Cliff/Spar's 450g in-wall tank project

Tank is in finally!!! Looks incredible!

We are setting up all the plumbing today, and then the wall will be built next week, so soon I will be ready to add some critters :)

I have decided to take all precautions with this tank and its inhabitants, and have setup a 75g tank for a fish QT where I will do 6-8 week hyposalinity treatments before adding to the display, and also a 46g bowfront coral and invert QT which will do 8 week sit-out periods before adding to the display. So I have quite a lot of time before anything goes in the tank, but will give me time to setup all my gadgets, and let the pods, etc, all get going.

Here are some pictures!
My dog Spar for size reference. He is a big boy.
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Overflow teeth
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Calfo overflow box (one on each of both sides of the tank)
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Still cloudy from the sand, but can see the rock structure. I need to take a top view picture as well. There are 3 large pillars with a 40 pounds marco rock shelf acting as a bridge between the left and center pillar. There will be a lot of room for fish to swim and for coral to branch out.
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Nice! And full of water already!



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No, didn't really get any ammonia. Keep forgetting to check nitrite but will be a few more weeks until anything goes in anyway.

The wall is near completed! Will post an update soon.


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Good looking build going here, also like the idea of Qts for both fish and corals.
How tall is the tank itself? I too have been thinking of going LED but my tank is
31" tall. Where did you buy the lights from?
 
Cliffs Lights are not available directly to the US due to distribution rights issues, I am in Australia and was able to get the lights custom spec'ed for him.

I have been running 3x 120W LED units on a 24" deep tank for 12 months, and they rate the same as 250W high end MH lighting, Cliffs lights should be able to go toe to toe with mid range 400MH units.

(I am not a distributor and can't ordinarily do this, I had to call in favours with the manufacturer to get them for Cliff).

My sig has a link to my Aussie tank journal on our local site here if you want to see the lights in action.
 
I am missing several pictures / steps in between this, but have been swamped with work lately! Will update later I promise :)

Wall is up! Thanks to Wes (Luck of the Draw), hence his eagerness above for me to update this [smilie=clapping.gif] And I will update with a photo better than from my iPhone soon as well!
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Long overdue update!

Tank is up and first batch of fish are through quarantine, so have 2 yellow tang's and a sailfin tang in the tank now.
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Rock work done and water clear... dog not liking his photo op's! Wall went up a couple days later if I recall correctly.
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Fish room view from right set of doors. Fish QT is on right and Coral/Invert QT is on left. Currently I have 10 Anthias and 2 orange spot gobies in QT.
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Fish room view from the left set of doors.
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LED's
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Underneathe of tank / refugium
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Not done yet with all my equipment, still need to setup my Ozone and Dosers (2-part) to name the main two items.
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View from fish room of tank. I have a black sheet that I put up to hide the back whenever I feel like doing so.
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And the final product from the front view!
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Great to see more pictures. Looks like you've done a good job planning it all out.

Why is there so much salt creep around the base of the sump?


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I am well aware I am FAR behind in getting updates to this build thread... but to be honest, I haven't done a lot! Been a crazy year with getting readjusted back to living in the USA, back surgery and recently changing jobs... regardless, the tank is looking pretty good, IMO, even though no major coral additions yet and only 7 fish live in it still! The picture above hasn't changed much.

I have however almost completed my saltwater exchange system, so figured it was worth showing everyone. Apologies for the iPhone quality pictures. I purchased 3 210g water containers. The one on the far right is for RO/DI storage, the middle is for 1.025 SG saltwater, and the one on the left will be (hasn't been plumbed yet) for 1.009 SG Hypo water for my fish QT. All the water containers are connected where necessary, and have faucets built into the circulation piping. The SW and RO are plumbed to go to my DT, and all 3 are plumbed to go to the fish and coral QT tanks. You can see the manifold system in one of the pictures that I adjust where it goes to. There is a 2nd manifold in my fish room that I adjust as well. I am currently doing a 1% (4.5 gallons) daily water change on my DT, automated via my Apex with float switches, through this system.

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That's really nice! Is your wife getting worried about you yet?
 
Just got caught up on this thread, wow. Wish I had the space, time, money, will power, and supporting spouse to allow me to do a project of this magnitude. Well done sir!


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