240g Blair Reef Project

SteveG_inDC · Jun 5, 2020

<deep breath> Here goes, my first build thread on R2R.

It starts with the house on Blair Rd. A year ago my wife and I were shopping for a house and found one with two guest bedrooms. I looked at it, looked at my wife and said, "Who needs TWO guest bedrooms? That there is a FISH ROOM!" Our realtor was puzzled, but then she remembered a sketch I had given her of my ideal floor plan, which included a workroom and a place for a display tank and viewing area. We bought the house and I got to work.

One year later I'm far along in the planning and mostly doing prep stuff, like cooking rock, building a saltwater mixing station, and building a sump and stand. Those will be my next posts. Still waiting for architectural drawings so I can get permits for drilling into the slab for a floor drain and

The attached pic shows where I want to put a 240 gallon corner in-wall tank, 72" long x 30" wide (front to back) x 25" high that will be viewable on two sides. I have ordered this from Miracles so it's being built now. I had them put starphire glass on front and right side, which will both be visible from the viewing room. The overflow will be coast to coast on the left side of the tank so this is basically like a peninsula design.

I am leaving the back glass unpainted in case I want to see it from the workroom side (and keep that glass clean), so I am thinking about some kind of black cover than can be attached and removed easily with velcro or magnets or something so my wife doesn't have to look into my junky workroom.

The workroom behind the tank, approximately 10' x 10', has the house's main electrical panel in it and a bathroom behind one of the walls, which will make it easy to run plumbing. There are two 15-amp circuits, but I plan to add at least two more, maybe one of them being 20 amp. I will probably need a dehumidifier for the room.

The current door will be removed and that will be a wall with an opening for the side panel of the tank. Entry to the room will be through a new opening marked with an X on the far side of the bar.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 5, 2020

Critique my sump design, please! I'm hoping to put the baffles in this weekend so please stop me from doing anything dumb.

I found a used 100 gallon reef-ready acrylic tank 48" x 22" x 22" so the first thing I did was make it un-reef-ready, but cutting out the corner overflow boxes and plugging the 6 bulkheads.

Then I cut some pieces of 1/4" thick acrylic for baffles: one piece 12" and three pieces 10.5" for a bubble trap. I always thought it was wasteful to put the refugium in the last chamber and feed it with a tee off the return, so I was going to put it in the middle. Bubble trap will be over-under-over because i want to keep a sandbed in the fuge.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 5, 2020

That was a terrible picture of my sump design. Trying again.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 8, 2020

I put in the first baffle. Was also my first attempt at acrylic welding. I went with Weldon 16 since I cut the sheet a little short. It's pretty messy but connected well on two sides. I plan to add a bead of silicone on the third side to at least keep water from flowing through the gap.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 8, 2020

Question about the the return chamber: How small can I make it? The sump is 48x22x22 outside dimensions. For a return pump, I own a Mag 12 to run submersible, but I also have a Blueline 2000 that I could run externally with a manifold to drive some other equipment.

I assume that beyond the size of hte return pump if run submersible, the main consideration is how fast I want my evaporation replaced, right?

SteveG_inDC · Jun 18, 2020

Ok, I'm not getting much input from the community here but that's ok. This is still a useful way to journal my progress. I've gotten great advice from my posts with specific questions and I love the R2R community so no complaints.

I just glued in the baffles and water-tested them. Almost all doing their job. A little leakage in the one between the skimmer chamber and fuge, but I may touch that up with some silicone.

I used acrylic cement (weldon 16) for the acrylic-to-acrylic bond, but since I did a poor job of cutting the pieces there were some large gaps. After the acrylic cement cured, I went over each seam with a bead of silicone. I am not skilled at this. As the pic shows, it does not look pretty, but hey, it's a sump. I'm not going to win a sump of the month contest!

Next project is plumbing my mixing station. I have tried two or three times to "finalize" my purchases of fittings but of course I have to run to an LFS again for a couple of extra parts.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 23, 2020

Water mixing station is coming along nicely. I bought two used 55g drums. One was from a reefer and it had a float valve already installed near the top, with the top sawed off and covered with a tight fitting removable plastic cover. I will use that for the RO/DI water storage. The other one (white) will be for new saltwater (NSW). I mounted them on some Home Depot shelving that supports 1,000 lbs/shelf. That way I can store salt right above the NSW container and have extra storage for all kinds of equipment. Unfortunately the only color the shelving came in was red, which I hate, but hey, it's a fish room.

