This is my first time posting on this forum. So i'll get you all up to date with my setup. Its still a HUGE work in progress and any suggestions/comments are welcome. Especially if you have any on lighting a 84x48"x30"Tall tank.

Here we go from the begining.

Some Specs.
Fish room:
The fish room is about 10'x8' with another 9'x6' coming soon.

Tank:
84" long by 48"wide by 30" tall acrylic with external overflows. Haven't decided on a builder yet. Any suggestions?

Lighting:
Any suggestions??

Skimmer:
I have an Euro reef RC-1000

Sump:
I had some old pond liner laying around so i built a sump that is about 77"long by 36" wide by 24" tall. Should be big enough to hold everything. I made it so huge because i wanted to try and keep everything in it or over it so all leaks would go back into the system and not on the floor.

Refugium:
I'm going to use my old 75gal as my ref.

Circulation:
Tunze wave box and streams. Any suggestions on what ones and how many??



Here is my Old 75gallon tank that i had at my patents house.
Had a dart for return going into a Oceans motions 8way. I had two 150watt MH's over it for lighting.

All the returns. Had over 3000gph flowing through that tank
http://www.saltcritters.com/751.jpg
Had it right next to the bed so i could stare at it all night long.:up:
http://www.saltcritters.com/752.jpg
A tight fit for everything.
http://www.saltcritters.com/753.jpg
The pvc mess!:wow:
http://www.saltcritters.com/754.jpg

I bought my own place so i could get an even bigger system!
The victim! I mean my house :tongue2:
http://www.saltcritters.com/house.jpg

Ripped out the carpet. Luckly my house is a slab so i won't have any issues there. Also removed all the outlets because they were below the water level of my sump and i didn't want to take the chance of water splashing in them and it turns out half the house is on the same breaker. I'm going to have my friend (hes an electrition) run 4 lines to the fish room and build some water proof boxes to house all the outlets.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish1.jpg


Removed the wall separating the closet from the room to give me a little more room.
http://www.saltcritters.com/house3.jpg


Started Building the Sump.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish5.jpg

Painted the room and installed rubber baseboard and chalked around the whole edge to try and seal the room so if there is a flood it sorta stays in that room. Finished the sump also.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish9.jpg

Got my skimmer in place
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish10.jpg

Got my RO/DI unit all set up
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish13.jpg

Turns out my well water had high CO2 and was using up all my DI resin after about 60 gallons or so. So i designed a degasser. It works really well! Iv made around 300gallons and haven't had to change my resin!!
http://www.saltcritters.com/b5.jpg
http://www.saltcritters.com/degasser.jpg

I also have a 10gal tank that i connected into the system. It is located in my bedroom closet and is viewable from the living room.

Tearing out the wall.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish2.jpg
Holds me so it should hold the tank!:showoff:
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish3.jpg
Re drywalling
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish6.jpg
All painted and plumbed into the fish room.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish12.jpg

The inwall 10gal finished view from the living room.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fish7.jpg
The most recent picture of the tank.
http://www.saltcritters.com/inwall.jpg

I got two 64 gallon Toter Cart cans for RO water storage.
http://www.saltcritters.com/storage1.jpg

Got my Water changing station setup. The bottom can is for salt mixxing and the top one is to measure how much water i take out.
http://www.saltcritters.com/change2.jpg
Looks confusing doesn't it! I can Do just about anything. I can mix saltwater, pump water to and from the sump, storage tanks, and mixing tanks. I can also send the water to a hose that i can put in a bucket of down the drain. It works great!
http://www.saltcritters.com/change3.jpg

Got one of my darts installed and room for one more.
http://www.saltcritters.com/change1.jpg

Got one of my frag tanks in.
http://www.saltcritters.com/frag2.jpg

It has a 150watt Mh over it on a light mover to save some $ on electricity and i seams like the corals grow faster under it.
http://www.saltcritters.com/mover1.jpg

Got the Phosban and Carbon reactors installed.
http://www.saltcritters.com/new2.jpg

