400 Gallon Starphire Build - Mixed Reef

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   I had completely given up on this tank more than once with it being broken 2 times and another delay during the Summer.  If I did not had the support of several fish store owners and handful of other local hobbyists keeping my spirits up, this would have never happened and I would be out of the hobby completely.  For that, I thank you and you know who you are.  Well, here we go...     
Been in the hobby since 2000. I've had nanos and a 120 mixed reef. This is going to be a mixed reef build focusing on mainly SPS and some LPS. I really like the look of a white sand bed with NOTHING in it. I will have sand sifters and some Gobies to help keep it clean. This build I am going to stay away from crabs and snails because I'm sick of picking them out of the sand and focus on filtration to keep everything under control. Sand bed will be about 2 inches deep and I'm going to do it like I did my other tank and just stir it up on a weekly basis so it stays White. If anyone here has constructive criticism or any suggestions, hit me up. I want to hear it. I've been in this hobby for a long time, but I've never actually never done a build job myself. I've looked at 100's of systems and have watched 1,000's of youtube videos of tanks and I THINK I know what I'm doing . I'm sure I will run into some bumps, but I've got a lot of advice from local hobbyist's and store owners. Anyway, thanks for following and enjoy.

So I've basically come up with some guidelines for myself I want for my tank now and as time goes on.  I've taken what I like from some of the best tanks in the world and pieced together this build. Here is what I've come up with.

With my White sand bed...
No crabs or snails
No corals in the sand, everything will be attached to the rock
Every piece of rock structure will be 4 inches away from any wall. I want fish to be able to swim in front and behind.  
Quarantine every piece of livestock for 3-4 weeks
I've seen many tanks successfully ran this way, so I'm going to try it.  

I put the tank on the stand last weekend and hopefully I will get to start plumbing it this weekend.  

Leemar 96 X 30 X 32 - Starphire - 399 gallons (Yes, I'm rounding to 400. haha) - My original build was only going to be 24 tall, but after seeing Tilemans tank at 36 tall, I didn't care how hard it was to reach the bottom and work. I wanted that awesome view. I got a quote from Leemar on 36 tall and they had to go 3/4 inch glass with the quote. The price was outrageous. They told me that 3/4 will double the price of pretty much any custom tank build they do that large. So I asked them how tall I could go with 5/8 so I could keep the cost down a little bit and they told me 32 high was the max. So that's how I ended up with that odd height. 

My stand was done by Dion and I absolutely love it. He exceeded my expectations, it was done on a timely manor and the quality is fantastic. I had them seal in the bottom of the stand with silicone as well. 

Custom Sump - Elite Aquatics is building a custom sump for me. 60 long and 17 inches wide with about a 9 inch water level. This was the biggest I could go because of the small space I have sliding it through the doors. I will have a chamber for my drains, then filter socks with emergency over flow, a place for my skimmer, refugium and then return. This sump will have lids and a place for my 1/4 inch tubing from my dosser and probes. Sump will be done this week.  

Skimmer - Reef Octopus DC 250 INT - It's rated for up to 500 gallons, so I should be okay for a couple of years until it gets fully stocked and then I will upgrade if I have to. 

Lighting - 4- Ecotech Radion Pros - I've always been a metal hallide/T5 guy, but since this is a new build, I wanted to try LED. Doing lots of research on LED's I decided to go with the Radion Pros. 

Reactors - I picked up a Vertex reactor and I'm going to try doing bio pellets this time. Why? I don't know. I just want to see how they work and again, this is a new build, so I wanted to try some new things I haven't tried before. If I'm unhappy, I will go back to GFO/Carbon and a Korallin biodenitrator set up I had before. 

Return Pump - I picked up 2 Reef Octopus DCS 10500 return pumps. My original thought was to run both of them at the same time and turn the variable speed down to about 50%. After speaking to a handful of people on various forums and groups, I decided to just go with 1 return pump and keep 1 for back up. 

Plumbing - Schedule 80 - I just like the way it looks, so I'm going with it.  I'm doing durso drains in the over flows and keeping them high with 1 emergency drain in each over flow. I have 4 holes in each overflow, so I will have 2 return lines coming up each side of the overflow.  

Dosing - I'm going with the Vertex Libra. Elite Aquatics is making me a box with 3 chambers in it. Each chamber will have 2.5 gallons of space. Tyler is going to build a custom shelf that sits on top of the box for my Libra to sit on top of. I will then take the 1/4 inch tubing from the Libra directly into the chambers and then into the sump.

Flow - I'm putting 3 MP40 Vortech's on the back wall in each space and then putting an MP60 on each end of the tank. If the flow is not enough, I will add 2 more MP40's.  

Controller - Neptune - I will do the typical PH, ORP and Temp probes and will be adding one for salinity as well. I'm adding an extra 8 bar, WXM module for my Ecotech products and a Leak detection module with 2 floor probes. 

Live Sand - I will be adding about 200 lbs of the special grade arag alive sand for about a 2 inch sand bed. I think I calculated it right... 

Live Rock - I really wanted to try Ceramic rock this time, but some of you kind of talked me out of it. So I have about 300 lbs of live rock from my 120 I'm going to use and I'm currently hunting for another 150 lbs of the larger rock. Most of the stuff I have now is the typical 3-5 lb rock. 

UV - Leaning towards an Emperor Aquatics High Output UV 80 watt

Ozone - I'm not sure yet, any suggestions would be appreciated. 

This tank was placed in my front room. You can see it from the street when you drive into my circle. Everyone at night time in my neighborhood would stand in the street staring at my 120 because of how awesome it looked with that glow. Wait until they see this thing 

Here is a shot of my tank about a day before I sold it. 

Allen helped me tear this thing down.  I ended up selling the livestock to some of you in here and the tank to a couple down south.  

All clean and ready for the new owners. 

I needed to keep the rock alive, so I filled up bins and put sand in the bottom from my tank, light, pump, etc.  This one is currently in my laundry room.  My wife LOVES having my stuff all over the house.   yeah right... 

I ended up ripping out the carpet and getting rid of that stupid red wall.  

Here is a shot of the final paint job and the stand with the canopy on top of it.  

Getting this into the house was not fun.  It took 8 guys.  My door was 34 3/4 wide.  The stand was 34 5/8, so I had 1/8 of an inch to spare. I ended up taking good old duct tape and put it around the crown molding so it didn't scratch it up.  We damaged the door a little bit, but it's all for the cause, right?  8 feet long and you can see how big it is with this shot.

Here is a shot of the tank. 

And my 14 year old Weimeraner 