My epic journey 215

[buck27]

I wanted to post this thread to document my 215 gallon mixed reef build. This is the day the tank came in. aqueon 215 from GC Reef. February 4 2011

Hope all enjoy.

[buck27]

Once I had the tank it was time for the stand. And what a monster it was. The completed stand requires 4 people to move it effectively. It is constructed out of steele. 1.5"x1.5" square tubing for the 4 corners and 3"x1.5" for the centers. I installed tubing up the back to support a steele canopy.the while project took about 2 weeks of measuring, cutting and welding myself. I then powder coated the entire stand.

[Europhyllia]

Wow what an awesome stand! Will it be open-ended so the sump can slide out?

[buck27]

Once the sump was in its pretty much in there but only because of where I have the tank. It takes up the whole wall.

[Europhyllia]

Yeah same here. I have open ends (but no sliding tray) but since the tank is centered on the wall the sump doesn't really have enough room on either side to come out one way or another.
Still very nice job on a very sturdy stand, buck! :)

[buck27]

Once the stand was completed I was stuck waiting for my rock and sand to arrive from marco rock so I decided to build the sump/fuge myself. I used 1/4" cast acrylic and put a 2" lip around the top to help with reinforcement. The water enters into the sump on the left side where it flows through baffles into the back side into the return section. The skimming takes place in the left side as well. The front half is sectioned off for a 30 gallon refugium.

[buck27]

I decided to drill the tank for a closed loop system which consisted of putting 5 holes in my brand new tank. The drain is 2" which is fed by 4 openings to reduce suction. There are 6 return ports to even out the flow. I chose to go with an ocean motion 4 way and a #4 drum for alternating current. I am using a reeflo snapper hybrid at 3800gph(which I should increase) and plan to soon.

[buck27]

What a nightmare! But it all turned out in the end. On the closed loop drains I used fishing line as my screen and for the refugium since it is in the front of the sump I used a T fitting and ball valve to control flow.

[buck27]

Once the plumbing was complete I decided to do my rock work. The rock I got from marco rocks was cut in half and I siliconed it to the back wall and then used marcos mortar and rubble rock to fill in the gaps. The closed loop plumbing and overflows are covered with pond foam from lowes

[buck27]

Now that the rock work was complete it was time to do the electrical work. I installed three 20 amp breakers in my main box and ran each one to its own switch. I then ran each switch to its own box of 6 outlets. I ran the wires dowd the conduit under the eve of the roof and through the wall into my house and into the stand. Each switch controls its own set of 6 outlets.

[buck27]

once my lights came in it was only a few minutes before I was ready to go. I am currently running three 400 watt 20k radiums on this tank.

[tebstan]

Now that the rock work was complete it was time to do the electrical work. I installed three 20 amp breakers in my main box and ran each one to its own switch. I then ran each switch to its own box of 6 outlets. I ran the wires dowd the conduit under the eve of the roof and through the wall into my house and into the stand. Each switch controls its own set of 6 outlets.

Awesome. :applause:

[buck27]

I currently run an AquaC EV 400 skimmer that is over driven by a Mag drive 24. I also use a diy calcium reactor and a 1/4hp diy chiller I got from a guy in florida for waaaaayyyy less than a name brand chiller and I bet it works better. I am running a 2 bulb t5 fixture on my refugium. Here is a pic of the fuge

[buck27]

Thank you

[buck27]

It was finally time. The wood work is still in progress as we speak but you get the idea. Here is a few photos. Feel fee to ask any questions.

Happy Reefing

[alton]

Nice build, I also like the radium lamps on electronic ballast.

[Europhyllia]

You are fearless!!!

Great job :)

[BSJF]

And talented! I would never be brave enough to do all of that myself.

[buck27]

You never know until you try.

[BSJF]

Just looking at your pics makes my brain and back hurt.

[350gt]

Thats crazy! nice build..

[hobogato]

awesome job, thanks for documenting and sharing with us. i think lots of people would be surprised at what they can do themselves :)

[buck27]

awesome job, thanks for documenting and sharing with us. i think lots of people would be surprised at what they can do themselves :)

I think you are right. I got tired of seeing everyone else do things and I decided to do something about it. What started off as something fairly simple turned into a full blown DIY/adventure that I ended up learning from and enjoying. I plan to build custom sumps and frag racks and such in future. I am even contemplating building my own tank out of 1/2" acrylic but its going to be huge. I want to get over 400 gallons if possible.

[hobogato]

display tanks are a little more tedious to build, but worth it. if you are going that big, you will need to make it thicker than 1/2" tho.

[Scream311]

Wow Buck. Very Nice Work indeed.

As Slick as this Build Looks I'm sure that Monster of a 400+ gallon Tank would look just as Impressive. Look Forward to that Thread.

I could also be a Potential Customer for Order Placement.