Also got my UV steralizer installed.
http://www.saltcritters.com/uv.jpg

The 500+ gallon display is going to go where the TV in the corner between my bedroom and the living room.
http://www.saltcritters.com/spot.jpg

More shelfs for more tanks :agree: And a fragging table below.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fragstand1.jpg

Got tired after building so i took a nap to test it out.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fragstand.jpg

Got the T5's over the new frag tank and the top shelf is plumed and ready for another one
http://www.saltcritters.com/fraglight1.jpg

My freshwater tank (20"x20"x24") with my cat MO checking out the 100+yr old barn wood.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fresh1.jpg
http://www.saltcritters.com/freshtank.jpg

Got my 75gal from my parents house and converted it into my fuge.
http://www.saltcritters.com/fuge.jpg
I made a "septic System" for the bottom of my fuge. The return water will run up through the sand.
http://www.saltcritters.com/septic.jpg

I put about 450lbs of sand in it and some rubble rock. Also some mangroves and cheto.
http://www.saltcritters.com/forest.jpg

looking great. my next system will be valve automated too !!

Now that i got you all up to date here is what im working on now.
Im going to expand the "Fish Room" into my bedroom. Here is a drawing.
http://www.saltcritters.com/expansion.jpg

Got some of the wall tore apart.
http://www.saltcritters.com/expansion1.jpg

Thats all for now.

I plan on putting six 9'x2'x6" frag tanks in the new Fish room addition.

that is a lot of frags !! let me know when you get some sweet SPS frags to sell or trade.

Sofar i don't have any SPS. Well i take that back i have one that iv had for about a year and it hasn't grown at all :mad: Right now i have mainly Zoos and Rics in there. I have about 400 frags total. About 250 of those are Ric's.

check out salt rookie frag thread out. He has some real nice sps's

wow, now that is an amazing system

WOW! Now That's a system!

Looks like you have enough PVC to open your own plumbing shop :)

I"ll be following this thread closely. Looking great so far.

Thanks. I usually end up cleaning out the local hardware store when i go on a PVC run:eek:

Incredible!! its always nice to see someone so obsessed.How far are you from louisville? Theres a guy here that does great acrylic work (Aquatica) . I'll be tagging along on this thread for sure!

About 2.5-3 hours. Whats the guys email? Im looking for 6 9'x2'x6" tanks or 12 4.5'x2'x6" tanks. Iv tried geeting a quote from glasscages but they don't seam to know what a 9' or a 4.5' tank is lol. They keep sending me prices for 8' and 4'.

Very cool indeed! Lots of DIY solutions here and it looks great.

his name is todd, e-mail is sales@aquaticareef.com, phone# 502-261-0720.
Our local club just went to inland aquatics a few weeks ago, very cool place I saw that your near there.since your close to us you should keep an eye on our club we have frag swaps and some cool events from time to time. also you can sell us some of your frags.
Louisville Marine Aquarium Society (http://www.lmas.org/joomla/)

I'v seen that inland aquatics place but never been in there. I went one day but they were closed :( Haven't gotten back to check it out. Thanks for the info

you should for sure go back they are huge and their very nice.

Got some work done today!

Got the Opening all framed up and cut out. Lucklie i didn't hurt the frag tank directly on the other side as it was butted up against the drywall. Almost cut my return and drain pipes for the inwall tank in half though. Forgot about them. oops....
http://www.saltcritters.com/hole1.jpg
http://www.saltcritters.com/hole2.jpg

Droopy decided she wanted to help :p
http://www.saltcritters.com/droopyhelp.jpg

Turns out my Peppermint Shrimp like Drywall :o
Those crazy shrimp will eat anything that falls in that tank. They attack my hand every time i put it in there.
Guess i better go clean up the mess before the kids track it all over the house. :eek:

Ive got a Basset Hound myself. They are the best dogs in the world.

