Stace's 290 g build

Stacef

Well-Known Member
After 6 years of being out of the hobby, we are back. We were still technically newbies when we left previously, our last reef is in my signature.

Now we bought a 290 gallon acrylic hex flat back tank. It is scratched, will need buffed.

We will be looking for advice, documenting, and sharing our errors in here for others to learn from.

We have the tank "rough draft" ideas together. The only two key equipment we have our thumb on so far is the lighting and sump. Your input is appreciated, good or bad!

We are buying 3 Ecotech Radion xr30w LED fixtures for this bad boy.

For the skimmer we are going with the ETSS 1400. Rated for up to 800 gallons.

Stay tuned for buffing, build in, sump build, sump room build, screw ups, frame building, and much more over the next long months. Did I mention the rest of our house is under full renovation? We need to finish a part of it before the tanks a priority.
 

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Stacef

Well-Known Member
Looking forward to this build. And yes we love pictures here
:camera:
Thanks Ox! I love sharing pics as much as you guys like viewing. We (Husband Jeremy) and I will be posting step by step pics along the way of each step of this build. The tank gets delivered to our house in a few weeks - we cannot wait! I bet it's 6 months before the tank is able to be in the wall and have water added. But, we're here to share our story along the way!
 

Stacef

Well-Known Member
A lot happens in a day. We woke up this morning thinking this tank will be an easy 6 months before it's up and going. Now, it's 7:30 PM, and we have now purchased 300 lbs of LR - :celebrate:. A previous member of RS is getting out of the hobby, we're buying her established LR, picking it up in 3 weeks.

We'll be storing LR in 55 gallon brute garbage cans, no lights, with a heater, and power head. Are we missing anything for 'storing' LR that won't hurt it? Need your guys' advice on this one. Storing because tank stand needs to be built, tank buffered, and wall cut out for the tank. Probably 30-45 days in storage realistically, if not more.

Before we bring home the LR to the brutes, we will need to have mixed SW to temp,

Next thing: She has 200 lbs of established sand, if I remember correctly - stick to new sand, not used? What's your opinion on this?:ofr:
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
Sure some others can advise on storing the LR, your plan sounds solid to me - I think you are very wise to re-start the tank with new sand... a good aragonite sand !

See what others think...

Congrats on the new tank !
 

Stacef

Well-Known Member
Sure some others can advise on storing the LR, your plan sounds solid to me - I think you are very wise to re-start the tank with new sand... a good aragonite sand !

See what others think...

Congrats on the new tank !
Thanks Nano! Can't wait to have everything started. We are picking up our skimmer tomorrow, one step closer. Pics to come once we pick it up. Skimmer is 4' tall, everything on such a large scale and I LOVE it.
 

Stacef

Well-Known Member
We are in need of input on:

Advice and suggestions on brands, specs, anything else. We are going for most cost effective to operate, which I understand typically means up front cost to invest.

Best heater: Thinking 1000 Watts - DT 390g, sump 55-125g.
Best R/O Units: No idea where to start here, will take anyone's input.
Power heads: We're starting with 'cheap' PH's for a bit, then moving to a programmable once up and running.
Return Pump: Thinking 2000 gallons per hour.
 

Mandy11

Active Member
We are in need of input on:

Advice and suggestions on brands, specs, anything else. We are going for most cost effective to operate, which I understand typically means up front cost to invest.

Best heater: Thinking 1000 Watts - DT 390g, sump 55-125g.
Best R/O Units: No idea where to start here, will take anyone's input.
Power heads: We're starting with 'cheap' PH's for a bit, then moving to a programmable once up and running.
Return Pump: Thinking 2000 gallons per hour.

Hi ya.

Heaters, i have always been told to run 2 heaters plugged into 2 different power boards, so if one heater blows or takes out a power board you will still have heat.

We currently run 2 x 300w (so up to 3000lts each) Eheim Jager

We also use an STC controller with a .02 degree variance setting. It has saves us a lot with respect to power bills, as the thermostats in all heaters are quite touchy and often the heaters used to remain on to long. The STC controller overrides the internal thermostat and keeps the tank at a much more consistent temp using a lot less power.
They are not expensive to purchase and well worth the extra money.

Return pump

When purchasing a return pump, we looked at the Watts very carefully, because running costs add up.
We ended up purchasing a Laguna 7600. Which in our Australian language does 7600ltr/hr and only uses 75w. One reason we purchased besides the low wattage was the safety feature that if it senses it is running dry it will auto turn off until water level corrected.
We also purchased a slightly larger one so we could T-Off the return lines to run our UV and reactors. once again saving running another 2 pumps. (saving a further 80w running 24/7.
So purchase something that is bigger than what your after and it saves running seperate pumps for just about anything. Reactors, UV;s even your skimmer.

Power heads
To be honest power heads are not something I would go cheap on to start with.
Internal tank flow is something that is just as / if not more important that the return flow.
So if you can seriously consider spending the money on good quality power heads
EG Tunze . It is def worth your while.

RO
I dont know what brands you have over there, but we chose a 4 stage RODI not just at 3 stage RO system.
The resin in the last stage 4 of the unit gives you a much better quality of water, of course this depends on your water quality to start with, ours is really bad. so just an RO would not have been sufficient.

Have you considered a Skimmer yet ?

Or Auto top up unit ? RODI storage ?

Hope this helps you a little bit.
Really looking forward to watching this build.
IMG_0490.JPG
 

Stacef

Well-Known Member
So much information! Thank you.

The skimmer we bought is ETSS 1400. It's an external skimmer rated for up to 800 gallons.

We will be running auto top off with the RODI.

You are right on the PHs. I will start researching them. The ones we want are quite pricey, $400 each, so when I said cheaper I'm thinking like the Koralia 4's - cheap, but we know they work well, had them on the last tank. I'll check out the tunze PHs. I remember those being a good name as well.

Your return pump is only 75 watts? Nice. And auto shut off of running dry, I'm on the hunt for comparable for us now.

We want this tank to be as automated as possible, we will see how successful we are with that!
 

Stacef

Well-Known Member
We picked up our skimmer today, ETSS 1400, return pump, skimmer pump, and a UV sterilizer. We went with a monster UV sterilizer. We're doing a tang dominant tank, we want to nip any Ich problems as fast as possible.

Now we just need to start mapping out the plumbing and sump. This will be fun!

Calcium reactors. What are your thoughts? Yay or nay if you had the resources to buy one?
 

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Stacef

Well-Known Member
Alright! Here are the sump plans, all and any advice welcome. Please let us know your thoughts.
 

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Stacef

Well-Known Member
Progress - Let the sump room construction begin! The DT will be going in the wall where the 'outline' of boards are on the floor. The area where the dogs are laying will be the sump room. This used to be a bar with a peninsula. The house hasn't been touched with any updates since the 80's, we just purchased it, so might as well make it custom to what we need for a tank now!

Sump plans - Check
Apex controller ordered - Check
Radion xr30w Pro (X3) ordered - Check
424 lbs of Live rock (free) - Check (Drying this out, covered with algae and unknowns)
Tank delivery scheduled for Nov. 7 - Check
Picking up 300 lbs of (good) live rock this Sunday - Check
Bought mixing tank, ATO tank, 2 QT's today - CheckTank.JPG
 
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