Well as a few of you know we have decided to upgrade. I am going to try to be good about a build thread this time.
The existing 220 gallon tank is down and the 520 gallon build has started. This tank will be inwall like the 220 was with a fishroom directly behind. The fish room was built and fully sealed off from the house with its own exhaust fan. So far 3 winters, around 1200g of saltwater running and no condensation anywhere in the house!!!
The new display tank will be a 520 Gallon Aquarium Obsessed glass tank that we picked up from a fellow hobbyist. Dimensions are 96" x 42" x 30" (L x W x H) with a center rear, external overflow box. Some of you know the tank, it was Tomasz' tank.
Tank will be an SPS reef tank with a fairly high fish bioload. Also hooked into the system will be a 6' 100g and a 6' 150g that are utilized for fish conditioning and also to house a few species I am working on breeding.
System Statisitics So Far:
Electrical: Five Dedicated 20 amp circuits, all GFCI protected.
Display Tank: 520g 96" x 42" x 30" AO Glass Tank, Starfire Front
Stand: 37" tall 2" Square Steel Construction with rear catwalk / platform, coated in white Herculiner Bed Liner
Sumps: Two 36" x 30" x 18" glass tanks plumbed together with four 2" bulkheads. This way I can still remove them if ever needed when the tank is in place. If a single large sump was gone with it could not be removed in one piece after the tank was in place.
Lighting: Three 400w Halides, 20k Radiums SE, in Luminarc LA III Reflectors. Four 48" Reef Brite LED Blue Strips.
Protein Skimmers: Bubble King Delux 300 Internal and Bubble King Supermarin 250. Total water volume will be between 800 and 900 gallons so I wanted strong skimming potential.
Water Flow: Two Reeflow Dart Closed Loops with Oceans Motions 4 Ways for background / general flow. Vortech MP40s (maybe 60s) will be added as needed.
Return Pumps: Three ATB Flow Star 1500s, one to feed the back 100g and 150g and two to the 520g. Returns in the 520 will be through 1" Sea-Swirls. Multiple pumps are run for redundancy, each on a different circuit.
UV / Ozone: I am planning on having two 40w Rainbow UVs plumbed into each return pump. This way if nedded, all return water will flow through the UVs. Planning on not running them all, all the time. Each set of two UVs has a Rainbow Mechanical fiter unit before it to remove any sediment or particles from the water so the UVs will be the most effective possible. I also have a 100mg Red Sea Ozone unit I was running on the current 220 but not planning on utilizing this on the new build.
Calcium / Alkalinity Control: Geo 818 Calcium Reactor, with Cole Parmer Dosing Pump and Reef Fanatic Solenoid and pH Controller. I also have a 6" Diameter GEO Kalk reactor I am considering using.
Water Changes: Litermeter Automatic Water Change Setup, changing 15 gallons daily.
Controller / Monitor: Apex setup to mostly monitor, will also be monitoring our 60g NPS and 520g Freshwater Stingray Tanks
Rock: I have around 400 lbs of Haitian Dry Rock here, will be seeded with some live rock.
Sand: 2" or so, Caribsea Special Sea Floor Grade Sand
I have been accumulating all the equipment the last few months and now that I have it all, the project can officially start I will get pics up tomorrow if I get a chance.
I built a ramp and platform to aid in moving the tank. Basically the tank currently is on a cart I built, I have concrete all the way to my walkout. We are pulling the slider out, will roll the tank in, up a slight ramp and onto a platform that will make the tank sitting about 3" higher then the stand. This way we do not have to do any vertical lifting of the tank, just slide it off the cart onto the stand.
Got the drywall nearly 100% done, the mud took a little longer to dry then I expected, should have put a dehumidifier or fan in there to speed it up. I finished where the tank is going. I still have some finish sanding and likely one last coat to do on the outside of the wall.
Also drilled four holes in the eurobracing today in order to be closed loop returns. These are in the front for 1" bulkheads.
I also replaced a GFCI outlet in one of my circuits that was just not acting quite right so that is all resolved as well.
Other then that not much else to report today. Aquascaping is all done (outside of the tank), I really like how it came out. My wife did a great job with it, much nicer then I expected....this was I think attempt #3-4, this is the official one now.....she likes it as much as I do Before I liked it but she did not.
Looks like Monday my Hawaii fish will be arriving, well not all are Hawaiian but coming from there. If they acclimate well and these should be some nice additions. One for the 520 and one for our colder tank upstairs.
Here is a quick pic of the stand before we moved it in, it is coated in white herculiner. The brackets on the left side of the pic is for the catwalk along the back of the tank.
Here is a couple shots of the ramp and platform build to aid in the tank positioning, this worked perfectly! I also laid down plywood across my whole basement floor to protect the porcelein tile:
Stand in position - no action shots here just the after, basically it was lifted through the wall into the fish room:
Here is actual tank move pics, a couple anyhow:
Break time, up on the platform:
Push! Moving the tank off the cart it rested on and on the stand. This was easy, when we rolled the tank and cart onto the raised platform, it made the bottom of the tank about 3" higher then the top of the stand:
Will start working on the in tank, closed loop plumbing today. I also have to turn my nice new sumps into swiss cheese today. Between the two of them I have 11 holes to drill.
Also, today I will likely take apart the platform now (used it to aid in aquascaping) and finish the drywall on the outside of the fish room, then get it painted.
My wife enjoys the hobby, not as much as I think she use to but that is my fault. She loved it when we had around 150g of saltwater. Once we got over the 1000g mark she lost some interest. The upgrade, everything is going to be automatic (even looking at a robotic front algae scrubber).
Some of the most expensive aquatic animals we have were her pics.....not very many wife's would appreciate a clarion angel christmas present...
She is really enjoying the upstairs 60g rimless, non-photo, cold tank we set up a couple months ago the most. This tank needs its own build, it is coming along nicely - 65ish gallons of water, running at 65-69 degrees WITHOUT a chiller.....
...Some of the most expensive aquatic animals we have were her pics.....not very many wife's would appreciate a clarion angel christmas present...
She is really enjoying the upstairs 60g rimless, non-photo, cold tank we set up a couple months ago the most. This tank needs its own build, it is coming along nicely - 65ish gallons of water, running at 65-69 degrees WITHOUT a chiller.....
Keep us posted.... You have cool tanks... and a cool wife! Some spouses do nothing but complain about tanks...
Detroit's oldest large LED tank! Est'd Jan 2005, went LED June 2009. 6' wide 130g reef, Sunbrite T10 LED tubes (3xGen 3 and 1xGen 1), mostly SPS, but chalices, other LPS, and a few softies too. http://pjr-reef.blogspot.com/
Tanglovers 520g Build
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Originally Posted by tanglovers
