*UPDATED* Custom 220 Inwall Build

[seanoman]

Hey I finally recieved my tank yesterday from Aquarium Obsessed. This tank is 72" long by 30" deep by 24" high. My wife and I are so excited that it finally arrived, as we had ordered it 4 months ago. I just took the top of the packaging and this thing looks like a beauty.

Now I just got to figure out how to get this beast down stairs to its new home.

I will keep everyone posted with lots of pics and updates.

[seanoman]

Here are a couple pics of the tank before they shipped it out from Ontario.

Hope this works, as I a have never posted with pics before.

[steve fedyk]

I can lift heavy things for beer, if you need some help.:biggrin:

[Delphinus]

Looks great! Wow, 4 months, yeah the anticipation must be agonizing! :lol:

Can't wait to see the final product in action.

Those external overflows are a great idea.

[seanoman]

Yeha I got that idea from Superfudge after being amazed at his whole setup.

He is the inspiration for a lot of this build

[seanoman]

Hey steve thanks for the offer. Unfortunately I can only fit about 2 people on each end going down the stairs and I have already recruited brothers and fathers to help with that.

[Redrover]

Lookinggggggggg good...you can't go wrong talking to Marc as he is one hell of a craftsman...I've seen alot of his work...:onfire:

[Electric eel]

I can help with the electrical work! (Electrical Contractor)

[mseepman]

That tank looks great. I was looking to purchase almost the exact same tank but 26" high. How well did it travel? Could I ask roughly what you paid and what parts are starfire? Did they just paint the back and overflows or is that some type of starboard? How is the silicon job?

I was really happy with how quickly AO answered my questions and I hear their tanks rock. I'm just waiting for my builder to let me know when he'll have time to start my new house where this will be going.

[seanoman]

we should have posted things up sooner, I didn't think we'd have people offer to help so easily. The electrical is all done already, we are actually ready to load it onto the stand. I will post more pics soon of the build.

[seanoman]

mseepman, from what we've seen everything looks awesome, we haven't taken it out of the crating totally yet as it has to go down a flight of stairs and into our basement. We would like to keep it crated for the move of possible. I'll let you know when we uncrate it. They did paint the back and left side panel black and they also painted the inside of the overflows black with a special paint that is safe for fish. The front and right side panel are starphire glass.
We were very impressed with AO, they were prompt in getting back to us with any questions we had and even gave us some suggestions. We paid almost $2700 for the tank and that included shipping from Ontario, we checked around and prices were similar ordering it from Sea Star but we liked the craftmanship better from AO.

[seanoman]

Here are a few basement shots of construction taking place.

This is where we started.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/DJandSherrisweddingandbasementbu-6.jpg

This is the spot where the fish tank will sit in. It will have a two sides that are viewable and both are starphire glass aswell.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/DJandSherrisweddingandbasementbu-10.jpg

Not the best pic, but this is where the stand that the tank will sit on.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/DJandSherrisweddingandbasementbu-16.jpg

Another shot of the view from the rec room to the tank
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/DJandSherrisweddingandbasementbu-21.jpg

[Reefer Rob]

Nice!! You might want to consider a flip up panel in the front for tank maintenance and aquascaping/coral placement though.

[seanoman]

Unfortunately that is all drywalled and painted now, and we were going for a really clean look on the outside. I know it will sometimes be a pain in the butt to place corals, but thats also why we didn't go any deeper than 24".

[seanoman]

The rest of the system includes a 90 gallon sump a 75 gallon salt water mixing/top off resevoir tank.

For Equipment:

BubbleKing 300 External Skimmer
Marine Tech Calcium Reactor
Marine Tech Kalk Reactor
3 Lumenarc Mini Reflectors with 12 K Reeflux 400 watt bulbs
T5 for actinics
Reeflo Dart for a return
2 - Tunze 6200's on wavyseas

And Hopefully if there's any money left over, a Profilux Controller

[digital-audiophile]

Looks sweet so far! How long 'till the tank gets on the stand?

[seanoman]

Hopefully any day now, just got a couple little things to wrap up before and then it can go down

[mseepman]

With the obvious history in Reefing that you have, this may be an unnecessary statement but don't forget to put some type of styro under the tank...saw a buddies new 180 FW tank a day after installation and 2 weeks later it was all on the floor due to not remembering to do this. Painful...

I'm really looking forward to some Full tank shots on it's in place.

[seanoman]

Yeah we already have purchased the foam to go under the tank.

Hopefully we can have the tank up on the stand in the next couple of days here and then for sure I will put up some more pics.

[seanoman]

Here are some shots of what the room and view look like right now.