Someone seems to have gotten my dog high when I took this shot:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2325/2203403129_7c1bfdd2a8.jpg

Yes they are. ONly down side is they manage to find every bit of food in the house, and they think everytthing is food lol.

She is never full! Kinda like me :D

http://www.saltcritters.com/droopyeat.jpg

Someone seems to have gotten my dog high when I took this shot:

LOL, that's funny!

sweet critters, you go it going on!
So you bought a house, american barn style in the snow somewhere, protected the main bedroom, & made sure as hell you'd gut the rest to support your habbit, all the whilst driving the bike into the lounge room to protect it from the elements. Dood - , im laughing & impressed at the same time! I wish you luck & hope you can make some return investment within the year! :up:

Im tipping you dont live with a female though & if you are, does she have a sister that likes to travel ? lol

sweet critters, you go it going on!
So you bought a house, american barn style in the snow somewhere, protected the main bedroom, & made sure as hell you'd gut the rest to support your habbit, all the whilst driving the bike into the lounge room to protect it from the elements. Dood - , im laughing & impressed at the same time! I wish you luck & hope you can make some return investment within the year! :up:

Im tipping you dont live with a female though & if you are, does she have a sister that likes to travel ? lol

Yep Sorta.
I wish i moved more north tho we only had maybe 10" of snow this year and i love the snow :(

I kinda turned both bedrooms into fish rooms lol. The one i'm tearing up now is the only one i have left. Who needs a bedroom anyways?:tongue2:

I live with three females:eek:
But unfortuently all three of them can't talk muahaahahaaaa! The best kind lol:D
Both of my dogs and one of my cats are female! :rotfl:

I really do hate Drywall! Its such a pain in the butt!
Here is some progress i made tonight.
Got the ceiling cut out so i can put some blocks to support the wall.

http://www.saltcritters.com/drywall1.jpg

Me and my handy machine! I love Sawsalls(spelling?)
http://www.saltcritters.com/drywall2.jpg

Five bucks to the person that cleans up the mess :up:
http://www.saltcritters.com/drywall.jpg


Had to take a Cold Cold shower to clean up. The dang rain must have put the fire out in the burner. Brrrrrrrr.
I might get the wall up tomorrow but i doubt it. Its supposed to be 65 here and i might just have to get the motorbike out or go cut some wood so i can take a nice warm shower:cool:.

Just tie a vacume to your dogs tail! Makes light work! :huh:

More concerning than you growing a beard within 5 posts, is those styling slippers you got going there..lol

It just grows so fast i can't control it! its like that Santa movie with the tim allen guy. I shave and it reapears instantly:rotfl:
The slippers keep my feet warm:blush:

Wow, quite impressive setup and project you got going on there. It's not a house anymore, it's a hydra world! :up: If all that water got loose, you'd be like Noah's Ark floating around in there on your bed. :rotfl: J/K It really is awesome. I wish that I was 20 years younger and had all the DIY skills that you have. You go boy! And stay away from any dates that could possibly be a selkie in disguise... they'll eat everything out of your tanks! Kudos :up:

Wow PJ! This is a great build!!!

PJ, were you the one on TRL Podcast Sunday night that was inquiring about the red bug treatment? I'm trying to put the names together. If it wasn't you, I apologise in advance. :tongue2: I just remember that Reef Keeper was not there when that question was poised, so the topic, I don't believe was covered. Bobby, Reef Keeper, was in the process of a 3 treatment red bug application. If you had inquiries, he'd be a good one to speak with. Just wanted to follow up with you in case you were the one and didn't get your questions answered. :up:

Nope wasn't me. I was in bed LOL.

I just happen to remember that i had a video of my "Fishroom" and the rest of my house on my myspace page. Don't mind the mess. Iv got too many little projects going on and i am running out of room to put stuff lol. One of these days the house will be clean again.. I hope..:unsure:

Here is the link to My My Space page. The Vid is on there. PJ www.myspace.com/pjsstuff (http://www.myspace.com/pjsstuff)

Thanks for the link! Will go look at your vid. :up: I really love the water house.... I admire individuals who live life!

