Ziggy17
Valuable Member
So a bit of background on the journey.
I’ve been in the hobby since I was 15, so it’s been 35 years. I started out with a 15g fresh and within the first year I had a 100g and 2 35g. Needless to say I was bitten by the bug. I became great friends with Larry Johnson who was the manager ant Big Als, but who also was the largest independent importer of Africans in Ontario. Eventually by the age of 25 I had my own dish room, and was importing WC Africans with Larry with a small breeding operation. That business grew, and I found myself supplying numerous fish stores in Ontario with my F1 stock. Two moves later, and one from Ontario to BC, and I shut down the fish room at the age of 35. Life got busy with work and children, and I went tankless for a decade. A few years ago, life slowed down, so I decided to get back into the hobby but I really wanted to try salt, specifically a reef. I purchased a RS Reefer 300XL and started my journey. I had that tank for 1.5 years and it developed a seam failure, it was replaced and everything was going great. So great, that I wanted a larger tank. So I purchased a WB 150.4 and that brings us to the build.
Aug 7, 2025
WB 150.4 ordered.
Aug 20, tank delivered.
As you can imagine, I couldn’t leave the crate in the garage like that so it was quickly unboxed and put downstairs in the room that it was going to live in. Setup was surprising easy and that day the stand and tank was in place.
When I saw the sump design, I realized that if I used my rollermat, there would be a chamber in the rear that’s no longer needed, And it would be a dead zone. I turned to the R2R forums to get ideas what to do.
See photos.
Lots of folks did some clever stuff, but I really wanted to utilize the whole footprint and not rely on a second pump to move water out of that chamber. So I called around to a few glass places to get it altered. What I ended up designing, was a removal of the chamber and extended the partitions the full width.
Aug 25
Sent sump to glass shop for alterations.
September 11.
Chamber removed, ready to start the new design.
.
September 23,
Sump redesign completed. I was able to keep the grate plate by using the plastic guides with a small piece of glass. Super helpful as a new grate plate would have cost as much as the sump as it needs a special C&C machine to cut out the grates.
I should also add that during this time, I was looking at pre made aquascapes for the new build. I researched and found Reef Scape Designs. I spoke to Alejandro and I started looking at their products. I really wanted to get the “dragon”, but with my Canadian dollar in the dumps right now, it was nearly doubling the actual cost. Here’s the options I was looking at.
I ended up going with their modular design. A huge shout out to Alejandro and the folks at Reefscape Design. If you in the market for a rockscape, these guys will over deliver and you will have an amazing scale!!! Thanks so much guys.
September 15
Aquascapes arrived. And looked fantastic. It went straight into a 40g brute to dark cure it until it was time.
Next I wanted to customize the plumbing so I spray painted them blue. I just thought it would look more cool than the grey. No pics of this step but shown in the final product pics.
After mulling it over for awhile, I decided to buy a larger reefmat and purchased the RedSea 1200. My thought process was that I will be stocking this tank pretty heavily, so I figured my 500 would be working too hard so I went bigger.
Next was the return pump. I already had a Maxspect Jump 6k but I wanted to use an UV so I thought I’d go bigger. I ended up buying a Jecod DCP 15k. Wayyyyy too much pump for this tank. Even at the lowest setting it was overwhelming my overflow box. So I had to remove it and put my Jump 6k instead. Works perfect at half speed (10) which is 1000 gph.
Now for the water movement. I really like my Gyre 300 so I decided to stay with Maxspect. After a little research, I purchased two 350s cloud edition. I know I wanted the ability to move a lot of water for sps so I went with the bigger pumps (350s) so they wouldn’t have to work as hard and get noisy. I tried configuration B first. It was great, but am trying A right now. I may go back to B when more coral are in the tank.
October 6
Leak tests successful aside from a leaking manifold. Fortunately I don’t really need it so I just used the plug fitting to seal it up.
next was installing peg board in the sump walls. I did this to make installing the devices and power bars. There were slots already in the cabinet steel framing, so the 3/16 board fit perfectly.
October 15,
UV sterilizer arrived. I landed on the IceCap in sump model. No need for plumbing and the 27w unit will work for just fine for my application.
The plan was to now go on cruise control and start moving things over slowly. I wanted to match the new to the old as close to identical that I could.
October 20
While cleaning my RS 300 G2+, I noticed the bottom seam start to fail. Here we go again… this just meant all my cruise control plans were out the window and it was time to make the move to the 150.
