Echoreef's 250 Gallon Upgrade

[echoreef]

I am finally ready to upgrade my 120 gallon SPS tank to a 250. The extra room is much needed since the fish and corals have outgrown my current tank. My hope is everything is up and running by year end.

Equipments:

Lee-Mar starphire glass aquarium 72x30x27
100 gallon sump by Advanced Acrylics
36 inches tall matching stand build by Lee-Mar
Reef Savvy ghost overflow
Pacific Sun Pandora LED/T5
3 Vortech MP40w ES
Vertex Alpha 250 skimmer
GEO 618 calcium reactor
Genesis Renew Pro automatic water change
Reeflo Dart/Snapper Gold Hybrid return pump

[echoreef]

Here are some designs that were given to Lee-Mar and Advanced Acrylics to build the tank and sump respectively.

[echoreef]

I was lucky enough to snag a Vertex Alpha 250 skimmer for half the price of a new one.

[echoreef]

The cherry wood floor is not going to be able to support this huge tank. On top of that, I am worried about the potential water damage. So the place where the tank goes is changed to marble.

[echoreef]

The sump was just picked up from Advanced Acrylics yesterday. This is a thing of beauty. John did an awesome job with helping me design the sump for what I need. I wanted as large of a sump as I can get to fit under the stand. The sump has the capacity to hold 100 gallon of water. I plan on using the refugium to grow macro algae and have a couple of seahorses in there. There are two 1.5" holes that will come down from the overflow to the sump using beananimal's overflow. The emergency overflow will go to the skimmer section just so that I can tell when the other two overflows are not functioning.

These were my criteria:

Dimension (48x24x20)
Oxygen Tower
Dual Filter Socks
Refugium
Probes Holder

[echoreef]

Here are pictures of the socks and skimmer inside the sump. Perfect fit.

[echoreef]

The order for 40 pounds of pukani rocks from bulkreefsupply just came. I took an initial measurement of PO4 and the level is pretty high. I have started to cook these rocks using a swimming pool product to remove phosphate. I plan to add these rocks along with transferring rocks from my 120 gallon to have a total of about 150 pounds.

[VW REEFS]

sweet looking stuff ...that is going to be a really nice set up

[ReEfErAdDiCt]

Wow looks like this is going to be a nice build. Very well thought out. That swimming pool po4 removal product kinda scares me though. Never seen it used before.

[Carq91]

This is looking great already bud!!!!

[echoreef]

Wow looks like this is going to be a nice build. Very well thought out. That swimming pool po4 removal product kinda scares me though. Never seen it used before.

I was scared too when I first used the product. It doesn't take much to reduce phosphate since the bottle is meant to treat thousands of gallons of swimming pool water. I only dose a couple of teaspoon. Within a few days, phosphate should no longer leach from the dry rocks. The good thing about this is that it has proven to work in my current 120 gallon tank. I removed phosphate from some dry rocks within a few days and added the rocks to my fully stock tank with no ill effect.

[h20poloman]

right on! Looking forward to it. You'll have to PM me your SPS list

[ReEfErAdDiCt]

I was scared too when I first used the product. It doesn't take much to reduce phosphate since the bottle is meant to treat thousands of gallons of swimming pool water. I only dose a couple of teaspoon. Within a few days, phosphate should no longer leach from the dry rocks. The good thing about this is that it has proven to work in my current 120 gallon tank. I removed phosphate from some dry rocks within a few days and added the rocks to my fully stock tank with no ill effect.

Oh cool. Well if it's proven then I'm all for it. Might have to try it out when I upgrade😊

[echoreef]

I picked up the bottle of Phos Free from Leslie's Pool Supplies. There are many people that have similar success using this product to eliminate PO4 from dry rocks. You can find these threads on reefcentral.

[ReEfErAdDiCt]

Awesome, thanks for the info!