Marty's 8' 300g/sump room build. ~750g system

[Mshort03]

What's up guys, its time to start the build on my dream tank! I've recently bought a house and am ready to get going right away on things.. I am moving From a 90g system that was ~2 years old to a 300g display. Tank dimensions are 96"L30"W25"H. The tank will be in my dining room and plumbed through the wall to a 7x10 room I am building in garage. I have a 125g tank that I am using for a sump. Plan is to have refugium fed directly From drain>skimmer chamber>then return chamber. Also on the system will be 2 90g tanks plumbed in, one for a holding area for new fish/in system frag tank, the other for additional water volume/possible second refugium and finally a way to do effortless water changes with just the turn of a couple valves. Also in this room will be a standalone 125g system with 55g sump as a frag/grow out tank.

quick rundown on equipment..

currently have:
flow:
2x mp60
3x mp40
3k gyre across back glass

skimmer:
older external reef octopus (250?) 8"cup.. i rely more of refugium..

calcium reactor:
SROCR5000D dual 8" with kamoer pump and carbon doser. i have a milwakee ph controller but don't know if ill use this or the apex to control..also debating a few methods of running a reactor.. I'm switching from 2 part.. any suggestions??

return pumps:
I have three..
1x current USA 1950 for the 2 90s
1x current USA 1950 for a manifold/skimmer
1x jaebo 18000 for the return to tank... will be about 7' vertical gain and 15' horizontal. this pump will be upgraded in future to abyzz or rd3.

lighting:
6-8x ocean revive led faced front to back, haven't decided on number..kinda leaning towards 8 to have a more even spread..
4x miro t5 retrofit kits providing 2 t5 on front and back of display for entire length.

the separate frag/grow out system will have an ATI 60" 6bulb T5 fixture with a 60" reefbrite XHO strip.

i will be ordering an apex system to monitor the tank. i will only be using it to command a few things on/off and mostly for monitoring. also thought about getting 2 of the WAV pumps to supplement the mp's since I've seen them in action and am quite impressed.

there will be 3 20a circuits ran to room in a sub box to provide power and redundancy. return pumps/sump will be on separate system than wave makers to make sure there is always flow in display, and if all goes out then i have an 8500 watt generator which i could start up with notification from apex that system is down.

i will be transferring over the ~120 lbs of rock from my 90 along with the ~300lbs of various types of rock i have to choose from..not all will go in display but will be in system somewhere. plan to have a full mixed reef with a lagoon area in middle for some LPS corals while having full SPS reef surrounding with lots of arches and room for all size fish. I've had rock cycling for 3 months with fish and ATS basically running as a tank so it will help make setup quicker and easier.



Here is my current 90g I am moving from.

the new tank will be in our dining room (now reef room.. ) and in a bay area. I will be putting up blackout curtains on the windows to block any light and help with heat transfer. the tank will have a partial built in look as it will sit ~6 inches in the bay and have built in shelves on either side with a dry bar on the right side which doubles as a place to hide the plumbing to garage.

heres a couple pics of the room where the tank will go.. the wall to the garage is on the right.

we moved in last friday and i did not waste any time ripping down some sheetrock and getting this thing going

heres a rough demo of where the room will be in the garage, will finish tomorrow probably and then frame room in over weekend. i will have a water mixing station to the right of the room towards the front of the garage plumbed into room for water changes and ATO for both systems.

i have set the 125 frag system up in my living room as a temporary holding tank for the contents of my 90g. i am moving that this friday. i have plumbed and leveled tank and am currently filling it in anticipation for the move.

here is a picture of the tank

Let me know what you guys think! I've gotten a lot of ideas from other build threads on here and am looking forward to getting suggestions along the way

 

[NY_Caveman]

Very nice! The 90 gallon looks awesome! Welcome to R2R!

 

[JMetaxas]

Good luck!

 

[crusso1993]

Looks like this is going to be a fun build! Following along...

