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Steve’s Reef 265 Build (1 Viewer)

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steveb

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Well I’m FINALLY ready to start my build thread.

There have been many false starts and delays along the way but I am determined to get this tank up.

My tank is 84x24x30 tall. Its a used AGE I picked up from Fish Gallery probably two years ago now. Yes you read that right [emoji849]

The tank was in pristine condition but alas I have managed to put some scratches in the glass. Separate thread on the fun and joy of glass polishing to come.

The tank has an internal 80” or 82” weir and 60” external box built by Modular Marine. They have done several custom jobs for me and I can’t recommend them enough. Quality workmanship.

The stand is built by RJ’s Aquarium Stands. Rob has been wonderful to work with. I highly recommend giving him a call if your in the market for a custom or semi-custom stand. Thank you Rob!

You will note my stand is a more traditional design to match the decor of our sun room.

I also want to give a shout out to Urban Aquatics! David Rains and his employee came out in the rain and helped me get the tank up on the stand. Thanks guys!

I also want to thank my SUPER patient wife Lisa.

Deanna, Aron, Frank and Travis, thank you for helping me move the tank the 1st time! Y’all know what I’m talking about lol.

Oh and Cody for talking me down when I was about to go crae crae on my sump and generally harassing me about the length of time my tank has been empty.



Here are some pics... more to come in a week or so.


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6c19c0d3cbd321ae17d903f7f2675a30.jpg





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Cody

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Now that he has finally posted this up, let me give my own synopsis of what has happened. Steve spent over two years looking at this tank and doing nothing. He bought it second hand and let it dry in his sun room for a couple years because of a couple slight scratches that he wanted to remove, but never had the time to do, plus you can't really see the "scratches" when it has water in it anyway. He also had a custom sump built from a local guy that wasn't built to specifications, which took him about six months before he had me come over and fix it. He then went through literally three stands to get to where he is at now, wasted two years worrying about problems that he finally gave up on and were never issues to begin with, and now has the gorgeous tank that he always had but could never stop being OCD and just let it happen. Sound about right, Steve? Haha!

Glad you're back into the big tank game and trucking along :)
 
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steveb

steveb

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Steve’s 265 Build

Lol it was only one stand but you are correct about the scratches, and not being happy with the sump.

As far as the sump goes..

In my defense I was going to cut the support off and re-glue another one on. However Cody’s fix was much faster and involved less overall risk. However I still obsess over it and have wanted to remove it more than once. What can I say?

This is the fix we are talking about...

2f0b1e12d997fdc4ee5e56c2697418c1.jpg


Basic construction 101
Two ledges holding up something should be even/parallel

Basic business + being a decent human being... Don’t lie to paying customers and try to cover up your mistakes.. no matter what it costs you.

You would have thought the vendor would have more pride in his work and correct the mistake before ever calling me letting me know it’s ready. To make it worse he flat out lied and made up some BS story about rubber feet to cushion the part that relies on those rails being even. Those rubber feet were strategically placed to fill the low spot in the rail.

This is why it’s important that they are even/parallel, those rails hold a filter sock box.

412b21075e67c356410ea06beb45f734.jpg


Bad on me for not paying close enough attention to throw the BS flag. I noticed about 6 months later when I was doing some test fitting on the original stand.

Cody’s quick fix works.

So I have gotten it off my chest.. Enough with the trials and tribulations..

I have a build to do and some scratches to remove.


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steveb

steveb

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Here are the lights that I need to get into the canopy along with some 60” t5’s.

Lol
4x300w marsaqua leds
f933a1e7f101b652ead84f6f339786f3.jpg


2x165w marsaqua leds
36c9e72e57282675b5fc542d5c85db13.jpg



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RR-MAN

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Great start Steve! I really like the room and where the tank is sitting.

I'm curious to see your light fixture set up. I'm thinking T5s and leds next year.

Just curious - why did you sell your other brand new large tank? The one that got a way from me. I thought you were moving or something.
 
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steveb

steveb

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Great start Steve! I really like the room and where the tank is sitting.

I'm curious to see your light fixture set up. I'm thinking T5s and leds next year.

Just curious - why did you sell your other brand new large tank? The one that got a way from me. I thought you were moving or something.

Unemployed for 8 months. Was trying to keep it but in the end just needed money to pay bills.
 

Cody

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Here are the lights that I need to get into the canopy along with some 60” t5’s.

