commonstranger
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 7, 2009
- Messages
- 517
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I've been blessed to be in the saltwater aquarium hobby for 18 years and have had many different systems my wife and I recently purchased a new construction home and during that process of looking at pre-existing homes I excluded certain properties knowing that the aquarium build would not work in that certain floor plan so with the new construction home being able to pick up the floor plan that we wanted I knew that I wanted the aquarium in my office I knew an approximate size that I wanted and I ended up with something very close to that the location of the aquarium is downstairs in my office and the wall behind it connects to the garage so I was able to run the plumbing and electrical bow through that one wall and have the filtration system in the garage. The aquarium is 84 by 30 by 24 tall Star fire glass with black silicone. I purchased the tank and hired a moving company (Pristine Movers) to deliver it to my house. I installed the plumbing and it began to leak. This hurt my heart
. I had to drain the tank, contact the company who built it which is GM aquariums or Glass and More a company just north of Nashville TN. They were able to come out and re silicone 4 inch wide strips of quarter inch glass all the way around the perimeter of the tank. I allowed that to dry for a few days and have no leaks now thank God. The aquarium is now running with water in it I did add sand to the bottom now due to the repair work that was completed. I wanted to go bare bottom but with the new glass and silicone to the bottom I didn't think it would look as nice so I just went ahead and added sand.
I like the appearance of sand better but I know that my tank will end up being an SPS dominant tank so I know that the flow rate will be high and I was just trying to cut down on the amount of sand that may get blowed around. The top of the tank is eurobraced out of one solid piece of glass all edges of the aquarium have been beveled and it turned out really nice. The overflow system is a shadow overflow built by Synergy Reef systems out of Murfreesboro TN with 3 - 1 1/2 inch drains the return lines are 1 inch with a ball valve to adjust the amount of return to each side of the tank. The color of plumbing that I chose was black, light gray and blue you'll be able to see in my RODI (2 - 50g containers) system that there are numerous ball valves I'm able to turn open close certain ones and have water circulate in certain areas or be pumped to another area which makes it extremely convenient for water changes as well as filling up water jugs etc. I'm about to start doing the aquascaping and adding some bacteria to the water to get the cycling process going. Also in regards to the filtration system it is a 120 gallon acrylic tank that was custom built and if you see the pictures you'll notice that the black box in the middle sets about 1/4 of an inch off the bottom that way the 1st and 3rd chambers water levels always remain the same but it allows for a different turnover rate in the middle section. I have an Iwakai return pump that feeds the display tank as well as the skimmer which is a super reef octopus external 5000 with the bubble blaster pump it does an excellent job. I will add more updates soon and would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions that anyone would like to provide.
. I had to drain the tank, contact the company who built it which is GM aquariums or Glass and More a company just north of Nashville TN. They were able to come out and re silicone 4 inch wide strips of quarter inch glass all the way around the perimeter of the tank. I allowed that to dry for a few days and have no leaks now thank God. The aquarium is now running with water in it I did add sand to the bottom now due to the repair work that was completed. I wanted to go bare bottom but with the new glass and silicone to the bottom I didn't think it would look as nice so I just went ahead and added sand.I like the appearance of sand better but I know that my tank will end up being an SPS dominant tank so I know that the flow rate will be high and I was just trying to cut down on the amount of sand that may get blowed around. The top of the tank is eurobraced out of one solid piece of glass all edges of the aquarium have been beveled and it turned out really nice. The overflow system is a shadow overflow built by Synergy Reef systems out of Murfreesboro TN with 3 - 1 1/2 inch drains the return lines are 1 inch with a ball valve to adjust the amount of return to each side of the tank. The color of plumbing that I chose was black, light gray and blue you'll be able to see in my RODI (2 - 50g containers) system that there are numerous ball valves I'm able to turn open close certain ones and have water circulate in certain areas or be pumped to another area which makes it extremely convenient for water changes as well as filling up water jugs etc. I'm about to start doing the aquascaping and adding some bacteria to the water to get the cycling process going. Also in regards to the filtration system it is a 120 gallon acrylic tank that was custom built and if you see the pictures you'll notice that the black box in the middle sets about 1/4 of an inch off the bottom that way the 1st and 3rd chambers water levels always remain the same but it allows for a different turnover rate in the middle section. I have an Iwakai return pump that feeds the display tank as well as the skimmer which is a super reef octopus external 5000 with the bubble blaster pump it does an excellent job. I will add more updates soon and would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions that anyone would like to provide.
