Dennis' 250DD Build

[baker89]

Okay so I guess its about time I get this build thread going! I currently have a 110g 60"L,18"W,24"H acrylic tank. I had not even considered upgrading until my buddy Steven (Steven11) asked if I knew anyone looking for a 250 plug and play system. I have always admired his tank and humored taking it off his hands. After consulting with the fiance (Erin) we decided it would allow us to add the laminate floors in the living room and to my surprise it looked like we were going to buy this thing lol. A lot of this tank was put together and built by Steven and a lot of credit should go to him, but I wanted to bring in a couple of elements from my old tank as well. Such as my LED's, my skimmer, and my MP40s.

Floors:
So the plan was to put in laminate floors as close to the "old" tank as we could then move in the new tank. Then we would proceed to finish the floors. After a couple of quotes we decided just to do it ourselves... It was a great learning experience and I'm pretty happy with the results.


The old tank and an idea of how the living room is set up.



Floors! They also continue down the hallway



Now that that's done its time to tear down, clean and move the tank... It looks worse then it is lol






3/8" Starboard from TAP Plastics the overflows were easily cut with a jigsaw. I just used a sharpy attached to a string to draw my corners for the overflow worked out pretty well actually. I've never done BB before, but thought it would be fun to try. I do have a Leopard Wrasse though so I need to come up with a good way to keep him happy. Probably put a little sand in a corner for him that is easily accessible so I can stir it often. I'm sure there will be a couple dead spots that I can keep the sand from blowing around. I siliconed it in as well so nothing gets underneath.

playing with rock...



So now I'm playing with the hood trying to figure out the best way to mount my LEDs, fixing leaks and aquascaping. I thought I had all my leaks, but after about 4 hours the one on the reeflo dart sprung loose... its pretty small, but still there...

Enjoy! I'll have more to come...

Dennis

 

[eww]

Looking good Dennis. You and Erin will have a nice tank once it's up and running. What are the plan for the "old" tank? Are you going to have to buy more lights to cover the additional water area?

 

[Peppie]

Dennis, and Erin,
How exciting for you two.
Your floors look good. I like the choice of color.
Following along on your build. Sounds like the trouble shooting of the leaks is under control.
How much did you pay for your starboard?

 

[baker89]

Looking good Dennis. You and Erin will have a nice tank once it's up and running. What are the plan for the "old" tank? Are you going to have to buy more lights to
cover the additional water area?

The old tank I was thinking of selling it. I would like to mix and match what I have between the 2 tanks and sell it as a whole plug and play unit. I now have 4 400w halides that I can sell with the 110g tank, but I think 400w is kind of overkill... I think this setup is more geared for 2 250w halides. I dont know what do you guys think. 2 400W hallides over a 110g (60"L,18"W,24"H) ACRYLIC tank going to be too much? If so then I would sell lights separately.

Yes I currently run the AI Sol Blues I already had 3 units over the 110 and ordered a 4th for the new tank. I'm going to play that by ear and see if I will need to bump it up to 6 later down the road. I was also thinking of tossing the 70 optics on them to get the coverage I need (they currently have the 40 optics). I need to do a little more research on that though.

Eric I know you have some words of wisdom for me when I start transfering the corals and fish from the 110G to the 250G!!! Here instance...

Did you transfer all your fish first?
If so how long after did you transferred corals?
Did you transfer all your corals at once?
If not how did you light both tanks?
Acclimation?
Did you aquascape with all new rock or use some from old tank?
Say you have a coral that you like that is encrusting on LR you dont like any good ways to get them off?

I have a lot on my mind LOL!


Dennis

 

[baker89]

Dennis, and Erin,
How exciting for you two.
Your floors look good. I like the choice of color.
Following along on your build. Sounds like the trouble shooting of the leaks is under control.
How much did you pay for your starboard?

Thanks for following along guys! To answer your question I think it was about $140 custom cut and delivered to my door for 3/8" Starboard from TAP Plastics.

 

[eww]

I think this setup is more geared for 2 250w halides. I would agree

2 400W hallides over a 110g (60"L,18"W,24"H) ACRYLIC tank going to be too much? My guess is yes it would be too much

Eric I know you have some words of wisdom for me when I start transfering the corals and fish from the 110G to the 250G!!! Here instance...

