Jack's 300 gallon system

[rafal07013]

I am trying to document more of my build than I have in the past. My old tank which was a 72g bow front that was great but… I wanted something bigger and nicer. As a result I started looking for something that would suit my personal taste, my fish and corals better. Than on NJ Craigslist site in late July 2009 I came across a tank that was too good to pass up. Sure, it needed a little bit TLC but it had all the potential in the world to make it a dream tank.

Also, most the equipment is second hand. I bought it from people on my local forum or on RC. It has taken a little bit longer to collect all the equipment, but it helped me to save some money and allowed me to meet some nice people.

Here is a rundown of the equipment that will be used on this system.

Tank- 54" x 36" x 27" 225g tank (Thank you GloveGuru) – can you imagine that there is not a single scratch on the front glass? ¾” starphire glass. --- also, thank you goes to Paul to helped me to bring it over to my house. It was a great two of moving 2 large tanks from 2 different states in ONE day.

36" x 24" x 10" 30 gallon Frag tank (Thank you Adam)

Sump- 80g acrylic sump (Thank you Twinreef)

Skimmer- RE Alpha Cone 250 (Thank you Samsky)

Main pump – Hammerhead (Thank you DanTheManNJ)

Controller: Profilux II with WLAN and soon to be III EX with WLAN (Thank you Vinny)

Profilux Dosing Unit – 4 pump to control Ca, Alk and Mg (Thank you Vinny)

In tank circulation- 2 mp40's gen2 http://ecotechmarine.com/products/vortech-mp40w/ - (Thank you Brian from TB Aquatics)

Salt-Brightwell Salt (Thank you Felix)

Zeo Reactor - Vertex 3L reactor and zeo stuff

Lighting - 2 modules of 120W EX BT PS LED plus 90W EX BT LED module for the frag tank.

MarcoRocks – 3 nice towers – just wait for the pics.

Why Jack's 300 gallon system - the little boy is on his way to join the forum at the end of Dec 09.

And here is how it all started:

 

[rafal07013]

here is the pic of the tank before the move:

and one more:

 

[rafal07013]

I decided to close the closed loop and dedicated the middle line out of the 3 for the return. and yes, I needed like 15 bulkheads to accomplish everything. I am still not done with the durso pipe since regular size pvc pipes will not fit in the overflow box. simply too small.

 

[rafal07013]

here it is the pic of the pvc pipes that go from the tank to the 'fish room' next door that wife "allowed" to use it

in that space used to be 72g bowfront a few months ago.

 

[rafal07013]

well, I am no carpenter so I had to ask for a favor and Chris came in with some help. it took him about two days to do his magic. We went together to Home Depot and he made some suggestions as far as what I needed based on my vision He agreed to do it but left painting to me. I dont have any pics of the actual contruction but I can share a few pics of me trying to paint it. Yes, I wanted a dark color to match the furniture in the TV room. and you can see I am not a great painter.

garage pic of painting time:

and yes, I used backyard benches to help me out

 

[rafal07013]

I used appliance epoxy and primer to paint inside of the canopy.

 

[rafal07013]

I spent few weeks working with Marc from Marco Rocks to get what I was looking for and he went out of his way to deliver it. The 6 rocks came in 3 boxes, packed as you would never believe. not ONE single chip on them in transportation. I was so impressed that there is no words for it.

so after rocks came in, i wanted to put them on the stand and see how it would look like:

 

[rafal07013]

and than time came in to move the beast to the basement. 4 suction cups, 4 guys and a lot of praying.

after the move:

without the canopy but the rocks inside:

 

[rafal07013]

the picture of the canopy still in the garage:

 

[rafal07013]

now here is the pic of the present lights - i am still waiting for the LED lights to come in so I decided to use my current MH

 

[rafal07013]

it took me about 3 days to get all the water needed via 75gpd RO/DI unit but here are some pics of the tank with water, lights on, canopy on:

 

[rafal07013]

Zeovit :


Day 1 (9/24/09) :

Dose 50ml of ZEObak (1 bottle). Near the pump to the Vertex to colonize the rocks as well as the tank.

