300 gallon tank, 96*48*15

[Kent E]

Looking real nice. Very interesting dimensions! Is is fairly easy to look down into?

 

[mwood]

A friend has a table tank as a frag tank and the top down view is the best. It's soo clear, you never want to look through acrylic or glass again. It's all in how you do the water movement.

Marcus

 

[willra]

Thats sweet. Does the overflow make any noise?

 

[mwood]

Don't know yet. I don't have the sump plumbed in. I just have a ball valve shut for now. The center pvc overflow comes out so I can adjust it or replace it with something different if needed.

 

[mwood]

Looking real nice. Very interesting dimensions! Is is fairly easy to look down into?

Here is a couple top down pics. I'm going to add a step up around the back of the tank for better top down viewing.

 

[mwood]

Here is one of the two 3' light pendants drying in the sun. Dan the man put them together for me,

here is the surge tank in the making,

and here is the is the sump in it's place, just under the surge tank.

 

[keefsama2003]

nice i have my 300 going also i had a thread but all the pics posted got blocked from photobucket as using too much bandwidth so i have my own domain now and i am going to start a new thread. but congrats so far.

 

[mwood]

Let me know when you have some pics up. I'd love to see what you are doing with yours.

 

[Gwalker]

Looks nice! One thing that might be a good idea is to support the flex lines under the tank. One way is to use a staple gun to attach zipties to the underside of the stand and zip up the lines for a little support. It might give some relief to the fittings the flex goes into. After years of water weight it could pull loose a little. Only a suggestion, better safe than sorry. Again looks great!!

 

[keefsama2003]

Here is one tank. To see the rest of what i have goto keithandpam.net

 

[paulpp187]

i have 2 kinds of scratch removers one is the one with the sandpaper you can use this one in and out of the tank the second one i have is a liquid based remover only can use it on the out side it is a 3 part system they both work really well be prepared to do alot bof work it takes time but in the end it is nice looking

 

[Bumzyman]

mwood,
I like your tank, mine is the same footprint (96"x48") but 30" tall. I had a couple friends come over to help me build the stand for it because I wasn't sure how tough to make it. We used all 2x8's and 2x6's I thought my friend was nuts when he was putting it together, I thought he was expecting NASA to come over and certify it as a launch pad.

Anyway, after seeing your setup it looks like your going to have a much easier time accessing every inch of the tank whereas I need to make up some kind of portable platform to bring out and set up in order to get myself high enough to reach anything in it.

As Herbert and Gwalker said, use unions & ball valves and be sure to support the spa flex and fittings under the tank. I'm using 100% spa flex in my setup and didnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t want any hanging weight on the tank bulkheads or glued fittings. Taking that little bit of precaution now could prevent a major problem down the road if one of those connections lets loose.

 

[mwood]

Well, the lights are up, but the pump is down. I should recieve the new seals for the pump in a day or two. Anyway, here is what Iwasaki's and xm20k's look like.

 

[shouldabenacowboy]

I like you lights....Very nice setup!

Tagging along

 

[tigerarmy40]

dude with those dimentions you can do several little communites of different types of coral and the aquascaping options are unlimited! I think I have seen this tank before!? maybe on ebay?

 

[mwood]

dude with those dimentions you can do several little communites of different types of coral and the aquascaping options are unlimited! I think I have seen this tank before!? maybe on ebay?

Probably saw one like it. This one came from a LFS here in Des Moines. I plan on having small biotopes. An island of zoas, an island of star polyps, an island if SPS, a cluster of clams, and so on.

 

[hsvtoolfool]

Metal halide light fixtures made of...pine?!

This is extremely troubling. I can't tell from your photos, but I
hope there is an air gap of several inches between the bulbs and
the wood. I fear these light fixtures are a genuine fire hazard.

One 400W bulb and one 250W bulb per fixture. 650W per fixture.
Yikes! Double yikes! The temperature inside those boxes must be
approaching the ignition point for wood. Softwoods like pine ignite
at even lower temperatures than hardwoods like oak or man-
made plywoods (not that I wouldn't use those materials either).
After a few days, heated wood of any type loses all moisture
content and becomes flammable as cardboard.

The following excerpt is from a US Forest Service Study named
Effect of Fire-Retardant Treatments on Performance Properties
of Wood. The bold emphasis is mine...

With convective heating of wood under laboratory conditions,
spontaneous ignition is reported as low as 270Ã"šÃ‚°C and as high as
470Ã"šÃ‚°C. Spontaneous ignition of wood charcoal, which has
excellent absorption of oxygen and radiant heat, occurs between
150Ã"šÃ‚°C and 250Ã"šÃ‚°C...

...Many field reports collected by Underwriters' Laboratories, Inc.
show ignition occurring at or near 212Ã"šÃ‚°F (100Ã"šÃ‚°C) on wood next to
steam pipes or other hot materials. Laboratory experiments have
not been able to confirm these low ignition temperatures. To
provide a margin of safety, Underwriters' Laboratories, Inc.
suggests that wood not be exposed for long periods of time at
temperatures greater than 90Ã"šÃ‚°F (32Ã"šÃ‚°C) above room temperature
or 170Ã"šÃ‚°F (77Ã"šÃ‚°C). The National Fire Protection Association
handbook gives 200Ã"šÃ‚°C as the ignition temperature of wood most
commonly quoted, but gives 66Ã"šÃ‚°C (150Ã"šÃ‚°F) is the highest
temperature to which wood can be continually exposed
without risk of ignition. McGuire of the National Research
Council of Canada suggests that 100Ã"šÃ‚°C would be a satisfactory
choice of an upper limiting temperature for wood exposure.

150Ã"šÃ‚°F to 200Ã"šÃ‚°F is the highest temperature wood can be
safely exposed for long periods. Unfortunately I can't find hard
information defining the ambient temps created by MH bulbs. But
I'm pretty sure they get MUCH hotter than 150Ã"šÃ‚°F. Anecdotal
evidence here at ReefCentral shows that MH bulbs can weaken
1/2" arcylic from several inches away. Acrylic softens around 180Ã"šÃ‚°F.
Serious food for thought.

Please build aluminum light fixtures as soon as possible. Pop-rivet
tools, tin-snips, and light-gauge aluminum sheets are not very
expensive. It's not difficult to cut and bend a nice aluminum box
that won't burst into flames and burn down your house.

 

[mwood]

There was a thread on this in the DIY forum. Here are the details.

I use high temp paint on the inside of the pendant.
I have parabolic reflectors inside the pendant.
Most lighting vendors sell flat reflectors to be mounted to wood.
I do have a gap between the top of the reflector and wood where the reflector is closest to the bulb, where I have several holes drilled in the wood.


I've seen several cheep mh pendants where a flat reflector is mounted straight to plywood. If mounting mh reflectors to wood were such a concern, wouldn't there be stories on RC about fires and warnings from light manufacturers and dealers?

 

[shaw]

well, are there any fans in the hoods? thay may help

also, what was the drain sizing to the the ampmaster? did you have one drain or two.

thanks
shawn

 

[mwood]

No fans. Open bottom and holes in top.

One 1 1/2 inch drain to the ampmaster. I assume you are speaking about the closed loop? All ampmasters use 1 1/2" I think.