Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

Your welcome! I like sharing my ideas! At least you thanked me; unlike RedSea... speaking of which;
Another feature I really like:

Build Thread - Sam's Oceanic 120 - DIY solutions

When I see people on YouTube doing it I'm always like mine will be waaaay better... Glad I have a ton of the netting so I can get a redo after vacation... At least 1/2 the tank is protected from jumpers... Got a decent T5 Ballast for $17! I am going to pimp-out the hood with some massive...

www.reef2reef.com

I thin I used these:

Mastercraft® 22" Cadmium Full-Extension Ball-Bearing Soft-Close Drawer Slide

Update your cabinetry with the stylish looks of Mastercraft cabinet hardware. With trendy designs that are sure to fit your needs.

www.menards.com

mounted them on 2x4s that I cut chunks out of.
I wish I gave myself 1/4 an inch more so the grounded plugs on the EB8s I have nestled back there had a little more clearance. - easy enough to retrofit... I'm just too busy killing corals.

and no; I wasn't going for a bunch of phalloses on my control board...

Just don’t be a stranger. Besides I may have more questions as this build progresses. We’re almost to where I’m picking up the tank.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Those little glass suction cup things at harbor freight make it all easy from what I've heard. People swear by them if under-manned. But hell; this hobby is expensive enough.

 

[Mschmidt]

Those little glass suction cup things at harbor freight make it all easy from what I've heard. People swear by them if under-manned. But hell; this hobby is expensive enough.

What's their return policy?

And congratulations @Fishy888! That tank is huge!

 

[Fishy888]

What's their return policy?

And congratulations @Fishy888! That tank is huge!

It’s literally a dream come true. God is awesome! If the cube hadn’t leaked I’d never have gotten this. It shows that the Lord knows what he’s doing and takes care of his people. He sees what’s far, far ahead and knew he was going to do this for me. This tank was $150. Truly an offer I couldn’t refuse. Aaannnndddddd………

We just got pops and some snacks and we’re heading back home. Interesting tidbit… this tank came from Decatur originally and now it’s coming home.

 

[Fishy888]

The tank made it home and onto a hand truck. I have it ready to come in. I’m going to need a little extra help but once it’s in the house and it’s been turned on end and maneuvered I’ll be a lot less anxious.

Unfortunately the help I had to get it from the car onto the hand truck had to go home because my wife had to go babysit pretty much as soon as we got it onto the hand truck.

I was able to pull it up to the door myself. It’s a 10 foot distance from the pavement to the door. I’m taking a break and I’ll get back to it soon. Once the wheels get over the hump at the doorway and I get help to safely get the tank up on its end I can turn it 90 degrees and get it safely off the truck. There will soon be much celebration.

 

[Fishy888]

It’s officially in the houzzzzzzx. Literally. It makes the 75 look like a 10 gallon tank. LOL.

My poor wife though. I have the living room a mess. Tomorrow I’m going to get the tank off the hand truck and I’ll get help. I was fortunate that a man saw me leveraging the hand truck to get it in the house. He pushed, I pulled, and I was able to maneuver without having to set the tank on its end.

You can see the scrap wood I used to make sure the tank was being supported by the frame and NOT the glass.

 

[fishguy242]

Congrats , on the new tank !
Sorry not to ruin the moment , but gonna... want to see more pics of silicone ,left side toward and TV end .
do I see a reseal ?

 

[Fishy888]

Congrats , on the new tank !
Sorry not to ruin the moment , but gonna... want to see more pics of silicone ,left side toward and TV end .
do I see a reseal ?

Thankfully no. I looked at the silicone before it ever went in the van, and I checked it in the sunlight. The silicone looks better than the 75 gallon tank even . It just has a bunch of sand and grit that I’ll be cleaning up soon.

As you can see there are some chips on the edge that are super thin. There are no cracks emanating from them though, hairline or otherwise. I’ll probably fill them in with epoxy. Thankfully there are no chips on any other corners and the silicone looked great even in sunlight on all four corners. Once bitten twice shy. Twice bitten and you learn to be quite wary.

I’m glad you asked that question though. I’m going to be very cautious with this tank.

 

[Fishy888]

One last post for tonight. I measured the tank’s dimensions. It’s actually a 210 but who cares? This is nothing but awesomeness! It’s in great shape. It has the same footprint as a 220. If anything it’s a half inch wider than a 220. I’m just loving life right now. Thank you all for your help. I’ll be drawing up the plans for my stand tomorrow. Tonight though I’ll be checking out all kinds of fish for the new system and getting much needed rest.

Edit: I would not want to go any bigger than this tank. If this was an 8 footer there would have been no way I’d have gotten it in. The ceilings here are 7.5 feet. I still have some strength but not nearly enough for that. It was a monumental effort to get the tank in the house as it was.