If you look closely at the white NSW container you'll see that I made a cutout in the top. I added a heavy bead of silicone to the cutout piece and siliconed an old suction bracket to it as a handle so it could be easily removed and replaced from the opening where I'll pour salt. The bucket sits right above it. I may build some sort of hopper so I never have to lift or measure salt except to get it up there in the first place. Like most things related to my build, it's not very pretty, but should get the job done.

I also bought beaucoup PVC fittings and have lots of 1" pipe and spa flex. Let's see if I can plumb this sucker. I have a Mag 12 which I will try to run externally. The manufacturer says don't do it and some have complained of leaks, but I have two of these pumps so let's give it a whirl. I bought an appliance drip pan to put underneath all the plumbing. The sump will be about two feet away so that will be nice.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 24, 2020

Here is the dry fit of my plumbing for the water mixing station. That's a Mag 12 pump I'm running in a dry application. Wish me luck.

I have a sinking feeling that I'll regret these cheap ball valves but oh, well.
Also, I only have unions for servicing the drums and pump only. Is that ok?

I have 20' of black spa flex lying around. Wondering if I should swap out any rigid pipe sections with spa flex.

Finally, I realize I need to tee off the pipe coming out of the RO/DI container to feed an ATO and get RO/DI water on demand, so that's a mistake I need to fix. I already have a tee coming off the vertical pipe to get NSW to my sump. I guess I'll have to add another tee to feed buckets or a hose for the QT and any other needs.

Lots of people advise putting a short length of silicone tubing after the pump outlet. Do I need that? If so, do I put it before or after the union? I like how everything fits neatly and sort of want to avoid it if possible. This is inside a fish room so maybe vibrations are not a problem? The pump already sits so close to the drums it will probably vibrate anyway.

Someone please stop me before I do something really stupid.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 26, 2020

Making progress. I have my drawings to submit for the city to issue a permit to install the floor drain and new electrical outlets. The stand is ready and waiting to be assembled inside the fish room. Tank is set to arrive in about 4 weeks.

The big question is whether the floor drain is placed correctly (see diagram). There is not much slope to the floor but if anything, it goes to the bottom left. My concern was that the sump tank sitting on the floor and the stand elements touching the floor would impede flow. ALso, I wanted to be able to service the pump so I didn't want to put it behind the sump tank. (This is confusing to describe because there is a sump tank under the display/on the floor and a separate sump pit drilled into the slab, with its own pump.)

Next I will fix (see above) and glue the water mixing station and set up the Q-tank once I find a cheap stand on craigslist that fits.

Question 2: How do you size a Q-tank? If I have a 20 and a 30 gallon lying around, which one should I use for the Q tank?

Fred2482 · Jun 26, 2020

SteveG_inDC said:
Lots of people advise putting a short length of silicone tubing after the pump outlet. Do I need that?

Depending on the pump it can help with noise. I do not have them on my mixing stations with the varios and they are fine with no noise, however my pan world return I wish I would have because it made the pump loud however as you stated its in a fishroom.

SteveG_inDC said:
The big question is whether the floor drain is placed correctly (see diagram).

Not sure about this, I thought long and hard about a installing a drain, however I decided to just completely seal the room and clean up any spills necessary. Ultimately I could not come up with a design I liked and the costs was crazy!

Fred2482 · Jun 26, 2020

SteveG_inDC said:
Question 2: How do you size a Q-tank? If I have a 20 and a 30 gallon lying around, which one should I use for the Q tank?

I would'nt over think this. It really depends on your process and types of fish (assuming your referencing a fish QT). I have a 20 gallon cube I will QT most all my fish in, however as I was a little fortunate to upgrade, I will be utilizing my 80 gallon for my tangs that I will be adding ensuring they have plenty of space to "get along". Afterwards, the 20 will be my QT/hospital and the 80 a frag tank to "QT" my corals.

As far as the sump design, I would'nt stress that either, I am a firm KISS believer. I like giving my return "chamber" as much space as possible to ensure it never has any risks to run low. Just make sure it has room for what filtration you want to install. I utilize a small sump along with a large stock tank to get the job done. It has plenty of water and room for filtration.

Retro Reefer · Jun 26, 2020

Everything looks fantastic! You have done a excellent job planning..

SteveG_inDC said:
That was a terrible picture of my sump design. Trying again.

Your sump layout looks fine.

