100gal Build: New Pics

[lastlight]

Where did that awesome spherical maze brain go to?

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Where did that awesome spherical maze brain go to?

My favorite which sold to someone in Saskatoon, not sure I recall who exactly. I'm hoping perhaps some of these people may sell things back to me

[sphelps]

For those that don’t know I moved from Saskatoon to Calgary last year and as a result I had to sell all of the livestock I had accumulated since I started the hobby, although it was very difficult to see everything go it had to be done and so far I’m glad to say the move was worth while. I kept all the hardware as I knew the day would come that the tank could be setup again; well that day has finally come.

This year has not been an easy one to say the least, Jan 3rd my wife and I took position of a foreclosure home which was sold as is in uncompleted condition. The house was not approved for occupancy and needed significant work to get it there, it had no heat, bathroom or running water and just to make it more challenging it’s located 50km outside the city in new community which was only in phase one, plus it was the middle of winter and we seemed to be constantly fighting the extreme weather conditions. But we pushed on and with a lot of hard work we got occupancy approval early February. To give an idea on what we where dealing with this is the living room the tank is being put up in:




So onto the important stuff:
Here’s the tank:


To protect some of our investment we decided the safest thing to do was to plumb into the basement to reduce any potential for water damage on the main floor. Here you can see some of the plumbing rough in:


Before the tank could be put in place I had to finish the fireplace and cabinets. I reframed the fireplace to add some more depth and line things up better with the fish tank




Here’s the start of the stone and marble work. We used the same marble throughout the house so it ties in nicely.


I used natural ledge stone which came in 6”x24” preassembled panels but since installing the panels directly resulting visible seams I decided to take the difficult approach and break up the panels into individual stone pieces and reassemble. It was exhausting to say the least....


Here’s the finished cabinets and fireplace with tank in place. As you can see it’s a busy wall but this way I can view everything I like from one seated position.




All plumbing is completely hidden but still accessible.


And here’s the start of the sump system, this will make more sense later but it’s basically 4 tanks, top is main return, second from the top is skimmer, third is frag/hold tank and the bottom is secondary return and refugium if I decide to add one. Essentially it’s a way I could reduce the need for a large pump while maintaining good circulation without the need to add a closed loop or additional powerheads.


Next up will be competition of plumbing, rock work, DIY LED light fixture. However things will be a little slow as I have many other things on the go, top priority for me now is completing the garage and landscaping.

[Zoaelite]

Cant wait to see what you do with that sump system, I will be tagging along for sure!

[fishytime]

Lookin pretty dang sweet as usual man!

[badAZZlars]

Things are looking really good.

Do you think the heat from the fireplace will affect the tank?

For the layered sump, will they overflow from the top down in a cascading effect? In which tank will the return pump be placed?

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by badAZZlars

Things are looking really good.

Do you think the heat from the fireplace will affect the tank?

For the layered sump, will they overflow from the top down in a cascading effect? In which tank will the return pump be placed?

Thanks all.

The heat from the fireplace is directed away from the tank, I've had it on for a while and even the stone around it stays pretty cool.

Yes it will cascade downwards but the main return pump will actually be in the top tank. Basically the top sump is the main sump, the other sumps work as a secondary sump system. Top sump will have approx 1000 GPH turn over, a second return pump located in the bottom sump will pump a lower flow rate to the top sump which will overflow and cascade down through the other sumps. I may run into some issues during a power shut down and restart as the water in the top tank will be initially pumped out faster than it's replaced but I should be able to correct it with some programing using the profilux if the volume is too small.

[DCDN]

Looking forward to the tank and for the sump as well. Interested to see how it works.

[Oxymoron]

Tagging along, I love the way the fireplace came together. Came out looking sharp man.

[hillegom]

Looks good, well thought out.
It all comes together to a great design