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310 Gallon Bare bottom SPS Bar and fish room build


Mrbh22
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OK here goes nothing. im going to copy paste this from the other big forum. 

 

Well here goes nothing. Starting off my first tank (90 gallon) bought off craigslist fish a bio ball trickle filter and a marine land led strip light. That was a steep learning curve. The tank was in OK shape. Little hair algae but had a bit of nice live rock. Moved it home and set it up with the old sand rock and fish. Needless to say the reusing the sand was a horrible horrible decision. I measured nitrates with the api kit and my nitrates were beyond the scale of red. So it was learn how to do large water changes early and often. Then after things settlers down I got a slimmer and a 20 long to use as a “sump.” Also purchased a pair of reef breeder leds. The tank progressed well for about 2 years. I wanted to set up a rimless tank with internal overflows so I bought a deep blue 80gallon lagoon style tank. I loved this tank I switched it up to the ati 8bulb t5 and started dosing 2part. I had the most luck with the T5’s and dosing 2 part. Tank went through some ups and downs for the next few years. Until the wife and I decided to move out to a more rural area. The new house had to have a basement and a walkout so I could get a big tank into the house without steps. The house we bought had a walkout with an unfinished basement. So now I get to finish the basement the way I want with a fish room and a nice bar. I wanted to incorporate the bar and the fish tank. My idea was to build the stand to be bar height and use the tank as a medical for the bar but still be viewable on 3 sides. It’s easier to understand in pics. I wanted to set up the dream tank. I wanted something 8foot long. Hopefully 30”-36” wide and 24ish tall. I was shown the mega matrix tanks made by Planet Aquariums. The 310 was almost exactly what I wanted. I priced out the 96x36x24 and the price was way out of the budget. So I looked into the 96x30x24 and was pleasantly surprised by the price. I asked my LFS if they could get me a quote on the tank set up peninsula style with low iron glass on both long panes and on the end. The other thing that I really wanted to try was a closed loop and keep any power heads off the glass. So I asked if we could do the pvc bottom that planet offers. The quote was acceptable. So I ordered the tank. After a few shipping delays due to the COVID the tank showed up yesterday. I called my fireman buddies and we loaded it up with just 4 and a half guys (one dude was old) lol. We carried it around the house and into the basement on the stand that I built out of 2x6’s. I’m making progress on the basement but construction kind of stalled out when the restrictions on going to public places started. My goal is to have everything ready for family thanksgiving 2020. I have quite a bit of work to do but seeing the tank on its stand has reignited the fire to get this basement done; and the wife has made it known that no more fish tank related purchases until the basement is finished. I feel it’s fair. I do have my rock so I can start to work on scaping the tank. I’m excited and nervous about trying to get this tank aquascaped to look nice from all 3 sides. I apologize for the longest paragraph ever posted. Here are the pics from last night. I will cover more as we get more done.

 

 

going to try and upload pics from my phone. wish me luck.

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7 hours ago, AspiringLobophyllia said:

Super awesome tank, looking forward to seeing this develop. May be a long way off, but any idea what fish you’ll keep?

I’d probably have several heart attacks watching anyone climb into my tanks, very brave

Honestly I’m not the biggest “FISH” enthusiast. I am a coral guy.  Every fish in the tank will have a job.  No welfare here.  I will probably do a small group of Bartlett anthias and maybe a small group of chalk bass.  Then the usually tangs  rabbit fish and a couple flasher wrasses.  Nothing rare or special.   The one fish I really like is crazy expensive and super reclusive is a ventralis anthias but they are like 300a piece and would want at least 3 so that’s out. As far as climbing in the tank.  If she breaks it the water wouldn’t have had a chance.  And I don’t know if u noticed the bottom is 1” PVC. so no risk of cracking the glass

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Wow, I literally showed my wife this and told her when our kids are older and we turn our basement into a bar this is what I want! Looks amazing and I can’t wait to see the updates. I have always dreamed of having a peninsula tank. Just so much space to see things. 

