August Posted May 23, 2010 Share Posted May 23, 2010 wooohoooo your hard work is definately paying off my friend.... yay its not officially "wet" is that flex pipe instead of hard PVC pipe your using??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted May 23, 2010 Author Share Posted May 23, 2010 Thanks Yes that is spa flex tubing. It can be put together using standard PVC glue and fittings and it pretty easy to work with, the material is thick and strong. B/c of the way the plumbing laid out there was no way to use rigid PVC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August Posted May 24, 2010 Share Posted May 24, 2010 I like it it gives you alittle wiggle room because it has some give to it and you can zip tie them together and keep them all out of your way.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lamont Posted May 27, 2010 Share Posted May 27, 2010 I went to check out this aquarium first hand; and i must say, "it is what i thought it would be"! A BEAST! A well thought out monster of a reef tank! Keep up the awesome work Steven! It was a pleasure to meet you and your family also! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August Posted May 29, 2010 Share Posted May 29, 2010 hows the tank coming along??? is it full yet??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted May 29, 2010 Author Share Posted May 29, 2010 Yes it is full and there is some water circulating. I have been out of town and will get back to work soon. I'm waiting on a few things to arrive before I can get completely finished, here is what I have coming... (4) Echotech Marine powerheads Deltec twin chamber skimmer TC2650 Dual port 1 HP ChillKing chiller (5) 400 watt digital ballasts (5) Sun Tube reflectors (5) 12k reeflux SE bulbs (1) dual 250 watt Galaxy ballast (1) Dual 250 watt Maristar 48" light fixture with HO actinics Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper Elite with internet and all avaiable sensors VHO dual actinic fixtures, (2) dual 4' and (4) dual 3' fixtures titanium heater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kkiel02 Posted May 31, 2010 Share Posted May 31, 2010 I heard alot of things such as you posted about Glasscages on RC when ordering my new tank. I decided to just go with DSA as they werent too much more and I know they make a good tank. It seems they are hit and miss about their quality. Anyways very nice tank and stand. I read your thread last night and was wondering if you have went with a bigger sump as I had a 56 on my 180 and with power failure it would rise quite a bit. I also like that metal stand. I will be building mine with wood and already kinda worried(definately using 4 x 4s) It still amazes me how the mass produced stands hold up larger tanks. Great build so far! Cant wait to see it running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted May 31, 2010 Author Share Posted May 31, 2010 With the tank it is what it is, I'm really picky so that is why I was dissapointed. Oh well I'm over it now, just want to warn other what they should expect from them. About the sump, unfortunately a 75 was the biggest sump I could fit between the braces. The everflows are huge for this tank so I don't anticipate the water level to rise more than 1" in the tank while the pump is on (can't rise more than 1" or it would be over the top of the overflows), so with a 1" of water depth that equals about 25 gallons down to the sump. I'm only running the sump at half capacity so this will leave plenty of room for run off. I have a 175 with a 30 gallon sump now and it works fine running at 1/2 capacity, when the pump turns off it gets within 1/2" of the top of the sump. Its really all about where you run your water level in the sump, I couldn't go any smaller on my sump for the 175 b/c it would start to suck bubbles in to the pump. The guys at glasscages told me not to make it out of steel that instead make it out of wood b/c steel would flex. I really thought that was a dumb thing to say since he does after all sell aquariums all day long. Of course steel will flex if not reinforced properly...and so will wood. What he should have said was "no matter how you build it make sure it can't flex". I'm very confident thatt the stand that I built will not flex b/c its overbuilt to handle several thousand more pounds than I have on it now. Besides they ask that you place a 3/4" piece of styrofoam so it would have to flex alot before this would be a problem. Thanks for reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 2, 2010 Author Share Posted June 2, 2010 I got most of my supplies in today that I needed to finish everything up:) , they did backorder the skimmer and my frag tank light fixture I got some good news today, Lumatek is donating the (5) 400 watt and (2) 250 watt I need for this setup, very cool of those guys to do! I already bought all galaxy ballasts for this tank so I guess I have several ballasts for sale... I have been preparing the electrical for the lighting, chiller, and pump. I added a sub panel in my equipment room with 30 amps 220v and tied in 2 timers that will operate 2 sets of plugs each. I used 2 timers so that I can turn on every other light in the morning and then 45 min later have the rest turn on, in the evening they would turn off the same way. The cabinet maker come out and take measurements again just to be sure everything was going to be just right. He should be done in 2 weeks. One little twist is that we are going to mount the lighting reflectors on an adjustable track so that when I'm working on the tank I can push the lighting to the back of the tank to get it out of the way, once I'm finished I can just pull it back in to place. I really have to hurry and get things liveable b/c I have some fish arriving on Thursday morning that I don't have room in my current tanks for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medi Posted June 2, 2010 Share Posted June 2, 2010 Looks great. I need to come back down and check it out now that it is getting close to running. What kind of galaxy ballasts are you selling? I might be interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted June 2, 2010 Share Posted June 2, 2010 Let us know how the lights work out. I will be very interested when I do my new tank build next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 2, 2010 Author Share Posted June 2, 2010 Looks great. I need to come back down and check it out now that it is getting close to running. What kind of galaxy ballasts are you selling? I might be interested. I have (5) 400 watt and (1) dual 250 watt galaxy digital ballasts. (2) of the 400 watt ballasts are still in the box and (3) of them have been used on my other tank for about 2-3 months, the dual 250 is still in the box too. $120 for the new 400's and $100 each for the used ones (best deal online is $140 plus shipping). The new dual 250 (500 watts) I would sell for $150, best price online is $200 plus shipping. http://www.growlightexpress.com/grow-light-ballasts-3/400-watt-ballasts-12/galaxy-electronic-ballast-400-watt-19.html http://www.growlightexpress.com/grow-light-ballasts-3/250-watt-ballasts-11/galaxy-electronic-ballast-dual-250-watt-18.