Scott's 270g aka Project Mayhem
 

Hello All,

We bought a new home 5 years ago and the plan was always to develop the basement into a comfortable living space that accommodates our love for animals. My wife Wendy has ~10-15 snakes at any given time depending on if any one is breeding, a tarantula, Aussie Frilled Dragon, Plated Lizard. I just took down my 85 gal and moved the inhabitants to a 40 gal on rollers to make the development a little easier. I have had a 10 gal nano, 20 gal mantis tank, 85 gal mixed reef. We also have a red eared slider and an awesome pound dog named Jasper.

6 snake tanks are incorporated into one of the walls and mounted on 200lb sliders to make pulling them out of the shelf unit for maintenance easier. They will have pocket doors over the fronts of the tanks that are finished in an Espresso coloured wood veneer. Just think Petland or something like that.

On to the good stuff! Before I get too far into I want to that Steve (sphelps), Colby with Bayside Corals and Denny at Concept Aquariums, I could not have done this without them. I asked Wendy what we should called the build thread and she said Project Mayhem, so I present to you Project Mayhem!

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It is a 270 gal (72"w x 36"d x 24"t) with an external overflow on the left hand side. It's all 1/2" glass with the front and right side viewing panels being made out of starfire glass. It has a 1/2" plywood base glued to the bottom pane. The euro bracing is drilled for the returns.

The sumps are in a stacked configuration. The water from the overflow is fed into the sumps with 2 x 2" returns. The first chamber is a frag tank, the second is the return pumps. There is an overflow to the lower sump which will feed the skimmer, reactors, filter bags, and refugium. It's also has a water change chamber and an emergency overflow. I know this goes against the conventional thinking that the dirtiest water should hit the skimmer first, but I am going to utilize the energy from the overflow feeding into the sump for frags. The skimmed/reactor/refugium water will be fed back into the pump chamber and returned to the display tank.

I traditionally have used overdriven T5's for my reef tanks but and switching over to LED's. I have purchased 3 Mitras fixtures so hopefully that should cover the coral's lighting needs. The returns and reactor pump with likely be DC Wavelines. In-tank circulation will be handled by four Vortech MP40w's. One underneath the overflow and three along the back wall. I will put one on the right viewing pane if need be but I want to keep the pane clean. I will likely wrap the pack pane in black vinyl.

I am not sure about my skimmer yet. I have a BK Mini 180 and I like the quality, but I also use a Euro-Reef RC-1000 and it's been great aside from cooking a pump once. I am thinking a BK supermarin 200, but hate to overpay if there is something equivalent in quality/performance for less.

OK, so that should sum up what I am thinking of. Now for the good stuff!

Design phase:

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Building the stand, preparing the fish room and getting the basement ready:

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I don't think you have enough wood for
the stand. looking good man

The fishroom is wired with 2 20 amp breakers. The first powers the 4 receptacle on the left hand side of the room. The second runs 6 receptacles along the back wall, with the final two on GFCI. I know it's overkill, but I'd rather that than kick a breaker after a power outage. I know the LED's and DC pumps should really soften startup but a little overkill isn't a bad thing. The sink will be a stainless scullery sink that can easily fit 5 gal pails. There is some cabinet and cupboard space, as well as wall space for the RO/DI. The salt and fresh reservoirs will be set in another room most likely, but I will fit them by the sumps if possible.

I plan on using either a profilux or a neptune controller. I haven't really decided either way yet.

Delivery day came and went! There was a great old storm coming through but the tank was unloaded and not a chip or crack in it.

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I hired one company that brought it into the house but then looked at the stairwell and said no way. So I built a 2x2 frame of the exact tank dimensions (minus the overflow) and made a dry run through the stairwell and it fit, just like my measurements suggested it would, sans overflow.

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After trying to cut the overflow off for over five hours (razor blade, 20g wire, etc.) and with the movers coming in a couple hours I made the hard decision and broke the smallest pane on the overflow and peeled the rest off. It came off easy once I had the once pane off. Made me cry inside a little but oh well, better the tank is downstairs and I have to repair one little pane of glass.

So the movers showed up and looked at the route and weren't too stoked. But they didn't complain, just got their equipment together and got to work, The laid the tank, starfire up, on the piano dolly, then lashed a wheeled dolly onto the overflow side. After some swearing and back breaking work, they had it down safe and sound! I paid them, am tipped them well to boot!

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Here it is in place!

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Here is my nest dilemma. How much gap is too much? Less than an 1/8" on one corner.

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And maybe a good 3/16" on the other.

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Steve, what should I do? The other two corners are perfectly flush.

Yep, she's over built but I'd rather that than under built LOL!

Sitting perfect right now.

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If it were me, I'd remove the ply between the glass and the stryo
Then I'd shim between the remaining ply and 2x4s until perfect
And I'd use composite shims, not wood, as they won't compress over time, even if they get wet

removing the plywood is going to be impossible as we build the tank on it and seal it tight:)

I was just going to say that, the plywood is sealed onto the bottom pane for good. Reefwars, do you have any advice? I am assuming you're part of Concepts crew? I was thinking of making some extra wide shims and sliding them between the pink styro and the tanks plywood? Will the styro compress too much, rendering the shims useless?

Thanks for the help.