270 Gallon Shallow

[Dadekster]

Yep, I put some sort of professional grade primer (probably a marketing gimmick ) rust protection on it and then added two more top coat of finish on it, both made by Rust-Oleum. I am hoping it will give it decent protection and I will just keep an eye on it and either replace as necessary or use a more marine resistant metal. Here is what it looks like finished.

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As you can see I have done a couple other things as well. I have put up a blue tarp in the back to protect the wall from occasional splashes. This runs all the way to the floor and under the stand where I have cut out access holes for power. This will hopefully keep the panel safer. Depending on what it looks like I may also use it as my background. The nice thing is that I am using zip ties to keep it up from the light rack and as needed I can take it down, rinse if off or buy a new one and put it up. The tarp is like five bucks and I didn't even need to cut it, perfect size out of the bag

I also installed my under tank lighting, three LED spotlights. You can see them in a previous pic. They were like ten bucks and come with very long cords and are easy to install. I can move them around but I think they are in good spots at the moment. I have puttied over the screw holes in the front and just need to restain over them. I am debating putting trim around the edges and maybe on the front of the light rack, but not sure yet, especially on the light rack as it might look odd having it on the front and seeing bare metal elsewhere. What do you guys think?

The wife thinks a fabric curtain over the front would look good, but I sort of am thinking of hinge doors that would lift up to provide access. I am in no rush to get that done as I will want to let the tank run for a good month or two to get used to its....idiosyncrasies. I am waiting on my other light to arrive today so when that gets here I can hang that for that completed look as far as the light rack goes. I may later on mount the 250 Hamilton I have as well to see if it provides glimmer lines and maybe as a highlight section. We shall see.

I have started the plumbing as well. I will dry fit everything and hopefully that will give me a good idea what to do when the tank gets here...hopefully tomorrow. Think I need to call TruVu and get an update on my tank. Surprised they have not called me yet to let me know it is being delivered. So this is what it looks like before I get started.

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And I haven't really bought anything other than unions and some valves yet. So there you go, all caught up for now.

 

[reefwizz]

Wow amazing build! Can't wait to see more pics.

 

[thatguy559]

looking good so far

 

[danferd2002]

Is that a 2x8 on top? I would add another set of "legs" in the center of that stand(one in front, one in back). While im sure that top rim can hold the weight, it will eventually start to sag in the center.

 

[Dadekster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14385224#post14385224 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by danferd2002
Is that a 2x8 on top? I would add another set of "legs" in the center of that stand(one in front, one in back). While im sure that top rim can hold the weight, it will eventually start to sag in the center.

I an definitely not a structural engineer, otherwise I'd be making much more money I am sure but I used this thread for my stand idea.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1169964

I think somewhere in there they get into the nitty gritty of how much weight some of these supports can hold and so forth. The stand feels super solid and I am confident it will hold the tank, water, sand and rock. But I appreciate the concern.

As far as other news, I received the tank today and it is sitting in the garage atm. Waiting to get at least one other solid body to help me move it in through the window and into place. The wife could probably actually help me move it, but she's nursing a bad back so probably wouldn't be prudent. Even though the tank is 8' long I'd say it weights under 200 pounds easy. I can actually move it myself in spurts but no way I can lift it through the window. I got 80% of the dry plumbing done and once I get the tank into place I will complete it all and triple check everything is the way I want it. Then comes making it permanent with glue. After that, the water test :rollface:

I have work tonight so I will post some pics of the tank tomorrow. It's a solid and beautiful piece of work and the options I have as far as rock scaping it are just awesome. Anyways, that's it for now, pics tomorrow I promise and hopefully I can get a volunteer to move it in. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[TandN]

I hope that skimmers cup is just not on right because thats one hell of a slant on it lol

 

[Dadekster]

I should tell everyone that it is designed like that and skims 50% better but to mod your skimmer like that I need 50 dollars to make it happen but the truth is, yes, the skimmer cup is not on their solid

 

[Dadekster]

Ok, tank pics as promised. Atm the tank is still in the garage and no time to really move it into the office. It is lying on its back side and its about perfect. The only thing I have noticed that will give me some issues is the fact that you can see into the overflow from inside the tank. Kinda odd that they didn't put some black acrylic in the spot, but I guess the plus side is you can see your drains etc. Not sure what I'll do about it, but I think it will be distracting when you are looking into the tank to see four tubes.