[CoryDude]

The electrical run you did from the breaker box to your tank setup is super clean work. Wow, 60 amp capacity, that's awesome!

How did you split your electrical load? Do you have chiller and lights on different circuits? Just wondering how you spread out the equipment.

Will you have a pulley system on the lumenmax reflectors to allow for maintainence? Sorry for so many questions, I'm just really excited to see your build thread.

[BSJF]

So who is jealous that their first tank didn't look like this one?

[Mr Cob]

nice build thread. brave indeed.

[buck27]

The electrical run you did from the breaker box to your tank setup is super clean work. Wow, 60 amp capacity, that's awesome!

How did you split your electrical load? Do you have chiller and lights on different circuits? Just wondering how you spread out the equipment.

Will you have a pulley system on the lumenmax reflectors to allow for maintainence? Sorry for so many questions, I'm just really excited to see your build thread.

first, thank you. the way that I split the electrical is as follows. I installed three 20 amp breakers in my existing box and ran each one to its own light switch on the stand. After that, I ran each switch to its own 6 outlet box on the stand. so you see, one 20 amp breaker will run 6 outlets. I put all my lights on one set of outlets, all my pumps on anther and the misc. equipment on another and I can turn each set of 6 off individually if I need to just by turning the light switch off. simple really but it took a little thought. I run my chiller on the outlets with my skimmer. As for a pully system I did not install one but the thought did cross my mind. However, the lights are 11" off the water and I really haven't had any trouble gaining access but those reflectors are huge which I sort of regret because it left me almost no room for supplementation of actinics or T5's.

[Europhyllia]

20 amp breakers in my existing box
Great minds think alike! I did exactly the same thing with a couple of 20 amp breakers in the box and dedicated just to the aquarium. Never would have thought of this though had I not read Alton's and Firewater's posts.

Looking forward to where this one is going :)

[sotxthumper]

Wow saw this tank the other day buying corals and i could not get over how clean everything was done very good looking tank Josh come build my next tank for me lol

[buck27]

you got it LOL

[buck27]

I think taking my time in the planning stage is what deffinetly helped the most with this build. the sad thing is now that its done I want to do another one lol

[FireWater]

Very nice build indeed.
How did you like the Marco rocks? I am using similar ones from marco for my back wall.

[buck27]

I would deffinetly use marco again. His products are great.

[FireWater]

I was happy with the packaging (each nano sized rock was wrapped in it's own bubble wrap) and ability to ask for specific sizes and types. I am hoping to get my back wall done this weekend so I will put up some pics on my build thread.

[buck27]

yeah mine too. packed nicely and organized. I also ordered something like 250lbs of bahama sand too and it came in boxed 50lbs individually. sand was clean and easy to work with.

[FireWater]

Good to know. Any pics of the sand up close? Anything you can compare it to?

[buck27]

I would say that its comparable to sugar sized granules I suppose but it really doesn't blow around much unless I stir it up. My goby doesn't have any trouble tunneling or anything and its more white than brown really. I am real happy with it actually. Ill try to get a photo of it up this weekend or something.

[allan]

Dang brother, that is super nice!!!

[buck27]

thank you Allan.

firewater, here is a photo of the sand. sorry for the quality as all photos are taken with my phone and the lights were starting to cycle off. If you like I can post another one this weekend.

[FireWater]

Looks interesting. I might order a small amount to see it in person before I buy a bunch of it.

[buck27]

I don't think you will be disappointed.

[buck27]

Next week I will be ordering an Ecotech MP60 and a second MP60 by the end of the month. Assuming all goes well.

[CoryDude]

Have you considered going with multiple mp-40's? Just wondering because I've heard that the 60's are pretty loud. ErikH can tell you about his experience using them.

[buck27]

hmm, I will have to pm him and get some input on the noise. I know I have read about people not spacing the wet and dry side correctly when installing the unit and it causes a humming noise or vibration noise. I mainly wanted them for the amount of water they move and of course the awsome randomness of water movement. I have watched several videos on youtube and other sites and there is no noise coming from them. I will do some more homework before purchasing. Thanks for the heads up CoryDude.

[buck27]

Now that I give it more thought, should I buy 2 mp40's or get the 1 mp60 then a second one later? man these decisions hurt my head lol.

[CoryDude]

If the mp-60's are like the 40's, you'll notice most of the noise during short pulse mode, or as the pump gets older and the washer on the wet side starts to wear.

Personally, I'd go with multiple mp-40's for this reason only. As good as ecotech's are, they go down sometimes. The washer's wear out, a snail gets in the wet side and breaks something, the control boards go bad, etc. I'd rather lose 25% of my water movement (assuming you go with 4 mp-40's) if something like this happens instead of 50 - 100% if one of those mp-60's goes out.

Plus the 60's are just so darn big.

