launchnukes' 300DD starphire build 400g+ total system

[launchnukes]

well, as some of you already know a friend of mine finally decided to go bigger and he is buying my 120. so i'm going bigger. He is buying my ENTIRE setup so I will be starting from scratch.

My 120 Build Thread: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1680554

The plan as of now:

300 Marineland Deep Dimension Starphire display 72"x36"x27"tall
Custom 40-41" tall Stand and custom Canopy
SWC 300a Skimmer w/Askoll 1500 Pump
3x 250w MH with M80 Ballasts, Lumen Max Elite Reflectors, and 20K Radiums
T5 supplements in the future
Apex Controller
Tunze 7096 Multi Controller
2x Tunze 6205s
2x Tunze 6105s
Reeflo Dart Return Pump
72" Custom Sump
1/4hp Artica Chiller
75 Gallon Fuge
GEO Kalk Reactor
Water Change Station

I will be plumbing through the wall into my garage (i guess fish room now) to give me room to work and make maintenance and water changes easier. aquascaping will be minimalist approach w/ 3 islands. 2 for sps and one for a few rbtas.

Fish on my mind:

Definates:
Achilles Tang
Black Tang
Pair or harem of Hawaiian Flame wrasses
Pair of clowns (i want picasso, my wife wants regular ones. we'll see who wins. lol.)
A school of longspine cardinalfish (Apogon leptacanthus)
Anthias (bicolors, bartletts, blotched, others)

Others considering:
blue hippo tang
yellow tang
powder blue tang
naso tang
firefish
bandit angelfish
mandarin

[launchnukes]

I promised myself I wouldn't buy anything until the 120 was gone......I failed.

SWC 300a


lights






72" sump

[elegance coral]

This should be a sweet build!

Do you have double doors in your house? If not, you won't be able to get the stand through the door. I just mention this because I know of someone that made this mistake.

I definitely think you should put a hippo tang in your tank. My LFS has a 300DD display tank with several different species of tang in it, and lots of other fish. They just added a 4" hippo, and it stands out from across the room. I couldn't believe the difference that one average fish made in the looks of the tank.

You may want to hold off on the mandarin for a while. ORA will be releasing their captive bred mandarins soon, and they eat fish food!

Here in Florida, it's hard to keep the filter in the garage. I tried it once, and heat was a real issue. You will have a chiller, so it shouldn't be as big a problem, for you as it was for me, but you may want to think about insulating the sump, fuge, and plumbing.

Just some ideas. Hope the system comes together with few headaches. Will be tagging along.

[launchnukes]

thanks for the advice. I actually don't have double doors but I do have a large slider in the back. I think it'll be ok, but to be honest, I never even thought of that. lol. I'll have to double check that when I get home.

I was actually very concerned about heat and having the sump and fuge in the garage. do you think wrapping it with insulating foam from home depot and having a fan blowing across the top would help? or do i need to figure something else out? I really don't want my chiller running 24/7 and I'd like to avoid building an entire room and installing an ac unit.

oh, btw. the blue hippo should have been on the "will have" list.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by elegance coral

This should be a sweet build!

Do you have double doors in your house? If not, you won't be able to get the stand through the door. I just mention this because I know of someone that made this mistake.

I definitely think you should put a hippo tang in your tank. My LFS has a 300DD display tank with several different species of tang in it, and lots of other fish. They just added a 4" hippo, and it stands out from across the room. I couldn't believe the difference that one average fish made in the looks of the tank.

You may want to hold off on the mandarin for a while. ORA will be releasing their captive bred mandarins soon, and they eat fish food!

Here in Florida, it's hard to keep the filter in the garage. I tried it once, and heat was a real issue. You will have a chiller, so it shouldn't be as big a problem, for you as it was for me, but you may want to think about insulating the sump, fuge, and plumbing.

Just some ideas. Hope the system comes together with few headaches. Will be tagging along.

[launchnukes]

well after a few months and a few things that came up I had scrapped the idea of upgrading. until one lonely night on rc. and 24 hours later.....let the games begin

[Lucidbeam]

Very nice. Going to tag along. I plan to get a 300DD once I get moved.

[launchnukes]

Originally Posted by Lucidbeam

Very nice. Going to tag along. I plan to get a 300DD once I get moved.

thanks. it's a great tank and for the money, it can't be beat.

