Starting ~800 Gallon Custom Reef Tank Build

Captain Quint · Aug 13, 2018

ravi197699 said:
I was thinking about the same but I have bare concrete on the bottom which I am going to seal with marine paint as well. I will go to Lowes and see what type of marine paint they have..

I have had success after priming using the following on the bottom section of stands. Sealed joints, primed and finished with this. Spills, water whatever wipes right of and does a great job making it a watertight area to boot.

ravi197699 · Aug 13, 2018

Thank you for sharing, I will look into this as well, I don't mind putting a coat of this underneath the stand..

Jaxon · Aug 13, 2018

OMG.... Can't wait to porgress..... following

ravi197699 · Sep 5, 2018

I was able to finish the tile work and took advantage of long weekend, here are some of the pictures of the tile work that I have finished under the stand and around where tank is going to sit.

najer · Sep 5, 2018

Tile looks great.

irbnick · Sep 5, 2018

Awesome - I was taking on a 400 g and thought it was a lot

ravi197699 · Sep 5, 2018

najer said:
Tile looks great.

thank you, I love the texture and random colors..

ravi197699 · Sep 5, 2018

irbnick said:
Awesome - I was taking on a 400 g and thought it was a lot

when I started my first 30 gallon tank first time, I felt exactly the same then with 75 gallon, lol

ravi197699 · Sep 23, 2018

Since I am waiting for my display tank, I am taking care of filteration part, I bought this acrylic box that was used as sand filter from freshwater hobby guy and I decided to convert this into nitrate reactor, I got 102 pcs of these ceramic media which is very porus and i used all of these ceramic tubes and it will hold 50 pcs more which i ordred this morning. water will enter from top 1" port and drain from bottom, drain will come up to keep the water in reactor. here are some of the pictures of the reactor..

dantimdad · Sep 23, 2018

Where did you get those ceramic tubes? Never seen them before.

joseserrano · Sep 23, 2018

Awesome. Following

ravi197699 · Sep 24, 2018

dantimdad said:
Where did you get those ceramic tubes? Never seen them before.

there are plenty of sellers if you google bakki shower media, they come in varios sizes and price is very reasonable as well

ravi197699 · Oct 9, 2018

Installed exhaust fans right above the tank to remove humid air from the room, I have split air conditioning unit as well that is going to keep the room temperature at comfortable level, I will install the plumbing for chiller just to be on safe side and I have chiller that is commercial level sitting in my storage. I am having aluminum sheet installed above the tank as well, I don't want moisture to cause any damage to the sheet rock above. These fans are super quiet and they pull out 110 - 130 cfm each depending on speed setting. These are made by Panasonic and sound level is 0.3 at 110 cfg and 0.5 at 130 cfm speed . I have 1 outlet installed on the ceiling as well for light fixture, I will mount the light track so that I can move the light rack out of the way when working on the tank.Here are some of the pictures.. there are many more to come..

ravi197699 · Oct 12, 2018

We were able to get the exhaust fans completed which will be controlled by Humidity & Temperature controller, We installed new diamond aluminum plate on the ceiling, I am not sure if I should paint it white or leave it as it is?

Adam G · Oct 12, 2018

Wow, quite an undertaking. Everything is looking great. Very cool dimensions. Is this going to be a mixed reef? What are your stocking plans?

ravi197699 · Oct 12, 2018

Adam G said:
Wow, quite an undertaking. Everything is looking great. Very cool dimensions. Is this going to be a mixed reef? What are your stocking plans?

Thank you Adam G, my goal is to have SPS as main coral and LPS on the bottom, live stock will be mostly wrasses, reef safe angles, tangs etc, I will try to keep few of the rare oddities as well but we will see what I can find and what is available,

ravi197699 · Oct 24, 2018

ok guys, tank was finally put together by builder and I was with them all day till 9pm and it was great experience and watched the entire process of putting tank together this size. It was planed very well and structure, support base sides and panels installation was executed very well. Not easy to handle large panes of the glass that is 3/4" thick. largest pane was the base which weigh around 500 lbs and I was nervous how we are going to tackle this big piece and set it in the frame that was put together at builders shop, This is my second tank from same builder and I highly respect his life long experience in building tanks. Tank is supported by anodized aluminum frame that is screwed in on the base on marine grade plywood, he used technique that he calls floating bottom of the tank, so there is marine grade plywood 3/4" thick and aluminum frame sits on the plywood and frame is secured on plywood with screws, then he added 1/8" insulation on the plywood and squares were cut out and filled with silicone which is raised higher than pink insulation and glass is sitting on that pink insulation and silicone, after this he added pads that glued on the side of the bottom pane and on aluminum frame which will keep gap between the frame and side pane and gap between bottom and side pane. then it was time to lay silicone and I have never seen this much silicone, I counted 46 tubes of commercial aquarium silicone that was used for this build and I was impressed by how it was laid on the seams, there are aluminum supports on the each corner which has layer of silicone and it is held in place by top and bottom frame, top frame is also custom frame that has 3 supports in the middle and double angled aluminum to add additional strength and it is all held together with marine grade bolts and nylon nuts and that has layer of silicone as well. Here are the pictures of the tank from begin and end.. Please feel free to comment..