Mike's 225 Reef Tank Log

[MdM31]

My family and I will be moving to Houston Texas in late may this year. We got a new house, and decided it was time to upgrade our reef tank aswell. We will be going from a 58 gallon BB reef, to a 225 SSB reef. Im going with a SSB because sand is so beautiful, and I think sand would be more practical in the family room. Dont get me wrong, I do love barebottom! I will keep the 58 gallon set up in another room. So until then, we will have to wait to see the installtion of the tank. Its gonna be a headache, but will be worth it!!! Updates to come!


3/25/06


This is the start of my oficial 225 SPS reef tank. Some of you may have been following my old thread here: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=781842

The tank's dimensions are 72" long, 30" wide, and 24" tall. I have ordered the tank with Miracles in Glass (great customer service!) So far Derek has been great to work with. I highly recommend the to everyone considering a nice glass tank.

Tha tanks specs are:
72 long x 30 wide x 24 high (225 gallons total)
-all edges machine polished
-3/4" bottom
-starphire front and sides
-1/2" front and ends
-5/8" tempered back with 2 notches
-2 external overflows, 2 holes in bottom of each (one with two 1.5" holes, one with one 1.5"hole and one 3/4" hole)
-black acrylic adhered to inside of back panel, teeth where notches are located
-4" eurobrace, polished edges
-Heavy duty bulkheads included

After seeing Seans work (sonofgaladrial think i got that right!), I contacted him on building a stand and canopy for me. He said he would love to take on the new project, and we are both very excited to see the end result. He will ship it to me in a HUGE crate via a freight company. Some of you may know he has built several pieces of aquarium furniture, including Bebo77's gourgous aquarium furniture. I really can't wait to see the finished product. Right now hes in the framing stage, and will have some trim work done by tonight. Here is some pictures!

Top Front view of stand framing


The Front


And the Back


Heres what my stand is going to look like. The stain is 'warm walnut'


The stand will be 40" tall and the canopy 20" tall. I think it will look very proportional. Also, he is providing me with side covers, so the furniture is flush with the wall, and you wont see any plumbing or wiring when you walk into the room.


For filtration, I am going to be using my MRC MR-2R reccurculating beckett skimmer. It will be ran on a panworld 200ps pressure pump. I also have a GEO Kalk reactor, and GEO 618 calcium reactor to keep up with calcium demands. I will be running ozone, and I am considering using a UV unit. My return pump is an Eheim 1262. I will also run 3 phosban reactors; two for phosban, and one for carbon.

I will be using a 40 breeder as a sump ( I know its small.) I chose this sump, because it was cheap and a good size to fit under the stand. Remember, everything has to fit under my stand. If I had more space, I probably would have went with a 75 gallon sump. The sump has a few baffles, a 1" return hole drilled, and a 1" drain hole for the skimmer.

Lighting with consist of 3 250 watt 10k XM bulbs in Luminarc III reflectors. I will be running them on PFO HQI Metal Halide ballasts. I will also use two 72" VHO super actinic bulbs for supplementation; ran on a PFO VHO ballast.

For water flow, I will be using my tunze streams I have now (two 6100 streams on a multicontroller, and one tunze 6080.) I purchased a wave box aswell; I am very excited to hook that up! I am also considering either a sea swirl or way sea device on my return for 'random' flow.

I just had the electrician put two more 20amp circuits (GFCI of course!) in the game room. I have a total of two 20amp circuits, and one 15 amp circuit.

Thats all I can think of right now. Surley I forgot something, if I did I will add it in later. I think that was my longest post of reefcentral ever!!

-Mike