Jim's(bubbletip) 156g SPS Dominant Tank

[bubbletip]

Well, I have finally finished cycling my new 156g SPS Dominant Reef Aquarium. I planned for a couple months while waiting for delivery of the tank and time waiting on construction of a custom stand and canopy made of pine. The cost of the aquarium itself was expensive, but the canopy and stand were quite reasonable. Matt of Sho Tank Aquariums in Mundelein, IL set me up nice. He made the stand 36" to the glass from the bottom of the stand and the canopy is 20" from the top to the water. I really like this route because I was able to get the stand and canopy just the way I wanted it. No, I did not build it myself. It was $700 which I feel is pretty cheap considering the quality and the equal cost to Oceanic's offering. I feel best trusting those that know how to brace a couple thousand pounds with that part of set up. I did stain the stand and canopy myself in honey pine only to help Matt out because he is certainly a busy guy. I also needed it for a specific weekend to get some expert plumbing help. Something I also trust to those that know how to make things work the way you want it. I am really excited again to get this new project started. I hope you enjoy the thread

[bubbletip]

A little over a year ago I took down my 65g reef tank that had been going for eleven plus years. I downgraded to a 30g cube to house the first two marine fish I had ever kept, my two captive bred clownfish. Due to space reasons - girlfriend was not as into the tanks at the time - I concentrated on this 30g cube that has been going a bit more than a year. It is now a thriving reef tank of its own and my clowns could not be happier. I caught the bug again and started looking around for my dream tank.

I stopped into one of my favorite LFS's just north of my work - Sho Tank Aquariums. Matt had an unfinished 120g All-glass tank set into a beautiful custom stand and canopy that were actually connected. It looked really cool.

I took a picture and brought it home to my girlfriend and she wanted it just as much as me. I was totally shocked and we decided to go up to see Matt the next day. I wanted a Starphire front so we asked on the price of a 120g Oceanic and found it was the same price as the 156g Oceanic. So that's what we decided on - our new 156g Aquarium:

[bubbletip]

It took about 3 weeks to get the tank in and then we waited another 4 weeks for the stand and canopy. In the process, I started plannig out the tank and how everything would work from circulation to lighting and of course, the choice of inhabitants.

When researching lighting I came across a thread where a fellow reefkeeper displayed his tank under 5 metal halide bulbs - 500g 10ft aqaurium.

That thread soon turned into this:

Tank of the Month - September 2007 - Reefkeeping.com

I loved this set up because it was an example of a reef tank that functioned with one lighting scheme. I PM'd Mike and he asked me to call immediately. He convinced me that after viewing the Coralvue 12K Reeflux bulbs I would have found my perfect 50/50 Metal Halide bulb. He asked me if I wanted to come over and of course, how could I pass up the opportunity. I was in awe of his tank from the first second I saw it. I was immediatelty drawn to the natural look of single MH bulbs creating a view that reminded me of "swimming in the ocean on a sunny day."

I took about 250 photographs of Mike's tank that day and from there I visited several more times to take additional pictures for the article as well as just rapping about reefkeeping. It is amazing who you may meet in this hobby. All by chance in looking for the perfect bulb for me.

The reason I mention this series of events involves how my mind changed about planning for the new 156g reef. I had an extra Icecap 660 ballast so I was convinced I was going with VHO's and 10K bulbs. Not anymore.

The design for the stand increased from 30" to 36" to allow for a larger skimmer and the canopy was raised from 12" to 20" to compensate for 400w bulbs instead of 250w bulbs.

The last couple months has been a hell of a ride. Most importantly I have a new reefkeeping buddy that I can rely on for sound advice. I have always felt that having one or two reef geeks in close contact is best to reference the flood of information we are exposed to every day.

[bubbletip]

Finally the stand and canopy were close to finished. Matt was particularly busy and did not have the time to sand and stain everything prior to a key weekend that Mike was available to help me plumb the tank. It all worked out after two whole days of sanding and staining the stand so we can get this little baby plumbed.

Here is the end result of the stain job. I used the Minwax Polyshades - Honey Pine(2 coats) along with 3 coats of polyurethane.





And here is the stand and tank in its final resting place. It was the heaviest tank I had lifted to date. It slides into the stand instead of on top. I really liked this design. Makes for a cleaner look. While lifting it to slide in the stand, Mike had jerked a bit and the tank was on its way down Luckily my knees broke the fall and all was well except my knees of course.



Well, here we are finally ready to plumb on Sunday - August 19, 2007

Just a little tangent. I will be posting several posts that will not be direct answers to people's questions, but to furthur explain the project in general. I will answer any questions seperate from these types of posts. Enjoy everyone - the journey begins...

[Phurst]

Wow, that looks like a really great setup! I'm looking forward to following your progress.

[bubbletip]

So, the day started out with drilling the sump. I have never drilled acrylic - only glass - so Mike to the rescue. He used a hole saw - drilled a pilot hole - and used olive oil to lubricate. Pretty cool.