Styrofoam down and dry plumbing still in progress. Got the other light up as well.

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The tank in all its glory.

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Close up of the overflow. The teeth are in and removable as well as the lid that goes on top of the box. You can sort of see the front of the overflow here and that it is clear.

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And the last pic shows the size as compared to a soda. The thing is loooooooong

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Can't wait to see this thing in place with the plumbing done. Might take a day or two though, hopefully done around Tuesday or so.

 

[~sp0ok~]

wow nice job

 

[Dadekster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14396168#post14396168 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ~sp0ok~
wow nice job

Thank you.

One of my friends came over to pick something up from the house, he got to pick up more than he thought! :eek1: After much effort, (we had to lift the tank pretty high due to the fence being close to the window) we managed to get the tank into the office and on the stand. It sure looks purty sitting up there now :rollface: I have to get ready for work, but I'll take some pics of it on the stand tomorrow.

 

[Corndork2]

lookin good so far!

 

[Dustin1300]

Looks great so far...love watching builds as its the best way to learn new ideas for your next "big" build! Tagging along....Beautiful tank!

 

[jpa0741]

Looking good. Don't worry about the overflow. You will not to be able to see inside it when viewing from the front. It will reflect like a mirror. My whole end is an overflow and I was worried about the same thing so I put a siliconed a piece of black acrylic inside. I later found out it was not needed. I had also bought black acrylic for the other 3 sides and are just held in place with velcro for my background. I never hang the one on the other side without the overflow.

Are you planning to only have those lights? I don't see them being able to light the whole 3' width.

 

[Dadekster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14397167#post14397167 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jpa0741
Looking good. Don't worry about the overflow. You will not to be able to see inside it when viewing from the front. It will reflect like a mirror. My whole end is an overflow and I was worried about the same thing so I put a siliconed a piece of black acrylic inside. I later found out it was not needed. I had also bought black acrylic for the other 3 sides and are just held in place with velcro for my background. I never hang the one on the other side without the overflow.

Are you planning to only have those lights? I don't see them being able to light the whole 3' width.

Well that's good to hear about the overflows since I was really scratching my head trying to figure out how to take care of that. I might hang my 250 in the middle or over an island depending on how the rock scape comes out. I have a basic idea in my head how I want it to look. The majority of the lights needs to be center and I would actually like some darker spots for LPS's and I like the effect of light contrast. Having said that I am not sure it will light three feet deep as you brought up. I have the lights turned on and it seems the light spread gets most of the bottom. For some reason I can't get the outside banks on my older Tek light to work now. I am going to have to switch some bulbs around to make sure its not a bulb issue. If the brand new ones don't work then it's going to be a wiring issue and that's going to **** me off since now it's something else I need to take care of...and I have stated already how much I love missing with electricity. :mad2:

That being said, I took some pics of the tank sitting in place and with the lighting that works, lit. Many things to still take care of before I go wet, but I'll be tackling them in the next couple of days so bear with me. I will of course keep you updated with pic tank porn

Shots from both side.

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And the full tank shot. I have to stand in my closet for this, I guess that's a good thing?

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So what do ya think?

 

[Dustin1300]

Whether you can see the overflow or not would be the least of my worries! Tank looks great and cannot wait to see the good stuff! (i.e. filteration/plumbing)

 

[Dadekster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14403173#post14403173 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dustin1300
Whether you can see the overflow or not would be the least of my worries! Tank looks great and cannot wait to see the good stuff! (i.e. filteration/plumbing)

Thank you. I will be starting that today. Hopefully I will be gluing things into place later today and I can do a water test.

