Mike’s 750 gallon build

[MikeInToronto]

The tank is heated with four 500W Finnex heaters. I did this instead of fewer big heaters because the draw from a 1000W heater is crazy on a breaker. Anyway, 1000W is HOT!
For the return pump I’m using two jebao DC pumps. 12000? They’re pretty good. I’m impressed.
For flow I’m using eight Neptune WAV pumps. I don’t really like vortechs (omg, I said that!) but the WAVs are cool because they connect directly to the Apex so there are no extra wires. When I had the tank built I requested 6 holes in the eurobracing so the WAV wires come through and are strapped along the top. This way they aren’t going over and around the bracingly. I’ll need to take a pic of that. You can see it in later posts when I discuss filling the tank and all that fun stuff.

I’m realizing now that it’s a little tough to clean the WAVs because in order to move them I have to cut the cable ties. I’ll figure something out.

[MikeInToronto]

So now the 5 weeks have passed and I did my leak test with fresh water. This is where I learned the tote sump was a bust; literally.


I let the tank run like this for a week. No leaks. Then I drained the tank completely so I could work on the aquascaping.

[MikeInToronto]

In preparation for this tank, I was curing some rock in a trough in my crawlspace. I used that Marco rock mortar and cemented my rock work. That mortar is AMAZING! I made my structures and left them to dry in position and the next day, it was like concrete. No water yet.
Then I added 10 bags of live sand. I only used live because it was cheaper than dry.
I like to put the rock first because it anchors the rock. If I put sand first, it moves over time and little burrowing things tend to make things worse.


The tank is all cloudy but you can see the holes where the WAV plugs come out. They go along the bracing to the wall and into the EB382’s and 1Link. The returns go over the overflow. I debated whether to cut into the box to have them flush but my buddy told me I’d regret it. Anyway, this way there is minimal backflow if the pumps go off. In later pics you’ll see the the end of the return is submerged. In this pic above it’s exposed.

Here is the rock work. It’s a few different clusters of rock with lots of space between. The idea is the tank will get full of SPS everywhere so the fewer rocks the better.


Here a pic of the light because I forgot to add it in the lighting post. I don’t like all the wires so I’ll work on that later.

[DKoKoMan]

Nice! I’m liking the size of this tank, lots of real estate for fish and corals.

[lastlight]

Man those are some SWEET dimensions! I'll forgive the vortech diss it's so sweet lol. Looking forward to seeing this progress. I'm like you with regards to the Starfire however I've scratched the hell out of my tank all the same. Not sure if it was buying a used tunze strong magnet or if those things scratch when new as well.

[MikeInToronto]

In the equipment room (i.e. my laundry room) I have a 75 gallon refugium. The refugium is filthy. The thing is, a big, dirty refugium makes the dinoflagellates go away. All anecdotal but it’s worked for me every time. This is negatively lit using a couple old Mars LED lights. The red grow ones would be better but I had these lying around.


My sump needs work The original sump was a series of 5 50-gallon totes connected by PVC pipes. I found they leaked while I was doing the leak test. So I just bought a 135 gallon tank and partitioned it up. Just for a bit of history, the sump was originally under the tank so I have some limitations. If the sump was in the equipment room I would have made different choices. Anyway, the sump has 4 chambers.



Chamber 1: the tank drains into the sump via a beananimal overflow. I’m not using any filter socks because I’m extremely lazy. Instead I just siphon out detritus when it accumulates. There are 2 500W Finnex heaters in here.

Chamber 2: the next chamber houses 2 marine pure bricks. I don’t think I have enough rock in the tank for good filtration so these are supplemental. There are 2 500W Finnex heaters in here. A total of 2000W. I also have the Apex probes in here since the water level stays constant and the bubbles are minimal. As a side note, I put a sponge on the salinity probe and my readings are so much more consistent.


Chamber 3: this is the skimmer chamber. I’m using a Nyos 300 skimmer. This is another case where having the sump originally under the stand determined this skimmer choice. It’s a good skimmer but I would have picked a bigger skimmer if I knew I’d have more room.


Chamber 4: this is the return chamber. I’m using 2 Jecod 12000 pumps. They are really decent. We’ll we if they last. Also in there is a Simplicity pump (not shown) that acts as my manifold pump. This is a similar pump to the Jecods so if a return fails, I can swap in this one. The Apex ATO is in this chamber.

[MikeInToronto]

The mixing station is right beside the sump:


The ATO is connected directly to the freshwater reservoir. I have a couple extra safeguards to prevent flooding which have worked well (often too well). I love this AquaFX Octopus RODI, btw. It does everything.