Skep's 225 gallon build

[Skep18]

This is incredibly impressive. I really like the idea of having the the parallel returns join together, but that takes a level of design magic I do not have.

I also had two overflow boxes and my plumbing is not half as good.

Thx! If we're being honest, it didn't come out this good in my head when I went into this.

 

[Matthew Frost]

Plumbed my return today. Still gotta add the pump and paint the return manifold black.

Skep, I have a question. I am not a fluid engineer so I may be totally wrong here but you have two full siphon drains of the same size (looks like 1 1/2") feeding into one 1 1/2" pipe going into the sump. If both of those drains are carrying full water volume how are both of them supposed to go into one pipe that is the same size? This seems problematic to me, have you flow tested this?

On a side note, it looks beautiful, you did an amazing job.

 

[Skep18]

Skep, I have a question. I am not a fluid engineer so I may be totally wrong here but you have two full siphon drains of the same size (looks like 1 1/2") feeding into one 1 1/2" pipe going into the sump. If both of those drains are carrying full water volume how are both of them supposed to go into one pipe that is the same size? This seems problematic to me, have you flow tested this?

On a side note, it looks beautiful, you did an amazing job.

The vacuum will maintain the siphon but the flow rate of the single sump drain will be twice the flow rate of each seperate tank drain. In other words, after the merge, the water will move twice as fast. Certainly the converged tubing into one limits the maximum flow rate through the drain but I'll be significantly lower than any maximum capacity due to my system size not requiring it.

 

[sikorskys]

Wow

 

[Skep18]

Ordered 200lb of Marco Rock late last night. As of 7:30am this morning I received a shipment notification. It should all be here Wednesday. Super impressive so far.

I already have 50lb from Reef Cleaners but I've seen some claims Marco might be more porous. I kinda wanted to compare the two but I think in the end it'll probably not make much of a difference which one I went with. Marco obviously has a long running reputation so in the end I finished my rock order with them.

 

[Skep18]

Getting the tank wet.

 

[Skep18]

Anyone else just super nervous at this point? Not gonna lie, imagining what all could happen if things went wrong I'm nervous. Lol.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Anyone else just super nervous at this point? Not gonna lie, imagining what all could happen if things went wrong I'm nervous. Lol.

I have had aquariums all of life and anything over 20 gallons I always get nervous filling. Especially in the home I own. After filling my 45 recently (35 gallons actual water) it took me a couple of days to feel comfortable again.

EDIT: I cannot imagine how I would do with a tank your size.

 

[Skep18]

I have had aquariums all of life and anything over 20 gallons I always get nervous filling. Especially in the home I own. After filling my 45 recently (35 gallons actual water) it took me a couple of days to feel comfortable again.

EDIT: I cannot imagine how I would do with a tank your size.

Lol. Definitely with you there. To make things worse, I work night shift so I'll be gone all night tonight. Lol. My wife is just thrilled.

So far everything looks good though. No leaks that is.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Lol. Definitely with you there. To make things worse, I work night shift so I'll be gone all night tonight. Lol. My wife is just thrilled.

So far everything looks good though. No leaks that is.

Nice! I filled mine last weekend and everything seemed fine. I am away for four days now on a mini vacation. Think about returning home to a flood about every 4-5 hours.

 

[sstanley223]

Anyone else just super nervous at this point? Not gonna lie, imagining what all could happen if things went wrong I'm nervous. Lol.

When I was a kid I broke my brothers 20 gallons in a upstairs bedroom. It was enough to have a waterfall going down the stairs. Just seeing the hose indoors made me pucker a little! Good luck! I'm following

 

[Skep18]

When I was a kid I broke my brothers 20 gallons in a upstairs bedroom. It was enough to have a waterfall going down the stairs. Just seeing the hose indoors made me pucker a little! Good luck! I'm following

Lol! I can't even imagine!

So far just found one slight trace of water coming from one of the threaded fittings screwed into one of my gate valves. No big deal. Tagged and noted for me to remove and reseal and/or tighten. Running it for a few hours. I figure it's really not necessary but once this things pushed against the wall and built up around, I don't want to have to get at stuff then.

 

[Skep18]

I seem to have developed a pattern here. More pictures, less words. Just comes with being busy.

Some PVC support. Mounted like this so I can add wall attachments which will be accessible when the tank is pushed back into place where space will be very tight.

My wife was pleased to get back (what's left) of her kitchen table area today. Tank back against the wall.

And that feel when it all not only fits, but fits pretty well if I do say so.

 

[Skep18]

A little update.

VarioS-8 Pump Testing
I noticed when leak testing my return flow seemed pretty low. I've not been in a hobby with exposed water flow rates as of yet so i don't have a good memory bank to draw from to relate flow rates to whats in front of me but it sure didn't look like a gallon every two seconds or so... So I started testing my VarioS-8 pump. At this point, I'm pretty convinced mines not flowing like other owners' pumps are. Something appears to be wrong. Anways, that discussion is going on in the linked thread below if anyone wants to check it out.

