Lance's 225 gal tank
 

I wasn't going to do a tank journal because firstly, I take crappy pictures; secondly, I hate all that copy and paste stuff; and lastly, I type very slowly. But, I do like tank journals, so I decided to do a shortened version. Anyway, enough blah, blah, blah and on with the build.

I bought this tank last summer from a friend of Anthony's (Seahorse Fanatic), who for various reasons couldn't use this size tank. To make a long story short, I got a brand new tank, lights, and a cutom-built stand for a good price and the gentleman was a pleasure to do business with.

The tank is a 225g Sea Star with starfire glass and euro-bracing, (72x30x24). I really like the 30" depth, it gives so many more options for aqua-scaping.

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The tank and stand are going into the family room where it will eventually be incoporated into a floor to ceiling wall unit with TV, stereo etc. so it will look like an in-wall tank. When full, it will weigh well over 3000 lbs. so some beefing up of the floor was necessary. The tank runs parallel to the floor joists (2x10's on 16" centers), so I built two 2x4 walls perpindicular to the joists in the workshop below. The back 8" of the tank sit on an outside concrete bearing wall; one end of the tank is over a laminated load-bearing beam; and the other end and center of the tank is over the 2x4 walls. So, between the bearing wall, beam and stud walls there is now plenty of strength to hold this load.

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Moving the stand and tank into place was a real bitch! I had to remove 3 doors for the 34-inch deep stand to fit. We had to go out through the garage door; in through the front door; up 3 steps into the entranceway; turn a corner; down 2 steps into the living room; up 2 steps into the dining room; out the door to the upper sundeck; down 4 steps to the lower sundeck; in through another door into the family room; and finally on to the stand. We had 7 guys and it was all we could do to get it done. man, the beer went down fast afterwards.

So here is the stand in place in the family room. I will be building the wall unit around it after the new year.

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Filling with water for a leak test. No leaks. Whoot!

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The stand is pretty solid: ends and back are double 3/4" plywood, with an MDF laminated and siliconed top. Just to be on the safe side I beefed up the stand with 3" tube steel and 4x4 posts.

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I ordered 125 lbs. of Eco-ROx from Bulk Reef Supply for base rock. Some regular-type rock and shelf rock which I like the look of.

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Here is the rock and shelf-type rock in the tank. Don't ask how long it took to get the rock how I wanted it. But it's in now and I'm quite happy with the look. It is very stable and I didn't even have to drill, tie, or use PVC supports. It's just stacked and fitted.

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It took almost 3 full days to fill with R/O water. Dumped in the salt and turned on the pumps. Cleared up in a few hours. I am using Instant Ocean salt as it is the only salt available locally, and that is what I'm using in the 90 gal reef. I'll take some pics of the filled tank with the lights on so you can get an idea of how it looks.

I've got a fair amount of live rock in a tub in the garage that I got from Marie (thanks Marie). I will be placing it in the tank in the next few days and start the cycling. I think with the rock in the tank and the live rock in the tub I pretty much have enough. I have a reef tank now and wanted a tank for the fish. This tank will be all about the fish so I want to give them lots of hidey holes and plenty of swimming room.

Nice tank! Looking forward to seeing it progress

the rock work looks great, now comes the cycling then the fun part is to begin.

Lance's 225
 

Thanks. I'm pleased with the size of the shelf rock in the left side of the tank. It is about 2-foot square. There was another large piece like it but no matter how I arranged them, 2 pieces of the same size just didn't look right. So, I got out the hammer and broke one into smaller pieces.

Like the aquascaping. :)

Wow that looks awesome. Can't wait to see it progress! :biggrin:

Here's a few pics with the lights on. Can't fill the tank right up yet as the plumbing is not quite done. Had to order a glass bit to drill the holes in the sump.

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And a few of the plumbing.

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The tank is bottom drilled with dual overflows. I've plumbed it so that there are two 11/2" drains to the sump. One primary (on a gate valve) and one emergency. Two 1" return lines from the Reeflo Barracuda. With the Barracuda and the 2xMaxi-Jet 1200's PH's with upgrade kit I will have about 5900 GPH of flow (or about 30x turnover), plenty I think for a fish and softies tank.

