Sushi Bar 210 Build

[Zdaniels]

Hello, I am opening Sushi Bar near Clearwater Florida. I have slowly been collecting the things to make this 210 build possible. As a Sushi Chef at a resort on the beach we were set up to get a tank from "A.T.M.", from the show "Tanked". Being in the hobby for some-time I was stoked. We got a $65,000 budget approved and then COVID hit. Long story short I am all in on the dream now. As a Chef I've dreamed of having a restaurant, never dreamed of COVID being the catalyst. One of mentors walked into the space and first thing out of his mouth was where is the "tank" going, remembering years ago me bragging about some sushi bars reef tank. I decided that was a good enough reason to do it and landed on a 210 cause why not. its about as big as you can go before stuff just becomes out of hand, IMO.

I am fairly confident in everything going on but some questions have come up. I have an oppurtunity to buy "live"sand, the real thing from a local fish shop that is moving towards glass bottoms. I know this would provide pricless bacteria and other things resulting in more stable parameters quicker. AND I get the old key west sand we all love! Catch is, its twice as much as the bagged "special-grade" @ $3.49. I would love to hear opinions on this as well as, you guessed it, the rock.

I have old stuff but not enough, and its dried out. For those of you who are familar with the OG live rock guy(doctor acctually), I have spoke with them and do not want the stuff they are currently marinating in the south pacific. So my answer thus far has been the "purple-ish-red" Life Rock from caribsea. Its not crazy expensive and Ive heard good things. The Reef Forrest with extension kit and other rock should get me to about 190lbs.

We are trying to open in May 2023. So Far we have:

210 Gallon Aqueion

Octopus Classic 202-s Protein Skimmer

ecosystem aquariums refugium sump

Reef Octopus Classic Protein Skimmer

Two Sicce Pump # 5

Icecap 4k Gyre w/controller

Icecap Gyre 4k

ATO Duetto Aqua XP

Heater finnex 800watt titanium

 

[Zdaniels]

Just to be clear I would be reciving sifted bits of sand from there display tanks. not the larger stuff that stays in strainer

 

[Zdaniels]

Thank you very much for the advise. Check out Thread 'Sushi Bar 210 Build' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sushi-bar-210-build.961775/

I've decided to use 180 lbs of caribsea specialgrade (found 20lb bags for 14.99). Then add maybe 10-20lbs of real key west live sand from the LFS.(SIFTED STUFF). doing this for the bacteria.

I also picked up about 200 lbs of real figi rock. I have it in tubs in garage cycling, hoping some of the good stuff will stay. We plan on opening in May, hoping to begin install end of march.

 

[Zdaniels]

 

[dedragon]

Looks like a great start, the only thing I think i would change rn would be the 2 sump setup. If possible it will be easier to have 1 larger sump of 50 gallons or even bigger. If one of those 2 drains gets blocked or just gets uneven distribution of water, you could end up with a good amount of water on the floor. If these use 1" drains you could run this tank using herbie overflow with one drain being the siphon and the second being an emergency as well.
If you are running a controller or temp controller it might be better to use 2 heaters for redundancy as heaters will always fail over time

 

[L0L_Z]

What do you plan to stock it with?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Can't wait to see what the tank looks like when it's put together!!!

 

[Phil Steel]

It looks very promising!

 

[Zdaniels]

... like Christmas time around here!!

 

[Zdaniels]

What do you plan to stock it with?

Mixed reef! Love tangs, sps and lps!! list to come! Just got 200lbs of real figi live rock. I have it in water still to keep as much stuff alive as possible.

 

[Zdaniels]

Looks like a great start, the only thing I think i would change rn would be the 2 sump setup. If possible it will be easier to have 1 larger sump of 50 gallons or even bigger. If one of those 2 drains gets blocked or just gets uneven distribution of water, you could end up with a good amount of water on the floor. If these use 1" drains you could run this tank using herbie overflow with one drain being the siphon and the second being an emergency as well.
If you are running a controller or temp controller it might be better to use 2 heaters for redundancy as heaters will always fail over time

Mixed reef! Love tangs, sps and lps!! list to come! Just got 200lbs of real figi live rock. I have it in water still to keep as much stuff alive as possible.

 

[Zdaniels]

Any thoughts on putting this damsel into to 210 DT. He been with me through 3 Nanos, lived in a refugium for a few years. Really beautiful fish and doesn't seem to acttual cause harm besides stress(doesn't bite at others)

Rock water is clear now in the ibc tote but I think I lost most of everything alive in the rock. Should still give me a nice head start on the ugly phase.

 

[Reign1]

Looks like a great start, the only thing I think i would change rn would be the 2 sump setup. If possible it will be easier to have 1 larger sump of 50 gallons or even bigger. If one of those 2 drains gets blocked or just gets uneven distribution of water, you could end up with a good amount of water on the floor. If these use 1" drains you could run this tank using herbie overflow with one drain being the siphon and the second being an emergency as well.
If you are running a controller or temp controller it might be better to use 2 heaters for redundancy as heaters will always fail over time

Agree with you on this . If he wants to keep the 2 sump system i would suggest drilling both for 1.5-2" bulhheads and have them connected w/ PVC so if power goes out water will level out between both sumps.

 

[Zdaniels]

Agree with you on this . If he wants to keep the 2 sump system i would suggest drilling both for 1.5-2" bulhheads and have them connected w/ PVC so if power goes out water will level out between both sumps.

So the sump plan kinda stalled out. I'm trying to return the crappy aqueo/all glass/central pets stand black pine stand. I found out I can send in plans from the contractor(that's building out the sushi bar) that can be stooped for warranty support.
So the new plan has two options one we can't return it and the sump will be two parts connected with bulk heads. Drain to fuge(36" long 8x8,) with mud and what not, then drains down to skimmer chamber and return. The skimmer chamber would be on floor sticking up through the base of pine stand(custom cut, gives us 8-ish more inches as the stand will be raised on cynder blocks)

Option 2 they except return and advanced Aquatics can build the sump attached, and I can have a custom steel or wood stand at the height I need for people to be able to see it behind me while sitting at the sushi bar.

 

[Zdaniels]

They won't return the stand, so this is what we are doing... raising the stand 12" with a wood frame, cutting hole in existing stand to accommodate sump.

From the tank water drains to two separate areas. One a refugium system with mud and frag tank, 32"x19"x9". Second drain to a skimmer sump to skim then into return section where both sicce#5's are. The refugium will drain into the skimmer sump, return pump section where water returns to the tank.

 

[Zdaniels]

Rock tank is stabilized, 0 nitrate and phosphate. Dosing daily with neo nitro and neophos. Got the neptune hooked up and hung to the side of the container.

 

[Zdaniels]

About a month from opening doors now! Leveled and water proofed stand, so mopping and cleaning behind sushi bar won't damage the wood riser

 

[Zdaniels]

About a month from opening doors now! Leveled and water proofed stand, so mopping and cleaning behind sushi bar won't damage the wood riser