 

[TandN]

Theres one thing most people always worry about. Thats there light spread. Truth be told you only need light where you plan on having corals. I have a 36" deep tank and theres 5" in the back of the tank w/o anything and then theres 7" in front w/ acans and micros yumas rics so my 400wers dont need to have full coverage in back or to much in front. that said its all up to you how you plan on having your rockwork but please this is JMHO

 

[Dadekster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14409646#post14409646 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TandN
Theres one thing most people always worry about. Thats there light spread. Truth be told you only need light where you plan on having corals. I have a 36" deep tank and theres 5" in the back of the tank w/o anything and then theres 7" in front w/ acans and micros yumas rics so my 400wers dont need to have full coverage in back or to much in front. that said its all up to you how you plan on having your rockwork but please this is JMHO

Good point. The basic plan is to have two islands. One facing lateral to where I plan to have the surge tank, that being the right side of the tank. This is where I plan to have the high flow loving corals. I want it to be a slightly elevating structure has it goes right to left. On the left side of the tank is another island which will get a more general flow. Hopefully some of the surge will carry over and mix up with the returns. I am strongly considering at least one Vortech on that side as well to hit the surge head on. This should provide a nice chaotic swirl over the middle open area. The two mini islands are for a future anemone setup and for something else TBD. I might make three islands, that's sort of up in the air. The thick lines represent arches as I like the look of them. I will make a pretty deliberate attempt to create caves on the left side island as well.

So here's my awesome paint sketch

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The right side of the tank has been drilled for two returns which will the surge returns. You can see them here.

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I am planning once I get my 72 gallon holding tank drained and the occupants moved over to build a separate stand on the right side. As of right now, it's in the darn way and until drained I can't really work on my surge stand. This stand once built, will hold two surge tanks and my TO tank underneath. The two surge tanks will run independently from one another. I hope to create a really random surge this way as most of the time they will stagger, but sometimes they may both surge at the same time. That's about as random as it gets. The closer surge tank I plan to divide and run as a fuge as well since it may require occasional maintenance. I don't plan to use it so much to grow macros as I have a 40 gallon feed trough underneath for that running reverse light cycle. This surge tank will be a place to let pods really grow as well as a bit of a sand bed with no predators. Hoping it will kick in some extra food on the currents.

The plan to get the plumbing done tonight is on hold unfortunately as I am short one 1" bulkhead for one of the drains. Of course they are all out of stock at the store so I will need to make a special trip to a plastic supply store. They sell industrial bulkheads....aka expensive. I will be trying to figure out why my Tek light is fubar instead tonight and getting what odds and ends I can done.

As usual thanks for taking a look and giving me some opinions.

 

[king4345]

WOW!!! I have always been partial to wide and shallow reef tanks. However, I have never had the place to put one. Some serious equipment going on in those pics. Looking fantastic I am anxiuosly awaiting further pics and more of the progress.

 

[Dadekster]

Thanks, I am drooling over how I am going to have my rock work done. Being 3 feet deep allows so much! On the bad news front, I bought some 80 sch 1" bulkheads and they are just a tad too big to fit. So I called TruVu and they will be sending some out which will fit. I have to give them a plug as they have been super to work with and quick to answer any questions even after the tank was delivered. Great customer service which you don't get to see much these days unfortunately.

Anyways, the other bad news. The Tek light that I was having problems with...the outside bank (actinics) wouldn't come on, it's now completely broken. It shorts out my whole outlet tripping the breaker. Now none of the lights turn on although the bulbs work fine when put in the new Tek light I received. So I have no idea what is wrong with it. The wiring looks fine, nothing corroded, the prongs for the lights and the end caps looks fine. My guess is the ballasts are shot, but I have no idea tbh. So looks like I need to order another one. I was not counting on having to buy two Tek lights so there goes the budget

Good news is I have 90% of the plumbing done since I was able to find a spare 1" bulkhead lying around in the garage. I used that in order to complete one drain, but I will change it out when I receive the ones from TruVu as I don't trust the bulkhead I found, seems sort of flimsy. As is, when I get those two I can pop them in relatively quickly, get stuff cemented and water test. After that, wait for my salt and substrates to show up, decide what kind of rock I will use and get the cycle going. Then move over my fish from the holding tank, take that down and complete the surge and water change stand and tanks. Should be fun

This is the substrate I am using.

Monterey Beach sand aka play sand. Bought 200 lbs.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+10741+7321&pcatid=7321

x 2 bags

and

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+10741+16765&pcatid=16765

also x 2 bags. I got the reef substrate with shells etc.

I am hoping this provides a nice mix of grain size etc. I am debating whether to mix it like soup or go for specific sizes in different areas and blend at the edges. I noticed in my last tank other than directed blasts of water or livestock that spits sand everywhere, it tends to stay in one spot. What do you guys suggest?