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Shovelhead's 250 Gallon Deep


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  1. #1
    shovelhead91701 - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    durant oklahoma
    Posts
    314
    First Name
    Shawn

    Default Shovelhead's 250 Gallon Deep

    All right folks, Yes I have a woodworking shop here at home, and no I haven't finished my cabinetry....lol I'm working on it!!!!!!!!

    This tank has been in the works for over 4 years. I started gathering up all of the things I would need and ordered the tank back then cause we knew we wanted to go bigger when we built our new house. The tank sat dry in my woodworking shop for 2 years until I got finished with the house. Let me tell you one thing..... when a piece of wood goes flying out of your wood shaper toward an expensive piece of glass like that tank you will have an accident all over yourself..... I had that happen twice! Luckily the tank survived my clumsiness and after getting the frame up to support it I called 6 of my biggest friends and we moved it into the new house. Several hernias later we had it set and I began to build the sump. I built the sump to fit under the stairwell behind the tank and during construction ran 4 dedicated circuits into the area behind the stairs to have plenty of power for all of the equipment.

    After getting that far life got in the way as it usually does and I didn't do any more work on the tank until about a year ago when my wife and kids hounded me to get the tank going. I started up the RO/DI unit and began to fill her up while I plumbed up all of the overflows, returns, etc. When I got it full I put in about 300 lbs. of old sand from our old tank that had been dry for all those years. I also put in about 100 lbs of new bagged live sand in at that point.

    I built a PVC rack and covered it with black pond foam that we use on water features to allow for a huge cave under my live rock. After letting this cure I put all of our dry old rock into the display and started the tank up. I actually never really had much time after that until about a month ago when I got motivated to test the water and everything tested out right on the money!

    The good water test got me excited so I went to my LFS and picked up my last piece of rock from my old tank(Thanks John, He kept that rock in one of his display tanks for me all those years and didn't charge me a dime even though it had mushrooms etc. on it) That rock in the tank plus about 100 each snails and crabs got me started again. I added a 16 oz. bottle of purple up over the last month and the coraline is coming on well on the rest of the dead rock and PVC rack.

    The first batch of livestock made me nervous cause of the quantity of animals.... We added 2 yellow tangs, a green goby, a mated pair of clownfish, a horned blennie, a regal tank, a green bubble tip anemone, 2 cleaner shrimp, 4 peppermint shrimp, 6 emerald crabs, 2 lettuce nudibranch, and 6 fighting conchs but everything made it through except for the regal tang and the horned blennie(both of which were lethargic when we got them).

    100 2259 - Shovelhead's 250 Gallon Deep
    100 2261 - Shovelhead's 250 Gallon Deep
    100 2262 - Shovelhead's 250 Gallon Deep
    100 2263 - Shovelhead's 250 Gallon Deep
    100 2265 - Shovelhead's 250 Gallon Deep
    Last edited by shovelhead91701; 08-19-2010 at 11:20 PM. Reason: adding pics
    The days are long and the work is difficult but every night I sleep as a man who has achieved his goals.

  2. #2
    Sir Patrick - Reefkeeper A2 Club Coordinator
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    UofM territory
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    Chris
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    Default

    Awsome man!!!!

  3. #3
    XSiVE - Reefkeeper
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    Waterford
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    576
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    Ryan
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    Default

    cool!

    what do you have lighting this thing?

  4. #4
    shovelhead91701 - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    durant oklahoma
    Posts
    314
    First Name
    Shawn

    Default lighting

    I bought four ballasts from my local electrical supply and bought two enclosures from a now defunct company in Canada and built it so that each enclosure is running two ballasts on switches with a cooling fan built in. Sry don't recall the specs on the ballasts..... that was 4 years ago when I built em and I ain't pulling it all apart to check at this point unless one fails....lol

    I am running 2 ushio 14k 400 watt bulbs and 2 icecap blue depth 20 k bulbs but they are cycleing on two timers so that two bulbs are on at a time.... One white, one actinic.

    You should see the glow with all 4 fired up.... the yard is bright outside the house for about 20 yards.....lol

    100 2258 - Shovelhead's 250 Gallon Deep
    Last edited by shovelhead91701; 08-20-2010 at 11:05 AM. Reason: adding pic
    The days are long and the work is difficult but every night I sleep as a man who has achieved his goals.

  5. #5
    streetrodder007 - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Fort Gratiot, MI
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    153
    First Name
    Bill

    Default

    very cool, keep up the good work.

  6. #6
    ReeferRob - Reefkeeper CR Member
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    Sep 2009
    Location
    CORAL CITY U.S.A
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    Rob
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    Can't wait to see more from that bad boy, tons of real estate and potential there!!!! Do you have plans to make two separate islands to possibly hide the overflows a bit?
    "We shouldn't think of an environment where livestock can survive, we should ensure an environment where livestock can thrive."-Rabidgoose
    "If it's gonna be that kinda party, Ima stick my ........ in the mashed potatoes!"-Beastie Boys

  7. #7
    shovelhead91701 - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    durant oklahoma
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    314
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    Shawn

    Default

    never really have been bothered by seeing the overflows..........till NOW!!!!!! Now I have an overflow complex!

    Just kidding...

    Nope no plans to rework it..... they don't bother me out in the open and I need the sand space for clams!
    Last edited by shovelhead91701; 08-20-2010 at 09:55 PM.
    The days are long and the work is difficult but every night I sleep as a man who has achieved his goals.

  8. #8
    shovelhead91701 - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    durant oklahoma
    Posts
    314
    First Name
    Shawn

    Default First real setback..........

    Well I screwed up big time last night...... I was gonna run a little ro/di water into the sump while I plumbed in the chiller I bought off Mike. Long story short I left it on all night and even with my sump designed to hold a lot of extra water in case of power failure I flooded my dining room and living room...... The worst part is all the runover and extra water dropped my salinity to 1.012. Corals are closed up looking pitiful but fish seem allright so far. Except I haven't seen any of my mandarins all day. Shopvac'ed till I was worn out and got dryers blowing on the carpet right now so the house will survive and hopefully the creatures will too. I have been bringing the salinity back up by added small doses of salt to the sump (after draining the excess fill water). once salinity is back up I will start testing for everything else(parameters). Wish me luck!
    The days are long and the work is difficult but every night I sleep as a man who has achieved his goals.

  9. #9
    ReeferRob - Reefkeeper CR Member
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    Rob
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    Yikes on the brain fart, good luck getting everything squared away!
    "We shouldn't think of an environment where livestock can survive, we should ensure an environment where livestock can thrive."-Rabidgoose
    "If it's gonna be that kinda party, Ima stick my ........ in the mashed potatoes!"-Beastie Boys

  10. #10
    Sir Patrick - Reefkeeper A2 Club Coordinator
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    Chris
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    Got my fingers crossed for ya!

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