The Return of Hans - A 150 Gallon SCA Mixed Reef Build

[hhaase]

Once upon a time I had a 90 gallon tank. It started as a FOWLR build, and slowly (expensively) morphed into mixed reef. There were many mistakes, and many problems. BUT! I persevered for 5 years and ended up with a reef I was happy with..... until I had to move cross country, had to break it all down, and didn't have the room to take the tank with me. Nearly everything from the old tank was sold when I broke it down, but I still have the lights and RO/DI. More on those at a later date. It's a terrible read, but here's the old thread. I kinda drifted away and the final good years didn't actually make it into the thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1630856


Fast forward to today, and life has come around to where I can build up a new tank. Or, at least I will, around Christmas time, thanks to my still-awesome Wife. Welcome to the planning stage! Right now I am going to spend my energy in the world of the theoretical. This means I need to define the end-point, and find the best path to reach that goal. The better the plan, the better the result, rather than the ill-conceived beginnings of my last tank that morphed through far too many filtration and lighting systems. Plan it right, do it right, do it once, enjoy the result. So, let's get the important part out of the way here and define what I'm going to build!

I have 6 feet to work with, so my goal is a 120-180 gallon mixed reef. I am targeting my favorites for stocking, so this means a heavy focus on LPS corals, with the ability to also support montipora capricornis and various clams. I'm also quite partial to gobies and blennies. Filtration and lighting will all focus around supporting that kind of livestock. I'm looking to go for the long-haul here, and grow out the colonies that I want, not just a scattershot of frags. Supporting other species will be nice but I'll only stock what the build will support.

The tank will be right on the basement slab and I have a utility room about 10 feet away from where the tank will be. This means I can remote a lot of things such as change-water mixing tanks, and I can plumb into the house drain. So initial focus is going to be in that utility room and the supporting infrastructure outside of the actual tank. I want it to be easy to access what I need to work on, a key feature here will be making maintenance as trouble free as possible. It's not a terribly large room so I'll have to be careful not to let scope-creep get the best of me.

Anyway, that's enough for now. The core mission is defined. Now to break out the camera, tape measure, and note-paper to start figuring out a lot of things. That and trolling craigslist for juuuuuust the right tank at a good deal. I'm on a budget unfortunately.

[hhaase]

Well, I actually did some work today to start prepping the utility room. Back behind my furnace is an area about 6' x 6' that I can use for water storage and .... well...... I don't know what else yet I'll be doing in there. At the very least though I'll be prepping water changes in there and storing the larger bulk materials. I have access to the water main, and multiple drain locations, plus power. That counts for a lot for sure.

What I did know is that there wasn't anywhere near enough light in there, it was a mess, and there was an old dryer vent hose sitting in there taking up a lot of space. So I spent part of today very leisurely taking care of some of that. Because it is an odd shaped small space it's hard to get any photos in there, but once I cleared it out it's easy to work in once I get the ladders out.

For the time being it's serving well as a mounting location for the RO system, and it will definitely get at least one container for water changes. I'll be building in a bench of some type, some storage shelves, yadda yadda yadda.
But before I go too crazy here I need to figure out what's going to be going on in the room.

For now I'm happy with having installed a new light up high to give me some illumination, and I'll also be putting in a blower fan into that old dryer vent so I can ventilate the room and keep humidity down. The poly sheeting is giving a funny reflection, no I'm not blasting water out of a pipe. In fact for all the plumbing in there it's actually nice and dry.

[hhaase]

Some good news too. I pulled my old MaxSpect G2-160's out of their storage bin. They're a lot dirtier than I remember, but can easily be restored to functionality. I have two of these units and they should be enough to at least get me started, with a planned upgrade a year or two down the road.

The G2's had a big problem with the blue LED's going bad in short order. These units have 18 white 3W, 18 blue 3w, and a pair of 30w white LED's per 400mm long unit. I only used these for close to a year and about half the blue LED's are dead, while all the white's are fully working.

