225 GALLON (slow) TANK BUILD

Yes Ken, I’m turning my garage into a fish room with heat and AC in it as well. The wife don’t want me to put the big tank in the house. It will take too much room in the house in her eyes. So, she suggest to clear the garage and put the tank there and turn it into fish room/mancave. Which I wouldn’t dare to turn it down. Tank and everything is ready to go just need a place to put it.

That’s a good wife there YahoO

26 Dec 2012 225g (slow) Tank Build Update:

It has been a long time coming waiting for this fish room/man cave to get done. The room was officially done on the 23rd with water storage and mixing station ready to go. The tank and the 75 gal sump are going through a leak test again.

Couple of month ago I did a un-think/unimaginable to the 225 gal when I was trying to get it up on the stand. There was three of us pushing/pulling the tank and trying to figure out how to get the tank up on the stand. We’ve picked up the tank and set it on the wooden block so that we can get our fingers underneath it. Then it happened! My stupid self, I pull the tank towards me not knowing that the tank will fall off the block from the inside lip of the frame and slam the tank on the wooden block and crack the bottom piece of the tank, a good size crack I might add.

At that point I was thinking if I should cry like a baby and let the other two guy see/think of what kind of a man I am or take it like a man and live up to my mistake. Tears were almost running from my eyes, but I held it in and curse up the storm. Also, luckily it was not tempered to where it would shatter the whole piece of the bottom glass. Couple of days later I got 4 piece of ¼” thick cut to size to where I can lay it on the bottom to be able to support the cracked glass.

I sprayed the crack with silicone to seal it. Then lay a 1” foam core to support the new glass. I then use industrial strength silicone (GE SCS1200) with high tensile strength to fill in the gap and silicone the new bottom for the tank. With the leak test going for a few days now, so far so good and no leak anywhere to be seen.

I know most people would not keep a broken/cracked fish tank but, it would be too much of a hassle to take it off the stand and risk the whole tank broken. Also, finding a replacement and go through the pain and suffering of trying to get it in the house and get it on the stand.



Looks good, nice job on the repair. YahoO

When is the water going to become salty???

wow A. sorry to hear about u almost crying, but at least there’s a way around the situation. looks great, w/tons of possibilities and ease of maintenance. best of luck!

Ya know A - I was watching that god-awful fish tank related show yesterday on Animal Planet and it dawned on me, “At least I’m not the only one that has issues when setting up a new tank - even “professionals” make mistakes occasionally”. Glad oyu found a way to fix it - you’re amuch braver man than I am. That’s a lot of weight from water, sand, and rock to be pushing down on a repair I made myself. I’m glad you have more confidence in your handy-man abilities than I do.

Set-up looks really nice, can’t wait to see it full of life.

Thanks guys, I can’t wait and it’s coming along nicely ::thumbsup::. I’m planning on cleaning and draining the tanks this weekend. Meanwhile the RO/DI unit is going on full blast. So, we’ll probably see salt by next weekend that’s if there’s no other honey do list left to be done verdict_in.

Craig, believe me I have that bottom glass shim/brace with several 2x4 and x6 tight fit to where that tank bottom will not move at all. I believe it will be OK. By the way I was watching that awful show as well.

I’m glad you overcame the problem, and are back to making progress ::thumbsup::

and btw… you could have cried like a baby, soiled your pants, and started sucking your thumb in the corner when the tank cracked … without any of us holding it against you… ::rofl::

maybe it’ll all go smooth from here, now that you got a disaster out of the way ::thinking::

Lookin nice A! Can’t wait to see it stocked!

lookin good A, good luck with the rest of the build. Can’t wait!!!

17 Jan 2013 225g (slow) Tank Build Update:

Next step in the build are finally done. The sump, refugium, frag tank with stand and the most important, PLUMBING. No major leak, only little leaks are at the bulkheads. Need to tighten them a little bit more, I guess. Are there tricks to keeping them sealed? I don’t want to tighten too tight to where it will break.

Did the bean animal style overflow, it works great. Once I got everything adjusted the only thing I hear is the damn noisy MAG 24 pump. Anyone has any suggestions to a better/quieter internal pump that can push 2400 gph? Did the power outage test and it went very well as well, very little water return back to the sump. Power it back up and got a little nervous when the flash of water went over the overflow, I thought it was gonna overflow over the tank but, all 3 pipes did it job perfectly. It kept the water in the tank and drain very well once it did its final purge. It went to through about 4 purges before it went to full siphon.

