Reef nutrition

Michael's 168 build

Why not? I’m considering what to do with my new place...
Ask and ye shall receive.

Here is the construction post.... No reefing here, just engineering and construction. Disclaimer, I did some of this myself, but was supervised by a professional general contractor with drawings that were signed off by a real structural engineer. I was and still am super happy with the remodel and specifically my general contractor. If anyone ever needs an opinion, or real work done in the bay, let me know and I will put you in touch. He is a huge reason this turned out as well as it did. Thank you Jesse at Buildsmith Construction!


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Here is the room before we broke any walls. The back left corner is where the reef tank will live eventually. In short, we wanted to remove the wall there there was one, and add a wall to the small section of area where there isn't a wall.



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Destruction mode!


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We had to get under the floor to dig some holes where new concrete footings will go. The sub floor is 2" thick, interlocking tongue and groove. This means the floor by itself can support a large load. The beams under the sub floor are 4"x6"s at 4 foot on center. (I will double check with my GC later on these numbers). Even though the floor is strong, it likely isn't strong enough to put a car in my living room, or in this case a reef tank which weighs more than my friends Miata.


I got under the house and dug a hole, it was as fun as it sounds. I at least figured out that we could use the Sawzall with an old blade as a mini jack hammer to loosen the dirt, because the dirt here in Sunnyvale is hard clay.




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Rebar on concrete risers in a hole.

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A frame for the footing was built, and the rebar inspected by the city prior to the pour.


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And concrete was poured around the rebar.

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The subfloor was filled back in, and some lumbar added to support the ridge beam, which holds up the roof. We also framed out the window for the pass through on the tank. We let the kitchen designer make the house the way that the house should feel without the tank, then we designed the tank to fit the remaining space. We worked with the electrician early on to get extra outlets with high gauge wire to the tank. We also added some additional strength to the ceiling over the tank as we were thinking of doing a hanging lights at one point, but that was a very far distance to hang, so we went another direction with the light mounting.


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Spray foam was added to the ceiling for Title 22 energy compliance.


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Here we are sizing the tank with the couch and the island. Getting a feel for the room while you are in it was invaluable to the outcome. Originally we were thinking of an 18" wide tank. Then it turned into 24" when I saw how small the gallon size was with 18". Then, we were only 6" away from the edge of the tank being directly over the concrete footing, so in the end, to the chagrin of my designer, we ended up with a 30" wide tank.

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We talked with the hvac team and decided it would be ok to have an inlet this high away from the tank. We did add some height to the inlet to keep it away from any salt. There were some humidity concerns, but they are negated due to the size of the room the tank is in. The drywall was added after framing and insulation. We decided that due to the low cost of drywall and paint, we would not take any precautions for the drywall and plan on replacing it when the day comes that the tank is no longer wanted in that location. We can also fill in the pass through with drywall to give a more blocked feel if the tank is removed as well. For the record, I do not plan on taking this down ever.
 
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This post starts to have some reefing but is still construction.

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Here is finished drywall and paint on the walls. The skylights have blinds, but the ocean gets plenty of natural light, so we weren't too worried about direct light in the tank.

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Floors went in after.

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Welded the stand I designed. From above, 2" square stock steel, 1/8" wall thickness.

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Made sure the outlets were not behind a steel piece and the stand is level. Then weight tested! But I don't think I am really heavy enough to test anything as the stand weighs about as much as I do.


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Screwed the stand to the house, so if one goes down, it takes the other with it. All or nothing!


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And here is the finished tank on the stand.

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I opted for egg crate under my rocks.

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We matched the shelf here with the backsplash in the kitchen (leftover material for the win). I used a ghost overflow from Synergy purchased at Neptune and for plumbing went with the bean animal style drain.





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Here you can get a pretty good look at the plumbing. Note the high pressure manifold out the middle with the black ball valve that I turned into my "in tank salt mixing station" I started with filter socks, but quickly ditched them.
 
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Ask and ye shall receive.

Here is the construction post.... No reefing here, just engineering and construction. Disclaimer, I did some of this myself, but was supervised by a professional general contractor with drawings that were signed off by a real structural engineer.


View attachment 27064

Here is the room before we broke any walls. The back left corner is where the reef tank will live eventually. In short, we wanted to remove the wall there there was one, and add a wall to the smallt section of area where there isn't a wall.



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Destruction mode!


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We had to get under the floor to dig some holes where new concrete footings will go. The sub floor is 2" thick, interlocking tongue and groove. This means the floor by itself can support a large load. The beams under the sub floor are 4"x6"s at 4 foot on center. (I will double check with my GC later on these numbers). Even though the floor is strong, it likely isn't strong enough to put a car in my living room, or in this case a reef tank which weighs more than my friends Miata.


I got under the house and dug a hole, it was as fun as it sounds. I at least figured out that we could use the Sawzall with an old blade as a mini jack hammer to loosen the dirt, because the dirt here in Sunnyvale is hard clay.




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Rebar on concrete risers in a hole.

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A frame for the footing was built, and the rebar inspected by the city prior to the pour.


