Build Thread: 232 Gallon Peninsula Tank

[jonasramus]

Well Guys and Gal's, I've been planning to build a large peninsula tank for my living room for many months now, and I have been studying and drafting concepts like crazy. I have gotten much inspiration and advice from many on this site and over at www.thereeftank.com, and I believe I have corrected many mistakes in my plan because people like you are ready and willing to freely share their knowledge and experience. Thank you!

I am incorporating my tank into a remodeling of my living room. I've finally sold my pool table, have repainted, installed new hardwood floors, and I am about 1/2 done installing custom-handbuilt wainscoting on the walls. Once the wainscoting is done, I will begin working on the tank. The tank will sit on a DIY stand which will utilize the same style elements as the wainscoting, so that it fits seamlessly with the rest of the room. Below are the details of my current plan. Feedback is welcome!

SYSTEM OVERVIEW:

• 232 Gallon Reef tank
• Peninsula tank to divide room, overflow along the wall side
• Beautiful from both sides
• Supports wide variety of corals (soft, SPS, LPS)
• Only reef-safe vertebrates and invertebrates
• QUIET operation. White noise and water trickle sounds to a MINIMUM.
• Energy efficient pumps, lights
• Freshwater auto-top off system
• 65G DIY sump from a 48x18x17 tank
• Base Rock (trying to avoid nasty tag-alongs)
• Shallow sand bed in display tank
• DIY plumbing
• Two reactors: Carbon and GFO
• DIY stand (very excited about this. Wood working is a hobby of mine, and I'm going to make it match the wainscoting I'm installing in the living room.)
• Aquarium Controller with internet access
• Sychronizable power heads for display circulation
• RODI system with autoshut off valve.
• Mixing station and refill system to simply 40G water changes. (No lifting of buckets. Use cart instead)
• BeanAnimal's overflow design. (very nice by the way!)

BUDGETARY CONCERNS:

• Performance is MORE important to me than price when choosing equipment. In order of importance to me is: quality/performance, noise levels, energy efficiency, and finally purchase cost.

CURRENT EQUIPMENT PLAN:

• TANK: 72x24x31 peninsula tank with overflows on the wall side. (Glass Cages' 240 tall 6)
• SKIMMER: Vertex Alpha 250
• HEATERS: Two ViaAqua Titanium 200W heaters.
• BASE ROCK: 300lbs Bulk Reef Supply Reefsaver Rock
• DEAD SAND: two 40lb bags of argonite sand 1-2mm (I want a 1" layer or less here. I just cannot come to terms with a BB tank.)
• LIGHTING: 3 of EcoTech Marine Radions
• POWERHEADS: 2 of Ecotech M60s
• REACTOR: 2 of Bulk Reef Supply Dual Media Reactor (For GFO, Carbon)
• RODI FILTER: SpectraPure 90 GPD.
• RETURN PUMP: Reef Octopus HY-5000
• AQUARIUM CONTROLLER: Neptune Apex Controller

CHANGE HISTORY:

• 2012-JUL-15: (1) Eliminated fuge - using area for acclimation and detritus settling. (2) Moved skimmer to incoming section. (3) picked pumps: Ehiem 300 for top off, Ehiem 1000 for reactors, HY-5000 for return pump. (4) eliminated plan for calcium reactor. Will use kalkwasser in auto top off if needed. (5) reduced size of heaters to 200W and switched to Titatium. I live in FL and it is never below 70 in my house. (6) Added Quaratine tank to the plan. (7) Will use base rock instead of live rock to avoid nasties and save some up front cost. (8) Shallow Sand Bed using coarse dead sand.
• 2012-AUG-18: (1) Increased tank height from 24in to 31in. (2) Upgraded skimmer from ASM G4 to Vertex Alpha 200. (3) Settled on Ecotech M40 powerbeads. (4) Changed to SpectraPure RODI filter. (5) Elected to forgo a separate pump for my reactors and will plumb them off of the sump return line instead.
• 2012-AUG-25: (1) Upgraded from Vertex Alpha 200 to VA250 on advice of Geoff and FutureDoc from TheReefTank that the VA200 may be undersized for the tank. (May change this later to an external skimmer. I need to consider this.) (2) Upgraded to M60 powerheads from M40.

The next posts will show some screenshots of my SketchUp plans, as well as some progress shots of my room remodel.

Note it is going to take me MONTHS to finish remodeling this room and building this tank system. Be patient folks. :-)

[jonasramus]

The Empty tank:

[jonasramus]

The Sump...

[jonasramus]

The DIY stand:

[jonasramus]

The tank and stand in the room.

[jonasramus]

The room before the remodel began...