Well i dind't get anything done last weekend because i spent the whole weekend on the motorcycle :cool: But i did get a few things done today.
Got the mess cleaned up and started to get the carpet ripped up. Talk about a pain in the butt. I think the guy that built this place used 50gallons of glue every square foot to hold this carpet down! Good greif! My fingers are killing me :fire:

Droopy apparently doesn't want the carpet to go.
http://www.saltcritters.com/droopycarpet.jpg

Fine Droopy you win! I'm going to bed! You can't stay there all day! You have to eat sometime! :evil:
http://www.saltcritters.com/droopycarpet1.jpg

That is too funny!!!!!!!!

haha nice setups u got there man. great work!. your dog is hilarious! he looks so angry in that last pic. haha

Well while droopy was outside distracted by the deer in the woods i got the carpet ripped out and some outdoor covers on the outlets that i decided to keep.


http://www.saltcritters.com/nocarpet.jpg


Too bad its raining out:raining: I wanted to have a big smelly carpet bonfire! Maybe tomorrow! :D

The fan in the window is my new 800cfm exhaust fan. I get to put another hole in the wall yaaaa:tongue2:

awww! he is so upset that u took his carpet away! "you tricked meeeee!"

Muahahahahaaaa:evil:

haha and i just noticed, we have that same little red dog toy thats sittin there...... we fill em up with peanut butter and give it to our dogs.... the LOVE it. it keeps them quiet for HOURS! lol

Yep same here Droopy loves it. She loves it a little too much and can get pretty mean when myself or one of the other critters comes near it.

haha nice. out dog likes to bury it outside when we let them out... then dig it up the next day and bring it back inside....

theyre a lil de-de-deeeee. we have a black lab whos old as hey, a yellow lab thats almost 2 years, and a puggle thats a lil over year and a half... the yellow lab is the doofiest... haha

Well got some more work done today. Just a little tho. I woke up this morning freezing my butt off! The hole in the ceiling was making it dang cold once all the stuff fell out lol. So i got the blocks put up so i have something to mount the top of the wall to and to keep the house a little warmer lol. It was almost 70 yesterday and today tehre calling for SNOW! :eek:
http://www.saltcritters.com/blocks.jpg

You have to love the weather in the mid-west!

Well i was drawing out ideas on the wall today. I'm stuck on how tall i should have my tanks made. I can't decide between 6" tall or 8" tall. I would like to get the 8" just incase i happen to get some taller corals. but the only thing is that when the light is above it there will only be about 2" or so between the water and the light. But when the light moves there will be about 9" of space for my to get in the tank.
How tall of tanks do you think i should get?
I have one of each now.
Also does anyone know of any light movers that don't take up much space? the one i have now hangs down about 5"! Thats 5" of wasted space lol.
http://www.saltcritters.com/idea.jpg
I think im going to to go with four 24" T5's for lighting each tank.

Well i went into the fish room to find three Pep Shrimp on the floor.:( Must have been an escape plan gone bad lol. Maybe they were mad at me because i smacked them when i cought them moving my WYSIWYG. Dang Shrimp. Oh Well there RBTA food now :o

IMO even 9" is not a lot of room to work in...

It should be enough for frags and stuff. I won't be having any Rock in there. The tank on the top shelf is going to be inteesting to get into. it will be about 7' off the ground lol

Perhaps some scaffolding???

Ahhh Time to relax! Whats that i hear! No its not a car(can't hear those here :) )....... its a dang squirrel going after my camera! Ahh!!:o
http://www.saltcritters.com/ham.jpg

Good ole Indiana. It was 28 out this morning when i left for work and now its about 70 lol.

Man, I wish I had the space you have. I don't think the wifey would let me go that hardcore :)...... for now. heh

That does look comfy and hopefully so there Buddy! You keep ripping out all of your living space.... and well.... you will be living with the squirrels! :D J/K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey, whats the temps running there now?

It got up to 72 today. I was nice so i finally got my truck washed and waxed.

