Asylumdown's 275 Tank build
 

This thread is going to happen in semi-slow motion, mostly because the build of the tank is tied to the build of my house, which, as I'm sure you can guess, happens at the pace it happens.

I want to start off by giving the specs, and posting the pictures I have so far.

The tank will be 6ft long X 34inches wide X 26 inches high for a total display volume of approximately 275 gallons. It's being built right in to the house as a divider between two rooms, the dining room and the office, so it will be open on two sides. I don't have a fish room in this house (some battles you have to 'compromise' on in marriage I suppose), so 99% of the equipment will be under the stand, with the only remote equipment being an R/O storage container in the basement below the tank.

The goal: To minimize the amount of manual labour required to maintain the tank. Since it's getting built right in to the house, I had an awesome opportunity to automate water changes as much as humanly possible, and the wall space the tank sits in has been plumbed with a water supply, a drain to the sewer, and an emergency floor drain under the aquarium.

Here's the space the tank will occupy (viewed from the dining room):

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1100.jpg

Closer image
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1099.jpg

Water supply and drain
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1101.jpg

Power supply
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1103.jpg

Emergency floor drain
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1102.jpg

View of tank from office (looking in to dining room and kitchen)
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1104.jpg

Still working out the details of the sump with Kevin at Red Coral, but it will be designed so that one half of it can be isolated from the tank, drained, filled with fresh R/O water, mixed with salt, and then returned to the main system without ever needing to hand bail a bucket, or siphon a single drop. I'll post more pics/drawings as it progresses.

Looking good. I love 2 side viewable tanks.

nice, i wish i can build a tank into the house like that. Maybe my next house lol. Can't wait to see how it comes together

I'm pretty excited. There's still some open questions about the tank, most notably how I'm going to light it (it's so wide!), but those will be answered when we get there. The next thing to take care of will be the sump.

The metal stand is being custom built to be a total of 40 inches in height, with 2 inch steel beams. That gives me a 'usable' footprint of 68 X 30 inches of floor space under the cabinet. I want the biggest sump possible, so assuming I need a half inch of clearance between the base of the stand front to back, and 12 inches of open space on the long ends for any equipment that can't be in the sump itself, the sump will be 56X29 inches long.

I also want the sump to hold as much water as possible, I want the sump to hold as much water as possible so if I make the sump 20 inches tall, I can keep the water at 12 inches when the sump is running without risking overflowing the sump when the tank loses power. When the aquarium is turned off, I should have roughly two inches between the top of the water and the lip of the sump tank.

Here is my crude first draft for what the sump will look like. There's going to be two compartments, and the water will flow in a U shape from the point it enters, to the point it exits the sump (green line). I'll be able to turn the gate valves in the middle of the sump isolating one half of it from the tank, with an alternate route for the water when the gate valve is closed (red line). That will allow me to pump all the water out of one half, fill it back up with fresh water, add salt, mix, then re-open the gate valves returning the new salt water to the main system.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...Sumpdesign.jpg

I'm trying to decide what skimmer I can fit under that cabinet (it will likely need to be on a 2.5 inch stand) so I can work out exactly what I need in terms of space in all the compartments.

Looks good man.....envious.......very envious:mrgreen:..........heres a couple lighting options......Im sure both of which you, being the stickler for detail that you are, have probably already thought of......

a) could go with 12 bulbs of HOT5(that should fit in there just right(depending on the unit I suppose, Im running TEKs and they will fit)).....either two six foot units(TEK doesnt make a sixer) or four three foot units.........or
b) something like three 250w MHs with Lumenmax Elite reflectors and some kind of strip lighting on the sides for blue supplementation(either T5 or LED)........or
c).....go with LEDs which I admittedly know nothing about, so someone else will have to chine in here:biggrin:.....


Im sure you'll get it figured out........guess it's all gonna depend on what you wanna do with the tank.....and depend on your budget:wink:......if you wanna do things like LPS on the bottom of the tank then you will likely need the penetration of MH.......if your gonna do things like mushrooms and zoas at the bottom than that will open you up to more options:wink:.....

I think I'll probably go with the MH lights. The builder still needs to put in the ventilation to the outside, but the drawings call for one side of the wall above the tank (the office side) to be vented screen doors so I think I should be able to deal with the heat. When it's done, it will look like a solid floor to ceiling wall with a tank in the middle from the dining room (with two small, hopefully invisible access panels so I can clean the glass) with all the doors and stuff on the office side.

