watch. Are the students and teachers going to maintain the aquariums or will they be receiving maintenance service? Are those electrical outlets under the aquarium stand on a GFCI? Is there any kind of plastic guard that will go over the top and sides of the outlets?

 

[Pieces of the Ocean]

This will be a fun project to watch. Are the students and teachers going to maintain the aquariums or will they be receiving maintenance service? Are those electrical outlets under the aquarium stand on a GFCI? Is there any kind of plastic guard that will go over the top and sides of the outlets?

Hey Alex thanks for the question and sorry for the lapse in reply. We have been busy. The long-term plan is for the students to do most of the routine maintenance and only have us come in to do the more specialized lifting.

Those outlets will be protected with additional measures from water. No GFCI.

The build has been held up by a delay with the sump build. We will post more updates when the sump gets here.

 

[Pieces of the Ocean]

While we wait for the sump to arrive we made some progress on the freshwater side of things.

We should have made the elbow in the back of the UV (the inlet) point the the front, just like the elbow in the front. It would have looked cleaner and saved a fitting or two. We work after hours and this was around 11pm at night. Just one of those late night blunders.

 

[Familyof3]

Use to do saltwater a couple years ago. Have been dabbling in freshwater s bit...very excited for your build to see how it pans out.
I know you mentioned it being in a school. Question...is it a university or high school?

 

[Pieces of the Ocean]

Use to do saltwater a couple years ago. Have been dabbling in freshwater s bit...very excited for your build to see how it pans out.
I know you mentioned it being in a school. Question...is it a university or high school?

Thanks for the comment and joining along. It's a high school.

 

[Peach02]

Any plans for an emergency water change button or lots of carbon or somthing for when students try to mess with the tank eg putting universal indicator in it? (Based of my high school it will happen)

 

[Pieces of the Ocean]

Any plans for an emergency water change button or lots of carbon or somthing for when students try to mess with the tank eg putting universal indicator in it? (Based of my high school it will happen)

Good question. Under the tank there will be enclosed cabinetry and locks will be employed. The filtration room is accessible to teachers only. To do water change they simply need to open a valve to drain, which empties the tank via a bulkhead on the side of the overflow. The location of the bulkhead is strategically placed to allow up to 50% water change To top off with new water, open a valve from the saltwater container and water will be pumped inline into the return line. All plumbing are outside of the reach of passerbys. We will also be running reactors off of a manifold from the sump. The tank is tall enough that you need a tall ladder to reach the top. The tank is not in a lobby. It's in a classroom where students are present only during class. The school is almost like the Harvard of high school around here, as I'm told. It's not a school that anyone can just get in. So the kids here I hope are better behaved than most. Still, your question remains valid and I hope this answers it.

 

[mattgsa]

This is going to be a great build. Those kids are lucky.

 

[piranhaman00]

Great build is right, following.

 

[Peach02]

Good question. Under the tank there will be enclosed cabinetry and locks will be employed. The filtration room is accessible to teachers only. To do water change they simply need to open a valve to drain, which empties the tank via a bulkhead on the side of the overflow. The location of the bulkhead is strategically placed to allow up to 50% water change To top off with new water, open a valve from the saltwater container and water will be pumped inline into the return line. All plumbing are outside of the reach of passerbys. We will also be running reactors off of a manifold from the sump. The tank is tall enough that you need a tall ladder to reach the top. The tank is not in a lobby. It's in a classroom where students are present only during class. The school is almost like the Harvard of high school around here, as I'm told. It's not a school that anyone can just get in. So the kids here I hope are better behaved than most. Still, your question remains valid and I hope this answers it.

Sounds as safe as it can realistically get, cant wait to see it progress