This is again the front view with the drywall and paint now on there
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Basement004.jpg

This is the side view ( Fell in love with this different vantage point again when we saw SuperFudges tank)
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Basement006.jpg

This is just inside the fish room where on the wall ahead with the window there will be a counter top and also a big rubbermaid sink. The sump will sit directly under the tank and the mixing tank under the counter top in the corner of the room.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Basement007.jpg

[mseepman]

It looks great. I'm hoping you keep this thread up because we seem to think a lot alike. My current plans are very similar for a tank setup but with the fish room being about 130sq ft. Did you use special paint in the room? How do you plan to manage humidity?

[seanoman]

We didn't use any special paint in the room but instead of regular drywall, we used aquaboard around the whole thing. Also for humidty, their will be two inline fans. One that will exhaust just strictly from the lighting canopy and then another that will regulate the humidity of the room as a whole.

[blaster]

Where are you getting the bubbleking from?

[seanoman]

I have already got it actually. I picked it up from Mike at Hidden Reef a couple months back. He was able to to get his hands on one for us so I snatched that up right away.

[Richard_Dicosimo]

beautiful build deffinately top notch work so far!!

Richard

[seanoman]

Thanks you Richard hopefully we can continue to impress. This whole project has taken so much planning it's nice to see it finally starting to all come together hear and take shape.

[mseepman]

So...what else is new? Bump...lol.

[seanoman]

things really haven't progressed a whole lot through the holidays, just too busy! Hopefully we can get things going again here in the next couple of days and get the tank moved downstairs. We laid tile flooring in the fish room and bathroom downstairs and we need to grout yet. We are also going to put a sheet of arborite over the top of the stand to make it an easier clean up for spillage.

[mseepman]

Sounds like a good idea, though with Saltwater, is there any such thing as an easy clean-up? lol

[seanoman]

Well, We just finished putting the tank downstairs. Man is that thing a BEAST!!!! Just thought we would share a few pics of this beauty in place so you can all enjoy it.

Corner View:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Basement004-1.jpg

Side View:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Basement005-1.jpg

Behind:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Basement006-1.jpg

Above:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Basement010.jpg

Top Down:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Basement009.jpg

Full Length:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Basement007-1.jpg

Hope You Enjoy!!

[niloc16]

it looks really really good so far. i love the external overflows.

[seanoman]

Hey thanks a lot Colin. Next Step is just getting all the plumbing done so we can put some water in it.

[mseepman]

Awesome looking tank. It looks like they did a great job on the silicone and those external overflows are the only way to go!!

Really looks great! Looking forward to more updates.

[mark]

Not sure what your planning for drains but seen Skimmin's tank with external overflows and Herbies, totally silent with a Dart as a return.

[mseepman]

So what's the news on this tank build? Bump....

[seanoman]

Sorry not much has happened as of late. We Have some rock curing in the tank right now and hope to get the plumbing done fairly soon. We just got back from Hawaii on the 25th so we were away for ten days, thats why nothing has happened lately. But as soon as there is progress we will post some new pics.

P.S I will be posting some pics of our snorkeling trips in Hawaii.

[mseepman]

Hey there, how is the tank coming along...also looking forward to those Hawaii pictures you mentioned.

[mseepman]

Seanoman,

I'm hoping that you're documenting your plumbing setup as you go. Looking forward to the latest pics.

[atcguy]

hey about the size I am looking to have made. and I was considering AO aswell. Is that starphire glass aswell????

Thanks

[seanoman]

Sorry about the long delay. We have been so busy at work and my wife and I are so tired when we get home that sometimes the build gets put to the back burner.

Anyways I have some updates.

The plumbing is now done, well except for the salt water mixing tank. Here are some pics:

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement011.jpg

The Bubble King Hard at Work
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement012.jpg

A bit of a mess, but our cleaning sink
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement014.jpg

More Plumbing
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement013.jpg

And an overhead shot
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement027.jpg

[seanoman]

Also last night we started on installing our lighting canopy.

It will house 3 lumenarc mini reflectors with 400w galaxy ballasts.

Here we are starting to cover it with aluminum flashing to seal it up.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement016.jpg

Fitting the reflector
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement024.jpg

A quick tank shot
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement020.jpg

[mseepman]

Looking great so far. Are you concerned that the lighting will generate too much heat with all that flashing trapping the hot air in?

[seanoman]

There will be a seperate 4" fan that will be exhausting all the heat out of the canopy and outside the house. Hopefully that will capture most of the heat and keep the water temp down aswell.

[Gools]

How much space are you left with on either side of the lumenarcs? I have the same width of tank 30", and can't decide on if to get the regular or mini reflectors. I do want to supplement with T5's on the side. What made you go with the mini's?