[Kristy]

Hey Josh, just FYI:
We have a 210g (7' x 2' x 2') and have two MP40s at each end and we are very happy with the water movement and the options it gives us. I had not thought about it the way that Cory said it, but it does make sense to me that you'd only be out 1/4 of your total circulation in the event of an issue. We still have not achieved the sort of waving action that Mike had hoped for, but then again we have committed all of about four minutes to playing with that feature, so it might still be achievable. You probably get a wave going when your dog bounds through the house anyhow.... :D

We started with one MP40 at each end and added an MP20 to each end because we already owned them. This worked out very well for us but eventually we upgraded the 20s to 40s when we upgraded to the smart drivers. Never contemplated the 60s bc they didn't exist when we started doing all this and then when they did they just looked SO HUGE and bulky. Also, while you are budgeting for your Vortechs, go ahead and get the battery backup. This is a really smart feature for peace of mind!

Good luck, whatever you decide.

[buck27]

I appreciate all the input guys. I have some thinking to do so maybe 40s are the way to go. I don't know yet but we will see.

[buck27]

I have decided I might not need an mp40 or mp60 at all. I need a bigger pump for my Closed Loop is all LOL. I think it might work.

[SoLiD]

Vortechs have nice flow patterns and the Eco-start controllers have to be one of the best out there but they are loud to the point of annoying me. I plan on using Tunze's controllable 1073.050 pump attached to an Oceans Motions 4way Squirt as the return pump along with 2 Tunze Nano Stream 6055's for internal tank flow. If I can ever find the time I will come over and show you. :)

[buck27]

Sounds good david. I saw that I missed a call the other day from you. I have been pretty busy lately. I might take a look at tunze.

[SoLiD]

Sounds good david. I saw that I missed a call the other day from you. I have been pretty busy lately. I might take a look at tunze.

Tunze's may not look as cool as Vortech's, but Tunze's are dead silent plus all that controllable flow. I wanted 2 6095 pumps but they wont be released until the Fall. I'd like you to put my brand new 6055's in your tank so you can see what they do.

[buck27]

Bring it on man, we can test them out

[buck27]

Ok, so thanks to SoLiD I got to check out the water movement of the Tunze products. I have to say its the most quiet thing I have seen and I like the extra long cord so you can hide it. On another note, I am now over the 300 gallon mark since I added a 40 gallon breeder as a frag tank to my main system. I believe that I now have 335 Gallons total. I will post a pic of it once its finally finished.

[buck27]

New update. i have been running a bio pellet reactor now for a little over three weeks. needless to say, I have begun to notice some of my zoas and palys have not reacted well and begun to close up. I have been doing a little research on Zeovit. I may be going to a full blown zeo system. any comments are welcom.

happy reefing

[buck27]

OK, still doing the biopellet thing but dosing zeovit with it and have been getting great results. Yesterday I also added a brand new Vortech MP40 W ES! all I can say is wow! I may not even need a second one.

[buck27]

UPDATE.......

I have taken 4 pumps off the tank since they were submersible pumps and dumping heat back into my system causing the chiller to run quite a bit. I have removed a Quiet One 4400, Mag Drive 2400, Maxi Jet 1200 and a Iron Might 3500 gph pump. The Iron Might was my return pump, Maxi Jet 1200 for the calcium reactor, Mag Drive 2400 for the skimmer, and the Quiet one for the chiller. I have replaced all of them with the Reeflo Hammerhead. I will post some photos in the next day or so. I have found that so far I am not able to open the returns all the way because of the amout of water output it creates I end up draining my sump before the water can get back into it. LOL, other than that, it works great and the chiller has hardly ran at all. Next is the replacement of the three 400 watt radiums with AI Sol Blue LED's. I will be getting 6 units for the tank but I have to get them one or two at a time due to costs.

[CoryDude]

Well, we just lost another tank to led's. Next time we have our metal halide meeting we will mourn your loss. Your tank was a shimmering example of the benefits of a full spectrum halide bulb. JK (sort of).

Geesh, six units will take a wad of cash.

[buck27]

Oh, come on. Lol. I'm mainly switching to help out my electric bill. Its going to cost roughly 3k for the modules if I don't diy them myself. however, its 300.00 a year in bulbs, 360.00 a year in electricity just for the lights not counting the heat it puts out making my chiller and home a/c run. I figure in about a year or year and a half 6 led modules will pay for themselves lol.

[SoLiD]

There is no such thing as breaking even in this hobby... Always remember that... :wink_smile:

[buck27]

for sure David, however, it makes me feel better LOL

[CoryDude]

Your tank will still look awesome no matter what lighting you go with. I really liked the AI fixtures that Stephen Feb's TOTM used. Removing all those pumps will help reduce the wear on your chiller too.

[buck27]

For sure, now I'm battling a Phosphate, ALK, MAG issue but hopefully that ell be resolved soon enough. I should be getting another package from Matt at Austin Aqua Farms this morning too! Can't wait.