Reef Octopus VarioS-8 - Flow vs Height test results - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-octopus-varios-8-flow-vs-height-test-results.420054/

Marco Rock vs Reef Cleaners
With the plumbing functional and feeling ready to begin thinking about filling it with saltwater, I ordered more rock. As previously posted I started with Reef Cleaners months ago. Well, due to some minor things I decided to get a little wild and order from another vendor. Lol. So I bought some Marco Rock. I also made a longer thread about the comparison between the two in the linked thread below.

Dry Rock Comparison - Marco vs Reef Cleaners - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dry-rock-comparison-marco-vs-reef-cleaners.420076/

"Aquascaping" (i.e. stacking rocks)
But, for your viewing pleasure, here are some shots of the rock work I'm roughing in. I'm going to use eMarco cement to bond pices together so it'll likely change a bit. That and I'm known to scrap something and start over so that can always happen.

I will say, this rock doesn't seem to photo well. Its very camouflaged into one another as far as depth goes...

I plan on adding things like seen below when I get the cement in hand. Nothing crazy or as big as this one probably, but small pieces to add interest and detail.

Trying to keep the perimeter around the tank clear for good flow.

And finally a little angle view.

Silicone Return Tubing
Finally, my 1.25" silicone tubing came in from China. So that's a thing...

I will probably sell some of this when I'm done. Figure people can but shorter lengths than the minimum 1 meter and get it near instantly compared to my 1 month wait.

_________

Kbye.

 

[Skep18]

Much to update. Will post tonight hopefully. Until then, here's some FTS.

 

[Skep18]

Well been ordering lots of stuff.

Acknowledging my own impatience I've setup another QT tank. I placed an order with LiveAquaria which I suppose I've been formally initiated as at the time of order my fish were in stock As of today, no shipment notice and the fish now show out of stock... I understand this to be not uncommon ... But I've got a second QT now. I intend to fully QT both fish and coral. Fish will be treated prophylacticly with PraziPro and Copper.

I received my Jebao DCP-10000. I'm using this as a water change station pump as well as a backup. It's also rated similarly to my main sump pump to which I did comparison testing as documented in my Flow Testing thread.

Also finished painting my return manifold. I've closed 3 of 5 ports as I was anticipating the low flow of my VarioS-8 to be by design. I might open more back up with a higher flowing pump.

Oh, I also ordered a @Reef Breeders Superlux as my QT coral light. That's en route.

I'm sure there's more. I'll post as the updates become photogenic.

 

[Skep18]

Well, another lesson learned. No email confirmation but in randomly passing by their website, I checked my order# for tracking and Live Aquaria shipped my fish order this evening. Unfortunately, my tank is dry at the moment and I am at work all night!

Luckily I did finish all the painting and rough installation of the equipment. Looks like I'll be instructing the wife as to how to go about mixing water and finishing the hook ups. Thank God for the Ice Cap sailinity meter right now. Guiding her through the refractometer might be a bit harder. Only thought that comes to mind is I did set the Jager heater to 78*F but obviously didn't calibrate it yet. I get home at ~6am though so it should be sufficient time to make minor adjustments. Also thankful I'm keeping a bottle of Bio Spira on-hand for this QT thing. I have AmQuel+ on-hand for emergencies but haven't experienced one of those yet.

Needless to say, the wife is going a bit nuts atm. Lol.

 

[Skep18]

Well I did a thing.

First off, let me just say how awesome the Hanna Instruments Checker is. At this very early point in my saltwater hobby career, I am OK with using the manual chemical tests for the majority of my parameters. (Super obvious, I know, since my DT is still dry). However, in wanting to start off right and do 100% QT of ALL organisms coming into my system, I am following the R2R QT protocol. My poison of choice was chelated copper. I quickly realized how abysmal the API copper test is. The colors indicated really weren't in the same family as the chart. The only way I came to any conclusion was by my calculated expectation of what the concentration should be. Not being comfortable with this lack of precision to expose me to both allowing an untreated pest get through the QT as or alternatively killing an expensive fish, getting the Hanna Checker for copper was a no brainer.

With that said, for anyone out there in the same boat but not wanting to spend $50, I HAVE GOOD NEWS! I used Copper Power. Low risk exposure to product quality errors aside, Copper Power measured ALMOST EXACTLY what I calculated my copper level to be at. Based on my dosing my 20L QT tank via a medicine dropper (decent precision in mL scale) at 7.5mL, 7.5mL, 2.5mL, 2.5mL and 5mL (in that random order), my final does would be 25mL. Copper Power recommends 30mL per 20gal to get to a concentration of 2.5ppm copper. 25mL comes out to 2.08ppm assuming exactly 20gal, etc. which I assumed there would be some error. Well the Hanna measured 2.09ppm copper today. BOOM! If you're careful to measure you volume of water changes to remain consistent in concentration, I would say you probably could omit the Hanna Copper Checker if you were hard up for $50 (+$10 per 25 reagent refills).

 

[ethridge78]

Nice build thread

 

[Skep18]