JJ's basement 220 triton koi reef

[jahnje]

Taking advantage of BRS's sales to finally start my big reef build.  This is going to take a while. I'm going to go with a Marineland 220 and am hoping for a sale on them.  But I picked up a skimz 202 skimmer, and a Trigger Triton44 sump.  Still have lights, return pump, and water storage to go as well. 

 

The plan is to make a 9' long built-in stand that can hold a 220, as well has my 40 breeder planted tank. I plan on using the triton method on this tank, as that appeals to me the most, and many people seem to be having a fair amount of luck with it.  I've verified that Marineland's 220 pre-drilled 1" overflows should be able to just meet triton's 10X turnover rate.   

 

The current main issue, is that my 40 is in the way, and thus preventing me from building.  Other problems are that I have 3 koi in a 75 who are out growing it, and need a place to live until me and a couple of bags of concrete can give them a place stay outside in the spring.  I've been directed by my SO to use the 220 to keep them until that time. Given the amount of time required to save up for the various things like lights and pumps, I don't think this is a horrible idea.  If everything goes according to plan, I should be able to put some marine fish into the tank by this time next year.

 

I'm still undecided on substrate and scaping. I'll probably go for a mixed coral in the end,  and livestock is currently undecided as well. Though my wife does have her eye on a leopard wrasse. 

 

messy basement before shot:

  

[jahnje]

Early christmas came. Got my sump and protien skimmer in today.  Impeller cover was broken on the skimmer, but BRS is sending a new replacement pump. Everything else looks great.   Spent yesterday pro/con DIY wood vs. steel stands. I'll put my list out here for additional input. 

 

Steel will cost approximately twice as much as wood, but be far more open, and not require center supports. It also won't require me to pull a large chunk of carpet to level things out. 

Wood will be cheaper, but probably take just as much time to build, if not more.  It won't look as cool, and because the base will sit on the floor as opposed to legs I'll have carpet issues.  

 

I really want to go with steel, but $600 vs $300 is a pretty big jump...

 

Here's the skimmer and sump.

  

trigger trinton 44 sump:

[jahnje]

So this morning I say to the wife: 

    "I really think the 180 might be a better fit, people say it's going to be difficult to maintain being that tall. It's only 6 inches."

Wife says while staring me in the eyes: 

   "That extra six inches is VERY important to me..." so 220 it still is...  

 

Getting a quote from a welder for the stand. Looks like I might be able to have a welded meta stand for close to the price of me trying to a DYI wood one.  By the time all the plywood and time are figured in, there's not a lot of difference. If their labor costs are to high, I'll just have them do the costs for me. and I'll do the welding.  Will see....

 

Here's the rough plans which I stole from this nice guy over at R2R:

 

bottom should be 3-1/2" off the ground as opposed to 2". 

 

[jahnje]

Picked up my stand yesterday from the welders. Decided to have someone else make it as opposed to me. Figured they would be more accurate. Was not disappointed. Came out nice level and square. 

 

 

 

[jahnje]

Got my stand painted over the last two days while we had the brief warm spell in the 60's. Back to the teens today... Used two kinds of paint, lots of spray undercoating for the the whole stand followed by some truck bed coating just on the very top where the tank will sit. The truck bed coating has a texture to it that will hopefully take out any minor bumps and whatnot in the welds. 

 

[jahnje]

Took advantage of the frozen ground today to move the new stand into the basement.  Was to wet the other day, and would have been a muddy mess.  Got smart for the first time in my life, and bought some furniture dollies to move the stand around inside with. Wow did that make a difference.  Just me and 300 pounds of steel, and no effort. Used a simple lever to lift the stand off the dollies and place it exactly.  I know it all seems so obvious, but brute force has always worked so well for me in the past...  

 

driving on the ice from the barn.. need to clean tractor..

   

 

The joy of dollies. Tight turns and spaces... no problem

 

 

that's the spot...

 

Tank should be arriving on the 23rd. I've left 5 inches on the side, and about 3 inches in back. Should I leave a little more space behind just in case?

