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MikeInToronto 10-04-2019 10:24 PM

Mike’s 750 gallon build
 
1 Attachment(s)
Hello all

Just for starters, this tank has been up and running for a few months but I will start from the beginning and hopefully it doesn’t look like I went from 0 to finished in a week. I’ll also mention this first post is an overview (a luxury to have since the tank is already built and running) so there will be some repeating in the individual subsequent posts.

The tank is 120” x 48” x 30”. 3/4” standard glass. I didn’t go with Starphire for two reasons: 1) it scratches too easily and I am good at scratching the glass, and 2) I heard a few places that the blue of our lights makes it redundant. I’m not saying it’s true but 1) alone was enough. It’s just under a nominal 750 gallons.

The seams are armoured and it’s eurobraced along the perimeter. There are no braces across the middle of the tank. I did not make this request so I trust this is common enough with builds by Miracles.

The tank was built onsite by Miracles. Overall I’m satisfied.

Now I’ll talk specifics in the next few posts.
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142718/

MikeInToronto 10-04-2019 10:35 PM

The stand
 
I got a couple quotes for this tank and they were all roughly the same but the Miracles quote included a stand and also extended the warranty an additional 4 years if I used their stand. It was a no brainer.
The stand has a rubberized coating and it made of steel. It has 12 legs. The original design was meant for 6 leads but I was a bit paranoid that my floor would crack under the weight of the tank (I know, this wouldn’t happen) but it put my mind at ease. The floor is concrete.

It was partially assembled at the Miracles site but in order to get it into my house it had to be fully welded on site. Miracles sent a welder.
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142639/
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142640/

MikeInToronto 10-04-2019 10:39 PM

The glass is regular 3/4”. I didn’t go with starphire glass because I’m prone to scratching and also, I’ve heard that our modern day lighting make it negligible. I don’t know either way.

Here is the glass:
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142653/

The process was pretty quick and the tank was built within a week of having the glass dropped off.
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142657/

After this I had to wait 5 weeks for the silicone to cure. I had so many other things to do the 5 weeks were nothing. I’ll talk about that white box on the ceiling later.

The overflow is acrylic or something.
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142659/

Here’s a side view while I was trying to figure out if that brace was going to get in the way of the plumbing. It doesn’t.

MikeInToronto 10-04-2019 10:41 PM

For lighting I went with 10 Radion G4 Pros. I picked them all up during our Boxing Week so they were on sale. To hang the lights I build a rack out of t-slot aluminum.
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142665/

It feels super heavy but it weighs like 56 lbs. Weird.

I installed 3 dedicated 20 amp circuits for the tank. The lights have one installed in the ceiling. I built a box to hold all the power supplies so there are no wires hanging around. Since I redid my basement prior to putting in the tank, looking back I should have had the power supply box sunken into the ceiling to make it flush. It’s okay though. The box is that white thing in the second post.

The other two circuits are to hold two Apex power bars. Since they are max 15 amp each, this gives me some wiggle room. I’m not even close to using that much electricity.

WarDog 10-05-2019 02:23 AM

Very nice, keep it coming.

kyl 10-05-2019 03:13 AM

Beauty! Yeah, PPG Starphire seems to scratch far too easy compared to the other "low iron" tanks I've been exposed to in my hobby time thus far (IM Nuvo's).

MikeInToronto 10-05-2019 10:33 AM

The tank is heated with four 500W Finnex heaters. I did this instead of fewer big heaters because the draw from a 1000W heater is crazy on a breaker. Anyway, 1000W is HOT!
For the return pump I’m using two jebao DC pumps. 12000? They’re pretty good. I’m impressed.
For flow I’m using eight Neptune WAV pumps. I don’t really like vortechs (omg, I said that!) but the WAVs are cool because they connect directly to the Apex so there are no extra wires. When I had the tank built I requested 6 holes in the eurobracing so the WAV wires come through and are strapped along the top. This way they aren’t going over and around the bracingly. I’ll need to take a pic of that. You can see it in later posts when I discuss filling the tank and all that fun stuff.

I’m realizing now that it’s a little tough to clean the WAVs because in order to move them I have to cut the cable ties. I’ll figure something out.

MikeInToronto 10-05-2019 10:35 AM

So now the 5 weeks have passed and I did my leak test with fresh water. This is where I learned the tote sump was a bust; literally.
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142686/

I let the tank run like this for a week. No leaks. Then I drained the tank completely so I could work on the aquascaping.

MikeInToronto 10-05-2019 10:38 AM

In preparation for this tank, I was curing some rock in a trough in my crawlspace. I used that Marco rock mortar and cemented my rock work. That mortar is AMAZING! I made my structures and left them to dry in position and the next day, it was like concrete. No water yet.
Then I added 10 bags of live sand. I only used live because it was cheaper than dry.
I like to put the rock first because it anchors the rock. If I put sand first, it moves over time and little burrowing things tend to make things worse.
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142706/

The tank is all cloudy but you can see the holes where the WAV plugs come out. They go along the bracing to the wall and into the EB382’s and 1Link. The returns go over the overflow. I debated whether to cut into the box to have them flush but my buddy told me I’d regret it. Anyway, this way there is minimal backflow if the pumps go off. In later pics you’ll see the the end of the return is submerged. In this pic above it’s exposed.

Here is the rock work. It’s a few different clusters of rock with lots of space between. The idea is the tank will get full of SPS everywhere so the fewer rocks the better.
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142709/

Here a pic of the light because I forgot to add it in the lighting post. I don’t like all the wires so I’ll work on that later.
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachment...-jpeg.1142710/

DKoKoMan 10-05-2019 03:39 PM

Nice! I’m liking the size of this tank, lots of real estate for fish and corals.


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