Project Valinor

[yman182]

Hello Everyone,

I have been out of the hobby for quite some time now (5+) years, but used to have a BioCube and then a 65 Gallon tank. I am finally getting back in and going big!

Currently the plan is to have the tank in our fully finished and air conditioned basement. The tank size is going to be 84x30x27. Everything will be plumbed into my unfinished portion of the basement where my wife happily allowed me to make a fish room!

In the fish room I plan on having a 75G Sump.

I am going to attempt to make this room as neat as a I can. I am going to try to put up expanded PVC walls instead of drywall and also make some false walls so I can try hiding all the cables. We will see how this goes.

Below is my current equipment wish list! I have never done an aquarium this big, so this will definitely be a learning process.

1x Planet Aquariums 84x30x27 Tank (Still deciding on rimmed, eurobraced or rimless, this will probably come down to price)
1x Synergy Reefs CL-60 Sump (Possibly going with a Geo)
1x Reef Octopus Regal 250INT or 300INT Skimmer
2x 75 Gallon containers for RO and Salt water
Full Neptune control system
2x Cor-20 Returns
2x DOS and DDR for dosing (this is in the future)
2x 600W Heaters
4x XR30 Gen 5 Pro lights. I might supplement with reefbrites.
1x Carbon Reactor
1x Pentair UV 50W UV Filter

I am still in the process of getting everything ordered, but if anyone has any tips or pointers I am all ears.

As I mentioned I have been out of the hobby for a while and there is so much new information out there. I do plan on doing mostly SPS with some LPS for the wife since she likes the hammers and Torch corals.

A few questions to start.

Does anyone have any eurobraced tanks without canopies that are this large? If so, can you post a picture? I can't have a canopy because the ceiling in the area I want to put the tank is only 6'5" due to a duct running overhead.

Does anyone have their RODI system going directly into the sump for ATO? I am debating between either directly running a line, feeding the ATO from the 75G storage tank or just have a 10G bucket and do manual fills.

This is my first house with Well Water. I do plan on running through an RODI system, but does anyone have any experience with well water and Reef Tanks?

Thanks and I hope you enjoy what is to come!

 

[yman182]

No updates on the tank yet, but I have started the build out of the fish room.

2- 20Amp circuits installed. I didnt have any GFCI outlets available so I installed normal ones, but they will be replaced.


I also started making something similar to the Adaptive Reef Controller Board. I could not justify spending $250 on it so I bought about $40 of materials and made my own! I am still waiting for the grommets to come in and need to cut the holes in the front.

 

[Mjl714]

I’ve got several “no’s” to your questions. Goodluck with your build, sounding very nice. I’ve always loved the ease of consistent temps of aquariums and sumps in a basement.

 

[yman182]

Slight change of plans. I might be going with a Geo sump. Anyone have an experience with either of them?

 

[Mjl714]

Slight change of plans. I might be going with a Geo sump. Anyone have an experience with either of them?

only negative comments I’ve heard about Geo, is the time it can take to obtain certain of his products, and perhaps his keeping you informed. Sounds like a great choice.

 

[yman182]

only negative comments I’ve heard about Geo, is the time it can take to obtain certain of his products, and perhaps his keeping you informed. Sounds like a great choice.

Yeah he is quoting about 12-15 week lead time right now for a custom sump. I am not in a huge rush as everything will take me while to get together.

 

[wrasse]

Are you curing or sourcing live rock? You could get started with that now and save on time to get your tank up and running. The longer it's cured the quicker you can get through the uglies and have stability.

 

[yman182]

I am going to be getting dry rock and curing/cycling it. The plan was to get some brute trash cans and throw rock in there like you mentioned.

The hardest part is trying to figure out if I want regular rock or the shelf rock to aquascape with.

 

[yman182]

Making small progress as my tank quotes trickle in.

Added the BRS triple DI saver to my 5 stage drinking water system. My house has well water that I soften and remove iron from. TDS going into the RO filter is very high at around 800-900. Then leaving the RO membrane it’s down between 15-20. Leaving the DI resin it is 0. I figured I’d be going through a lot of DI resin and the 3 stage should help me save a little money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[amirk48]

good luck with the project!

 

[yman182]

Does anyone have any experience with 27" high tanks. I was originally going to go with 84x30x27, but the price differential between 84x30x25 is fairly significant. I am curious if anyone has any pros and cons of 25" vs 27" height.