Did you transfer all your fish first? Yes all the fish went in first but ony 1 or 2 at a time and usually 3-5 days between additons. Not as long as some recommend but more than most give.
If so how long after did you transferred corals? We waited on the corals for a while mainly because we didn't have adequate lighting for them on the 180 at first. They sat in the holding tank in the garage under the same lighting they were under in the old tank
Did you transfer all your corals at once? No. We did the same sort of thing we did with the fish. one or two every 3-5 days.
If not how did you light both tanks? During the fish transfer portion we had some make shift T5 fixtures propped up over the tank just to help promote the diatom and cyano cycles and to give the fish a little light. Then when we were able to borrow a MH fixture from a friend so we were able to start the transfer of coral from the garage holding tank. They did ok with the change and when we finally put the LED's up a couple of months later we did so at very low 10% power and bumped it up 3% per week until we got to 25%.
Acclimation? We just made sure the water params matched from one tank to the other
Did you aquascape with all new rock or use some from old tank? All dead rock that we have killed and let dry for months. We did seed it with a couple of small pieces for a few days from the old tank. I think thats why we got the almost immediate coraline growth we did.
Say you have a coral that you like that is encrusting on LR you dont like any good ways to get them off? Hammer and chisel/screwdriver is all we did. Just be as gentle as you can with those tools. Things don't always come off easily or in one piece but they grow readily once they are happy again.

See above for our answers...

 

[baker89]

Thanks I appreciate the advise I'll probably use the halides to slowly transfer the corals over so I can keep both tanks lit. I bet transferring them from halides to led's then back to halides and finally to led's will be rather stressful on them... HmmmThanks again!Dennis

 

[eww]

The transfer from LED to MH will be no problem. Going the other direction from MH to LED is where you need to be careful. Either keep the corals low and work them up or turn down the intensity on the LED's and slowly acclimate them.

 

[Somethings Fishy]

thats going to be sweet!

 

[seattlereef]

Sounds like a fun project. Can't wait to see it all setup. What are you planning on running underneath.

 

[baker89]

thats going to be sweet!​

I cant wait!

What are you planning on running underneath.

Underneath is about a 75g sump that I will have an octopus 250 extreme, 2x300W heaters, refugium with chaeto and mexicana, Reeflo Dart return pump, calcium reactor, a bunch of probes, Carbon reactor and GFO reactor as need be... hmmm and anything else i muster up lol

Dennis

 

[Aquanaut]

Your gonna love all that real estate. My 250DD is 8 months old, so don't be afaid to come over and pick my brain about the mega move transition. It does help to have plenty of rubbermaid totes w/heaters and small flow pumps to place your prime coral pieces until you can reach the base rock for your move. It will be helpful to use Tsnami ATO device to link both systems for the merging of the waters for "acclimating the new system". Use or make a ball valve pvc hang hook c-clamped to 1" vinyl hose for gravity draning from the old tank to the FILL the expansive sump of the 250. The ATO will activate a RETURN 3/4-1" vinyl hose w/ pump for returning water from the 250 sump to the sump of the old tank. The premise is to allow the mixing of the merging waters in the sump for cycling to the main tanks. So over a period of, say, three days, both systems will be balanced. Plan on buying plenty of salt buckets for making all that RO water.

Have fun!

 

[baker89]

Awesome thanks! I'll defiantly be calling on you guys when I need some help!I'm defiantly in love with the DD it makes it feel like a real reef. I'll be able to have corals on all sides of my rock instead of just on one side.Dennis

 

[baker89]

So here is something I actually did a couple weeks ago. I had a dedicated cercuit put in for the tank. I made a thread about it you can fnd here http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f14/dedicated-circuit-63763/ and got a lot of my questions answered. I ended up just hiring an electrician to come out and do it because I live in a condo and there is no attic or crawl space... On the plus side this giant heavy tank sits right on a slab of concreate! So he had to come in and drill 6" diameter holes in my walls and cealing... It went pretty well we had a few problems fishing wires, but got it done in about 3-4 hours.

2 x 20A cicuit



Giant holes being patched... Theres 8 of these...




This is a picture of the top one, not too bad huh?




All in all it cost me quite a bit of money, but it was totally worth it and I would do it again too.

Dennis

 

[Derbird]

Wow your new tank is stunning. If and when I upgrade I will definatly look in to the deep dimentions. I am looking forward to seeing that baby with water