mhowe9

Now the my cousin and I got the 245 gallon reef down stairs. (see http://www.reefaddicts.com/entry.php/767-Moving-the-new-245-G-with-2-people for details). I can explain what prompted my to do this and some preliminary plans. About a month ago we had our second child and decided to finish the basement. One of the impediments to the project was my current 180G reef, which I planned to build into the wall. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to upgrade. The only rule that I had was that I wanted to reuse as much of my current equipment as possible. Which led me to the current 245G display which is 72Lx30Wx26T. I also have a breeding setup which houses 13 pairs that will also be housed in the fish room. With that being said, here are my goals for this project.

1) Separate the breeding setup and the reef setup. Currently the two set up are connected with the same skimmer and sumps. While the systems are ok together, both would be better off separated due to the requirements of each system.

2) Better plan and organize the system with easy access to outlets, overflow, etc. Parts of the current system are difficult to access, since they added piece meal as I updated the system.

3) Use as many of the components that I have already as possible but upgrade where I can make the tank better. That consideration in the tank that I chose. I wanted the tank to be the same length so that I could reuse the lighting set up that I already have.

The equipment is listed below. I have noted what is new and what I was able to carry forward from the current system.

245G Great Lakes Aquarium Reef Ready Tank (new)
180G Sump the previous display (reused)
48L x 24W X 13T Frag Tank (new)
ASM G6 Skimmer (reused)
60" 8 bulb Tek Light T5 Fixture
2 - Reeflo Dart pumps (new)
1- Finnex 500 w heater with Ranco Controller (new)
2- Vortec MP20s (reused)
Mag 9 pump (resued)

Wish list
2-3 Sea Swirls

Here are some pictures of the new equipment that I picked up last Saturday (8/14/2010)

Reeflo Dart Pumps



New Frag Tank




Now that I have defined the goals and equipment, here some renderings of the before, after, and a more detailed fish room design.

Here is the general basement how it looks now.



Here is the new redesigned basement. The current fish room dimension are 11'x13'



Finally the Fish Room. The plan for my current 180G is to have it be the sump and live underneath the stand with skimmer for the stand sticking out from the side to house the skimmer. The rest of the sump will be filled with live rock and darkened to be a cryptic fuge.