[Delphinus]

Looks awesome. I want to the do the same sort of lighting canopy for my 3 LA mini's too. I'm just waiting for my buddy to get his welding table built :)

Gools, one thought, take into account your Eurobracing too. I have a 30" tank too and decided to go with the mini's because I thought I could shoehorn 4xt5's over the tank. Then I realized that one set would be directly over the Eurobracing ... so I'm still deciding about 4 versus 2 myself.

[Gools]

I took that into account, but was going to put the T5 slightly lower then the lumenarc, I thought it wouldn't block that much light. I thought the reg size would just be better for coverage, even with a slight blockage from the T5 reflectors. But still on the fence.

[seanoman]

I went with the mini reflectors simply because of space and their footprint covers all that I need. Not sure on the exact space, but there is enough room to fit at least 3 2' T 5's between each reflector and on the ends. Also there is enough room to run 6' of T 5's on the front.

[seanoman]

Hey sorry about the long delay in updates. It's hard to find lots of time to keep this updated when your also trying to set the tank up.

Lots of things have changed since the last update. I have added in the wavy seas with the tunzes and so far I am so impressed with the flow patterns that this combo creates. Also the lighting is all mounted just need to get some longer cords to put the middle T'5s in series with the others.

Also the aquascaping is mainly done with only a few pieces of LR that i need to find for certain areas.

We have in the last couple of days also added in the first of our livestock.

We got a school of chromis and 3 firefish. We also added in a ricordea that was in our nano and we got a green monti frag.

Sorry for the blurry pics, I am still trying to figure out the best way to take pics through the glass.

Here's the ric.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement096.jpg

Here's the monti
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement098.jpg

Firefish
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement106.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement075.jpg

Full Tank Shot with Just T5's
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement087.jpg

With Halides
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/RandomBasement092.jpg

[seanoman]

Just picked up a bunch of frags from Marc aka Super Fudge on the weekend. Will have pics up later today.

[seanoman]

Here's some pics of the frags I got from SuperFudge and Oceanic in the weekend.

These are when they were first put into the tank

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish009.jpg

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish012.jpg

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish017.jpg

Sunset Monti from Oceanic

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish008.jpg

Stumpy Robusta from Super Fudge

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish028-1.jpg

Super Fudge's BubbleGum Acro

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish036-1.jpg

Some kind of Table sort of like an Eflo

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish025.jpg

Mike Paletta's Teal Lavelli

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish030.jpg

Rainbow Milli from Dave at Wicked Frags

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish033.jpg

And Super Fudge's Popsicle Poci

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish038.jpg

[mseepman]

Wondering how the FTS is looking...

[seanoman]

At long last I have some time to update this thread. We have had a super busy past few months! Our tank is doing well now, we had a few algae outbreaks over the summer and it is almost gone now. We went through the hair algae phase and then cyano and we are currently going through another small outbreak or red turf algae and some other unfamiliar type.
We have also gone through some tought loses as far as fish go. A couple of months ago we got in a Sargassum trigger and lost it to some type of bacterial infection after having it only a few weeks. Also, a few weeks ago we lost our scribbled angel we had recently gotten as well due to internal parasites I believe.
On the flip side, the corals are doing great and we seem to be getting fairly good growth on most things as well.
Here are some updated pics of our aquascape and how the tank is looking. I will try to get some growth shots up in the next couple of days also.

Left side of tank
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Tank010.jpg

right side
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Tank011.jpg

FTS
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Tank008.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Tank007.jpg

side view
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Tank006.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/Tank005.jpg

Enjoy~

[Sebae again]

Nice job on rock formations.

[seanoman]

thanks, it was a ton of work and took forever to do but I think that it is all worth it now.

[mseepman]

Tanks looking great. Glad to see the update!

[seanoman]

Tanks looking great. Glad to see the update!

Hey thanks a lot!! We have been so busy that we just haven't had time to post pics or update the thread. Everything seems to be coming around now witht the corals. I just picked some new frags up from Oceanic along with the new frag rack. I will post pics of those soon too. Also we just purchased a Dussumieri Tang from Ocean Aquatics. It's about 5.5" and still very shy. We just saw last night that he has had a little outrbreak in ich. Hopefully we can get him through it. He has just started to eat a little bit of mysis, but we have noticed him grazing on the rocks and picking any algea that he can find. We haven't seen him go after the nori yet but hopefully soon. He has only been in there since tuesday night, so hopefully he makes it through it.

[TJSlayer]

I absolutely love the rock work! Some of the best I've seen!

Is it expoxed? Drilled? how'd you do it...

Awsome!

