OscarMeyer 280g
 

Well what can i say.... I have a problem and reefing is it.

i have been reefing for about 5-6Yrs now and keeping freshwater tanks for almost 10-12yrs, this is my first adventure into a larger build, the largest tank I kept was/is a 65g tank that I'm keeping my Wife's 7yr old blood parrot (Natty) The reason for the upgrade is because after many years of saving I was finally able to buy a house and was able to coax the wife into letting me turn one of the basement rooms into my own fish room, plus we are going to be here for quite a while and i wont need to worry about moving the tank at a later date. My initial plan was to try and stuff all my freshwater and salt water tanks into this one room but after doing my layouts over the last few days I'm thinking that it will just be the 280g room, this allows me room for expansion later and also just allows more ease of movement in the room, its not going to be as fancy as some of the other builds here but I'm going to do my best to bring forth what i have learned over the 16-17 yrs I've been keeping tanks.

alittle about my previous tank/current tank. after keeping freshwater, like so many other's I got the itch to start reefing, so i went down to JLAquatics, spent some time talking with Jeff, and ended up purchasing myself a RedSea Max130D, and like many reefers i just modded as i went along, but the entire time i was kicking myself for not getting a tank with a sump, but i did enjoy the all in one tank, and never having a sump before and not really knowing to much before really diving into it made it and easy choice.

my old build thread:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...t=72686&page=3

Unfortunately i had the unthinkable happen to the tank, i cant remember the type of ATO i was using, but it failed and dumped about 10-15gal of fresh RO water into the tank, I came home to a very wet basement and a very cloudy tank, my Midas Blenny went carpet surfing, the Yasha Goby and Pistol Shrimp just disappeared along with the Mandarin Goby, and the corals just looked terrible, clam was completely disintegrated..... Everything that was still in good shape I gave to a friend and decided to take a little step back on the tank and convert it to a FOWLR setup as i knew in the coming year i was going to have to move the tank multiple times, this system has stayed wet for the entire time I've owned it, but for a solid year it didn't really get the maintenance it deserved. This was a very important lesson for me, i learned never to skimp on the cheap stuff and always try to have redundancy to system that these issues cannot happen.

Alittle about the new system, i saw a FS thread pop up in the buy/sell location, and decided to jump at it as it was almost the exact dimensions i wanted.

Tank dimension's:
60''x36''x20'' Euro braced, with starphire front and left and right, it has an internal coast to coast overflow and I believe a herbie style overflow installed, but I'm going to convert it to a Beananimal setup. I have no pictures of the tank because ill be picking it up this coming saturday morning. ( super excited )

here is where I'm at currently and hoping looking for alittle input from fellow reefers on how i should lay the system out. The room is 10'1"x9'7" with a small cutout that after the doorway makes the length on that side 10'x4" I'm wanting to install a sink and small work bench in the little cutout to get some of the stuff out of the bathroom in the basement, which the wife really wanted.

little cutout inside the doorway, which will be turned into a sink area and workbench.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/636/31...4eac4ba3_b.jpg

Option 1:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/257/32...33100f00_b.jpg

Option 2:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/399/32...a9382409_b.jpg

Option 3:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/723/31...bb9fda06_b.jpg

what are your thought's? I'm leaning towards option 1, as it allows the most space around the tank, although i do like the fact that option 3 allows the RSM to be added to the room, just sucks losing a viewing panel on the big tank.


will update more later!!

Option 1!

Uhaul truck is booked, suction cups have been rented, pickup time is 10am tomorrow, I am getting pretty excited!
That's where I initially was leaning although option 3 has grown on me, I can then take the RS equipment and make a frag tank in the other corner, and have it all in the same room. Today I'm going to be racking my brain hard to figure this out before tomorrow!

I don't think my arm's have ever been this tired... Tank is in, and I have a group of really amazing friends to thank for that, I definitely would not have been able to do this without them. Late last night I decided to have a bright idea and paint the room with some mold and mildew resistant paint, I do plan on adding a dehumidifier to the room, and having it exhaust through the wall, but thought a fresh coat of paint would have been a good idea... Needless to say Im coming up on 48hrs of no sleep and I'm having a hard time finding out why this was a good idea.

Not sure why my photo's didn't upload but here they are.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...28e5cd4411.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...5a0240a784.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a1dced2559.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...c1090cb3b6.jpg

The overflow has a few small issues that will need to be tackled a few broken teeth.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...989a08c14a.jpg

And also I just noticed an odd deformity in the middle of the piece.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...53b6aa5ed3.jpg

Hard to see, but it has two medium sized bumps in the acrylic, need to see if I can remove this piece and have a new one fitted. Any suggestions?

Next post I'll update on my lighting, skimmer and the coral care program I intend to use with this tank. Now I just need to sort out what rock I would. Like to use in this system, again any suggestions? I'm thinking Marco rocks, as it seems Fijireefrock.ca has closed it's door's?

That happens when the piece of acrylic is either too large and expands in the tank, but its edges are pushing against the glass so it buckles in the middle OR the material just warps lol.

Nothing you can do about it. I'd say pull it out, make new teeth that mount higher up and just use tint on the back of the tank (outside). It will be much easier to keep clear of coralline algae.

Plus one to comment above!
adding a weir and tinting is your best option. A weird story but true... a friend had a piece of acrylic that was silicones to the back wall, they probably skimped when siliconing the back acrylic and as a result it started bowing the water that was trapped in the back between the glass and acrylic overflow went stale because of no air and water movement. Needless to say he lost corals and I think a few fish. It's a simple thing that is overlooked but I'd either remove the acrylic and flatten it out using a heat gun to bend it back flat and cut abit off the side so it fits better or just paint/tint and install teeth.

Funny thing is I started looking over the acrylic and it's definitely an area where I can see it already has build up of detritus trapped behind it, if I tint the back pane of glass I'll still be able to see the pvc through the middle glass, as the overflow is internal to the tank, I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to go about this issue. I'd like to get some glass cut to fit on the top part of the divider, but not even sure that's an option, I may pull it off and do my aquascape so it covers the back glass and the scape comes forward, but we will see.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8c999981b6.jpg

Pretty stoked on this, not bad for $100! I've had a RKL for ever so I'm excited to use this.

I also got a line on two brand new Gen4 radions for almost 600 off retail pricing, but I know the wife is going to put me in the dog house for spending so much in the last month.

I also need to go down to JL and put an order in for a Vertex alpha cone 200, but after looking at the website I might luck out cause it seems its in stock!

http://www.theaquariumsolution.com/d...flow-weir-comb

Think I may have found my solution for the weir, now to figure out if I should just let the Coraline cover the back glass or have the back wall covered in flat slice cuts of rock.

Following this tank build... looking good so far!