Madmak's 200G Reef Build
 

After first trying SW in the early 90s and having some luck (despite the limitations back then) I bought a Nano-Cube 24 a few months ago to see if having a tank again would be wise. I would say that there is no going back now! After some snooping around I will now be bringing and older 200G back to life and adding in some new features.

Within the first 24 hours :) I have scrubbed it up, removed the corner overflow, started on a 5' wide Bean Animal overflow, and started sourcing some plumbing for an 8 outlet closed loop system. The tank cleaned up very well and the starfire front is sweet.

Here are a few quick pics for now and I will try to document the build, step by step.

Thanks again to Misty for a great tank and a fair deal :)http://img.tapatalk.com/461cf54b-a6de-9ef1.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/461cf54b-a701-8793.jpg

Tagging along on this one. Good luck with it :0)

Drilling holes, lots of holes, in a perfectly good tank.
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-28b4-6c74.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-28ee-ddfa.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-2913-481a.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-293a-110c.jpg

Still waiting for the overflow to be finished but started working on the stand and the sump. Using 2 30G long tanks for the sump, 1 is purely a refugium. New 3/4 plywood and foam with all the holes necessary for the closed loop returns. Need to find some adjustable feet for my stand...http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-0916-aca5.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-0937-26b6.jpg

if those are old tanks i would take a day to remove the silicone seals and put new seals in them. Always worth the effort on an older tank.

For feet you can use appliance ones. Drill and tap the stand if the bottoms of the down tubes are sealed, although you'd probably be better off having someone weld some 1/4" plates under there to drill and tap. The more threads the better. I think the thread rule is basically 1/2 the size of the thread for the metal thickness ie; 1/2" thread, 1/4" metal.
Also, you could just use bolts if you can't find appliance feet.

The sump tanks are new, cheap at the LFS. I also wanted the option of a good sealed canopy / light for the refugium tank and new makes that easy. Trying to limit noise and evaporation where I can.

Good hints on the feet. I will snoop around a bit. I could tap the steel but also wanted a bit more threads available.

Lighting is the next big ticket item, have to research this a bit.

Return and closed loop pumps are also on the need list. I'm worried about the closed loop pump sizing, can't really turn it up or down if the flow isn't right. I'm going to keep the flow through the sump fairly slow, I'm a believer in giving the LR, slimmer, and media some time to do their jobs. I'm also going to feed the refugium with a separate pump from the raw tank water chamber at about 100 GPH, nice and slow.

Found a ReeFlo Barracuda pump today for the closed loop :)

Also found some heavy duty leveling legs for the metal stand. They got installed and the stand is getting a coat of gloss white paint.

Siliconed in the new overflow today as well. It is 5"X5"X48" and will be using a bean animal style drain with 1" pipe.

All my loc-line came in today as well and I installed some of the closed loop lines on the bottom of the tank. Can't wait to have almost 5000 GPH flow without any equipment showing, no powerheads, no cords :)

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-6a9a-8c92.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-6ab5-ca89.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-6ac6-f119.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-6adc-b3eb.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-6b0e-f110.jpg

Cool. Hope that does the trick

Vary cool, good luck! :biggrin:

Looking good. That pump looks like it's already put in a few good years!

Thx, it is coming along ok.

The pump was in the box of my truck on the way home on a gravel road, hence the dust. I think it is 2010 model, based on the seller and the dates on all the PVC and spa flex it came with and used on a FW tank. Also came with 3 2" double union ball valves and a 2" check valve. Kijiji is my friend :)

I was able to wet test the tank with the closed loop and refugium off line for now. All is good. The overflow is HUGE and works very well. The Bean Animal drains work great and are dead silent when dialed in. I'm using a Mag Drive 12 wide open without issue.

Hoping to complete the other items soon and get this baby in place!


http://img.tapatalk.com/b897de08-100b-0b0b.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/b897de08-1020-c046.jpg

Refugium is drilled now and in place, fed by a tiny pump from the raw tank water chamber and through a ball valve for control. It feeds the return area via gravity through a 1.5" line. A ball valve here can isolate the refugium and DSB.

The closed loop is fed by a 1.5" empty foot valve and through a ReeFlo Barracuda pump. The manifold is a spa part with 8 .5" outputs. Each output is plumbed separately and through a union and ball valve. It really gets the water moving.

If things run smooth for a few days I will empty it and move it from the garage to the basement.

I have the option of using a typical stand (viewable 3 sides) or built in to the wall (viewable 1 side). Any suggestions???

http://img.tapatalk.com/b897de52-c16d-20eb.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/b897de52-c183-bb5a.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/b897de52-c198-dbdb.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/b897de52-c1bc-2be4.jpg

I love your CL set-up, should work out great. As for the open or in wall set-up, I love the look of my in wall, but it is a pain to access most of the tank. With a 200 it would even be harder to reach the front bottom of the tank. Well worth doing if you plan on having a step ladder close by all the time though, really makes everything look finished and neat, even if behind the wall is a mess of hoses and wires like mine.

I would add 6 more of those feet if it was me. Reasons: there only 1/2" bolts and not structual bolts, your stand is only 1/8" thick tube & the bolts you used are very tiny and don't take much force to break.

