270 gal light lps tank

[Dneitzelt]

This is going to be my build thread. I am (slowly) building a reef tank for my living room. I apologize if this thread becomes very chaotic as I have never done this before.

Let's start with the tank, my original tank was a 240 gallon glass 96x24x24 tank. Unfortunately after removing my freshwater fish and supplies, I moved the tank to my garage for a short time. When I began planning for a reef tank, I had filled my glass aquarium with water to make sure none of the seals had gone bad. Sure enough about 90% full, the whole back cracked. So I decided to go with an acrylic 72x24x36 tank.

My wife is cleaning out the sand from inside the tank i then fill the tank to make sure there were no leaks in my new acrylic tank. Then I went onto planning my base and hood. Since this is going in the living room my wife picked out a design off Pinterest. I am using this idea as a guideline, mine will be similar but much larger.

Any help throughout this project will be greatly appreciated as I will have many questions about the different products that is offered throughout this hobby.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Day 1:
Today I begin construction on the base. It was mainly constructed with 2 x 2's and 4 x 4's with three-quarter inch plywood on the top and bottom rack.


my father helping me
3 basic frames to begin
frames tacked together
frames place and braced with liquid nails and lots of braces
the section not covered by plywood actually slides underneath my marble countertops in my living room which give me another foot of space underneath the tank.
Here you can see the final placement of my tanks base, it's tucked in nicely underneath my countertop. Disregard the legos hahah



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Day 2: we began the posterior frame along with the hood
beginning of the hood
posterior vertical section
both together but upside down

I plan put in the tank and everything together next weekend unless I have free time during the week


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Can a mod move this to the proper section? If I am not in it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

I'm going to clean my dry rock, is there a good way to do this, I would prefer her not having a lot of hitchhikers in my tank


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Both the bottom, side, and top complete

Have started to remove the scratches from the inside


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Sanding out the deep scratches and beginning the buff process



Still a bit hazy going to hit it with a cotton buff pad to remove any chemical Hayes left over by novus products






I have a controller and two pumps with this


2 aqua Sanrise R90


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Very hard to take a picture of but there are small micro bubbles on the inside of the seams and small looks like stress fractures on the outside

Anything I should worry about


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BANANAHANDS]

Looking good!

[FireReeferSteve]

Bubbles not so much but any cracks I would be concerned. Either reseal them yourself or have someone do it for ya.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

They are super small cracks. Thickness of a fingernail


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Cut new larger bulk head holes, the middle one was the original size, 1 1/2. They 2 side holes are 2" 3/8 now for my schedule 80 1 1/2" bulk heads



First sump build. Will do my next one completely different.
From left to right; refugium, return pump, skimmer, drain pipe area/ mechanical filtration


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Is the return pump area too small? It's marked by lasagna


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cincyjim]

At first glance I would say you are good but if I was you I would find the return pump you are going to use and verify the measurements accordingly.

[Dneitzelt]

I'm using the ecotech L1, it fits well


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jenkinscrew2578]

Originally Posted by Dneitzelt

Is the return pump area too small? It's marked by lasagna


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Should be good as long as you have an ATO and the sensor is in that chamber.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

I'm going to be using tunze 3155


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Originally Posted by Dneitzelt

I'm going to be using tunze 3155


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From what I have read, this has decent reviews


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Moto_fish]

Also from queen creek, have a 190G currently cycling! Will definitely be following along. Let me know if you need help lifting anything.

[Dneitzelt]

Originally Posted by Moto_fish

Also from queen creek, have a 190G currently cycling! Will definitely be following along. Let me know if you need help lifting anything.

Right on man! 5 days too late haha! Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Dry fitted all the plumbing. Started to glue together.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Update: so I measured twice, cut all the pipe, but mistakes happen. I was short on the return pipe. Miss calculated my pump height. Slowly but Shirley I'm getting everything together.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dneitzelt]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LuizW13]

Looking forward to to seeing this in the next several weeks!

[Dneitzelt]

I also install my 6 stage R/O D/I and my mixing station.


I'll have to buy another brute trash can, and maybe make a cart with my pump for water changes and moving ro water.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk