Cprowler's 150g System from the start

[Cprowler]

I am starting this thread to document the birth and life of my 150g system. I had a thread on my 40g and wished I started it from the beginning so I could of looked back on the changes.

When I broke the news to my project manager that I was going to start the project her only demands were very little noise and or light. I told her that if were going to do something with the old carpet in the living room now is the time. So we redid the floors throughout the whole house, I still don’t know why the whole house needed new floors but I guess that’s why she's the project manager.


Anyway here it is.

Tank – 120g All Glass Aquarium, Reef Ready with Dual Megaflows.

Sump – DIY 40g glass tank with glass baffles, Drilled.

Refugium – In sump 17x12x16

Return – Mag 9.5

Closed Loop – Dart (not installed yet)

Live Rock - 45 lbs. Tonga & Fiji

Sand - 2 bags Seaflor Special Grade Sand, 1 bag Aragamax Select, seeded with some Live sand.

Protein Skimmer – ASM G2

Heaters - 2 250w Won Brothers Pro Heat II

Lighting – 2 x 250w Metal Halide, 10K XM’s, 2 x 56w 48� Tek T5’s, 1-10K & 1-Actinic, 4 x 110w VHO Hamilton Super Actinic run off a Ice cap 660. ( VHO not installed yet)

Calcium Reactor – Aquatic Essentials Run by a Mag 3.

Kalwasser Reactor – Aquatic Essentials Run by a Maxi – Jet 600 for top off


Inhabitants

2 Ocellaris clowns

3 Blue Green Chromis

2 Sexy Anemone Shrimp

2 or 3 Hermit Crabs

1 Emerald crab

Some Cerths and Nassarius and Mexican Turbo's

Anemone; Ritteri

Some LPS and SPS frags that I’ll get into in later posts



Stand - I am building a custom cabinet to house the tank and sump that I hope to be totally sealed so stray light and sound are contained. I have the unit vented to the outside using a 90 CFM inline fan and fresh cool air should be drawn up from the crawl space below. I’m also using 2 American DJ power stations and have 3 15 amp dedicated circuits with 2 GFCI outlets on each. I have the return pump in the crawl space and will have the CL pump down in the CS also.

It was filled with water on Dec 21/05 and livestock transferred from my 40g on Dec 23/05.

I’ll try to explain further as I go and please feel free to ask any questions and give opinions. I am very open to constructive criticism.

[Cprowler]

[Cprowler]

[Cprowler]

[rdmpe]

Hey Cprowler, looking good. Looks like it's about ready to go huh?

[Cprowler]

[rizkeeper]

man, i wish i had some DIY skillz, that looks awesome.....

[rizkeeper]

man, know wish I would have thought to paint the back of my tank black...that looks sharp!!!

[druluv]

What a nice job!!!!

[sjm817]

Very nice job! Congratulations. How come you gave up the basement sump?

[new2u]

Very Very VERY nice.

[Dubbin1]

Why didn't you finish the floor and just put the tank on it and how do you plan on finishing it now without having the long seam across the front of the tank?

[Cprowler]

Thanks for the complements everyone.

Dubbin1 - I didn't finish the floor because I was going to drill lots of holes through to the crawl space and built the stand right on the plywood. I didn't see any point in having the floating laminate flooring and underlay between the stand and the floor.

I will have a border of black slate tile around the stand separating the laminate hardwood and the stand.

sjm817 - If it was a true basement I would defiantly have a basement sump room but it's only a 3' crawl space and I just didn't get down often enough to do maintenance. I really like having everything right in front of me. I still have the pumps and ballasts down there.

rdmpe - How did you get your post sandwiched between mine? I went to great lengths to post the first three back to back to back, well not really but you only had a minute.

[melev]

I like the idea of slate tile to catch some of the drips. Good idea.

[Reefrunner262]

Very nice, so how long did ALL this take? Im jelous haha

Travis

[Cprowler]

Originally posted by Reefrunner262
Very nice, so how long did ALL this take? Im jelous haha

Travis

The first pics were taken Dec 3/05.

[Cprowler]

Originally posted by melev
I like the idea of slate tile to catch some of the drips. Good idea.

Yes, thats what I was hoping. I hope it looks nice too.

[Cprowler]

I am and have started to cover the stand in Maple plywood and will be staining it fairly dark. I picked up a small can of "Minwax PollyShades stain & polyurhane in step" to do a sample with. I'll post pics of the sample to see what you think.

Has anyone used this product?

[mash35231]

What type/brand of "white paint" did you use to protect the wood?

[Cprowler]

Originally posted by mash35231
What type/brand of "white paint" did you use to protect the wood?

I just used Tremclad rust paint. By the smell of the fumes it's nasty stuff.

[Reefrunner262]

Not bad for a month, Not bad at all! Props to you, great job!

Travis

[Cprowler]

Originally posted by Reefrunner262
Not bad for a month, Not bad at all! Props to you, great job!

Travis

Thanks, I just see all the stuff I still have to do. Hopefully I'll be able to sit back and enjoy it soon, do you ever get to do that?

It's no 14 day project right melev?

[steve68]

looks sweet!
i think if u ever change ur pump out in the crawl space i would raise it up 2 feet just so u dont loose 2 much head (just a thought) great job

[Cprowler]

Originally posted by steve68
looks sweet!
i think if u ever change ur pump out in the crawl space i would raise it up 2 feet just so u dont loose 2 much head (just a thought) great job

Hi Steve, good to see you here. I thought of that and on the ground it puts about 5x the tank volume through the sump and I thought that’s about where I wanted to be? Having said that I will be upgrading the Mag eventually and may go to a pressure ratted pump and use eductors/penductors. I'm not exactly sure of what I'm going to do right now, I'm going to get everything finished and see how everything runs for a while and go from there.

I thought of mounting the pump right to the joist right under the floor but was concerned about vibrations. Then thought of building a platform for it to sit on, I'll have to figure something out for the Dart that I'll be installing this week (hopefully ).

[Dubbin1]

Originally posted by Cprowler

I will have a border of black slate tile around the stand separating the laminate hardwood and the stand.

That will look nice.