Finally got around to getting the wall up! Still have to drywall it but I'm Closer!:up:
http://www.saltcritters.com/wall.jpg

Everything looks great so far!! Can't wait to see it all put together and cleaned up!!!

HAPPY BUILDING!!!!

All i have to say is WOW!

actually i have another thing to add... i'm jealous! :wow:

Hey PJ, it's been a couple of days. Have you had any spare time to continue working on your project? I've enjoyed watching you work on all your ideas.

Nope :-/ been busy.

Holy crap this thread is amazing! And I can't even figure out how to plumb my sump and my aquarium together - haha.

Got the one side of the wall drywalled. Also had the Phone company out to install my Fiber optic TV and internet. Worked out well because they had to install a big panel and some wires. So luckly they were able to install them into the new wall and not tear up the others.
http://www.saltcritters.com/insulation.jpg

You're really moving right along there PJ. :up: Almost have the drywall completed on both sides now. I look at that insulation and it makes me itch! I've always heard that if you take a hot shower to open up your pores and then before you get out, turn on the cold water to close your pores, that it helps with any particles and itching from the glass in the insulation. Didn't know if you did that or not. I've done that before and it seems to hold water! :p

I got it almost completely done now. The insulation didn't really bother me. It used to. But this stuff didn't for some reason

Definitely a SWEET setup! I'm only at new 120g and that's becoming enough work for me. I can only image what your going through, although you seem to be quite an expert on pvc plumbing.

I was wondering if you could send me a diagram of how your pumping works on your supply/RO water/mixing tanks. I'm trying to figure it out by your photos but cannot.

I have (2) 44g Brute garbage cans and the same pump you have. I would like to send water to and from my tank (45' away) as you do, use the pump for mixing saltwater, as you do, and also using the pump to drain water as needed as you do.

I planned on using 1 garbage can for RO water collection, and the other for my salt mixing. Then after I do a water change in my tank (which will be the entire saltwater mix - approx 40 gal), I will fill that with RO water and use the RO water already collected in my other can the saltwater mixing garbage can. Basically, I'll switch back and forth every month between the two garbage cans as my saltwater, RO tanks.

Do you think this will be a good idea, or do you feel I should always keep the same can as saltwater mix and one as fresh?

I would love to hear your thoughts and any other ideas that will help me with my new startup.

Thanks,

John

critters, is all this work done real time brother?

if it is, even though i know its your home, your moving at an orsome pace! :cool:

Ill work on an diagram fro you. Your idea sounds like it woudl work but i would sugest another can to measuer how much water you take out or you could put a line in the sump or something so you know how much you take out. that way you won't take too much out and not have enough to refill it. thats what the top brute can is on my set up. The bottom one is for the saltwater mix and i have two 60gal cans for RO/DI storage.

critters, is all this work done real time brother?

if it is, even though i know its your home, your moving at an orsome pace! :cool:

All the wall stuff is real time. The rest i did before i joined this site. I started this project last june maybe? Somewhere around there

Its a slow long project as its just me around here taking care of the house and my 80 ac of woods and the dogs and the website.

Hope this helps
http://www.saltcritters.com/change.jpg

I planned on marking on the rear right corner of my aquarium some typical measurements so I know how much to drain out at each water change, then fill it back up with the same amount marked on my 44 gal cans. Example: the first water change i do I'll remove the water from the aquarium manually in 5 gallon buckets. Then I will make the mark I speak of on the aquarium back side at, say 40 gallons. I already have my 44 gallon cans marked at a 40 gallon level. So the next time I do change I would set my ball valves accordingly to draw water from my aquarium. I would turn on a switch (located at my tank area that turns my pump on at the garage) and monitor the water level untill it dropped to the 40 gal mark. Then I would turn off the pump, go back to the garage and change my ball valves to supply the tank with saltwater. Go back to the tank and turn on the pump again and fill the aquarium to the "filled" level and turn off the pump.