There is no fish really that I actually want that would grow too big for my 210. It’s truly the perfect size.

 

[Mschmidt]

That tank is going to be amazing! And it seems the blessings just keep coming.

 

[Fishy888]

That tank is going to be amazing! And it seems the blessings just keep coming.

Amen! Hopefully anyone going through a catastrophic tank failure can take heart that some good can come out of it and be encouraged.

Today the tank gets to come off of the hand truck. Then the process of getting the framework for the stand built will begin.

 

[Fishy888]

That’s done now. The next time this tank gets moved it’ll be onto the stand.

I was given some aragocrete rocks today from the reefer who’s selling me the hippo tang. I must say it’s crumbly. Is it usually like that? It’s porous as anything and I’d like to use it but I worry about its ability to stay together.

I’ve been trying to decide if I want to go with a closed loop only or not. If I do that then I’ll need to figure out how to dose things like kalkwasser that’s usually dripped into a sump, or LaCl which gets dripped into a filter sock. I’m going to research that soon.

I like the idea of going sumpless since the system is so massive. I’m going to be building a low stand so I don’t see how I could work in a sump even if I could fit one under the stand. Pods and other creatures can easily become self sustaining in a tank this size.

Thank goodness I have loads of sand. I have about 90 to 100 lbs of rock not including the aragocrete rock I just got. I might still need a little more of both but hopefully not.

I’m going to measure the holes to be sure but I think 1 inch bulkheads will work. There are 15 holes and they’re all the same size.

 

[fishguy242]

Really think you should do both, loop and sump.
going to be hard to maintain large tank w out a sump. JMO...

 

[Fishy888]

Really think you should do both, loop and sump.
going to be hard to maintain large tank w out a sump. JMO...

True. I’ll give it a go. If I do that then I’ll try to make it so I can use the 75 as a sump but if not I’ll have to use the 30. Thank you Frank.

 

[tbrown]

Aragocrete can be crumbly depending on the mix ratio. Mine is about 50% sand to 50% cement. Also, is it fully cured already? If not it'll leach alkalinity and pH into the water and can cause spikes. If you're unsure, run a freshwater soak for a day and find out if the pH stays stable or rises significantly. Mine would go from 8.3 to 12.4 in around 8 hours before it was cured.

 

[Projects with Sam]

True. I’ll give it a go. If I do that then I’ll try to make it so I can use the 75 as a sump but if not I’ll have to use the 30. Thank you Frank.

I agree with Frank; sump is key for maintenance. You could put those 3/4 stop valves on the closed loop pipes where you can mess with them below the stand till you design and get pump(s) for that system.
I'd save the closed loop stuff for later and just focus on the simple DT/sump setup.

Do you have any plans for the overflow?
I'm currently running an overflow I hand-cut with a razor-blade out of PVC ceiling tile and glued with PVC glue and CA on my 15 gallon nem tank. So far my only issue is I think algae is more prone to grow on it.

I cut the one on my frag tank out on my diy cnc; also ceiling tile pvc

 

[Fishy888]

Aragocrete can be crumbly depending on the mix ratio. Mine is about 50% sand to 50% cement. Also, is it fully cured already? If not it'll leach alkalinity and pH into the water and can cause spikes. If you're unsure, run a freshwater soak for a day and find out if the pH stays stable or rises significantly. Mine would go from 8.3 to 12.4 in around 8 hours before it was cured.

I was told it was cured but I’ll be testing it first.

 

[fishguy242]

You should use 4 top holes with 90* elbows and strainers for drains , 2 uppers for return
use 4 0f the lowers for closed loop flow only , plug the rest ?

 

[Fishy888]

You should use 4 top holes with 90* elbows and strainers for drains , 2 uppers for return
use 4 0f the lowers for closed loop flow only , plug the rest ?

I’m thinking about keeping the 8 lowest holes and running two pumps. That way I can cover four holes with each pump. It would also mean I could use smaller pumps. Like with heaters, if one pump were to die on me while I was gone or asleep the others would still work. I’ve been pricing strainers and other things I need for the plumbing but I need to research pumps.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I’m thinking about keeping the 8 lowest holes and running two pumps. That way I can cover four holes with each pump. It would also mean I could use smaller pumps. Like with heaters, if one pump were to die on me while I was gone or asleep the others would still work. I’ve been pricing strainers and other things I need for the plumbing but I need to research pumps.

I'd do something like this:

mainly because I could carve a sick low profile overflow and overflow box for it.
I'd actually do 3/4" plumbing throughout just to simplify, because you have so many holes, and because the stop valves are only $3....

I'd run UV and reactors through the closed loop... make that a gigantic pump...