I'll check out those reflectors, I was nervous 250 watt lights wouldn't cast a wide enough footprint for such a wide tank, but with supplementary PC lighting on the sides it should be enough.

I sat down tonight and re-worked the sump drawing a little and actually drew it to scale.

I want the Deltec SC 2060 skimmer for this tank, which is 23.62 inches high (they say that includes an extra half inch for clearance), so if that happens, I can do this:

Make the sump 55" long X 29" wide X 24" tall. Taking in to account the 2 inch steel beams supporting the stand, that still gives me about a foot of floor space left over in the cabinet.

6" of that will be separated by a full height baffle and turned in to 4 dosing chambers which should be able to hold about 4 gallons of fluid each. They'll be separated from the sump by a half inch baffle. This will make the sump area 48.5"LX29"WX24"H. By making the sump 24" high, I can up the height of the water level in the sump from 12" like I had originally planned to 17", that will still give me 7" of space between the top of the water level and the rim of the sump, which is more than enough to cope with the extra water volume in a power failure.

By keeping the water level at 17 inches while the power is running, the sump will hold 103.5 gallons of water during normal operation, with a total capacity for 146 gallons when the power is off. I will need to put the skimmer on an 8 inch stand, but that will still give me almost 8 and a half inches of head room between the top of the skimmer cup and the bottom of the aquarium.

If I divide the sump perfectly in two, each half will hold about 50 gallons of water when the aquarium is running, which gets me almost exactly where I want for my water change system, as I want to be able to do at least a 50 gallon water change at once if I so desire.

So, assuming there's a half inch baffle between the two halves, that gives me 24X 29 inches on either side. I've given myself a 6x9.5 inch compartment for the drains from the tank. Hopefully that's big enough for two output pipes with enough room left over for me to change filter socks. I then left a 4 inch space for bubble trap baffles. I'm not sure if that's enough room for a bubble trap, I'll be getting Kevin's input on that. Then there is the skimmer chamber, it's just enough to get the skimmer in with a bit of clearance on either side. If this is too tight, I can cheat the centre baffle a couple of inches to the right and make the reactor/water change chamber a little smaller, or cheat the baffle that separates the skimmer chamber/input chamber out in to the refugium section, or both.

I added a baffle that cuts in to the middle of the reactor/water change section to encourage water to flow more in a U shape, as I don't want there to be any dead spaces in the corners. I'm not sure if it's necessary, or if it will make it hard to put in reactors so it might not be necessary. I also am not sure if this sump will allow micro-bubbles in to the display, so I added a possible space for another bubble catcher baffle set after the skimmer. It might not be practical to put one there, but if not there, I don't know where else!

Since I'll keep the water level at 17 inches high when it's running, I made the baffle between the input/skimmer chambers and the refugium be full height, except for a stretch right before the centre dividing baffle. There the baffle height between the skimmer chamber and the refugium drops to 18 inches (or maybe even 17.5) so that when the first gate valve is closed, the water in the chamber only has to go up by one (or half) an inch before it pours over in to the refugium, diverting flow away from the reacto/water change chamber. With such a small rise in water level, the skimmer will hopefully not go nuts when I divert the water directly to the refugium, and the water level in the refugium won't fall very much before more water stars pouring in to it. Once everything has reached equilibrium again, I will close the second gate valve, completely isolating the reactor/water change chamber from the system.

Green line is water flow when the gate valves are open, the red line is when the gate valves are closed. I also flipped it so that the external pump is on the side of the cabinet with the drain (where the RO unit will be), and the top off reservoirs will be right up against the side with the power supply. It will mean that the auto-top off line and the drain line will need to traverse the whole length of the sump, but since I'm only leaving 12 inches of space it lets me keep that 12 inches all on one side (the side with the R/O unit and external pump). It also means that the R/O unit won't have to be suspended above the dosing chambers, as I think that would make it hard to re-fill them.

I'm very open to suggestions, comments, or improvements. The sump will need to be ordered soon as it needs to go in before the stand, and they need the stand in place shortly after they start drywalling.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...umpdesign2.jpg

I just read a study of the lumenmax and lumenmax elite reflectors, it seems like the elite version concentrate light more and the straight lumenmax spreads it out more. I guess it's the balancing act, but I like having concentrated light. Do you think I could get away with the elite one if I supplemented 10-14K T5's on either side?