Is your method to fill the "holding tank" (the one with the visible water level) with aquarium water to a certain level. Then mark that level, then drain that water out your drain line. Then fill it back up with saltwater to the level and then transfer that back to your aquarium? That soulds like a good plan too. Which one would work the best?

Question: Does your supply line for your aquarium set in your aquarium all the time or do you only place that line in your aquarium when it is time to remove the water and then fill it back up?

Please keep in mind my pump and plumbing has to rise 10 feet, then go 40 feet, then drop back down 7' to my aquarium when thinking of the best method of transfer.

Thanks,
John

I planned on marking on the rear right corner of my aquarium some typical measurements so I know how much to drain out at each water change, then fill it back up with the same amount marked on my 44 gal cans. Example: the first water change i do I'll remove the water from the aquarium manually in 5 gallon buckets. Then I will make the mark I speak of on the aquarium back side at, say 40 gallons. I already have my 44 gallon cans marked at a 40 gallon level. So the next time I do change I would set my ball valves accordingly to draw water from my aquarium. I would turn on a switch (located at my tank area that turns my pump on at the garage) and monitor the water level untill it dropped to the 40 gal mark. Then I would turn off the pump, go back to the garage and change my ball valves to supply the tank with saltwater. Go back to the tank and turn on the pump again and fill the aquarium to the "filled" level and turn off the pump.

Is your method to fill the "holding tank" (the one with the visible water level) with aquarium water to a certain level. Then mark that level, then drain that water out your drain line. Then fill it back up with saltwater to the level and then transfer that back to your aquarium? That soulds like a good plan too. Which one would work the best?

Question: Does your supply line for your aquarium set in your aquarium all the time or do you only place that line in your aquarium when it is time to remove the water and then fill it back up?

Please keep in mind my pump and plumbing has to rise 10 feet, then go 40 feet, then drop back down 7' to my aquarium when thinking of the best method of transfer.

Thanks,
John

The top can is just to measure the water. The bottom one has the saltwater in it and i just suck it right out of there. I would put your valves where you can get to them easily. Iv noticed with my setup that even with the pump off the water still siphons out of the sump and mixing tanks.
I have the line going to the sump and its there for good. You might want to make sure the little mag pump will be able to push the water as far as your wanting.

[quote=SaltCritters;78228]Ill work on an diagram fro you. Your idea sounds like it woudl work but i would sugest another can to measuer how much water you take out or you could put a line in the sump or something so you know how much you take out. quote]

I simple solution for you guys that have non glass or acrylic sumps.

Bulkhead & tap a 90deg angle facing up @ the bottom of your containers & insert a clear tube the hight of the container. the water line will display current hight & you can mark clearly your ranges needed. Just a suggestion.

That would work too.

I was planning on purchasing the Auto Top-Off from Autotopoff.com. At their site they sell solenoids that mount in-line and can be closed when power's off. If you mounted one of those near your sump and near your water supply and had them connected with your pump, they would "close" (or turn off) when you turned the power OFF on your pump. Wouldn't that possibly stop your siphon issues?

Probably. But im not to worried about it. As long as i close all the valves when im done doing whatever im doing ill be fine. IU don't really have far to go with my setup because everything is in that little room.

question about your pvc setup. What is that black cylindrical item coming out of your saltwater storage, and there's also a clear tube going upward out of it as well?

Also, the green nozzle on your drain tube, did you build that?

What type of glue/primer did you use on your PVC piping? I don't see any "purple" primer markings anywhere. Also how did you secure your fittings to your brute garbage cans?

FYI - It looks like I'm going to stop the PVC in my garage and have a garden hose hookup that I'll attach at the doorway into my house and then just carry the house to my aquarium. I'll also take along an extension cord and plug it in at my aquarium to turn the pump on at the garage and just unplug it when the water level is where it needs to be, cover the end of my hose and carry it back to the garage.

I wanted to take PVC all the way from my garage to the aquarium (as mentioned in earlier posts) but I just don't want to deal with leak issues in my attic or figuring out how to pump water up and over that far.

Thanks in advance.