Another solution i see greg, if you will help me with this(either criticize or elaborate) I noticed that the ends of the tubes where the feet screw into are open. What you can do to solve the issue of having all the weight transfered to only the outer edges of the tubing is insert a block like this through the ends to line up with the bolts.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/u...86/Concept.jpg

The block would have to be a very snug fit but it will properly transfer the weight of the tank from the pillars down through the block and into the threaded foot bracket instead of through the pillars and into the very thin walls of the square tubing which would buckle under the weight over time.


but greg is one hundred percent bang on about the 1/2 bolts.....they should be at least 3/4" bolts.....but, if you were to insure that no more then 3/16" of thread was out it would REDUCE the risk of snapping the bolts but it wouldnt be a full garuantee....

I would have opted more for drilling right though the tube, 1/4" square washer plate both side with a nut on both sides. But still add more feet.

The feet are rated for 900 lbs each with the flanged nuts used. They are designed for industrial machines, not from Home Depot. With only 6 uprights on the stand adding more feet won't help anything at all, thats just physics. I'm quite sure that I'll stay under the 5400 lb capacity.

Sure but what are the little screws / bolts that are holding them on threw very thin tube wall rated for? That's your weak point.

Other wise I am digging the build, looks great! Can you show me how you did the inside of the OF piping?

The 3/4" feet were rated for 2100 lbs each but the flange on the nuts were far wider than the tubing.

The feet are simply for leveling, they don't change where the weight is distributed at all. It is always going to be under the 6 uprights. I do agree that they should be extended as little as possible.

The screws just kept the flanged nuts in place while they were welded on the inside.

I guess you can't really see the inside of the leg mount from my other pics. Here is an example of the flanged nut style used, about 5/8" of threads. I also spot welded the back side and drilled the opposite side of the tube to accept the extra leg length.

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-dbe0-2cf9.jpg

If I was starting the steel stand from scratch I would have done a few things different but I think this will do the job, held this tank up for nearly 15 years already :)

Thanks for the kind comments, it's shaping up nicely and I am really glad I changed from a corner overflow to the 48" Calfo with a Bean Animal drain, very quiet and pulls a huge sheet of water off the top. The closed loop will be interesting to tune once the sand and rock are in as well. Hoping to hide all of it.

The inside of the overflow is simply 3 90s threaded in to the bulkheads, 2 pointing down and the emergency pointing up. I painted these fitting black. http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-6de4-d46c.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-6eb4-389a.jpg

Very nice, this is what I want to do with my 8' - 300gal. Complete coast to coastand thinking of doing 2 set of 3 drains like yours.

How is that Reeflo pump working out for you? Mine is ridiculously noisy however they are replacing it so just curious as to how loud they should actually be.

It seems reasonable for the amount of water it moves. It is out in the open at the moment but I think it will be okay in a cabinet and sitting on a gel mousepad.

I have the same pump. The mousepad should help a lot; I used two layers of carpet underlay. Make sure that no part of the pump or even the plumbing is touching wood floor or walls or the vibration will be very loud.

+1 to that about the 'no contact to structures' as it will definately make noise. I have absolutely no contact between my pumps and my tank. Spa-flex all the way and everything is isolated the best I can. It was hard to do, and I re-plumbed it twice so as to have no contact at all. Made it very hard to position my over-the-top return. I'm glad I did it.
I initially clamped the return to the wall to make the spaflex form to it's position, but after a day or so I removed the clamps and it's been good ever since.
And if the mousepad idea doesn't work for you, I use this stuff to keep a pair of Eheim 1262s quiet
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=cl-amgr19

Water softener / RO/DI in place and the start of a mixing station. Still deciding on the plumbing details to get water to the DTs. http://img.tapatalk.com/b897de22-3aba-415c.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/b897de22-3ad6-212d.jpg

Grizz, they don't recommend double Bean Animal overflows as its hard to balance them to make them perfectly quiet.

See the big thread on RC.

Great looking build! Could you post more regarding your closed loop? I like the manifold there. Looks wikid. How was it put together?

Did you snag that pump of a gentleman in Lake Bonavista? I took that guys sump off him, and was going to get the pump a couple days later, but it went missing on me!! haha

I did read that as well, better to go larger diameter than double it up.

I will take a few more pics of the closed loop when I am reassembling things but it all starts with the PVC manifold made for spas or hot-tubs. It is a 1.5" to (8) .75" , one part for $11. Those spa shops have some cool PVC stuff. The rest is spa flex, ball valves, and unions.

Yes, that is where the ReeFlo came from, sorry. ;) I did see where the sump was sitting, pretty big one!

He had hundreds of FW fry in all the other tanks, it was cool to hear about how he bred them.

Here is a link to an on-line catalog that shows some of the spa specific PVC parts available, cool stuff that can solve a lot of problems.
http://www.aquaspapak.com/Websites/a...-2011-jets.pdf

Mine will be 2 - 4' OF

The %#!!* &$@();: $"&"$$$&! $;:/;(&@## tank is in the $&#"&$# basement. What a @&$#%#! pleasure!

OK, I feel better today. What a chore that was! Now to prep the tank location, going with an in wall look as I have a 4X8' nook in my theater room that will fit the tank nicely and allow some work space behind (wife's tanning bed has to be relocated). Decided to remove the existing carpet and pad now, instead of after a spill.

A simple false wall surrounding the tank should look good and keep most of the noise down. I have just enough room to frame in an 18" matching door off to one side for access in behind. Thinking of removable panels to have the fuge and sump visible if desired.

That will work and allow for a monstrous amount of flow :)!

Tank's new home, some people thought I was going to leave it in the garage!http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-c09f-95e0.jpg

:cool:
Keep us posted