The stand should have been delivered to Red Coral today (woohoo!). The sump needs to go in before the stand is placed on top of it, so I made more formalized drawings before 'taking the plunge' and ordering tomorrow. If anyone has any input in to this design, please, please, PLEASE let me know.

I sat down with the computer and worked out proper 'to scale' drawings of the sump. I've drawn two versions, version 1 will only fit a Deltec SC 2060 skimmer, and version 2 will fit a Deltec SC 2560. Based on manufacturer specs, the 2560 seems like it's a bit of overkill for my size of aquarium, but I like it for 3 reasons:

1. In V2 the water change chamber is smaller (approx 17% of display volume), so at any given moment I'll have less opportunity to change the water. If that is the case I want to have maximum nutrient export methods possible. I can still do larger, manual water changes, but the point of this tank is to build something that doesn't require me to get my hands wet (though I know I will cuz I love getting my hands wet), so I want to only use the water change chamber to do my water changes.

2. The SC2560 is the smallest size you can have the Deltec auto-cleaner for their skimmer. I won't get one right away, but I love the idea and I want one eventually.

3. Even if I get an SC 2060, I have extra space for a later upgrade (though for how expensive those things are, I will need to start playing the lottery if I'm thinking about 'upgrading').

The other thing I did on both versions that I need some input on to know if it's possible:

In my first design I was afraid that water wouldn't flow through the entire sump, leaving dead spots in the water change chamber (on the right), so I added a central baffle that will force water to flow more in a true 'U' shape. At first I had it so that the baffle had a cut out so that water flowed over the cut out section, but then I realized that I would be creating a dam that would prevent me from being able to completely drain the water change chamber with one pump. I hope that instead I can have that baffle flipped upside down. I drew it on the plans so I hope you see what I mean.

I made the bubble trap section exactly 6 inches wide (total width), which is what I've heard is the standard width for a bubble trap. I don't know how thick the glass needs to be so I really just drew it in as a place holder. I want the water height in the sump to be 17 inches when the sump is running, so I made the middle baffle of the bubble trap be 17" high, I might need it to be 16.5" high, not sure yet. I also left a full 2 inches between the final bubble trap baffle and the baffle that separates the water change chamber and the skimmer/refugium chamber. If I can get away with less that 2 inches let me know as that would give me more space between the drains from the tank and the skimmer.

The other thing I added was a 3.5 inch wide trough between the entrance to the refugium and the exit from the water change chamber. It's only 7 inches high because I don't want to completely isolate the refugium, but it will keep the most forceful stream of water from directly hitting the regium. If anyone thinks this trough needs to be wider let me know, but I would like to keep it as narrow as humanly possible so that the refugium can be as large as possible (this is part of my desire to have as much nutrient export as possible so that a smaller water change chamber isn't such a big deal).

I have also looked up the various reactors I think I'd want. The biggest reactor (the ones that could hold zeovit or biopellets) should be able to sit on the floor to the left of the sump, since I'm leaving 12 inches of space between the sump and one side of the cabinet, and the return pump is only about 12 inches long. At the moment I think I'd at most want two other reactors (3 total), and since I'd be using them for things like activated carbon and a phosphate absorber, they can be the large size TLF reactos that can hang off the side of the sump in the refugium chamber. At best, I need no reactors in the water change chamber. At worst, I need one reactor in the water change chamber, but I would put its pump and output on the other side of the central baffle so that even when I drained the water change chamber, it would remain on, full of water, and never be affected by the water change. This will also leave me the option to add a calcium reactor one day if I wanted (I think)

The one thing I didn't account for was how thick the the baffle between the two sides of the water chamber are. If it needs to be half inch thick, then each half of the water change chamber will be either 14"x23" (sump 1) or 14"X21" (sump 2).

As before, the green line shows the flow of water when the gate valves are open, the red line shows the flow of water when the gate valves are closed.