So I'm hoping a decent cleaning and some replacement LED's can bring them back into full functionality. It shouldn't be too much work, nor too expensive, and I can check a big item off my list of needs.

-Hans

[Michael Hoaster]

Good luck with your build! I agree with your methodology of defining the endpoint first. I think it will be a challenge having your work room ten feet from the tank, but I'm sure it can be made to work.

Following!

[hhaase]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Good luck with your build! I agree with your methodology of defining the endpoint first. I think it will be a challenge having your work room ten feet from the tank, but I'm sure it can be made to work.

Following!

I agree that I'd like everything to be closer together, but it's an easy compromise for me to make. Most of that 10ft distance is actually filled with a small countertop, which has a sink in it. I'll also be able to run piping back behind the cabinets that go from the display tank to the water room. The advantage of mixing ahead of time in a storage tank, and not having to haul buckets, is definitely going to work in my favor.

I'm using a lot of the maintenance difficulties from my last tank to plan this one out. For my previous tank the RO filter was in a cramped basement that only had an outside entrance. Thankfully I could at least run the RO output line into the sump area of the tank. But I was still mixing water in 5 gallon buckets, had to use a 30ft python to drain water out into the kitchen sink, and just about everything else had to fit inside the stand. I just didn't have ANY room to work. That made maintenance miserable and the tank suffered as a result.

First big decision I need to make, since it will determine the size of a lot of things, is how big I want the storage tanks to be. Which will also determine the maximum size of water changes I can do. So figure in a 20% water change, and a 180 gallon tank, that'll be approximately 40 gallons.

I'll want two tanks. One for mixed water, the other for RO only. This will give me a 40 gallon ATO/Freshwater change tank, plus a 40 gallon saltwater mix tank. I can also have the fresh tank feed the salt tank, in case I need to go larger on water changes, as that will give me 80 total gallons at any given time. Since my RO is a 75 gallon per day unit, I couldn't fill more than that in 24 hours anyway.

I don't want to go much bigger than this however, as I start really eating up available space in a hurry. Found some nice 42 gallon rectangular storage tanks online for a decent price too, which will fit pretty nicely I think.

[Michael Hoaster]

Pretty smart to consider maintenance in your build. Like you said, if it's hard to do, it gets done less.

Another thing to consider that a lot of aquarists forget, is to make your own comfort for viewing the tank a big priority. After all the work, you want to be able to really relax and enjoy it!

[hhaase]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Pretty smart to consider maintenance in your build. Like you said, if it's hard to do, it gets done less.

Another thing to consider that a lot of aquarists forget, is to make your own comfort for viewing the tank a big priority. After all the work, you want to be able to really relax and enjoy it!

Under $40 shipped for replacement of all 36 blue LED's in my MaxSpect fixture with new Royal Blue's. Can't beat that! Plenty of refurb work to do still but that's a nice start.

I really need a wide angle lens for my Pentax. It's annoying having a good SLR camera, some fantastic lenses, and having to break out my phone to get these shots. We cleared a table full of legos out, and opened up the space the tank will be going into. Not much choice, it's got to go on carpet, so I'll have to sort out a few things to deal with that. The door to the left is the water room. Plumbing will run behind this countertop into the water room.

The display tank will be getting a very prominent and easy to enjoy location in the room of the house I spend most of my time.

And I think somebody tried to clean things up on me, I'm missing a drip loop on that freshwater tank. Need to go fix that.

[hhaase]

A local deal has popped up on a drilled 150HX tank with stand, eshopps sump, and various accessories. Currently set up as freshwater but that just means I'd have stuff to sell and fund other parts of the build. It also makes it a lot easier to determine if a tank is leaking if there's water in it.

Waiting on a check to arrive, if it's still available when that comes in I think I may buy it.

-Hans

[hhaase]

Really on the fence about that 150 thats available. I just can’t wrap my head around how the dimensions play out visually with a 48” wide tank. Does the extra depth and height make up for the lost two feet of width?

I may hold out for a deal on a 180.

[Michael Hoaster]

180s are nice.