Next step aquascap! Can’t wait. Maybe start this weekend.

Any comments or suggestions on the plumbing or the build, please let me know.

Here’s some pics:

Good clean work A, looks great. I think your sump is as big as my display tank, lol (90g). I don’t have any experience with the MAG pumps yet, but I hope you’re able to find a solution that quiets it. What is your plan for all the “T” fittings daisy chained together? Dosing?

Hey A!
How is the Mag 24 plumbed in? is it hard piped and sitting on the glass sump bottom or is the discharge attached to a flex hose? you can try setting the motor on a stack of dissimilar density poly pads and matts to dampen the vibration to the glass tank. I do that with some air pumps on the pantry shelf. works great. or perhaps make a matt of vinyl tubing for the motor to sit on. you know, soft stuff to dampen the transmistion of vibrations.

What do you think?
Ehh?

Thanks guys. It took me a while to figured out what I wanted to do and how to do with the plumbing. I tried to make it as simple as posible with out all the complications. I think its working out well.

[quote=“Faralon, post:112, topic:5327”]
Good clean work A, looks great. I think your sump is as big as my display tank, lol (90g). I don’t have any experience with the MAG pumps yet, but I hope you’re able to find a solution that quiets it. What is your plan for all the “T” fittings daisy chained together? Dosing?[/quote]

LOL Rob. The sump is 75g and those manifold are for the TLF reactors that I will be installing for what ever I need to use…ie carbon, GFO or what ever up to 5.

[quote=“kaptken, post:113, topic:5327”]
Hey A!
How is the Mag 24 plumbed in? is it hard piped and sitting on the glass sump bottom or is the discharge attached to a flex hose? you can try setting the motor on a stack of dissimilar density poly pads and matts to dampen the vibration to the glass tank. I do that with some air pumps on the pantry shelf. works great. or perhaps make a matt of vinyl tubing for the motor to sit on. you know, soft stuff to dampen the transmistion of vibrations.

What do you think?
Ehh? [/quote]

It is hard plumbed Ken. And I do have soft rubber doughnut as in rubber gasket for a sink underneath it. Its not really touching anything. I just silicone it to the pump and it just sitting on top of the rubber gasket. It does make a little noise from the vibration but, the major noise is from the pump it self. Didn’t think that pump was gonna be that loud.

::thumbsup:: sounds like you’re happy A, and things are rolling along smoothly except for a noisy pump verdict_in
A, sometimes the bigger pumps will quiet down with more head pressure… at least when i was plumbing a 1 1/2 hp pool pump that was the case. Does your noise level change at all if you restrict the flow ( not permanately, but just to see ?) Just a thought, but i know the mag 9.5 i had years ago was loud as hell no matter what i did verdict_in

looks great though, professional looking work ::thumbsup::

have fun aquascaping… can’t wait to see it!

I think you’re right John. Maybe once I have all the valve open to all the T-off that I have it hook up to the sound may settle a little. Right now its kinnda restrictive and so much flow in the tank.

The pump is kinnda over kill but, I wanted to be powerful enough to be able to use the T-off and power my refugium, frag tank, the 5 port manifold and of course the 3 return ports into the tank. I think we’ll be OK.

23 Jan 2013 225g (slow) Tank Build Update:

One more inch towards completion. I got the hard part done with the rock islands. Had to drill the rocks and put the fiberglass rod through to be able to hang it on the side of the milk crate, arrange the rocks to where it will fit properly. Took most of my weekend to get it done, luckily I didn’t have any honey do list to be done. I was able to put the sand in this evening and first batch of many FSW mix in as well. Got the next batch mixing as we speak and RODI is working overtime to fill the fresh water container.

OK maybe I missed a post (or a page) but what was the reasoning behind attaching the rocks to the milk crate?

Use less rocks and be able to raise it above the sand bed, for the DSB filtration. I will also add the rest of the rocks from the old tank on top the crate to where you will not see the crate at all. And it will look like a large pile of rocks to put corals on. The left side will be smaller piles and also elevated from the DSB. It will look like as it would in a lagoon biotopes.

really nice, A.
i’m following.
drool