Sump option 1 (skimmmer Deltec SC 2060)

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...umpoption1.jpg

Sump Option 2 (skimmer Deltec SC 2560)

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...umpoption2.jpg

from what i can make out of this design, you may have some major micro bubble issues with it. I am just guessing, but it looks like the refug over flows into the return chamber, if the water level in the return chamber fall below the 7 inches you will have some turbulence right in front off you return pump which is not a good thing. also the bubble trap after the skimmer is not needed from what i can tell, bubble traps are usually used just before the return chamber to control the amount of bubbles getting into the pump, you should only have a baffle after the skimmer to control how high the water level should be in that chamber. hope that makes sense lol but i could also be reading your design wrong too:redface: the other problem is the size you have set out for your return area, if it is only 3.5" the largest hole you will be able to safely drill would be like around 1.25" ie 1/2 inch bulk head. just reminder, if you want a one inch return, than the hole size is almost two inches. now also keep in mind the hole also has to be half the diameter for the hole from the edge of the glass to be safe.

The water in the return chamber should (hopefully) never fall below 7 inches. In order to be able to do the largest water changes possible, I had to increase the depth of the water in the sump to 17 inches. It will mean the skimmer needs to sit on about an 8 inch stand, but I have a custom height aquarium stand and the Deltec's are 23.62 inches tall (it's why I chose them), so I still have plenty of clearance between the bottom of the aquarium and the top of the skimmer. That will mean that the baffle between the fuge and the return channel will always be under about 10 inches of water. I only created that baffle so that water entering the fuge/return channel from the water change chamber wouldn't be blasting at it's highest velocity over sand & algae, and to hold the sand up from falling in to the return line. If that's the case, do I even need a bubble trap?

If I had no bubble trap, I have 2 options:

1.Put an 18.5 inch baffle right after the skimmer so that the water level in the skimmer/input chamber would be a constant 18.5 inches. I still have plenty of clearance between the top of the skimmer and the bottom of the tank if I make the stand the skimmer sits on 9.5 inches high. Then the water would pour into another chamber created by the space between the 18.5 inch baffle and the centre baffle. During normal operation, the water height in the rest of the sump would be 17 inches, but when I isolate the water change chamber to do a water would, the water in the chamber after the skimmer would rise until it poured in to the fuge. This design would have some water tumbling during normal operation, but it would be tumbling several feet (if the water path was a straight line) before the return pump.

2. Not have any height setting baffles at all. The water height in the entire skimmer would be 17 inches, and the entire sump level would fluctuate with evaporation. When I close the gate valve between the sump chamber and the water change chamber, the water will rise an inch to an inch and a half before it pours over in to the refugium chamber. There's going to be an auto-top off system, so this might be feasible.

Any thoughts?

Also, would making that channel from the water change chamber to the return pump 4 inches wide be enough for a 1 inch return line?, that would leave 1 inch on either side and a 2 inch hole.

ok i did a crude markup of what i can tell is happen, but there are a few area i am not sure what you had in mind

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...iums/sump2.jpg
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...iums/sump1.jpg

if you can tell me if this is close to what you had in mind or if i am missing something in this.


ok here are the areas that are confusing me

1)where the bubble trap after the skimmer does not seem to go any where
2)the water change chambers, what are they there for and why two?
3)it sound like you want to put gates values under water, i am not sure but i bet that may not be the best option as there is metal screws on the one that i have seem
4)what are you putting in the refug? a drop of 18 inches to even 10 inches for the water is going to make a lot of bubbles, that very close to where you return is

Holy crap that's incredible.

The one thing that's missing from that render is the opening in the central baffle that cuts the water change chambers in two. I have no way of drawing in 3-D so I just marked it up in pen on my drawings.

Here's the theory:

When the sump is running, the two gate valves in to the water change chamber are open, so that water enters the sump in the skimmer chamber, goes past the bubble trap, through gate valve 1 in to the front section of the water change chamber, through the opening in the baffle that cuts the water change chamber in two, then through the back gate valve in to the channel in the refugium. Essentially, during normal operation, the full size of the sump (except for the 4 dosing containers) will have tank water flowing through it. The only time water will pour from the skimmer chamber in to the refugium is when I'm doing a water change.

Water changes will happen by first closing the gate valve between the skimmer chamber and the water change chamber. Water will then fill up the skimmer chamber and pour over in to the refugium. Once everything has levelled out again, I'll close the second gate valve between the return area and the water change chamber. This will totally isolate half of my sump and divert the water temporarily directly in to the refugium.

