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Ross's 750g In-wall with Fish Room!


Atomic

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Hello INDMAS

 

My Name is Ross and I am a Reefoholic......  Ive been a member of INDMAS for almost 10 years but because of my location, Rushville, I cannot attend alot of the meeting.  I hope for this to change, but work/kids (2yr old and a bun in the oven)/ and other commitments leave me with little time on Saturdays to make the treck to Indy.  I have almost always attended all the spring frags swaps and have gotten to know quite a few of you over the years. 

Like most of us, I have had my fair share of tanks over the years.  Started off with a 26g AIO Aquacube.  Then upgraded to a 90g that crashed because of a snow storm. Back to a 29g Biocube, then a 57g, and now I currently have a 220g with another 300 gallons in my basement fish room.

2 Months ago I started work on a new house.  I am a General Contractor and build custom homes around east central Indiana for a living.  So after 20 years of doing it for other people, I finally get to build one for myself.  Of course my one stipulation for building a new house was to have the dream tank.  The entire basement is designed around the tank.  The Family room, Kids bedrooms, bar, downstairs laundry room, all are centered on the focus of the tank.

The tank specs are not 100% set in stone as of this point but I have a pretty good idea of what I’m going to do.  I want to keep the budget under control and I am not going to be getting top of the line equipment and will be buying used when I think it won’t jeopardize quality.  Because of my construction background and the fact my wife will kill me when she finds out how much this all could cost.  Ive decided to go with a plywood inwall tank.   Most of my plywood tank research has come from www.monsterfishkeepers.com.  These people are crazy with all the projects they do! 

 

Specs:

Tank: 120” long x 48”wide x 30” deep

Sump: 150g Rubbermaid

                50g Skimmer sump

60g Frag tank

(3) 75g stack tanks    QT/Refugium/Breeding tanks

Return pump: Reeflo Hammerhead Gold

Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve B12

Lighting: (6) Viparspectra 300w (5 for display, 1 for frag tank)

Powerheads:  (2) Maxspect Gyre XF 250

Controller: Neptune Apex w/

                                ATO

                                Auto fish feeder

                                PH Monitor

                                Salinity Monitor

                                Temp Monitor

                                Leak Detection

Calcium Reactor: Geo Cr 624

3x 7” Filter socks

 

 

The Fish Room:

The fish room is 24’x10’ with a 12’x8’ laundry room/sink room attached.  I have 2 drains that are on both inside corners of the tank.  I also have one 2” drain line to empty any other saltwater into if needed from a sink.  These are dedicated drains only for the fish room and open air outside the house. 

38114663056_7723f273e8_b.jpg

 

The Tank: 750 gallons

The tank will be in-wall facing my basement family room.   There will also be (4) 6” circular portal holes into the fish room that will create additional viewing areas also from the fish room.  Three sides of the tank will have Rock walls attached to mount corals onto and have 2 rather large islands in the center of the tank. 

 

Lifestock:  I plan on having a lot of Fish.  I love coral, but fish make a tank in my opinion.

                Fish:

                                Mostly Tangs, wrasses and schooling fish.  All fish will be Reef safe.

                Corals: 

                                Mixed SPS, LPS and a few select softies

 

I will start building the tank next march after drywall is installed.  For now Im going to start collecting equipment and doing the behind the scenes work. (plumbing, electrical, ventilation, etc)

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That wide of a tank, you're going to need more flow than that. I have those powerheads. They are awesome and I'll never use anything else, but on a 4' x 10' tank, you're going to need at least 4 of them with the 4' width. 2 on each side. 

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3 hours ago, SilentNight1793 said:

Ross,

Just for curiosity, the back 3 walls of the tank, how are they going to be built? I am guessing it would be similar to the ones at places like the Newport aquarium?

Im basically gonna use the same technique that they use to create man made live rock, but I am going to do it with the walls.  Ill add pieces of real liverock to create ledges and tunnels.  I hope to be able to hide the overflow and powerheads using this method also.

Just one of many articles.  the only problem with doing this is the curing takes a while and ive been told it make your PH go crazy if not done correctly.  i gotta do more research into it.

http://www.tfhmagazine.com/saltwater-reef/feature-articles/creating-your-own-live-rock-full-article.htm

 

1 hour ago, splix said:

That wide of a tank, you're going to need more flow than that. I have those powerheads. They are awesome and I'll never use anything else, but on a 4' x 10' tank, you're going to need at least 4 of them with the 4' width. 2 on each side. 

I have the Reeflo hammerhead and should have 6-10 returns using it to the tank.  I still might need to go with more of the Gyre powerheads.  I was going to put them on the back wall and not the side walls.    I was doing some layout with top of the tank last night and i think im gonna put euro bacing and 2 center supports, this would lead me to having 3 of the Gyre's.  I dont think you can connect 3 of these powerheads though, only sets of 2.  Any input on this is helpful as i have never used these types of powerheads.

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16 hours ago, Atomic said:

 

I have the Reeflo hammerhead and should have 6-10 returns using it to the tank.  I still might need to go with more of the Gyre powerheads.  I was going to put them on the back wall and not the side walls.    I was doing some layout with top of the tank last night and i think im gonna put euro bacing and 2 center supports, this would lead me to having 3 of the Gyre's.  I dont think you can connect 3 of these powerheads though, only sets of 2.  Any input on this is helpful as i have never used these types of powerheads.