SteveG_inDC said:
Question about the the return chamber: How small can I make it? The sump is 48x22x22 outside dimensions. For a return pump, I own a Mag 12 to run submersible, but I also have a Blueline 2000 that I could run externally with a manifold to drive some other equipment.

I assume that beyond the size of hte return pump if run submersible, the main consideration is how fast I want my evaporation replaced, right?

Correct, return chamber only needs to be big enough to accommodate your return pump, ATO float assembly.. the larger it is, the less often your ATO will run.

SteveG_inDC said:
Here is the dry fit of my plumbing for the water mixing station. That's a Mag 12 pump I'm running in a dry application. Wish me luck.

I have a sinking feeling that I'll regret these cheap ball valves but oh, well.
Also, I only have unions for servicing the drums and pump only. Is that ok?

I have 20' of black spa flex lying around. Wondering if I should swap out any rigid pipe sections with spa flex.

Finally, I realize I need to tee off the pipe coming out of the RO/DI container to feed an ATO and get RO/DI water on demand, so that's a mistake I need to fix. I already have a tee coming off the vertical pipe to get NSW to my sump. I guess I'll have to add another tee to feed buckets or a hose for the QT and any other needs.

Lots of people advise putting a short length of silicone tubing after the pump outlet. Do I need that? If so, do I put it before or after the union? I like how everything fits neatly and sort of want to avoid it if possible. This is inside a fish room so maybe vibrations are not a problem? The pump already sits so close to the drums it will probably vibrate anyway.

Someone please stop me before I do something really stupid.

Don't know anything about that pump but assuming the reason they say don't run it dry is to keep it from overheating, not because of possible leaks.

Retro Reefer · Jun 26, 2020

Don't get discouraged with lack of input in your build thread, even though people may not comment, lots will visit your thread

Being active in the forum and visiting/commenting on other members build threads will help bring them to yours.

Your going to get more helpful responses to your specific questions by posting them in the appropriate sections of the forum because you never really know who is going to look at your build thread or what their expertise is.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 26, 2020

STOCKING PLAN
Comments encouraged!

My general approach (to everything) is to build slowly.

Phase I. Start FOWLR until tank feels stable.
Phase II. Mixed reef. Introduce corals as frags and do a lot of monitoring, testing, see what new hardware and dosing I'll need.
Phase III. Growout and specialization. Prune certain corals, adjust emphasis to SPS corals and others that tolerate the needed light, flow, and nutrient levels.

I have kept smaller reef tanks before and I know what animals I like. I value fish and non-coral inverts as much as corals in a reef tank. I will probably keep similar as I've done before, but in larger numbers. I love shoals, pairs, and harems of fish rather than individuals. For corals, I don't want 20 different species or psychedelic rainbow colors.

In approximate order of introduction...

Blue-green chromis shoal (6-10)
Lyretail anthias harem (3 to 5)
Clown pair & Euphyllia or Elegance [not committed to this]
Cleanup crew of snails and crabs
Yellow watchman goby & pistol shrimp
Skunk cleaner shrimp (2 or 3)
Wrasse of some kind, TBD
Tangs: (~3, species TBD)
Softies on islands in the sand (removable): Anthelia, green star polyps
LPS: Dipolastrea (mandatory - wife's request), Goniopora
SPS frags: 1 branching and 1 plating (e.g. stylo and Monti cap)

In case it's relevant, I plan to have at least a 4" sandbed, maybe deeper. I know about elegance sweepers and GSP/Xenia spread, but am willing to take the risk. Most people think they are weeds but my wife likes them and she has a well-deserved right to request species.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 26, 2020

SteveG_inDC said:
STOCKING PLAN
Comments encouraged!

My general approach (to everything) is to build slowly.

Phase I. Start FOWLR until tank feels stable.
Phase II. Mixed reef. Introduce corals as frags and do a lot of monitoring, testing, see what new hardware and dosing I'll need.
Phase III. Growout and specialization. Prune certain corals, adjust emphasis to SPS corals and others that tolerate the needed light, flow, and nutrient levels.

I have kept smaller reef tanks before and I know what animals I like. I value fish and non-coral inverts as much as corals in a reef tank. I will probably keep similar as I've done before, but in larger numbers. I love shoals, pairs, and harems of fish rather than individuals. For corals, I don't want 20 different species or psychedelic rainbow colors.

In approximate order of introduction...