[launchnukes]

Picking up more supplies....nothing too exciting. wood, screws, glue, aluminum, plumbing...lol

not too much going on but i did get started on my "fairy blocker 1000". I plan on having quite a few fairy wrasses so i need to build a top. I've decided to go with 1/4" bird netting again. doesnt block light or heat and easy to build.

below are a few details of the netting build. keep in mind, i'm not expert, and although i've done this once before i was still just kind of winging it

oh, and excuse the picture quality. i took them with my iphone.

supplies (forgot to take a pic of the corner pieces)


cut aluminum to size and connect pieces.


connected


frame built


cut netting a little larger than the frame and roll the spline in the groove securing the netting. make sure to keep netting tight


once netting is attached trim the excess netting off with a razor blade.


one down, two more to go

[launchnukes]

An update....finally. Just because I haven't posted doesn't mean I haven't been working on the build. We opened up an additional location at the dealership and with two little ones my free time has been non existent. Lol. Anyway, the fish room is 95% done, just needs paint and the electrician is going to run 3x 20 amp circuits this weekend. I also picked up the following items over the past few weeks.

Oceanic 1/2 hp chiller
2x tunze 6200s
Tunze 7096
3x aquamedic reeflex cube 250w hqi ballasts
3x lumenbright large reflectors
3x radium bulbs
Ice cap 660
4x 48" t5 tek reflectors
4x ati blue plus bulbs 54w
Reeflo dart
Another 100g storage tank
150g Rubbermaid tub (it will be my fuge/rock tub)
~300lbs Marco,dr bones, and fiji dry rock
300lbs sand

And the stand and canopy are in the final stages at the woodworker's shop.

I wonder what else I forgot. Lol.

Why do we do this to ourselves???

[James404]

Very nice build, tagging along!

[JASON L.]

Were did u get your tank from?

[crvz]

Originally Posted by launchnukes

Why do we do this to ourselves???

Because it's fun?

I've got a very similar setup. What skimmer are you running? I don't think it's in the list, but maybe I missed it.

[James404]

Originally Posted by crvz

Because it's fun?

I've got a very similar setup. What skimmer are you running? I don't think it's in the list, but maybe I missed it.

looks like he's running the SWC 300a, beast of a skimmer

[muttley000]

Nothing to add, but now I'm subscribed

[launchnukes]

Thanks guys.

Yeah, the skimmer is an swc 300a.

And I picked up the tank itself from a local reefer an hour south of me.

[TampaReefer79]

Nice skimmer!

[launchnukes]

I finally took a few minutes to pressure wash the rock i got. i'm going to do a vinegar dip and ro soak before placing in the tank. here's a quick crappy iphone shot of most of the rock. it's hard to tell but most of these are pretty big, about the same size or bigger than a full size footbal.



ALWAYS CLEAN DEAD ROCK BEFORE PLACING IN YOUR TANK!!!!!!!

just some of the water afterwards. (these were suppose to be "precured and cleaned")



also, i picked up a window unit for the fish room. i decided to step up and get one with a built in heater. it was more than i wanted to spend but now i wont have any worries the few months a year it gets cold here. I want as few headaches as possible with the new setup and i think a freezing fish room would be one of them. lol.

Originally Posted by TampaReefer79

Nice skimmer!

lol dude, your tank is looking nice!

[powerlogix]

Nice build so far, looking forward to what comes next!

[launchnukes]

Took some time the other afternoon to clean up the rocks with a vinegar bath and arrange one of the structures. I set up three buckets, the first is a 50/50 vinegar ro/di solution, the other two are just ro/di water for rinsing. I soaked each rock for about a minute, I'm sure I should have soaked a little longer but didnt have the time and even after just a minute you should see the amount of garbage that came off the rocks. now, on to the crappy iphone pics (too lazy to grab the good camera)

the setup


the first rocks dissolving


the vinegar/water afterwards. yuck!


zip tying the base for the first structure (upside down pic for some reason lol)


base


left side structure (just needs to be glued)

[willj313]

are those marco rocks?

[launchnukes]

Originally Posted by willj313

are those marco rocks?

100 lbs is Marco, the rest are pieces i hand picked from the lfs and some Fiji live rock that I bleached and cleaned.

[cubsare1]

I love the d.d. tanks, been thinking of getting one myself. Cant wait to see what you do with yours

[launchnukes]

more goodies and more crappy iphone pics. i love getting stuff in the mail.

sand! (each box is 40-50lbs)


more boxes


box #1. reeflex cube 250w magnetic hqi ballasts x3 I chose hqi ballasts because i'll be running radium bulbs and these ballasts should over drive them to spec.


box #2. reflectors. I sold the lumenmax elites because i was going to scratch the build. when i decided to complete the build, i chose the large coralvue lumen brights because i believe they will give me better spread to cover the 36" depth. (i will also be running 4x54w t5s). i'll take some better pics with a real camera when i unwrap them.


these things are freaking huge (20x20x9.5"). son #2 posing to show the size. lol.

[rkaragozler]

Good luck with your build, love the rockwork you are designing. Where did you get that 72" sump from?

[launchnukes]

Originally Posted by rkaragozler

Good luck with your build, love the rockwork you are designing. Where did you get that 72" sump from?

Thanks. I got the sump from a fellow reefer. I think he had it custom made.