Thanks!

 

[Chase_The_Reefer]

I got a 24” rn and I am 5’11 and My shoulder gets soaked trying to touch the bottom in the mid Just something to take into account

 

[Sawdonkey]

Making small progress as my tank quotes trickle in.

Added the BRS triple DI saver to my 5 stage drinking water system. My house has well water that I soften and remove iron from. TDS going into the RO filter is very high at around 800-900. Then leaving the RO membrane it’s down between 15-20. Leaving the DI resin it is 0. I figured I’d be going through a lot of DI resin and the 3 stage should help me save a little money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is a crazy RODI setup!

 

[driftin]

My water line is ~22" and I occasionally think it's a little too deep by a couple inches, for what that's worth. I like the proportions when viewing but when i'm working in it, I wouldn't mind being a little shallower.

 

[yman182]

That is a crazy RODI setup!

Yeah I have well water and the TDS after softening is around 900. I have a booster pump and permeate pump to help the RO rejection rate and then I have the BRS pro DI (cation, anion, mixed bed)

I haven’t made DI water in mass yet, but it has worked great on small batches for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yman182]

Making some progress.

I have ordered the Geo AFR sump...15 week lead time. I think I’m more excited about the sump than the tank!

tank is being ordered tomorrow. Boy was that a hassle. The 30” stand wouldn’t fit through the door so I had to have a custom 2 piece stand that can be built on site.

the tank and stand are about a 6 week lead time.

I have run electrical and also put up PVC walls

I also purchased 2 65 gallon water containers from a local reefer that was getting out of the hobby.

Just running some RO water through it to clean it out. I quickly found out my water burns through DI very quickly. Went through a whole anion cartridge in 60 gallons.

the TDS going into my RO system is 950 TDS. Coming into the DI resin is 14TDS. I think I have High CO2 in my water. I ordered a test, just waiting for the kit to come in. If I do, I plan to build a degassing chamber or I’ll be spending a fortune on DI resin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yman182]

Got my CO2 test kit...I have almost 95PPM CO2. That is very high from my understanding. I am in the process of building a 4ft high degassing chamber.

I have already purchased all of the PVC piping that is required. I am waiting for the XP Aqua RO/DO Flood protector to come in so that I dont flood my house out the top of the degassing chamber. Hoping to have this built by the weekend.

 

[yman182]

Built my degassing chamber.

Did a leak test today, but haven’t hooked it up to the RO system yet.

It holds about 2 gallons of water.

I am using 2 air stones which I think will provide ample oxygen to degas.

I tested the XP Aqua RO buddy and it worked as expected turning water off when the tank got full.

I will be hooking it up to my RODI system tomorrow. Hoping for good results!

I am really hoping this helps with my DI usage or this will get really expensive!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yman182]

Ran into issues with the degasser. The Xperia aqua doesn’t work as expected. Once it turns off, it has to be manually turned back on. I didn’t realize that when I got it.

The degasser is overflowing due to me making more water than gravity can push through my 4 DI stages.

I’m going to try and replace the xp Aqua with either a tunze ro contoller or the spectra pure ro contoller to stop the over flow and also get a aquatec 5800 delivery pump to pump the water from the degasser to the DI resin.

This is turning out to be a bigger project than expected!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yman182]

I think my water saga is finally complete. I have setup my degasser with the 5800 pump and my DI resin has lasted over 50 gallons with almost no color change!

Below is my full setup



It isn't pretty yet, but I wanted to do a proof of concept before I made the cabling look pretty. On the left you can see a 44 gallon brute trashcan that hold the aerated water. In the brute trashcan I have another airstone to reduce the CO2 down even further. After about 5 minutes in the brute trashcan the CO2 is down to below 10PPM vs the 95PPM I have coming in.

Closer look at the degasser.



Below you can see my demand pump sitting on the drinking water storage container. It pumps the CO2 depleted water from the brute to the DI resin at about .5gpm, but I seem to be getting less than that. My DI resin seems to be lasting a lot longer now and the speed at which I am pumping into the resin doesn't seem to be impacting its performance as I am still getting 0 TDS coming out of the anion stage.



Now on to actually getting the tank. I am hoping to get the tank sometime in mid November and the sump sometime in January...the waiting game begins...