1000 Gallon 3D Hole in the wall

[Harlequin mania]

Although i am not new to RC, but it take me alot of courage to share my new tank build thread here of my system with hobbyist here . All ideas/ suggestion is appreciated !! :wavehand:

Idea / concept of setup

After all the years in the hobby reefing from a small 2 ft tank, to a current 6 footer tank in my home. It has always been a dream to have a beautiful large reef tank in my dream home surrounded by garden and natural. Luckily , I am able to fulfill this dream in the early stage of life with the support of my family and friends.

The concept of having a dedicated Fish room is something many reef addicts like me always dream of, and the opportunity of turning this crazy idea into a reality strike when we got our new place.

While searching around on the internet for some ideal, and inspiration of my new setup I came about this photo of a 3D wall mount aquarium and it strike me to have a similar concept on my new tank. :fun5:

So the story begin lol…


Some specification of my new setup


Main Tank : 72" X 48" x 30 " ( 6ft x 4ft x 2.5ft ) - Plexiglas Acrylic

Sump Tank : 62" x 36" x 24 " - PP

Frag Tank 1 : 36" x 24" 18" - Glass - 12mm

QT / Hospital Tank / Frag Tank :36" x 24" 18" - Glass 12 mm

Refugium Tank :36" x 24" 18" - Glass 12mm

Cryptic Tank : 36" x 24" 18" - Glass 12mm

Frag sump tank 1: 36" x 24" 20" - Glass 12mm

Frag sump tank 2 : 36" x 24" 20" - Glass 12mm


Total Water volume : 4163.82 ( 1041 Gallon )

 

[Harlequin mania]

Below is my selection of the equipment list for the new setup

 

[jt48]

Sounds very nice. Congratulations. The only thing that i would recommend is to have a larger, but shallow refugium. Im currently using a 60 gallon frag tank as a refugium (72x24x8). I saw alot of advantages when i had converted my old refugium (40 g breeder) to the current.

 

[Jwill1212]

Looks good......however, I had a 4'x4'x4' tank for 12 years with a remote sump(downstairs). It was really hard to clean at that depth, I swore I would never have anything deeper than 32".
Lighting a 4' deep tank, IMO, needs 3 plus x 400watt MH, and that leads to alot of heat.
Also, what if you 45 degreed the corners in the front and made it six sided.
Just my opinion.............

 

[Harlequin mania]

Looks good......however, I had a 4'x4'x4' tank for 12 years with a remote sump(downstairs). It was really hard to clean at that depth, I swore I would never have anything deeper than 32".
Lighting a 4' deep tank, IMO, needs 3 plus x 400watt MH, and that leads to alot of heat.
Also, what if you 45 degreed the corners in the front and made it six sided.
Just my opinion.............

Thanks for sharing the tips. Although I know i should go back to the " trusted " old school MH for my reef tank, but i can resist what the LEDs can offer nowsaday.

As such, my current lighting system will be ;

3 X AI Sol
3 X AI Hydra
2 X AI Hydra 52

Frankly speaking, i am not sure yet how the light willl performance but i am assure by the store that the LEDs especially the new Hydra 52 will be able to penetrate such deep tank of 2.5 ft height.

 

[Harlequin mania]

Some photos of the location where the Tank wall will be .

Photo before the start of renovation .

 

[Harlequin mania]

Sounds very nice. Congratulations. The only thing that i would recommend is to have a larger, but shallow refugium. Im currently using a 60 gallon frag tank as a refugium (72x24x8). I saw alot of advantages when i had converted my old refugium (40 g breeder) to the current.

Thanks for sharing. I think my refugium tank og 36 x 24 x 18 height is good enough .

 

[dave.m]

Newer LEDs like the Ecoxotics can handle taller tanks. Tall tanks are definitely a challenge for reaching into, but they look so much better than a squat tank. If you are going to have separate refugium and cryptic tanks I'm not sure why you would need such a large sump. Once you get your plans together it would be nice to see how you plan to put all this together with some sketches.

Dave.M

 

[muttley000]

Tagging along for this one!

 

[Harlequin mania]

Initial plan for the Fish room layout.

Both the tank rack and it's sump will be connected.

 

[Harlequin mania]

Main tank detail drawing

 

[Harlequin mania]

The Frag tank system .

With the use of piping, the whole concept of design for the Frag tank system is to enable easy access to each tank , and also space for QT when required.

 

[Harlequin mania]

Detail of the Frag tank system

 

[Azraz]

Watch out, tower b is tipping over!

 

[Azraz]

It,that's a LOT of algae, what is it?

 

[Harlequin mania]

Sorry guys, i scan the photo so the photo is a little bit unclear.

 

[Harlequin mania]

Time for some new updates :drunk2:

Just got this from my designer.

 

[Harlequin mania]

Tank Design and concept

I would like to share a little bit about the concept of this tank design. Having survive a few mishap in my reefing days, where there is instances of either your main pump get jam / spoil , tank temperature went up too high or too low or even a power failure we suffer a partial or full tank crash. To avoid all these, i tried to plan this tank system with key reliable equipment all with a back up ( I.e; using two return pump instead of one ect.. )to avoid the Murphy's Law . Together with the aid of monitoring and backup system like the battery pack, cooling fan , computer ect i could get notified before damage is even done to the reef tank.

 

[Harlequin mania]

After doing a detail study of the whole room again, i decided to move my sump tank back below the main tank in order to save some space for access.

Revised detail layout of the fish room

 

[Harlequin mania]

Sump Design

The original Idea / concept of my sump tank design come about when i first saw the Dream Box by Royal Exclusive. Although i like the filter sock and chamber design , i modified the design to replace some filter sock section to bio tower where i could hold some cotton wool for first stage of waste removal, while the Filter sock can handle the rest of the debris on the second stage of mechanical filtration . I hope this will also reduce the frequency i need to wash the filter sock.

Dream Box sump by Royal Exclusive above

My Sump Design

The second section of the sump i incorporate the biological filtration section using moving bed filter media which consist mainly of K1 and Hex X bio media. I prefer this to static biological media since it self clean and seem to work better than traditional Bio media.