Reef_Engineer's 300G System Build

[NeverlosT]

Room painted, stand feet supports ready this week, hopefully tank shipping soon.

Picked up some more dead rock and ordered glue from gluemasters, have aragonite sand and going to start making structures soon. Get the method down with dry rock then do it with my live rock while keeping it wet as it goes into the tank.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

View attachment 206556

Room painted, stand feet supports ready this week, hopefully tank shipping soon.

Picked up some more dead rock and ordered glue from gluemasters, have aragonite sand and going to start making structures soon. Get the method down with dry rock then do it with my live rock while keeping it wet as it goes into the tank.

View attachment 206557

I've yet do completely do my rockwork, someday. Just picked up a few too many cases of my other hobby, so now I should be able to focus on the tank again

 

[NeverlosT]

@BiGGiePauls33 Is the other hobby the fireworks??? I have fired a few tomahawk missiles, those are kind of like big fireworks....

Ok, the tank is done and crated! Organizing shipping now, it could be here as soon as next week, we shall see. The tank and crate together weigh 900lbs... yikes

Hard to get a feel for how large it is here. That crate is 84" long and the tank is 32" tall. It is a big one! I cannot wait to have fish swimming around in here.

 

[NeverlosT]

The fun begins…

Shipping the tank cost… more than i want to admit. Sounds like it is about a week out.

I had to do some plumbing to cheer me up.

 

[Reefried]

Looking good. Designing and building the tank is my second favorite thing about this hobby.

 

[NeverlosT]

Tank arrives tomorrow!

I got the stand supports complete. They are 1/2" cold rolled 1018 Steel. Cut, painted, and felt feet installed to protect the floor. These prevent the existing hardwood and underlayment from deforming due to point load of the stand feet. These items accept the weight from the front and back stand feet (3 sets) and spread that load front to back which puts the weight over the joists and with load analysis done, will not deform even under 4000+lbs.

Also, I sorted out where the UV sterilizer will mount (to the stand!) and designed the light bar and ordered it, so hopefully that comes soon.

Lastly, the PVC rods come Friday and glue got here yesterday, so building some cool rock structures begins this weekend. I'll build some with my cooked rock too, but going to start and practice with some dry rock I picked up and rinsed.

 

[NeverlosT]

 

[NeverlosT]

Now to get this monster in the house. Need to wait on the light bar and a bit of plumbing too… soon.

 

[NeverlosT]

Light test complete. Gonna be a bit before these sit over hungry corals but man are they sweet. ATI Straton Pro 204 units.

 

[Chlorinated]

Looking amazing

 

[Ortizdrz]

Lights look great, looked them up and as soon as I seen the price I hit the back real fast and pretended to never have seen anything lol. But they look amazing nonetheless.

 

[NeverlosT]

If you aren’t gluing rocks at 11pm in a thunderstorm and burning your hands with superglue, are you even reefing?

Times i glued my fingers together: a lot.

Ill share the results soon. So the reef will have one dryrock structure and one liverock structure, then lots of liverock in sump and likely a separate cryptic sump.

The single small structure weighs over 100lbs! Yikes. Held together with pvc rods, sand and superglue

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

View attachment 207060

If you aren’t gluing rocks at 11pm in a thunderstorm and burning your hands with superglue, are you even reefing?

Times i glued my fingers together: a lot.

Ill share the results soon. So the reef will have one dryrock structure and one liverock structure, then lots of liverock in sump and likely a separate cryptic sump.

The single small structure weighs over 100lbs! Yikes. Held together with pvc rods, sand and superglue

Put a shirt on damn it, lol.

 

[NeverlosT]

Put a shirt on damn it, lol.

It was roughly 153 degrees and 300% humidity in my garage. I had one on at one point but lost it in the delirious haze of superglue fumes.

Oh, also, i bought this today for lifting the tank onto the stand:

1000lb capacity hydraulic lift table!

Light bar comes this week, got UV built too. Need some 1” check valves and shes ready to go on the stand and see water!

 

[TPhan]

Did u just center the tank on the lift or put something underneath to support the length of the tank then lift it up?

 

[NeverlosT]

Did u just center the tank on the lift or put something underneath to support the length of the tank then lift it up?

You can just center it and lift. I put some dunnage underneath to get the height i need but with nothing in it they are super strong. Plus you have spotters on either side balancing and supporting some weight.

Think of it like if the tank was on the ground and you lifted one end a few inches. It’s less than 1/2 that stress (1/2 the bending moment and like 1/3 the force).

 

[garyl]

You can just center it and lift. I put some dunnage underneath to get the height i need but with nothing in it they are super strong. Plus you have spotters on either side balancing and supporting some weight.

Think of it like if the tank was on the ground and you lifted one end a few inches. It’s less than 1/2 that stress (1/2 the bending moment and like 1/3 the force).

Now all you have to do is trust the lift...

Hopefully, you won't lose any sleep over that.

 

[NeverlosT]

Now all you have to do is trust the lift...

Hopefully, you won't lose any sleep over that.

I've used them before a few times, but you are right, a few test lifts are in order! Maybe ill lift my lawnmower...

 

[garyl]

or a few neighbors...

 

[NeverlosT]

I have 5 other guys coming by at 11 on sunday to move the tank into the room and onto the stand. Hopefully all goes perfectly, I have done the "mock move" a few times using plywood the footprint of the stand and it all fits.

Right now I am working out how to use check valves on a return line that has a UV. I guess the check valve goes above the UV to allow disconnecting the UV down the road. Usually I'd put the check valve low by where the returns exit the sump.

I need to buy more 1" PVC too. There's always something!