My First Post ~ A Tank Build

[Skins]

Greetings. I had dropped by here occasionaly but never got around to joining. My neighbor got back in the hobby and talked me into joining. I figured that my first post might as well be my tank build thread. I have this build on another large site so some may have see it. I am upgrading from a 75 that has been up about a year and a half. Sooo without delay....

 

 

 

 

I currently have a 75 with a 30 gallon sump and 1o gallon fuge under the stand. I hate having all the mess in my living room so I am going to plumb to a fish room in my basement. I live in a townhouse so storage is a premium. The first order of business was to create a new closet in the den to free up the closet that will be my fish room.

 

 

 

 

 

[Coral Hind]

Welcome to WAMAS! Looking forward to the rest of the build thread.

[Skins]

Next up was to upgrade the electrical for the new fish room. I added at total of 40amps. One 20 block is on a GFI plug for my skimmer & return pump, the other is a GFI plug pigtailed to two other plugs. I also ran a additional line that isn't hooked up for future expansion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next was to frame the exterior wall, enclose the bulkhead and frame access panels for the sanitary standpipe and an access panel for the tank lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Added two rows of blocking through out.

 

[Chad]

Welcome! Looks good so far!

[Skins]

Adding insulation for sound and starting to rock the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first pic is the bulkhead access panel where the dt drain lines and returns will be fed. Second is a closeup of the first as well as the hot and cold water tie-ins. Third pic is the water lines I ran for the slop sink and the supply for the ro/di unit. Fourth pic is another shot of the sanitary access panel and the drain line saddle valve I added for the slop sink and the sump water change drain line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enough for tonight. Thanks for the welcome!

[TonyInVa]

Looking good. Welcome to WAMAS.

[Novi]

H-E-double hockey sticks of a build man! Looking forward to watching it unfold

[Coral Hind]

How did your close-in inspection go?

 

Enough with the drywall, we want to see some tank pictures.

[Skins]

Thanks for the kind words. It has been a long journey. Since the end of December to be exact. At any rate, some more updates.

 

The walls were painted with catalyzed epoxy. The holes are my access panels. They are covered with skimmed plywood in the event I ever need to get above the ceiling again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added base and urethane caulked it to the floor and painted the floor gloss enamel. I returned the floor paint up the wood base to create a secondary containment within the room in case a disaster flood happens. This was put to the test when my temp RO unit over ran the container. Worked like a charm!

 

 

Next up was building the sump and fuge stands. They are made out of 1-1/4" tube steel welded together. The fuge will be the taller tanks and will be fed by one of the drain lines. It had to be that high so the sump could be under it clearly. The sump is elevated so I can plumb it to the three-way on the main sanitary line to do water changes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stands finished. The fuge is the high one, sump the lower one. In this picture, the weld had not been cleaned up or painted. That has since been done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[phisigs79]

Nice to have another redskin fan on here. Where are you located?

[Skins]

For sure a skins fan. Sean was a once in a generation player. I live in the Front Royal/Winchester area but commute to DC every day.

 

 

 

 

Some more....

 

Pictures of the sump plumbed to the sanitary for water changes. This is SUCH a huge upgrade for me as opposed to hauling tubs and buckets during water changes.

 

 

 

 

Plumbed the fuge to the sump. One skims higher than the other in case of a blockage. These pictures show only one line below the fuge because Lowes was out of true unions when I did this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I replaced the stock tank bulkhead with a schedule 80 1" bulkhead. Some said you need to use a 1.25, but a 1" 80 fits like a glove, no leaks. First pic is the pump plumbed in. The other pictures are the return line up to the ceiling where I will drop the remaining lines down from the tank. I did this so I could take up the slack in the fish room in lieu of doing it upstairs. Barely visible is a T and ball valve to run a manifold for the carbon/phos & calcium reactors as well as my external skimmer.

 

 

 

Let there be water. No leaks running it closed through the bleeder valve. This thing pushes a ton of water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Skins]

Sooo, some pictures of bringing the lines up from the basement.

 

The first pic is showing the common chase wall dividing the kitchen and living room. The new 120 is going where the 75 is now. The idea is to have everything stubbed in to the wall so it is a couple quick unions and the new tank is up and running.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is where the spaflex runs through the common wall down to the fish room.

 

 

 

Next up is hooking up the lines downstairs.

[scott711]

Very nice. Welcome to Wamas!

[zoozilla]

Welcome to WAMAS. Great progress on your build. Can't tell from your tank pic; but, what type of inhabitants are you planning for the 120 (Softies, LPS, SPS, Mixed or FOWLR)?

[Happyfeet]

Nice build so far!

What do you plan on keeping!!

[Skins]

Again, thanks for the warm welcome. My current 75 is heavily dominated with SPS, I have a few LPS a couple softies and some darn shrooms/GSP I want gone. I am slowly leaning to all SPS though I intend on keeping my 125+ duncan around. Here are some older FTS of my current set up. Please ignore the mess, I have neglected clean up while doing this upgrade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Skins]

So I figured I would bore and flood you with pics all at once.

 

Some pics of stuff I have been collecting for the new tank.

 

 

 

I also went ahead and did the upgrade to the ES driver. It come out a month after I bought them....BOOO. Good thing is the upgrade is super easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

80lbs of base rock from BRS

 

Muratic bath followed by baking soda and then ro/di rinse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the crown Jewel....

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was replaced

 

 

 

 

 

with this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This thing is HUGE!!! Pictures don't do this thing justice. It will be powered off the return manifold.

[Skins]

The tank, stand and canopy were used. I hated the goofy light plopped on top of the canopy and the mylar lining on the underside. So, upgrade time again. Ditched the ice cap 2-250 watt ballasts and coralife bulbs. You can just see the white hood sitting on top of the canopy in the first pic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upgrade to 2-400 watt Ushios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't find the completed hood picture. I post it when I find it.

[surf&turf]

wow 800 watts over a 120, you could grow sps in the sump.

[Skins]

So here are some pictures of hooking up the drain lines and return lines. I hard piped to above the bulkheads and then 45 the lines to the spaflex. The plumbing is super clean run this way with minimal elbows, most are sweeping turns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connection under the tank to the fish room below.

 

 

 

 

 

Fish room coming together. Access panels in place, Reefkeeper Elite modules, Ranco controler in place. Sump Light (6,500 k twin tube 48" fixture) hung in place. Phos/carbon reactor installed and manifold completed. Oh and ro/di hung.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reefkeeper head unit installed upstairs on the stand along with a DC4 strip .

 

[Skins]

wow 800 watts over a 120, you could grow sps in the sump.

 

You think it's to strong? I know the 250's were dull to say the least. I am SPS heavy soo..lol.

 

Here are pics with my first full system water test. The lights are running.. I hope they are ok. I like the look. They are 15k's and I intend on doing a lengthy photo acclimation period.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old 75 in the spot wher the new 120 will be.

 

 

 

 

 

Next up was to drain the 75 in order to move it out of the way, put the 120 in its place and re-fill the 75 until the big move.

[Skins]

Time to move the tanks. Draining the 30 gallon sump and 75 gallon DT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My baby purple tip Acro grown from a 4' frag out of water ::GULP:: . The Duncan didn't look good at all. The polyps looked like snot running out of the skeleton. Very unnerving.

 

 

 

 

 

Filled back up and in it's temporary place until the 120 has the final connections and a dry run with fresh water. All told the coral were out of water about 20-25 minutes. Everything went off without a hitch. Minimal slime from the corals and polyp extension after about 10 minutes after the tank was full and running again. SIGH!!!