Project Phoenix

[DemoReef]

Background: About a year and a half ago I purchased a 330 gal Starfire tank of a fellow reefer. One snowy December Saturday my wife and I took the company truck and headed from Williams Lake, BC over to Edmonton to pick it up. The tank had been cut apart to facilitate the move out of the basement. Upon arrival in Edmonton the seller informed us that in the process of getting everything ready for the pick up, the bottom pane of glass had gotten into a fight with physics and as usual physics won.
In light of the situation the seller decided to offer us the remaining glass for free, as I had to replace the bottom. He also gave us a whole pile of pvc, unions and ball valves as well as a diy 100gal sump and another 75gal tank that could be used as a refugium.
I did purchase 2 Reeflow Snapper pumps as well as his remaining salt mix stockpile.



All that sat in our basement for about a year until I could muster up the energy to get into the build.
After getting a price for glass, 19mm ~88.5" x ~28.5", shipped to Williams Lake and weighing against that my desire for viewing my coral through the bottom, I decided to explore other alternatives...like plywood.

This went right along with my theme for this build as I wanted to do as much diy as possible, not necessarily for money savings but for the fun of building something and see it working.
So my plan for the build turned out to be:

Tank: 19mm 90"L x 30"W x 27"H, plywood/fiberglass bottom. Front and left Starfire viewable.

Stand: PT 2x6, 1" plywood top, 3/4" plywood front and sides

Sump: The 100gal diy, modified to meet current needs

Circulation: The picture above is of the back glass, you may notice it is drilled for closed loop. The 2 Reeflow Snappers have been converted to Darts and one is driving a 2 in 4 out CL the other is returning from the sump. This should provide just shy of 20 times turnover in the DT. I also use a Tunze Wavebox 6215 to slosh the water around. Not sure tho what this would equate to as far as turnover.

Lighting: Was thinking diy LED, but after checking pricing on the components I went with 6 Evergrow 115 watt LED fixtures.

Skimmer: 36" tall Lifereef skimmer with a Blueline 1200gal/hr pump and a Mazzei injector. (Have not regretted this)

Also, 2 diy reactors for GFO and GAC