300 gallon tank, 96*48*15
- Thread starter mwood
- Start date
leeweber85
New member
Marcus your tank is awesome. I think you need to turn it into a pool table 
mwood
Premium Member
Well, the Carlson Surge Device is working. It is a 29 gallon tank with a bulkhead in the side. The small line feeds it from a rio 3100. My guess is about 500 gph. It breaks consistantly thanks to stepping up the 1.5" line to a 4" in the 29. The line to the tank is 1.5" pvc. It fills in about 4 minutes and drains in 1.5 minutes. My guess would be about 20-25 gallons of surge.
The return to the sump is a 2" line seen lower right of the picture. I put the return line high enough so if the drain is ever knocked out in the tank, the tank will only drain 20-40 gallons. I did this because the drain line is a peace of 2" pvc stuck in the bulkhead, not glued. It is water tight, but I'd rather be carefull.
Here is a pic of the surge. Not sure how strong it is, but it gently moves the zoas 7' away.
Next thing is to build a skimmer out of a 10' 6" peace of pvc and a ampmaster 3000.
The return to the sump is a 2" line seen lower right of the picture. I put the return line high enough so if the drain is ever knocked out in the tank, the tank will only drain 20-40 gallons. I did this because the drain line is a peace of 2" pvc stuck in the bulkhead, not glued. It is water tight, but I'd rather be carefull.
Here is a pic of the surge. Not sure how strong it is, but it gently moves the zoas 7' away.
Next thing is to build a skimmer out of a 10' 6" peace of pvc and a ampmaster 3000.
sonofgaladriel
Shiny!
This is very nice! I am jealous. I love this set up you've got going. Keep up the great work. This is going to be a beauty, well, it actually already is, but you know what I mean
tigerarmy40
New member
are the bubbles always there? by the way ooking good! lets see a full tank shot now!
mwood
Premium Member
Thanks guys.
My wife is getting pumped about the room. I'm going to try to do a rainforest cafe theme.
PS, bubbles are there for 10 secs of the 90 sec surge. Then the surge takes 4 mins to recharge. So they're not bad. I'm just happy it worked. I couldn't find a long distance surge on RC. It's not that long distance, but the pvc does run to the floor and back up. I wasn't sure it would even run.
tigerarmy40
New member
Looks GOOD!!!!!
you could always try enductors for the surge! that would increase the distance the flow travels.... I saw a thread on diy enductors not too long ago!
you could always try enductors for the surge! that would increase the distance the flow travels.... I saw a thread on diy enductors not too long ago!
Red Sea Purple Tang
Active member
That would be sweet. Any ideas yet?
mwood
Premium Member
I'm thinking about finishing the stand and lower walls with some kind of tile or stone. The door into the stand would be bamboo. The upper walls would be chicken wire covered with fake plants. The ceiling would be painted like a sky with clouds. The top of the walls would have hidden floesent lights lighting the ceiling. I was thinking of a large temple door near the left end of the tank where sump is. The floor would be painted with a multi brown floor and deck epoxy. That is what I've come up with so far, but not sure when it will happen. Probably over the next year or so. I want the tank to be solid first.
mwood
Premium Member
Well, I got the DIY pvc skimmer running last night. I'll post a pic of the ugly thing later tonight. It's about 7-8 feet tall, with a 5-6 foot 6 inch main body. It's a euro style powered by an ampaster 3000. I put a T just before the pump for air intake with a valve to control the air intake. Worked like a charm. Something about pulling air in before the pump, churning it though the impeller, and slamming the water against the inside wall of the pvc body that produces very small micro bubbles. I say it's ugly as a had a leak or two that I had to slop rain or shine on to fix. I guess I'm not great at gluing large pvc. Well, I'm going to run it over the weekend while I can moniter it to make sure all goes ok. Don't want an overflow while I'm not home to stop it.
Marcus
Marcus
mwood
Premium Member
Give me some opinions on the islands of corals idea. I could...
1. have islands of just one coral type, all zoas or all shrooms
2. have islands of mixures of corals, an island of zoas and shrooms, an island of LPS, and island of montipora
3. have isands of mixures of all corals that could each be their own tank, each isand has a different type of shroom, zoa, lps mixure with keeping the sps separate for obvious reasons.
4. other?
The second and third examples are where I'm at right now. I can kind mix compatiable corals on each island and keep special needs corals separated from the pack do to the islands. I do have an open spot reserved clams so that will happen when I am ready to try / spend.
PS here is an updated pic. I have a couple types of zoas and shrooms, 4 euphillia, 2 star polyps, encrusting gergonia, ...
1. have islands of just one coral type, all zoas or all shrooms
2. have islands of mixures of corals, an island of zoas and shrooms, an island of LPS, and island of montipora
3. have isands of mixures of all corals that could each be their own tank, each isand has a different type of shroom, zoa, lps mixure with keeping the sps separate for obvious reasons.
4. other?
The second and third examples are where I'm at right now. I can kind mix compatiable corals on each island and keep special needs corals separated from the pack do to the islands. I do have an open spot reserved clams so that will happen when I am ready to try / spend.
PS here is an updated pic. I have a couple types of zoas and shrooms, 4 euphillia, 2 star polyps, encrusting gergonia, ...
tigerarmy40
New member
I think a muxture of softies with softies and lps on another and sps on another and then maybe like a clam alley! or maybe you could line the sps island with clams to soften up the edges and the lps with ricordia!?
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