Restarting 200 gallon tank, this time with Reef Pi

[bemerritt]

Quick introduction, I got thrown in the deep end with this tank six years ago when it was the centerpiece of the living room in the house that my wife and I purchased. Which led to this now hilarious thread of me not even knowing what a protein skimmer or ato was.

Purchasing a house with a built in dream setup, now what? - Reef Central Online Community

Purchasing a house with a built in dream setup, now what? New to the Hobby

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As a serial hobbyist, I took on the challenge and operated the tank for about 5 years or so. Upgrading the tank to be controlled with an apex, doing automatic water changes, etc.

Improved the tank from time of purchase and had a good time doing it.

But as I said am serial hobbyist, and at one point or another other hobbies needed time/money. So I shut the tank down and sold off just about all of the equipment.

All electric brew setup:

Building synthesizers:

My wife and I knew we would restart the tank eventually, just didn't know it would be this quick. Maybe it's been a result of spending quarantine in our house looking at the eyesore that we never fully finished taking down or replacing. Probably because we knew we would be back. Also, the two above images no longer reside in my possession, so who knows, probably just need a hobby!

Part of the problem with the previous setup, was I was never fully happy with the setup itself. The previous owner had it setup, I had no idea the age of the equipment, and it was pretty inefficient. In the next post I'll give some more info as I start to rehab the old tank, give a plan for the future, and of course ask many questions looking for feedback.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bemerritt]

Part of the biggest hassle, is the access to the tank. Here is the view from the other side (daughters room). Currently filling up the tank with a 10% vinegar solution to get it nice and clean to start.

Yes, we cleaned out the store of vinegar.

So obviously cleaning the tank is even less fun than usual, as you rely on magnet cleaners and have to stand on a stool, contorting your arms to scrape away on the acrylic tank. To address this, I will be going bare bottom and blasting this tank with flow to try and help out as much as possible.

The magnet cleaners worked ok, but sand always got in them and scratched the tank. At first I was planning on polishing the tank since it was empty. But after filling it up, its not that bad. And I have enough work as it is. Maybe someday down the line I'll do it full.

the other challenge is the sump resides outside. Luckily in southern California the temps are pretty moderate, but having the sump outside means you are heating and cooling much more than if you were inside. I'll possibly look into insulating the sump outside. I tore apart the clunky box the previous owners had built and building a new "shed" for it. Right after I fix the stucco that has water damage.

More pics to come, but hopefully this gives a good intro and provides some background info that makes the search for opinions and feeedback relative to the task at hand.

 

[cvrle1]

For polishing acrylic while tank is full and running, see these 2 videos. This at least gives you something to think about if you choose to polish out scratches once everything else is done and tank is up and running

 

[bemerritt]

For polishing acrylic while tank is full and running, see these 2 videos. This at least gives you something to think about if you choose to polish out scratches once everything else is done and tank is up and running

Thanks for that. Definitely an option either while the tank is cycling or further down the road.

 

[bemerritt]

So I could really use some opinions for my sump setup. The tank has a built in overflow that has two 2" pvc drains at the bottom of it.

Below is looking down at the two drains

These two drains go through the cabinets and through the wall, draining into the sump that used to be outside.

 

[bemerritt]

While we do live in a pretty temperate climate (mile from the beach in southern California), heating (and occosonally cooling) this much water that is sitting outside uninsulated seems excessive. Would rather lean on the in house AC for the 1 hot week a year.

I'm trying to also make this low maintenance (aren't we all) and feel it will be easier inside.

My thought is to put an 18"x18"x18" sump in the cabinet to the left of the tank connected by two 2" bulkheads connected straight to the two drain pipes. 18" is just about as wide as the cabinet s while giving me clearance to get it in. It's also the height of the old sump, so I can use the materials.

I would then use a submersible return pump and connect it to the existing return line

Obviously the biggest problem is having enough room in the sump for the tank to drain into when the return pump is powered down. I do get the volume up to the same 18" in the overflow as well, but it could be close.

All i really want in the sump is the protein skimmer, and I could run that externally to have it not take up too much space in the sump. But of course then it has overflow as well if it shuts down.

If i really wanted to, I could stack a second sump on top of the first which just drains back into the main. This would let me run that sump at a height desirable for the internal skimmer while running the main sump shallow to maximize overflow capacity.

Any thoughts on these setups? Am i really making this hard on myself for no reason? I really don't want the sump outside. But ill have my ATO and FSW containers out there, with the rodi connected right next to it.

Other items I plan on running would be external GFO and carbon canisters, that will also contribute a small amount to the overflow situation.

Thanks for any and all input!