Here's the skimmer. It's a MR-3 with dual Becketts and powered by an Iwaki MD-70RLT pump. I haven't any experience with these skimmers but have been told they do a pretty good job. I hope they pull decent skimmate as this tank will have a pretty large bio-load with the large fish. Any MR owners out there? I could use a few tips as to proper water level, air adjustment etc.

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Looks great so far Lance. Are you going bare-bottom? If so, is the rock attached together with epoxy? Otherwise I would worry about a rockslide damaging the glass on the bottom.

The rock work is beautiful & I'm glad that you bought the tank off my friend.

Anthony

Hey Anthony. Good to hear from you. Yeah, I'm going bare-bottom. To start with anyway; if I decide I don't like it I can always add sand later. I did worry a little about a rockslide, but once I got the rock stacked it is very stable. (took me hours) It looks more precarious than it is. I think it will be OK.

Thats the exact tank size I would love to upgrade to.Looks great so far. Whatcha gonna put in there for fish?

Irene & I tried the BB look but after six months, we decided that we really hate BB so we added sand & love it.

Anthony

Lance PM me your phone number i will talk to you direct about how the best way to run a beckett / I have had many of them.

I'm not totally sure yet. I know my SF tang, Foxface and Coral Beauty from my 90g are going in. I think probably one more tang (Kole maybe); a Harlequin Tusk Wrasse; a large angel or two; maybe one of the more peaceful triggers (Pinktail, Bluechin); and maybe a Copperband BF.

Asmodeus you have pm

Great talking with ya Lance, i think that we solved your problems with your sump and skimmer. Justremeber huge becketts don't need alot of air to suck the guts out of your fish...... nice skimmer by the way.

wish I had it

Thanks again, Mike.

Glass drill was ordered the other day, should hopefully be here beginning of next week. Looking good so far.

Noooo you don't :p We're not going through another "Mike is getting a new skimmer" for at least a WEEK, man.

Looks like it's comming together nicly Lance!

Hey Mrfish55. Glad to see ya on here. Welcome to Canreef. Tank is cycling right now.

Sounds like a pretty sweet mix. You will have to be super careful with the order in which they go in. If its at all possible try and add the kole (or any bristle tooth) first as they are less aggressive and will have a chance to settle in before your sailfin goes in. Angels at the same time if possible, then the trigger and tusk last. Would definitely be an impressive tank.

Yeah, you pretty much have it figured as I do. Although my SF is pretty mellow he hasn't had another tang in with him so he should go in after the Kole. (Have to make sure I give the Kole lots of nori until the algae builds up in the tank). I'll have to find a CB Butterfly that is eating mysis because he should go in fairly early too, but as it is a new tank there won't be a whole lot for him to pick at for awhile. After the tank has been up for awhile I'll dump in a bottle of Tigger pods. I'm still undecided on a trigger; I really like them but I'm a little leery about getting one. If he doesn't fit in it's hard to find a home for him here in Powell River. I'll have to ship him.

Got the return pump plumbed and ready to go. Reeflo Barracuda.

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The controller (Aqua Controller Jr.) and Direct Connect 8. These will monitor and control the lighting, powerheads, temperature, etc.

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Also got the ballasts mounted and labelled.

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So I'm pretty much just waiting on the glass drill bit to get here to drill the sump. Be nice to get it done and get the skimmer going. Can't wait to see that baby perform.
The tank has been cycling now for 9 days. Added a few more pieces of live rock with corals on them. Hopefully they do ok. I've been changing some water whenever the ammonia level gets too high. Nitrite showed up 4 days ago and nitrate already showing up yesterday. I'm using tank water from my 90 gal, a fair amount of cured live rock and a large piece of filter floss from the other sump so I think this will be a pretty quick cycle.

looks great Lance don't worry once that Beckett is powered up run it dry for a bit to get it going and then start it wet and man you watch that clena up nicely... you have a great skimmer there my friend.

So, the tank cycling is going pretty good. It has now had water in it for 13 days. Ran some water tests today and ammonia level is down to .25 mg/l; nitrite is at .75 mg/l and nitrate at 40 mg/l. I've been changing 10% of the water every 3 days. Glass bit is still not here yet and I'm getting impatient to get the sump drilled and the skimmer going. Not much to take pics of but will post some when I get the sump and skimmer going.

sounds like it going man , wanna try something to get the cycle going Lance. buy some hagen cycle like 2x 500ml bottles and pour it all in and you will have no cycle lots of biological creatures in there i have always used it since day 1

I have some Mike, but I was following the directions of 10 ml per 10 gals. So I just dump the whole bottle in at once and then get another bottle. OK, I'll give it a try.