Todd

[seanoman]

First off, thanks for the compliment, we are very happy with how it turned out. If you like our rock work, just check out Super Fudges tank build, because his was the inspiration to ours.

We first made a structure out of pvc. Then drilled random holes through out it so that water will never settle in it. Also, the holes work for great for putting zap straps through and attaching the rocks to it. If you are ever wanting to do it, shoot me a pm and I could go over it better with you.

[Skimmerking]

hey man the tank looks great I see that you took out your sand bed, it there a reason why you did. Im in that problem that i have a 120 gal going and going to be switching out the 120 to a longer 150 tank. So with that being said I want to use the sand bed but i may get a spike from moving it over so im undecided yet. i may put some in the back and that is it,but still unsure. if i didnt have the sand bed the tank switch would be easier.

but oh well time will tell. love your fire fish. i had 6 of them 4 normals and 2 purple and they all jumped to fishy heaven good luck with yours.


mike

[OCDP]

Very nice! That butterfly is gorgeous... such nice fish.

[seanoman]

hey man the tank looks great I see that you took out your sand bed, it there a reason why you did. Im in that problem that i have a 120 gal going and going to be switching out the 120 to a longer 150 tank. So with that being said I want to use the sand bed but i may get a spike from moving it over so im undecided yet. i may put some in the back and that is it,but still unsure. if i didnt have the sand bed the tank switch would be easier.

but oh well time will tell. love your fire fish. i had 6 of them 4 normals and 2 purple and they all jumped to fishy heaven good luck with yours.


mike

Hey thanks Asmodeus! The reason why we took our sandbed out was that for one, it was so fine that with the 2 tunze 6200's, it would never stay in one spot and it didn't look good with patches everywhere. Also, we were having issues with phosphates and nitrates, so we figured the sand wasn't seeded properly and because of the first reason, we just decided to take it out and go bare bottom for the time being. I personally dont like the look of it with our aquscaping, because there is so much that is open, but my wife really likes the bare bottom look. So who knows what we will do.

Very nice! That butterfly is gorgeous... such nice fish.

Yeah that butterfly has done so well in our tank. The only thing is, is that he wont eat any prepared foods. It took us awhile, but we finally got him eating live manilla clams and a little bit of nori now and then. Luckily they aren't expensive and all the other fish just love it too.

[lastlight]

I know due to monitor colour profiles and a bazillion other factors I can almost garantee your lights don't appear exactly as I'm seeing them but...

I love their appearance!

Can you explain what type of bulbs you are running and how many? Thanks!

Brett

[Snappy]

Hey thanks Asmodeus! The reason why we took our sandbed out was that for one, it was so fine that with the 2 tunze 6200's, it would never stay in one spot and it didn't look good with patches everywhere. Also, we were having issues with phosphates and nitrates, so we figured the sand wasn't seeded properly and because of the first reason, we just decided to take it out and go bare bottom for the time being. I personally dont like the look of it with our aquscaping, because there is so much that is open, but my wife really likes the bare bottom look. So who knows what we will do.
Sean the tank looks great by the way. In my tank I use a sand that is quite course and in the high flow areas I use small rubble that doesn't blow away andit works very well and in my opinion still looks quite natural.

[seanoman]

I know due to monitor colour profiles and a bazillion other factors I can almost garantee your lights don't appear exactly as I'm seeing them but...

I love their appearance!

Can you explain what type of bulbs you are running and how many? Thanks!

The light combo that we are using is 3 400 watt 12K reeflux bulbs in lumenarc reflectors and we are also using 6 ATI VHO actinics. We are pretty happy with how the lighting looks right now with the overall blue hue and seem to be getting decent coloration and growth from them as well.

Snappy, thanks for the compliments and advice, we may end up putting another sandbed in, in the future but I think that for the next little while we will stay with the bare bottom and see how it goes. My wife likes the bare bottom look as I said before but she also really loves jawfish, so she may want to put it in again so that we can have a jawfish or two in the tank. :biggrin:

[seanoman]

whoops...that quote didn't work out quite right. :redface:

[seanoman]

here's some growth shots:

May 2008 (Mike Paletta Lovelli)
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish030.jpg

Today
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish272.jpg

May 2008 (Popsicle Poccillopora)
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish017.jpg

Today...we actually have 2 pieces of this as the frag broke when we got it home. This is of just the one frag.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish281.jpg

May 2008 (bubble gum tri color)
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish036.jpg

Today
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish273_edited-1.jpg

May 2008 (rainbow milli)
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish033.jpg

Today
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish269_edited-1.jpg

raccoon butterfly
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish262.jpg

yellow fin flasher wrasse
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FragsFish176.jpg

Enjoy!

[kien]

Nice build. Any update pics? :-)