My 150 gallon Reef Savvy tank build

[Chriscrna]

I'm still waiting for my exhaust vent to be delivered. In the meantime, I did a few piddly things with the water containers last night. Found this while cleaning off my desk. It's one of my final sketches for the design. I went through about 2 dozen of these before deciding on a design. Hopefully this will give you guys an idea of what I'm going for.

I will have a manifold on the return pump. Of course it's not depicted in the sketch, but one of the manifolds will direct water from the sump to a drainage line. When I do water changes, I can drain 25 gallons from the sump then refill with 25 gallons from the saltwater container. Should be able to do a 25 gallon water change in about 5 minutes WITHOUT a single 5 gallon bucket!!!

I installed a 3/4 inch ball valve in the saltwater container.

No leaks and it drains very quickly!

Reduced the 3/4 inch opening in the RODI container to 1/4 inch for the ATO line. Also installed float valves in the water containers.

Last but not least, installed a shut off valve between the main line and the RODI system so I can isolate the RODI if needed.

 

[Jmcdaniel0]

Very Nice!!

 

[Steven C]

Very nice following

 

[Rob.D]

Dang Chris, you've been a productive reefer these past few weeks. I hope to make it by soon to see all this awesomeness in person!

 

[Chriscrna]

This afternoon's project: Install the exhaust vent/dehumidistat.



Hammer drill with the chisel attachment.

Carefully measured where I wanted the hole. Figured it would look best centered under the spigot.

And from the inside.

I will trim up the caulking outside once it dries.

On the inside, I will fill in the gaps with Great Stuff and trim it to look presentable. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out.

In order to avoid negative pressure in the sump room, tomorrow I plan on doing some duct work to allow positive (dehumidified) airflow into the room.

 

[KJ]

Looks great Chris

 

[Rob.D]

Dang Chris.......Power tools and all!!! Nice stuff man, your tank is going to be epic!

 

[Chriscrna]

Today's progress...

250 pounds of Marco Rock Key Largo dry rock took an acid bath then got a good pressure washing. They are now soaking in RO/DI water. My neighbor saw me decked out in safety equipment next to a massively foaming tank. He came over to check things out thinking maybe Walter White had moved in next door.

Also did a little bit of duct work. Still need to insulate and tidy up a bit, but at least I have fresh dehumidified air circulating in the room.

 

[derekstank]

I feel so bad. I bought a ATO 5 days ago and still haven't got around to installing it. This build is absolutely insane.

 

[Chriscrna]

Don't feel too bad Derek. I had a 6-7 month lead time on the tank, yet just now started to do all this.....knowing well in advance it needed to be done. I just dreaded doing all this work. But to be honest, now that I'm neck deep into it, I'm actually enjoying it. There's a great satisfaction seeing each task completed. A great example.....I've had my rock for 6 months and just now took care of it. Really wish I would have started all this sooner.....but hey, it is what it is.

I'm hoping that all this planning and even more work will translate into an easy to manage reef tank in the future. Only time will tell.

Happened to get a little project done today.....put together my utility sink. At least I will have a place to clean my equipment and wash my hands after a fragging session. I will do the plumbing some time this week.

 

[derekstank]

I am really enjoying watching the progress of your system.

 

[steelheader.262]

Looking good, following.

 

[Paranoiattack91]

Maybe I'm confused but why acid bath dry rock? I thought that was only for getting rid of unwanted junk off of live rock or dying live rock.

 

[iyad_nadi]

Great, following

 

[Saltwaterwill]

Reef savvy makes spectacular showcase tanks, can't wait to see how progression, congrats

 

[Chriscrna]

Maybe I'm confused but why acid bath dry rock? I thought that was only for getting rid of unwanted junk off of live rock or dying live rock.

MarcoRocks Key Largo is very clean out of the box. They claim that the rocks go through a unique cleaning and processing which leaves it "totally pest and organic free". I really did the acid bath to remove unwanted phosphate moreso than pests and organics. Plus, I think it makes the rock just a little more porous, which I like. Now they are soaking in RO/DI water in the hopes to draw out more phosphate.

This is a direct quote from Randy Holmes-Farley regarding the topic. "The only methods to remove phosphate that is bound into CaCO3 is to quickly dissolve away the outer layer of rock using acid, or to slowly allow the phosphate to come off into water that has low phosphate levels. If choosing the latter, note that you will not remove other undesirable stuff (like organics) and you will need to keep the phosphate very low in the water, either through very frequent changes, or by using something like GFO or lanthanum to take it out of solution as it dissolves off the rock."

 

[Rob.D]

That Randy guy sounds smart

 

[Jmcdaniel0]

What acid did you use?

 

[derekstank]

Muriatic acid

 

[Chriscrna]

So far so good. Decided to go with the Super Reef Octopus 3000 external, which came in yesterday. I'm planning to start the support frame this week. Hoping the tank will be here in the next week or two.

Derek is correct......I used muriatic acid, Josh.