[jonasramus]

After painting, before demolition

[jonasramus]

Mid-Flooring Installation

[jonasramus]

Flooring Installed

[jonasramus]

I completed the first wainscoting panels last weekend to test things out and see if I'm happy with the design. It will be painted white.

[jonasramus]

This weekend and last, I cut all the wainscoting rails and stiles from 3/4 MDF and routed about half the edges. This weekend, I finshed routing the edges of last week's pieces and installed the bottom rail, and spaced out the stiles to right-size the panels. Wow there is still a lot of work to be done. Cutting the panels and routing the raised profile on all 50 of them is going to take me forever.

[jonasramus]

Here are the design requirements for my custom-built canopy:

• match the wainscoting I'm building in the room,
• not need to be removed when I want to place new corals and/or perform general maintenance,
• take advantage of the fact that this is a peninsula tank, allowing me to open the canopy from either side,
• will not require my wife to lift a heavy canopy to feed the fish,
• hide all hinges,
• not trap heat, and
• allow me to hang my LED fixtures.

So here is my draft design trying to address all these concerns. Notable features include:

• Three rails attached between two endcaps made using frame and panel construction.
• The center rail serves triple duty to provide strength, a place to hinge the canopy sides, and a place to hang the LED fixtures.
• All panels in all sides are secret doors, that have hidden hinges on the top edge and magnets on the bottom, allowing any panel to be pushed inward for fish feeding.
• Each side of the canopy can open up completely as shown below when I want to get my whole body above the tank and reach down inside.
• The entire top of the canopy is open to allow heat to dissipate and to lighten the weight. The top of the canopy will be a little over 7 feet off the ground so I'm not worried about anyone seeing that the top is open.
• I'm planning to join the canopy sides to the the canopy top using aluminum angle iron to provide strength, and if it is not sufficient, I will add diagonal cross-members to keep the two planes at 90 degrees to one another.

[shaggss]

I would use separate NEXTREEF reactors. Gives a little more control of flow in each.

[jonasramus]

Well, I've been continuing to work on the remodel, and I'm nearing completion of the raised panels. Wow. Making all of these from sheet MDF is a major pain the tush.

In good tank news, I took my first real step on the tank itself. I installed a dedicated GFI outlet where the peninsula will touch the wall.


Here's a shot of the progress on the whole room.
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[jonasramus]

Finally done routing panels! Yipee!




Next step... install the top rails, which I have already routed. Then off to make the baseboard, followed by trim moldings, before finally painting the entire project. Ugh. Still have several days of work yet.

[jonasramus]

Plugging along. Today, I finished installing the top rail, the base board, milled and routed the bullnose molding, and installed the bullnose molding. Overall, a productive day.





Tomorrow, I will install the decorative moldings and prep the surfaces for paint.

I'll likely be painting next weekend.

Then the following weekend, the tank stand can begin! (Or maybe I'll take a weekend break. I'm beat!)

[CHSUB]

great start! i have a similar build. 281 peninsula, bean, vertex alpha 300, ecotech powerheads. i too considered radions, but found better options, Pacific Sun LED. also know that the ecotech mp are loud, mine are the noisest part of my tank. if you like vertex look at their CR it has worked great for me.

[jonasramus]

FINALLY! Wainscoting is completely done. Fully painted, trim details, everything.

The tank will sit about 4' in front of the piano there.




Now, I was thinking about making the frame for the stand next, but I decided that I needed to soak my BRS reefsaver rock for a while to try to leach out as many phosphates as possible, and so my next build is going to be the mixing station for the garage. I'm not sure if I'll get this started next weekend or not. We'll see.

[Chappy]

Tagging along. I just set up a peninsula also. I'm to the hardest part for me and that is the canopy and stand (the pretty part). I now have water flowing.

I think you have a pretty good idea of what you need. I don't see anything I would change yet.

Hope the wife still likes you when it is done, lol. Mine is getting impatient about the look of unfinished "stuff".

[jonasramus]

Next update is due.

I did not get two full days to work on the tank as I had wanted. Yesterday, my wife and I went to Sea World with our daughter, and so I lost a build day.

Today, I rolled up my sleeves and tried to get the entire mixing station done. I fell short of that goal but made some decent progress, completing the stand and dry fitting all the plumbing except the clear tubes.

The whole system (Freshwater on top, filled from RODI with a float shut off valve, saltwater mixing tank on the bottom. Both tanks have a clear tube which is plumbed to display the volume of water in each tank.)


Close up of the freshwater tank plumbing. There is a union to enable me to remove the tank for maintenance, and a true union ball valve for a freshwater hose. The bottom bulkhead has an elbow plumbed on the inside, turned down to siphon water from the very bottom of the tank.


