CUZ's 435g system

[cuz]

I've has my tank build posted on out local forum but have decided to move it over to canreef to try and get a little more input and feedback from a larger crowd of people. This was set up in Nov this last winter and I'm just going to transfer everything from one forum to this one till I get everything up to date over here!!
Till i get caught up it'll mostly be progress pics, but nobody wants to here me ramble anyways right!!

[cuz]

After missing out on this tank the first time it popped up for sale again and I managed to get my name to the top of the list!! ( i snoozed and won!!)

The tank is 300 gal with a 135 gal sump totalling 435 gallons!!
It measures 96l X 30w X 24h

I did a little reading on moving these things around, downstairs, and hauling, some said heavy some said not bad, fellow selling the tank said no less than 6 guys!!!
We brought 4!!
First 2 guys i called were all over it!! Said the magic 2 words, big tank and road trip, both replied with: "I'm in"!!!!!
Crew for the move was myself, Mike, Ryan, and Ginger. Four guys that will likely never volunteer to do this again!!lol
( Heck Ginger doesn't even know what a salt water tank is, all he knows is he's never helping me again!!lol)

Its hard to pinpoint an exact weight but the average seems to be in the 800-1000lb range!!!
easy enough!! Right!!! out the doorway and thru a field full of snow to get to the trailer!! It sucked!! but we gotter done!!!

As we got closer to home the converstation in the truck got less and less as we all realized we were gonna have to unload everything plus throw in a trip down the stairs this time!!

First things first, no way it was makin it thru the doorway!! Mike was on top of that!!



first down was the sump,



Then the stand, even after removing the door it was just not quite enough room but we just rammed it thru!!lol Other half doesn't mind she wanted a new door anyway!!lol



then came the tank!! i don't know if we just had no fuel in the tanks or what but we had to set it down in the snow outside!!

[cuz]

from there we were looking for the easiest way to get this in the house, turns out my kids were all out sledding today! lol soo......
we took 2 krazy carpets ( ) got them under the tank, and slid it right to the door!!! !
funny----yes
worked like a charm tho!!!!!!!!!
got it in and down the stairs no problem!!!


Up she goes!!!

[cuz]

Took awhile but got things cleaned up and shiny!!!


got the sump cleaned up and in. That really sucked by myself!!!


And of course I had to try for the mermaid shot but got told where to go!!lol
this is the best i could grab!!

[cuz]

Here's the stand 6" higher, skinned the entire inside of the stand with 1" plywood. It really made everything solid, you've got to give it your all to even budge anything now!!!


Got the back and one side of the tank painted black. Then i ran the return lines down thru the stand.

[cuz]

Then i painted the inside of the stand. You can see the white return elbows poking threw. I left cutouts on each corner just in case i had to fiddle with the overflow plumbing way down the road.

[cuz]

i ended up removing 4 of the 6 baffles in the sump just to gain more room for this to be placed where i wanted it. I didn't have a beer can for size reference so my glass of root beer will have to do!

[cuz]

another busy day, its crazy how when you look at something and figure on maybe taking an hour or so it turns into an all daymission!!

I changed the herbie style overflows to durso's and added some baffles to the top of the overflows. Keep critters out for one but also wanted to raise the water level in the display tank. Previously the height of the overflows would have had the water level 1" below the black trim and that would have drove me nuts looking at it all day. I opted not to remove the existing glass for the overflows.



next i went to town with the plumbing. this would be alot simpler if a person would write down what they need and just double it from the start!!
this shows how my backup overflows are plumbed together then down into the sump in case of a main drain clog.

[cuz]

picked up these today, 1 for each return.



they will be plumbed into these 1" lines once i can round up a couple bulkheads.

[cuz]

here's were everything overflows into the sump, after looking at this pic I ran downstairs to check how straightness of the middle pipe..lol..just the pic for some reason.


Also painted the back of the sump black just cuz!!