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lamont Posted June 2, 2010 Share Posted June 2, 2010 Looks great. I need to come back down and check it out now that it is getting close to running. What kind of galaxy ballasts are you selling? I might be interested. I have (5) 400 watt and (1) dual 250 watt galaxy digital ballasts. (2) of the 400 watt ballasts are still in the box and (3) of them have been used on my other tank for about 2-3 months, the dual 250 is still in the box too. $120 for the new 400's and $100 each for the used ones (best deal online is $140 plus shipping). The new dual 250 (500 watts) I would sell for $150, best price online is $200 plus shipping. http://www.growlight...00-watt-19.html http://www.growlight...50-watt-18.html Hey Steven, would I be able to to run both of my 250w MH with that single ballast? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted June 2, 2010 Share Posted June 2, 2010 Wow...forget ups, just have your tank goodies show up on a pallet! That's awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 2, 2010 Author Share Posted June 2, 2010 Yes Lamont you can run both lamps from one ballast, it has 2 power cords and 2 lamp cords. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medi Posted June 2, 2010 Share Posted June 2, 2010 Disregard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 4, 2010 Author Share Posted June 4, 2010 I added my 25 gallon top off reservoir and my 75 gallon water change reservoir. Both of these reservoirs are sitting on water heater drain pans that are plumbed outside in case there is a flood. I'm closer but still lots to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 4, 2010 Author Share Posted June 4, 2010 I added some fish and some of the rocks that I have without corals attached just to get things started. I removed the canopy to install the HID lighting and temporarily I'm using these fluorescents to keep the fish alive. So far in the tank... chocolate tang convict tang small school of green chromis 3 blue chromis yellow tang powder brown tang 4 purple queen anthias firefish scooter blenny clown tang watchman goby exquisite wrasse We still have to add all of our fish from the display tank pair of black and white clowns pair of orange and white clowns 4 lyretail anthias purple tang sailfin tang desjardin tang scopas tang mystery wrasse metallic foxface red scooter blenny brown scooter blenny mandarin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derekreefer Posted June 4, 2010 Share Posted June 4, 2010 Daaammmnnnnnnnnn that looks impressive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted June 4, 2010 Share Posted June 4, 2010 that's a whole lot of swimming room! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 4, 2010 Author Share Posted June 4, 2010 I also installed an 8" Ice Box heat exchanger, 8" max-fan, and 8" to 6" ducting reducer. All of my lighting fixtures are air-cooled with 6" duct flanges. All of the reflectors will be ducted together in series and then a single 6" duct will travel down the side of my tank connecting to the ducting reducer pictured. With the max-fan running air is drawn through the reflectors and then passes through the fan and then the Ice Box heat exchanger. Chilled water is pumped from the chiller through the Ice Box heat exchanger which cools 120% of the heat produced by the 2000 total watts of MH lighting, actually blowing chilled air inside the tank stand which will compensate for the heat created by the (7) MH ballasts. There is a 6" version of the Ice Box heat exchanger available but since we are cooling 2000 total watts we needed to go with the larger version. I'm going to build my own chiller over at the ChillKing facility, with their help of course. I will document the build and will hopefully be done by mid week, after this I can add my MH lighting and put the canopy back up. Once that is done I can move over my display tank, pump, CA reactor, 500 lb of live rock, fish, and corals. I'm mounting my lighting a different way than people are used to, that is proving to be a project all in itself. I have noticed that the best "view" of my corals is form the top....where the light hits them. So I thought why not bring the lights more forward to the front of the tank and then rotate them back 45 degrees (just an estimation). So basically I'm shining more light on the front of the corals, I have a feeling this will make a huge difference in the appearance of them. The drawback to this is that the lights would be in my way when I wanted to work in the tank....so I'm building a sliding shelf that the all of the lighting will attach to. When I want to work on the tank I will simply push back the shelf and all of the lighting will move out of the way, when I'm done I will move it back. It was very hard to find stainless steel ball bearing lateral cabinet glides for this installation....it took me 2 hrs online to figure out the name of what I needed! I had to special order them and they won't be here until next late next week...so no MH lighting until then. Cabinet doors for the stand are ordered and will be finished in 7-10 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kkiel02 Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Been out of town so gotta catch up- Those heat exchangers look sweet. How long have you had the purple queen anthias as I heard they are nearly impossible to keep alive. The onle tank Ive actually seen them in had a continual feeding drip going it was online though. Looks good BTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 double post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 Thank you The purple queens are a new addition. We are lucky so far b/c they eat flake food but only one of them will eat frozen mysis though, all of them eat brine shrimp. I think that the trick is multiple feedings a day from what I read. Only time will tell but with the size of the tank, frequency of feeding, and the fact that they eat flakes I think that they have the best chance possible. Last week I did order a brins shrimp hatcher that is a automatic dispensor in the tank, we will see how that goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 shouldn't the tank cycle at least a month and a half before adding that many fish, and is there more live rock to come? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.