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Greenville, NY
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Hello all, I'm new to Manhattan Reefs, but thought I'd share my build and maybe get to know some of you fellow Reefers and maybe get a few ideas from you more experienced reef maniacs! Like I've become... :) This will be the start of a continuing series. First - Thanks to masterswimmer for all your help!

I've been documenting via pictures since the start, but let me first describe my build. I've had a 180G system in my upstairs family room for about 3 years, but got tired of lugging buckets of water up 2 flights of stairs, and dealing with cramped equipment under my stand. So, my wife offered to give up her craft area in our finished basement - so I jumped on that opportunity! The location is perfect, it gives me a 14' X 14' fish room behind the tank which will be built into the finished basement wall. I bought a 300 Gal DD Marineland Glass Aquarium with dual corner overflows. My goal from the beginning was to completely automate this system with top of the line everything so I could actually enjoy the tank, and not worry so much when not home. Full automation meaning auto top off (Of course), but also auto water changes, Auto RODI, and even auto water changes for my 55 Gal quarantine tank. I'm using a 120 Gal glass sump, a 60 Gal Glass Refugium, and a 30 Gal Deep Blue 24"x24"x12" Frag Tank. Now for the real fun stuff. I'm using 2 - 2400 GPH yellowtail external pumps for the return and manifolding off of these for various systems. One is the main, the other is an installed spare that I'll cycle back and forth about monthly. The system will be controlled via APEX Fusion, and is plumbed in such as way to allow me to remotely change pumps (I'll discuss this detail in later posts). I'll also add a no flow indication to send me an email to my smartphone - which would allow me to switch pumps remotely if needed. I'm using a Reef Octopus Regal 300-EXT External skimmer, Reef Octopus RO-CR-5000 Calcium Reactor, 2 NextReef MR-1 XL Media Reactors for Carbon and GFO, the APEX DOS system for auto water changes, and an 80 Watt Aqua UV Sterilizer fed by an external 2600 GPH Snapper/Dart Hybrid external pump. The system will be heated by an in line Aqua Logic HTI 1.5-115 Titanium heater - yes, this is really cool (or warm..LOL). Inside the tank, I'm using 2 GYRE XF-150 Wave Generators from Maxspect, and the crowning Jewell of the system, a Geisemann Moonlight which has 4 metal halides and 4 T-5's suspended on an automated pulley system to put it in maint position. In future posts, I'll start adding pictures and a detailed description of each aspect of the build. It's April 19th, I figure I'm about 4 weeks away from getting the system wet. Be back soon with pics and a description of the display tank stand to start!
 
Location
Greenville, NY
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Demo Day

Craft Area.jpg Demo Day.jpg Wall Down.jpg Rear View.jpg


Sorry for the delay in posting progress, been crazy busy, but now have some time so I'll start posting pics and descriptions of the build.

Before I get started, I again want to than Russ from Saltwater Critters who has helped me tremendously to get this project done.

Demo Starts. The first picture is the area my wife so graciously "donated" to my "addiction". It's an area she used for crafts in our finished basement. In the 3rd picture, you see a door that led into a closet. One of the main house support columns is located just on the left side of the door. After we placed the tank, we decided to remove the door as it looked a little tight and work around the column, you will see that in later posts. Also the facade that we picked has bookshelves on both sides of the tank, I'll include a rendering of that in later posts. The last picture shows the rear view from what will be the fish room.
 
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Location
Greenville, NY
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The Stand

Top-Bottom Frames.jpg Box.jpg Adding Support.jpg More Structure.jpg Corner Overflow Cutouts.jpg It Holds me.jpg
in Place.jpg Painted.jpg

I started with a top and bottom frame to exact dimensions of what I wanted. The base of the stand is exactly 1" longer and 1" wider than the tank giving me a little play. The tank placement is flush with the front edge as it will be "built into the wall". The base is re-enforced with double 2x6's along the sides and and ends. The top of the stand has a full 3/4" piece of plywood cut out at the corners. The last picture shows the stand upside down being painted (with a little help from my daughter).
 
Location
Greenville, NY
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Move In Day

A little Help Needed.jpg Suction Cups Helped!.jpg In Place with door.jpg Door Removed.jpg View attachment Scan0026 (3).pdf

At 350 Lbs empty, the 300 Gal Deep Dimension needs a few people to help lift it. We had 8 people total. Really need 6 to lift it safely. In the 2nd picture, you might notice the suction cups. I bought 6 industrial suction cups, these were a tremendous help. Not only bringing in the display, but moving the sump and fuge around as we were laying out the system. I mentioned in an earlier post the door to the right, you can see it again in the 3rd picture. By removing it, we gained a lot of room, and allowed for the facade we wanted. You can see how tight it was with the door in place, then in the 4th picture with the door removed. We eventually moved the tank to the right to be right up against the support column. The last picture is a pdf of the facade we picked - hopefully the pdf file works and you can see it. The trim piece between the tank and book shelves will hide the support column. It's not exact picture, but close to what we had custom designed.. I have a ton more pictures - next posts should be a bit more interesting as we get into the instrumentation and plumbing.
 

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