He drilled 4 holes total -

Hole #1 - 2" hole for a 2" bulkhead for the Reeflo Dart pump on the return side. This was the toughest hole to drill apparantly. The bigger you go I guess greatens susceptabiltiy to crack the sump. The drill wanted to jump often. Olive Oil helped and was only used for this big hole. Whew - sump in tact Nice job Mike! I can tell drilling the other holes were secondary as we had one shot to get the 2" bulkhead in as only one sump in the house. It was definitely a relief and the drilling continued. You can see the 2" bulkhead fastened to the sump in this shot:


(ESHOPPS - 37 gallon capacity - Reef Sump)
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Hole #2 - 3/4 inch bulkhead - possible chiller in the future on the return side
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Hole #3 - 3/4 inch bulkhead - used for an external pump - I will be plumbing a refugium or a frag tank - have not decided yet - still planning it out. You will notice a bit more than 3ft on the right side of the tank for a 24-26" custom cube or 45 tall cube refugium. I wish I could have done it all it once but money talks and everything has gone towards the main display. I may just end up plumbing the 30g cube in, but I know it would be better off as an ongoing quarantine tank. More to come here...

You can see Hole #3 and hole #2 connected to a ball valve here:


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Hole #4 was a surprise - the intention was to use the mag 7 as the feed pump for the skimmer "inside" the sump. I figured why not, so the hole was drilled for another 3/4 bulkhead right where the drain lines come in. Problem is the pump after glueing was going to hang off the back of the stand by the length of the pump. I jerry rigged 3 pieces of 2 x4 that set the mag 7 up right where it needs to be.



Easy enough. The skimmer called for about 350gph to operate optimally. Using a mag 7 - the flow needed to come down and putting it in the sump would have meant heavily restricting the pump with a ball valve. I still have a ball valve on but have it kept wide open. In the sump a mag 5 would have been best to keep the flow down feeding this particular skimmer. Skimmer running well. More to come later...

So some flexible Spa Flex PVC was line against the back of the stand with horseshoe clamps reducing flow just enough for the skimmer to do its thing. I would say about 4-5 ft head loss - have not measured it yet. The flexible PVC Mike uses is excellent - bendable but sturdy providing a much cleaner set up than I have seen with most rigid PVC setups - more to come here as well...



So there you have the four holes. Mike did an excellent job on the holes and made it look too easy. All we had left to do is plumb it...

[bubbletip]

Originally Posted by Phurst

Wow, that looks like a really great setup! I'm looking forward to following your progress.

Thanks Pearson!

I think you will really enjoy this one - I could have gotten started several weeks ago but decided not to as days go by and not much is happening. After the cycle is complete things get going and there is more to explain. Now I can catch up and start from the beginning as my thoughts are gathered and I can get each step of the project out collectively.

And just for everyone to note - If qouting something try to copy/paste it - Some of these posts are going to be pretty long and full of pictures and I really don't want to bog down Rob's server - just looking out for the man.

[bubbletip]

I originally planned on a Panworld 150 for the return. After realizing the amount of watts this pump produced(1100gph - 180w & I am sure just as many amps as the Dart), I enquired about the possibility of putting a Reeflo Dart(3600gph - 160w & 1.4 amp max.) as the return. There are 1" drains so the increased gph they are able to manage was made possible by expanding one of the drains to 1.5" into the sump. I had the Dart cranked down for the first few weeks and am now able to keep the Dart almost all the way open. This has created a ton more flow than I had expected. I knew I would have powerheads inside the tank so the return pump was meant to be supplementary. Now the returns are a whole circulation system on their own. This is where I trust the experts. The Dart is rated much higher than the Panworld 150, but was made possible on these 1" drains with Mike's experience. So there you have it, a high rated pump on a return. You may ask if there is a refugium down below and there is "one", just not customary to what people typically keep - macroalgae. My goal was to free up space in the aquarium and place about 30lbs of live rock in the sump. I can still manage another ten pounds in there. This is where hooking up a macroalgae or seagrass refugium will come in later in the empty space to the right side of the display.

Here is a side view of the dart. We came in 2" from the bulkhead to get full flow. The union Mike used is much shorter than the average 2" union. This helped get the dart in the stand with some breathing room.



Here is a top down view with the two ball valves for future equipment. I really like this approach as you can turn the water off right at the sump. The main reason for going in the sump is to leave room for external plumbing and equipment. It would not have been possible to put in a 2" ball valve for taking off the Dart. Simply, the sump must be drained below the Dart before servicing the pump. An extra step yeah, but no problem as we got this to work.



Here is a good view of the return section of the sump. Later a curved 45 degree bend is put in for the Dart aimed down for the intake on the Dart. The Dart comes off at the 1.5" union and shut off by a 1.5" ball valve.



Here is the dart partially plumbed. You can see a 1" ball valve after being reduced form 1.5". This Oceanic tank had four 1" holes drilled on the bottom of the overflow boxes which allowed us to come back into the tank at 1" instead of 3/4", as would have been if we used the cheap 3/4" bulkheads given with the overflow kits. The ball valve cranks down the closest return so the flow would balance out with the left side return. You can see the 1" drain increased to 1.5" at the top of the sump on the left hand side. The Mag 7 is right where the drains come in for the skimmer feed. You will also ntoice the open sump perfect for 30-40lbs of live rock. Again this will be an SPS Dominant reef and the fish will have there room to do their thing as well.




The stand is about 62" inside the 2x4's so the sump(36" long) and the skimmer(22" needed) left little breathing room. The skimmer is also 30" tall and the floor to the stand was put in afterwards to fit all of this under a five foot tank. The skimmer had to get in to make this work.

[Russel P]

Beautiful sump you have going! Flexible