New 240 build

Yeah, I went bigger. I took the 180 down and sold it.
Here is the new one.


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I re-did some of the plumbing and redesigning the sump.
The plumbing was running directly over the sump so I could not get my skimmer in it.
Also the way the main sump is baffled it will not hold a consistant water level. So I will be adding a 10" tall baffle to hold the water level consitant for the skimmer. There is also not refugium space.
So I picked up a 21x22x18 section that I am going to plumb into the left side of the main sump.
I am going to section it off. One side of it is going to be the refugium and the other section is going to be for holding the freshwater for the auto top off.

I added water to the sump first to make sure all the bulkheads were not leaking and the return pump worked. Alls good!

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I started filling the tank last sunday. It is almost full.
As of this evening I have two powerheads set in their permanent place. And the heater.
I have an eheim 1262 pump in the tank pumping water thru a filter sock, where I am pouring the salt mix into.
Two bags of salt mixing so far.
Still have about 50 gallons of water to go to fill the tank.

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Oh, its a custom built 250 gal tank. Now it wont be filled to the very top, so it will be only about 230 gals.

awesome i dont keep any saltwater tanks but would love a tank that size

Wow! Any updates on the setup?

Oh, yeah, actually there is.
I got all the rock and coral moved into it a week ago today.
Am waiting a few weeks to add the fish. They are being treated to make sure they dont go back in with any parasites. The blue hippo has been getting a parasite of some kind for months now. Doesnt seem to be bothering him, but I want to get rid of them.
I have radion LEDs for lighting, but I only had 3, so the 4th one is on order. Should be here by friday.

So here it is currently.

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Tank looks fantastic, no substrate??? Also checked out your LEDs on line as I had never heard of them. Good golly Molly those are some spendy lights, what makes them so special??

Well they are completely programmable to do just about anything you want them too...except fix dinner.
Anyway, you plug your computer into one and they all talk to each other wirelessly. There are also power heads that control the flow in the tank that will connect to them wirelessly. You can create waves and thunder & lightning storms and it will do it all on its own at random times. Or in my case, I do not have the pumps and the fish freaked out on the lightning storm, so I have it set to come on just like dawn at 10 am and off like dusk at 11 pm and it ramps up the lighting to what color configurations I program it to thru out the morning and then back down later in the day.

At this point, no...no substrate. I might add a fine layer of sand, but I think the flow is too much in there for any sand. We'll see.

I thought sand was part of the bio part or an important part of it in a SW tank?

A deep sand bed can be benificial. It can also cuase problems over time. I have another tank that has sand in it and I am having a real bad algae issue in that tank. My other tanks, one is bare bottom and it does great, the other has a thin layer of sand in it. It is doing very good with some build up here and there of algae or cyano once in a while.
The big part of filtration is the rock. The more rock the better. I am planning on adding more rock to the middle of the tank.

Well I got the last light last weekend so the tank is fully lit.
thought I would share a few pics

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Very clean looking set up. I love it! Nice job. That probably set you back a few $$$.

wow very nice

That tank and all inside look absolutely amazing, very nice work.

that's a awesome saltwater setup! and your pictures really make those corals(not sure if they are????) come to life.

Very nice, still think it needs sand :wink:

Thank you everyone for the great comments.
Yes all the coral is live and yes I will be adding sand . not much, just enough to cover the bottom.

lets see if this works.
here is a video of the tank.

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another video

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Sweet setup!! Reminds me of my 360 gallon when it was setup. I, too, kept just a thin layer of sand on the bottom for asthetic purposes. All your corals will look awesome when they grow out. Where are you getting most of your corals? Have you thought about keeping macroalgae in your sump to keep down phosphates/nitrates?

very classy setup. thanks for showing it off!!!!

thanks everyone. I do keep macro algae in my sump. I just didn't have any yet when I took those pics.