Blue-green chromis shoal (6-10)

Lyretail anthias harem (3 to 5)

Clown pair & Euphyllia or Elegance [not committed to this]

Cleanup crew of snails and crabs

Yellow watchman goby & pistol shrimp

Skunk cleaner shrimp (2 or 3)

Wrasse of some kind, TBD

Tangs: (~3, species TBD)

Softies on islands in the sand (removable): Anthelia, green star polyps

LPS: Dipolastrea (mandatory - wife's request), Goniopora

SPS frags: 1 branching and 1 plating (e.g. stylo and Monti cap)

In case it's relevant, I plan to have at least a 4" sandbed, maybe deeper. I know about elegance sweepers and GSP/Xenia spread, but am willing to take the risk. Most people think they are weeds but my wife likes them and she has a well-deserved right to request species.

Forgot to add, my favorite fish of all time are angels -- esp queen and imperator. If I end up working from home a lot more (post-COVID) and can feed frequently I may add one of these in phase III. I just hate the idea of feeding them thousands of $$ worth of corals LOL

sp1187 · Jun 26, 2020

nice start.
sorry to hear you're cooking rock.

SteveG_inDC · Jun 30, 2020

I am going insane waiting.
I look at other build threads and it feels like other reefers place some orders, do some plumbing, and bing bang boom they are pouring water into the tank.

This is my chain of events that has to happen, in reverse chronological order. Read this list as <item> "but before that, I have to..." <next item>

Fill tank, but before that I have to...
Aquascape quickly before the bacteria on the rock I've been curing for 6 months dies off, but before that...
Put in sand and rock
Plumb water (water-changing and ATO) to sump tank to floor drain or laundry sink
Test plumbing with 200+ gallons of water
Plumb a bean animal and plumb DT to sump tank
Mount tank on stand
Assemble stand & level
Move water changing station back into place, mount RO/DI on wall
Patch and paint walls, install PVC base molding (requires moving everything including water changing station and laundry sink)
Install new half-walls around tank area (this will close off existing doorway, leaving only smaller entrance)
Move any large items that will be hard to maneuver through the new smaller doorway, e.g. workbench, QT stand, dehumidifer
Move 6' tank into the fishroom
Electrical: install two new circuits and place new GFI outlets strategically; replace ceiling light fixture with track lighting
Demolition 2: remove existing door and open up walls and new doorway area, remove existing drywall from fishroom
Demolition 1: jackhammer slab floor to create a sump pit and drain with sump pump plumbed to house waste line
Get city permits for basement renovation
Repair window well outside the fishroom window (2' below grade), which floods during heavy rains

Other things I can do while waiting:
- Finish plumbing and test water mixing station
- Finish building and water-testing sump (done, but I can upgrade some more using existing bulkheads)
- Research and purchase lights, wavemakers, and controllers
- Set up Q-tank and get additives, conditioners, and test kits/monitors/probes (calibrate or update reagents for ones I already have)

When this is all done I'll be too exhausted and broke to bother with fish or corals. An expensive Live Rock Only tank!

SteveG_inDC · Jul 17, 2020

The city approved my building permit. Yay! Contractor is coming this weekend to go over installation of the floor drain/sump pit, electrical upgrades, moving the doors, cutting open the wall for the display tank viewing panes, and replacing and painting drywall. Woo hoo!! I am so excited to be moving forward again.

In the last couple of weeks I've just been finalizing my water mixing station. Tested it and found a leak, had to re-do some of the plumbing. Will finish curing tonight or tomorrow and test it out over the weekend. Will also pick up a tank stand on craigslist to hold my 30g QT and 20g hospital tank.

SteveG_inDC · Jul 18, 2020

Stackin' Rock

Time to plan the aquascape. I did some rock stacking in the garage.
Here is the front view. The lid on the left is standing in for the overflow and also shows the expected height. The table happens to be the exact length of the tank and the height of the table top happens to be the height of the sandbed I want to use. Nice coincidence.

Here are some other angles

Top down view:

Side view. Remember, this will be viewable from front and right side.

On another thread, R2R hero @Ardeus gives customized aquascape design advice to anyone who posts. (Seriously, what an amazing community this is, and a special person he is for helping so many of us).

Here are his suggestions:

I would try thickening up the right arm.

These 2 lines are parallel. I would rotate and or move the front structure a bit.

The arch is a bit flat on top. Corals can change that or you can turn it upside down.

It will look more interesting from all sides if it's not parallel to the side.

This is all great, but I realized I was stacking just my dry rock, which is about half the total I have. The other half, with some very large individual pieces, is sitting in bins of saltwater where it's been curing since like February or March.