 

[Mshort03]

so i got the tank moved today. boy can we talk about stressful? two years of buying and growing corals all stuffed into 100 specimen containers and 10 5 gallon buckets. The entire tear down and transfer to temporary tank took about 11 hours! heres a hectic view of the tear down..house was mostly empty as we've already started living at the new place so that helped being able to spread out.

two friends, and owners of my LFS Fintastic Aquariums of Wake County, came over to help transport the tank and i am much much appreciative of that. it was beyond stressfull.

one of the buckets.. put most of my fish in this one as well

since this is a temporary holding setup, i wasn't gunna go for a real rock scape, just get the corals close to same height as they were in the 90. when i took the scape out of the tank i separated the rock into "base" and "rock with coral" so i could easily build a temp scape with out much work.

i built a few racks as well which are holding colonies and frags galore.. heres a few shots of the tank..water is still cloudy from move so clarity sucks.. i added prime and and doing a round of SEED to help with the inevitable mini cycle from disturbing an established system.

heres a FTS and pic of the plumbing. this will be exact setup plumbing/sump setup i will use on this tank once its a frag system in the room. simple and efficient. sump is build with a center return chamber and refugium on right is fed by the return pump and controlled by ball valve. this tank used to be in my kitchen at old house and was a softie predator reef.

i set the 90 up in the corner next to the 125 and will be plumbing it in tomorrow as part of the temp setup.. tomorrow i am buying a 90g from a coworker that has given up on the hobby. its 90g tank and stand, an mp40, ecotech battery backup, a jabeo rw15, 48" reefbreeder light, older sump skimmer return things like that and then 5 fish, and 6-7 big nems then two big hammer colonies.. anyways that stuff will go into the 90 to till 300 is built.

i will plumb tank in tomorrow and use my lighting that i had on my old setup on this one and the 125 has three ocean revives over it so i only need to get 1-3 more depending on how many i decide to go with on main display. for the two 90s in sump room i have t5/black box combo and then the reefbreeder light I'm getting in this deal tomorrow.

another exciting thing is i ordered the rest of my equipment today and will have it end of next week. apex system with add ons, 60" ati fixture, apogee par meter, skimmer neck cleaner 500lbs sand, few more rock pieces i wanted... to much more to list. ill post pics when it comes.. also spoke with tank builder and tank will be on a truck next week sometime and headed this way from tennessee.

 

[Mshort03]

lots of good progress made today! got the 90g fully plumbed in to temp setup with the ~180lbs rock i had cycling in a brute can for last 3 months...this should help make the setup of 300 a lot more smooth

today my friend came over and helped me do the framing, he's a contractor by trade and also has a large reef so it was nice to have someone there with more knowledge of woodworking lol...thanks mike!

the stand is 43 inches tall. this will make the top of the tank even with my head and viewing looking straight in while standing. the left side will house a mini fridge/freezer, the center will be a crawl space to get behind tank if needed..i have ~17 inches to stand in behind tank if reason ever presents itself (I'm sure it will) the right section will be split, top half being controllers for MP 40/60S and a cubby for towels below it.. this will all be finished with doors so it just looks like a cabinet and have a partially built in look with a built in shelf on either side of tank, with floor to ceiling cabinetry for tank which will cover the entire opening so when looking from front you won't see any window or bay behind tank. it will look like solid wall with big built in shelf type look. i know working on a tank this tall will present issues but i will have motorized light rack to be able to raise up and lean in and reach in back of tank, and use step ladder. rather not be bending over when trying to look into reef which to me is more important part esp since id like a more "hands off" approach with this display to achieve a full grown in reef look.. the frag system in sump room will be geared to growout/ frag making.

after we got the stand built we got to work on framing the sump room. the bottom plates are secured to floor using a ramset.

i bought a prehung exterior door to use for sump room so it would be insulated. the walls will also be insulated and i will build a small stand for the 125g sump with insulation in it to raise up off concrete floor. don't want the floor sucking all the heat out of the water.

heres the room all framed in

i have a 150 tote coming for RO holding tank/ATO which will be put where the black garbage bags currently are

i will also have a 100g mixing container for making salt water above the fresh water tank. haven't figured this all out yet as its later in build..

got out some of my equipment tonight just cuz I'm excited to use it lol

calcium reactor was puppy inspected, puppy approved

 

[Mshort03]

i am luckily coming in more under budget than expected and am debating buying my upgraded return pump now...with the amount of money in corals that will end up in this tank i can find it easily justifiable to spend a decent buck on the lifeline of the system..i am looking at the abyzz A200 or the RD 230 watt.. anybody have experience or want to chime in on high end return pumps? i want to run it internally. the total length is 15-20 horizontal pipe with ~7 vertical.. planned on using a 1.5 inch all the way to center of tank and using 1 inch returns (in overflows) as dry emergency, or use a 2 inch return and split it under display to the two 1 inch returns. which would be better in your opinion?

