Lance's 225 gal tank

[Lance]

I wasn't going to do a tank journal because firstly, I take crappy pictures; secondly, I hate all that copy and paste stuff; and lastly, I type very slowly. But, I do like tank journals, so I decided to do a shortened version. Anyway, enough blah, blah, blah and on with the build.

I bought this tank last summer from a friend of Anthony's (Seahorse Fanatic), who for various reasons couldn't use this size tank. To make a long story short, I got a brand new tank, lights, and a cutom-built stand for a good price and the gentleman was a pleasure to do business with.

The tank is a 225g Sea Star with starfire glass and euro-bracing, (72x30x24). I really like the 30" depth, it gives so many more options for aqua-scaping.






The tank and stand are going into the family room where it will eventually be incoporated into a floor to ceiling wall unit with TV, stereo etc. so it will look like an in-wall tank. When full, it will weigh well over 3000 lbs. so some beefing up of the floor was necessary. The tank runs parallel to the floor joists (2x10's on 16" centers), so I built two 2x4 walls perpindicular to the joists in the workshop below. The back 8" of the tank sit on an outside concrete bearing wall; one end of the tank is over a laminated load-bearing beam; and the other end and center of the tank is over the 2x4 walls. So, between the bearing wall, beam and stud walls there is now plenty of strength to hold this load.




Moving the stand and tank into place was a real bitch! I had to remove 3 doors for the 34-inch deep stand to fit. We had to go out through the garage door; in through the front door; up 3 steps into the entranceway; turn a corner; down 2 steps into the living room; up 2 steps into the dining room; out the door to the upper sundeck; down 4 steps to the lower sundeck; in through another door into the family room; and finally on to the stand. We had 7 guys and it was all we could do to get it done. man, the beer went down fast afterwards.

So here is the stand in place in the family room. I will be building the wall unit around it after the new year.



Filling with water for a leak test. No leaks. Whoot!




The stand is pretty solid: ends and back are double 3/4" plywood, with an MDF laminated and siliconed top. Just to be on the safe side I beefed up the stand with 3" tube steel and 4x4 posts.




I ordered 125 lbs. of Eco-ROx from Bulk Reef Supply for base rock. Some regular-type rock and shelf rock which I like the look of.




Here is the rock and shelf-type rock in the tank. Don't ask how long it took to get the rock how I wanted it. But it's in now and I'm quite happy with the look. It is very stable and I didn't even have to drill, tie, or use PVC supports. It's just stacked and fitted.










It took almost 3 full days to fill with R/O water. Dumped in the salt and turned on the pumps. Cleared up in a few hours. I am using Instant Ocean salt as it is the only salt available locally, and that is what I'm using in the 90 gal reef. I'll take some pics of the filled tank with the lights on so you can get an idea of how it looks.