I’ve been in the hobby since I was 15, so it’s been 35 years. I started out with a 15g fresh and within the first year I had a 100g and 2 35g. Needless to say I was bitten by the bug. I became great friends with Larry Johnson who was the manager ant Big Als, but who also was the largest independent importer of Africans in Ontario. Eventually by the age of 25 I had my own dish room, and was importing WC Africans with Larry with a small breeding operation. That business grew, and I found myself supplying numerous fish stores in Ontario with my F1 stock. Two moves later, and one from Ontario to BC, and I shut down the fish room at the age of 35. Life got busy with work and children, and I went tankless for a decade. A few years ago, life slowed down, so I decided to get back into the hobby but I really wanted to try salt, specifically a reef. I purchased a RS Reefer 300XL and started my journey. I had that tank for 1.5 years and it developed a seam failure, it was replaced and everything was going great. So great, that I wanted a larger tank. So I purchased a WB 150.4 and that brings us to the build.
Aug 7, 2025
WB 150.4 ordered.
Aug 20, tank delivered.
As you can imagine, I couldn’t leave the crate in the garage like that so it was quickly unboxed and put downstairs in the room that it was going to live in. Setup was surprising easy and that day the stand and tank was in place.
When I saw the sump design, I realized that if I used my rollermat, there would be a chamber in the rear that’s no longer needed, And it would be a dead zone. I turned to the R2R forums to get ideas what to do.
See photos.
Lots of folks did some clever stuff, but I really wanted to utilize the whole footprint and not rely on a second pump to move water out of that chamber. So I called around to a few glass places to get it altered. What I ended up designing, was a removal of the chamber and extended the partitions the full width.
Aug 25
Sent sump to glass shop for alterations.
September 11.
Chamber removed, ready to start the new design.
.
September 23,
Sump redesign completed. I was able to keep the grate plate by using the plastic guides with a small piece of glass. Super helpful as a new grate plate would have cost as much as the sump as it needs a special C&C machine to cut out the grates.
I should also add that during this time, I was looking at pre made aquascapes for the new build. I researched and found Reef Scape Designs. I spoke to Alejandro and I started looking at their products. I really wanted to get the “dragon”, but with my Canadian dollar in the dumps right now, it was nearly doubling the actual cost. Here’s the options I was looking at.
I ended up going with their modular design. A huge shout out to Alejandro and the folks at Reefscape Design. If you in the market for a rockscape, these guys will over deliver and you will have an amazing scale!!! Thanks so much guys.
September 15
Aquascapes arrived. And looked fantastic. It went straight into a 40g brute to dark cure it until it was time.
Next I wanted to customize the plumbing so I spray painted them blue. I just thought it would look more cool than the grey. No pics of this step but shown in the final product pics.
After mulling it over for awhile, I decided to buy a larger reefmat and purchased the RedSea 1200. My thought process was that I will be stocking this tank pretty heavily, so I figured my 500 would be working too hard so I went bigger.
Next was the return pump. I already had a Maxspect Jump 6k but I wanted to use an UV so I thought I’d go bigger. I ended up buying a Jecod DCP 15k. Wayyyyy too much pump for this tank. Even at the lowest setting it was overwhelming my overflow box. So I had to remove it and put my Jump 6k instead. Works perfect at half speed (10) which is 1000 gph.
Now for the water movement. I really like my Gyre 300 so I decided to stay with Maxspect. After a little research, I purchased two 350s cloud edition. I know I wanted the ability to move a lot of water for sps so I went with the bigger pumps (350s) so they wouldn’t have to work as hard and get noisy. I tried configuration B first. It was great, but am trying A right now. I may go back to B when more coral are in the tank.
October 6
Leak tests successful aside from a leaking manifold. Fortunately I don’t really need it so I just used the plug fitting to seal it up.
next was installing peg board in the sump walls. I did this to make installing the devices and power bars. There were slots already in the cabinet steel framing, so the 3/16 board fit perfectly.
October 15,
UV sterilizer arrived. I landed on the IceCap in sump model. No need for plumbing and the 27w unit will work for just fine for my application.
The plan was to now go on cruise control and start moving things over slowly. I wanted to match the new to the old as close to identical that I could.
October 20
While cleaning my RS 300 G2+, I noticed the bottom seam start to fail. Here we go again… this just meant all my cruise control plans were out the window and it was time to make the move to the 150.
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