Kfennell Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Edit: Remember when your mom told you if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. Please remember that before you post in this thread. Hello EveryoneFirst off if anyone knows of where to find a glass starfire tank that meets my dimensions below let me know! ThanksI am building a nice new house at www.sanmarcosriverranch.com and should be done around January. Somehow I talked my wife into letting me build a tank into the house by taking a corner of the dining room that we wont really use and turning it into a tank room and having a false wall around the tank.The tank will be ~400 gallons, and custom made with a starfire front. I have done a crude hand drawing of the position and a slightly less crude google sketch of the layout of the room. In the sketch we will be installing a door from the pantry for access to the fish room.House LayoutIn the roomUnder the tank is the sump and refugium (which I think I will flip around) then on the stand is the frag tank up top. And a coral QT tank down below.So the tank will be viewable only through that wall, and I will probably black out the back panels with something removable for working on the tank.There will also be a water storage tank on the right side of that room which I hid in the drawing to make it easier to see the tank and where the pumps will sit on the right.The tank will be 126"x25.5"x30" high with the overflow along the end and not visible from the front, it also will not have any powerheads visible I hope, which should be a nice appearance!Equipment list Pump 365 aquacave or marinedepot w 10% off could be 330 Dart Super Gold CL Pump 365 aquacave or marinedepot w 10% off could be 330 Dart Super Gold OM 4 way 499 oceans motion Powerheads Tank Unknown if needed Sump $49 aquacave Koralia EVOLUTION 750 Refugium $33 aquacave nano 240 Frag Tank 220 ebay MP10 qt tank $33 aquacave nano 240 Sump $355 glasscages 100 long Frag Tank 165 Glasscages 36x12x12 rimless Coral QT 15 LFS 10g standard Lights Home made $1,500 DIY Tank $2,900 Glasscages 126x25.5x30 Water Tank $152 watertank.com 100g RO System $269 airwaterice EXTREME TYPHOON III 150 GPD Autotopoff $51 autotopoff.com dual switch sump controller Carbon Reactor $60 bulk reef supply dual media reactor 4 way dosing pump 490 marinedepot aqua medic 4 way doser ro solenoid valve $25 autotopoff.com Rocks $1,299 bulkreefsupply 500 lbs of fiji dry Heaters 89 aquacave 2x finnex 500w kalk stirrer $249 avastmarine K2 kalk stirrer Salt $350 drs fosters smith 5x tropic marin pro 200g Plumbing $500 All over Tests $142 BRS Salifert All Carbon $80 5 gal pail Dosing Supplies $275 BRS Calc, alk, mag, kalk 5 gla pail of ea Foods $50 allover PH Probe $30 BRS BRS Refractometer $40 BRS BRS Total 10650 Thoughts on the equipment list? I already have a controller and a SWC 2s skimmer from my last tank, but I will need to buy all of the above.Cooling will be handled by a dedicated AC zone for the room, muuuuuuch cheaper then a chiller!The tank will be set up with the water from the main system going to the sump through a beananimal drain system, then to the return pump which will send some of the water to the refugium, and some of it to the frag tank the rest through a hole in the bottom of the tank (after passing above tank level). Typing this made me realize I will need to raise the refugium.The water changes will be automated by two of the channels of the doser, taking out around 7 gallons a day and replacing it from the 100g water reservoir. Every 2 weeks I just have to fill it up and add salt, and I guess I will have to leave a powerhead running in it. I am trying to make this as hands off as possible once it is running, thoughts on making it more automated?I need to decide what to put on the bottom, are there any alternatives to starboard?Should have the room framed in and have the glass in it in about 2 months. I will start making the LED's in around the same time, once ski season is over.Anyone have thoughts on what the LED layout should be? I was thinking lots of 20w multichips? Somewhere around 24 with 60 degree lenses? Maybe since I have decided to go with 30" deep I will need to add a few 100w chips over the most heavily coraled areas, but I am worried about the light not being even.Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Looks like you found us! Welcome and I can't wait to see this come together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Looks like a fun project, I'm jealous! I don't know if this helps but here is a quick video of one of my systems. It only has about 5x turners per hour going through all the refugiums and only 10X in the last sump. It has two main pumps running 5x each with additional power heads in the main tank. You could run your system with fairly low turnover through the ancilliary tanks running two smaller pumps for redundancy and use power heads for additional water flow in the display tank and frag tank. If this was my tank I would put cabinet doors on the front above the tank, it will make accessing the tank a lot easier (saves a lot of time walking back and forth cleaning the glass). You could balance them visually with fake doors below the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 That's a really long tank. Sounds like fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted September 22, 2012 Author Share Posted September 22, 2012 I am going to have the water in the frag tank and refugium come off the return line, so that will take some of the flow away from going back in and through the tank, and if it is still too much those pumps are really good about being valved down, saves on electricity. I want to have the overhead to turn the pump up as much as possible though in case the overflow is cut lower then I would like so I can raise the water level Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Just bought the K2 Kalk stirrer since it was 15% off this weekend, getting started! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted October 1, 2012 Author Share Posted October 1, 2012 So I went to MACNA this weekend and saw some things including the LED's from our local supplier build your led. I also got a deal on some equipment from salty supply who basically gave me 10% off the lowest price I could find online on a few things, one of those things that I hadn't planned on getting, but was convinced after seeing it at MACNA was a controller. I got an APEX system from salty and I will use it to dim my lights as well as control the pumps and monitor like a normal controller. We were really sold on the fact that it has phone based controlls and the built in 0-10v. I should be able to use it to control my lights, pump, ato, change from kalk or not depending on the pH, and run some water on floor sensors. Overall I am pretty happy with what it can do for me. I also got a QT tank from Petsmart since they had one that was slightly damaged on sale, so now I have a 60g in the apartment living room with some salt and LR on the way so that I can start my rock cycling ASAP and have it as ready to go as possible when the tank can be started. Lastly I am still not sure about what LED to get. I really like the BuildmyLED product and they are only a little more or maybe even less then i could do it for myself, and they have native apex controllability. The site isn't working so well yet though so I haven't been able to play around to get 100% of the color I want worked out. I hope they get that worked out. A question: Where is the cheapest place to get 300 lbs of medium to coarse sand? Marco rocks coarse? Just get 9 bags of caribsea select? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 I talked to Nick at BuildMyLED and they are switching webservers due to the issue. They were trying to wait until MACNA ended, so the cutover should happen shortly. We'll also be doing the tour of their facility on the 13th if you want to talk to them in person and see how exactly everything is built. Prof (Epic Reef), a sponsor of ours, has pallets of dry rock at his place and I believe he sells sand (NE Austin). I've been trying to get hold of him myself to pick some up but have not heard from him yet. The Aqua-Dome is the closest store to you and they can do a bulk sand order for you if you tell them exactly what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Petsmart is the cheapest place in town to buy sand IMO. That's going to be one killer setup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 I talked to Nick at BuildMyLED and they are switching webservers due to the issue. They were trying to wait until MACNA ended, so the cutover should happen shortly. We'll also be doing the tour of their facility on the 13th if you want to talk to them in person and see how exactly everything is built. I hope you are correct, I would like to get 3 bulbs ordered with the first batch that come out and try them out so I can get the rest in by christmas if (when?) I like the look. I think I will be going with 6 4' fixtures, one full spectrum 1 6500k and 1 blue that is 50/50 450/470. This way I can adjust the color by dimming the blue and or white strip with the Apex, if I need to add more light then I can add another straight white, or another straight blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 Ordered bulbs, lots of stuff will be here this week in fact, should have the rock tank/qt tank running 100% by saturday night. Now I just need to take the plunge and order the tank! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Did you buy your rock already? At 500 lbs you should do a group buy.. That would be one hell of a bulk discount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 I did, I got 10% off, from marco rocks, too late to change it now, was there a way to get it cheaper? Group buy from BRS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 yeah, i think mFrame is doing one currently. club prez gets gud discounts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted October 11, 2012 Author Share Posted October 11, 2012 So I ordered the tank today from gc. They are not as bad as people let on and they even took off about 10% when I mentioned I got a tank quote for a close price from dsa(but in gorilla glass). Hopefully this works out! 499G tank on the way!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Sweet! And congrats! The only complaint I've read about the Glasscages tanks has been semi-sloppy silicone work and poor customer service. Can't wait to see your build come together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 The CS wasnt the best at first, but if you ask to talk to Beth things get much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 That sounds good. How long till they deliver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 They said ~ 4 weeks to build then trucking time... Not really in a hurry though, would like to install it before drywall (about 6 weeks) but I can't really put water in it till they finish with painting the great room and staining the cabinets. So sometime next year I guess. I can probably get everything installed and tested in about a week, so just need to get it sometime in Dec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Are they delivering to you or are you picking it up at a show somewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 I was looking into GC but I don't wan to pick my tank up from Dallas. If I remember right that is their nearest delivery location. Also, it is worth mentioning that they don't help you load so you have to bring people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 I was looking into GC but I don't wan to pick my tank up from Dallas. If I remember right that is their nearest delivery location. Also, it is worth mentioning that they don't help you load so you have to bring people. Hydro innovations and medi both had there tanks freighted in. Gc will ship em if you have access to semi loading docks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 They are going to freight it to Selma where it will get loaded onto a flatbed with forklifts, from there I have to get it on the stand somehow. I have alot of strong friends, but I am still worried, I am trying to call around for a rolling lifting platform, that is how AGE said they got the big tank into MACNA, said it was just two guys! I am also going to get uShip quotes when it is closer, I had good luck shipping a boat with them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 I imagine if you have enough suction cups, space, and help, you can get it placed with minimal effort. Is it going to be placed on the stand while the house is still being built? If so, that may provide the space requirement. And I'm sure you can get some of the construction workers to move it for you for a decent price. Provide the suction cups + food/drinks=success! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfennell Posted October 26, 2012 Author Share Posted October 26, 2012 So time for the updates to start again, on the less exciting news I returned the bubble magus dosers and I will get some BRS dosers so that I can control them from the Apex. I also received a CPR backpack skimmer for the QT after having to return the SWC since it was broken and their entire stock was broken. On to more exciting news, the part of the house where the tank will go exists now and they are going to build the stand and the wall tomorrow, below is a picture of the space where the tank will be, it goes from just to the right of the hallway, to the narrow window on the right. The builder forgot to tell the framer to put a door in the pantry, but I think they are doing that tomorrow when the build the rest. Notice the AC vent into the room area, they will install a exhaust fan too this weekend, and the AC control for that zone will be accessible from inside or outside the room and you will be able to control the AC with the controller I hope. Area for the tank: Room the tank is in from the second story (since you can still see through the walls: And roughly the view if you stand in front of the tank and look towards the sunset More to follow this weekend when the tank room gets built! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.