280gal Build! Finally starting!
 

Well im finally starting my 280gal build! I finally got my own house so now i can put tanks whereever i please without someone *****ing lol. It will be a long process but its going to be fun!

Here is what im planning.

Fish room:
The fish room is about 10'x8' and is located on the other side of the tank. The tank will be placed in my bedroom next to my bed. It will be viewable from the front and one end.

Tank:
72" long by 36"wide by 25" tall all glass with external overflows and the clear glass on the front and one end.. Haven't decided on a builder yet. Any suggestions?

Lighting:
Either 3 250w or 3 400w MH in luminarc reflectors and two 72" actinic's. OR the LED set up. Any suggestions??

Skimmer:
I have an RC-1000 waiting to be used. Its overkill but its soo coool.

Sump:
I had some old pond liner laying around so i built a sump that is about 77"long by 36" wide by 24" tall. Should be big enough to hold everything. I made it so huge because i wanted to try and keep everything in it or over it so all leaks would go back into the system and not on the floor.

Refugium:
I'm going to use my old 75gal as my ref.

Circulation:
Either one dart powering an OM 8way and a tunze wave box and 2 tunze 6200 streams or Two Darts on two 8 way OM's. Any suggestions??

Here is some progress so far.

Ripped out the carpet. Luckly my house is a slab so i won't have any issues there. Also removed all the outlets because they were below the water level of my sump and i didn't want to take the chance of water splashing in them and it turns out half the house is on the same breaker. I'm going to have my friend (hes an electrition) run 4 lines to the fish room and build some water proof boxes to house all the outlets.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish1.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Removed the wall separating the closet from the room to give me a little more room.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/house3.jpg[/IMG] <BR>

Started Building the Sump.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish5.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Painted the room and installed rubber baseboard and chalked around the whole edge to try and seal the room so if there is a flood it sorta stays in that room. Finished the sump also.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish9.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Got my skimmer in place
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish10.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Got my RO/DI unit all set up
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish13.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
.

Got two of four storage tanks setup. these two will feed the other two that will be sitting on the floor. i plan on hooking them all together so i can automate waterchanges and salt mixing.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish11.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Here is a sketchup of my idea on tank placement. my bed will be right next to the tank.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/tankroom3.jpg[/IMG] <BR>




I also have a 10gal seahorse tank that i connected into the system. It is located in my bedroom closet and is viewable from the living room.

[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish2.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Holds me so should hold the tank!
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish3.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Starting drywall
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish6.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
All painted and plumbed into my fish room
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish12.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
View from the living room.

[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish7.jpg[/IMG] <BR>

[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/horse6.jpg[/IMG] <BR>

Had to set up a temparary sump until i got the big one all plumbed.

[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fish8.jpg[/IMG] <BR>

The horses seam to like tehre new home
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/horse1.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/horse4.jpg[/IMG] <BR>

Here is my 75gal tank that i have had for about a year now. Only bad thing is that its still at my parents house. Im waiting until i get the new tank setup to move it because im affraid something wont go as planned and my fish will end up in buckets for too long.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/751.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/752.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/753.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/754.jpg[/IMG] <BR>


Well thats all for now. Once i get some more $$ ill have more pics to post.
Any Comments or suggestions?? This is my first big Reef tank

Dont use these green 45gal trash cans from lowes. There $19.95 and they Suck LOL. Got one of them filled up with some fresh rp/Di water and the damn thing collapsed over the wheels and sent all 45gallons onto the floor! My first spill in this house. I guess its Broke in now lol. I went back to lowes and got two 64gallon trash carts (the really heavy duty ones) and two 44gallon brute trash cans. I wanted the 94gallon carts but they wouldn't fit. There alot more heavy duty than the ones i had so hopefully they work. For what i paid for them they better work. Ill post some pics later.

Hey, the 75 looks good. I like the deep sand bed. How deep was it when you started?

TIA

hmm maybe 3-4" in the front and half an inch in the back where the rocks are. I made it so deep to try and hide the water outlets .

got two 64gal toter cart containers to hold RO/DI water and two 44gal brute trash cans for the saltwater mixing and waterchange measuring . Hopefully these will hold up unlike the other ones.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/storage1.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/storage2.jpg[/IMG]

Update!
Got one of my darts plumbed. It will feed the skimmer, ref, seahorse tank, and UV.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/change1.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
I also got my water change/mixing system hooked up. No more Buckets!
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/change2.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Looks confusing.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/change3.jpg[/IMG] <br>
The top tank is the measuring tank so i know how much water to take out of the tank. The bottom tank mixes the saltwater. I can pump water from the sump to the top tank or to the drain. I can drain the top tank and the bottom tank to the drain (a hose actually so i can fill buckets or whatever) I can also pump the salt water back into the sump. All from one pump.

Made a sketchup of my revised plan. Just need to figure out how to build the stand for the main tank.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/view1.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/view2.jpg[/IMG]

Any Tank stand building ideas? Anyone have and pictures or drawings?

How are you going to control the humidity in the fish room with a whole lot of water moving around in there?

Plus.....I'm going to move "all-in" with a 7/2 off suit and say you're not married. LOL.......my wife would allow me to run PVC through the house, AFTER, she served me divorce papers. LOL

right now i just have a dehumidifier in there. but there is a window in the fish room so i might get a vent fan or AC unit or something. No wife yet. Im single. I got my Fish, Dogs, and cats. Thats enough for me :-P My parents allready tried to stop me from drilling holes and running pipes through the walls. I told them i paid for the dang house im going to do what i want to it lol.

Hey PJ!

AMAZING work so far, I'm excited to see how your project comes along. I especially like the idea of the wood/rubber pond lining sump. Looks like something I need to consider when I do my 210. ;)

Here's one of the threads that was REALLY inspiring to me, and I love the whole stand from skeleton to facade. You'll see what I mean when you see the finished product.

[url]http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=522988[/url]

By the way, which program did you use to do the fishroom sketchup design?

Good luck to you!

tank setup
 

Nice tank setup.

Thanks for the comments. I used the free sketchup from google. just google sketchup. Im still debating if i want to risk going with glass cages for the tank. There so cheap its tempting. But i keep having this nightmare of having 280 gallons of water landing on me in the middle of the night lol

I have another crazy idea but im not sure how i would run the return. I have this brick fireplace spot in my living room but there is no fire place on it any more. its about 5x6' and i had an idea about putting a cube tank on it instead of in my bedroom. But not sure how i would run the return back to the fish room that is on the other side of the hosue. i was going to just run it outside then around the house and back in the fish room but the only thing is the drain would have to be up about 2 foot on the side of the house so it goes down hill into the sump in the fish room. Any ideas??

Got the frag tank installed. Just need to hang the lights.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/frag1.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/frag2.jpg[/IMG]

Here is my fireplace idea.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/as1.jpg[/IMG]
Here is a pic of my Fireplace now as viewed from the loft. The fireplace separates the dinning rooma nd the living room.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fireplace.jpg[/IMG]

I also had another crazy idea. i have an outside wood burner that heats my house and my water. I might try to hook it up to the tank to warm it. Ill have to wait and see if i even need it first tho. To bad my Burner can't cool the tank :(
Any comments or suggestions are welcome.
You can check out some more pictures of my house and fish on my myspace page. [url]www.myspace.com/pjsstuff[/url]

I really like the fireplace idea rather than the bedroom.Guests can see the display there instead of going into your private bedroom.I also like the new decorator style "Garage in House"!Man,my wife would put a cap in my a..!Giv er!

I would leave it outside but my driveway is all gravel and my house is down in a vallley so the drive is going down hill. With my luck something would knock the bike over. So the living room is the garage until i get a pole barn built.

I would still like the tank next to my bed, its so cool watching the fish all night, but this way i can get a bigger tank hehehe.

Got that lights over the frag tank hung.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/light1.jpg[/IMG]
Also got the stand built for the Fuge. Ill put my old 75gal on here and use that as a fuge whenever i get that far.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/fuge1.jpg[/IMG]

Well thats all for now. Hopefully my electrician friend will get over here soon so i can get rid of all these cords laying around.

Really liking your fish room setup. That's a huge skimmer!!!

This question might have a simple answer that I am not aware of but why would you run a permeate pump and a mechanical pump on your RO unit? A permeate pump just recovers lost pressure to boost production vs. the mechanical pump with just uses a pump to boost pressure. You really seeing a pressure gain by running both?

Its a RC-1000 a little over kill for my 10 dwarf seahorses for now lol. The permeate pump also saves alot fo water. My system runs at about 90psi and jumps to 110psi when the permeate pump clicks.

Bump.

Update. I fiannly got a few more things done to the build.

Put up some shelfs and made a table to frag on. Also got the dehumidifier hooked up and it drains into the top Measuring Trashcan so i don't have to empty it all the time.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/new1.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Added a phosphate and carbon reactor
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/new2.jpg[/IMG] <BR>
Got some Phyto Rotifers and Pods Brewing. And of course some Brine shrimp for the horses.
[IMG]http://www.saltcritters.com/new3.jpg[/IMG] <BR>

Thats all for now.