Back after 2 1/2 Year Hiatus - New 225 on the way

ReefBum · #1 03/08/2007, 10:06 PM

A couple of years ago I decided I needed a break from reefkeeping after I hit one bump after another with my 120 gallon tank. It was not fun anymore so that is when I knew I needed to walk away. Here is a picture of the tank before I hit my string of bad luck.

Well, soon after that I moved and I found myself still surfing this board and visiting my local shops. The bug was still in me so I knew I would eventually get back into the hobby. This past XMas I decided to take the plunge with a custom made 225 gallon starphire tank (72L X 30W X 24T) from Aquarium Obsessed. I did a lot of research and made the choice to go with an open euro-braced top (no top canopy) and have full viewing on the sides. I like to think of it as a 4 dimensional look. I also wanted external overflows to maximize the room inside the tank. The key for me is to have a clean look and not overload the tank with rock. I really want to give the corals room to grow.

My new house has an unfinished basement so I am utilizing that as my sump and equipment room. One of the first things I needed to do was have a structural engineer come in to make sure I had the proper support in the room housing the tank. Here is what my contractor did based on the engineer's advice:

We also had to do a lot of work in the tank room, including the installation of a new floor, windows, trim, new furniture and a brand new paint job. Here is a before and after:

Before renovations...

After renovations (with the new stand)...

Here's a closer look at the new custom made stand (minus the bull nose and shoe molding)

And here is the stand before it was painted and without the panels....on its way into my house:

As for the equipment, I decided to go with a Sfiligoi light fixture with 3 SE 400W bulbs and 8 39W T5s. The halides will be driven by HQI ballasts. Both the skimmer and Ca reactor are from MTC and the chiller is a 1/2 hp Tradewind. Two Blueline 70s will act as my return pumps from the custom sump. Another main source of flow within the tank will be two Tunze 6200s. I will also be adding a phosphate reactor. I will post some equipment pics soon.

Right now I am in the middle of putting everything together and plumping the sump. The tank is due to arrive in about a week. Here are some shots of the finished product:

I know this is going to be a great tank because it is off the same AO assembly line as JBNYs! Joe - I believe our tanks are sharing a ride on an 18 wheeler at this very moment!

Keith

NewSchool04 · #2 03/08/2007, 10:33 PM

I can't see the pics

JB NY · #3 03/09/2007, 09:49 AM

Hey Keith,

I thought you didn't live in CT when I first met you. Looks great. I still have to clean out and redo my fish room too.

Are you going to put your equipment under the stand?

How much room are you going to have behind the tank? You are up against a wall like me. I didn't get an external overflow because of that. If your setup works great, I'm going to be mad at myself

When is your tank coming? I was talking to John at AO and I thought he said your tank was shipping this past Monday.

ReefBum · #4 03/09/2007, 10:25 AM

Joe-

Essentially all the equipment will be in my basement. Only the ballasts for the lights will be hidden in some piece of furniture to the side of the tank.

As for room behind the stand, my plan is to have the tank about 7 inches from the wall since the overflows will be about 6 inches wide. I will make some wooden flaps on hinges behind the tank to hide the side view of the overflows and plumbing.

The tank was supposed to ship Monday but, according to the shipping company, they picked it up on Tuesday. My tank is not due to arrive until next Friday since that is the first truck going my way with a hydrolic lift

When is yours due?

JB NY · #5 03/09/2007, 10:36 AM

Mine shipped yesterday, it's due to arrive on Tuesday.

NewSchool04 · #6 03/09/2007, 07:26 PM

I can see them now! Looks like you have a good start to the project.
I really like the external overflow's, I think a must when I order my tank.

I'd love to hear your feed back on your order with Aquarium Obsessed. I have three vendors in mind and they are one of them.

Thanks and good luck!

One more thing, are those hard wood floors or venear (sp?)?

bkelley02 · #7 03/09/2007, 10:37 PM

The tank dimensions size/overflow I'm looking at as well. I am also considering ordering from AO.

ReefBum · #8 03/10/2007, 07:56 AM

I really wanted to have that extra room and the space in the back for good flow with those external overflows. As for AO, they were a real pleasure to work with. I have also seen their tanks in person and they are stunning.

bkelley02 · #9 03/10/2007, 09:27 PM

I'm looking forward to watching your progress. I have about a year before I can expect to get mine ( need to get that house built ) but I'm already getting anxious.

Zoos · #10 03/11/2007, 12:08 AM

awesome looking tank, what is the black in the background? black glass? acrylic?

ReefBum · #11 03/11/2007, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zoos
awesome looking tank, what is the black in the background? black glass? acrylic?

It is black acrylic. I had AO put in a piece on top of the back glass to cover up the external overflows. It is notched in front of the overflows.

They could have just painted the back glass but the outlines from the edges of the overflows (where they are silconed to the back) would have been visible. My plan is to keep the back panel clean and have a more open look so it has to look uniform.

Zoos · #12 03/14/2007, 12:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ReefBum
It is black acrylic. I had AO put in a piece on top of the back glass to cover up the external overflows. It is notched in front of the overflows.

