Nick's 345G Build

The challenge now is hooking up the frag tank and transfer the running equipment to the sump. This will leave me the Rubbermaid free to make water to fill the DT.
I cheated. Started curing rocks in early January and put up the frag tank in June and started to collect corals.


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Coming along nicely! Agreed on the bulkhead... ABS is okay as long as you anchor the pipes connecting to it and the pipe weight is not putting lot of pressure on it. But the schedule 80 is just solid.

Do you plan on running miracle mud or other refug substrate for the DSB, or just regular aragonite sand?
 
I’m not sure. I have a bunch of Oolite sand though. But everytime I do that, I end up dumping it out within 3 months.
 
What sand are you using for the display, special grade?

How many lbs of rocks is going in? Did you just add bottled bac to it after the long bath in the rubbermaid?
 
Sand will be a mixture of Oolite on the bottom and a Special Grade on the top.
I'm not sure how many pounds of rocks I have but it was the rocks from my last tank with footprint of 72x"48". New tank footprint is 84"x34" so the surface area is less on the new tank even though it's taller. Should be enough.
I'm not a fan of adding anything bottled. My plan is get the running frag tank hooked up to the sump with existing water from the rubbermaid. Move some rocks into the sump but still have the rocks in the rubbermaid. Fill the rubbermaid up with new water, two 60G drums, and use them to fill up the Display. In theory, if all goes well, the final system will just see "more added water" and sand. I'm not expecting a cycle but I do have to be careful about it.
 
Some progress. Mainly, the major work on the tank is finished. I can safely say that I can take a 3 weeks vacation comfortably. Just make sure I have the autofeeder filled up and my ATO filled up.

The major work can be seen here. Everything is in except for my dual channel head for the other Masterflex for continuous waterchange. I also want to stabilize the water parameters a little longer before turning on the continuous waterchange.

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Everything has been transferred from the frag/temporary tank and more fish added. Lots of fish. I don't advise anyone doing what I did.
Next step is to cover up the stand and the side of the tank. I need to let my credit card cools off bit. Lol
Working from home is very dangerous to the wallet.


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Everything!
Beside the basic heaters, the most important is to shut off sh** when stuff is not in the right place. ie. Turn off skimmer when skimmer cup is full and about to overflow. Turn off return pump if display tank is about to overflow. Send emails to me when temps are out of the extreme operating limit. Send me emails when any of the above events is occurring.
Remote access is key.
 
Winter mode sump with cover. Will have insulation foam around it as well if needed.
that’s a good idea. My basement is pretty chill in the winter, I used to lager beers down there. Insulating the sump would help the tank keep temp.
 
Paul,
The acrylic canopy was a last minute add-on to my Advanced Acrylic order on the sump. Long story short, he took forever to complete the sump and as a result, he liked to either refund some money back or store credit. I told him I see the money as money already spent, I don't want it back but can you make me something quick that will block out the light? And this was the result. I wasn't sure how it was going to work or how I would mount the lights onto it or hang it. But I thought since it's acrylic, I can custom drilled what I need afterward. Turned out to be okay. It wasn't free, I did apply the credit towards it.

When the shipment arrived, the canopy was broken on the truck. I either had to accept everything in the shipment or send everything back. I waited 6 months for the sump and I just got the tank in place ready to be plumbed in. So that's why you see another canopy in the background.
The broken canopy was a blessing in disguise. He called me at 11pm and we were sketching out ideas at around 11:30 to midnight. I gave him the dimension of the tank as the canopy. As a result, the first canopy made was monstrously big and heavy and unnecessary. It probably wouldn't look aesthetically pleasing either as it's too much above the tank. We shrunk a foot in both dimension and made the vent holes smaller to make it stronger. It came out to be perfect the second time around.

My original plan for the light fixture was a 60" Giesmann Stellar with 4 Radions G5. Now, it sits in the dark in the basement. I need to unassemble it put it back in the box.
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