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And concrete was poured around the rebar.

View attachment 27075
The subfloor was filled back in, and some lumbar added to support the ridge beam, which holds up the roof. We also framed out the window for the pass through on the tank. We let the kitchen designer make the house the way that the house should feel without the tank, then we designed the tank to fit the remaining space. We worked with the electrician early on to get extra outlets with high gauge wire to the tank. We also added some additional strength to the ceiling over the tank as we were thinking of doing a hanging lights at one point, but that was a very far distance to hang, so we went another direction with the light mounting.


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Spray foam was added to the ceiling for Title 22 energy compliance.


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Here we are sizing the tank with the couch and the island. Getting a feel for the room while you are in it was invaluable to the outcome. Originally we were thinking of an 18" wide tank. Then it turned into 24" when I saw how small the gallon size was with 18". Then, we were only 6" away from the edge of the tank being directly over the concrete footing, so in the end, to the chagrin of my designer, we ended up with a 30" wide tank.

View attachment 27074

We talked with the hvac team and decided it would be ok to have an inlet this high away from the tank. We did add some height to the inlet to keep it away from any salt. There were some humidity concerns, but they are negated due to the size of the room the tank is in. The drywall was added after framing and insulation. We decided that due to the low cost of drywall and paint, we would not take any precautions for the drywall and plan on replacing it when the day comes that the tank is no longer wanted in that location. We can also fill in the pass through with drywall to give a more blocked feel if the tank is removed as well. For the record, I do not plan on taking this down ever.
Damn, that's a nice remodel overall. Noticed you vaulted the ceilings. Was the roof structure already like that? If not, did you have to add extra structural supports?

And very smart to add the supports underneath the tank! That's added piece-of-mind for a huge investment.
 
Damn, that's a nice remodel overall. Noticed you vaulted the ceilings. Was the roof structure already like that? If not, did you have to add extra structural supports?

And very smart to add the supports underneath the tank! That's added piece-of-mind for a huge investment.

The roof line on the front face of the house we kept, but we angled the roofline on the rear of the house. You might be able to make out the asymmetry when looking at the ridge beam. It adds to the overall volume of the room with minimal changes in the framing. Yes, we added 3 beams overhead to support the roof, in addition to the sistering of the new roof timber to the old. All of the structural portion I let the professionals who sign the drawings take care of. Although I did bruise my shoulder installing the 300 lb glue lam beam
 
The roof line on the front face of the house we kept, but we angled the roofline on the rear of the house. You might be able to make out the asymmetry when looking at the ridge beam. It adds to the overall volume of the room with minimal changes in the framing. Yes, we added 3 beams overhead to support the roof, in addition to the sistering of the new roof timber to the old. All of the structural portion I let the professionals who sign the drawings take care of. Although I did bruise my shoulder installing the 300 lb glue lam beam
Ahhh...I see what you're talking about with the roofline -- didn't notice until you pointed it out, tho'. So, the roof already had rafters? I ask because we wanted to vault our ceilings, too, but ended up with a truss roof...bummer.
 
Thank you @Baykes for the cement. I took my post digger, which is a big steel rod with a blade on one end, and broke apart my biggest rocks that were in my sump. I then cemented the rocks that looked like they would fit together into 5 pairs. One fell apart, but I was able to take 2 set of pairs and cement them together to make 2 long pieces, and 1 shorter piece. I let the cement cure for a few hours, rinsed it off with salt water, then stuck them in my sump to cure. I plan is to test fit these in the tank after a day of curing in my sump, the use the 2 part epoxy to stick the best fitting one in front of my current arch. I plan to add additional small rocks as needed for support to keep things sturdy.


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Hopefully one of these will fit in my space. Being an engineer has taught me to have a backup plan, then have a plan for that backup.
 
Ahhh...I see what you're talking about with the roofline -- didn't notice until you pointed it out, tho'. So, the roof already had rafters? I ask because we wanted to vault our ceilings, too, but ended up with a truss roof...bummer.
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Before the roof came off.


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Here you can see the old, symmetric roof line and the rafters that supported them.



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Then when it came down to this point, I asked why cant we take those 15 or so beams out, and rebuild with more internal volume. Jesse (my GC) agreed that was a better idea and we went with that.

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Added the new rafters, at the new angle here.

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From the other side.

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Here is a good shot of the roof support on the new side.
 
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Before the roof came off.


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Here you can see the old, symmetric roof line and the rafters that supported them.



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Then when it came down to this point, I asked why cant we take those 15 or so beams out, and rebuild with more internal volume. Jesse (my GC) agreed that was a better idea and we went with that.

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Added the new rafters, at the new angle here.

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From the other side.

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Here is a good shot of the roof support on the new side.

:D...Wow, so cool. That's living my dream: A vaulted ceiling & wall-build aquarium. Got me & my wife talking about what to do if we won the lotto: extra high vault w/ a loft 2nd floor, knocking down walls to expand the living room, placing an XL wall-build talk.... "But first, the kitchen", is what she ended that with...lol.
 