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1 hour ago, Nanoreef13 said:

Wow, I literally showed my wife this and told her when our kids are older and we turn our basement into a bar this is what I want! Looks amazing and I can’t wait to see the updates. I have always dreamed of having a peninsula tank. Just so much space to see things. 

yes lots of visual space. DOWNSIDE aquascaping is miserable! im sure scaping this tank will be extremely daunting. but the more i look at it im thinking less is more in terms of rock work for this style of tank. i will keep updating as i get more done.

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1 hour ago, Mrbh22 said:

yes lots of visual space. DOWNSIDE aquascaping is miserable! im sure scaping this tank will be extremely daunting. but the more i look at it im thinking less is more in terms of rock work for this style of tank. i will keep updating as i get more done.

Yea I like the less is more aswell. Can’t wait to see it. I used the E-MARCO-400 Aquascaping Mortar. It works great! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

well more progress was made but nothing involving the tank. i got 90% of my electrical ran. just have to run the can lights to the switches. got a dedicated 20a service into the fish room and another 20a service dedicated to the canopy area to cover the lighting (400W halides plus whatever led's and pumps i may have to run as well.)  i also ran all my speaker wire for the entertainment area. also finished up the runs of water lines. also buttoned up the rough in for the half bath. I still need to run the discharge side of the pump that is going to push water from the wet bar to the closest drain location. its about 20-30 feet away. im thinking that i can be done with insulation and in sheetrock in the next 30-60 days. i picked out the flooring to go around the bar area. i will probably do some trial aquascaping in the next week or two. hold tight more pics are on the way

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thanks! as far as heat i drilled a hole to vent it outside the house and im using a blower motor from a "indoor grow supplier" that has a thermostat and humidistat built into the controller. i might just plug it into the apex and control it with tank temp or during the hours the lights are on. i will have to play that one by ear. As far as bulbs im a 20k guy and the radiums are the best for me. reflectors im debating on the big ones from hamilton i think they call them cozumel suns, or i might use the other ones that i cant recall the name of but they are more of a round reflector. i will get some construction pics up tomorrow. im at work till 7am. ive never drilled my own closed loop so im going to have to do some rockwork layouts first to plan out where i want to place the closed loop outputs. 

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After all the work involved getting this tank up and running it will be a real pleasure to just sit and watch it mature! Lots of room for some nice fish too. I look forward to your selections of coral and fish. Your bar should be the center of attention once all is completed.

jim

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On 6/5/2020 at 12:42 AM, JMM said:

After all the work involved getting this tank up and running it will be a real pleasure to just sit and watch it mature! Lots of room for some nice fish too. I look forward to your selections of coral and fish. Your bar should be the center of attention once all is completed.

jim

yea the nice thing for us is that we have plenty of room upstairs to use for "life" so the basement is going to be a retreat for me after work and a place to relax. the size of the bar and tank in terms of square footage is quite large and most people do not want to allocate that much space in a basement because they "need" to make the basement space use able square footage. for me its all about having a place to relax with some friends and enjoy some of my hobbies  ( fish/coral/ burbon/ home theater A/V) i cant wait to get this up and running. i got more of the can light junction boxes all wired up. i just have to decide on what dimmers i want to run and who i want to build the bar cabinetry. i have been leaning on the idea of using IKEA for the build since i can get doors made that will match for the canopy. also looking into the RTA *ready to assemble cabinets. OR im thinking about the idea of building them myself. i have built some cabinets but never anything that would be SHOW quality.  I also could build the carcasses and contract out to a builder to make me all my doors? Does anyone on here do any form of cabinetry? i would love to support the community and use a reefer to help me along. 

 

anyways enough rambling attaching pics from phone.

 

this is me being OCD and wanting to build my own Speaker wire so everything looks professional in the basement. 

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11 hours ago, Mrbh22 said:

yea the nice thing for us is that we have plenty of room upstairs to use for "life" so the basement is going to be a retreat for me after work and a place to relax. the size of the bar and tank in terms of square footage is quite large and most people do not want to allocate that much space in a basement because they "need" to make the basement space use able square footage. for me its all about having a place to relax with some friends and enjoy some of my hobbies  ( fish/coral/ burbon/ home theater A/V) i cant wait to get this up and running. i got more of the can light junction boxes all wired up. i just have to decide on what dimmers i want to run and who i want to build the bar cabinetry. i have been leaning on the idea of using IKEA for the build since i can get doors made that will match for the canopy. also looking into the RTA *ready to assemble cabinets. OR im thinking about the idea of building them myself. i have built some cabinets but never anything that would be SHOW quality.  I also could build the carcasses and contract out to a builder to make me all my doors? Does anyone on here do any form of cabinetry? i would love to support the community and use a reefer to help me along. 