 

[Mshort03]

day two after move and alk is sitting steady at 8.4 and happy with that. I've always struggled to gain detectible nitrate in my 90g system despite heavy stock and HEAVY feeding. wondering how it will be with a much larger system. generally I've gathered it will run higher but i plan to have a ridiculous amount of refuguim (~25-30%) so see how that does.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Nice job on the move @Mshort03 ! Of course, this is just the beginning, LOL.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Following along

 

[Mshort03]

Nice job on the move @Mshort03 ! Of course, this is just the beginning, LOL.

Thanks man. It was super hectic few days getting tanks setup and corals moved...all while trying to put house together. We've only lived here 1.5 weeks! Lol

 

[Mshort03]

Following along

Please do! This will be exciting build

 

[McPuff]

Wow, you've done a LOT of work so far! I guess now comes the fun part though, right? Moving is the worst! Looking forward to the continued progress.

 

[Mshort03]

Wow, you've done a LOT of work so far! I guess now comes the fun part though, right? Moving is the worst! Looking forward to the continued progress.

Now is deff the fun part! 90% of equipment is ordered as is rest of rock and 500lbs sand. Hope to have rest built and tank running in a month!

 

[bryanr]

Looks awesome Marty! Following along.

 

[Saveafish]

Just awesome. Ive tore lots of tanks down over the years. The level of stress rushing on the clock never changes. Koodos to you.

 

[Mshort03]

Just awesome. Ive tore lots of tanks down over the years. The level of stress rushing on the clock never changes. Koodos to you.

Oh I was more than nervous when I put all the coral I've been collecting for two years into 5g buckets lol. So far everything is doing great tho! Only lost a couple small frags and nothing special so I take it as a win so far

 

[Mshort03]

Just quick update, ordered rest of my equipment today...3 ocean revives to give me total of 8 across tank, a carbon Doser for the calcium reactor and my return pump. An ABYZZ A200 super excited. Build has been coming in a bit cheaper so decided to bite the bullet now and get this dream build flowing in an awesome manner equipment ordered earlier this week will be here tomorrow. Tank should be here over weekend...will post lots of pics!

 

[Mshort03]

Made some progress today on the build. First I stopped at Fintastic to get my sand.. 400 lbs Bimini pink, 100 lbs special grade

Also went to Lowes and got most of the supplies for wiring the room and plumbing the through wall portion of the plumbing.

I'm running three circuits for this project.. Two for main display system and one for the standalone frag system/ water station and adding a couple to the exterior of room for use in garage. The display will have its own circuit for the 8 ocean revives, 4 t5 units, and 5 vortechs. Then in the room the sump and equipment for display system will have its own circuit. I'm trying to plan redundancy where possible..return pumps and power heads on completely separate circuits.

Here's a couple pics of the rough wiring.. Still have a couple more plugs to add at the top of the currently insulated wall

In the bottom of this picture on the left you can see the drain we will tie into for the slop sink/water change discharge..this was a nice surprise when I opened up the wall

My friend Dave, and owner of my LFS, came over to give me a hand with some of the plumbing for going between the tank and sump room. Here's the hole we cut into the dining room

The tank has two overflows with a 1.5 inch drain and 1 inch return each, but I am plumbing the tank with 2 dry emergency's in the return holes and the return will return up over the back of the tank. The 1.5 inch drains will go up to 2 inch pipes for length of run, the two 1 inch emergency's will join together under tank into a 2 inch pipe for length of run, and the return line is 1.5 inch. So total of 4 pipes going between tank/sump room 3-2" and 1-1.5".

We got two of the pipes ran from stand and through wall tonight before calling it quits.

The other two pipes will be in front of these so it will be like a square grouping of pipes snaking through wall.

Tomorrow and Sunday I will finish the wiring and plumbing From stand to room, plumb in slop sink and start hanging drywall. I will be using the purple stuff and then probably putting FRP or PVC board on top of that to seal against moisture.

got tracking on tank and it will be here Monday. super stoked to finally put my hands on that thing

 

[Mshort03]

Got some more progress done. Went to Lowes for what is prob last "large" run and got all drywall/insulation/FRP. Also got a utility sink to put in the room.

Had to park trailer in garage to keep drywall From getting wet...

Man I can't wait till this place is cleared out and cleaned up.. I didn't even set things up yet I legit just started building day 1 in the new house!

I finished roughing in the electrical

Got some drywall and insulation hung tonight too


Set the door in place to get a real feel for the room

This pic makes room look smaller..the insulated wall to the left of the door is 6.5 feet and where frag system will go.
Looking forward to making more progress today!