They could have just painted the back glass but the outlines from the edges of the overflows (where they are silconed to the back) would have been visible. My plan is to keep the back panel clean and have a more open look so it has to look uniform.

That is exactly what i am doing with my new tank, nice to see someones else has it too. would you mind showing me some close up pictures of that background and where the acrylic is notched? thanks in advance. great looking tank by the way i will follow this thread closely.

ReefBum · #13 03/14/2007, 07:17 AM

The tank is due to arrive on Friday so I will post updated pics of the overflows and tank this weekend. AO had never done this before with acrylic covering the back glass & external overflows but they told me it came out great.

Zoos · #14 03/14/2007, 11:16 PM

I'm sure it came out great, can't wait to see the pictures.

ReefBum · #15 03/17/2007, 10:23 AM

Well....my tank arrived yesterday during our biggest snowstorm of the year! I believe we received over a foot of snow. I couldn't believe the 18 wheeler turning around in my dead end and spinning its tires. I thought I was going to have to get him some tracking sand

Anyway, here are some pictures of the tank making it to its new home....

And some shots of the tank in my garage.....

Zoo- Here is a close-up of the acrylic teeth for the overflow. They cut the teeth on a small piece of acrylic for both overflows and silconed them onto the large piece of acrylic silconed to the back glass. They did a tremendous job and I am extremely happy about how it turned out.

Overall, I have to say that AO did a fantastic job. The workmanship is outstanding. More pics to come as the build kicks into high gear!

JB NY · #16 03/17/2007, 10:43 AM

Man did you have some luck with the weather. It was 50 degrees just three days ago!

Glad it came in great shape. It looks awesome!

NanoReefWanabe · #17 03/17/2007, 09:49 PM

where is this aquarium obsessed you ordered from?

there is on in my town and i am there all the time looking at all the big tanks they keep building..

i swear i saw this tank in person before it was shipped...LOL..the work they do here also seems to be outstanding...i havent seen then use acrylic here though...they seem to always silicone in a piece of black egg crate...which also looks very sharp..

your tank, stand and reno's look outstanding by the way..

saltyfishy123 · #18 03/17/2007, 10:39 PM

Hey reefbum I heard you live in ridgefield
So do

I remember that day with all that snow I remember like it was yesterday, oops it was yesterday. Sweet looking tank, im so jealous

zach0660 · #19 03/17/2007, 11:31 PM

Looks like its going to be a nicesetup!

Zoos · #20 03/18/2007, 01:57 AM

Fantastic, thanks for remembering me. Glad to see everything got there in good shape.

ReefBum · #21 03/19/2007, 07:14 AM

Thanks everybody. Saturday the tank was moved from the garage to the stand in the living room. I probably spent 4 hours clearing the driveway and walkway from the blizzard so that was a lot of fun

It was not an easy move since the tank had to be flipped on its front to make it through the front door. It then had to be lowered into the stand very carefully since the panels are an inch higher than the base (there was about 1/4" clearance on all sides). Thank goodness for the movers and suction cups! I will post some updated pictures soon.

Zoos · #22 03/19/2007, 01:10 PM

This is definitely turning into one of my favorite tank builds. I know you will be using 3 400w SE bulbs, what bulbs and color temperature? what were you using before.

ReefBum · #23 03/19/2007, 01:29 PM

Thanks Zoos. My last tank I used 400w Radiums on HQI ballasts. I definitely had great colors but the growth was not as good as I wanted. For this tank I'm going to use 3 SE 400W 10k XMs driven by HQI ballasts. I should get good color and great growth with these bulbs but time will tell. The fixture also has 8 39W T5s so I'm really excited to see how this combo works.

kozmo02 · #24 03/19/2007, 03:06 PM

I had SE 250w 10k XMs driven by PFO ballasts, not HQI, and they are very intense bulbs, I had 4 over my 180 in lumenarc reflectors and I got great growth but they were so intense that some of the corals couldn't handle it, I eventually switched them out for 20k XM's and now color is great, but growth has slowed quite a bit, I think when it is time to replace the bulbs again later this year I am going to try the 14 or 15k XM's, that should be the perfect blend of color/growth I'm thinking.

You have a much larger tank so I'm sure you will have great success with them, but the 400w 10k XM's will probably be pretty intense, especially on HQI ballasts.

Zoos · #25 03/20/2007, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kozmo02
I had SE 250w 10k XMs driven by PFO ballasts, not HQI, and they are very intense bulbs, I had 4 over my 180 in lumenarc reflectors and I got great growth but they were so intense that some of the corals couldn't handle it, I eventually switched them out for 20k XM's and now color is great, but growth has slowed quite a bit, I think when it is time to replace the bulbs again later this year I am going to try the 14 or 15k XM's, that should be the perfect blend of color/growth I'm thinking.

You have a much larger tank so I'm sure you will have great success with them, but the 400w 10k XM's will probably be pretty intense, especially on HQI ballasts.

Actually you'll find that the 15k bulbs have very low par, the XM's in particular, you might as well keep your 20ks, I run 20k Coralvue bulbs now, and they look nice but the growth is not that great. If you were getting good growth before i would go back to the 10ks.