 

anyways enough rambling attaching pics from phone.

 

this is me being OCD and wanting to build my own Speaker wire so everything looks professional in the basement. 

That would be me!  Happy to be of any reference if you decide to do yourself or I could do some building for you if you would like too but I am guessing we are several hours apart

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Nice tank! I have been bouncing ideas off of Jen and Jeremy about my next build for the last two years. This is exactly the route I am wanting to go... exact measurements, closed loop, PVC bottom... You ordered my tank. Lol! 

Can't wait to see what you do! 

I am down in Anderson so if you ever need help, don't hesitate to reach out. 

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On 6/10/2020 at 9:14 AM, crimsonvice said:

Nice tank! I have been bouncing ideas off of Jen and Jeremy about my next build for the last two years. This is exactly the route I am wanting to go... exact measurements, closed loop, PVC bottom... You ordered my tank. Lol! 

Can't wait to see what you do! 

I am down in Anderson so if you ever need help, don't hesitate to reach out. 

That’s awesome! I have actually met you before.  I bought some corals off you at the swap last year.  I also think you are somehow related to a guy I went to paramedic school with.   I will definitely need some help getting this thing all buttoned up.  I’m making progress on the basement.  Almost done with wiring all the lights and then it’s on to insulation and drywall.  I’m trying to hold on to the promise I made to the wife and not buying anything else until the basement is done.  I’m always up for help from other reefers.  Jen took care of the ordering and making sure I got the correct tank.   I keep picking jeremys brain to make sure I set this thing up correctly the first time.  

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1 hour ago, Mrbh22 said:

That’s awesome! I have actually met you before.  I bought some corals off you at the swap last year.  I also think you are somehow related to a guy I went to paramedic school with.   I will definitely need some help getting this thing all buttoned up.  I’m making progress on the basement.  Almost done with wiring all the lights and then it’s on to insulation and drywall.  I’m trying to hold on to the promise I made to the wife and not buying anything else until the basement is done.  I’m always up for help from other reefers.  Jen took care of the ordering and making sure I got the correct tank.   I keep picking jeremys brain to make sure I set this thing up correctly the first time.  

OH yeah! I remember. I totally forgot about that. 

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/26/2020 at 8:02 AM, Birdman said:

Any updates?

well we got another puppy a month or two ago and that has really slowed the process on finishing out the basement. (the dogs are not vibe(ing) just yet. however i did get to go down yesterday and get some insulation up and have the drywall guy come and quote me on hanging and finishing the drywall. I did pick up the reflectors for the halides so i could start to build out the support for them in the canopy. also picked up one ballast so i can check that all my wiring is correct and long enough. Im thinking that the drywall can be done relatively quickly. the guy said he can squeeze in my basement within a week or two. i will post some pics soon. i also have been watching the BRS videos on how to build a nice aquascape. i have my rock already and just ordered some ( a lot) of super glue and activator. i have one bucket of mortar and want to see how far that goes before i go and order more.  the only downside to building the scape this way is trying to get it all through the holes in between the cross bracing. for some reason when you buy a tank set up as a peninsula from planet they give you 3 cross braces, if you buy the standard tank with the exact same dimensions there are only 2 cross braces. does anyone here know why that might be? maybe has something to do with not blocking the overflow? but who knows. I am trying to sneak in some overtime at work and get some extra cash together. im leaning twards runnig a abyzz 200 for the closed loop just so its silent. i know that they are BIG $$ but to have a silent pump under the tank i think might be worth the extra $ and the 10 year warranty helps with some piece of mind!

 

 

 

TLDR: dog slowed progress, got quotes for drywall, going to start scape soon, maybe abyzz for closed loop.

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