Close up of the saltwater tank plumbing. It is nearly the same, except there is another ball valve coming from the freshwater tank to turn off and on the filling of the saltwater tank.


Sometime this week, I hope I have time to hook up the RODI filter, which will be mounted to the side of the stand. I will drill a small hole in the wall into the laundry room on the other side of the wall to supply water to the RODI filter.

I severely overbuilt the stand to ensure I have no issues. Each shelf is a 24"x24" frame of 2x4's with a cross beam and 1/2" plywood on top. Waterproof wood glue and counter-sunk all-weather screws. The two shelves are dado'd and glued into the 2x4's taking the weight off of the screws and transferring it directly into the vertical dimension of the four 2x4 posts. The stand will be treated with a waterproof finish to prevent water damage if it gets a little wet.

Here's a shot of the underside of the top shelf. Note that each post is carrying two sides of the top.

[jonasramus]

Well, the tank and sump are on order for delivery on 11-17. I have three weekends to complete the stand frame. That should be easy enough. I tweaked the stand design a bit since I last showed the sketchup shot. Photos coming.

I also hooked up the RODI filter last night, and I will glue the plumbing this morning for the storage tanks.

[jonasramus]

You know, I've been wondering whether people prefer to see thumbnail photos in posts (that they can click to see in more detail) or whether people would rather the full sized photo be imbedded into the message. I'm going to switch it up in my next post. Let me know what you folks think.

So, here is the new stand design. The end is now completely open. I decided that 2x8s out beyond the tank were not doing anything to support the tank, and were just going to be in the way when trying to work in the sump.


From underneath, here is a shot of all the cross bracing, which has been dadoed into the side rails.


Here is a shot of the tank and sump on/in the stand.


And just in case anyone wants to pay me royalties ( ) for the stand, here is an exploded view of the stand showing how it is constructed.

[dave.m]

Personally, I prefer full images on a thread. Many of the network image services can be a bit slow from time to time, but none of them is as slow as the RC servers offering up full size images from thumbnails.

Dave.M

[jonasramus]

Ok guys and gals,

All my equipment is now on order or already here. Here is an updated equipment list with links to the pages from whom I bought the equipment. Perhaps the links will be helpful for those in the future who may be interested in sourcing some of the same equipment I chose.

Display Tank: GlassCages 240 gallon 6' long
Sump Tank: GlassCages 65 gallon tank
Skimmer: Bubble King Supermarin 200 (The Vertex Alpha 250 has not been for sale by any online retailers I feel comfortable with, and so I elected to go with an upgrade.)
Heaters: 2 of ViaAqua 200W titanium heaters. I live in Florida and don't believe I will need a lot of heat wattage.
Rock: 300 lbs of BRS ReefSaver Rock
Sand: CarbiSea argonite sand 1-2mm grains, 80lbs (enough for 1" layer in my tank)
Salt Mix: 1 bucket of Instant Ocean Reef Crystals from my local fish store
Lights: 3 of Ecotech Radions
Sump pump: Reef Octopus Waterblaster HY5000
Powerheads: 2 of Ecotech M60
Media Reactors: 2 of BRS Jumbo reactors (one for carbon and one for GFO)
Carbon: BRS Bulk Premium ROX
GFO: BRS High Capacity GFO
RODI Filter: BRS 5 Stage Plus System (which includes flush kit, dual inline TDS meter, and pressure gage)
Aquarium controller: Neptune APEX controller
Filter Socks: 8 of BRS 7" felt filter sock with plastic ring
Filter Sock Mount: BRS mount for 7" socks
Autotop off: Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155

[jonasramus]

Well, I've not done a very good job keeping this thread up to date. Here are some "recent" developments...

Mixing station completed
- RODI hooked up, with electrical box with switches for heater and mixing pump. (Note how orange my sediment filter is after making only 120 gallons of RODI water!)


Clear hoses hooked up showing water level inside the barrels. The water level indicator on the saltwater tub is marked with 5 gallon increments for helping me figure out how much salt to add. The hoses reach into the house.


Hose reaching into the house and into a tub mounted on a cart.



Curing of base rock while I waited for delivery of my tank on 11/17.



One chunk of squid as my biological seed.



The stand frame.

A shot from the window looking at the room.


A shot from the other side.


A shot of the open side where the cabinet will extend out from the wall.


The stand is crazy rigid, as I suppose it needs to be. I'm quite proud of the end result. I aimed for a stand that is 32" tall, precisely square, and exactly 1/8" longer and wider than the actual tank. I hit those marks solidly.

As I look at it, I'm spanning a 6' distance with 2x8s, and I'm really pleased I can have that much access to the sump area without vertical supports in my way.