Our Crazy upgrade to a 450 gallon display!

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ERIKATHORNBURG

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Upgrade day is just 2 days away. So i thought I would start a build thread. This is getting more complicated day by day. Basically, we are upgrading everything!!! We have boxes of sand, salt, and rock everywhere!

We are going from a 120 + 18 gallon display tank to a 450 that is 72" x 30' x 48"!

This is our old rebuilt thread when we started the 120 up again here in Texas:

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This is a picture of it when I put it up for sale (still for sale at this moment):

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First thing we are working on is our "fish room". We had our frag tank in the garage right behind our fish tank along with 2 - 55 gallon water barrels. We are going to now house our fuges, 2 - 150 gallon water containers, and sump in the garage. Our frag tank use to be connected to the display tank, but we disconnected it from the display and plan to tie it into a "temporary sump" (blue container on the floor) tonight. The black containers will act as our fuge. We are going to move everything over to this "temporary" setup until we get the 450 moved in place and on line.

This is our progress so far:

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This is the type of crazy setup I would love to have if the wife would let me.


Sent from inside the shark tank!
 
My husband always says he is lucky because we do this together and I'm the forum "front"...he does plumbing...I sell stuff...etc.
 
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At this point it's a mess! A collection of plumbing supplies, water tanks, and boxes boxes boxes!
 
I can't have a setup this big so I'm moving to Hawaii instead! Good luck. I'll be following with envy.
 
Hawaii would be nice! We are bringing the ocean to Texas! We just put a pool in our backyard plus we have the saltwater tank!
 
Last night we got the 2 fuge/temporary sump up and running. Plus we pulled our old 55 gallon drums out and put the 150 gallon saltwater container in place. Tonight we plan to build the table to go over the saltwater container to hold the freshwater one plus pull all of our livestock from the 120.
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If the bottom container is the saltwater container make sure you have enough room to add salt if you have a table over it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks. Pampee. Yeah...we factored that in. That's one of the reasons we wanted it in place before we built the stand for the freshwater one since it's going on top of this one. It will be tight but hopefully we will have enough room. I keep saying we need to built a salt shoot...ha ha. We got 150 gallon containers in hopes it would be close to a full bucket of Red Sea pro salt.
 
The plan is to put freshwater on top so it can gravity feed when we open the valve to go into the saltwater container below. Then, we will have a pump and have it hard plumbed to the sump so we can pump saltwater directly in when we do water changes.

Anyone have any reason we shouldn't set it up this way?
 
The gravity feed will work fine. Will you top off with this water as well, or will you have a separate container for ATO?

On my water changes I have my main return pump plumbed directly to the nearest waste line in our home. This allows me to turn a valve and pump water out of the tank using the main pump, and then I have a pump from my SW mixing station that I turn on and it pumps water into the sump. Really nice. I do 35g water changes in less than 5 minutes.

For me it is all about ease of maintenance. If it takes a lot of time or work then I don't want to add that to an already extremely busy life. Make it as simple and easy as possible.

Also, I am tagging along. This is going to be a really nice build. Those are some monster dimensions. Have fun!
 
@hoopsdaddy wrote:
The gravity feed will work fine. Will you top off with this water as well said:
We currently have a seperate container for top off. We haven't decided what to do with that aspect yet. The container we have now won't fit with the new huge water containers. I need to find a new container that would fit. I'm nervous about pulling from the fresh water bin. I don't like the idea that 150 gallons of water could flood the tank in the event something goes wrong. So I think we will stick with a seperate container. I just need to find something that will fit.
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@ERIKATHORNBURG wrote:
[I]@hoopsdaddy wrote:[/I][quote="The gravity feed will work fine. Will you top off with this water as well said:
We currently have a seperate container for top off. We haven't decided what to do with that aspect yet. The container we have now won't fit with the new huge water containers. I need to find a new container that would fit. I'm nervous about pulling from the fresh water bin. I don't like the idea that 150 gallons of water could flood the tank in the event something goes wrong. So I think we will stick with a seperate container. I just need to find something that will fit."]

I would use a solenoid valve to fill RO water from your large reservoir to a smaller res. for the ATO. My ATO reservoir auto fills directly from my RO unit much the same way. Cost $20 on eBay for the valve and if it fails it does so closed.
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@coralreefer wrote:
[I]@ERIKATHORNBURG wrote:[/I][quote="[I]@hoopsdaddy wrote:[/I][quote="The gravity feed will work fine. Will you top off with this water as well said:
We currently have a seperate container for top off. We haven't decided what to do with that aspect yet. The container we have now won't fit with the new huge water containers. I need to find a new container that would fit. I'm nervous about pulling from the fresh water bin. I don't like the idea that 150 gallons of water could flood the tank in the event something goes wrong. So I think we will stick with a seperate container. I just need to find something that will fit."]

I would use a solenoid valve to fill RO water from your large reservoir to a smaller res. for the ATO. My ATO reservoir auto fills directly from my RO unit much the same way. Cost $20 on eBay for the valve and if it fails it does so closed."]

I'll have to look for one!
Click to expand...
 
Or if you are skeptical about using solenoids or float switches, you can simply T off of your outlet going from your RO water to your salt water bin and run a line directly to your top off container and add a valve in line. That way you have no more buckets.
 
We currently have a float value in our sump that gravity feeds from the top off container. It's more a question on where to put the top off container. I probably just need to find one that fits between the black tub and the 150 gallon tank.
 
You ever thought of an automated water change system, such that of SpectraPure system? I run this and it's a lifesaver. I have my ato and sw container in my garage and it changes 1 gallon per day. The sw tank holds 40 gallons, so it lasts roughly 40 days before I need to make new SW. Everything is about 60 feet away to so any temperature swings is very minor, thus keeping the water parameters stable 24/7. My ato reservoir holds 20 gallons but it is hooked directly with the rodi system and has a float valve, thus always keeping the ato topped off.

~Matt
 
I would def add some sort of auto change system. I would now but I don't have a way to dispose of the old saltwater without running my plumbing right down the hall.
 
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