new 300 gallon reef tank with fish room setup, need help

[Joe0813]

what smell? very rarely do I get a smell out of my 180. When I had a algae bloom I got that low tide smell but that's it.

[scott11106]

well i have pretty much figured out the room and tank, here is a rendering of what it will look like and how the floor will relate. I ended up going with a 84x24x46 tank so it is pretty deep. The reasons for that are the tank will be half in the wall and half in the living room. this will make it so 20"+ are in the living room giving access to viewing the sides of the tank. the depth will give room to do some creative aquascaping.

i have not shown the cabinetry that will surround the tank on the living room side

[Nugooch]

just my two cents... I know the controller can do it all, but I'm still a fan of having master switches for everything.... you never know when the controller could crash.... I would recommend putting a wall panel in with breaker type switches that could be labeled electrical connections. mount it in the wall and have an little access door to get behind it to plug in items. Heck, you cold run conduits from the tank so all the wires are in the wall.

[scott11106]

i really like that idea so i am going to put together a electrical plan and run wiring and plumbing so it works just like you noted. thanks for the input, i will post electrical plan as soon as i put it together.

[scott11106]

well i am back and things are starting to progress with my new tank build. I purchased 8 acres and the house has come out of the ground and will be dried in next week....woohooo

I have decided to put a all glass starfire 400 gallon tank (just under 400 at 7'x3'x2' tall)

i will take some pictures next week and record the progress as we are lowering the floor for the 13'x8' fish room and will build it around the stand.

[zheka757]

Originally Posted by scott11106

i would like to talk tanks....

who should i buy my 300-400 gallon tank from?

should I get glass or acrylic?

I also have in-wall aquarium (and somewhat fish room) the first aquarium i had was glass it was 96x18x30 (30 tall) bought it used for $300. so i cut my wall out to fit it. had it as fresh water for 3 years. then decided it was very hard to get into 13'' space to work inside aquarium (18''- 5''wall thickness=13'') so i start looking for a new tank 96x30x30 i was looking state wide to get one. the new acrylic was over $3000 the glass was around $1800-2100 luckily i found one for $1700 from the guy who lives 10 minutes away. lol
that was of topic. but to answer your question, look at pros and cons for each one. personally i would prefer glass mainly cause its clearer to see through and doesn't scratch as easy as acrylic.

[rocsec1]

I did the same thing. Built a new house two years ago and had a fish rom built behind where the tank is. I built the room to be a large as I could possible image I would need. It was high when we moved in, but as I started the build I quickly began to run out of space. I should have doubled the size of the fish Ron. The room I have is 8x8 and I could have mage it another 4x 12 and really wish I had did that.

[scott11106]

well here we go, the walls are going in and things are starting to come together. here are some pics of the fish room 2x4's and all

[scott11106]

so i ordered the tank and stand and the stand was delivered, however the tank and stand are 36" wide and wont fit through the door, since i have a tractor i just loaded it up and away we went

[moneymm]

Originally Posted by scott11106

well here we go, the walls are going in and things are starting to come together. here are some pics of the fish room 2x4's and all

looks like you gonna have your hands full with about 100 other things besides a fish tank.

[scott11106]

here is the idea of how the inside of the fish room will be setup.....i will get a bit more detailed over the next week or so..

[mrsixstrings12]

My experience form having my basement sump:

Still need to run an ethernet cable form the basement up to the living room for my Apex. I could never get the wireless adapter to work.

Being so close to a utility sink is SO great. But I DO wish I had a countertop to place things while working on it. I currently use the washing machine (don't tell the fiancee!).

We are pretty good in the noise department, but in the wee hours of the morning, when going to work, I can hear the bumbling of my drain lines into the sump through the central air vents. The bubbling is due to a few things that I overlooked plumbing-wise, but had I fixed that, the tank would be 90% silent; save for the slight trickle of my overflow and non-siphon drain lines.

I do wish I would've accounted for having space for QT tanks and frag tanks.

I ended up ditching my 10g tank ATO reservoir for a large Brute trash can that I intended using for water changes. Its nice filling it once every 2 months and completely forgetting about it.

[scott11106]

here is my first stab at setting up my plumbing for my system. not sure on piping size or placement of all things so please give me any advice.

[scott11106]

next step on the tank...

here is the cad drawing for the plumbing for my 300 gallon aquarium. I am not done but if anyone has any input please let me know as i will be done with the house around february 20th so then the tank will officially need to be setup. the tank is ordered and should be there in 2 weeks. things are getting real

[Hal]

It sounds like you are doing everything right. I'm finishing my third basement equipment room and you've incorporated most of my learnings.

For the tank I'd recommend an external overflow. It frees up wet space for fish and corals. I can't tell from the cad drawing if that is what you have or not?

For a tank that size I'd probably run 1.5 inch plumbing, although Run the numbers on your desired flow rates. You may only want a 1 inch line for your siphon drain. They flow a LOT of water.

And add water sensors on the floor. Loud ones. And preferably ones that will send you a text.

[Hal]

And you don't need two return pumps. You can split a return.

Also it's generally a better idea to have separate drains all the way into your sump. When you combine drains you provide a single point of failure that will create a flood.

[scott11106]

Originally Posted by Hal

It sounds like you are doing everything right. I'm finishing my third basement equipment room and you've incorporated most of my learnings.

For the tank I'd recommend an external overflow. It frees up wet space for fish and corals. I can't tell from the cad drawing if that is what you have or not?

For a tank that size I'd probably run 1.5 inch plumbing, although Run the numbers on your desired flow rates. You may only want a 1 inch line for your siphon drain. They flow a LOT of water.

And add water sensors on the floor. Loud ones. And preferably ones that will send you a text.

thanks for the input, it is always helpful ...
i am running a 20" ghost overflow (external)

the plumbing is 1.5 and the returns are 1" but i will look into that a bit more as i am not sure.

i am running an apex with the water sensors and water flow meters. i am not done with it but here is the next drawing of the plumbing.

i still need to add flow meters and some other items but getting there

[scott11106]

Originally Posted by Hal

And you don't need two return pumps. You can split a return.

Also it's generally a better idea to have separate drains all the way into your sump. When you combine drains you provide a single point of failure that will create a flood.

I am putting the two return pumps in and the varius 8 can be run at lower flow and then i have redundancy, is that not a good idea?

the drain lines are all separate, that was my fault on how i drew it but they run behind each other, all with valves...

please look over the drawing i just posted and let me know your thoughts..

thanks

[scott11106]

also here is what i think the fish room will look like, the big cylindar is two brute cans stacked

[Hal]

The drawing layout looks good to me.

Do you have a good place for your RO unit? Calcium reactor? Gfo/ carbon reactor? Salt storage?

Redundancy is a good thing. Most people can't afford the extra expense. That is all I was going towards.

[scott11106]

here is the newest construction pictures of the fish room/house.

sheetrock is up and things are getting real

[bigdee65]

Looking really good! Who did you end up getting the tank from? I am working on getting back into the hobby after about a 10 years hiatus and am looking for tank builder options.

[scott11106]

Originally Posted by bigdee65

Looking really good! Who did you end up getting the tank from? I am working on getting back into the hobby after about a 10 years hiatus and am looking for tank builder options.

i ended up going with planet aquariums and it takes a bit as the glass in the industry as a whole hs a delay on glass especially if you want ultra clear/starfire but i just got the tank in and it looks great but has no water yet

[scott11106]

check out my updated thread with pics and info

300 gallon reef tank

[scott11106]

did you figure out who you are going to use for making your tank?