Rea17
Well-known member
Well, I finally decided it's time to start the build thread! I keep waiting until we get a little farther along so I have pictures to share, but I figure we'll get to that later.
Right now I'm running a 210 gallon mixed reef, my fish have grown, and I found myself overstocked! I love my fish too much to downsize, so I decided it's time to go bigger. Our original plans were to build a 10' long in wall tank in the living room, but due to time and money constraints... we decided to wait on the giant tank until we move to our next house 5-10 years down the road (THAT will be a build thread worth reading). After a lot of deliberation... we chose to buy a "complete" setup thinking it would be cheaper than trying to piece something together. That may have backfired, but that's another story.
The new tank is a custom built starphire glass 8'x4'x32" with a plywood bottom, covered with a high quality laminate and sealed. It is a peninsula setup, fits perfectly in the middle of our living room... except for a few adjustments we are going to have to make to the canopy! It's about 2 inches too tall :doh:. My husband assures me it won't be that big of a deal, it's just something else we need to get to. We have spent the last couple of weekends building a sump room in the garage. Our tank came with a 100g custom sump that we plan to feed the skimmers/Ca reactor/Phosban reactor/etc out of, and we are going to use a 150g rubbermaid stock tank as refugium space. The current project is electricity. My husband has mounted an electrical panel for the room, run armored conduit for lighting, and now we are working on installing electrical boxes! I have been instructed to go around with a sharpie and draw on the wall EVERYWHERE I want outlets - maybe he shouldn't have done that:loco:
While he works on that - I'm arranging my 270lbs of Pukani from Bulk Reef Supply trying to get an idea of the aquascape I want to achieve. They sent me 10 huge pieces, not exactly what I expected! I may need to order more in order to add some complexity to my scape (arches, spires, etc) with epoxy and acrylic rod. This time I will request smaller pieces. Before I can actually put my rock in the tank, I need to get in there and attempt to mask some scratches. Sadly, I didn't see them until we got the tank home, but there are some GOUGES in the sides (tank was used). I've read about the clear nail polish trick online, and it definitely makes them less visible. I'm hoping with water in the tank they will be less noticeable.
As far as our equipment plan goes, we will have a hammerhead return pump, Vortech mp60s, LED lighting (thinking the reefbreeders photon32 x4?, read very good things, and we are on a budget!), Phosban reactor 550, dual stage MRC CA reactor, 5 stage RO unit, and a choice of skimmers! Luckily I have 3 big ones to choose from, and I may run more than one
Here are a couple pictures - this is the tank just after we got it home followed by my rock on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood I'm using as a tank template.
Once we get farther along I will get some more interesting/better quality pictures up! If you guys are interested, I will also include my current stock list along with possible additions. I'm planning to use my current 210g as a quarantine for the time being.
Right now I'm running a 210 gallon mixed reef, my fish have grown, and I found myself overstocked! I love my fish too much to downsize, so I decided it's time to go bigger. Our original plans were to build a 10' long in wall tank in the living room, but due to time and money constraints... we decided to wait on the giant tank until we move to our next house 5-10 years down the road (THAT will be a build thread worth reading). After a lot of deliberation... we chose to buy a "complete" setup thinking it would be cheaper than trying to piece something together. That may have backfired, but that's another story.
The new tank is a custom built starphire glass 8'x4'x32" with a plywood bottom, covered with a high quality laminate and sealed. It is a peninsula setup, fits perfectly in the middle of our living room... except for a few adjustments we are going to have to make to the canopy! It's about 2 inches too tall :doh:. My husband assures me it won't be that big of a deal, it's just something else we need to get to. We have spent the last couple of weekends building a sump room in the garage. Our tank came with a 100g custom sump that we plan to feed the skimmers/Ca reactor/Phosban reactor/etc out of, and we are going to use a 150g rubbermaid stock tank as refugium space. The current project is electricity. My husband has mounted an electrical panel for the room, run armored conduit for lighting, and now we are working on installing electrical boxes! I have been instructed to go around with a sharpie and draw on the wall EVERYWHERE I want outlets - maybe he shouldn't have done that:loco:
While he works on that - I'm arranging my 270lbs of Pukani from Bulk Reef Supply trying to get an idea of the aquascape I want to achieve. They sent me 10 huge pieces, not exactly what I expected! I may need to order more in order to add some complexity to my scape (arches, spires, etc) with epoxy and acrylic rod. This time I will request smaller pieces. Before I can actually put my rock in the tank, I need to get in there and attempt to mask some scratches. Sadly, I didn't see them until we got the tank home, but there are some GOUGES in the sides (tank was used). I've read about the clear nail polish trick online, and it definitely makes them less visible. I'm hoping with water in the tank they will be less noticeable.
As far as our equipment plan goes, we will have a hammerhead return pump, Vortech mp60s, LED lighting (thinking the reefbreeders photon32 x4?, read very good things, and we are on a budget!), Phosban reactor 550, dual stage MRC CA reactor, 5 stage RO unit, and a choice of skimmers! Luckily I have 3 big ones to choose from, and I may run more than one
Here are a couple pictures - this is the tank just after we got it home followed by my rock on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood I'm using as a tank template.
Once we get farther along I will get some more interesting/better quality pictures up! If you guys are interested, I will also include my current stock list along with possible additions. I'm planning to use my current 210g as a quarantine for the time being.