Now, I will have the auto-top off feed line and sensor inside the water change chamber. There will also be a pump with a line directly out to the sewer inside the water change chamber. Once the water change chamber (or two chambers I guess) are isolated, I will kill power to my auto-top off system and turn on the drain pump on that side of the sump. Once the water change chamber is drained, I'll turn power to the auto-top off system back on and let it fill the water change chamber up with fresh R/O water (the reservoir is in the basement beneath the tank). Then I add and mix salt, open the gate valves, and return the water change chamber to the circuit of the sump.

It forces the water to completely change direction in the sump. Originally I didn't have a central baffle that divided the water change chamber in two, but I wanted to forces it to flow through the whole sump and not end up with dead spots in the corners of the water change chamber. I *hope* that it's possible to make the opening between the two halves of the water change chamber be at the bottom of the sump, as opposed to a cut out at the top, as this will allow me to completely drain the WC chamber with just one pump.

The logic behind this design:

I have no fish room, the only remote equipment I can have is the R/O reservoir. Everything else needs to fit under the tank. It's getting built in to the house, so I wanted to be able to automate water changes as much as possible, but not sacrifice sump volume by taking up floor space with a separate water mixing container. I also need to be able to do a significant enough of a water change to make it worth the whole endeavour, hence the height of the sump, and the 17" water depth within the sump while it's running.

Is what I'm thinking about even possible?

looking at that in 3-D, it's making me re-consider whether or not the gate valves I have in mind are possible. I don't think that a 2 inch gate valve exists that has a handle 16 inches above the actual valve.

hmmmm.

ok i think i know where you are going with this:biggrin: you want to be able to keep the tank running will doing a water change. the only thing is you are wasting so much space in the sump with this setup as there is nothing you can do with those two chambers. give me a couple of minutes and see if i can some up with something a little more functional for you

Oh man thanks, that's awesome. Yah, I basically didn't want to sacrifice any system volume or sump size to have a second salt water mixing container/storage under the cabinet. I figure if I can build it so that I don't need to hand siphon out water, and then hand ball in mixed salt water from a garbage can, that's optimal. Then if I can keep the volume I would otherwise use for the mixing and storing of water change water as part of my system, even better.

ok see if this makes any sense to you :lol:
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...iums/sump5.jpg

the return chamber is on the right, the middle is for whatever you want to put in ie carbon, reactors, heaters or such. the left is for ro water for auto top

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...iums/sump4.jpg

the top left is your mixing tank, top middle is for the refug and the top right is for the skimmer. the holes in the brace is for the drains from the main tank.

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...ms/sump3-1.jpg

the three little tanks with lid are for your three part dosing.

how it works is

1)one drain feeds the skimmer chamber which will keep a water height of 9 inches, than is over flows into a two inch tunnel that feed into the reactor chamber

2) the second drain with a ball value will feed into the mixing tank, with the ball value open it will force the water to overflow in to the refug chamber. than after the refug it overflows in to the same tunnel as the skimmer to end up at the reactor chamber. with the ball value turned off, the mixing tank will be isolated from the remaining parts of the sumps and you will be able to drain that chamber with a ball value installed on the side of the sump. than add water and salt, wait for it to mix and turn the ball value will bring the refug and mixing chamber back in line

here is a top view of how the skimmer and refug overflow into the tunnel
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...iums/sump6.jpg


hope that makes sense lol

Dave's a sketchup ninja. Never know when he'll attack lol...

lol i use to hate it but now i can get thing like this done in under 10 min. you should see the one i muck up of my basement and fish room, that was a 3 day head scratcher for me:lol:

Holy crap! Thank you so much.!

So where would the auto-top off sensor need to be in this design? Would it need to go in the return chamber?

The only changes that I would need to make would be to the R/O top off container, do you think I could eliminate that chamber altogether by using my reservoir in the basement (about 50 gallons) as the source of my top off water? The house is being wired so that I will be able to hook a pump in the basement reservoir to the top off sensor. I also don't really have a way to get R/O water upstairs by any other means unless I hand ball it up in buckets (not optimal), so I'm trying to think how I could modify this design to automatically fill the water change chamber via a pump in the basement. In the first design I had used the auto-top off system to do it, but maybe I could just have a second pump in the R/O reservoir that I control manually?

Also, any chance you feel like building a sweet a** sump? ;)

I'd probably also still need a pump to drain the mixing chamber I think. The drain that was plumbed in to the wall is about 9 inches off the ground.

So, Dave is my hero.

I think this is pretty much exactly what I'm gonna end up building, with only a couple of tiny modifications to account for the limited access I have to the cabinet and the placement of drains. I can't wait to see this thing turn into reality. This sump is so damn cool I wish I didn't have to hide it in a cabinet.

I'm actually giddy.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...mdown/adam.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...down/adam1.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...down/adam2.jpg

The stand has been completed and delivered to Red Coral. Waiting on the sump before we install it, as the stand will need to be lifted over the sump.

Also sorted out the ventilation issues in the space above the tank, an exhaust fan was added to the cavity where the lights will be that vents directly outside. This will hopefully help deal with humidity issues as well. It's currently being wired to a switch on the wall that will have a built in timer, and will run during the hours that the MH are on. I would have preferred for it to be controlled by the controller, but for it to pass code it needs to be wired in to the house.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...Exhaustfan.jpg

They've also run an ethernet connection to the aquarium cabinet. I want the Neptune Apex system, and this will allow me to keep all wires contained.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...usethernet.jpg

Whole tank shot (with the bath tub for the master bedroom on the floor behind):
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...umdown/WTS.jpg

and the world's most embarrassing picture of me with the stand. Have another drink Adam... It's almost exactly as long as I am tall (but it was sitting on a pallet so it looks taller)
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...wn/Stand-1.jpg

Delivery of the stand and the sump happened today. I could barely concentrate at work thinking about it all day.

Here's some pics. For various reasons, we ended up needing to go with a sump design that was closer to my original version, but modified in ways that make it much, much better. One thing is for sure, this sump is a beast, it's bigger than most people's aquariums! When it's running it will hold over 100 gallons of water.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1225.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1226.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1227.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1229.jpg

The sump is big enough that it needed to be in place with the stand lowered on top of it. Thankfully everything fit pretty much perfectly.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1231.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1232.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1233.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1236.jpg

The highest water level in the sump when it's running will be the skimmer chamber, at 18 inches deep (the skimmer will be sitting on a 9 inch stand), then it diverts in to two chambers, a smaller refugium area where I'll culture macro algae for my tangs/grow frags, and the main water change chamber (17 inches deep). Then it exits the water change chamber in to the return area, where the lowest water level will be about 15.5 inches deep. When I want to do a water change, I'll divert the water from entering the skimmer chamber, in to the back of the return chamber, It basically isolates the entire sump from the main tank, but since the water level in the skimmer chamber will never change it will just run on still water while I empty and refill the water change chamber. This design leaves plenty of room for reactors (like, tons of room), and I'll probably still have enough room next to the tank for a single reactor if I want it.

Wow....nice planning and great work so far.

I probably shouldnt say this but the only thing I can see that would bug me with the sump is that it looks like it will be a real pain working in there because its so high.

The other thing is I think you will need more light than 3x250w and PC lighting...especially if you want some colourful SPS.

Amazing work and planning so far though.

Things are starting to come together nicely on this build Adam..... So when is the possession date for the house?.... Seems like you've been building it forever

Wow great looking build! I especially like how your builder is building all the infrastructure for you! :-D I need a new house..

:pop2:

Waw! looking forwards to seeing how this is going to finish. Going to be amazing to see it finished.

Yah, I was a little concerned about that, but all the major stuff is right up at the front, and the hardest to reach areas will only need love once every few months. Since this design pretty much automates water changes, I'm basically trading one weekly pain in the butt for a slightly less convenient cabinet. Everything will still fit inside, and I'll still be able to reach everything, which is what matters.

Ha! It was supposed to be August 8th. As you can see from the pictures, that's not going to happen. They've pushed the completion date back a couple of times, most recently to a vague sounding 'Before Christmas'.

We still haven't signed off on the design of the stairs, but I've been told that drywall is for sure happening this week.

I would have LOVED there to be a full fish room in the basement. But the room I originally had my eye on in the plans to be my fishroom ended up needing to be the furnace, hot water, and boiler room. The only other place we could have put a fish room was on the other side of a concrete foundation wall and that was a fight I knew I was going to lose with the spouse. Having them plumb water and drainage to right to the tank was a must however.

