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New 300g build


Guff

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Well after some ups and downs and a bad tank purchase I talked myself into buying a new custom 300g tank. The tank will be a custom AGE tank with starphire glass 8'L x 26" h x 30" deep, it'll have a coast to coast external overflow that I plan on using a bean animal overflow. But it'll be 8-12 weeks build time, he said typically it'll ship out in 8 weeks but either way it'll be awhile.

 

In that time frame I'll need to build a tank stand and convert the 180g acrylic tank I have into a custom sump. So there'll be some questions conerning those items. I will also be moving over the livestock from my current 120 along with the rock and ?sand?, that's the part I currently have no clue the best practice. I also have to eradicate some aipstasia at the same time, figure bow torch is the best bet there.

 

Equipment wise, I'm planning on a reeflo dart return pump into a coupe of sea swirls and will also be starting with a couple Tunze 6105s for additional tank flow, that will quite possibly be mounted on a the new sea sweeps. Not sure if I will need additional flow or not. I am planning on the SRO internal skimmer and a neptune apex controller. Ligting will likely be vertex, I currently have a 3' fixture so I'll either get an additional one or possibly sell it and get one large 6'. I think that's it for now!

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Along for the ride.

 

As far as the moving of tank, I've always just put new sand in place in new tank and moved over rock and as much water as possible. Sand being moved can stir up lots of nasty things and cause a cycle/crash from what I've always heard (Never experienced as I've never moved substrate!)

 

Rest sounds really good. I'd recommend getting the Gold Reeflo Dart as they have the Baldor motors. Not sure what type of timeline your looking at but as long as things go as planned for me I'll likely be getting rid of an SRO 3000 internal as it will be replaced with a custom Bill Wann skimmer that'll more than handle the 1000 gallon system. I'm targeting February to have it all plumbed and going and seem to be on right track for that. Just thought I'd throw it out there! Good luck and post some pictures!

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Good call about the reeflo gold I was just reading about it last night as a matter of fact, read that it is a bit more quiet than the normal. I'll likely be figuring out the sump here soon, so I can show some pics of that, unfortunately the tank probably won't be here until mid to late February. I'll be posting up in the help forum soon to get opinions/help on a sump design. I have been following your build on RC, that is one monster skimmer, I would probably try something similar if I had a fish room. Unfortunately for me I would have to pump from one side of my basement to the other and then back again.

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Sorry for short response earlier, on phone ^_^

 

Just went to Reeflo site and the Dart gold puts out 3,560 gph with four foot of head pressure. Putting more water through your sump than you can process with the filtration is a bit pointless unless you're wanting a lot of flow from your returns but nowadays makes more sense to use powerheads.

 

That being said, typically want 3-5 turnover of your DT water in your sump (Again all depends on how much water your skimmer processes). That means a good turnover of a 300 gallon tank would be 900-1500 gph so you've still got 2000 gph left to go to refugium and manifold so I'd say you'll be more than safe as long as you don't use a lot of Tees/90s.

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Yeah, I think I'm going to use the flex pipe as much as possible and if I only go with 1500gph on the return then I will likely only need to split the line into 2 returns and run just 2-3/4" sea swirls. Would just having a 2" manifold and then installing various tap offs be the best bet so I could just take individual lines for the returns, reactors, refugium and just put a valve on each line for flow.

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You have a certain manifold in mind? Not sure if you're talking about using two inch pipe and fittings but they are rather large and cumbersome and if its under a stand could make it really hard.

 

Not yet, figure I might be able to use flex pipe up to a 2" PVC that has inline T's where I could add reducers, barbs, etc for reactors as needed. Not sure what size returns I would need if I go with 2 to 2-3/4" sea swirls 3/4" would probably be enough I'm guessing.

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Sure thing, how do you do that exactly?

 

Just click on the Gallery above in the menu bar. Then Click on UPLOAD. just make sure you are in the Category: Member Albums, and you can create your own Album Name and Description. From there, start uploading images. As for posting them here, it's like any other site (PhotoBUcket, Shutterfly, etc..)

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Ok, I think I have a majority of the equipment narrowed down now.

 

Return Pump - Reeflo dart gold

Skimmer - SRO5000 internal (with auto neck cleaner)

2-3/4" sea swirls (actually the new multi swirl)

2-Tunze 6105 power heads

2-sea sweeps for the tunze

Apex controller with all probes and extra power pack

Vertex Illumina SR260 6' fixture w/extra pads

 

An added bonus I was asking about hte new multi LED pads that vertex has coming out next month for the fixtures that have UV, nUV, violet, red, green, and cool white LEDs all on the same pad. They are supposed to come out the middle of next month, vertex told my dealer that if I bought the fixtre by the end of the year they would throw in 3 of these new multi LED pads for FREE. Those things retail for $195 when they come out next month, how cool is that!