[hhaase]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

180s are nice.

Yep, completely agree. The dimensions on those are really in a nice sweet spot to me. If i had the budget for full custom I’d maybe go a few inches shorter and a few inches more front to back. A 125 would probably work very nicely too.

Gonna pass on the 150 though. Im concerned the 30” height will give me issues with lighting PAR. That and having to get up on a stool and dunk my arm clear to the shoulder to reach the bottom.

[hhaase]

Been working on the lights, now that almost all the critical parts are here. These have been sitting in a big in the garage for.... well.... 8 years now? If I had the budget, I would NOT be even trying to use these lights. I was very excited to purchase them originally. Things went downhill pretty quick. Short version is that I will not buy another MaxSpect product ever again. As I go through the sections of the rebuild I'll explain my complaints.

Only actually used them for about a year, they gave me nothing but trouble. I have 8 years more experience now with electronics though, so I'm very confident I can refurbish them to better than original for very little money.

Externally, they didn't wear well. I'm actually not concerned that the lights bleached off a lot of the anodizing on the housing, nor does it worry me the fan needs regular cleaning. Mounting a light 6"-12" above salt water is going to naturally have some cosmetic issues. Does irk me a bit they used an easily corroded metal housing on the cable. I haven't decided yet what I'll be doing about that. I may just clean it off and try to seal it with something, it works fine and it's just really ugly and I can't un-screw the connector.

[hhaase]

So, the previous post, the cosmetic issues, I'm giving MaxSpect a pass on that. Like I said, it's 6"-12" above salt water. It's going to happen, no big deal.

Now we're going to get into what actually did upset me greatly about these lights. Like I mentioned earlier, I only used these for a little longer than 12 months or so before breaking down the tank. Maybe 18 months at the most. During the warranty period I had two driver modules replaced, one bad cable replaced, and 4 blue LED's replaced, all under warranty. Most of this time was BEFORE CoralVue took over customer service, so I was dealing direct with MaxSpect. They were fantastic until my lights hit 12 months. But once the warranty was out they completely disappeared on me.

I only ran the lights a couple more months, and by the time I broke it down I had half the blue LED's dead in one module, and 1/3 dead in the other. So let's rectify that. I'm replacing all of the blue LED's in both units with Royal Blue's. Pretty easy really, just remove the old, and install the new with fresh thermal paste. The wires will have to be soldered onto the new LED's, but that's easy stuff for me.

I'm going to verify the current in the driver modules though before I power these up, to make sure I don't need/want to install a couple more or a couple less. I'm also waiting for some fiber insulating washers too, as I think the screw heads get too close to the pads.

This gets the thread caught up for now. Next step is just cleaning cleaning cleaning on the lights. Good news too is I think I may have found a tank, but I'll say more once I know for sure.

[hhaase]

No exciting photos today, but a few more little pieces of progress in the water room.

I got the vent fan at least temporarily installed, it's just propped up in the rafters at the moment, but it's working. Comes on whenever I turn on the new lights. Eventually I need to sort out a humidity controller for it, but not today.

I also got my RO filter fixed. I had a new membrane sitting around for a week or so but I couldn't find my strap wrenches to get the housing opened up. TDS meter shows it's working nicely. The reject rate is pretty high so I'll also look into what I can do to boost efficiency on it. Water rates here aren't expensive but sure adds up if you've got that much going down the waste line.

-Hans

[hhaase]

I've decided on the tank I'll be doing. I'll be ordering an American Aquariums 142 gallon acrylic. 72" wide x 24" deep x 19" tall. The exact dimensions I want.

Tank is a couple months out, as I haven't actually ordered yet, but at least I have more data points to plan with.

-Hans

[hhaase]

First LED bank has all the blue's installed, and I did a short test. Good news! All the LED's are working in that unit again, for the first time since it was brand-new I think.

I still need to do some cleaning up on it before moving on to the second set. It is good, however, to know it's going to work.

-Hans

[Michael Hoaster]

I like those tank dimensions a lot! Nice work on your LEDs too. Enjoy the journey!