Lol
4x300w marsaqua leds
f933a1e7f101b652ead84f6f339786f3.jpg


2x165w marsaqua leds
36c9e72e57282675b5fc542d5c85db13.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

How many t5s are you planning on using? How are you organizing everything? I plan on running the black boxes down the middle and then two t5s on each side.
 
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steveb

steveb

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How many t5s are you planning on using? How are you organizing everything? I plan on running the black boxes down the middle and then two t5s on each side.

not sure yet. most likely front to back t5 led t5 t5 led t5
 

BenLe

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Awesome Setup Steve. Tagging along for a ride

Ben Le
 

sneezebeetle

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Glad to see things are finally coming along!

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sneezebeetle

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Looking forward to watching it all come together.

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Now that he has finally posted this up, let me give my own synopsis of what has happened. Steve spent over two years looking at this tank and doing nothing. He bought it second hand and let it dry in his sun room for a couple years because of a couple slight scratches that he wanted to remove, but never had the time to do, plus you can't really see the "scratches" when it has water in it anyway. He also had a custom sump built from a local guy that wasn't built to specifications, which took him about six months before he had me come over and fix it. He then went through literally three stands to get to where he is at now, wasted two years worrying about problems that he finally gave up on and were never issues to begin with, and now has the gorgeous tank that he always had but could never stop being OCD and just let it happen. Sound about right, Steve? Haha!

Glad you're back into the big tank game and trucking along :)

Sounds about like my tank journeys. One imperfection and I’m ready to throw everything in the garbage can.

I think we all hold high expectations for our reefs. :)
 
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Lol it was only one stand but you are correct about the scratches, and not being happy with the sump.

As far as the sump goes..

In my defense I was going to cut the support off and re-glue another one on. However Cody’s fix was much faster and involved less overall risk. However I still obsess over it and have wanted to remove it more than once. What can I say?

This is the fix we are talking about...

2f0b1e12d997fdc4ee5e56c2697418c1.jpg


Basic construction 101
Two ledges holding up something should be even/parallel

Basic business + being a decent human being... Don’t lie to paying customers and try to cover up your mistakes.. no matter what it costs you.

You would have thought the vendor would have more pride in his work and correct the mistake before ever calling me letting me know it’s ready. To make it worse he flat out lied and made up some BS story about rubber feet to cushion the part that relies on those rails being even. Those rubber feet were strategically placed to fill the low spot in the rail.

This is why it’s important that they are even/parallel, those rails hold a filter sock box.

412b21075e67c356410ea06beb45f734.jpg


Bad on me for not paying close enough attention to throw the BS flag. I noticed about 6 months later when I was doing some test fitting on the original stand.

Cody’s quick fix works.

So I have gotten it off my chest.. Enough with the trials and tribulations..

I have a build to do and some scratches to remove.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

That filter sock box is sick!
 
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steveb

steveb

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Steve’s 265 Build

Thanks! Designed it myself.

Supposed to have siporax under it. May just do a refugium their instead but maintenance would be a pain.




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I really like that room. I’m jealous of all you home owners and hopefully one day I can take the plunge.

Looks like it’s gonna be a fantastic build!

I can tell you...the amount of work to get everything ready to get a reef running the right way will baffle your mind. It seems like you can work 12 hours on every day you have off and the days go by so quickly. So much to be done and so little time when you work fulltime and have kids. You just gotta keep plugging away and eventually everything comes together in the end.

I’ve worked so much sometimes that I feel sick to my stomach even thinking about going out to the garage. Sometimes you just gotta take a break or just bite the bullet and hammer down.

Glad to see that the first phase is over. Now the plumbing begins!
 
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Thanks! Designed it myself.

Supposed to have siporax under it. May just do fuge their instead.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I can tell you...filter socks are extremely useful is the first 6 months and even down the road. Being able to catch detritus and “easily remove and add new socks” is priceless!

Not to mention how well they polish the water. Throw six 10 micron felt socks in there that evening and watch how Crystal clear the tank is the following morning or even that night.
 
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steveb

steveb

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Well I finally got up the nerve to actually start polishing the scratches out of the front glass of my tank.

I have only done steps 1 & 2 out of 3.

8d2ac460fbf4e573b3deddbde3c5ea11.jpg


6bad0dff8541e706996fc22e1d3c2ada.jpg


So after I am done with 3 I will have either removed the scratch or wrecked my tank.

Any wagers?




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