I don't know how long you have been in the hobby but it is great fore sight to make the system easy to maintain. One of the tricks of being in the hobby for a LONG time is to make maintenance easier on yourself so you don't get tired of it. A lot of new(ish) reefers will forget this part and get tired of skimmer cleaning, top offs and lugging water around for water changes.

Yah, on my 90 it was taking me forever to do a full clean of the tank. By the time I would lug out all the hoses, drain the tank, scrape the glass, mix the salt in a big rubber-maid, hand ball it back in with buckets and put my equipment away two hours would have gone by. Plus I'd make a giant mess on the floor no matter what I did (thank god for concrete floors). With this tank I pretty much decided that if I couldn't make water changes be a 20 minute event, I wasn't going to bother, and it's really easy to set yourself up for it if you're building the house from scratch :)

With this tank, a water change will consist of me turning one valve to isolate most of the sump from the system, plugging in one pump to drain the biggest chamber of the sump, dumping in the right amount of salt, plugging in a second pump to fill the big chamber back up with r/o water, turning on a koralia that will live in that chamber for 10 minutes to mix it, then closing the valve to return the tank to it's normal flow through the sump. The only equipment I'll need to move will be the bucket of salt and the scraper that I use to clean the glass. The whole thing should take no more than 15-20 minutes.

Really like following along. I'm guessing it's a smaller builder? In my experience the bigger ones don't like to mess with the spec plans as much as you have. Lucky guy!

That high sump will drive you nuts but sounds like it's a necessary evil here. I did water changes in my 225 exactly as you intend to. Easy as pie and only took me maybe 10 min.

Skimmer cleaning? What's that :mrgreen: I've only cleaned my skimmer 3 times in almost 2 years since my aquarium has been running :redface:

All joking aside, yes - easy maintenance is KEY. I've got my 40 plus gallon water changes down to 5-6 minutes now after I upgraded my water change pump to a bigger pump. Most of the water change time is waiting for the water to be pumped/drained.

40 dez? Tell me that's not weekly for your system volume lol. I was hoping to only do 40s on my 400 ;)

Yep, every week like clockwork. I've been doing a bit more than 40 since adding the 5' frag tank since I figured I have more water volume now. A bucket of salt per month :(.

Our builder is Citicore, we bought a house in a 60 year old neighborhood and knocked it down, so the house is 100% custom. It gives you tons of freedom, but we're finding that infinite choices can actually start to be a bad thing. It's easy to blow budgets, and of course, I can walk in to a plumbing show room and pick the most expensive things without even looking at a price tag.

I knew the sump was tall, but on paper it didn't seem like it was THAT tall. All that matters is that the skimmer and all the equip will fit and I can put the stuff I need to access the most right up front.

The house was insulated this week, so drywall should start next week (finally!). Once the drywall is up I'll be ordering the actual aquarium, I'm thinking starphire glass on the two exposed panels.

I'm super torn on the best nutrient export system. I can't decide between the Zeovit method or biopellets. I tried biopellets on my 90 gallon and had a crazy cyano outbreak, but I know others have awesome success with them. I love the look of zeo tanks, but man, daily supplementation just doesn't sound like something I will reliably do.

What do you all think?

Prodibio???.......same principal as Zeo......no rocks to tumble and a more forgiving dosing schedule

Met with Kevin, the project manager, and the interior designer yesterday to discuss the finishes around the aquarium. The dining room side is going to be a clean white wall with a tank hovering in the middle. They'll put a wooden panel in front of the stand and build the entire wall around the aquarium out of mdf that's been treated with a marine level of water-proofing. The tank will be rimmed with a thin strip of stainless steel to hide the returns of the wall panels. Should look hot. The access panels will be as low profile as possible with the goal of making it look like they don't exist.

The office side is where most of the business of maintenance will occur, so the access needs to be equally scaled up. They will be building a frame for a large set of vented/louvered cabinet doors for access to the sump area, with solid panels acting as doors above. Originally the doors above were supposed to be louvered/vented to help deal with heat from the MH, but with the fan running at all times, we wanted to create a bottom up vacuum of air that would also evacuate humidity from the sump cabinet. The fan's a 90 CFM, so it will hopefully be able to evacuate enough heat from the canopy to prevent things from getting dangerous.