[hhaase]

I spent the day re-routing the sump pump in my water room. Easy job, which I decided to do at a relaxed pace, and did a few test fittings to find a clean way to route it. It no longer takes up a strategically important location on the wall, and looks much cleaner now. It also let me relocate the check valve and fix a couple other things I didnt like about the way it was run.

If I get time tomorrow I may pick up the first holding tank and start test fitting some of my ideas for how I’m going to mount them. They are going to gobble up a lot of room quite quickly. Norwesco makes a 35 gallon poly leg tank that should work nicely for mixing salt, since it has a large opening on top. I just wish it had multiple bungs for recirculating.

[hhaase]

A couple more things I need to add into the planning of the infrastructure. I need to make sure I have a good drain location that can take a good flow rate when I handle draining the tank for water changes. Thankfully I have a few spots in the water room with drain stacks available, so I hopefully don't have to worry about a branch vent. But I do want to make sure not to cause problems with the house plumbing when I add the drain.

-Hans

[hhaase]

Just a quickie update photo of the changes in the water room. Sump pump line is now completely out of my way, and the first water tank has arrived. Doesn't actually take up as much room as I feared. Such an odd room though that it looks a LOT more cramped than it really is. I can actually get around in there quite easily, just an odd place to photograph in.

I'll be adding a second one of these tanks, but need to build a stand/shelf to hold two of them on top of each other. I also really only need one right now anyway, for RO water, so no rush to add the second one.

[Michael Hoaster]

Looks good to me!

[hhaase]

I was playing around in the water room yesterday starting to plan out the RO location and lines, and gave it a good test with the new membrane. The good news is the RO filter works fine. The bad news is I have a minor drip in the relocated sump pump lines. I have till spring to fix that, as the exterior hose is frozen at this point, and it probably only leaks under pressure. But it's something I'll have to worry about at some point.

Otherwise I did move all the electrical sockets up to about 6ft off the ground, both for access and water clearance, and brought home some 2x4's to start building out a bench and stand.

The water tanks are the main reason for the room, but it would be nice to be able to put a small workstation and quarantine tank in there too.

-Hans

[hhaase]

The bench isn't done, and man did it suck up room quickly. I still need to put decks on both levels of it, and it'll need some shims to level it all out, but this was a good evening of work. At some point I should probably put some plywood behind all of this too, but since the stand isn't built into place I can always pull it away and get it done.

I also moved over the RO filter. Temporary location for now, as I know things will change pretty quick once I get the other tank in place.

I can't decide if I want the top tank to be RO and the bottom salt, or the other way around. Either way it's going to be a bit annoying to get at the top of the tank to get the salt mix into it. I'll either be crouching, or up on a step-stool. There's good points to either method. And either way is still better than hauling buckets.

[hhaase]

I took advantage of the BRS sale for Black Friday / Cyber Monday. I have a water-saver kit on the way for the RO/DI system, and fresh DI media. I really like the numbers I'm currently seeing, with 280ppm going into the membrane and 2ppm coming out. But I'd still like to cut down my waste water amount and see if I can hit zero PPM. Eventually I'll go with the triple part DI modules, but for now I'll just keep the single.

I also did the plywood shelving on the stand today as well. So I just need to level it, and add the second tank, then I can start thinking about some plumbing. All I have right now is a drain valve to get at the DI water.

[hhaase]

The water saver kit arrived today finally, and installed quick and easy. I also refilled my DI can finally. TDS meter is telling me I've got 6ppm into the DI and putting out 0ppm now, which is right on target for what I want it to be.

I also have some used media reactors on the way from a fellow reefcentral member. I don't know which ones they are exactly, but I believe they are a Bashsea 4-12 and 4-18, plus a very similar NanoSeaCreations BR1. Plenty of media options with 3 reactors, that's for sure.

Too bad I'm not getting to Minneapolis any time soon, great deal on an acrylic sump out there, but no way I'll be able to pick it up in the near future.