That stuff is actually a pretty good product in my experience.. i put it in my sump and refugium when i started to get that stuff on as much LR and filter media as possible, had "almost" zero cycle... i still waited the 40 day nitrogen cycle out though.. .never know..

Yeah, I've used it before and am using it now; but never so much at once.

UPDATE TIME: The tank has cycled! Mike you were right the Hagen Cycle added at 10x the recommended dosage really sped things up. Thanks man!
Added a few more pieces of live rock and a few corals. A real nice big Pipe Organ (8"x8"), Candy Cane, Kenya Trees, Mushrooms and Toadstool, (compliments of Marie: thanks Marie). And also took some Mushrooms, Toadstool and Kenya Tree from my 90 reef. And of course I have the expected, new tank hair algae, growing everywhere. (ugh)

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The other day we got the sump drilled, thanks to my good friend Mrfish55 and his glass-drilling bits. He did an awesome job.

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Oh, and I bought a fish! A nice little bannerfish from our local LFS, that I didn't really want, but the wife fell in love with him so we got him. QT'ed him for 14 days and popped him in the tank. He's about 21/2" long and all by himself in 225 gallons of water. Having the time of his life! (I kinda like him now.)

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The other day I installed the bulkheads, got the sump in place and finished off the plumbing.

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(What a crazy day today was): OK, time to fire up that big Reeflo Barracuda. Plugged it in, turned on the switch, and water ****es out all over the place! WTF! This ain't right! The water is coming from the housing of the pump itself. It had come from the factory with the nuts not tightened. Easy fix, though. I tightened the nuts and turned it on again: no leaks!

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Then I farted around for the better part of an hour adjusting the gate valves from the drains and the Barracuda, until I had the tank and sump water levels where I wanted them. That was when I found a leak. One of the unions was leaking, so I took it back to the plumbing supplier and got another one. This one was fine. I found another small drip on a PVC connection, but a small dab of Oatey FIX-it Stick cured that.

Everything was running nicely, so I took the time to add sand and live rock to the sump.

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There was a bit of a problem with micro bubbles, even though the sump has 4baffles; so I took a large piece of filter floss and folded it nicely in between 2 of the baffles. No more bubbles. Great! So, then I took a coffee break, and while drinking my coffee I hear the pump labouring. I rush back to find that a big piece of filter floss had gotten pulled loose and got sucked into the pump. #%&@!!!! Turned the pump off, disconnected the unions, and took the pump apart. Bloody pump is so powerful it sucked a large piece of floss right off the sheet from about 8" away and at the top of a baffle. Removed the floss, put the pump back together and clamped the floos to the baffle this time: looks kind of silly but does the trick.

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So, now it's time to hook-up the skimmer. Can't wait to see how this big guy performs. It's an MR-3 with dual Becketts powered by an Iwaki MD-70RLT. I have the skimmer on top of a Large PVC tower so that it is sitting above the water level.

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Man, I love this skimmer! Bubble Heaven! And I don't even know what I'm doing with it yet.:biggrin: I'm adjusting the gate valve from the pump to the skimmer and the gate valve from the skimmer to the sump and the needle valves and everything I do the bubbles just come faster and harder. So, finally I just open the gate valve from the pump wide open and adjust the needle valves and I get some real nice froth. These pics were taken immediately after turning on the pump, with the gate valve from the pump almost closed. I'll get some pics up tomorrow with the valve wide open.

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Looking good Lance, hows the noise on the return pump? I'm going to have to stop by and check things out.

Me too :mrgreen:

For a large pump, it's not too bad. The Iwaki running the skimmer is actually noisier. They're both in a closet so they don't bother anyone.

Absolutley. On a side note, was everybody happy with our frag order.

I am happy with what I got, nice coloring and great polyp extension, hopefully they grow quick as I have some catching up to do (dropped by Maries and saw her tank-STUNNING!) How did you make out with your new additions?