Rob's 150 gal reef build

[Rob A]

Recently we moved (locally) and my 220 gal tank will not fit in the space that we have chosen at the new house. There is a walled off area in the garage on the backside of the wall where the tank will go, which I want to use for the sump, filtration, etc. It's a 5 x 11 space so there should be room for my sump, water changing station, etc.

 

Here is the current state of things. My livestock and corals have been in these 150 and 50 gallon holding tanks for 10 weeks and are not super happy. The decision to get a new tank was made after the move and it took about 8 weeks to get the tank so that was bad planning on my part.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the new 150 gal acrylic tank. I had it upgraded to have 3/4" front and sides and an external overflow. It is really beautiful but it's hard to see it while it's wrapped...

 

The stand was made by WAMAS member Tom39 and is awesome. He made it "paint grade" but I felt it was good enough to stain (lots of stuff in my house is just stained wood, so, you know, it matches). I just have to replace (swap out) a trim board just under the top edge there where the stain is missing, and put the doors back on of course.

 

 

 

 

Top view. Not a great shot but more pics will follow.

 

 

I will finally get to set up my Theiling Roller mat filter that I got for Christmas!!! I was unable to set  it up at the other house.

Edited September 16, 2016 by Rob A

[Bruleyii]

Have you put any fail safes for that door? I would hate to see it get swung open on accident and cause damage.

[Rob A]

Oh, the garage door opens out to garage and the other is a slider so all should be good.

[smallreef]

Very awesome! Love the dimensions of that tank! (Happen to have had 2 now that size!)

[Bruleyii]

Oh, the garage door opens out to garage and the other is a slider so all should be good.

 

Oh ok. That good then.

[Rob A]

Here is a rough floor plan of the layout.

 

 

Then, since it hasn't rained for 3 weeks I decided it was safe to wash and dry my sand. So I washed it and left it outside yesterday...and it rained ALL day

 

Here is the water changing station. It's hard to get a good picture in this room with my phone.

 

Here is a look at the other end of the room, that backs up to the fish tank. It's full of junk because the movers put a ton of stuff in here. Last night I pulled a lot of the OSB down to get a look at the wiring in the walls, plus I need to add a couple of dedicated circuits.

 

 

I hope to get the outlets wired in tonight and plumbing should begin in the next day or so.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Rob A

[Bruleyii]

Nice! I'm jealous of all the room youll have. It will make maintenance a little more enjoyable. My biggest issue with motivation for tank maintenance is having to pull everything out and it taking up a lot of room.

[Rob A]

Thanks! I am not good at putting stuff away or organizing so my basement setup at the other house was a huge mess. Buckets and fish tank junk everywhere. I'm hoping this will make it easier for me to have a cleaner looking setup. 

The open space above the sump is especially nice. I didn't have any room to do things in the old setup. I have a roller mat filter I want to try out and it wouldn't fit under the old stand. Then I got a bigger skimmer and had to pipe it out the side of the stand. It was a mess.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Rob A

[Bruleyii]

Yeah, it will be nice to see the different experiments you will be able to do with all that room. Maybe some blackworm growing? lol

[Rob A]

Yes! I keep hearing good things about those but have never had any.

[Rob A]

Light hangers, before I painted them...

 

 

Here goes some plumbing. More elbows than I'd like but oh well...

 

 

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[smallreef]

Ahhh like the bent pipe for the light hanger!

[Rob A]

Ahhh like the bent pipe for the light hanger!

Thanks! I got the idea for it here on WAMAS!

[Rob A]

"Gluing" the baffles in the sump. All the water lines will run through that hole in the wall on the far left. The outlets with the yellow wire are 2 separate dedicated circuits, plus there is one on the display side of the wall.

 

 

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[Rob A]

Flow test in progress...

 

 

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[madweazl]

Is the siphon very strong with the near horizontal run? Wish I had the room to do something like this in my office.

[Rob A]

Yes! The main siphon is the top line closest to the wall, with the secondary siphon just under it. The longer drain line is the overflow. I did have a problem after a power loss test...the siphon wouldn't restart. It was vapor locked. Based on what i read online I either need to lower the main siphon piece in the overflow or trim a bit off the drain line that is in the sump (or both) and someone else suggested drilling a vent hole in the drain pipe just above the water line. I'm also open to other suggestions.

Edited September 24, 2016 by Rob A

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

Looking good bro!

[Rob A]

Looking good bro!

Thanks!!

 

So far the leak test has been mostly successful. I had to cut out one joint near the pump and redo it. The pump had a small leak in the case joint but that has stopped... I'm going to order a seal kit for it anyway. Now that I have the system idling I realize I should not have reduced the pump output from 1-1/2 to 1, I was just copying what the previous owner of the pump had done without thimking. I should have left it at 1-1/2 all the way passed the multi valve manifold. I'd also like to get rid of some elbows as well. Maybe some flex pvc is the answer.

The red handled valve will feed a frag tank that I want to set up over top of the pump area.

[madweazl]

Yes! The main siphon is the top line closest to the wall, with the secondary siphon just under it. The longer drain line is the overflow. I did have a problem after a power loss test...the siphon wouldn't restart. It was vapor locked. Based on what i read online I either need to lower the main siphon piece in the overflow or trim a bit off the drain line that is in the sump (or both) and someone else suggested drilling a vent hole in the drain pipe just above the water line. I'm also open to other suggestions.

If this will be running full siphon, dont put any holes in the drain line (especially above water level). If the tube (main line) that enters the sump is shorter (ie closer to the surface of the water) than the secondary channel, it will start first provided the rest of the run is equal, as the water will take the path of least resistance.

[Rob A]

If this will be running full siphon, dont put any holes in the drain line (especially above water level). If the tube (main line) that enters the sump is shorter (ie closer to the surface of the water) than the secondary channel, it will start first provided the rest of the run is equal, as the water will take the path of least resistance.

Thanks! I just trimmed the line where it enters the sump and it works great!

[Rob A]

I did a couple of flow tests and they were pretty pitiful. With everything wide open to the tank there's about 850 GPH going to the tank. If I close off the line to the tank and just run it straight to the sump I get about 1,300 GPH. I have the Reeflow Dart / Snapper pump which is a 2,500 - 3,500 GPH depending on which impeller is in it. I assume it must have the 2,500 GPH impeller in it but I don't know for sure because I bought it used. So, I'm going to check with Reeflow to see if they can help me figure out which impeller I have and if I have the small one I'll order the bigger one to try out. I'm also going to redo some of the piping to see if I can increase the flow rates.

[khh27]

https://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/57e86e8b80dc9/tips.pdf

 

Uping the pipe size could help dramatically. Even from 1" to 1.5"

 

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Edited September 26, 2016 by khh27

[madweazl]

I did a couple of flow tests and they were pretty pitiful. With everything wide open to the tank there's about 850 GPH going to the tank. If I close off the line to the tank and just run it straight to the sump I get about 1,300 GPH. I have the Reeflow Dart / Snapper pump which is a 2,500 - 3,500 GPH depending on which impeller is in it. I assume it must have the 2,500 GPH impeller in it but I don't know for sure because I bought it used. So, I'm going to check with Reeflow to see if they can help me figure out which impeller I have and if I have the small one I'll order the bigger one to try out. I'm also going to redo some of the piping to see if I can increase the flow rates.

 

Do you require/desire more than that running through your sump? That is roughly 5.5x turnover rate which is typically about just right.

Edited September 26, 2016 by madweazl

[flooddc]

Looking good! following along.