Dose 100ml of ZEOstart2. Near the pump.

Dose 30ml of Sponge Power. Again, near the pump.

No dosing for 2 days.

Day 4 and there after:

8 drops ZEObak 2x a week. (Sundays and Wednesdays)

On Sundays: 100ml of tank water & mix 1 spoonful of ZEOzym & 8 drops of Zeobak. I will allow mixture sit for about 6 hours, then dose.

Dose .8ml/.8ml Zeostart2 Daily (day/night).

Dose 8 drops of Sponge Power Daily.

On day # 9 I got some light diatom coverage on the rocks and bed sand. I will post a pic of current look later on tonight.

 

[rafal07013]

Fish Room design: here is where RC/NJReefs/MR came to the rescue. I have searched for some ideas and if you see something to what you did and posted - thank you. it made my life much easier to come up with a final version. I have Hammerhead pump in the middle as you can see. add some extra rubber below the cement block and the pump and the bluck to reduce noise to minimum.

Mainfold - simple construction - nothing fancy.

frag tank with MH till LED come in:

FS:

one more:

 

[JRWOHLER]

Why Jack's 300 gallon system - the little boy is on his way to join the forum at the end of Dec 09.

And here is how it all started:

I didn't know where that was going...this is a family site. ;D

Seriously though great system...huge huh? Really like the towers.

 

[rafal07013]

seems big from the pics. but the tanks size is missleading and it is not that big if you stand in front of it. I had 48" bowfront, this one is 54" - only 6" difference. the big difference is in the fish room where everything is bigger and much easier to get to and play around.

it was either now or never - it would not NEVER happen after the birth. so i had squeeze in the tank upgrade and backyard fix up. all in the last 2 months.

 

[SirFragalot]

seems big from the pics. but the tanks size is missleading and it is not that big if you stand in front of it. I had 48" bowfront, this one is 54" - only 6" difference. the big difference is in the fish room where everything is bigger and much easier to get to and play around.

it was either now or never - it would not NEVER happen after the birth. so i had squeeze in the tank upgrade and backyard fix up. all in the last 2 months.

I am so jealous!! One day i will have a system that has to be "plumbed" into another room. ;D Like you, i'm expecting a baby but in April. So maybe I have a little time to score brownie points with the wife. Great start to the thread. looking forward to following it.

 

[rafal07013]

the bigger system brings "issues" I kind of didnt think about before - evaporation - comes to mind.

Items needed to the fish room: a little fridge for the beer, TV and something to sit on

 

[SirFragalot]

Not sure if I missed it but are you doing some form of ATO?

 

[rafal07013]

that is on my "To Do" list - I have not solved this issue yet and not fully sure how to do it.

Not sure if I missed it but are you doing some form of ATO?

 

[rafal07013]

Every two weeks, Wed night is my favorite time. Guess why? Payday. but also got some other good news and decided to send the deposit for the lights. Yes, I did pull the triger finally. It will take 2-3 weeks go get it here, but what the hell, live once.

Each lamp series BT-EX has a special built-in dedicated computer(Light Area Computer) can support advanced light. Lamp is programmed wirelessly using a special application(via Bluetooth interface).
On easy mode:
- setting date/time
- setting turn on/off time, dimming time predefined for 20 minutes
- total brightness setting - for ex. for coral acclimation
- setting brightness for moonlight

Easy mode screenshot:

On advanced mode:

- Set the time sunrise and sunset times for 1-60 minutes
- simulating the lunar illumination (28 days full period)
- changing brightness during the light period - like on nature, where isulation depend of hour. For the whole cycle of lighting, you can define up to 40 individual points of which is set by the brightness of the lamp, This gives the opportunity to simulate the lighting just like in nature:

- Natural Sunlight Simulation - lamp is able to simulate cloudy and sunny days - when using this option, the lamp simulates the effect of temporary cloudiness - as is the nature. For the summer season the days are longer and brighter, for the winter season - shorter and somewhat darker light(in the future the computer will be able to wirelessly control the heating in the tank, so that in summer the temperature in the tank will be higher in the winter - lower)

and one more pic