Yeah you can only connect 2 per controller. These would be an amazing powerhead for your size tank and would give you a ton of flow if you did them on the sides. They would be able to reach most of the way across the 10' per side and gyrate the entire tank so you wouldnt have to worry about dead spots, especially on the sand. This is just me, but I'd plan on setting up the returns for back - front movement, and setup 4 gyres (2 on each side due to width) for side-side. 

I may have a spare 250. I downgraded tanks and am using 1 in the new tank. I havent found a use for the 2nd one. You can buy the power head alone without a controller, thats what I did. That way you're not spending $ on controllers you wont need to use. 

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On 11/8/2017 at 9:43 AM, splix said:

Yeah you can only connect 2 per controller. These would be an amazing powerhead for your size tank and would give you a ton of flow if you did them on the sides. They would be able to reach most of the way across the 10' per side and gyrate the entire tank so you wouldnt have to worry about dead spots, especially on the sand. This is just me, but I'd plan on setting up the returns for back - front movement, and setup 4 gyres (2 on each side due to width) for side-side. 

I may have a spare 250. I downgraded tanks and am using 1 in the new tank. I havent found a use for the 2nd one. You can buy the power head alone without a controller, thats what I did. That way you're not spending $ on controllers you wont need to use. 

I wonder if 2 of the 280s would work better than 4 250s?  $$$$$ bend on over!

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2 hours ago, MrsBugmaster said:

I've read that the QT tank should be 10ft away from DT and any others. This is a good read on the subject:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2423604

Might be something to consider while still in the planning stage.

Wow, ive never heard that.  Good to know and ill look into it.  My current QT just sits below my frag tank but ive never really had issues and had to use the QT.

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  • 1 month later...

39565141111_f53d40b11d_b.jpg

 

Not alot has gone on.  The Walls are finished in the fish room.  Im in contact with a local glass company about the front glass panel.  Still trying to figure out how big I want to go.  Im pretty sure 3/4 tempered will withstand a tornado, but its expensive.  

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  • 1 month later...

Looks like an epic build.  

Some food for thought.  You are going to want to design a way to move the lighting out of the way so you can reach the front glass (especially the TOP portion of the front glass).  Your tank plan is pretty deep (front to back) so you will need a way to lean out over the tank from the fishroom and use a scraper on the front glass.  A long handle scraper will be a must to get the front bottom of the glass but the top part of the glass will actually be harder to scrape (you will need to get the lights up and out of the way to get the necessary angle for scraping).  

Keep up with the picts.

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3 minutes ago, Indymann99 said:

Looks like an epic build.  

Some food for thought.  You are going to want to design a way to move the lighting out of the way so you can reach the front glass (especially the TOP portion of the front glass).  Your tank plan is pretty deep (front to back) so you will need a way to lean out over the tank from the fishroom and use a scraper on the front glass.  A long handle scraper will be a must to get the front bottom of the glass but the top part of the glass will actually be harder to scrape (you will need to get the lights up and out of the way to get the necessary angle for scraping).  

Keep up with the picts.

Thanks for the Tip.  Always up for any tips that anyone else has, ill learn from your mistakes.  Im planning on building a lighting rack and having it raised and lowered with a cheap winch from harbor freight.  Also im going to trying a put a sliding board on wheels, similar to a automotive creeper.  I hope to be able to lay on this board to reach into the front side of the tank.

 

 

 

Other thoughts im considering:

 

I was in Modern Aquatics talking to Jeremy a few weeks back and he suggested going with 4 250w Metal halide lights instead of 5 300w Leds.  With the reflectors, it should be enough coverage.  Having the tank in the basement, the MHs will only help to heat the tank.  Not sure if im going to do this, but im leaning that way.  Recommendations?

 

 

Still not sure about using a Controller.  The only reason i really want it is to be able to use the Apex Trident in the future.

 

 

I bought a 3x stack of 75 gallon tanks that had been in a fish store.  I dont think im going to use it like i had once wanted for my refugium/QT/growout.

I have a 60g Frag tank thats 4'x2'x1' on my current tank.  Im considering using it for my Refugium and having a mangrove area.  Hoping i can get a 6'x2'x1' for the frag tank.  

 

 

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Atomic, Jeremy at Modern Aquatics is a great guy.  Have purchased from him several times.  

Being in the basement you will prob be ok with the MH heat issue (even more so as you have an open fish room).

I would HIGHLY encourage a APEX controller.  So much automation and monitoring you can do with the system.

 

APEX DashboardAPEX Fusion 2018-02-02 14-34-02

 

Edited by Indymann99
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  • 1 month later...

The house got a roof last week and windows were delivered today. Hopefully I can install them soon (damn snow!!!!).   We are having another child next week and I’m hoping to have all the electrical/plumbing finished this weekend. Then on to HVAC and then I can work on the tank. 

 

I bought used 6 metal halide reflectors and 2 ballasts a few weeks back( 4 for the tank and 2 for frag tank). I need to buy 4 more ballasts soon.   

 

I also got a nice acrylic frag tank that measures 6’x2’x12” 

 

im going to make a big purchase soon of some tunze power heads and a bubble magus b12 skimmer. 

 

I’ll post lots of pictures when I start the tank in about 2 weeks

 

 

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