:D...Wow, so cool. That's living my dream: A vaulted ceiling & wall-build aquarium. Got me & my wife talking about what to do if we won the lotto: extra high vault w/ a loft 2nd floor, knocking down walls to expand the living room, placing an XL wall-build talk.... "But first, the kitchen", is what she ended that with...lol.
Yeah, it started smaller, but then as we broke into thinks it became apparent we had to do everything as the house was built in 1957 with plumbing and electrical that was designed to last 50 years.



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Don't put copper pipe next to wrought iron without a brass joiner, Right @Srt4eric ?


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This was my drain line.


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That's definitely not right...

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Or that...
 
Yeah, it started smaller, but then as we broke into thinks it became apparent we had to do everything as the house was built in 1957 with plumbing and electrical that was designed to last 50 years.



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Don't put copper pipe next to wrought iron without a brass joiner, Right @Srt4eric ?


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This was my drain line.


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That's definitely not right...

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Or that...
Yeah, we have stuff like that lurking around our house, too. It's a scary thought, but things get tight when paying for mortgage/rent in the Bay.... Maybe if I stopped buying colorful, underwater sticks....
 
You shut your mouth! That's crazy talk!
Me: Honey, we're a bit short on the boys' college fund.
Wife: Oh no....
Also me: Yeah, and can you keep an eye out for FedEx tomorrow?
Wife: What'dya get?
Me: Just a great deal I found for you on Mother's Day. Something nice & colorful!
In my head: (...that's gonna look great in my aquarium!)

Ha...but f'real, there were some awesome Mother's Day sales over the weekend -- had to really hold back this time.
 
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Test fitting two of the arch pieces. I liked the fit of the rock on the left into that nook from the start, so I designed the arch accordingly. I have the wave maker there to blow an anemone out, I am trying to move them.

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I might cut the orange montipora setosa out to make a better base for the right side and to stretch the arch flatter.

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I got this piece still, maybe another piece on the far side, or add to it and make a weird standing structure out here?
 
I got the 2nd arch in!


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Light settings I usually run


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High blues

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Note my "Anenome Jail" I got another 3-4" one in there. I have made the decision to try to get all the rbta's that I can out. It seems like those are what people like in the 9 month to 2 year mark when the corals aren't taking off. Now that the tank is 2 1/2 years old, I kind of like the coral more than the anemones.



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I think my favorite piece right now are these rainbow acans. They have an awesome green, yellow to orange red transition on the sides.


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I am also digging my montipora plate right now. I am looking forward to these growing in and covering the flat rock.


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I got a few of these from fellow reefers. Thank you @Squist , @Coral reefer , @Jonathan Chia and @The_Lazy_Reefer for the awesome frags!
 
I have seen a lot of posts about people afraid to tear into their rockwork lately. I am here to tell you that it is ok to break your rocks apart! You can cement/epoxy them back together better than they were before.

Here are some pictures from when my big arch collapsed and I was trying to make it work while forming the 2nd arch.

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My frag rack is looking cool these days. Maybe time to put zoas on rocks, and move zoa colonies out of the tank. I am slowly trying to build the coral selection in my tank to be successful for the next few years and not need constant pruning.


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@nly04 brought over a few frags when we were testing his water so we used my new coral dip for the first time. I have the concentrated Coral RX, so the math came out to 6 drops in 3 cups of tank water. I took some cool videos of that came off and is swimming around in he dip water. Below is a still from the dip. As soon as I learn to put videos on youtube and link them here, I can include the video.



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Flow!

Flow is something I am always thinking about, and tweaking. I started the tank with no wavemakers, and slowly added them one at a time. Most recently, @Twisted was kind enough to come over to sell me one of his red sea reefware 45 gyre style wavemakers. It barely fits! I am using it to blow underneath my main rock structure. I am using that in conjunction with two other Maxspect Gyre XF350's that I have on each side on my back wall, and a Tunze 6035 (I'll have to double check which Tunze I have) that I can point and angle all over. I also recently added the RFG (random flow generators) to my main outputs on each side and really like the dispersion and randomness. I will think about how well I get flow to the other side of the tank, but my hope is the gyres can make it across. Everything I have set up to random flow. The gyres I can only run at 30-40% due to noise, while the red sea I can crank to 100? and not hear, so cool improvement. I am always on the hunt for a used MP40, but I might have run out of room to put it on my back wall. Input is welcome here!



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"I have seen a lot of posts about people afraid to tear into their rockwork lately."
Guilty...
I find it frustrating to stack everything back up and make it look nice again. I envy you!
 
"I have seen a lot of posts about people afraid to tear into their rockwork lately."
Guilty...
I find it frustrating to stack everything back up and make it look nice again. I envy you!
Part of the success here was I had a pretty good arch/cavey structure to begin with, and my two big mountains are built like pyramids, so they are inherently stable. That, and 6 sticks of epoxy...
 
Jebao and Tunze circulation pump will fit in you tank since you will put them on the back wall where they are not visible. Those two pump can angle the flow direction, you can point them to any death spot or place that need flow.
 
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