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So as of today have pretty much all the equipment ordered and on its way, still trying to figure out the stand issue, I may end up biting the bullet and having AGE build it for a bit of a premium. It'll be a bit more expensive around $1500 but I'll get piece of mind from someone who knows how to build stands, and I'll get the bonus of getting a 3 year warranty by getting one of their stands. May get some more dry base rock for the display to go with the live rock I already have in my 120g. Next order of business will be figuring out all my plumbing needs, that piece has been driving me bonkers.

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  • 4 weeks later...

So got word today that my tank is going to be finished in <2 weeks, so I'm going to have to really ramp things up. Figured I had until at least the end of February to finish my sump, etc. Now it's looking like I might have my tank for my birthday on Feb 2nd.

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I wouldn't count on it, I have a lot of work to do on the sump and setup, etc. Plus I'm still clueless on how I'm going to deal with the switch over to the new tank, etc. Hey maybe I'll motivate you to get yours done earlier, which will motivate me to get mine done as well :).

 

It may work out nicely I had taken off 4 days in mid february that may give me a nice 6 day window to get things going.

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Yeah, would be a great time for it, problem might be finding the time to get back to finishing what you need to do haha. Hey if you need any assistance with anything let me know, I'd be willing to assist. Looking at your setup I would probably learn a lot just by helping you finish up whatever you might still need help on.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Uploaded some random pics to my album I took with my phone of the various equipment I have laying all over the basement waiting on the tank to ship. Not sure if you can lin to that fro here or not first time i've used it. I've pretty much gotten a package everyday for the last week. I've gotten in some of the basics more plumbing pieces, salt, etc. But I've also gotten a pair of 55g drums for water storage, a litermeter III and one aux pump (the other is on backorder), spare dart pump for backup, par 38 for sump. Last week I picked up a 40g breeder for quarantine along with a bio wheel filter, I also picked up a 75g for whatever. My two sea sweeps and two sea swirls showed up in the mail today as well. So it's been a good few weeks like Christmas everyday!! I'm hoping I get word that tank is shipping any day now.

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eww, that wasn't one of your new pumps you just got was it?

 

I got word a little over 2 weeks ago that it was less than 2 weeks from completion, so I was hoping to hear that it was done by now and working out the shipping details, but so far that has been the case. So we'll see, was hoping it would be here by next Thursday as I was going to be taking Thursday and Friday and then Monday and Tuesday of the following week. Would have been perfect for getting a head start on everything, Now with my luck the way it's been the past couple of days my guess is they will want to deliver the day after all the vacation days I took.

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Of course the pump is the new one I just bought Wednesday! :(

 

As far as your tank, hope that it comes in. Might call them today and light a fire and say you took some days off to work on the project. If they get it out on a truck today I'd think that the freight would be here by next Thursday from Texas.

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Well that's no good, is it just cracked or did you break it cleanly? Surely there is an epoxy out there that you could use on the outside to try to strengthen it, then just add some silicone to the threads to provide a seal. Then just monitor it from there over time to see if you develop an salt creep.

 

Yeah, I'm going to ping my sales guy again and hope that they are already getting it boxed up today maybe.

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No worries on the hijack, it's my thread and I'll do as I please :). Only thing I could think of causing that would be that possibly wrapped the threads a bit too much causing there to be enough extra width to split the housing. I would look at getting a good plastic epoxy and filling the crack being careful not to get too much that it oozes into the threads inside. Then getting some thin plastic pieces and epoxying them around the outside in strips. I know for a piece at home for an xbox controller I took some pieces from the plastic packaging that you get all sorts of items in where you have to cut them out that are always a pain, well I just cut strips of this plastic and actually used super glue and wrapped it to create a lamination around the area for extra strength.

 

You might be able to give that a try just using epoxy instead for extra strength and try to laminate a few pieces that go all the way around for added support. Between the two I would think that it would provide enough strength to hold. I would expect that the pressure at that point wouldn't be all that great, it'll just be whatever the back pressure is from the water of the tank that the nozzles on the output have to push against. I have a spare hybrid dart/snapper on the way if you need another, I might be wiling to swap you for a small fee and I'll work on fixing it just to have as a backup pump.

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