[McCune]

I like the stand you made so much space under it. What are you going to wrap in it 

[jahnje]

11 minutes ago, McCune said:

I like the stand you made so much space under it. What are you going to wrap in it 

Going to leave it raw and open. Matches the rest of my house. Kind of an industrial barn thing going on.   If it gets to be an eyesore, then I'm just going to use thin plastic or metal ceiling panels or screens from Lowes and attach them via magnets. As for the height, the wife thinks it's too tall, but after seeing all of the stories of not enough room underneath, I think 41" will be fine. 

 

[jahnje]

Tank arrived!! 2 of us picked it up at the LFS and got it into the house without issue.  Today a few people are coming over to lift it up onto the stand.  So far the best part is that the stand I had made is the correct size! Always scary to to make thing for things unseen.  Here's the requisite random kid in the tank picture :

 

[jahnje]

Got it on the stand today. Took every bit of four guys to do it. This thing is a beast. Now for the plumbing, and lighting.

 

I've got a couple of lights from my 40 breeder hanging out on top for the moment till I can get some real coral lights hung from the ceiling.  The hardest part being the cable management really.  Where it's located, I can put in a ceiling outlet, but the driver blocks for the Radions are giant and heavy; so they'll need some sort of suspended shelf. Not to mention that the lights themselves have fans on the top of them that'll need airflow. So it'll have to be fairly permeable like a wire mesh.   

 

The plumbing is going to have to flexible.  I want to be able to support both the left and right drains, so this means two pumps. I've also got plans to put a set of smaller 20 - 30 gallon support tanks just to the right of this that can house mangroves, smaller fishes, and macro algaes, so I'll need a feed and return system for that as well. I'll have more flow in the two pumps than I really need for the display tank, So I should be able to just split off some output from the right side return pump, and use the left side return pump for my main sump manifold. I'll probably connect the manifold to both return pumps with valves on both sides, so that I can still feed it with either pump incase of emergency. 

 

The other major thought I had is that the drains in this are really only rated for 750 gph per side. Triton would really like me to have about 1100 gph per side. There's two holes drilled in each back corner. So I'm thinking of converting to a herbie style drains in each corner, then doing the two returns up and over the back of the tank. I guess in that case I could also do a single large return, which could simplify things. 

 

[jahnje]

2 days later, the filling is complete!!

 

Filled with about 50 gallons of dirty WC water from the current KOI tank. A few rocks from their current tank, plus ceramic media from the their canister filter that's been cooking for a couple of weeks. Also added 110 drops of Dr. Tims NH4 and got the Ammonia up to about 0.8. So let the cycling begin!!  I'm betting that it should cycle fairly quickly. NH4 is 0.8 ppm, and Nitrates are at 8 ppm.  Seems goofy to start a tank out this dirty, but the Koi seem to like it that way. This is only temporary until end of summer hopefully.  In the meantime, I plan to keep building out the rest of the equipment for the tank. More lights, power heads, ATOs  etc.  So far I like the way the overflows are designed as they give me a way to work on the plumbing without draining the tank.  I can drain about 15 gallons of water and can then fully detach the plumbing from the bottom to work on it. 

 

 

[jahnje]

So got my giant 6x2 foot wire rack in for the suspended cover for this. Used a couple 6' lengths of  galvanized cable to suspend it from the ceiling, and the cut wire hangers to attach the lights to the rack itself.  I think it gives it a fairly nice industrial look all for about 50 dollars. And gives me more flexibility than the super expensive systems. Used some standard shelving supports to attach the cable to the ceiling.  This won't hold a lot of weight, but it'll hold a power strip, and all of the lights, and a towle w/o issue. I'll probably sink a few more screws into the ceiling before all is said and done just to be safe.  Still cycling BTW.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitten_reef]

Massive!

[jahnje]

12 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

Massive!

Yes! It's crazy big as far as I'm concerned. I'm still not sure how I got approval from my wife...  

[jahnje]

NH3 levels hit green today, so I added Havoc, Mayhem, and Chaos to their new temporary home.  Switched out one of the new canister filters with the one from their old tank, as well as their bubble filter. Added a little Prime, and Stability to the tank since they're a pretty big fish load all at once.